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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Red Cap Tales, by Samuel Rutherford Crockett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Red Cap Tales
+       Stolen from the Treasure Chest of the Wizard of the North
+
+Author: Samuel Rutherford Crockett
+
+Release Date: September 17, 2007 [EBook #22656]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RED CAP TALES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Emille and the Booksmiths
+at http://www.eBookForge.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+RED CAP TALES
+
+
+[Illustration: Red Cap among the Wizard's Treasures.]
+
+
+RED CAP TALES
+
+STOLEN FROM THE TREASURE CHEST OF THE WIZARD OF THE NORTH
+
+WHICH THEFT IS HUMBLY ACKNOWLEDGED BY
+
+S. R. CROCKETT
+
+=New York= THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+LONDON: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1904
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
+
+Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1904.
+
+=Norwood Press=
+J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
+Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WHY!
+
+FOUR CHILDREN WOULD NOT READ SCOTT
+
+
+SO I told them these stories--and others--to lure them to the printed
+book, much as carrots are dangled before the nose of the reluctant
+donkey. They are four average intelligent children enough, but they hold
+severely modern views upon storybooks. _Waverley_, in especial, they
+could not away with. They found themselves stuck upon the very
+threshold.
+
+Now, since the first telling of these Red Cap Tales, the Scott shelf in
+the library has been taken by storm and escalade. It is permanently
+gap-toothed all along the line. Also there are nightly skirmishes, even
+to the laying on of hands, as to who shall sleep with _Waverley_ under
+his pillow.
+
+It struck me that there must be many oldsters in the world who, for the
+sake of their own youth, would like the various Sweethearts who now
+inhabit their nurseries, to read Sir Walter with the same breathless
+eagerness as they used to do--how many years agone? It is chiefly for
+their sakes that I have added several interludes, telling how
+Sweetheart, Hugh John, Sir Toady Lion, and Maid Margaret received my
+petty larcenies from the full chest of the Wizard.
+
+At any rate, Red Cap succeeded in one case--why should he not in
+another? I claim no merit in the telling of the tales, save that, like
+medicines well sugar-coated, the patients mistook them for candies
+and--asked for more.
+
+The books are open. Any one can tell Scott's stories over again in his
+own way. This is mine.
+
+                                                       S. R. CROCKETT.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CERTAIN SMALL PHARAOHS THAT KNEW NOT JOSEPH                    1
+
+RED CAP TALES FROM "WAVERLEY"
+
+  THE FIRST TALE:
+     I. GOOD-BYE TO WAVERLEY-HONOUR                             11
+    II. THE ENCHANTED CASTLE                                    16
+   III. THE BARON AND THE BEAR                                  21
+        _THE FIRST INTERLUDE OF ACTION_                         28
+
+  THE SECOND TALE:
+     I. THE CATTLE-LIFTING                                      31
+    II. THE ROBBER'S CAVE                                       35
+        _THE SECOND INTERLUDE_                                  41
+
+  THE THIRD TALE:
+     I. THE CHIEF OF THE MAC-IVORS AND THE CHIEF'S SISTER       46
+    II. MISFORTUNES NEVER COME SINGLE                           55
+        _THE THIRD INTERLUDE--BEING MAINLY A FEW WORDS
+         UPON HEROES_                                           62
+
+  THE FOURTH TALE:
+        HERE AND THERE AMONG THE HEATHER                        64
+        _INTERLUDE OF STICKING-PLASTER_                         78
+
+  THE FIFTH TALE:
+        THE WHITE COCKADE                                       81
+
+  THE SIXTH TALE:
+        BLACK LOOKS AND BRIGHT SWORDS                           94
+        _INTERLUDE OF BREVITY_                                 104
+
+  THE LAST TALE:
+        THE BARON'S SURPRISE                                   105
+
+
+RED CAP TALES FROM "GUY MANNERING"
+
+        _WHERE WE TOLD THE SECOND TALE_                        123
+
+  THE FIRST TALE:
+     I. WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY                                124
+        _INTERLUDE OF INTERROGATION_                           140
+
+  THE SECOND TALE:
+     I. HAPPY DOMINIE SAMPSON                                  143
+    II. DANDIE DINMONT                                         150
+   III. IN THE LION'S MOUTH                                    158
+        _INTERLUDE OF LOCALITY_                                162
+
+  THE THIRD TALE:
+        THE RETURN OF DIRK HATTERAICK                          166
+
+  THE FOURTH TALE:
+        THE FIGHT IN THE CAVE                                  185
+        _INTERLUDE OF CONSULTATION_                            204
+
+
+ RED CAP TALES FROM "ROB ROY"
+
+  THE FIRST TALE:
+        FRANK THE HIGHWAYMAN                                   211
+        _INTERLUDE OF DISCUSSION_                              236
+
+  THE SECOND TALE:
+     I. IN THE TOILS OF RASHLEIGH                              241
+    II. ROB ROY AT LAST                                        254
+   III. THE BAILIE FIGHTS WITH FIRE                            267
+    IV. THE DROWNING OF THE SPY                                276
+        _INTERLUDE OF EXPOSTULATION_                           284
+
+  THE THIRD TALE:
+     I. IN THE HANDS OF THE PHILISTINES                        288
+    II. THE ESCAPE                                             294
+   III. THE DEATH OF RASHLEIGH                                 307
+
+
+RED CAP TALES FROM "THE ANTIQUARY"
+  THE  FIRST TALE:
+     I. THE MYSTERIOUS MR. LOVEL                               326
+    II. THE NIGHT OF STORM                                     337
+        _INTERLUDE OF WARNING_                                 352
+
+  THE SECOND TALE:
+     I. LOVEL FIGHTS A DUEL                                    354
+    II. THE SEEKERS OF TREASURE                                370
+   III. MISTICOT'S GRAVE                                       377
+        _A QUITE SUPERFLUOUS INTERLUDE_                        389
+
+  THE THIRD TALE:
+     I. THE EARL'S SECRET                                      396
+    II. THE MOTHER'S VENGEANCE                                 400
+   III. THE HEIR OF GLENALLAN                                  408
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+BY SIMON HARMON VEDDER
+
+ 1  Red Cap among the Wizard's treasures              _Frontispiece_
+
+WAVERLEY
+                                                        _Facing page_
+ 2  In an instant his red cap was off and he was
+      bowing and saluting . . . with . . . extravagant gestures    20
+ 3  So fierce was the attack . . . made on Edward, that the
+      young man was compelled to draw his pistol                   66
+ 4  Rose Bradwardine . . . watched him with a sigh on her lip
+      and colour on her cheek                                      84
+ 5  "Vich Ian Vohr," it said in a dreadful voice, "beware of
+      to-morrow"                                                  102
+
+GUY MANNERING
+
+ 6  "Ride your ways, Laird of Ellangowan," she cried              136
+ 7  He would stand there transfixed . . . till a serving-maid
+      pulled his skirts to tell him dinner was waiting            150
+ 8  He saw his late companion . . . engaged in deadly combat
+      with a couple of rascals                                    154
+ 9  Hazlewood snatched the gun from the servant and haughtily
+      ordered Brown to stand back and not to alarm the lady       170
+
+
+ROB ROY
+
+ 10  He took the lantern . . . and holding it up, proceeded to
+       examine the stern, set countenance of Frank's guide        256
+ 11  The fight between Frank and Rashleigh                        266
+ 12  "Stand!" she cried, . . . "and tell me what you seek in
+       Macgregor's country"                                       278
+ 13  The girl's face, perhaps not altogether unintentionally,
+       touched that of Frank Osbaldistone                         300
+
+
+THE ANTIQUARY
+
+ 14  "Turn back! Turn back!" he cried                             344
+ 15  Dousterswivel flung himself on his knees                     375
+ 16  He lighted his beacon accordingly                            410
+
+
+
+
+
+RED CAP TALES
+
+
+
+
+CERTAIN SMALL PHARAOHS THAT KNEW NOT JOSEPH
+
+
+IT was all Sweetheart's fault, and this is how it came about.
+
+She and I were at Dryburgh Abbey, sitting quietly on a rustic seat, and
+looking toward the aisle in which slept the Great Dead. The long
+expected had happened, and we had made pilgrimage to our Mecca. Yet, in
+spite of the still beauty of the June day, I could see that a shadow lay
+upon our Sweetheart's brow.
+
+"Oh, I know he was great," she burst out at last, "and what you read me
+out of the _Life_ was nice. I like hearing about Sir Walter--but--"
+
+I knew what was coming.
+
+"But what?" I said, looking severely at the ground, so that I might be
+able to harden my heart against the pathos of Sweetheart's expression.
+
+"But--I can't read the novels--indeed I can't. I have tried _Waverley_
+at least twenty times. And as for _Rob Roy_--"
+
+Even the multiplication table failed here, and at this, variously
+a-sprawl on the turf beneath, the smaller fry giggled.
+
+"Course," said Hugh John, who was engaged in eating grass like an ox,
+"we know it is true about _Rob Roy_. She read us one whole volume, and
+there wasn't no Rob Roy, nor any fighting in it. So we pelted her with
+fir-cones to make her stop and read over _Treasure Island_ to us
+instead!"
+
+"Yes, though we had heard it twenty times already," commented Sir Toady
+Lion, trying his hardest to pinch his brother's legs on the sly.
+
+"Books wifout pictures is silly!" said a certain Maid Margaret, a
+companion new to the honourable company, who was weaving daisy-chains,
+her legs crossed beneath her, Turk fashion. In literature she had got as
+far as words of one syllable, and had a poor opinion even of them.
+
+"_I_ had read all Scott's novels long before I was your age," I said
+reprovingly.
+
+The children received this announcement with the cautious silence with
+which every rising generation listens to the experiences of its elders
+when retailed by way of odious comparison.
+
+"Um-m!" said Sir Toady, the licensed in speech; "_we_ know all that. Oh,
+yes; and you didn't like fruit, and you liked medicine in a big spoon,
+and eating porridge and--"
+
+"Oh, we know--we know!" cried all the others in chorus. Whereupon I
+informed them what would have happened to us thirty years ago if we had
+ventured to address our parents in such fashion. But Sweetheart, with
+the gravity of her age upon her, endeavoured to raise the discussion to
+its proper level.
+
+"Scott writes such a lot before you get at the story," she objected,
+knitting her brows; "why couldn't he just have begun right away?"
+
+"With Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey drawing at their pipes in the
+oak-pannelled dining room, and Black Dog outside the door, and Pew
+coming tapping along the road with his stick!" cried Hugh John, turning
+off a sketchy synopsis of his favourite situations in fiction.
+
+"Now that's what I call a proper book!" said Sir Toady, hastily rolling
+himself out of the way of being kicked. (For with these unusual
+children, the smooth ordinary upper surfaces of life covered a constant
+succession of private wars and rumours of wars, which went on under the
+table at meals, in the schoolroom, and even, it is whispered, in
+church.)
+
+As for blithe Maid Margaret, she said nothing, for she was engaged in
+testing the capacities of a green slope of turf for turning somersaults
+upon.
+
+"In Sir Walter Scott's time," I resumed gravely, "novels were not
+written for little girls--"
+
+"Then why did you give us Miss Edgeworth to read?" said Sweetheart,
+quickly. But I went on without noticing the interruption, "Now, if you
+like, I will tell you some of Sir Walter's stories over again, and then
+I will mark in your own little edition the chapters you can read for
+yourselves."
+
+The last clause quieted the joyous shout which the promise of a
+story--any sort of a story--had called forth. An uncertain look crept
+over their faces, as if they scented afar off that abomination of
+desolation--"lessons in holiday time."
+
+"_Must_ we read the chapters?" said Hugh John, unhopefully.
+
+"Tell us the stories, anyway, and leave it to our honour!" suggested Sir
+Toady Lion, with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Is it a story--oh, don't begin wifout me!" Maid Margaret called from
+behind the trees, her sturdy five-year-old legs carrying her to the
+scene of action so fast that her hat fell off on the grass and she had
+to turn back for it.
+
+"Well, I will tell you, if I can, the story of 'Waverley,'" I said.
+
+"Was he called after the pens?" said Toady Lion the irreverent, but
+under his breath. He was, however, promptly kicked into silence by his
+peers--seriously this time, for he who interferes with the telling of a
+story is a "Whelk,"--which, for the moment, is the family word for
+whatever is base, mean, unprofitable, and unworthy of being associated
+with.
+
+But first I told them about the writing of _Waverley_, and the hand at
+the Edinburgh back window which wrote and wrote. Only that, but the
+story as told by Lockhart had affected my imagination as a boy.
+
+"Did you ever hear of the Unwearied Hand?" I asked them.
+
+"It sounds a nice title," said Sir Toady; "had he only one?"
+
+"It was in the early summer weather of 1814," I began, "after a dinner
+in a house in George Street, that a young man, sitting at the wine with
+his companions, looked out of the window, and, turning pale, asked his
+next neighbour to change seats with him.
+
+"'There it is--at it again!' he said, with a thump of his fist on
+thetable that made the decanters jump, and clattered the glasses;
+'it has haunted me every night these three weeks. Just when I am
+lifting my glass I look through the window, and there it is at
+it--writing--writing--always writing!'
+
+"So the young men, pressing about, looked eagerly, and lo! seen through
+the back window of a house in a street built at right angles, they saw
+the shape of a man's hand writing swiftly, steadily, on large quarto
+pages. As soon as one was finished, it was added to a pile which grew
+and grew, rising, as it were, visibly before their eyes.
+
+"'It goes on like that all the time, even after the candles are lit,'
+said the young man, 'and it makes me ashamed. I get no peace for it when
+I am not at my books. Why cannot the man do his work without making
+others uncomfortable?'
+
+"Perhaps some of the company may have thought it was not a man at all,
+but some prisoned fairy tied to an endless task--Wizard Michael's
+familiar spirit, or Lord Soulis's imp Red Cap doing his master's bidding
+with a goose-quill.
+
+"But it was something much more wonderful than any of these. It was the
+hand of Walter Scott finishing _Waverley_, at the rate of a volume every
+ten days!"
+
+"Why did he work so hard?" demanded Hugh John, whom the appearance of
+fifty hands diligently writing would not have annoyed--no, not if they
+had all worked like sewing-machines.
+
+"Because," I answered, "the man who wrote _Waverley_ was beginning to
+have more need of money. He had bought land. He was involved in other
+people's misfortunes. Besides, for a long time, he had been a great
+poet, and now of late there had arisen a greater."
