»that the King's soldier cannot pass
a house without getting a refreshment. In such houses as Tillie - what d'ye call
it? - you are served for love; in the houses of the avowed fanatics you help
yourself by force; and among the moderate Presbyterians and other suspicious
persons, you are well treated from fear; so your thirst is always quenched on
some terms or other.«
    »And you propose,« said Henry anxiously, »to go upon that errand up to the
Tower yonder?«
    »To be sure I do,«, answered Bothwell. »How should I be able to report
favourably to my officers of the worthy lady's sound principles, unless I know
the taste of her sack, for sack she will produce - that I take for granted; it
is the favourite consoler of your old dowager of quality, as small claret is the
potation of your country laird.«
    »Then, for Heaven's sake,« said Henry, »if you are determined to go there,
do not mention my name, or expose me to a family that I am acquainted with. Let
me be muffled up for the time in one of your soldier's cloaks, and only mention
me generally as a prisoner under your charge.«
    »With all my heart,« said Bothwell; »I promised to use you civilly, and I
scorn to break my word. - Here, Andrews, wrap a cloak round the prisoner, and do
not mention his name, nor where we caught him, unless you would have a trot on a
horse of wood.«19
    They were at this moment at an arched gateway, battlemented and flanked with
turrets, one whereof was totally ruinous, excepting the lower storey, which
served as a cow-house to the peasant whose family inhabited the turret that
remained entire. The gate had been broken down by Monk's soldiers during the
civil war, and had never been replaced, therefore presented no obstacle to
Bothwell and his party. The avenue, very steep and narrow, and causewayed with
large round stones, ascended the side of the precipitous bank in an oblique and
zigzag course, now showing, now hiding, a view of the Tower and its exterior
bulwarks, which seemed to rise almost perpendicularly above their heads. The
fragments of Gothic defences which it exhibited were upon such a scale of
strength, as induced Bothwell to exclaim, »It's well this place is in honest and
loyal hands. Egad, if the enemy had it, a dozen of old whigamore wives with
their