Old Mortality by Scott Sir Walter

Author:Scott, Sir Walter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: (Privatkopie)
Published: 2010-02-03T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Second

Got with much ease – now merrily to horse.

Henry IV. Part I.

With the first peep of day Henry awoke, and found the faithful Cuddie standing beside him with a portmanteau in his hand.

»I hae been just putting your honour's things in readiness again ye were waking,« said Cuddie, »as is my duty, seeing ye hae been sae gude as to tak me into your service.«

»I take you into my service, Cuddie?« said Morton; »you must be dreaming.«

»Na, na, stir,« answered Cuddie; »didna I say, when I was tied on the horse yonder, that if ever ye gat loose I would be your servant, and ye didna say no? and if that isna hiring, I kenna what is. Ye gae me nae arles, indeed, but ye had gien me eneugh before at Milnwood.«

»Well, Cuddie, if you insist on taking the chance of my unprosperous fortunes« ––

»Ou ay, I'se warrant us a' prosper weel eneugh,« answered Cuddie, cheeringly, »an ance my auld mither was weel putten up. I hae begun the campaigning trade at an end that is easy eneugh to learn.«

»Pillaging, I suppose?« said Morton, »for how else could you come by that portmanteau?«

»I wotna if it's pillaging, or how ye ca't,« said Cuddie; »but it comes natural to a body, and it's a profitable trade. Our folk had tirled the dead dragoons as bare as bawbees before we were loose amaist. – But when I saw the whigs a' weel yokit by the lugs to Kettledrummle and the other chield, I set off at the lang trot on my ain errand and your honour's. Sae I took up the syke a wee bit, away to the right, where I saw the marks o' mony a horse-foot, and sure eneugh I cam to a place where there had been some clean leatherin', and a' the puir chields were lying there buskit wi' their claes just as they had put them on that morning – naebody had found out that pose o' carcages – and wha suld be in the midst thereof (as my mither says) but our auld acquaintance, Sergeant Bothwell?«

»Ay! has that man fallen?« said Morton.

»Troth has he,« answered Cuddie; »and his een were open and his brow bent, and his teeth clenched thegither, like the jaws of a trap for foumarts when the spring's doun – I was amaist feared to look at him; however, I thought to hae turn about wi' him, and sae I e'en riped his pouches, as he had dune mony an honester man's; and here's your ain siller again (or your uncle's, which is the same) that he got at Milnwood that unlucky night that made us a' sodgers thegither.«

»There can be no harm, Cuddie,« said Morton, »in making use of this money, since we know how he came by it; but you must divide with me.«

»Bide a wee, bide a wee,« said Cuddie. »Weel, and there's a bit ring he had hinging in a black ribbon doun on his breast. I am

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