The people were all restored to their tenements the moment the business of the day was concluded, and we cannot readily forget the admirable advice and exhortation offered to them, and so appropriately offered by Solomon M'Slime, Esq., the truly Christian and benevolent law agent of the property in question." By these proceedings, however, M'Clutchy had gained Ms point, which was, under the guise of a zealous course of public duty, to create a basis on which to ground his private representations of the state of the country to government.

He accordingly lost no time in communicating on the subject with Lord Cumber, who at once supported him in the project of raising a body of cavalry for the better security of the public peace; as, indeed, it was his interest to do, inasmuch, as it advanced his own importance in the eye of government quite as much as it did M'Clutchy's.
A strong case was therefore made out by this plausible intriguer.

In a few days after the affair of Drum Dhu, honest Val contrived to receive secret information of the existence of certain illegal papers which clearly showed that there existed a wide and still spreading conspiracy in the country.

As yet, he said, he could not ground any proceeding of a definite character upon them.
The information, he proceeded to say, when writing to the Castle, which came to him anonymously, was to the effect that by secretly searching the eaves of certain houses specified in the communication received, he would find documents, clearly corroborating the existence and design of the conspiracy just alluded to.

That he had accordingly done so, and to his utter surprise, found that his anonymous informant was right.