"Symon, I hope ye obeyed my injunctions to the letter, in the affair o' your bairn's hooping-cough," said the old lady, who took an active hand in all the family matters of her vassalage.
"Faith did I, my Lady, but found the wee thing no' a hair the better of it. It is an unco trouble, the cough, but Lucky Elshender says, gif I put my forefinger down the bairn's throat for fifteen minutes, it will never cough mair."
"I'll warrant it o' that," said the old lady, scornfully; "but how dare she prescribe for any bairn on the barony without consulting me? I'll gang o'er in the gloaming and see about it."
An air or two on the virginals, and Lady Anne Bothwell's touching _Lament_ performed at full length by Lilian in her sweetest manner concluded the visit, and Walter reluctantly prepared to retire. Lady Bruntisfield and Lilian departed in their sedans with two armed servants before and two behind them, to pay a most ceremonious visit of thanks to Lord Dunbarton and his beautiful Countess, and Fenton, after accompanying them to the arch of the Bristo Port, left them to the care of their retinue, and receiving a warm invitation to visit them soon again, pursued his way in a maze of stirring thoughts through the steep wynds, narrow closes, and crowded streets of the city to his sombre quarters in the Canongate.
The soul which ne'er hath felt a genial ray Glow to the drum's long roll or trumpet's bray; Start to the bugle's distant blast, and hail Its buxom greetings on the morning gale-- _Such_ the muse courts not. LORD GRENVILLE.
On the return of Walter Fenton to the White Horse Cellar, Douglas, who was lounging on the broad flight of steps in front of the edifice, and chatting gaily with a buxom damsel of the establishment, informed him that Holsterlee of the Life Guards had just been there, saying that the Earl of Dunbarton and the Lords of the Privy Council required his attendance at the Lower Chamber--immediate attendance.
His mind became troubled at this information: though unconscious of having done anything new to incur displeasure, it was with considerable anxiety he bent his steps to the precincts of that dreaded tribunal.
The Lairds of Craigdarroch and Holsterlee, (or as the latter was commonly called, Jack Holster,) two of Claverhouse's cavalier troopers lounged in the antechamber smoking their Dutch pipes, while the yeomen of the Scottish Guard in their blue bonnets and scarlet doublets, armed with long daggers and gilt partisans, thronged the Parliament Close and outer lobby of the house.