’Oh dear, Mr. Bertram, and what the waur were the wa’s and the vault o’ the auld castle for having a whin kegs o’ brandy in them at an orra time?  I am sure ye were not obliged to ken ony thing about it; and what the waur was the King that the lairds here got a soup o’ drink and the ladies their drap o’ tea at a reasonable rate?—­it’s a shame to them to pit such taxes on them!—­and was na I much the better of these Flanders head and pinners that Dirk Hatteraick sent me a’ the way from Antwerp?  It will be lang or the King sends me ony thing, or Frank Kennedy either.  And then ye would quarrel with these gipsies too!  I expect every day to hear the barnyard’s in a low.’

’I tell you once more, my dear, you don’t understand these things—­and there’s Frank Kennedy coming galloping up the avenue.’

‘Aweel! aweel!  Ellangowan,’ said the lady, raising her voice as the Laird left the room, ’I wish ye may understand them yoursell, that’s a’!’

From this nuptial dialogue the Laird joyfully escaped to meet his faithful friend, Mr. Kennedy, who arrived in high spirits.  ’For the love of life, Ellangowan,’ he said, ’get up to the castle! you’ll see that old fox Dirk Hatteraick, and his Majesty’s hounds in full cry after him.’  So saying, he flung his horse’s bridle to a boy, and ran up the ascent to the old castle, followed by the Laird, and indeed by several others of the family, alarmed by the sound of guns from the sea, now distinctly heard.

On gaining that part of the ruins which commanded the most extensive outlook, they saw a lugger, with all her canvass crowded, standing across the bay, closely pursued by a sloop of war, that kept firing upon the chase from her bows, which the lugger returned with her stern-chasers.  ’They’re but at long bowls yet,’ cried Kennedy, in great exultation, ’but they will be closer by and by.  D—­n him, he’s starting his cargo!  I see the good Nantz pitching overboard, keg after keg!  That’s a d—­d ungenteel thing of Mr. Hatteraick, as I shall let him know by and by.  Now, now! they’ve got the wind of him! that’s it, that’s it!  Hark to him! hark to him!  Now, my dogs! now, my dogs!  Hark to Ranger, hark!’

‘I think,’ said the old gardener to one of the maids, ’the ganger’s fie,’ by which word the common people express those violent spirits which they think a presage of death.

Meantime the chase continued.  The lugger, being piloted with great ability, and using every nautical shift to make her escape, had now reached, and was about to double, the headland which formed the extreme point of land on the left side of the bay, when a ball having hit the yard in the slings, the mainsail fell upon the deck.  The consequence of this accident appeared inevitable, but could not be seen by the spectators; for the vessel, which had just doubled the headland, lost steerage, and fell out of their sight behind the promontory.  The sloop of war crowded all sail to pursue, but she had stood too close upon the cape, so that they were obliged to wear the vessel for fear of going ashore, and to make a large tack back into the bay, in order to recover sea-room enough to double the headland.