"How now?' he said coldly enough, when he saw the Bonnet-maker calmly seated by his hearth. What foolish revel is this, Master Oliver?-I see no one near to harm you.' 6 "Give me a drink, kind gossip,' said Oliver; I am choked with the haste I have made to come hither.' "I have sworn,' said Henry, that this shall be no revel night in this house -I am in my work day clothes, as you see, and keep fast, as I have reason, instead of holiday. You have had wassail enough for the holiday evening, for you speak thick already-If you wish more ale or wine, you must go elsewhere.' "I have had over much wassail already,' said poor Oliver, and have been wellnigh drowned in it.-That accursed calabash!-A draught of water, kind gossip-you will not surely let me ask for that in vain ? or, if it is your will, a cup of cold small ale.' 66 6 Nay, if that be all,' said Henry, it shall not be lacking. But it must have been much which brought thee to the pass of asking for either.' "So saying, he filled a quart flagon from a barrel that stood nigh, and presented it to his guest. Oliver eagerly accepted it, raised it to his head with a trembling hand, imbibed the contents with lips which quivered with emotion, and, though the potation was as thin as he had requested, so much was he exhausted with the combined fears of alarm and of former revelry, that when he placed the flagon on the oak table, he uttered a deep sigh of satisfaction, and remained silent. 66 Well, now you have had your draught, gossip,' said the Smith, what is it you want? Where are those that threatened you? I could see no one.' "No-but there were twenty chased me into the wynd,' said Oliver. But when they saw us together, you know they lost the courage that brought all of them upon one of us.' 6 "Nay, do not trifle, friend Oliver,' replied his host; my mood lies not that way.' I jest not, by St. John of Perth. I have been stayed and foully outraged, (gliding his hand sensitively over the place affected) by mad Robin of Rothsay roaring Ramorny, and the rest of them. They made me drink a firkin of Malvoisie.' "Thou speakest folly, man-Ramorny is sick nigh to death, as the pottercarrier every-where reports; they and he cannot surely rise at midnight to do such frolics.' but "I cannot tell,' replied Oliver; I saw the party by torch-light, and I can 66 6 Nay, but I have things to speak with thee about of moment,' replied Oliver, who, afraid to stay, seemed yet unwilling to go. There has been a stir in our city council about the affair of St. Valentine's Even. The Provost told me not four hours since, that the Douglas and he had agreed that the feud should be decided by yeoman on either part, and that our acquaintance, the Devil's Dick was to waive his gentry, and take up the cause for Douglas and the nobles, and that you or I should fight for the Fair City. Now, though I am the elder burgess, yet I am willing, for the love and kindness we have always borne to each other, to give thee the precedence, and content myself with the humbler office of stickler.' 66 Henry Smith, though angry, could scarce forbear a smile. If it is that which breaks thy quiet, and keeps thee out of thy bed at midnight I will make the matter easy. Thou shalt not lose the advantage offered thee. I have fought a score of duels, far, far too many. Thou hast I think, only encountered with thy wooden Soldan-it were unjust-unfair unkind-in me to abuse thy friendly offer. So go home, good fellow, and let not the fear of losing honour disturb thy slumbers. Rest assured that thou shalt answer the challenge, as good right thou hast, having had injury from this rough. rider.' "Gramercy, and thank thee kindly,' said Oliver, much embarrassed by his friend's unexpected deference; thou art the good friend I have always thought thee. But I have as much friendship for Henry Smith, as he for Oliver Proudfute. I swear by St. John, I will not fight in this quarrel to thy prejudice. So, having said so, I am beyond the reach of tempta tion, since thou wouldst not have me mansworn, though it were to fight twenty duels. 6 ac "Hark thee,' said the Smith, knowledge thou art afraid Oliver, tell the honest truth at once, otherwise I leave thee to make the best of thy quarrel.' "Nay, good gossip,' replied the Bonnet-maker, thou knowest I am never afraid. But, in sooth, this is a desperate ruffian; and as I have a wife poor Maudie, thou knowest-and a small family, and thou And I,' interrupted Henry, hastily, 'have none, and never shall have.' 66 6 Why, truly, such being the case -I would rather thou fought'st this combat than I.' "Now, by our holidame, gossip,' answered the Smith, thou art easily gulled. Know, thou silly fellow, that Šir Patrick Charteris, who is ever a merry man, hath but jested with thee. Dost thou think he would venture the honour of the city on thy head? or that I would yield thee the precedence in which such a matter was to be disputed? Lacka-day, go home, let Maudie tie a warm night-cap on thy head; get thee a warm breakfast, and a cup of distilled waters, and thou wilt be in case to-morrow to fight with thy wooden dromond, or Soldan as thou call'st him, the only thing thou wilt ever lay downright blow upon.' 66 6 Ay, say'st thou so, comrade?' answered Oliver, much relieved, yet deeming