make their way
according to address, Edie determined, like an old soldier, to reconnoitre the
ground before he made his final attack. As he approached the porter's lodge, he
discovered, by the number of poor ranked before it, some of them being indigent
persons in the vicinity, and others itinerants of his own begging profession, -
that there was about to be a general dole or distribution of charity.
    »A good turn,« said Edie to himself, »never goes unrewarded - I'll maybe get
a good awmous that I wad hae missed but for trotting on this auld wife's
errand.«
    Accordingly, he ranked up with the rest of this ragged regiment, assuming a
station as near the front as possible, - a distinction due, as he conceived, to
his blue gown and badge, no less than to his years and experience; but he soon
found there was another principle of precedence in this assembly, to which he
had not adverted.
    »Are ye a triple man, friend, that ye press forward sae bauldly? - I'm
thinking no, for there's nae Catholics wear that badge.«
    »Na, na, I am no a Roman,« said Edie.
    »Then shank yoursell awa to the double folk, or single folk, that's the
Episcopals or Presbyterians yonder: it's a shame to see a heretic hae sic a lang
white beard, that would do credit to a hermit.«
    Ochiltree, thus rejected from the society of the Catholic mendicants, or
those who called themselves such, went to station himself with the paupers of
the communion of the church of England, to whom the noble donor allotted a
double portion of his charity. But never was a poor occasional conformist more
roughly rejected by a High-church congregation, even when that matter was
furiously agitated in the days of good Queen Anne.
    »See to him wi' his badge!« they said; - »he hears ane o' the king's
Presbyterian chaplains sough out a sermon on the morning of every birth-day, and
now he would pass himsell for ane o' the Episcopal church! Na, na! - we'll take
care o' that.«
    Edie, thus rejected by Rome and Prelacy, was fain to shelter himself from
the laughter of his brethren among the thin group of Presbyterians, who had
either disdained to disguise their religious opinions for the sake of an
augmented dole, or perhaps knew they could not attempt the imposition without a
certainty of detection.
    The same degree of precedence