Page:History of James Allan.pdf/13

 are coming to our house!” Jemmy suspecting their business, snatched up a large poker, and rushed past them, as if mad with fury. His manner of leaving the house raised their suspicions, and they immediately gave chase: but Allan outrun his pursuers with ease, and made towards a steep crag, a short distance from the town, the top of which he gained before the soldiers had reached the foot of it. Observing a pile of stones on the top of the crag, he could not resist the temptation of giving them a salute as they came up the hill. He therefore waited till he thought them sufficiently near, when he pelted them so heartily, that they were glad to return without their errand. The soldiers re-entered the town; and convinced there was no hope of securing him among his friends, returned to head quarters, representing Jemmy as one of the most daring and desperate characters they had ever met with.

After their retreat, Allan commenced practising as an itinerant musician, and received great encouragement. After playing one night to some young farmers at Otterburn, he saw one of them lying intoxicated in the stack-garth; and, according to Allan’s narration, he found his watch, which of course became his own. Early next morning he departed to a fair in Cumberland, where he exchanged the watch for an old galloway and thirty shillings. He was now able to travel to the most distant parts of the country, and having purchased a suit of genteel clothes, he set off for Alnwick Castle. Being introduced to the Countess, he assured her of his improved conduct, on which she consented to his remaining at the Castle; observing that his reformation was more likely to become permanent than by following the profession of a wandering minstrel: but Allan’s taste for revelry and drinking was too firmly rooted to be so easily overcome, and during his short stay at the Castle, he behaved in the most thoughtless and irregular manner. It happened, however, that the farmer, whose watch he had stolen, discovered his lost property, and from the description of the person, he had no doubt but that Allan was the thief. He immediately proceeded to Alnwick and made his business known to the steward of the Castle, who thought it necessary to consult his lordship on the affair. The Earl paid the farmer the value of the watch, and ordering Allan into his presence, told him that a person of such infamous character could not be