Page:Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry - 1887.djvu/52

48 obliquely to the good dame's queries, and perfectly intelligible to all who knew the poetic language and allegorical meaning which the adherents of the house of Stuart employed to convey tidings of importance to each other:

"I could not help glancing my eye on this curious and demure traveller; but the perfect simplicity of his looks baffled all the scrutiny which the mysterious import of his song induced me to make. Walter Graeme, one of the shepherds, sat down at his side, desirous of purchasing some of his commodities, but the frank mountaineer was repulsed in an attempt to dip his hands among the motley contents of the pack; and had it come to the arbitration of