There was,
however, on this point, a certain window belonging to a certain pantry,
and communicating with a certain yew-tree, which grew out of a steep
cleft of the rock, being the very pass through which Goose Gibbie was
smuggled out of the Castle in order to carry Edith's express to
Charnwood, and which had probably, in its day, been used for other
contraband purposes. Cuddie, resting upon the but of his gun, and looking
up at this window, observed to one of his companions,--"There's a place I
ken weel; mony a time I hae helped Jenny Dennison out o' the winnock,
forby creeping in whiles mysell to get some daffin, at e'en after the
pleugh was loosed."
"And what's to hinder us to creep in just now?" said the other, who was a
smart enterprising young fellow.
"There's no muckle to hinder us, an that were a'," answered Cuddie; "but
what were we to do neist?"
"We'll take the Castle," cried the other; "here are five or six o' us,
and a' the sodgers are engaged at the gate."
"Come awa wi' you, then," said Cuddie; "but mind, deil a finger ye maun
lay on Lady Margaret, or Miss Edith, or the auld Major, or, aboon a', on
Jenny Dennison, or ony body but the sodgers--cut and quarter amang them
as ye like, I carena."
"Ay, ay," said the other, "let us once in, and we will make our ain terms
with them a'.
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