"My gentrice has nothing to do with where I lie," said I. "I bless
God I have lain hard ere now, and can do the same again with
thankfulness. While I am here, Mr. Andie, if that be your name, I
will do my part and take my place beside the rest of you; and I ask
you on the other hand to spare me your mockery, which I own I like
ill."
He grumbled a little at this speech, but seemed upon reflection to
approve it. Indeed, he was a long-headed, sensible man, and a good
Whig and Presbyterian; read daily in a pocket Bible, and was both
able and eager to converse seriously on religion, leaning more than
a little towards the Cameronian extremes. His morals were of a
more doubtful colour. I found he was deep in the free trade, and
used the rains of Tantallon for a magazine of smuggled merchandise.
As for a gauger, I do not believe he valued the life of one at
half-a-farthing. But that part of the coast of Lothian is to this
day as wild a place, and the commons there as rough a crew, as any
in Scotland.
One incident of my imprisonment is made memorable by a consequence
it had long after.
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