"You ought to have been informed that he is accused of robbery, as well as assault--a very serious matter indeed; it is not often such criminals come under my cognizance." "And," replied Oldbuck, "you are tenacious of the opportunity of making the very most of such as occur.

But is this poor old man's case really so very bad ?" "It is rather out of rule," said the Bailie--"but as you are in the commission, Monkbarns, I have no hesitation to show you Dousterswivel's declaration, and the rest of the precognition." And he put the papers into the Antiquary's hands, who assumed his spectacles, and sat down in a corner to peruse them.
The officers, in the meantime, had directions to remove their prisoner into another apartment; but before they could do so, M'Intyre took an opportunity to greet old Edie, and to slip a guinea into his hand.
"Lord bless your honour!" said the old man; "it's a young soldier's gift, and it should surely thrive wi' an auld ane.

I'se no refuse it, though it's beyond my rules; for if they steek me up here, my friends are like eneugh to forget me--out o'sight out o'mind, is a true proverb; and it wadna be creditable for me, that am the king's bedesman, and entitled to beg by word of mouth, to be fishing for bawbees out at the jail window wi' the fit o' a stocking, and a string." As he made this observation he was conducted out of the apartment.
Mr.Dousterswivel's declaration contained an exaggerated account of the violence he had sustained, and also of his loss.
"But what I should have liked to have asked him," said Monkbarns, "would have been his purpose in frequenting the ruins of St.Ruth, so lonely a place, at such an hour, and with such a companion as Edie Ochiltree.
There is no road lies that way, and I do not conceive a mere passion for the picturesque would carry the German thither in such a night of storm and wind.

Depend upon it, he has been about some roguery, and in all probability hath been caught in a trap of his own setting--Nec lex justitior ulla." The magistrate allowed there was something mysterious in that circumstance, and apologized for not pressing Dousterswivel, as his declaration was voluntarily emitted.

But for the support of the main charge, he showed the declaration of the Aikwoods concerning the state in which Dousterswivel was found, and establishing the important fact that the mendicant had left the barn in which he was quartered, and did not return to it again.