Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

THE OFFICE OF CONSTABLE. 143
fill secrets (which they themselves betrayed fireely),
and paying up when necessary,— not, we presume,
without an occasional wry face. But though it was
very serious, and sometimes the possibilities of that
ugly thing, ruin, came unpleasantly near, yet he was
not without the more astute wisdom of the man of the
world, and knew in the bottom of his heart that—as
Mr Murray stated that great article of faith—every-
thing could be made to pay in one way or another,
damages and other evil things included.
One of those days, the evening of the one probably
in which the above philippic was written, a few lines
" are sent in addition over our oysters "—from the
same twin brethren, with a wild demand for material
for the " Office of Constable," to be ^wrought up into
" an antiquarian article in next number." '' Send
therefore to the ' Scorpion ' as soon as possible all
the facts of the Crafty's life from youth upwards.
The other materials we have : all disagreeable topics
to be avoided, and the laughter innocent and amiable."
Then follows, in Lockhart's neat hand, " This I think
bids fair to beat Eiddell's ' On the office of Marechall
all to nothing. Let your account of the Crafty be as
full and precise as your leisure will permit, and trust
everything for Tournaments, Coats of Arms, &c., &c.,
to the well-known author of the celebrated article
'Heraldry 'in your 'Encyclopaedia.'" So the young
men would have stormed along, caring not much for
anything but fiin and fighting. It is to be supposed,
however, that here the graver will stood fast, for we
do not think the proposed essay on "The Office of
Constable" was ever written.
Lockhart, in his turn, echoed Wilson's advice to
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