+
+"I know," cried Sweetheart, "Lord Byron--but _I_ don't think he was."
+
+"Anyway Fitzjames and Roderick Dhu is ripping!" announced Hugh John,
+and, rising to his feet, he whistled shrill in imitation of the outlaw.
+It was the time to take the affairs of children at the fulness of the
+tide.
+
+"I think," I ventured, "that you would like the story of _Waverley_ if I
+were to tell it now. I know you will like _Rob Roy_. Which shall it be
+first?"
+
+Then there were counter-cries of "Waverley" and "Rob Roy"--all the fury
+of a contested election. But Sweetheart, waiting till the brawlers were
+somewhat breathed, indicated the final sense of the meeting by saying
+quietly, "_Tell us the one the hand was writing!_"
+
+
+
+
+
+RED CAP TALES
+
+TOLD FROM
+
+WAVERLEY
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FIRST TALE FROM "WAVERLEY"[1]
+
+
+I. GOOD-BYE TO WAVERLEY-HONOUR
+
+ON a certain Sunday evening, toward the middle of the eighteenth
+century, a young man stood practising the guards of the broadsword in
+the library of an old English manor-house. The young man was Captain
+Edward Waverley, recently assigned to the command of a company in
+Gardiner's regiment of dragoons, and his uncle was coming in to say a
+few words to him before he set out to join the colours.
+
+Being a soldier and a hero, Edward Waverley was naturally tall and
+handsome, but, owing to the manner of his education, his uncle, an high
+Jacobite of the old school, held that he was "somewhat too bookish" for
+a proper man. He must therefore see a little of the world, asserted old
+Sir Everard.
+
+His Aunt Rachel had another reason for wishing him to leave
+Waverley-Honour. She had actually observed her Edward look too often
+across at the Squire's pew in church! Now Aunt Rachel held it no wrong
+to look at Squire Stubbs's pew if only that pew had been empty. But it
+was (oh, wickedness!) just when it contained the dear old-fashioned
+sprigged gown and the fresh pretty face of Miss Cecilia Stubbs, that
+Aunt Rachel's nephew looked most often in that direction. In addition to
+which the old lady was sure she had observed "that little Celie Stubbs"
+glance over at her handsome Edward in a way that--well, when _she_ was
+young! And here the old lady bridled and tossed her head, and the words
+which her lips formed themselves to utter (though she was too ladylike
+to speak them) were obviously "The Minx!" Hence it was clear to the most
+simple and unprejudiced that a greater distance had better be put
+between the Waverley loft and the Squire's pew--and that as soon as
+possible.
+
+Edward's uncle, Sir Everard, had wished him to travel abroad in company
+with his tutor, a staunch Jacobite clergyman by the name of Mr.
+Pembroke. But to this Edward's father, who was a member of the
+government, unexpectedly refused his sanction. Now Sir Everard despised
+his younger brother as a turncoat (and indeed something little better
+than a spy), but he could not gainsay a father's authority, even though
+he himself had brought the boy up to be his heir.
+
+"I am willing that you should be a soldier," he said to Edward; "your
+ancestors have always been of that profession. Be brave like them, but
+not rash. Remember you are the last of the Waverleys and the hope of
+the house. Keep no company with gamblers, with rakes, or with Whigs. Do
+your duty to God, to the Church of England, and--" He was going to say
+"to the King," when he remembered that by his father's wish Edward was
+going to fight the battles of King George. So the old Jacobite finished
+off rather lamely by repeating, "to the Church of England and all
+constituted authorities!"
+
+Then the old man, not trusting himself to say more, broke off abruptly
+and went down to the stables to choose the horses which were to carry
+Edward to the north. Finally, he delivered into the hands of his nephew
+an important letter addressed as follows:--
+
+"To Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine, Esquire of Bradwardine, at his principal
+mansion of Tully-Veolan in Perthshire, North Britain,--_These._--"
+
+For that was the dignified way in which men of rank directed their
+letters in those days.
+
+The leave-taking of Mr. Pembroke, Edward's tutor, was even longer and
+more solemn. And had Edward attended in the least to his moralisings, he
+might have felt somewhat depressed. In conclusion, the good clergyman
+presented him with several pounds of foolscap, closely written over in
+a neat hand.
+
+"These," he said, handling the sheets reverently, "are purposely written
+small that they may be convenient to keep by you in your saddle-bags.
+They are my works--my unpublished works. They will teach you the real
+fundamental principles of the Church, principles concerning which, while
+you have been my pupil, I have been under obligation never to speak to
+you. But now as you read them, I doubt not but that the light will come
+upon you! At all events, I have cleared my conscience."
+
+Edward, in the quiet of his chamber, glanced at the heading of the
+first: _A Dissent from Dissenters or the Comprehension Confuted_. He
+felt the weight and thickness of the manuscript, and promptly confuted
+their author by consigning the package to that particular corner of his
+travelling trunk where he was least likely to come across it again.
+
+On the other hand, his Aunt Rachel warned him with many head-shakings
+against the forwardness of the ladies whom he would meet with in
+Scotland (where she had never been). Then, more practically, she put
+into his hand a purse of broad gold pieces, and set on his finger a
+noble diamond ring.
+
+As for Miss Celie Stubbs, she came to the Waverley church on the last
+day before his departure, arrayed in all her best and newest clothes,
+mighty fine with hoops, patches, and silks everywhere. But Master
+Edward, who had his uniform on for the first time, his gold-laced hat
+beside him on the cushion, his broadsword by his side, and his spurs on
+his heels, hardly once looked at the Squire's pew. At which neglect
+little Celie pouted somewhat at the time, but since within six months
+she was married to Jones, the steward's son at Waverley-Honour, with
+whom she lived happy ever after, we may take it that her heart could not
+have been very deeply touched by Edward's inconstancy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[As a suitable first taste of the original I now read to my audience
+from a pocket _Waverley_, Chapter the Sixth, "The Adieus of Waverley."
+It was listened to on the whole with more interest than I had hoped for.
+It was an encouraging beginning. But Sir Toady, always irrepressible,
+called out a little impatiently: "That's enough about him. Now tell us
+what he _did!_" And this is how I endeavoured to obey.]
+
+
+
+II. THE ENCHANTED CASTLE
+
+Edward Waverley found his regiment quartered at Dundee in Scotland, but,
+the time being winter and the people of the neighbourhood not very fond
+of the "red soldiers," he did not enjoy the soldiering life so much as
+he had expected. So, as soon as the summer was fairly come, he asked
+permission to visit the Castle of Bradwardine, in order to pay his
+respects to his uncle's friend.
+
+It was noon of the second day after setting out when Edward Waverley
+arrived at the village of Tully-Veolan to which he was bound. Never
+before had he seen such a place. For, at his uncle's house of
+Waverley-Honour, the houses of villagers, all white and neat, stood
+about a village green, or lurked ancient and ivy-grown under the shade
+of great old park trees. But the turf-roofed hovels of Tully-Veolan,
+with their low doors supported on either side by all too intimate piles
+of peat and rubbish, appeared to the young Englishman hardly fit for
+human beings to live in. Indeed, from the hordes of wretched curs which
+barked after the heels of his horse, Edward might have supposed them
+meant to serve as kennels--save, that is, for the ragged urchins who
+sprawled in the mud of the road and the old women who, distaff in hand,
+dashed out to rescue them from being trampled upon by Edward's charger.
+
+Passing gardens as full of nettles as of pot-herbs, and entering between
+a couple of gate-posts, each crowned by the image of a rampant bear, the
+young soldier at last saw before him, at the end of an avenue, the steep
+roofs and crow-stepped gable ends of Bradwardine, half dwelling-house,
+half castle. Here Waverley dismounted, and, giving his horse to the
+soldier-servant who had accompanied him, he entered a court in which no
+sound was to be heard save the plashing of a fountain. He saw the door
+of a tall old mansion before him. Going up he raised the knocker, and
+instantly the echoes resounded through the empty house. But no one came
+to answer. The castle appeared uninhabited, the court a desert. Edward
+glanced about him, half expecting to be hailed by some ogre or giant, as
+adventurers used to be in the fairy tales he had read in childhood. But
+instead he only saw all sorts of bears, big and little, climbing (as it
+seemed) on the roof, over the windows, and out upon the ends of the
+gables--while over the door at which he had been vainly knocking he read
+in antique lettering the motto, "BEWAR THE BAR." But all these bruins
+were of stone, and each one of them kept as still and silent as did
+everything else about this strange mansion--except, that is, the
+fountain, which, behind him in the court, kept up its noisy splashing.
+
+Feeling, somehow, vaguely uncomfortable, Edward Waverley crossed the
+court into a garden, green and pleasant, but to the full as solitary as
+the castle court. Here again he found more bears, all sitting up in rows
+on their haunches, on parapets and along terraces, as if engaged in
+looking at the view. He wandered up and down, searching for some one to
+whom to speak, and had almost made up his mind that he had found a real
+enchanted Castle of Silence, when in the distance he saw a figure
+approaching up one of the green walks. There was something uncouth and
+strange about the way the newcomer kept waving his hands over his
+head--then, for no apparent reason, flapping them across his breast like
+a groom on a frosty day, hopping all the time first on one foot and then
+on the other. Tiring of this way of getting over the ground, he would
+advance by standing leaps, keeping both feet together. The only thing he
+seemed quite incapable of doing was to use his feet, one after the
+other, as ordinary people do when they are walking. Indeed, this strange
+guardian of the enchanted castle of Bradwardine looked like a gnome or
+fairy dwarf. For he was clad in an old-fashioned dress of grey, slashed
+with scarlet. On his legs were scarlet stockings and on his head a
+scarlet cap, which in its turn was surmounted by a turkey's feather.
+
+He came along dancing and singing in jerks and snatches, till, suddenly
+looking up from the ground, he saw Edward. In an instant his red cap was
+off, and he was bowing and saluting, and again saluting and bowing,
+with, if possible, still more extravagant gestures than before. Edward
+asked this curious creature if the Baron Bradwardine were at home, and
+what was his astonishment to be instantly answered in rhyme:
+
+        "The Knight's to the mountain
+           His bugle to wind;
+         The Lady's to greenwood
+           Her garland to bind.
+         The bower of Burd Ellen
+           Has moss on the floor,
+         That the step of Lord William,
+           Be silent and sure."
+
+This was impressive enough, surely; but, after all, it did not tell
+young Captain what he wanted to know. So he continued to question the
+strange wight, and finally, after eliciting many unintelligible sounds,
+was able to make out the single word "butler."
+
+[Illustration: "HE came along dancing and singing in jerks and snatches,
+till, suddenly looking up from the ground, he saw Edward. In an instant
+his red cap was off, and he was bowing and saluting, and again saluting
+and bowing, with, if possible, still more extravagant gestures than
+before."]
+
+Pouncing upon this, Edward commanded the Unknown to lead him instantly
+to the butler.
+
+Nothing loath, the fool danced and capered on in front, and, at a
+turning of the path, they found an old man, who seemed by his dress to
+be half butler, half gardener, digging diligently among the flower beds.
+Upon seeing Captain Waverley, he let drop his spade, undid his green
+apron, frowning all the time at Edward's guide for bringing his master's
+guest upon him without warning, to find him digging up the earth like a
+common labourer. But the Bradwardine butler had an explanation ready.
+
+His Honour was with the folk, getting down the Black Hag (so he confided
+to Edward). The two gardener lads had been ordered to attend his Honour.
+So in order to amuse himself, he, the majordomo of Bradwardine, had been
+amusing himself with dressing Miss Rose's flower beds. It was but seldom
+that he found time for such like, though personally he was very fond of
+garden work.
+
+"He cannot get it wrought in more than two days a week, at no rate
+whatever!" put in the scarecrow in the red cap and the turkey feather.
+
+"Go instantly and find his Honour at the Black Hag," cried the majordomo
+of Bradwardine, wrathful at this interference, "and tell him that there
+is a gentleman come from England waiting him at the Hall."
+
+"Can this poor fellow deliver a letter?" Edward asked doubtfully.
+
+"With all fidelity, sir," said the butler, "that is, to any one whom he
+respects. After all, he is more knave than fool. We call the innocent
+Davie Dolittle, though his proper name is Davie Gellatley. But the truth
+is, that since my young mistress, Miss Rose Bradwardine, took a fancy to
+dress him up in fine clothes, the creature cannot be got to do a single
+hand's turn of work. But here comes Miss Rose herself. Glad will she be
+to welcome one of the name of Waverley to her father's house!"
+
+
+III. THE BARON AND THE BEAR
+
+Rose Bradwardine was still quite young. Scarce did the tale of her
+years number seventeen, but already she was noted over all the
+countryside as a pretty girl, with a skin like snow, and hair that
+glistened like pale gold when the light fell upon it. Living so far from
+society, she was naturally not a little shy. But as soon as her first
+feeling of bashfulness was over, Rose spoke freely and brightly. Edward
+and she, however, had but little time to be alone together. For it was
+not long before the Baron of Bradwardine appeared, striding toward them
+as if he had possessed himself of the giant's seven-league boots.
+Bradwardine was a tall, thin, soldierly man, who in his time had seen
+much of the world, and who under a hard and even stern exterior, hid a
+heart naturally warm.
+
+He was much given to the singing of French songs and to making long and
+learned Latin quotations. And indeed he quoted Latin, even with the
+tears standing in his eyes, as he first shook Edward by the hand and
+then embraced him in the foreign fashion on both cheeks--all to express
+the immense pleasure it was to receive in his house of Tully-Veolan "a
+worthy scion of the old stock of Waverley-Honour."
+
+While Miss Rose ran off to make some changes in her dress, the Baron
+conducted Edward into a hall hung about with pikes and armour. Four or
+five servants, in old-fashioned livery, received them with honour, the
+majordomo at their head. The butler-gardener was not to be caught
+napping a second time.
+
+Bradwardine took Captain Waverley at once into an old dining room all
+panelled with black oak, round the walls of which hung pictures of
+former chiefs of the line of Tully-Veolan. Somewhere out-of-doors a bell
+was ringing to announce the arrival of other guests, and Edward observed
+with some interest that the table was laid for six people. In such a
+desolate country it seemed difficult to imagine where they would arrive
+from.
