"
"Ah, God bless her heart!" sighed the prisoner; and that blessing
was echoed in the breathings of many a feeling breast.
"Did you ever see this gown before, think you?"
"I hae seen ane very like it."
"Could you not swear that gown was your mistress's once?"
"No, unless I saw her hae't on, an' kend that she had paid for't. I
am very scrupulous about an oath. Like is an ill mark. Sae ill
indeed that I wad hardly swear to anything."
"But you say that gown is very like one your mistress used to
wear."
"I never said sic a thing. It is like one I hae seen her hae out airing
on the hay raip i' the back green. It is very like ane I hae seen
Mrs. Butler in the Grass Market wearing too: I rather think it is
the same. Bless you, sir, I wadna swear to my ain forefinger, if it
had been as lang out o' my sight an', brought in an' laid on that
table."
"Perhaps you are not aware, girl, that this scrupulousness of yours
is likely to thwart the purposes of justice, and bereave your
mistress of property to the amount of a thousand merks." (From
the Judge.)
"I canna help that, my lord: that's her look-out. For my part, I am
resolved to keep a clear conscience, till I be married, at any rate.
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