For when all had been said on both sides, and much of it said over oftener than once, our senior, being well and ripely advised, pronounced the moderate and healing judgment, that the disputed cast was a drawn one, and should therefore count to neither party.

This judicious decision restored concord to the field of players; they began anew to arrange their match and their bets, with the clamorous mirth usual on such occasions of village sport, and the more eager were already stripping their jackets, and committing them, with their coloured handkerchiefs, to the care of wives, sisters, and mistresses.

But their mirth was singularly interrupted.
On the outside of the group of players began to arise sounds of a description very different from those of sport--that sort of suppressed sigh and exclamation, with which the first news of calamity is received by the hearers, began to be heard indistinctly.

A buzz went about among the women of "Eh, sirs! sae young and sae suddenly summoned!"-- It then extended itself among the men, and silenced the sounds of sportive mirth.
All understood at once that some disaster had happened in the country, and each inquired the cause at his neighbour, who knew as little as the querist.

At length the rumour reached, in a distinct shape, the ears of Edie Ochiltree, who was in the very centre of the assembly.