+
+Upon this point Edward soon received enlightenment. First, there was the
+Laird of Balmawhapple,--"a discreet young gentleman," said the Baron,
+"much given to field sports." Next came the Laird of Killancureit, who
+cultivated his own fields and cared for his own cattle--thereby (quoth
+the Baron) showing the commonness of his origin. Added to these were a
+"non-juring" Episcopal minister--that is, one who had refused to take
+the oaths of allegiance to King George's government, and, last of all,
+the "Baron-Bailie" or land-steward of Bradwardine, one Mr. Macwheeble.
+
+This last, to show his consciousness of his inferior position, seated
+himself as far as possible from the table, and as often as he wanted to
+eat, he bent himself nearly double over his plate, in the shape of a
+clasp-knife about to shut. When dinner was over, Rose and the clergyman
+discreetly retired, when, with a sign to the butler, the Baron of
+Bradwardine produced out of a locked case a golden cup called the
+Blessed Bear of Bradwardine, in which first the host and then all the
+company pledged the health of the young English stranger. After a while,
+the Baron and Edward set out to see their guests a certain distance on
+their way, going with them down the avenue to the village "change-house"
+or inn, where Balmawhapple and Killancureit had stabled their horses.
+
+Edward, being weary, would much rather have found himself in bed, but
+this desertion of good company the Baron would noways allow. So under
+the low cobwebbed roof of Lucky Macleary's kitchen the four gentlemen
+sat down to "taste the sweets of the night." But it was not long before
+the wine began to do its work in their heads. Each one of them, Edward
+excepted, talked or sang without paying any attention to his fellows.
+From wine they fell to politics, when Balmawhapple proposed a toast
+which was meant to put an affront upon the uniform Edward wore, and the
+King in whose army he served.
+
+"To the little gentleman in black velvet," cried the young Laird, "he
+who did such service in 1702, and may the white horse break his neck
+over a mound of his making!"
+
+The "little gentleman in black velvet" was the mole over whose hillock
+King William's horse is said to have stumbled, while the "white horse"
+represented the house of Hanover.
+
+Though of a Jacobite family, Edward could not help taking offence at the
+obvious insult, but the Baron was before him. The quarrel was not his,
+he assured him. The guest's quarrel was the host's--so long as he
+remained under his roof.
+
+"Here," quoth the Baron, "I am _in loco parentis_ to you, Captain
+Waverley. I am bound to see you scatheless. And as for you, Mr. Falconer
+of Balmawhapple, I warn you to let me see no more aberrations from the
+paths of good manners."
+
+"And I tell you, Mr. Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine of Bradwardine and
+Tully-Veolan," retorted the other, in huge disdain, "that I will make a
+muir cock of the man that refuses my toast, whether he be a crop-eared
+English Whig wi' a black ribband at his lug, or ane wha deserts his
+friends to claw favour wi' the rats of Hanover!"
+
+In an instant rapiers were out, and the Baron and Balmawhapple hard at
+it. The younger man was stout and active, but he was no match for the
+Baron at the sword-play. And the encounter would not have lasted long,
+had not the landlady, Lucky Macleary, hearing the well-known clash of
+swords, come running in on them, crying that surely the gentlemen would
+not bring dishonour on an honest widow-woman's house, when there was all
+the lee land in the country to do their fighting upon.
+
+So saying, she stopped the combat very effectually by flinging her plaid
+over the weapons of the adversaries.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning Edward awoke late, and in no happy frame of mind. It was an
+age of duels, and with his first waking thoughts there came the memory
+of the insult which had been passed upon him by the Laird of
+Balmawhapple. His position as an officer and a Waverley left him no
+alternative but to send that sportsman a challenge. Upon descending, he
+found Rose Bradwardine presiding at the breakfast table. She was alone,
+but Edward felt in no mood for conversation, and sat gloomy, silent, and
+ill-content with himself and with circumstances. Suddenly he saw the
+Baron and Balmawhapple pass the window arm in arm, and the next moment
+the butler summoned him to speak with his master in another apartment.
+
+There he found Balmawhapple, no little sulky and altogether silent, with
+the Baron by his side. The latter in his capacity of mediator made
+Edward a full and complete apology for the events of the past
+evening--an apology which the young man gladly accepted along with the
+hand of the offender--somewhat stiffly given, it is true, owing to the
+necessity of carrying his right arm in a sling--the result (as
+Balmawhapple afterwards assured Miss Rose) of a fall from his horse.
+
+It was not till the morning of the second day that Edward learned the
+whole history of this reconciliation, which had at first been so welcome
+to him. It was Daft Davie Gellatley, who, by the roguish singing of a
+ballad, first roused his suspicions that something underlay
+Balmawhapple's professions of regret for his conduct.
+
+        "The young man will brawl at the evening board
+           _Heard ye so merry the little birds sing?_
+         But the old man will draw at the dawning the sword,
+           _And the throstle-cock's head is under his wing._"
+
+Edward could see by the sly looks of the Fool that he meant something
+personal by this, so he plied the butler with questions, and discovered
+that the Baron had actually fought Balmawhapple on the morning after the
+insult, and wounded him in the sword-arm!
+
+Here, then, was the secret of the young Laird's unexpected submission
+and apology. As Davie Gellatley put it, Balmawhapple had been "sent hame
+wi' his boots full o' bluid!"
+
+
+THE FIRST INTERLUDE OF ACTION
+
+    The tale-telling had at this point to be broken
+    off. Clouds began to spin themselves from Eildon
+    top. Dinner also was in prospect, and, most of all,
+    having heard so much of the tale, the four
+    listeners desired to begin to "play Waverley."
+
+    Sweetheart made a stately, if skirted,
+    Bradwardine. Besides, she was in _Caesar_, and
+    had store of Latin quotations--mostly, it is true,
+    from the examples in the grammar, such as "_Illa
+    incedit regina!_" Certainly she walked like a
+    queen. Or, as it might be expressed, more fittingly
+    with the character of the Baron in the original:
+
+        "Stately stepped she east the wa',
+                 And stately stepped she west."
+
+    Hugh John considered the hero's part in any story
+    only his due. His only fault with that of Waverley
+    was that so far he had done so little. He specially
+    resented the terrible combat "in the dawning"
+    between the Baron and the overbold Balmawhapple
+    (played by Maid Margaret). Sir Toady Lion as low
+    comedian ("camelion" he called it) performed
+    numerous antics as Daft Davie Gellatley. He had
+    dressed the part to perfection by putting his
+    striped jersey on outside his coat, and sticking in
+    his cricket cap such feathers as he could find.
+
+    "Lie down, Hugh John," he cried, in the middle of
+    his dancing and singing round and round the
+    combatants; "why, you are asleep in bed!"
+
+    This, according to the authorities, being obvious,
+    the baffled hero had to succumb, with the muttered
+    reflection that "Jim Hawkins wouldn't have had to
+    stay asleep, when there was a fight like that going
+    on!"
+
+    Still, however, Hugh John could not restrain the
+    natural rights of criticism. He continually raised
+    his head from his pillow of dried branches to watch
+    Sweetheart and Maid Margaret.
+
+    "You fight just like girls," he cried indignantly;
+    "keep your left hand behind you, Bradwardine--or
+    Balmawhapple will hack it off! I say--girls _are_
+    silly things. You two are afraid of hurting each
+    other. Now me and Toady Lion--"
+
+    And he gave details of a late fraternal combat much
+    in the manner of Froissart.
+
+    It is to be noted that thus far both Sweetheart and
+    Maid Margaret disdained the female parts, the
+    latter even going the length of saying that she
+    preferred Celie Stubbs, the Squire's daughter at
+    Waverley-Honour, to Rose Bradwardine. On being
+    asked for an explanation of this heresy, she said,
+    "Well, at any rate, Celie Stubbs got a new hat to
+    come to church in!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    And though I read the "Repentance and a
+    Reconciliation" chapter, which makes number Twelve
+    of _Waverley_, to the combatants, I was conscious
+    that I must hasten on to scenes more exciting if I
+    meant to retain the attention of my small but
+    exacting audience. Furthermore, it was beginning to
+    rain. So, hurriedly breaking off the tale, we drove
+    back to Melrose across the green holms of St.
+    Boswells.
+
+    It was after the hour of tea, and the crowd of
+    visitors had ebbed away from the precincts of the
+    Abbey before the tale was resumed. A flat "throuch"
+    stone sustained the narrator, while the four
+    disposed themselves on the sunny grass, in the
+    various attitudes of severe inattention which youth
+    assumes when listening to a story. Sweetheart pored
+    into the depths of a buttercup. Hugh John scratched
+    the freestone of a half-buried tomb with a nail
+    till told to stop. Sir Toady Lion, having a
+    "pinch-bug" coralled in his palms, sat regarding it
+    cautiously between his thumbs. Only Maid Margaret,
+    her dimpled chin on her knuckles, sat looking
+    upward in rapt attention. For her there was no joy
+    like that of a story. Only, she was too young to
+    mind letting the tale-teller know it. That made the
+    difference.
+
+    Above our heads the beautiful ruin mounted, now all
+    red gold in the lights, and purple in the shadows,
+    while round and round, and through and through,
+    from highest tower to lowest arch, the swifts
+    shrieked and swooped.
+
+
+THE SECOND TALE FROM "WAVERLEY"
+
+
+I. THE CATTLE-LIFTING
+
+NEXT morning (I continued, looking up for inspiration to the pinnacles
+of Melrose, cut against the clear sky of evening, as sharply as when
+"John Morow, master mason," looked upon his finished work and found it
+very good)--next morning, as Captain Edward Waverley was setting out for
+his morning walk, he found the castle of Bradwardine by no means the
+enchanted palace of silence he had first discovered. Milkmaids,
+bare-legged and wild-haired, ran about distractedly with pails and
+three-legged stools in their hands, crying, "Lord, guide us!" and "Eh,
+sirs!"
+
+Bailie Macwheeble, mounted on his dumpy, round-barrelled pony, rode
+hither and thither with half the ragged rascals of the neighbourhood
+clattering after him. The Baron paced the terrace, every moment glancing
+angrily up at the Highland hills from under his bushy grey eyebrows.
+
+From the byre-lasses and the Bailie, Edward could obtain no satisfactory
+explanation of the disturbance. He judged it wiser not to seek it from
+the angry Baron.
+
+Within-doors, however, he found Rose, who, though troubled and anxious,
+replied to his questions readily enough.
+
+"There has been a 'creach,' that is, a raid of cattle-stealers from out
+of the Highland hills," she told him, hardly able to keep back her
+tears--not, she explained, because of the lost cattle, but because she
+feared that the anger of her father might end in the slaying of some of
+the Caterans, and in a blood-feud which would last as long as they or
+any of their family lived.
+
+"And all because my father is too proud to pay blackmail to Vich Ian
+Vohr!" she added.
+
+"Is the gentleman with that curious name," said Edward, "a local robber
+or a thief-taker?"
+
+"Oh, no," Rose laughed outright at his southern ignorance, "he is a
+great Highland chief and a very handsome man. Ah, if only my father
+would be friends with Fergus Mac-Ivor, then Tully-Veolan would once
+again be a safe and happy home. He and my father quarrelled at a county
+meeting about who should take the first place. In his heat he told my
+father that he was under his banner and paid him tribute. But it was
+Bailie Macwheeble who had paid the money without my father's knowledge.
+And since then he and Vich Ian Vohr have not been friends."
+
+"But what is blackmail?" Edward asked in astonishment. For he thought
+that such things had been done away with long ago. All this was just
+like reading an old black-letter book in his uncle's library.
+
+"It is money," Rose explained, "which, if you live near the Highland
+border, you must pay to the nearest powerful chief--such as Vich Ian
+Vohr. And then, if your cattle are driven away, all you have to do is
+just to send him word and he will have them sent back, or others as good
+in their places. Oh, you do not know how dreadful to be at feud with a
+man like Fergus Mac-Ivor. I was only a girl of ten when my father and
+his servants had a skirmish with a party of them, near our home-farm--so
+near, indeed, that some of the windows of the house were broken by the
+bullets, and three of the Highland raiders were killed. I remember
+seeing them brought in and laid on the floor in the hall, each wrapped
+in his plaid. And next morning their wives and daughters came, clapping
+their hands and crying the _coronach_ and shrieking--and they carried
+away the dead bodies, with the pipes playing before them. Oh, I could
+not sleep for weeks afterward, without starting up, thinking that I
+heard again these terrible cries."
+
+All this seemed like a dream to Waverley--to hear this young gentle girl
+of seventeen talk familiarly of dark and bloody deeds, such as even he,
+a grown man and a soldier, had only imagined--yet which she had seen
+with her own eyes!
+
+By dinner-time the Baron's mood had grown somewhat less stormy. He
+seemed for the moment to forget his wounded honour, and was even
+offering, as soon as the quarrel was made up, to provide Edward with
+introductions to many powerful northern chiefs, when the door opened,
+and a Highlander in full costume was shown in by the butler.
+
+"Welcome, Evan Dhu Maccombich!" said the Baron, without rising, and
+speaking in the manner of a prince receiving an embassy; "what news from
+Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr?"
+
+The ambassador delivered a courteous greeting from the Highland chief.
+"Fergus Mac-Ivor (he said) was sorry for the cloud that hung between him
+and his ancient friend. He hoped that the Baron would be sorry too--and
+that he should say so. More than this he did not ask."
+
+This the Baron readily did, drinking to the health of the chief of the
+Mac-Ivors, while Evan Maccombich in turn drank prosperity to the house
+of Bradwardine.
+
+
+II. THE ROBBER'S CAVE
+
+Then these high matters being finished, the Highlander retired with
+Bailie Macwheeble, doubtless to arrange with him concerning the arrears
+of blackmail. But of that the Baron was supposed to know nothing. This
+done, the Highlander began to ask all about the party which had driven
+off the cattle, their appearance, whence they had come, and in what
+place they had last been seen. Edward was much interested by the man's
+shrewd questions and the quickness with which he arrived at his
+conclusions. While on his part Evan Dhu was so flattered by the evident
+interest of the young Englishman, that he invited him to "take a walk
+with him into the mountains in search of the cattle," promising him that
+if the matter turned out as he expected, he would take Edward to such a
+place as he had never seen before and might never have a chance of
+seeing again.
+
+Waverley accepted with eager joy, and though Rose Bradwardine turned
+pale at the idea, the Baron, who loved boldness in the young, encouraged
+the adventure. He gave Edward a young gamekeeper to carry his pack and
+to be his attendant, so that he might make the journey with fitting
+dignity.
