, whose minds were of course highly
excited against Porteous.
    If, however, it was the intention of these men to stir the multitude to any
sudden act of mutiny, it seemed for the time to be fruitless. The rabble, as
well as the more decent part of the assembly, dispersed, and went home
peaceably; and it was only by observing the moody discontent on their brows, or
catching the tenor of the conversation they held with each other, that a
stranger could estimate the state of their minds. We will give the reader this
advantage, by associating ourselves with one of the numerous groups who were
painfully ascending the steep declivity of the West Bow, to return to their
dwellings in the Lawnmarket.
    »An unco thing this, Mrs. Howden,« said old Peter Plumdamas to his neighbour
the rouping-wife, or saleswoman, as he offered her his arm to assist her in the
toilsome ascent, »to see the grit folk at Lunnon set their face against law and
gospel, and let loose sic a reprobate as Porteous upon a peaceable town!«
    »And to think o' the weary walk they hae gien us,« answered Mrs. Howden,
with a groan; »and sic a comfortable window as I had gotten, too, just within a
penny-stane-cast of the scaffold - I could hae heard every word the minister
said - and to pay twalpennies for my stand, and a' for naething!«
    »I am judging,« said Mr. Plumdamas, »that this reprieve wadna stand gude in
the auld Scots law, when the kingdom was a kingdom.«
    »I dinna ken muckle about the law,« answered Mrs. Howden; »but I ken, when
we had a king, and a chancellor, and parliament men o' our ain, we could aye
peeble them wi' stanes when they werena gude bairns - But naebody's nails can
reach the length o' Lunnon.«
    »Weary on Lunnon, and a' that e'er came out o't!« said Miss Grizel Damahoy,
an ancient seamstress; »they hae taen away our parliament, and they hae
oppressed our trade. Our gentles will hardly allow that a Scots needle can sew
ruffles on a sark, or lace on an owerlay.«
    »Ye may say that - Miss Damahoy, and I ken o' them that hae gotten raisins
frae Lunnon by forpits at ance,« responded Plumdamas; »and then sic an host of
idle English gaugers and excisemen as hae come down to vex and torment us, that
an
