'Come, Edward, come along; the Prince has gone to Pinkie House for the
night; and we must follow, or lose the whole ceremony of the caligae.
Your friend, the Baron, has been guilty of a great piece of cruelty; he
has insisted upon dragging Bailie Macwheeble out to the field of battle.
Now, you must know, the Bailie's greatest horror is an armed Highlander
or a loaded gun; and there he stands, listening to the Baron's
instructions concerning the protest, ducking his head like a sea-gull at
the report of every gun and pistol that our idle boys are firing upon the
fields, and undergoing, by way of penance, at every symptom of flinching
a severe rebuke from his patron, who would not admit the discharge of a
whole battery of cannon, within point-blank distance, as an apology for
neglecting a discourse in which the honour of his family is interested.'
'But how has Mr. Bradwardine got him to venture so far?' said Edward.
'Why, he had come as far as Musselburgh, I fancy, in hopes of making some
of our wills; and the peremptory commands of the Baron dragged him
forward to Preston after the battle was over. He complains of one or two
of our ragamuffins having put him in peril of his life by presenting
their pieces at him; but as they limited his ransom to an English penny,
I don't think we need trouble the provost-marshal upon that subject.
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