+
+Through a great pass, full of rugged rocks and seamed with roaring
+torrents--indeed, the very pass of Bally-Brough in which the reivers had
+last been spied--across weary and dangerous morasses, where Edward had
+perforce to spring from tuft to tussock of coarse grass, Evan Dhu led
+our hero into the depths of the wild Highland country,--where no Saxon
+foot trod or dared to tread without the leave of Vich Ian Vohr, as the
+chief's foster-brother took occasion to inform Edward more than once.
+
+By this time night was coming on, and Edward's attendant was sent off
+with one of Evan Dhu's men, that they might find a place to sleep in,
+while Evan himself pushed forward to warn the supposed cattle-stealer,
+one Donald Bean Lean, of the party's near approach. For, as Evan Dhu
+said, the Cateran might very naturally be startled by the sudden
+appearance of a _sidier roy_--or red soldier--in the very place of his
+most secret retreat.
+
+Edward was thus left alone with the single remaining Highlander, from
+whom, however, he could obtain no further information as to his
+journey's end--save that, as the Sassenach was somewhat tired, Donald
+Bean might possibly send the _currach_ for him.
+
+Edward wished much to know whether the _currach_ was a horse, a cart, or
+a chaise. But in spite of all his efforts, he could get no more out of
+the man with the Lochaber axe than the words repeated over and over
+again, "_Aich aye, ta currach! Aich aye, ta currach!_"
+
+However, after stumbling on a little farther, they came out on the
+shores of a loch, and the guide, pointing through the darkness in the
+direction of a little spark of light far away across the water, said,
+"Yon's ta cove!" Almost at the same moment the dash of oars was heard,
+and a shrill whistle came to their ears out of the darkness. This the
+Highlander answered, and a boat appeared in which Edward was soon
+seated, and on his way to the robber's cave.
+
+The light, which at first had been no bigger than a rush-light, grew
+rapidly larger, glowing red (as it seemed) upon the very bosom of the
+lake. Cliffs began to rise above their heads, hiding the moon. And, as
+the boat rapidly advanced, Edward could make out a great fire kindled on
+the shore, into which dark mysterious figures were busily flinging pine
+branches. The fire had been built on a narrow ledge at the opening of a
+great black cavern, into which an inlet of the loch seemed to advance.
+The men rowed straight for this black entrance. Then, letting the boat
+run on with shipped oars, the fire was soon passed and left behind, and
+the cavern entered through a great rocky arch. At the foot of some
+natural steps the boat stopped. The beacon brands which had served to
+guide them were thrown hissing into the water, and Edward found himself
+lifted out of the boat by brawny arms and carried almost bodily into the
+depths of the cavern. Presently, however, he was allowed to walk, though
+still guided on either side, when suddenly at a turn of the rock
+passage, the cave opened out, and Edward found the famous Cateran,
+Donald Bean Lean, and his whole establishment plain before his eyes.
+
+The cavern was lit with pine torches, and about a charcoal fire five or
+six Highlanders were seated, while in the dusk behind several others
+slumbered, wrapped in their plaids. In a large recess to one side were
+seen the carcasses of both sheep and cattle, hung by the heels as in a
+butcher's shop, some of them all too evidently the spoils of the Baron
+of Bradwardine's flocks and herds.
+
+The master of this strange dwelling came forward to welcome Edward,
+while Evan Dhu stood by his side to make the necessary introductions.
+Edward had expected to meet with a huge savage warrior in the captain of
+such banditti, but to his surprise he found Donald Bean Lean to be a
+little man, pale and insignificant in appearance, and not even Highland
+in dress. For at one time Donald had served in the French army. So now,
+instead of receiving Edward in his national costume, he had put on an
+old blue-and-red foreign uniform, in which he made so strange a figure
+that, though it was donned in his honour, his visitor had hard work to
+keep from laughing. Nor was the freebooter's conversation more in accord
+with his surroundings. He talked much of Edward's family and
+connections, and especially of his uncle's Jacobite politics--on which
+last account, he seemed inclined to welcome the young man with more
+cordiality than, as a soldier of King George, Edward felt to be his due.
+The scene which followed was, however, better fitted to the time and
+place.
+
+At a half-savage feast Edward had the opportunity of tasting steaks
+fresh cut from some of the Baron's cattle, broiled on the coals before
+his eyes, and washed down with draughts of Highland whiskey.
+
+Yet in spite of the warmth of his welcome, there was something very
+secret and unpleasant about the shifty cunning glance of this little
+robber-chief, who seemed to know so much about the royal garrisons, and
+even about the men of Edward's own troop whom he had brought with him
+from Waverley-Honour.
+
+When at last they were left alone together, Evan Dhu having lain down in
+his plaid, the little captain of cattle-lifters asked Captain Waverley
+in a very significant manner, "if he had nothing particular to say to
+him."
+
+Edward, a little startled at the tone in which the question was put,
+answered that he had no other reason for coming to the cave but a desire
+to see so strange a dwelling-place.
+
+For a moment Donald Bean Lean looked him full in the face, as if waiting
+for something more, and then, with a nod full of meaning, he muttered:
+"You might as well have confided in me. I am as worthy of trust as
+either the Baron of Bradwardine or Vich Ian Vohr! But you are equally
+welcome to my house!"
+
+His heather bed, the flickering of the fire, the smoking torches, and
+the movement of the wild outlaws going and coming about the cave, soon,
+however, diverted Waverley's thoughts from the mysterious words of his
+host. His eyelids drew together, nor did he reopen them till the morning
+sun, reflected from the lake, was filling all the cave with a glimmering
+twilight.
+
+
+THE SECOND INTERLUDE
+
+    As soon as this part of the tale was finished, the
+    audience showed much greater eagerness to enter
+    immediately upon the acting of Donald Bean Lean's
+    cattle-raid, and its consequences, than it had
+    previously displayed as to the doings of Edward
+    Waverley.
+
+    As Hugh John admitted, this was "something like!"
+    The Abbey precincts were instantly filled with the
+    mingled sounds characteristic of all well-conducted
+    forays, and it was well indeed that the place was
+    wholly deserted. For the lowings of the driven
+    cattle, the shouts of the triumphant Highlanders,
+    the deep rage of the Baron, stalking to and fro
+    wrapped in his cloak on the Castle terrace, might
+    well have astonished the crowd which in these
+    summer days comes from the four corners of the
+    world "to view fair Melrose aright."
+
+    It was not till the edge had worn off their first
+    enthusiasm, that it became possible to collect them
+    again in order to read "The Hold of a Highland
+    Robber," which makes Chapter Seventeenth of
+    _Waverley_ itself. And the reading so fired the
+    enthusiasm of Sweetheart that she asked for the
+    book to take to bed with her. The boys were more
+    practical, though equally enthusiastic.
+
+    "Wait till we get home," cried Hugh John, cracking
+    his fingers and thumbs. "I know a proper place for
+    Donald Bean Lean's cave."
+
+    "And I," said Sir Toady Lion, "will light a fire by
+    the pond and toss the embers into the water. It
+    will be jolly to hear 'em hiss, I tell you!"
+
+    "But what," asked Maid Margaret, "shall we do for
+    the cattle and sheep that were hanging by the
+    heels, when Edward went into Donald Bean Lean's
+    cave?"
+
+    "Why, we will hang _you_ up by the heels and cut
+    slices off you!" said Sir Toady, with frowning
+    truculence.
+
+    Whereat the little girl, a little solemnised, began
+    to edge away from the dangerous neighbourhood of
+    such a pair of young cannibals. Sweetheart
+    reproached her brothers for inventing calumnies
+    against their countrymen.
+
+    "Even the Highlanders were never so wicked," she
+    objected; "they did not eat one another."
+
+    "Well, anyway," retorted Sir Toady Lion, unabashed,
+    "Sawney Bean did. Perhaps he was a cousin of
+    Donald's, though in the history it says that he
+    came from East Lothian."
+
+    "Yes," cried Hugh John, "and in an old book written
+    in Latin it says (father read it to us) that one of
+    his little girls was too young to be executed with
+    the rest on the sands of Leith. So the King sent
+    her to be brought up by kind people, where she was
+    brought up without knowing anything of her father,
+    the cannibal, and her mother, the cannibaless--"
+
+    "Oh," cried Sweetheart, who knew what was coming,
+    putting up her hands over her ears, "please don't
+    tell that dreadful story all over again."
+
+    "Father read it out of a book--so there!" cried Sir
+    Toady, implacably, "go on, Hugh John!"
+
+    "And so when this girl was about as big as
+    Sweetheart, and, of course, could not remember her
+    grandfather's nice cave or the larder where the
+    arms and legs were hung up to dry in the smoke--"
+
+    "Oh, you horrid boy!" cried Sweetheart, not,
+    however, removing herself out of ear-shot--because,
+    after all, it was nice to shiver just a little.
+
+    "Oh, yes, and I have seen the cave," cried Sir
+    Toady, "it is on the shore near Ballantrae--a
+    horrid place. Go on, Hugh John, tell about Sawney
+    Bean's grandchild!"
+
+    "Well, she grew up and up, playing with dolls just
+    like other girls, till she was old enough to be
+    sent out to service. And after she had been a while
+    about the house to which she went, it was noticed
+    that some of the babies in the neighbourhood began
+    to go a-missing, and they found--"
+
+    "I think she was a nursemaid!" interrupted Sir
+    Toady, dispassionately. "That must have been it.
+    The little wretches cried--_so she ate them!_"
+
+    "Oh," cried Sweetheart, stopping her ears with her
+    fingers, "don't tell us what they found--I believe
+    you made it all up, anyway."
+
+    "No, I didn't," cried Hugh John, shouting in her
+    ear as if to a very deaf person, "it was father who
+    read it to us, out of a big book with fat black
+    letters. So it must be true!"
+
+    Sir Toady was trying to drag away his sister's arms
+    that she might have the benefit of details, when I
+    appeared in the distance. Whereupon Hugh John, who
+    felt his time growing limited, concluded thus, "And
+    when they were taking the girl away to hang her,
+    the minister asked her why she had killed the
+    babies, and she answered him, 'If people only knew
+    how good babies were--especially little
+    girls--_there would not be one left between Forth
+    and Solway!_'"
+
+    Then quite unexpectedly Maid Margaret began to sob
+    bitterly.
+
+    "They _shan't_ hang me up and eat me," she cried,
+    running as hard as she could and flinging herself
+    into my arms; "Hugh John and Sir Toady say they
+    will, as soon as we get home."
+
+    Happily I had a light cane of a good vintage in my
+    hand, and it did not take long to convince the pair
+    of young scamps of the inconvenience of frightening
+    their little sister. Sweetheart looked on
+    approvingly as two forlorn young men were walked
+    off to a supper, healthfully composed of plain
+    bread and butter, and washed down by some nice cool
+    water from the pump.
+
+    "I told you!" she said, "you wouldn't believe me."
+
+    All the same she was tender-hearted enough to
+    convey a platter of broken meats secretly up to
+    their "condemned cell," as I knew from finding the
+    empty plate under their washstand in the morning.
+    And as Maid Margaret was being carried off to be
+    bathed and comforted, a Voice, passing their door,
+    threatened additional pains and penalties to little
+    boys who frightened their sisters.
+
+    "It was all in a book," said Hugh John, defending
+    himself from under the bedclothes, "father read it
+    to us!"
+
+    "We did it for her good," suggested Sir Toady.
+
+    "If I hear another word out of you--" broke in the
+    Voice; and then added, "go to sleep this instant!"
+
+    The incident of the cave had long been forgotten
+    and forgiven, before I could continue the story of
+    Waverley in the cave of Donald Bean Lean. We sat
+    once more "in oor ain hoose at hame," or rather
+    outside it, near a certain pleasant chalet in a
+    wood, from which place you can see a brown and
+    turbulent river running downward to the sea.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE THIRD TALE FROM "WAVERLEY"
+
+
+I. THE CHIEF OF THE MAC-IVORS AND THE CHIEF'S SISTER
+
+WHEN Edward awoke next morning, he could not for a moment remember where
+he was. The cave was deserted. Only the grey ashes of the fire, a few
+gnawed bones, and an empty keg remained to prove that he was still on
+the scene of last night's feast. He went out into the sunlight. In a
+little natural harbour the boat was lying snugly moored. Farther out, on
+a rocky spit, was the mark of last night's beacon-fire. Here Waverley
+had to turn back. Cliffs shut him in on every side, and Edward was at a
+loss what to do, till he discovered, climbing perilously out in the rock
+above the cave mouth, some slight steps or ledges. These he mounted with
+difficulty, and, passing over the shoulder of the cliff, found himself
+presently on the shores of a loch about four miles long, surrounded on
+every side by wild heathery mountains.
+
+In the distance he could see a man fishing and a companion watching him.
+By the Lochaber axe which the latter carried Edward recognised the
+fisher as Evan Dhu. On a stretch of sand under a birch tree, a girl was
+laying out a breakfast of milk, eggs, barley bread, fresh butter, and
+honeycomb. She was singing blithely, yet she must have had to travel far
+that morning to collect such dainties in so desolate a region.
+
+This proved to be Alice, the daughter of Donald Bean Lean, and it is
+nothing to her discredit that she had made herself as pretty as she
+could, that she might attend upon the handsome young Englishman. All
+communication, however, had to be by smiles and signs, for Alice spoke
+no English. Nevertheless she set out her dainties with right good-will,
+and then seated herself on a stone a little distance away to watch for
+an opportunity of serving the young soldier.
+
+Presently Evan Dhu came up with his catch, a fine salmon-trout, and soon
+slices of the fish were broiling on the wood embers. After breakfast,
+Alice gathered what was left into a wicker basket, and, flinging her
+plaid about her, presented her cheek to Edward for "the stranger's
+kiss." Evan Dhu made haste to secure a similar privilege, but Alice
+sprang lightly up the bank out of his reach, and with an arch wave of
+her hand to Edward she disappeared.
+
+Then Evan Dhu led Edward back to the boat. The three men embarked, and
+after emerging from the mouth of the cavern, a clumsy sail was hoisted,
+and they bore away up the lake--Evan Dhu all the time loud in the
+praises of Alice Bean Lean.
+
+Edward said that it was a pity that such a maiden should be the daughter
+of a common thief. But this Evan hotly denied. According to Evan, Donald
+Bean Lean, though indeed no reputable character, was far from being a
+thief. A thief was one who stole a cow from a poor cotter, but he who
+lifted a drove from a Sassenach laird was "a gentleman drover."
