"I say harm of nae man's credit--ill would it beseem me--but there is a difference between Tam Turnpenny and the Bank, I trow." "Weel, weel, Bank here Bank there, I thought I had a friend in you, Mr.
Bindloose; and here am I, come from my ain house all the way to yours for sma' comfort, I think." "My stars, madam," said the perplexed scribe, "what would you have me to do in such a blind story as yours, Mrs.Dods ?--Be a thought reasonable--consider that there is no _Corpus delicti_." _"Corpus delicti ?_ and what's that ?" said Meg; "something to be paid for, nae doubt, for your hard words a' end in that .-- And what for suld I no have a Corpus delicti, or a Habeas Corpus, or ony other Corpus that I like, sae lang as I am willing to lick and lay down the ready siller ?" "Lord help and pardon us, Mrs.Dods," said the distressed agent, "ye mistake the matter a'thegether! When I say there is no Corpus delicti, I mean to say there is no proof that a crime has been committed."[I-19] "And does the man say that murder is not a crime, than ?" answered Meg, who had taken her own view of the subject far too strongly to be converted to any other--"Weel I wot it's a crime, baith by the law of God and man, and mony a pretty man has been strapped for it." "I ken all that very weel," answered the writer; "but, my stars, Mrs.
Dods, there is nae evidence of murder in this case--nae proof that a man has been slain--nae production of his dead body--and that is what we call the Corpus delicti." "Weel, than, the deil lick it out of ye," said Meg, rising in wrath, "for I will awa hame again; and as for the puir lad's body, I'll hae it fund, if it cost me turning the earth for three miles round wi' pick and shool--if it were but to give the puir bairn Christian burial, and to bring punishment on MacTurk and the murdering crew at the Waal, and to shame an auld doited fule like yoursell, John Bindloose." She rose in wrath to call her vehicle; but it was neither the interest nor the intention of the writer that his customer and he should part on such indifferent terms.

He implored her patience, and reminded her that the horses, poor things, had just come off their stage--an argument which sounded irresistible in the ears of the old she-publican, in whose early education due care of the post-cattle mingled with the most sacred duties.

She therefore resumed her seat again in a sullen mood, and Mr.
Bindloose was cudgelling his brains for some argument which might bring the old lady to reason, when his attention was drawn by a noise in the passage.
FOOTNOTE: [I-19] For example, a man cannot be tried for murder merely in the case of the non-appearance of an individual; there must be proof that the party has been murdered..