When all was over, M’Slime, who had brought with him a sheaf of tracts for their spiritual sustenance, saw, from the deeply tragic character of the proceedings, that he might spare himself the trouble of such Christian sympathy as he wished to manifest for their salvation.  He and M’Clutchy, to whom, by the way, he presented the truly spiritual sustenance of some good brandy out of a flask, with which he balanced the tracts in his other pocket, then took their way in the very centre of the Dashers, leaving behind them all those sorrows of life, for which, however, they might well be glad to exchange their consciences and their wealth.

The circumstances which we have just described, were too striking not to excite considerable indignation among all reasonable minds at the time.  An account of that day’s proceedings got into the papers, but was so promptly and fully contradicted by the united testimony of M’Clutchy and M’Slime, that the matter was made to appear very highly complimentary to the benevolence and humanity of both.  “So far from the proceedings in question,” the contradiction went on to say, “being marked by the wanton cruelty and inhumanity imputed to them, they were, on the contrary, as remarkable for the kindness and forbearance evinced by Messrs. M’Clutchy and M’Slime.  The whole thing was a mere legal form, conducted in a most benevolent and Christian spirit.  The people were all restored to their tenements the moment the business of the day was concluded, and we cannot readily forget the admirable advice and exhortation offered to them, and so appropriately offered by Solomon M’Slime, Esq., the truly Christian and benevolent law agent of the property in question.”

By these proceedings, however, M’Clutchy had gained Ms point, which was, under the guise of a zealous course of public duty, to create a basis on which to ground his private representations of the state of the country to government.  He accordingly lost no time in communicating on the subject with Lord Cumber, who at once supported him in the project of raising a body of cavalry for the better security of the public peace; as, indeed, it was his interest to do, inasmuch, as it advanced his own importance in the eye of government quite as much as it did M’Clutchy’s.  A strong case was therefore made out by this plausible intriguer.  In a few days after the affair of Drum Dhu, honest Val contrived to receive secret information of the existence of certain illegal papers which clearly showed that there existed a wide and still spreading conspiracy in the country.  As yet, he said, he could not ground any proceeding of a definite character upon them.