 in which the herald and undertaker had mingled, as usual, the emblems
of human pride and of human nothingness, - the Countess's hereditary
coat-of-arms, with all its numerous quarterings, disposed in a lozenge, and
surrounded by the separate shields of her paternal and maternal ancestry,
intermingled with scythes, hour glasses, skulls, and other symbols of that
mortality which levels all distinctions. Conducting his friend as speedily as
possible along the large paved court, Macraw led the way through a side-door to
a small apartment near the servants' hall, which, in virtue of his personal
attendance upon the Earl of Glenallan, he was entitled to call his own. To
produce cold meat of various kinds, strong beer, and even a glass of spirits,
was no difficulty to a person of Francie's importance, who had not lost, in his
sense of conscious dignity, the keen northern prudence which recommended a good
understanding with the butler. Our mendicant envoy drank ale, and talked over
old stories with his comrade, until, no other topic of conversation occurring,
he resolved to take up the theme of his embassy, which had for some time escaped
his memory.
    »He had a petition to present to the Earl,« he said; - for he judged it
prudent to say nothing of the ring, not knowing, as he afterwards observed, how
far the manners of a single soldier22 might have been corrupted by service in a
great house.
    »Hout, tout, man,« said Francie, »the Earl will look at nae petitions - but
I can gie't to the almoner.«
    »But it relates to some secret, that maybe my lord wad like best to see't
himsell.«
    »I'm jeedging that's the very reason that the almoner will be for seeing it
the first and foremost.«
    »But I hae come a' this way on purpose to deliver it, Francie, and ye really
maun help me at a pinch.«
    »Ne'er speed then if I dinna,« answered the Aberdeenshire man: »let them be
as cankered as they like, they can but turn me awa, and I was just thinking to
ask my discharge, and gang down to end my days at Inverurie.«
    With this doughty resolution of serving his friend at all ventures, since
none was to be encountered which could much inconvenience himself, Francie
Macraw left the apartment. It was long before he returned, and when he did, his
manner indicated wonder and agitation.
    »I am nae seer