+
+"But he would be hanged, all the same, if he were caught!" objected
+Edward. "I do not see the difference."
+
+"To be sure, he would _die for the law_, as many a pretty man has done
+before him," cried Evan. "And a better death than to die, lying on damp
+straw in yonder cave like a mangy tyke!"
+
+"And what," Edward suggested, "would become of pretty Alice then?"
+
+"Alice is both canny and fendy," said the bold Evan Dhu, with a cock of
+his bonnet, "and I ken nocht to hinder me to marry her mysel'!"
+
+Edward laughed and applauded the Highlander's spirit, but asked also as
+to the fate of the Baron of Bradwardine's cattle.
+
+"By this time," said Evan, "I warrant they are safe in the pass of
+Bally-Brough and on their road back to Tully-Veolan. And that is more
+than a regiment of King George's red soldiers could have brought about!"
+
+Evan Dhu had indeed some reason to be proud.
+
+Reassured as to this, Edward accompanied his guide with more confidence
+toward the castle of Vich Ian Vohr. The "five miles Scots" seemed to
+stretch themselves out indefinitely, but at last the figure of a hunter,
+equipped with gun, dogs, and a single attendant, was seen far across the
+heath.
+
+"_Shogh_," said the man with the Lochaber axe, "tat's the Chief!"
+
+Evan Dhu, who had boasted of his master's great retinue, denied it
+fiercely.
+
+"The Chief," he said, "would not come out with never a soul with him but
+Callum Beg, to meet with an English gentleman."
+
+But in spite of this prophecy, the Chief of Clan Ivor it was. Fergus
+Mac-Ivor, whom his people called Vich Ian Vohr, was a young man of much
+grace and dignity, educated in France, and of a strong, secret, and
+turbulent character, which by policy he hid for the most part under an
+appearance of courtesy and kindness. He had long been mustering his clan
+in secret, in order once more to take a leading part in another attempt
+to dethrone King George, and to set on the throne of Britain either the
+Chevalier St. George or his son Prince Charles.
+
+When Waverley and the Chief approached the castle--a stern and rugged
+pile, surrounded by walls, they found a large body of armed Highlanders
+drawn up before the gate.
+
+"These," said Vich Ian Vohr, carelessly, "are a part of the clan whom I
+ordered out, to see that they were in a fit state to defend the country
+in such troublous times. Would Captain Waverley care to see them go
+through part of their exercise?"
+
+Thereupon the men, after showing their dexterity at drill, and their
+fine target-shooting, divided into two parties, and went through the
+incidents of a battle--the charge, the combat, the flight, and the
+headlong pursuit--all to the sound of the great warpipes.
+
+Edward asked why, with so large a force, the Chief did not at once put
+down such robber bands as that of Donald Bean Lean.
+
+"Because," said the Chief, bitterly, "if I did, I should at once be
+summoned to Stirling Castle to deliver up the few broadswords the
+government has left us. I should gain little by that. But there is
+dinner," he added, as if anxious to change the subject, "let me show you
+the inside of my rude mansion."
+
+The long and crowded dinner-table to which Edward sat down, told of the
+Chief's immense hospitality. After the meal, healths were drunk, and the
+bard of the clan recited a wild and thrilling poem in Gaelic--of which,
+of course, Edward could not understand so much as one word, though it
+excited the clansmen so that they sprang up in ecstasy, many of them
+waving their arms about in sympathy with the warlike verses. The Chief,
+exactly in the ancient manner, presented a silver cup full of wine to
+the minstrel. He was to drink the one and keep the other for himself.
+
+After a few more toasts, Vich Ian Vohr offered to take Waverley up to be
+presented to his sister. They found Flora Mac-Ivor in her parlour, a
+plain and bare chamber with a wide prospect from the windows. She had
+her brother's dark curling hair, dark eyes, and lofty expression, but
+her expression seemed sweeter, though not, perhaps, softer. She was,
+however, even more fiercely Jacobite than her brother, and her devotion
+to "the King over the Water" (as they called King James) was far more
+unselfish than that of Vich Ian Vohr. Flora Mac-Ivor had been educated
+in a French convent, yet now she gave herself heart and soul to the good
+of her wild Highland clan and to the service of him whom she looked on
+as the true King.
+
+She was gracious to Edward, and at the request of Fergus, told him the
+meaning of the war-song he had been listening to in the hall. She was,
+her brother said, famed for her translations from Gaelic into English,
+but for the present she could not be persuaded to recite any of these to
+Edward.
+
+He had better fortune, however, when, finding Flora Mac-Ivor in a wild
+spot by a waterfall, she sang him, to the accompaniment of a harp, a
+song of great chiefs and their deeds which fired the soul of the young
+man. He could not help admiring--he almost began to love her from that
+moment.
+
+After this reception, Edward continued very willingly at
+Glennaquoich--both because of his growing admiration for Flora, and
+because his curiosity increased every day as to this wild race, and the
+life so different from all that he had hitherto known. Nothing occurred
+for three weeks to disturb his pleasant dreams, save the chance
+discovery, made when he was writing a letter to the Baron, that he had
+somehow lost his seal with the arms of Waverley, which he wore attached
+to his watch. Flora was inclined to blame Donald Bean Lean for the
+theft, but the Chief scouted the idea. It was impossible, he said, when
+Edward was his guest, and, besides (he added slyly), Donald would never
+have taken the seal and left the watch. Whereupon Edward borrowed Vich
+Ian Vohr's seal, and, having despatched his letter, thought no more of
+the matter.
+
+Soon afterwards, whilst Waverley still remained at Glennaquoich, there
+was a great hunting of the stag, to which Fergus went with three hundred
+of his clan to meet some of the greatest Highland chiefs, his
+neighbours. He took Edward with him, and the numbers present amounted
+almost to those of a formidable army. While the clansmen drove in the
+deer, the chiefs sat on the heather in little groups and talked in low
+tones. During the _drive_, the main body of the deer, in their
+desperation, charged right upon the place where the chief sportsmen
+were waiting in ambush. The word was given for every one to fling
+himself down on his face. Edward, not understanding the language,
+remained erect, and his life was only saved by the quickness of Vich Ian
+Vohr, who seized him and flung him down, holding him there by main force
+till the whole herd had rushed over them. When Edward tried to rise, he
+found that he had severely sprained his ankle.
+
+However, among those present at the _drive_, there was found an old man,
+half-surgeon, half-conjurer, who applied hot fomentations, muttering all
+the time of the operation such gibberish as _Gaspar-Melchior-Balthazar-max-prax-fax!_
+
+Thus it happened that, to his great disappointment, Edward was unable to
+accompany the clansmen and their chiefs any farther. So Vich Ian Vohr
+had Edward placed in a litter, woven of birch and hazel, and walked
+beside this rude couch to the house of an old man, a smaller chieftain,
+who, with only a few old vassals, lived a retired life at a place called
+Tomanrait.
+
+Here he left Edward to recruit, promising to come back in a few days, in
+the hope that by that time Edward would be able to ride a Highland pony
+in order to return to Glennaquoich.
+
+On the sixth morning Fergus returned, and Edward gladly mounted to
+accompany him. As they approached the castle, he saw, with pleasure,
+Flora coming to meet them.
+
+
+II. MISFORTUNES NEVER COME SINGLE
+
+The Chief's beautiful sister appeared very glad to see Edward, and, as
+her brother spoke a few hasty words to her in Gaelic, she suddenly
+clasped her hands, and, looking up to heaven, appeared to ask a blessing
+upon some enterprise. She then gave Edward some letters that had arrived
+for him during his absence. It was perhaps as well that Edward took
+these to his room to open, considering the amount of varied ill news
+that he found in them.
+
+The first was from his father, who had just been dismissed from his
+position as King's minister, owing (as he put it) to the ingratitude of
+the great--but really, as was proved afterwards, on account of some
+political plots which he had formed against his chief, the prime
+minister of the day.
+
+Then his generous uncle, Sir Everard, wrote that all differences were
+over between his brother and himself. He had espoused his quarrel, and
+he directed Edward at once to send in the resignation of his commission
+to the War Office without any preliminaries, forbidding him longer to
+serve a government which had treated his father so badly.
+
+But the letter which touched Edward most deeply was one from his
+commanding officer at Dundee, which declared curtly that if he did not
+report himself at the headquarters of the regiment within three days
+after the date of writing, he would be obliged to take steps in the
+matter which would be exceedingly disagreeable to Captain Waverley.
+
+Edward at once sat down and wrote to Colonel Gardiner that, as he had
+thus chosen to efface the remembrance of past civilities, there was
+nothing left to him but to resign his commission, which he did formally,
+and ended his letter by requesting his commanding officer to forward
+this resignation to the proper quarter.
+
+No little perplexed as to the meaning of all this, Edward was on his way
+to consult Fergus Mac-Ivor on the subject, when the latter advanced with
+an open newspaper in his hand.
+
+"Do your letters," he asked, "confirm this unpleasant news?"
+
+And he held out the _Caledonian Mercury_, in which not only did he find
+his father's disgrace chronicled, but on turning to the _Gazette_ he
+found the words, "Edward Waverley, Captain in the --th regiment of
+dragoons, superseded for absence without leave." The name of his
+successor, one Captain Butler, followed immediately.
+
+On looking at the date of Colonel Gardiner's missive as compared with
+that of the _Gazette_, it was evident that his commanding officer had
+carried out his threat to the letter. Yet it was not at all like him to
+have done so. It was still more out of keeping with the constant
+kindness that he had shown to Edward. It was the young man's first idea,
+in accordance with the customs of the time, to send Colonel Gardiner a
+challenge. But, upon Fergus Mac-Ivor's advice, Edward ultimately
+contented himself with adding a postscript to his first letter, marking
+the time at which he had received the first summons, and regretting that
+the hastiness of his commander's action had prevented his anticipating
+it by sending in his resignation.
+
+"That, if anything," said Fergus, "will make this Calvinistic colonel
+blush for his injustice."
+
+But it was not long before some part at least of the mystery was made
+plain. Fergus took advantage of Edward's natural anger at his unworthy
+treatment, to reveal to him that a great rising was about to take place
+in the Highlands in favour of King James, and to urge him to cast in his
+lot with the clans. Flora, on the contrary, urged him to be careful and
+cautious, lest he should involve others to whom he owed everything, in a
+common danger with himself.
+
+Edward, whose fancy (if not whose heart) had gradually been turning more
+and more toward the beautiful and patriotic Flora, appeared less
+interested in rebellion than in obtaining her brother's good-will and
+bespeaking his influence with his sister.
+
+"Out upon you," cried Fergus, with pretended ill-humour, "can you think
+of nothing but ladies at such a time? Besides, why come to me in such a
+matter? Flora is up the glen. Go and ask herself. And Cupid go with you!
+But do not forget that my lovely sister, like her loving brother, is apt
+to have a pretty strong will of her own!"
+
+Edward's heart beat as he went up the rocky hillside to find Flora. She
+received and listened to him with kindness, but steadily refused to
+grant him the least encouragement. All her thoughts, her hopes, her life
+itself, were set on the success of this one bold stroke for a crown.
+Till the rightful King was on his throne, she could not think of
+anything else. Love and marriage were not for such as Flora Mac-Ivor.
+Edward, in spite of the manifest good-will of the chief, had to be
+content with such cold comfort as he could extract from Flora's promise
+that she would remember him in her prayers!
+
+Next morning Edward was awakened to the familiar sound of Daft Davie
+Gellatley's voice singing below his window. For a moment he thought
+himself back at Tully-Veolan. Davie was declaring loudly that
+
+        "_My heart's in the Highland, my heart is not here._"
+
+Then, immediately changing to a less sentimental strain, he added with a
+contemptuous accent:
+
+        "_There's nocht in the Highlands but syboes and leeks,_
+         _And lang-leggit callants gaun wanting the breeks;_
+         _Wanting the breeks, and without hose or shoon,_
+         _But we'll a' win the breeks when King Jamie comes hame._"
+
+Edward, eager to know what had brought the Bradwardine "innocent" so far
+from home, dressed hastily and went down. Davie, without stopping his
+dancing for a moment, came whirling past, and, as he went, thrust a
+letter into Waverley's hand. It proved to be from Rose Bradwardine, and
+among other things it contained the news that the Baron had gone away to
+the north with a body of horsemen, while the red soldiers had been at
+Tully-Veolan searching for her father and also asking after Edward
+himself. Indeed they had carried off his servant prisoner, together with
+everything he had left at Tully-Veolan. Rose also warned him against the
+danger of returning thither, and at the same time sent her compliments
+to Fergus and Flora. The last words in the letter were, "_Is she not as
+handsome and accomplished as I described her to be?_"
+
+Edward was exceedingly perplexed. Knowing his innocence of all treason,
+he could not imagine why he should be accused of it. He consulted
+Fergus, who told him he would to a certainty be hanged or imprisoned if
+he went south. Nevertheless, Edward persisted in "running his hazard."
+The Chief, though wishful to keep him, did not absolutely say him nay.
+Flora, instead of coming down to bid him good-bye, sent only excuses. So
+altogether it was in no happy frame of mind that Edward rode away to the
+south upon the Chief's horse, Brown Dermid, and with Callum Beg for an
+attendant in the guise of a Lowland groom.
+
+Callum warned his master against saying anything when they got to the
+first little Lowland town, either on the subject of the Highlands, or
+about his master, Vich Ian Vohr.
+
+"The people there are bitter Whigs, teil burst them!" he said fiercely.
+As they rode on they saw many people about the street, chiefly old women
+in tartan hoods and red cloaks, who seemed to cast up their hands in
+horror at the sight of Waverley's horse. Edward asked the reason.
+
+"Oh," said Callum Beg, "it's either the muckle Sunday hersel', or the
+little government Sunday that they caa the Fast!"
+
+It proved to be the latter, and the innkeeper, a severe sly-looking man,
+received them with scanty welcome. Indeed, he only admitted them because
+he remembered that it was in his power to fine them for the crime of
+travelling on a Fast Day by an addition to the length of his reckoning
+next morning.
