"
"You mention Burley: do you know if he yet lives?"
"I kenna muckle about him. Folk say he was abroad, and our sufferers wad
hold no communion wi' him, because o' his having murdered the archbishop.
Sae he cam hame ten times dourer than ever, and broke aff wi' mony o' the
Presbyterians; and at this last coming of the Prince of Orange he could
get nae countenance nor command for fear of his deevilish temper, and he
hasna been heard of since; only some folk say that pride and anger hae
driven him clean wud."
"And--and," said the traveller, after considerable hesitation,--"do you
know anything of Lord Evan dale?"
"Div I ken onything o' Lord Evandale? Div I no? Is not my young leddy up
by yonder at the house, that's as gude as married to him?"
"And are they not married, then?" said the rider, hastily.
"No, only what they ca' betrothed,--me and my wife were witnesses. It's
no mony months bypast; it was a lang courtship,--few folk kend the reason
by Jenny and mysell. But will ye no light down? I downa bide to see ye
sitting up there, and the clouds are casting up thick in the west ower
Glasgow-ward, and maist skeily folk think that bodes rain."
In fact, a deep black cloud had already surmounted the setting sun; a few
large drops of rain fell, and the murmurs of distant thunder were heard.
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