MARRY, I lent my gossip my mare, to fetch hame coals,
And he her drounit into the quarry holes;
And I ran to the consistory, for to pleinyie,
And there I happenit amang ane greedie meinyie.
They gave me first ane thing they call _citandum_,
Within aucht days I gat but _libellandum_;
Within ane month I gat _ad opponendum;_
In half ane year I gat _inter-loquendum;_
And syne I gat--how call ye it?--_ad replicandum;_
Bot I could never ane word yet understand him:
And then they gart me cast out mony placks,
And gart me pay for four-and-twenty acts.
Bot or they came half gate to _concludendum_,
The fiend ane plack was left for to defend him.
Thus they postponed me twa year with their train,
Syne, _hodie ad octo_, bade me come again;
And then their rooks they rowpit wonder fast
For sentence, silver, they cryit at the last.
Of _pronunciandum_ they made me wonder fain,
Bot I gat never my gude gray mare again.
_Sir David Lyndsay._