and as it suited his plans to pass the night at Glendearg, would have been equally contented to do so even had his reception been less vehemently hospitable.
To all Elspeth's expostulations on the unkindness of his proposal to leave her dwelling, he answered composedly, 'Nay, dame, what could I tell? ye might have had other grist to grind, for ye looked as if ye scarce saw us; or what know I? ye might bear in mind the words Martin and I had about the last barley ye sawed, for I ken dry multures[1] will sometimes stick in the throat. A man seeks but his awn, and yet folk shall hold him for both miller and miller's man, that is miller and knave,[2] all the country over.'
'Alas, that you will say so, neighbour Hob,' said Dame Elspeth, 'or that Martin should have had any words with you about the mill-dues! I will chide him roundly for it, I promise you, on the faith of a true widow. You know full well that a lone woman is sore put upon by her servants.' 'Nay, dame,' said the miller, unbuckling the broad belt which made fast his cloak, and served, at the same time, to suspend by his side a swinging Andrea Ferrara, 'bear no grudge at Martin, for I bear none. I take it on me as a thing of mine office, to maintain my right of multure, lock, and goupen.[3] And reason good, for as the old song says,
She's parent, child, and wife.
The poor old slut, I am beholden to her for my living and bound to stand by her, as I say to my mill knaves, in right and in wrong. And so should every honest fellow stand by his bread-winner. And so, Mysie, ye may doff your
cloak since our neighbour is so kindly glad to see us; why,
- ↑ Dry multures were a fine, or compensation in money, for not grinding at the mill of the thirl. It was, and is, accounted a vexatious exaction.
- ↑ The under miller is, in the language of thirlage, called the knave, which, indeed, signified originally his lad (Knabé—German), but by degrees came to be taken in a worse sense. In the old translations of the Bible, Paul is made to term himself the knave of our Saviour. The allowance of meal taken by the miller's servant was called knaveship.
- ↑ The multure was the regular exaction for grinding the meal. The lock, signifying a small quantity, and the goupen, a handful, were additional perquisites demanded by the miller and submitted to or resisted by the Suckener as circumstances permitted. These and other petty dues were called in general the Sequels.
