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and the Judges at last dismissed her, with high compliments on her truth and integrity. The cause was again remitted to the Court of Session for revisal after this evidence taken, and the word spread over all the country that Mr Forret had won. Tibby never contridicted this nor disputed it, but she was thoroughly convinced, that in place of winning he would be a ruined man.
About a month after the examination at Dumfries, he received a letter from his agents in Edinburgh, buoying him up with hopes of great and instant success, and urging the utility of his presence in town at the final decision of the cause on which all the minor ones rested. Accordingly he equipped himself, and rode into Dumfries, in the evening, to be ready for the coach the following morning, saying to his wife, as he went away, that he would send home his mare with the carrier, and as that he could not possibly name the day on which he would be home, she was to give herself ⟨no⟩ uneasines. The mare was returned the following night, and put up in her own stall, nobody knew by whom; but servants are such sleepy, careless fellows that few regarded the circumstance. This was on
