 a marquis
and a lord, and now giving a glance into the interior of his mansion, which
manifested all the disarray of the late revel, as if balancing the distinction
which he had attained with the expenses of the entertainment.
    At length he opened his oracular jaws. »Let every man and woman here set
about their ain business, as if there was nae sic thing as marquis or master,
duke or drake, laird or lord, in this world. Let the house be redd up, the
broken meat set by, and if there is onything totally uneatable, let it be gien
to the puir folk; and, gudemother and wife, I hae just ae thing to entreat ye,
that ye will never speak to me a single word, good or bad, anent a this nonsense
wark, but keep a' your cracks about it to yoursells and your kimmers, for my
head is weelnigh dung donnart wi' it already.«
    As John's authority was tolerably absolute, all departed to their usual
occupations, leaving him to build castles in the air, if he had a mind, upon the
court favour which he had acquired by the expenditure of his worldly substance.
 

                              Chapter Twenty-Sixth

 Why, now I have Dame Fortune by the forelock,
 And if she escapes my grasp, the fault is mine;
 He that hath buffeted with stern adversity,
 Best knows to shape his course to favouring breezes.
                                                                       Old Play.
 
Our travellers reached Edinburgh without any farther adventure, and the Master
of Ravenswood, as had been previously settled, took up his abode with his noble
friend.
    In the meantime, the political crisis which had been expected took place,
and the Tory party obtained, in the Scottish, as in the English councils of
Queen Anne, a short-lived ascendency, of which it is not our business to trace
either the cause or consequences. Suffice it to say, that it affected the
different political parties according to the nature of their principles. In
England, many of the High Church party, with Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford,
at their head, affected to separate their principles from those of the
Jacobites, and, on that account, obtained the denomination of Whimsicals. The
Scottish High Church party, on the contrary, or, as they termed themselves, the
Cavaliers, were more consistent, if not so prudent, in their politics, and
viewed all the changes now made as preparatory to calling to the throne, upon
the Queen's demise, her brother, the Chevalier de St. George. Those who had
suffered in his service, now
