« said Deans, assuming firmness as he
discovered the agitation of his guest; »he doth now, and he will yet more in his
own gude time. I have been ower proud of my sufferings in a gude cause, Reuben,
and now I am to be tried with those whilk will turn my pride and glory into a
reproach and a hissing. How muckle better I hae thought mysell than them that
lay saft, fed sweet, and drank deep, when I was in the moss-haggs and moors, wi'
precious Donald Cameron, and worthy Mr. Blackadder, called Guess-again; and how
proud I was o' being made a spectacle to men and angels, having stood on their
pillory at the Canongate afore I was fifteen years old, for the cause of a
National Covenant! To think, Reuben, that I, wha hae been sae honoured and
exalted in my youth, nay, when I was but a hafflins callant, and that hae borne
testimony again the defections o' the times yearly, monthly, daily, hourly,
minutely, striving and testifying with uplifted hand and voice, crying aloud,
and sparing not, against all great national snares, as the nation-wasting and
church-sinking abomination of union, toleration, and patronage, imposed by the
last woman of that unhappy race of Stuarts; also against the infringements and
invasions of the just powers of eldership, whereanent, I uttered my paper,
called a Cry of an Howl in the Desert, printed at the Bow-head, and sold by all
flying stationers in town and country - and now« -
    Here he paused. It may well be supposed that Butler, though not absolutely
coinciding in all the good old man's ideas about church government, had too much
consideration and humanity to interrupt him, while he reckoned up with conscious
pride his sufferings, and the constancy of his testimony. On the contrary, when
he paused under the influence of the bitter recollections of the moment, Butler
instantly threw in his mite of encouragement.
    »You have been well known, my old and revered friend, a true and tried
follower of the Cross; one who, as Saint Jerome hath it, per infamiam et bonam
famam grassari ad immortalitatem, which may be freely rendered, who rusheth on
to immortal life, through bad report and good report. You have been on of those
to whom the tender and fearful souls cry during the midnight solitude -
Watchman, what of the night? - Watchman, what of the night? - And, assuredly,
this heavy dispensation, as it comes