it necessary to seem in part of fended. I care not for thy dogged humour; it is well for thee thou canst not wake my patience to the point of falling foul. Enough we are gossips, and this house is thine. Why should the two best blades in Perth clash with each other? What! I know thy rugged humour, and can forgive it. But is the feud really soldered up?' "As completely as ever hammer fixed rivet,' said the Smith. The town hath given the Johnston a purse of gold, for not ridding them of a troublesome fellow called Oliver Proudfute, when he had him at his mercy; and this purse of gold buys for the Provost the Sleepless Isle, which the King grants him, for the King pays all in the long run. And thus Sir Patrick gets the comely Inch, which is opposite to his dwelling, and all honour is saved on both sides, for what is given to the Provost, is given, you understand, to the town. Besides all this, the Douglas has left Perth to march against the Southron, whom men say are called into the Marches by the false Earl of March. So the Fair City is quit of him and his cumber. "But, in St. John's name, how came all that about?' said Oliver; and no one spoken to about it?' 66 6 Why, look thee, friend Oliver, this I take to have been the case. The fellow whom I cropped of a hand, is now Isaid to have been a serva..t of Sir John Ramorny's, who hath fled to his motherland of Fife, to which Sir John himself is also to be banished, with full consent of every honest man. Now, anything which brings in Sir John Ramorny, touches a much greater man-I think Simon Glover told as much to Sir Patrick Charteris. If it be as I guess, I have reason to thank Heaven, and all the saints I stabbed him not upon the ladder when I made him prisoner.' "And I too thank Heaven, and all the saints, most devoutly,' said Oliver. I was behind thee, thou knowest, and 6 "No more of that, if thou be'st wise-There are laws against striking princes,' said the Smith, best not handle the horse-shoe till it cools. All is hushed up now.' "If this be so,' said Oliver, partly disconcerted, but still more relieved, by the intelligence he received from his better informed friend, I have reason to complain of Sir Patrick Charteris for jesting with the honour of an honest burgess, being as he is, Provost of our town.' 66 6 Do, Oliver; challenge him to the field, and he will bid his yeoman loose his dogs on thee.-But come, night wears apace, will you be shogging?' Nay, I had one word more to say to thee, good gossip. But first, another cup of your cold ale.' "Pest on the, for a fool! Thou makest me wish thee where cold liquors are a scarce comodity.-There, swill the barrelful an thou wilt.' "Oliver took the second flagon, but drank, or rather seemed to drink, very slowly in order to gain time for considering how he should introduce his second subject of conversation, which seemed rather delicate for the Smith's present state of irritabi lity. At length, nothing better occurred to him than to plunge into the subject at once, with, I have seen Simon Glover to-day, gossip.' Well,' said the Smith, in a low, deep, and stern tone of voice, ' and if thou hast, what is that to me?' Nothing-nothing,' answered the appalled Bonnet-maker. 'Only I thought you might like to know that he questioned me close, if I had seen the on St. Valentine's day, after the uproar at the Dominicans', and in what company thou wert.' "And I warrant thou told'st him that thou met'st me with a glee-woman, in the mirk loaning yonder?' "Thou know'st, Henry, I have no gift at lying, but I made it all up with him.' 66 Smith. As how, I pray you?' said the "Marry, thus,-Father Simon, said I, you are an old man, and know not the quality of us, in whose veins, youth is like quicksilver. You think now, he cares about this girl, said I, and, perhaps, that he has her somewhere here in Perth, in a corner? No such matter; I know, said I, and I will make oath to it, that she left his house early next morning for Dundee. Ha! have I helped thee at need?' "Truly, I think thou hast, and if anything could add to my grief and vexation at this moment, it is, that when I am so deep in the mire, an ass like thee should place his clumsy hoof on my head, to sink me entirely. Come, away with thee and mayst thou have such merit as thy meddling humour deserves, and then, I think, thou wilt be found with a broken neck in the next gutter-Come, get you out, or I will put you to the door with head and shoulders forward.' "Ha, ha!' exclaimed Oliver, laughing with some constraint; thou art such a groom! But in sadness, gossip Henry, wilt thou not take a turn with me to my own house, in the Meal Vennal ?' meet said 66 Take all, or any thing thou wilt, in the fiend's name! only be gone. "Well, well, Hal, we shall when thou art in better humour,' Oliver, who had put on the dress. “Go—and may I never see thy coxcombly face again.' "Ŏliver at last relieved his host by swaggering off, imitating, as well as he could, the sturdy step and outward gesture of his redoubted companion, and whistling a pibroch, composed on the rout of the Danes at Loncarty, which he had picked up from its being a favourite of the Smith's, whom he made a point of imitating as far as he could. But as the innocent, though conceited fellow, step ped out from the entrance of the wynd, where it communicated with the High Street, he received a blow from behind, against which his head-piece was no defence, and he fell dead upon the spot; an attempt to utter the name of Henry, to whom he always looked for protection, quivering upon his dying tongue." The accoutrements of war in which his body is found, give rise to a rumour throughout Perth, that it is Henry Smith who has come by "the death." Our readers are already acquainted with the incidents which follow upon this rumour.