The Heart of Mid-Lothian

de right weel l

house was mee

e Li

usband, as he crossed his threshold, not with the purpose, by any means, of consulting him upon his own aff

rtoline, and deign

ll (he’s a civil pleasant young gentleman), to see when the broidered saddle-cl

ied Bartoline, as l

clean daft, that the harness for the six Flanders mears, wi’ the crests, corone

” said Saddletree, “if he gangs daft, we’

ed; “there’s mony ane wad hae thought themselves affronted, if sae mony customers had ca’d and naebody to answer them but women-folk; for

ing elsewhere — non omnia — as Mr. Crossmyloof said, when he was called by two macers at once — non omnia possumus — pessimus — possimis

nd nae doubt it’s a decent thing to leave your wife to look after young gentlemen’s sad

. D’ye think I was born to sit here brogging an elshin through bend-leather, when sic men as Duncan Forbes, and that other Arniston chield there, without muckle greater parts, if the

thae days wi’ bend-leather guns, and then it’s a chance but what, if he had bought them, he might have forgot to pay for them. And as fo

ers. In Sir William Wallace’s days there was nae man pinned down to sic a slavish wark as a

and dry joker, “if that be the case, Mr. Saddletree, I think we have changed for th

I had had the luck — or rather, if my father had had the sense to

Justinian’s Institutes, M

n deeds of tailzie, as you may see in Balfour’s Practiques, or Dallas of St. Martin’s Styles.

replied Mr. Butler; “for our Scottish advocates are an aristocratic race. Their brass is of

as lost, and all but the sound of the words, “ye said a gliff syne it was quivis, and now

his self-assumed profession of the law —“Give me your patience for a moment — You’ll grant that the nominative case is that by which a person or thing is nominated or designed, and which may be called the pr

a hurry to make admissions, either in point of law, or in point of fact,” said

ve case,” con

tive is,” said Saddlet

hich anything is given or assigned as properly belonging

grant it, though,

e cases to be?” said Butler, hastily, and surprised at once o

ry knowing look; “I’ll take a day to see and answer every article of yo

descendences here; let them deal in thae sort o’ wares that are paid for them —

piger, nothing new under the sun — But it

ddletree gangs out — and ye’re aware he’s seldom at hame when there’s ony o’ the plea-houses open — poor Effie used to help me to tumble the bundles o’ barkened leather up and down, and range out the gudes, and suit a’ body’s humours — And troth, she could aye please the customers wi’ her answers, for she was aye civil, and a bonnier lass wasna in Auld Reekie. A

diem,” adde

f hesitation, “I have seen the girl in the

ether she was sackless o’ the sinful deed, God in Heaven knows; but if she’s been guilty, she

agitation that a person of such strict decorum could be supposed to give way to. “Was not this girl,” he

say to her, but that she behoved to come and speak to Mr. Saddletree when he was at hame? It wasna that I thought Mr. Saddletree could do her or

e proved to her that her sister was indicted upon the statute saxteen hundred and ninety, chapter one — For the mair r

trust in a gracious God,

ce ower the door o’ my room for twal weeks. And as for Mr. Saddletree, he might be in a lying-in hospital, and ne’er find out what the women cam there for. Sae I could see

it out o’ head — It’s a beautiful point of presumptive murder, and there’s been nane like it in the Justiciar

r?” said the good woman; “ye are looking

himself to speak. “I walked in from Dum

y, “and rest ye — yell kill yoursell, man, at that rate. —

vaguely. But Mrs. Saddletree kept him to point, p

free scule o’ Dumfries or no, after hi

ctedly. “The Laird of Black-at-the-Bane had a natural son bred to the k

ad suit, there’s enough said. — And ye’re e’en come back to Liberton to wait for dead men’s shoon? — an

with a sigh; “I do not know i

“to be in that dependent station; and you that hae right and t

n, The Heathens had their philosophy, and the Jews their revelation, Mrs. Saddletree, and they endur

ped and

ere’s whiles we lose patience in spite of baith book and Bible — But ye are

much good may it do him), to join in his wife’s hospitable importunity.

k. — Get up, Mr. Saddletree — ye have set yoursell down on the very brecham that wants stitching — and here’s little Willie, the prentice. — Ye little rin-there-out deil that ye are, what takes you raking through the gutters to see folk hangit? — how wad ye like when it comes to be your ain chance, as I winna ensure ye, if ye dinna mend your manners? — And what are ye m

lying to the Court for a commission as factor loco tutoris, seeing there is nae tutor nominate, and the tutor-at-law declines to act; but only

-important cough, as one who has laid

ffie made for him out of an auld mantle of my ain, was the first decent dress the bairn ever had on. Poor Effie! can ye tell me now

legal discussion —“Whoy, there are two sorts of murdrum or murdragium, or what you populariter et vulgariser call mur

y that the gentry murther us merchants, and whiles make us shut t

se cases of murder presumptive, that is, a murder of the law’s inferring or

municated her situation, she’ll be hanged by the neck, if

y, to prevent the horrid delict of bringing forth children in secret — The crime is

e, “the law should be hanged for them; or if they wad

otherwise like to take a turn much less favourable to the science of jurisprudence and its prof