If I did not sometimes cleave a helmet, or strike a point through a harness, I should not know what strength of fabric to give them; and might jingle together such pasteboard work as yonder Edinburgh smiths think not shame to put out of their hands." "Aha, now would I lay a gold crown thou hast had a quarrel with some Edinburgh 'burn the wind' upon that very ground ?" ["Burn the wind," an old cant term for blacksmith, appears in Burns: Then burnewin came on like death, At every chaup, etc.] "A quarrel! no, father," replied the Perth armourer, "but a measuring of swords with such a one upon St.Leonard's Crags, for the honour of my bonny city, I confess.

Surely you do not think I would quarrel with a brother craftsman ?" "Ah, to a surety, no.

But how did your brother craftman come off ?" "Why, as one with a sheet of paper on his bosom might come off from the stroke of a lance; or rather, indeed, he came not off at all, for, when I left him, he was lying in the Hermit's Lodge daily expecting death, for which Father Gervis said he was in heavenly preparation." "Well, any more measuring of weapons ?" said the glover.
"Why, truly, I fought an Englishman at Berwick besides, on the old question of the supremacy, as they call it--I am sure you would not have me slack at that debate ?--and I had the luck to hurt him on the left knee." "Well done for St.Andrew! to it again.

Whom next had you to deal with ?" said Simon, laughing at the exploits of his pacific friend.
"I fought a Scotchman in the Torwood," answered Henry Smith, "upon a doubt which was the better swordsman, which, you are aware, could not be known or decided without a trial.

The poor fellow lost two fingers." "Pretty well for the most peaceful lad in Perth, who never touches a sword but in the way of his profession.