threats of dismission, were denounced in vain; the mother was
obstinate, and Cuddie, who underwent a domiciliary visitation for the purpose of
verifying his state of body, could or would answer only by deep groans. Mause,
who had been an ancient domestic in the family, was a sort of favourite with
Lady Margaret, and presumed accordingly. Lady Margaret had herself set forth,
and her authority could not be appealed to. In this dilemma, the good genius of
the old butler suggested an expedient.
    »He had seen mony a braw callant, far less than Guse Gibbie, fight brawly
under Montrose. What for no tak Guse Gibbie?«
    This was a half-witted lad, of very small stature, who had a kind of charge
of the poultry under the old henwife; for in a Scottish family of that day there
was a wonderful substitution of labour. This urchin being sent for from the
stubble-field, was hastily muffled in the buff coat, and girded rather to than
with the sword of a full-grown man, his little legs plunged into jackboots, and
a steel cap put upon his head, which seemed, from its size, as if it had been
intended to extinguish him. Thus accoutred, he was hoisted, at his own earnest
request, upon the quietest horse of the party; and, prompted and supported by
old Gudyill the butler, as his front file, he passed muster tolerably enough;
the sheriff not caring to examine too closely the recruits of so well-affected a
person as Lady Margaret Bellenden.
    To the above cause it was owing that the personal retinue of Lady Margaret,
on this eventful day, amounted only to two lacqueys, with which diminished train
she would, on any other occasion, have been much ashamed to appear in public.
But, for the cause of royalty, she was ready at any time to have made the most
unreserved personal sacrifices. She had lost her husband and two promising sons
in the civil wars of that unhappy period; but she had received her reward, for,
on his route through the west of Scotland to meet Cromwell in the unfortunate
field of Worcester, Charles the Second had actually breakfasted at the Tower of
Tillietudlem - an incident which formed, from that moment, an important era in
the life of Lady Margaret, who seldom afterwards partook of that meal, either at
home or abroad, without detailing the whole circumstances of the royal visit,
not forgetting the salutation which his majesty conferred on each side of her
face, though she sometimes omitted to notice that he bestowed the same favour on
two buxom