Redgauntlet | Page 8

and a handful of hypocrisy to boot, and who was breeding up
privately, and obscurely enriching, one of whose existence he had some
reason to be ashamed. But, as I said before, I think on my mother, and

am convinced as much as of the existence of my own soul, that no
touch of shame could arise from aught in which she was implicated.
Meantime, I am wealthy, and I am alone, and why does my friend
scruple to share my wealth?
Are you not my only friend? and have you not acquired a right to share
my wealth? Answer me that, Alan Fairford. When I was brought from
the solitude of my mother's dwelling into the tumult of the Gaits' Class
at the High School--when I was mocked for my English accent--salted
with snow as a Southern--rolled in the gutter for a Saxon
pock-pudding,--who, with stout arguments and stouter blows, stood
forth my defender?--why, Alan Fairford. Who beat me soundly when I
brought the arrogance of an only son, and of course a spoiled urchin, to
the forms of the little republic? --why, Alan. And who taught me to
smoke a cobbler, pin a losen, head a bicker, and hold the
bannets?--[Break a window, head a skirmish with stones, and hold the
bonnet, or handkerchief, which used to divide High School boys when
fighting.] Alan, once more. If I became the pride of the Yards, and the
dread of the hucksters in the High School Wynd, it was under thy
patronage; and, but for thee, I had been contented with humbly passing
through the Cowgate Port, without climbing over the top of it, and had
never seen the KITTLE NINE-STEPS nearer than from Bareford's
Parks. [A pass on the very brink of the Castle rock to the north, by
which it is just possible for a goat, or a High School boy, to turn the
corner of the building where it rises from the edge of the precipice.
This was so favourite a feat with the 'hell and neck boys' of the higher
classes, that at one time sentinels were posted to prevent its repetition.
One of the nine-steps was rendered more secure because the climber
could take hold of the root of a nettle, so precarious were the means of
passing this celebrated spot. The manning the Cowgate Port, especially
in snowball time, was also a choice amusement, as it offered an
inaccessible station for the boys who used these missiles to the
annoyance of the passengers. The gateway is now demolished; and
probably most of its garrison lie as low as the fortress. To recollect that
the author himself, however naturally disqualified, was one of those
juvenile dreadnoughts, is a sad reflection to one who cannot now step
over a brook without assistance.]

You taught me to keep my fingers off the weak, and to clench my fist
against the strong--to carry no tales out of school--to stand forth like a
true man--obey the stern order of a PANDE MANUM, and endure my
pawmies without wincing, like one that is determined not to be the
better for them. In a word, before I knew thee, I knew nothing.
At college it was the same. When I was incorrigibly idle, your example
and encouragement roused me to mental exertion, and showed me the
way to intellectual enjoyment. You made me an historian, a
metaphysician (INVITA MINERVA)--nay, by Heaven! you had almost
made an advocate of me, as well as of yourself. Yes, rather than part
with you, Alan, I attended a weary season at the Scotch Law Class; a
wearier at the Civil; and with what excellent advantage, my notebook,
filled with caricatures of the professors and my fellow students, is it not
yet extant to testify?
Thus far have I held on with thee untired;
and, to say truth, purely and solely that I might travel the same road
with thee. But it will not do, Alan. By my faith, man, I could as soon
think of being one of those ingenious traders who cheat little Master
Jackies on the outside of the partition with tops, balls, bats, and
battledores, as a member of the long-robed fraternity within, who
impose on grown country gentlemen with bouncing brocards of law.
[The Hall of the Parliament House of Edinburgh was, in former days,
divided into two unequal portions by a partition, the inner side of which
was consecrated to the use of the Courts of Justice and the gentlemen of
the law; while the outer division was occupied by the stalls of stationers,
toymen, and the like, as in a modern bazaar. From the old play of THE
PLAIN DEALER, it seems such was formerly the case with
Westminster Hall. Minos has now purified his courts in both cities from
all