* At a convocation of the citizens, the death of Oliver is discussed, and the honour of the city is to be maintained against the villain who dealt the deadly blow, a ruffian named Bonthron, in the service of Ramorny. The widow of the bonnetmaker enters among the assembly, and after some points of ceremony are gone through, she is commanded to name her champion. "All eyes were turned to Henry Smith whom the general voice had already pointed out as in every respect the fittest to act as champion on the occasion. But the widow waited not for the general prompting of their looks. As soon as Sir Patrick had spoken, she crossed the floor to the place where, near the bottom of the table, the armourer stood among the men of his degree, and took him by the hand : "Henry Gow, or Smith,' she said, 'good burgher and craftsman, my— my-' "Husband, she would have said, but the word would not come forth; she was obliged to change the expression. 666 "He who is gone, loved and prized you over all men; therefore meet it is that thou shouldst follow out the quarrel of his widow and orphans.' "If there had been a possibility, which in that age there was not, of Henry's rejecting or escaping from a trust for which all men seemed to destine him, every wish and idea of retreat was cut off, when the widow began to address him; and a command from Heaven could hardly have made a stronger impression than did the appeal of the unfortunate Magdalen. Her allusion to his intimacy with the deceased moved him to the soul. During Oliver's life, doubtless, there had been a strain of absurdity in his excessive predilection for Henry, which, considering how very different they were in character, had in it something ludicrous. But all this was now forgotten, and Henry, giving way * See the illustrated article in our last. to his natural ardour, only remembered that Oliver had been his friend and intimate; a man who had loved and honour ed him as much as he was capable of entertaining such sentiments for any one; and above all, that there was much reason to suspect that the deceased had fallen victim to a blow meant for Henry himself. "It was, therefore, with an alacrity which, the minute before, he could scarce have commanded, and which seemed to express a stern pleasure, that, having pressed his lips to the cold brow of the unhappy Magdalen, the armourer replied, 66 6 I, Henry the Smith, dwelling in the Wynd of Perth, good man and true, and freely born, accept the office of champion to this widow Magdalen, and these orphans, and will do battle in their quarrel to the death, with any man whomsoever, of my own degree, and that so long as I shall draw breath. So help me at my need God and good St. John!" "There arose from the audience a half suppressed cry, expressing the interest which the persons present took in the prosecution of the quarrel, and their confidence in the issue. The body of the murdered man is then taken to the church of St. John, where the ordeal of touching it is gone through by the persons suspected. Eviot, Sir Ramorney's page, first goes through the ordeal. "He paused before the bier, and his voice faltered, as he swore by all that. was created in seven days and seven nights, by heaven, by hell, by his part of paradise, and by the God and author of all, that he was free and sackless of the bloody deed done upon the corpse before which he stood, and on whose breast he made the sign of the cross, in evidence of the appeal. No consequences ensued. The body remained stiff as before; the curdled wounds gave no sign of blood. "The citizens looked on each other with faces of blank disappointment. They had persuaded themselves of Eviot's guilt; and their suspicions had been confirmed by his irresolute manner. Their surprise at his escape was therefore extreme. The other followers of Ramorny took heart, and advanced to take the oath, with a boldness which increased, as one by one they performed the ordeal, and were declared, by the voice of the judges, free and innocent of every suspicion attaching to them on account of the death of Oliver Proudfute. 66 But there was one individual, who did not partake that increasing confidence The name of Bonthron-Bonthron !' sounded three times through the aisles. o., the church; but he who owned it acknowledged the call no otherwise than by, a sort of shuffling motion with his feet, as if he had been suddenly affected with a fit of the palsy. "Speak dog,' whispered Eviot, or prepare for a dog's death!' "But the murderer's brain was so much disturbed by the sight before him, that the judges, beholding his deportment, doubted whether to ordain him to be dragged before the bier, or to pronounce judgment in default; and it was not until he was asked for the last time, whether he would submit to the ordeal, that he answered; with his usual brevity, "I will not,-what do I know what juggling tricks may be practised to take a poor man's life?