CHAPTER IV. 



THE APPRENTICE WEAVER UNDER THE SHADOW 

 TASTING OF TYRANNY. 



THE house that John Duncan entered, his home for five 

 years from 1809 to 1814 was a thatched cottage at the 

 upper end of the village, close by the parish school. He was 

 received with motherly kindness, which reassured his timid 

 heart in this land of strangers, by Meggie Dunse, his future 

 mistress, a quiet, couthy woman, with a depressed air but 

 unusually intelligent look. As the daughter of a well-to- 

 do farmer, she had received a good education, and read 

 much more than was then common, especially amongst 

 women. She at once took to the unco'-looking stranger, 

 and became his fast friend and tutor, when he had greatest 

 need of both. 



Her husband, and her own and John's master, was a 

 notorious character. He was one of the weavers and croft- 

 owners of the village, who produced linen cloth and sold it 

 at the neighbouring fairs. Growing no flax himself, he 

 bought unbleached yarn at the coast town of Bervie, nine 

 miles south-east ; and had a horse and cart of his own to 

 carry him to the various markets round, which he regularly 

 frequented. He was then in his thirty-seventh year, and, 

 though short in stature, was well-built, robust, and unusually 