+
+But as soon as Edward announced his wish for a horse and guide to Perth,
+the hypocritical landlord made ready to go with him in person. Callum
+Beg, excited by the golden guinea which Waverley gave him, offered to
+show his gratitude by waiting a little distance along the road, and
+"kittlin' the landlord's quarters wi' her skene-occle"--or, in other
+words, setting a dagger in his back. Apparently Vich Ian Vohr's page
+thought no more of such a deed than an ordinary English boy would have
+thought of stealing an apple out of an orchard.
+
+
+THE THIRD INTERLUDE--BEING MAINLY A FEW WORDS UPON HEROES
+
+    Among the listeners there was somewhat less
+    inclination than before to act this part of the
+    story. For one thing, the boys were righteously
+    indignant at the idea of any true hero being in
+    love--unless, indeed, he could carry off his bride
+    from the deck of a pirate vessel, cutlass in hand,
+    and noble words of daring on his lips.
+
+    As for the girls, well--they knew that the bushes
+    were dripping wet, and that if they set their feet
+    upon their native heath, they would certainly be
+    made to change their stockings as soon as they went
+    home. This was a severe discourager of romance.
+    There was nothing to prevent any one of them from
+    asking questions, however. _That_ was a business in
+    which they excelled.
+
+    "But why did the Highland people want to rebel,
+    anyway?" demanded Hugh John. "If I could have
+    hunted like that, and raided, and carried off
+    cattle, and had a castle with pipes playing and
+    hundreds of clansmen to drill, I shouldn't have
+    been such a soft as to rebel and get them all taken
+    away from me!"
+
+    "It was because they were loyal to their rightful
+    King," said Sweetheart, who is a Cavalier and a
+    Jacobite--in the intervals of admiring Cromwell,
+    and crying because they shot down the poor
+    Covenanters.
+
+    "_I_ think," said Sir Toady, who had been sitting
+    very thoughtful, "that they just liked to fight,
+    and King George would not let them. So they wanted
+    a king who would not mind. Same as us, you know. If
+    we are caught fighting in school, we get whipped,
+    but father lets us fight outside as much as we want
+    to. Besides, what did old Vich Ian Vohr want with
+    all these silly Highlanders, eating up everything
+    in his castle, if there were never any battles that
+    they could fight for him?"
+
+    This was certainly a very strong and practical
+    view, and so much impressed the others that they
+    sat a long while quiet, turning it over in their
+    minds.
+
+    "Well, at any rate," said Sweetheart, dropping her
+    head with a sigh to go on with her seam, "I know
+    that Flora Mac-Ivor was truly patriotic. See how
+    she refused to listen to Waverley, all because she
+    wanted to give her life for the cause."
+
+    "Humph," said Hugh John, disrespectfully turning up
+    his nose, "that's all girls think about--loving,
+    an' marrying, an' playing on harps--"
+
+    "I don't play on harps," sighed Sweetheart, "but I
+    do wish I had a banjo!"
+
+    "I wish I had a targe and a broadsword, and the
+    Chief's horse, Brown Dermid, to ride on," said Hugh
+    John, putting on his "biggety" look.
+
+    "And a nice figure you would cut," sneered Sir
+    Toady Lion, provokingly; "Highlanders don't fight
+    on horseback! You ought to know that!"
+
+    Whereupon the first engagement of the campaign was
+    immediately fought out on the carpet. And it was
+    not till after the intervention of the Superior
+    Power had restored quiet that the next tale from
+    _Waverley_ could be proceeded with.
+
+
+
+THE FOURTH TALE FROM "WAVERLEY"
+
+
+HERE AND THERE AMONG THE HEATHER
+
+NOT long after Callum Beg had been left behind, and indeed almost as
+soon as the innkeeper and Edward were fairly on their way, the former
+suddenly announced that his horse had fallen lame and that they must
+turn aside to a neighbouring smithy to have the matter attended to.
+
+"And as it is the Fast Day, and the smith a religious man, it may cost
+your Honour as muckle as sixpence a shoe!" suggested the wily innkeeper,
+watching Edward's face as he spoke.
+
+For this announcement Edward cared nothing. He would gladly have paid a
+shilling a nail to be allowed to push forward on his journey with all
+speed. Accordingly to the smithy of Cairnvreckan they went. The village
+was in an uproar. The smith, a fierce-looking man, was busy hammering
+"dogs' heads" for musket-locks, while among the surrounding crowd the
+names of great Highland chiefs--Clanronald, Glengarry, Lochiel, and that
+of Vich Ian Vohr himself, were being bandied from mouth to mouth.
+
+Edward soon found himself surrounded by an excited mob, in the midst of
+which the smith's wife, a wild witchlike woman, was dancing, every now
+and then casting her child up in the air as high as her arms would
+reach, singing all the while, and trying to anger the crowd, and
+especially to infuriate her husband, by the Jacobite songs which she
+chanted.
+
+At last the smith could stand this provocation no longer. He snatched a
+red-hot bar of iron from the forge, and rushed at his wife, crying out
+that he would "thrust it down her throat." Then, finding himself held
+back by the crowd from executing vengeance on the woman, all his anger
+turned upon Edward, whom he took to be a Jacobite emissary. For the news
+which had caused all this stir was that Prince Charles had landed and
+that the whole Highlands was rallying to his banner.
+
+So fierce and determined was the attack which the angry smith of
+Cairnvreckan made on Edward that the young man was compelled to draw his
+pistol in self-defence. And as the crowd threatened him and the smith
+continued furiously to attack with the red-hot iron, almost
+unconsciously his finger pressed the trigger. The shot went off, and
+immediately the smith fell to the ground. Then Edward, borne down by the
+mob, was for some time in great danger of his life. He was saved at last
+by the interference of the minister of the parish, a kind and gentle old
+man, who caused Edward's captors to treat him more tenderly. So that
+instead of executing vengeance upon the spot as they had proposed, they
+brought him before the nearest magistrate, who was, indeed, an old
+military officer, and, in addition, the Laird of the village of
+Cairnvreckan, one Major Melville by name.
+
+[Illustration: "SO fierce and determined was the attack which the angry
+smith of Cairnvreckan made on Edward that the young man was compelled to
+draw his pistol in self-defence."]
+
+The latter proved to be a stern soldier, so severe in manner that he
+often became unintentionally unjust. Major Melville found that though
+the blacksmith's wound proved to be a mere scratch, and though he had to
+own that the provocation given was a sufficient excuse for Edward's
+hasty action, yet he must detain the young man prisoner upon the warrant
+issued against Edward Waverley, which had been sent out by the Supreme
+Court of Scotland.
+
+Edward, who at once owned to his name, was astonished beyond words to
+find that not only was he charged with being in the company of actual
+rebels, such as the Baron of Bradwardine and Vich Ian Vohr, but also
+with trying to induce his troop of horse to revolt by means of private
+letters addressed to one of them, Sergeant Houghton, in their barracks
+at Dundee. Captain Waverley was asserted to have effected this through
+the medium of a pedlar named Will Ruthven, or Wily Will--whose very name
+Edward had never heard up to that moment.
+
+As the magistrate's examination proceeded, Waverley was astonished to
+find that, instead of clearing himself, everything he said, every
+article he carried about his person, was set down by Major Melville as
+an additional proof of his complicity with treason. Among these figured
+Flora's verses, his own presence at the great hunting match among the
+mountains, his father's and Sir Everard's letters, even the huge
+manuscripts written by his tutor (of which he had never read six
+pages)--all were brought forward as so many evidences of his guilt.
+
+Finally, the magistrate informed Edward that he would be compelled to
+detain him a prisoner in his house of Cairnvreckan. But that if he would
+furnish such information as it was doubtless in his power to give
+concerning the forces and plans of Vich Ian Vohr and the other Highland
+chiefs, he might, after a brief detention, be allowed to go free. Edward
+fiercely exclaimed that he would die rather than turn informer against
+those who had been his friends and hosts. Whereupon, having refused all
+hospitality, he was conducted to a small room, there to be guarded till
+there was a chance of sending him under escort to the Castle of
+Stirling.
+
+Here he was visited by Mr. Morton, the minister who had saved him from
+the clutches of the mob, and so sympathetically and kindly did he speak,
+that Edward told him his whole story from the moment when he had first
+left Waverley-Honour. And though the minister's favourable report did
+not alter the opinion Major Melville had formed of Edward's treason, it
+softened his feelings toward the young man so much that he invited him
+to dinner, and afterwards did his best to procure him favourable
+treatment from the Westland Whig captain, Mr. Gifted Gilfillan, who
+commanded the party which was to convoy him to Stirling Castle.
+
+The escort which was to take Edward southward was not so strong as it
+might have been. Part of Captain Gifted Gilfillan's command had stayed
+behind to hear a favourite preacher upon the occasion of the afternoon
+Fast Day service at Cairnvreckan. Others straggled for purposes of their
+own, while as they went along, their leader lectured Edward upon the
+fewness of those that should be saved. Heaven, he informed Edward, would
+be peopled exclusively by the members of his own denomination. Captain
+Gifted was still engaged in condemning all and sundry belonging to the
+Churches of England and Scotland, when a stray pedlar joined his party
+and asked of "his Honour" the favour of his protection as far as
+Stirling, urging as a reason the uncertainty of the times and the value
+of the property he carried in his pack.
+
+The pedlar, by agreeing with all that was said, and desiring further
+information upon spiritual matters, soon took the attention of Captain
+Gifted Gilfillan from his prisoner. He declared that he had even
+visited, near Mauchline, the very farm of the Whig leader. He
+congratulated him upon the fine breed of cattle he possessed. Then he
+went on to speak of the many evil, popish, and unchristian things he had
+seen in his travels as a pedlar over the benighted countries of Europe.
+Whereupon Gifted Gilfillan became so pleased with his companion and so
+enraptured with his subject, that he allowed his party to string itself
+out along the route without an attempt at discipline, or even the power
+of supporting each other in case of attack.
+
+The leaders were ascending a little hill covered with whin bushes and
+crowned with low brushwood, when, after looking about him quickly to
+note some landmarks, the pedlar put his fingers to his mouth and
+whistled. He explained that he was whistling on a favourite dog, named
+Bawty, which he had lost. The Covenanter reproved him severely for
+thinking of a useless dog in the midst of such precious and improving
+conversation as they were holding together.
+
+But in spite of his protests the pedlar persisted in his whistling, and
+presently, out of a copse close to the path, six or eight stout
+Highlanders sprang upon them brandishing their claymores.
+
+"The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" shouted Gifted Gilfillan, nothing
+daunted. And he was proceeding to lay about him stoutly, when the
+pedlar, snatching a musket, felled him to the ground with the butt. The
+scattered Whig party hurried up to support their leader. In the scuffle,
+Edward's horse was shot, and he himself somewhat bruised in falling.
+Whereupon some of the Highlanders took him by the arms, and
+half-supported, half-carried him away from the highroad, leaving the
+unconscious Gifted still stretched on the ground. The Westlanders, thus
+deprived of a leader, did not even attempt a pursuit, but contented
+themselves with sending a few dropping shots after the Highlanders,
+which, of course, did nobody any harm.
+
+They carried Edward fully two miles, and it was not till they reached
+the deep covert of a distant glen that they stopped with their burden.
+Edward spoke to them repeatedly, but the only answer he got was that
+they "had no English." Even the mention of the name of Vich Ian Vohr,
+which he had hitherto regarded as a talisman, produced no response.
+
+Moreover, Edward could see from the tartans of his captors that they
+were not of the Clan Ivor. Nor did the hut, into which they presently
+conveyed our hero, reveal any more. Edward was placed in a large bed,
+planked all round, and after his bruises were attended to by an old
+woman, the sliding panel was shut upon him. A kind of fever set his
+ideas wandering, and sometimes he fancied that he heard the voice of
+Flora Mac-Ivor speaking in the hut without. He tried to push back the
+panel, but the inmates had secured it on the outside with a large nail.
+
+Waverley remained some time in these narrow quarters, ministered to by
+the old woman and at intervals hearing the same gentle girlish voice
+speaking outside, without, however, ever being able to see its owner. At
+last, after several days, two of the Highlanders who had first captured
+him returned, and by signs informed him that he must get ready to follow
+them immediately.
+
+At this news Edward, thoroughly tired of his confinement, rejoiced, and,
+upon rising, found himself sufficiently well to travel. He was seated in
+the smoky cottage quietly waiting the signal for departure, when he felt
+a touch on his arm, and, turning, he found himself face to face with
+Alice, the daughter of Donald Bean Lean. With a quick movement she
+showed him the edges of a bundle of papers which she as swiftly
+concealed. She then laid her finger on her lips, and glided away to
+assist old Janet, his nurse, in packing his saddle-bags. With the tail
+of his eye, however, Edward saw the girl fold the papers among his linen
+without being observed by the others. This being done, she took no
+further notice of him whatever, except that just at the last, as she was
+leaving the cottage, she turned round and gave him a smile and nod of
+farewell.
+
+The tall Highlander who was to lead the party now made Edward understand
+that there was considerable danger on the way. He must follow without
+noise, and do exactly as he was bidden. A steel pistol and a broadsword
+were given him for use in case of attack. The party had not been long
+upon its night journeying, moving silently along through the woods and
+copses in Indian file, before Edward found that there was good reason
+for this precaution.
+
+At no great distance he heard the cry of an English sentinel, "All's
+well!" Again and again the cry was taken up by other sentries till the
+sound was lost in the distance. The enemy was very near, but the trained
+senses of the Highlanders in their own rugged country were more than a
+match for the discipline of the regulars.
+
+A little farther on they passed a large building, with lights still
+twinkling in the windows. Presently the tall Highlander stood up and
+sniffed. Then motioning Waverley to do as he did, he began to crawl on
+all fours toward a low and ruinous sheep-fold. With some difficulty
+Edward obeyed, and with so much care was the stalk conducted, that
+presently, looking over a stone wall, he could see an outpost of five or
+six soldiers lying round their camp-fire, while in front a sentinel
+paced backward and forward, regarding the heavens and whistling _Nancy
+Dawson_ as placidly as if he were a hundred miles from any wild rebel
+Highlandmen.
+
+At that moment the moon, which up to this time had been hidden behind
+clouds, shone out clear and bright. So Edward and his Highland guide had
+perforce to remain where they were, stuck up against the dike, not
+daring to continue their journey in the full glare of light, while the
+Highlander muttered curses on "MacFarlane's lanthorn," as he called the
+moon.
