The man was frightened past all telling. He tried to crawl to my knees, and began a recital of all manner of crimes and peccadilloes, from his boyhood till the present hour. I listened without interest.
"Had any Scot a part with thee in this night's work?" I asked.
"No, there was none. There were but Bol and Delvaux beside myself, both Dutch born and bred."
My mind was lightened. I never really believed my cousin to have had any part in such a matter, but I was glad to know it for truth.
"You may go now," I said, "go and repent, and may God blast thee with all his fire if thou turnest thy hand to evil again. By the bye, thy name? I must have it from thy own lips."
"Well, God pity thee, Jan Hamman, if ever I lay my hand on thee again. Be off now."
He was off in a twinkling, running for his very life. Nicol and I remounted, and rode onward, coming to Leyden at the hour of one on the Sabbath morning--a thing which I much regretted.
I slept late on the next morning, so that it was near nine o'clock ere I was up and dressed. By the time that I broke my fast I had had some leisure to reflect upon the events of the preceding night and the consequences which should ensue. Nicol came to me as soon as the meal was over, and together we sat down to consult.
"This is the Sabbath, your honour," said Nicol, "so ye may consider yoursel' free for the day at ony rate."
"Not so free," said I, for I knew my cousin Gilbert. "The men I've to deal with have no more respect for the Lord's day than you have for a Popish fast, so we must put that out of account."
"Weel, weel," said Nicol, "if that's sae it maun be sae. Will ye gang oot wi' him the day?"
"No," said I, "not that I am caring for the day, for you mind the proverb, 'the better the day the better the work,' but, being in a foreign land, I am loth to break with the customs of my country. So we'll keep the Sabbath, Nicol my lad, and let Gilbert whistle."
Now I would not have him who may read this narrative think, from my conduct on this occasion, that I was whiggishly inclined, for, indeed, I cared naught about such little matters. I would have a man use the Sabbath like any other day, saving that, as it seems to me, it is a day which may profitably be used for serious reading and meditation. But I was ever of a curious disposition, liking to be always in mind of Tweeddale and the folk there, so that I kept the Sabbath during my life abroad as strictly as a covenanting minister on the moors of Ayr.