bulwarks of Reformation, saw their hope turn into a snare,
and their rejoicing into weeping.«
    »I canna understand this, neighbour,« answered Saddletree. »I am an honest
Presbyterian of the Kirk of Scotland, and stand by her and the General Assembly,
and the due administration of justice by the fifteen Lords o' Session and the
five Lords o' Justiciary.«
    »Out upon ye, Mr. Saddletree!« exclaimed David, who, in an opportunity of
giving his testimony on the offences and backslidings of the land, forgot for a
moment his own domestic calamity - »out upon your General Assembly, and the back
of my hand to your Court o' Session! - What is the tane but a waefu' bunch o'
cauldrife professors and ministers, that sate bien and warm when the persecuted
remnant were warstling wi' hunger, and cauld, and fear of death, and danger of
fire and sword, upon wet brae-sides, peat-haggs, and flow-mosses, and that now
creep out of their holes, like bluebottle flees in a blink of sunshine, to take
the pu'pits and places of better folk - of them that witnessed, and testified,
and fought, and endured pit, prison-house, and transportation beyond seas? - A
bonny bike there's o' them! - And for your Court o' Session« -
    »Ye may say what ye will o' the General Assembly,« said Saddletree,
interrupting him, »and let them clear them that kens them; but as for the Lords
o' Session, forby that they are my next-door neighbours, I would have ye ken,
for your ain regulation, that to raise scandal anent them, whilk is termed to
murmur again them, is a crime sui generis, - sui generis, Mr. Deans - ken ye
what that amounts to?«
    »I ken little o' the language of Antichrist,« said Deans; »and I care less
than little what carnal courts may call the speeches of honest men. And as to
murmur again them, it's what a' the folk that loses their pleas, and nine-tenths
o' them that win them, will be gey sure to be guilty in. Sae I wad hae ye ken
that I haud a' your gleg-tongued advocates, that sell their knowledge for pieces
of silver - and your worldly-wise judges, that will gie three days of hearing in
presence to a debate about the peeling of an ingan, and no ae half-hour to