THE CROMARTT FAST DAY. 155 



of their own at the time when the majority of the inhabit- 

 ants were in church. Miller found himself and his towns- 

 men denounced in prose and verse far and wide. He 

 took pen in hand, and addressed a letter in their and his 

 own defence to the Inverness Courier. Adopting a tone 

 of good-humoured banter, admirably fitted to the occa- 

 sion, he brought out the extreme absurdity of the trans- 

 ports of indignation into which the newspaper poets 

 and tap-room loyalists had lashed themselves. The 

 major he struck off in a phrase felicitously descriptive of 

 a large class of men : ' No one ever spoke well of his 

 judgment or thought ill of his heart.' Space must be 

 found for a few sentences from the letter. 



' The day of the fast arrived -, and not on the Sabbath 

 itself do our streets present a more solitary appearance, 

 or are our churches better filled. There was no music out- 

 side to disturb the congregations, for the respectable and 

 talented musicians, who had been so vehemently urged 

 to lend their aid in desecrating the day, had gone to 

 attend service in a neighbouring parish, and the old 

 veteran, who had been so earnestly solicited to parade 

 his drum through^the streets, had indignantly refused. 

 There were sounds of distant firing heard by the people 

 who sat nearest the windows, the others heard only the 

 preachers, as they poured forth their fervent and impress- 

 ive prayers that their Sovereign might reign long and 

 prosperously over willing and affectionate hearts, that 

 she might enjoy all the good of this world and all the 

 happiness of the next. After Divine Service was over, 

 the ghost of a forlorn and miserable pageant glided 

 through our streets. Every door was shut, as if an 

 enemy had landed ; a glimpse might now and then 

 be caught of some anxious matron drawing her too 

 curious urchin from a window ; a few boys had broken 



