They brought him water, and when they plunged his swoln feet
into the tub, he cried out it was burning; and folks say that it
_did_ bubble and sparkle like a seething cauldron. He flung the cup at
Dougal's head and said he had given him blood instead of Burgundy; and,
sure aneugh, the lass washed clotted blood aff the carpet the neist day.
The jackanape they caa'd Major Weir, it jibbered and cried as if it was
mocking its master. My gudesire's head was like to turn; he forgot
baith siller and receipt, and downstairs he banged; but, as he ran,
the shrieks came fainter and fainter; there was a deep-drawn shivering
groan, and word gaed through the castle that the laird was dead.
Weel, away came my gudesire wi' his finger in his mouth, and his best
hope was that Dougal had seen the money-bag and heard the laird speak of
writing the receipt. The young laird, now Sir John, came from Edinburgh
to see things put to rights. Sir John and his father never 'greed weel.
Sir John had been bred an advocate, and afterward sat in the last Scots
Parliament and voted for the Union, having gotten, it was thought, a rug
of the compensations--if his father could have come out of his grave he
would have brained him for it on his awn hearthstane.
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