--I offer the combat to any man who says I harmed that dead body.' "And, according to usual form, he threw his glove upon the floor of the church. "Henry Smith stepped forward, amidst the murmured applauses of his fellow citizens, which even the august presence could not entirely suppress; and lifting the ruffian's glove, which he placed in his bonnet, laid down his own in the usual form, as a gage of battle. But Bonthron raised it not. "He is no match for me,' growled the savage nor fit to lift my glove. I follow the Prince of Scotland, in attending on his Master of Horse. This fellow is a wretched mechanic.' Here the Prince interrupted him. Thou follow me, caitiff! I discharge thee from my service on the spot. Take him in hand, Smith, and beat him as thou didst never thump anvil!-The villain is both guilty and recreant. It sickens me even to look at him; and if my royal father will be ruled by me, he will give the parties two handsome Scottish axes, and we will see which of them turns out the best fellow before the day is half an hour older.' "This was readily assented to by the Earl of Crawford and Sir Patrick Chateris, the godfathers of the parties, who, as the combatants were men of inferior rank, agreed that they should fight in steel caps, buff jackets, and with axes; and that as soon as they could be prepared for the combat. "The lists were appointed in the Skinner's Yards, a neighbouring space of ground, occupied by the corporation from which it had the name, and who quickly cleared a space of about thirty feet by twenty-five, for the combatants, and thi ther thronged the nobles, priests, and commons. "When the combatants appeared in the lists, nothing could be more striking than the contrast betwixt the manly, cheerful countenance of the Smith, whose sparkling bright eye seemed already beaming with the victory he hoped for, and the sullen, downcast aspect of the brutal Bonthron, who looked as if he were some obscene bird, driven into sunshine out of the shelter of its darksome haunts. They made oath severally, each to the truth of his quarrel; a ceremony which Henry Gow performed with serene and manly confidence-Bonthron with a dogged resolution, which induced the Duke of Rothsay to say to the High Constable, 'Didst thou ever, my dear Errol, behold such a mixture of malignity, cruelty, and I think fear, as in that fellow's countenance?' "He is not comely,' said the Earl, 'but a powerful knave as I have seen.' "I'll gage a hogshead of wine with you, my good lord, that he loses the day. Henry the armourer is as strong as he, and much more active. And then look at his bold bearing! There is something in that other fellow that is loathsome to look upon. Let them yoke presently, my dear Constable, for I am sick of beholding him.' "The high Constable then addressed the widow, who, in her deep weeds, and having her children still beside her, occupied a chair within the list :- Woman, do you willingly accept of this man, Henry the Smith, to do battle as your champion in this cause?' "I do-I do, most willingly,' answered Magdalen Proudfute; and may the blessing of God and St. John give him strength and fortune, since he strikes for the orphan and fatherless !' "Then I pronounce this a fenced field of battle,' said the Constable aloud. 'Let no one dare, upon peril of his life, to interrupt this combat by word, speech, or look.Sound trumpets, and fight, combatants !' "The trumpets flourished, and the combatants, advancing from the opposite end of the lists, with a steady and even pace, looked at each other attentively, well skilled in judging from the motion of the eye, the direction in which a blow was meditated. They halted opposite to, and within reach of each other, and in turn made more than one feint to strike, in order to ascertain the activity and vigilance of the opponent. At length, whether weary of the manoeuvres, or fearing lest in a contest so conducted, his unwieldy strength would be foiled by the activity of the Smith, Bonthron heaved up his axe for a downright blow, adding the whole strength of his sturdy arms to the weight of the weapon in its descent. The Smith, however, avoided the stroke by stepping aside; for it was too forcible to be controlled by any guard which he could have interposed. Ere Bronthron recovered guard, Henry struck him a sidelong blow on the steel head piece; which prostrated him on the ground. "Confess, or die,' said the victor. placing his foot on the body of the van quished; and holding to his throat the point of the axe, which terminated in a spike or poniard. "I will confess,' said the villain, glaring wildly upward on the sky. me arise.' Let "Not till you have yielded,' said Harry Smith. "I do yield,' again murmured Bonthron, and Henry proclaimed aloud that his antagonist was defeated. "The Dukes of Rothsay and Albany, the High Constable, and the Dominican Prior, now entered the lists, and addressing Bonthron, demanded if he acknowledged himself vanquished. "I do,' answered the miscreant. "And guilty of the murder of Oliver Proud fute?" "I am but I mistook him for ano |