Disputes were brought to him in his hiding-hole to be decided ; and the men of his country , who would have snapped their fingers at the Court of Session , laid aside revenge and paid down money at the bare word of this forfeited and hunted outlaw . When he was angered , which was often enough , he gave his commands and breathed threats of punishment like any king ; and his gillies trembled and crouched away from him like children before a hasty father . With each of them , as he entered , he ceremoniously shook hands , both parties touching their bonnets at the same time in a military manner . Altogether , I had a fair chance to see some of the inner workings of a Highland clan ; and this with a proscribed , fugitive chief ; his country conquered ; the troops riding upon all sides in quest of him , sometimes within a mile of where he lay ; and when the least of the ragged fellows whom he rated and threatened , could have made a fortune by betraying him . On that first day , as soon as the collops were ready , Cluny gave them with his own hand a squeeze of a lemon -LRB- for he was well supplied with luxuries -RRB- and bade us draw in to our meal . `` They , '' said he , meaning the collops , `` are such as I gave his Royal Highness in this very house ; bating the lemon juice , for at that time we were glad to get the meat and never fashed for kitchen . * Indeed , there were mair dragoons than lemons in my country in the year forty-six . '' * Condiment . I do not know if the collops were truly very good , but my heart rose against the sight of them , and I could eat but little . All the while Cluny entertained us with stories of Prince Charlie 's stay in the Cage , giving us the very words of the speakers , and rising from his place to show us where they stood . By these , I gathered the Prince was a gracious , spirited boy , like the son of a race of polite kings , but not so wise as Solomon . I gathered , too , that while he was in the Cage , he was often drunk ; so the fault that has since , by all accounts , made such a wreck of him , had even then begun to show itself . We were no sooner done eating than Cluny brought out an old , thumbed , greasy pack of cards , such as you may find in a mean inn ; and his eyes brightened in his face as he proposed that we should fall to playing . Now this was one of the things I had been brought up to eschew like disgrace ; it being held by my father neither the part of a Christian nor yet of a gentleman to set his own livelihood and fish for that of others , on the cast of painted pasteboard . To be sure , I might have pleaded my fatigue , which was excuse enough ; but I thought it behoved that I should bear a testimony . I must have got very red in the face , but I spoke steadily , and told them I had no call to be a judge of others , but for my own part , it was a matter in which I had no clearness . Cluny stopped mingling the cards . `` What in deil 's name is this ? '' says he . `` What kind of Whiggish , canting talk is this , for the house of Cluny Macpherson ? ''
`` I will put my hand in the fire for Mr. Balfour , '' XXXXX Alan .
bating breathed crouched decided giving pleaded riding rising says stood