+
+At last the Highlander, motioning Edward to stay where he was, began
+with infinite pains to worm his way backward on all fours, taking
+advantage of every bit of cover, lying stock-still behind a boulder
+while the sentry was looking in his direction, and again crawling
+swiftly to a more distant bush as often as he turned his back or marched
+the other way. Presently Edward lost sight of the Highlander, but before
+long he came out again at an altogether different part of the thicket,
+in full view of the sentinel, at whom he immediately fired a shot--the
+bullet wounding the soldier on the arm, stopping once and for all the
+whistling of _Nancy Dawson_.
+
+Then all the soldiers, awakened by the shot and their comrade's cry,
+advanced alertly toward the spot where the tall man had been seen. He
+had, however, retired, but continued to give them occasionally such a
+view of his figure in the open moonlight, as to lead them yet farther
+from the path.
+
+Meanwhile, taking advantage of their leader's ruse, Waverley and his
+attendants made good speed over the heather till they got behind a
+rising ground, from which, however, they could still hear the shouts of
+the pursuers, and the more distant roll of the royal drums beating to
+arms. They had not gone far before they came upon an encampment in a
+hollow. Here several Highlanders, with a horse or two, lay concealed.
+They had not arrived very long before the tall Highlander, who had led
+the soldiers such a dance, made his appearance quite out of breath, but
+laughing gayly at the ease with which he had tricked his pursuers.
+
+Edward was now mounted on a stout pony, and the whole party set forward
+at a good round pace, accompanied by the Highlanders as an escort. They
+continued without molestation all the night, till, in the morning light,
+they saw a tall old castle on the opposite bank of the river, upon the
+battlements of which they could see the plaid and targe of a Highland
+sentry, and over which floated the white banner of the exiled Stuarts.
+
+They passed through a small town, and presently were admitted into the
+courtyard of the ancient fortress, where Edward was courteously
+received by a chief in full dress and wearing a white cockade. He showed
+Waverley directly to a half-ruinous apartment where, however, there was
+a small camp bed. Here he was about to leave him, after asking him what
+refreshment he would take, when Edward, who had had enough of mysteries,
+requested that he might be told where he was.
+
+"You are in the castle of Doune, in the district of Menteith," said the
+governor of the castle, "and you are in no danger whatever. I command
+here for his Royal Highness Prince Charles."
+
+At last it seemed to Waverley as if he had reached a place of rest and
+safety. But it was not to be. On the very next day he was put in charge
+of a detachment of irregular horsemen who were making their way eastward
+to join the forces of the Prince. The leader of this band was no other
+than the Laird of Balmawhapple, who, backing words by deeds, had
+mustered his grooms and huntsmen in the cause of the Stuarts. Edward
+attempted to speak civilly to him, but found himself brutally repulsed.
+Captain Falconer of Balmawhapple had noways forgotten the shrewd pinch
+in the sword-arm which he had received from the Baron of Bradwardine in
+Waverley's quarrel.
+
+At first Edward had better luck with his Lieutenant, a certain
+horse-coper or dealer. This man had sold Balmawhapple the chargers upon
+which to mount his motley array, and seeing no chance of getting his
+money except by "going out" himself, he had accepted the post of
+Lieutenant in the Chevalier's army. So far good. But just at the moment
+when it seemed that our hero was about to get some information of a
+useful sort, Balmawhapple rode up, and demanded of his Lieutenant if he
+had not heard his orders that no one should speak to the prisoner.
+
+After that they marched in silence, till, as the little company of
+adventurers was passing Stirling Castle, Balmawhapple must needs sound
+his trumpet and display his white banner. This bravado, considerably to
+that gentleman's discomfiture, was answered at once by a burst of smoke
+from the Castle, and the next moment a cannon-ball knocked up the earth
+a few feet from the Captain's charger, and covered Balmawhapple himself
+with dirt and stones. An immediate retreat of the command took place
+without having been specially ordered.
+
+As they approached Edinburgh, they could see that white wreaths of smoke
+circled the Castle. The cannonade rolled continuously. Balmawhapple,
+however, warned by what had happened at Stirling, gave the Castle a wide
+berth, and finally, without having entered the city, he delivered up
+his prisoner at the door of the ancient palace of Holyrood.
+
+And so, for the time being, Edward's adventures in the wild Highlands
+were ended.
+
+
+INTERLUDE OF STICKING-PLASTER
+
+    This time the children were frankly delighted.
+
+    "It's just like _Kidnapped_, father," cried Hugh
+    John, more truly than he dreamed of, "there's the
+    Flight through the Heather, you remember, and the
+    tall man is Allan Breck, heading off the soldiers
+    after the Red Fox was shot. There was a sentinel
+    that whistled, too--Allan heard him when he was
+    fishing, and learned the tune--oh, and a lot of
+    things the same!"
+
+    "I like the part best where Alice Bean gives him
+    the papers," said Sweetheart; "perhaps she was in
+    love with him, too."
+
+    "Pshaw!" cried Toady Lion; "much good that did him.
+    He never even got them looked at. But it was a pity
+    that he did not get a chance at a King George
+    soldier with that lovely sword and steel pistol.
+    The Highlanders had all the luck."
+
+    "I would have banged it off anyway," declared Hugh
+    John; "fancy carrying a pistol like that all the
+    way, scouting and going Indian file, and never
+    getting a shot at anybody!"
+
+    "What I want to know," said Sweetheart, dreamily,
+    "is why they all thought Edward a traitor. I
+    believe the papers that Alice Bean Lean put in his
+    bag would reveal the secret, if Waverley only had
+    time to read them."
+
+    "Him," said Sir Toady, naturally suspicious of all
+    girls' heroes, "why, he's always falling down and
+    getting put to bed. Then somebody has to nurse
+    him. Why doesn't he go out and fight, like Fergus
+    Mac-Ivor? Then perhaps Flora would have him; though
+    what he wanted her for--a girl--I don't know. She
+    could only play harps and--make poetry."
+
+    So with this bitter scorn for the liberal arts,
+    they all rushed off to enact the whole story, the
+    tale-teller consenting, as occasion required, to
+    take the parts of the wounded smith, the stern
+    judge, or the Cameronian Captain. Hugh John
+    hectored insufferably as Waverley. Sir Toady
+    scouted and stalked as the tall Highlander, whom he
+    refused to regard as anybody but Allan Breck.
+    Sweetheart moved gently about as Alice
+    Bean--preparing breakfast was quite in her
+    line--while Maid Margaret, wildly excited, ran
+    hither and thither as a sort of impartial chorus,
+    warning all and sundry of the movements of the
+    enemy.
+
+    I saw her last, seated on a knoll and calling out
+    "Bang" at the pitch of her voice. She was, she
+    explained, nothing less imposing than the castle of
+    Edinburgh itself, cannonading the ranks of the
+    Pretender. While far away, upon wooden chargers,
+    Balmawhapple's cavalry curvetted on the slopes of
+    Arthur's Seat and cracked vain pistols at the
+    frowning fortress. There was, in fact, all through
+    the afternoon, a great deal of imagination loose in
+    our neighbourhood. And even far into the gloaming
+    sounds of battle, boastful recriminations, the
+    clash of swords, the trample and rally of the heavy
+    charge, even the cries of the genuinely wounded,
+    came fitfully from this corner and that of the wide
+    shrubberies.
+
+    And when all was over, as they sat reunited, Black
+    Hanoverian and White Cockade, victor and
+    vanquished, in the kindly truce of the
+    supper-table, Hugh John delivered his verdict.
+
+    "That's the best tale you have told us yet. Every
+    man of us needed to have sticking-plaster put on
+    when we came in--even Sweetheart!"
+
+    Than which, of course, nothing _could_ have been
+    more satisfactory.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIFTH TALE FROM "WAVERLEY"
+
+
+THE WHITE COCKADE
+
+IT was Fergus Mac-Ivor himself who welcomed Edward within the palace of
+Holyrood, where the adventurous Prince now kept his court.
+
+Hardly would he allow Edward even to ask news of Flora, before carrying
+him off into the presence-chamber to be presented. Edward was deeply
+moved by the Chevalier's grace and dignity, as well as moved by the
+reception he received. The Prince praised the deeds of his ancestors,
+and called upon him to emulate them. He also showed him a proclamation
+in which his name was mentioned along with those of the other rebels as
+guilty of high treason. Edward's heart was melted. This princely
+kindness, so different from the treatment which he had received at the
+hands of the English government, the direct appeal of the handsome and
+gallant young Chevalier, perhaps also the thought of pleasing Flora in
+the only way open to him, all overwhelmed the young man, so that, with a
+sudden burst of resolve, he knelt down and devoted his life and his
+sword to the cause of King James.
+
+The Prince raised and embraced Waverley, and in a few words confided to
+him that the English general, having declined battle and gone north to
+Aberdeen, had brought his forces back to Dunbar by sea. Here it was the
+Prince's instant intention to attack him.
+
+Before taking leave he presented Edward with the splendid silver-hilted
+sword which he wore, itself an heirloom of the Stuarts. Then he gave him
+over into the hands of Fergus Mac-Ivor, who forthwith proceeded to make
+Waverley into a true son of Ivor by arraying him in the tartan of the
+clan, with plaid floating over his shoulder and buckler glancing upon
+his arm.
+
+Soon after came the Baron of Bradwardine, anxious about the honour of
+his young friend Edward. He said that he desired to know the truth as
+to the manner in which Captain Waverley had lost his commission in
+Colonel Gardiner's dragoons,--so that, if he should hear his honour
+called in question, he might be able to defend it,--which, no doubt, he
+would have performed as stoutly and loyally as he had previously done
+upon the sulky person of the Laird of Balmawhapple.
+
+The morrow was to be a day of battle. But it was quite in keeping with
+the gay character of the adventurer-prince, that the evening should be
+spent in a hall in the ancient palace of Holyrood. Here Edward, in his
+new full dress as a Highlander and a son of Ivor, shone as the
+handsomest and the boldest of all. And this, too, in spite of the marked
+coldness with which Flora treated him. But to make amends, Rose
+Bradwardine, close by her friend's side, watched him with a sigh on her
+lip, and colour on her cheek--yet with a sort of pride, too, that she
+should have been the first to discover what a gallant and soldierly
+youth he was. Jacobite or Hanoverian, she cared not. At Tully-Veolan or
+at a court ball, she was equally proud of Edward Waverley.
+
+
+Next morning our hero was awakened by the screaming of the warpipes
+outside his bedroom, and Callum Beg, his attendant, informed him that
+he would have to hurry if he wished to come up with Fergus and the Clan
+Ivor, who had marched out with the Prince when the morning was yet grey.
+
+Thus spurred, Edward proved himself no laggard. On they went, threading
+their way through the ranks of the Highland army, now getting mixed up
+with Balmawhapple's horsemen, who, careless of discipline, went spurring
+through the throng amid the curses of the Highlanders. For the first
+time Edward saw with astonishment that more than half the clansmen were
+poorly armed, many with only a scythe on a pole or a sword without a
+scabbard, while some for a weapon had nothing better than their dirks,
+or even a stake pulled out of the hedge. Then it was that Edward, who
+hitherto had only seen the finest and best armed men whom Fergus could
+place in the field, began to harbour doubts as to whether this
+unmilitary array could defeat a British army, and win the crown of three
+kingdoms for the young Prince with whom he had rashly cast in his lot.
+
+[Illustration: "ROSE BRADWARDINE, close by her friend's side, watched
+him with a sigh on her lip, and colour on her cheek--yet with a sort of
+pride, too, that she should have been the first to discover what a
+gallant and soldierly youth he was."]
+
+But his dismal and foreboding thoughts were quickly changed to pride
+when whole Clan Ivor received him with a unanimous shout and the braying
+of their many warpipes.
+
+"Why," said one of a neighbouring clan, "you greet the young Sassenach
+as if he were the Chief himself!"
+
+"If he be not Bran, he is Bran's brother!" replied Evan Dhu, who was now
+very grand under the name of Ensign Maccombich.
+
+"Oh, then," replied the other, "that will doubtless be the young English
+duinhe-wassel who is to be married to the Lady Flora?"
+
+"That may be or that may not be," retorted Evan, grimly; "it is no
+matter of yours or mine, Gregor."
+
+The march continued--first by the shore toward Musselburgh and then
+along the top of a little hill which looked out seaward. While marching
+thus, news came that Bradwardine's horse had had a skirmish with the
+enemy, and had sent in some prisoners.
+
+Almost at the same moment from a sort of stone shed (called a sheep
+smearing-house) Edward heard a voice which, as if in agony, tried to
+repeat snatches of the Lord's Prayer. He stopped. It seemed as if he
+knew that voice.
+
+He entered, and found in the corner a wounded man lying very near to
+death. It was no other than Houghton, the sergeant of his own troop, to
+whom he had written to send him the books. At first he did not recognise
+Edward in his Highland dress. But as soon as he was assured that it
+really was his master who stood beside him, he moaned out, "Oh, why did
+you leave us, Squire?" Then in broken accents he told how a certain
+pedlar called Ruffin had shown them letters from Edward, advising them
+to rise in mutiny.
+
+"Ruffin!" said Edward, "I know nothing of any such man. You have been
+vilely imposed upon, Houghton."
+
+"Indeed," said the dying man, "I often thought so since. And we did not
+believe till he showed us your very seal. So Tims was shot, and I was
+reduced to the ranks."
+
+Not long after uttering these words, poor Houghton breathed his last,
+praying his young master to be kind to his old father and mother at
+Waverley-Honour, and not to fight with these wild petticoat men against
+old England.
+
+The words cut Edward to the heart, but there was no time for sentiment
+or regret. The army of the Prince was fast approaching the foe. The
+English regiments came marching out to meet them along the open shore,
+while the Highlanders took their station on the higher ground to the
+south. But a morass separated the combatants, and though several
+skirmishes took place on the flanks, the main fighting had to be put off
+till another day. That night both sides slept on their arms, Fergus and
+Waverley joining their plaids to make a couch, on which they lay, with
+Callum Beg watching at their heads.
+
+Before three, they were summoned to the presence of the Prince. They
+found him giving his final directions to the chiefs. A guide had been
+found who would guide the army across the morass. They would then turn
+the enemy's flank, and after that the Highland yell and the Highland
+claymore must do the rest.
