He stood aghast a moment, and then exclaimed, 'It's him, sure enough.

Deil o' the like o' that ever I saw!' At the sound of 'Mr.Dinmont and Colonel Mannering wanting to speak to you, sir,' Pleydell turned his head, and blushed a little when he saw the very genteel figure of the English stranger.

He was, however, of the opinion of Falstaff, 'Out, ye villains, play out the play!' wisely judging it the better way to appear totally unconcerned.

'Where be our guards ?' exclaimed this second Justinian; 'see ye not a stranger knight from foreign parts arrived at this our court of Holyrood, with our bold yeoman Andrew Dinmont, who has succeeded to the keeping of our royal flocks within the forest of Jedwood, where, thanks to our royal care in the administration of justice, they feed as safe as if they were within the bounds of Fife?
Where be our heralds, our pursuivants, our Lyon, our Marchmount, our Carrick, and our Snowdown?
Let the strangers be placed at our board, and regaled as beseemeth their quality and this our high holiday; to-morrow we will hear their tidings.' 'So please you, my liege, to-morrow's Sunday,' said one of the company.
'Sunday, is it?
then we will give no offence to the assembly of the kirk; on Monday shall be their audience.' Mannering, who had stood at first uncertain whether to advance or retreat, now resolved to enter for the moment into the whim of the scene, though internally fretting at Mac-Morlan for sending him to consult with a crack-brained humourist.

He therefore advanced with three profound congees, and craved permission to lay his credentials at the feet of the Scottish monarch, in order to be perused at his best leisure.