''
``Well, but, Mrs Baliol, suppose we settle our
era:---you do not call the accession of James the
Sixth to the kingdom of Britain very ancient?''
``Umph! no, cousin---I think I could tell you
more of that than folk now-a-days remember,---for
instance, that as James was trooping towards England,
bag and baggage, his journey was stopped
near Cockenzie by meeting the funeral of the Earl
of Winton, the old and faithful servant and follower
of his ill-fated mother, poor Mary! It was
an ill omen for the _infare_, and so was seen of it,
cousin.'' *
* Note E. Earl of Winton.
I did not choose to prosecute this subject, well
knowing Mrs Bethune Baliol did not like to be
much pressed on the subject of the Stewarts, whose
misfortunes she pitied, the rather that her father
had espoused their cause. And yet her attachment
to the present dynasty being very sincere, and even
ardent, more especially as her family had served
his late Majesty both in peace and war, she experienced
a little embarrassment in reconciling her
opinions respecting the exiled family, with those
she entertained for the present. In fact, like many
an old Jacobite, she was contented to be somewhat
inconsistent on the subject, comforting herself, that
_now_ every thing stood as it ought to do, and that
there was no use in looking back narrowly on the
right or wrong of the matter half a century ago.
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