Chambers's pocket miscellany Author:Chambers W. and R. ltd Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: very person who knocked down two of Gardner's dragoons in the Luckenbooths, and braved all Edinburgh to single combat. But he was never molested on this account;... more » and ho therefore continued to practise in the Court of Session for upwards of half a century, with the success and with the credit of a respectable citizen. JACQUES CALLOT. In a spacious apartment of one of the oldest houses in Nancy, in Lorraine?such as served at that time (1603) for kitchen, parlour, and workroom to persons of respectability?a family was seated opposite to an open window breathing the balmy air of a spring forenoon. Behind them several female servants were employed in spinning and needlework, while on the outside of the window, which opened into a wide street, so little frequented that tufts of grass might be seen here and there growing in it, a pedler with his pack on his back was standing, finishing a story, which, to judge by the extreme attention with which it was listened to, must have been very interesting. The interior of the room was in accordance with the simplicity of those days. A large pot was boiling over the fire, shewing that the family had not yet dined; indeed the clock which hung from the whitewashed wall pointed to the early hour of eleven. At the lower end of the room a long oaken table was already laid. A kneading-trough for bread, a large chest curiously carved, a dresser filled with pewter utensils, some benches, and several wooden chairs, completed the furniture of this apartment. When the pedler had ceased speaking, the soft, clear voice of a child broke the general silence by exclaiming, 'What then?' At the same moment a little dark head peeped from behind the shoulder of a young woman, and immediately withdrew, blushing at what he had done, and at seeing every eye ...« less