tine's escapade, she was very gentle with her, yet gave her a few words of counsel which amounted to an ingenious little scolding. This, however, the young lady bore with singular sweetness of temper, knowing that Alan was safe, though sad, far away at . Millheugh. In lying down to sleep that night, she folded her innocence and beauty within a whispering cloud of prayer, on the outer rim of which stood Alan like a guardian angel.

Pate Fox resumed his perambulations, considerably happier than in the earlier stage of his watch. A wave of light had fallen across his path, on the radiance of which his fancy was borne into hopefuller fields of meditation. He became less sensitive to the cold; and the spearlike stars seemed to have muffled their points, and glimmered upon him like those kindly cherub faces which he had often seen in a Scripture picture huddling round the bed of the Divine Babe. Pate was drifting once more into a stream of monologue, when a hand touched his shoulder, and Jock Makane shouted in his ear,

'Pate!'

Eh! O, it's you, John.

Whaur are ye gaun ?

Come and hae a glass afore we gang hame.'

'No the nicht, Pate; I hae a meetin' to attend. Gude-nicht-I'll see ye the morn.'

6

Stop a wee. Ye'll maybe no see me the morn. Jock, d'ye ever quarrel at thae meetings o' yours?'

'Whiles we hae a bit tulzie.

What o' that?'

I've had a dream about ye. I thought I saw you and Campbell, and a wheen mair, sittin' round a table makin' speeches, like members o' Parliament. Then ye had a differ about some point that nane o' ye understood, and at last ye got up and faught like teegers. But just in the middle o' the splore the door opened, and ben stappit Prince Geordie, my Lord Sidmouth, and twa-three Glasgow police bodies, and took ye a' prisoners, and marched ye aff to the jail.'

'Pate, ye've been drinkin'. That's the dream o’a fou man; and I hae nae faith in dreams and visions; they've been the ruin o' puir men and women since the world began.'

'Ye're wrang, Jock; come and hae a dram, and I'll convince ye o' your mistak'.'

'I've nae time; gang hame and tak a sleep, and I'll see ye the morn.'

'Jock, Jock, now's the time to gather wisdom! Haud a grip o' this very nicht-naebody e'er saw the morn. Come, man, and I'll teach ye.'

Teach me! Pate, ye mean weel, but ye're fuddled. Gang hame and twist yoursel into sic blankets as ye hae, and I'll visit ye the morn, and wauken ye up wi' a wee pistol-shot o' Glenlivet. Gudenicht!'

With that Makane marched off, round the corner,

and into the Old Wynd. Pate stood for a moment looking after him, muttering to himself,

'Weel, weel, it's a clear case; the deil maun hae his ain in spite o' God and a' that I can say. Little did ye think, Solomon, that your words about wisdom wad come true in the Trongate o' Glasgow as weel as in the streets o' Jerusalem—“ I hae raxt out my haun, and nae man regarded." No that I am ony grand image o' wisdom; and I doubt if there's. ae ear in this hale city that wad stop and hear, even if it was gien me to staun up at the Cross and pour out the gowden treasures o' the Almichty in a torrent frae morn till e'en. Maybe that's owre strong,' continued Pate, as his eye, in passing, caught the entry to the Tron Church; there's a kirk, na, that's filled reamin to the door every time that Dr. Chalmers gangs into the poopit. They say he's an awfu' preacher-gars the hearts o' the cauldest lowe and dirl; lifts the guid up to heeven, and gies the wicked a glint down into the inside o' their conscience, fu' o' crawlin' shapes that canna be seen for reek. I maun gang yont some day and see if they'll let me in; maybe I micht get a lift out o' this drumly sea on to some dry shore.'

Cold as Pate was, he could not go home to his lodgings. He bought a piece of bread, but remembering Lord Carmyle's advice, he drank none, though sorely tempted thereto by the craving which had

been created by many years of tippling. He wandered about the Cross, and along the Trongate, like a person consumed by mental anxiety.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE RADICALS CAUGHT.

AT a previous meeting in the house of Neil Jorum, Gallowgate, it was agreed that the club should next assemble in the tavern of Alick Hunter, Old Wynd, which, as we have already said, runs southward off the Trongate, near the Cross.

To account for the peripatetic habits of the club, it is only necessary to say that they were suggested by the apprehension that, if too many meetings were held successively in one place, the circumstance might draw the attention of the authorities upon the proceedings of the members.

At eight o'clock, the time appointed for business, the number present was smaller than usual; but this did not interfere with the customary forms of procedure. Some interruption was caused, however, by the singular and unprecedented fact that both Campbell and Makane refused to accept the honour of acting as king of the company-they declined to

sit in the presidential chair, in which, on former occasions, they had each won golden opinions. This created much surprise, which Campbell satisfied by saying,

'As ye canna but hear, gentlemen, that I hae got a sair throat the nicht, ye'll excuse me, I hope, frae a duty o' a heavy kind. At onyrate, I want to say a few words in a while that I couldna weel say in office. In the mean time, as Makane's no in the tid for takin' the command, I beg to propose that Mr. Edgar tak' the chair.'

The proposal being approved of, the gentleman thus honoured stepped with great dignity to the head of the table, on which he silently laid his walkingstick. Having stood for a moment surveying the audience, he slowly and deliberately took off an overcoat which he wore, and hung it carefully on the back of his chair. Then, in the manner of clergymen and statesmen, he dashed his hair back from his brow with a majestic sweep of his right hand, and stood upright, calm, and firm, and with the air of one who was facing an assembly of ten thousand. After a few moments he opened his lips, and said, in a tone of profound solemnity,

'Let us pray.'

William Edgar, we may state before going farther, was a teacher in the east end of the city; but he possessed the soul of a Roman tribune. If there