On the forenoon of the second day, coming to the top of a hill, I sawall the country fall away before me down to the sea; and in the midstof this descent, on a long ridge, the city of Edinburgh smoking likea kiln. There was a flag upon the castle, and ships moving or lyinganchored in the firth; both of which, for as far away as they were, Icould distinguish clearly; and both brought my country heart into mymouth.Presently after, I came by a house where a shepherd lived, and got arough direction for the neighbourhood of Cramond; and so, from one toanother, worked my way to the westward of the capital by Colinton, tillI came out upon the Glasgow road. And there, to my great pleasure andwonder, I beheld a regiment marching to the fifes, every foot in time;an old red-faced general on a grey horse at the one end, and at theother the company of Grenadiers, with their Pope's-hats. The pride oflife seemed to mount into my brain at the sight of the red coats and thehearing of that merry music.A little farther on, and I was told I was in Cramond parish, and beganto substitute in my inquiries the name of the house of Shaws. It was aword that seemed to surprise those of whom I sought my way. At first Ithought the plainness of my appearance, in my country habit, and thatall dusty from the road, consorted ill with the greatness of the placeto which I was bound. But after two, or maybe three, had given me thesame look and the same answer, I began to take it in my head there wassomething strange about the Shaws itself.The better to set this fear at rest, I changed the form of my inquiries;and spying an honest fellow coming along a lane on the shaft of hiscart, I asked him if he had ever heard tell of a house they called thehouse of Shaws.He stopped his cart and looked at me, like the others."Ay" said he. "What for?""It's a great house?" I asked."Doubtless," says he. "The house is a big, muckle house.""Ay," said I, "but the folk that are in it?""Folk?" cried he. "Are ye daft? There's nae folk there--to call folk.""What?" say I; "not Mr. Ebenezer?""Ou, ay" says the man; "there's the laird, to be sure, if it's himyou're wanting. What'll like be your business, mannie?""I was led to think that I would get a situation," I said, looking asmodest as I could."What?" cries the carter, in so sharp a note that his very horsestarted; and then, "Well, mannie," he added, "it's nane of my affairs;but ye seem a decent-spoken lad; and if ye'll take a word from me, ye'llkeep clear of the Shaws."The next person I came across was a dapper little man in a beautifulwhite wig, whom I saw to be a barber on his rounds; and knowing wellthat barbers were great gossips, I asked him plainly what sort of a manwas Mr. Balfour of the Shaws."Hoot, hoot, hoot," said the barber, "nae kind of a man, nae kind of aman at all;" and began to ask me very shrewdly what my business was;but I was more than a match for him at that, and he went on to his nextcustomer no wiser than he came.I cannot well describe the blow this dealt to my illusions. The moreindistinct the accusations were, the less I liked them, for they leftthe wider field to fancy. What kind of a great house was this, that allthe parish should start and stare to be asked the way to it? or whatsort of a gentleman, that his ill-fame should be thus current on thewayside? If an hour's walking would have brought me back to Essendean, had left my adventure then and there, and returned to Mr. Campbell's.But when I had come so far a way already, mere shame would not suffer meto desist till I had put the matter to the touch of proof; I was bound, out of mere self-respect, to carry it through; and little as I likedthe sound of what I heard, and slow as I began to travel, I still keptasking my way and still kept advancing.