``There is my warrant,'' said the official, ``and
you may satisfy yourself.''
``The shameless loon dare not tell the Doctor his
errand,'' said Mrs Gray exultingly.
``A bonny errand it is,'' said old Lucky Simson,
``to carry away a lying-in woman, as a gled*
* Or Kite.
would do a clocking-hen.''
``A woman no a month delivered''---echoed the
nurse Jamieson.
``Twenty-four days eight hours and seven minutes
to a second,'' said Mrs Gray.
The Doctor having looked over the warrant,
which was regular, began to be afraid that the females
of his family, in their zeal for defending the
character of their sex, might be stirred up into
some sudden fit of mutiny, and therefore commanded
them to be silent.
``This,'' he said, ``is a warrant for arresting the
bodies of Richard Tresham, and of Zilia de Mon
ada,
on account of high treason. Sir, I have
served his Majesty, and this is not a house in which
traitors are harboured. I know nothing of any of
these two persons, nor have I ever heard even their
names.''
``But the lady whom you have received into
your family,'' said the messenger, ``is Zilia de
Monada, and here stands her father, Matthias de
Monada, who will make oath to it.
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