+
+The mist of the morning was still rolling thick through the hollow
+between the armies when Clan Ivor got the word to charge. Prestonpans
+was no midnight surprise. The English army, regularly ranked, stood
+ready, waiting. But their cavalry, suddenly giving way, proved
+themselves quite unable to withstand the furious onslaught of the
+Highlanders. Edward charged with the others, and was soon in the
+thickest of the fray. It happened that while fighting on the battle
+line, he was able to save the life of a distinguished English officer,
+who, with the hilt of his broken sword yet in his hand, stood by the
+artillery from which the gunners had run away, disdaining flight and
+waiting for death. The victory of the Highlanders was complete. Edward
+even saw his old commander, Colonel Gardiner, struck down, yet was
+powerless to save him. But long after, the reproach in the eyes of the
+dying soldier haunted him. Yet it expressed more sorrow than
+anger--sorrow to see him in such a place and in such a dress.
+
+But this was soon forgotten when the prisoner he had taken, and whom the
+policy of the Prince committed to his care and custody, declared himself
+as none other than Colonel Talbot, his uncle's dearest and most intimate
+friend. He informed Waverley that on his return from abroad he had found
+both Sir Everard and his brother in custody on account of Edward's
+reported treason. He had, therefore, immediately started for Scotland to
+endeavour to bring back the truant. He had seen Colonel Gardiner, and
+had found him, after having made a less hasty inquiry into the mutiny
+of Edward's troop, much softened toward the young man. All would have
+come right, concluded Colonel Talbot, had it not been for our hero's
+joining openly with the rebels in their mad venture.
+
+Edward was smitten to the heart when he heard of his uncle's sufferings,
+believing that they were on his account. But he was somewhat comforted
+when Colonel Talbot told him that through his influence Sir Everard had
+been allowed out under heavy bail, and that Mr. Richard Waverley was
+with him at Waverley-Honour.
+
+Yet more torn with remorse was Edward when, having once more arrived in
+Edinburgh, he found at last the leather valise which contained the
+packet of letters Alice Bean Lean had placed among his linen. From these
+he learned that Colonel Gardiner had thrice written to him, once indeed
+sending the letter by one of the men of Edward's own troop, who had been
+instructed by the pedlar to go back and tell the Colonel that his
+officer had received them in person. Instead of being delivered to
+Waverley, the letters had been given to a certain Mr. William Ruffin, or
+Riven, or Ruthven, whom Waverley saw at once could be none other than
+Donald Bean Lean himself. Then all at once remembering the business of
+the robber cave, he understood the loss of his seal, and poor Houghton's
+dying reproach that he should not have left the lads of his troop so
+long by themselves.
+
+Edward now saw clearly how in a moment of weakness he had made a great
+and fatal mistake by joining with the Jacobites. But his sense of honour
+was such that in spite of all Colonel Talbot could say, he would not go
+back on his word. His own hastiness, the clever wiles of Fergus
+Mac-Ivor, Flora's beauty, and most of all the rascality of Donald Bean
+Lean had indeed brought his neck, as old Major Melville had prophesied,
+within the compass of the hangman's rope.
+
+The best Edward could now do was to send a young soldier of his troop,
+who had been taken at Prestonpans, to his uncle and his father with
+letters explaining all the circumstances. By Colonel Talbot's advice and
+help this messenger was sent aboard one of the English vessels cruising
+in the Firth, well furnished with passes which would carry him in safety
+all the way to Waverley-Honour.
+
+Still the days went by, and nothing was done. Still the Prince halted in
+Edinburgh waiting for reinforcements which never came. He was always
+hopeful that more clans would declare for him or that other forces would
+be raised in the Lowlands or in England. And meanwhile, chiefly because
+in the city there was nothing for them to do, plans and plots were being
+formed. Quarrellings and jealousies became the order of the day among
+the troops of the White Cockade. One morning Fergus Mac-Ivor came in to
+Edward's lodgings, furious with anger because the Prince had refused him
+two requests,--one, to make good his right to be an Earl, and the other,
+to give his consent to his marriage with Rose Bradwardine. Fergus must
+wait for the first, the Prince had told him, because that would offend a
+chief of his own name and of greater power, who was still hesitating
+whether or not to declare for King James. As for Rose Bradwardine,
+neither must he think of her. Her affections were already engaged. The
+Prince knew this privately, and, indeed, had promised already to favour
+the match upon which her heart was set.
+
+As for Edward himself, he began about this time to think less and less
+of the cruelty of Flora Mac-Ivor. He could not have the moon, that was
+clear--and he was not a child to go on crying for it. It was evident,
+also, that Rose Bradwardine liked him, and her marked favour, and her
+desire to be with him, had their effect upon a heart still sore from
+Flora's repeated and haughty rejections.
+
+One of the last things Edward was able to do in Edinburgh, was to obtain
+from the Prince the release of Colonel Talbot, whom he saw safely on his
+way to London from the port of Leith. After that it was with actual
+relief that Edward found the period of waiting in Edinburgh at last at
+an end, and the Prince's army to the number of six thousand men marching
+southward into England. All was now to be hazarded on the success of a
+bold push for London.
+
+The Highlanders easily escaped a superior army encamped on the borders.
+They attacked and took Carlisle on their way, and at first it seemed as
+if they had a clear path to the capital before them. Fergus, who marched
+with his clan in the van of the Prince's army, never questioned their
+success for a moment. But Edward's clearer eye and greater knowledge of
+the odds made no such mistake.
+
+He saw that few joined them, and those men of no great weight, while all
+the time the forces of King George were daily increasing. Difficulties
+of every kind arose about them the farther they marched from their
+native land. Added to which there were quarrels and dissensions among
+the Prince's followers, those between his Irish officers and such
+Highland chiefs as Fergus being especially bitter.
+
+Even to Edward, Fergus became fierce and sullen, quite unlike his former
+gay and confident self. It was about Flora that the quarrel, long
+smouldering, finally broke into flame. As they passed this and that
+country-seat, Fergus would always ask if the house were as large as
+Waverley-Honour, and whether the estate or the deer park were of equal
+size. Edward had usually to reply that they were not nearly so great.
+Whereupon Fergus would remark that in that case Flora would be a happy
+woman.
+
+"But," said Waverley, who tired of the implied obligation, "you forget
+Miss Flora has refused me, not once, but many times. I am therefore
+reluctantly compelled to resign all claims upon her hand."
+
+At this, Fergus thought fit to take offence, saying that having once
+made application for Flora's hand, Waverley had no right to withdraw
+from his offer without the consent of her guardian. Edward replied that
+so far as he was concerned, the matter was at an end. He would never
+press himself upon any lady who had repeatedly refused him.
+
+Whereupon, Fergus turned away furiously, and the quarrel was made.
+Edward betook himself to the camp of his old friend, the Baron, and, as
+he remembered the instruction he had received in the dragoons, he became
+easily a leader and a great favourite among the Lowland cavalry which
+followed the old soldier Bradwardine.
+
+But he had left seeds of bitter anger behind him in the camp of the
+proud clan he had quitted.
+
+Some of the Lowland officers warned him of his danger, and Evan Dhu, the
+Chief's foster-brother--who, ever since the visit to the cave had taken
+a liking to Edward--waited for him secretly in a shady place and bade
+him beware. The truth was that the Clan Mac-Ivor had taken it into their
+heads that Edward had somehow slighted their Lady Flora. They saw that
+the Chief's brow was dark against Edward, and therefore he became all at
+once fair game for a bullet or a stab in the dark.
+
+And the first of these was not long in arriving.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    And here (I concluded) is the end of the fifth
+    tale.
+
+    "Go on--oh--go on!" shouted all the four listeners
+    in chorus; "we don't want to play or to talk, just
+    now. We want to know what happened."
+
+    "Very well, then," said I, "then the next story
+    shall be called 'Black Looks and Bright Swords.'"
+
+    Carrying out which resolve we proceeded at once to
+    the telling of
+
+
+
+
+THE SIXTH TALE FROM "WAVERLEY"
+
+
+BLACK LOOKS AND BRIGHT SWORDS
+
+IT was in the dusk of an avenue that Evan Dhu had warned Waverley to
+beware, and ere he had reached the end of the long double line of trees,
+a pistol cracked in the covert, and a bullet whistled close past his
+ear.
+
+"There he is," cried Edward's attendant, a stout Merseman of the
+Baron's troop; "it's that devil's brat, Callum Beg."
+
+And Edward, looking through the trees, could make out a figure running
+hastily in the direction of the camp of the Mac-Ivors.
+
+Instantly Waverley turned his horse, and rode straight up to Fergus.
+
+"Colonel Mac-Ivor," he said, without any attempt at salutation, "I have
+to inform you that one of your followers has just attempted to murder me
+by firing upon me from a lurking-place."
+
+"Indeed!" said the Chief, haughtily; "well, as that, save in the matter
+of the lurking-place, is a pleasure I presently propose for myself, I
+should be glad to know which of my clansmen has dared to anticipate me."
+
+"I am at your service when you will, sir," said Edward, with equal
+pride, "but in the meantime the culprit was your page, Callum Beg."
+
+"Stand forth, Callum Beg," cried Vich Ian Vohr; "did you fire at Mr.
+Waverley?"
+
+"No," said the unblushing Callum.
+
+"You did," broke in Edward's attendant, "I saw you as plain as ever I
+saw Coudingham kirk!"
+
+"You lie!" returned Callum, not at all put out by the accusation. But
+his Chief demanded Callum's pistol. The hammer was down. The pan and
+muzzle were black with smoke, the barrel yet warm. It had that moment
+been fired.
+
+"Take that!" cried the Chief, striking the boy full on the head with the
+metal butt; "take that, for daring to act without orders and then lying
+to disguise it."
+
+Callum made not the slightest attempt to escape the blow, and fell as if
+he had been slain on the spot.
+
+"And now, Mr. Waverley," said the Chief, "be good enough to turn your
+horse twenty yards with me out upon the common. I have a word to say to
+you."
+
+Edward did so, and as soon as they were alone, Fergus fiercely charged
+him with having thrown aside his sister Flora in order to pay his court
+to Rose Bradwardine, whom, as he knew, Fergus had chosen for his own
+bride.
+
+"It was the Prince--the Prince himself who told me!" added Fergus,
+noticing the astonishment on Edward's face.
+
+"Did the Prince tell you that I was engaged to Miss Rose Bradwardine?"
+cried Edward.
+
+"He did--this very morning," shouted Fergus; "he gave it as a reason for
+a second time refusing my request. So draw and defend yourself, or
+resign once and forever all claims to the lady."
+
+"In such a matter I will not be dictated to by you or any man living!"
+retorted Waverley, growing angry in his turn.
+
+In a moment swords were out and a fierce combat was beginning, when a
+number of Bradwardine's cavalry, who being Lowlanders were always at
+feud with the Highlandmen, rode hastily up, calling on their companions
+to follow. They had heard that there was a chance of a fight between
+their corps and the Highlanders. Nothing would have pleased them
+better. The Baron himself threatened that unless the Mac-Ivors returned
+to their ranks, he would charge them, while they on their side pointed
+their guns at him and his Lowland cavalry.
+
+A cry that the Prince was approaching alone prevented bloodshed. The
+Highlanders returned to their places. The cavalry dressed its ranks. It
+was indeed the Chevalier who arrived. His first act was to get one of
+his French officers, the Count of Beaujeu, to set the regiment of
+Mac-Ivors and the Lowland cavalry again upon the road. He knew that the
+Count's broken English would put them all in better humour, while he
+himself remained to make the peace between Fergus and Waverley.
+
+Outwardly the quarrel was soon made up. Edward explained that he had no
+claims whatever to be considered as engaged to Rose Bradwardine or any
+one else, while Fergus sulkily agreed that it was possible he had made a
+mistake. The Prince made them shake hands, which they did with the air
+of two dogs whom only the presence of the master kept from flying at
+each other's throats. Then after calming the Clan Mac-Ivor and riding
+awhile with the Baron's Lowland cavalry, the Prince returned to the
+Count of Beaujeu, saying with a sigh, as he reined his charger beside
+him, "Ah, my friend, believe me this business of prince-errant is no bed
+of roses!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was not long before the poor Prince had a further proof of this fact.
+
+On the 5th of December, after a council at Derby, the Highland chiefs,
+disappointed that the country did not rally about them, and that the
+government forces were steadily increasing on all sides, compelled the
+Prince to fall back toward Scotland. Fergus Mac-Ivor fiercely led the
+opposition to any retreat. He would win the throne for his Prince, or if
+he could not, then he and every son of Ivor would lay down their lives.
+That was his clear and simple plan of campaign. But he was easily
+overborne by numbers, and when he found himself defeated in council, he
+shed actual tears of grief and mortification. From that moment Vich Ian
+Vohr was an altered man.
+
+Since the day of the quarrel Edward had seen nothing of him. It was,
+therefore, with great surprise that he saw Fergus one evening enter his
+lodgings and invite him to take a walk with him. The Chieftain smiled
+sadly as he saw his old friend take down his sword and buckle it on.
+There was a great change in the appearance of Vich Ian Vohr. His cheek
+was hollow. His eye burned as if with fever.
+
+As soon as the two young men had reached a beautiful and solitary glen,
+Fergus began to tell Edward that he had found out how wrongheaded and
+rash he had been in the matter of their quarrel. "Flora writes me,"
+continued Fergus, "that she never had, and never could have, the least
+intention of giving you any encouragement. I acted hastily--like a
+madman!"
+
+Waverley hastily entreated him to let all be forgotten, and the two
+comrades-in-arms shook hands, this time heartily and sincerely.
+
+Notwithstanding, the gloom on the Chief's brow was scarcely lightened.
+He even besought Waverley to betake himself at once out of the kingdom
+by an eastern port, to marry Rose Bradwardine, and to take Flora with
+him as a companion to Rose, and also for her own protection.
+
+Edward was astonished at this complete change in Fergus.
+
+"What!" he cried, "abandon the expedition on which we have all
+embarked?"
+
+"Embarked," answered the Chief, bitterly; "why, man, the expedition is
+going to pieces! It is time for all those who can, to get ashore in the
+longboat!"
+
+"And what," said Edward, "are the other Highland chiefs going to do?"
+
+"Oh, the chiefs," said Fergus, contemptuously, "they think that all the
+heading and hanging will, as before, fall to the lot of the Lowlands,
+and that they will be left alone in their poor and barren Highlands, to
+'listen to the wind on the hill till the waters abate.' But they will be
+disappointed. The government will make sure work this time, and leave
+not a clan in all the Highlands able to do them hurt. As for me, it will
+not matter. I shall either be dead or taken by this time to-morrow. I
+have seen the _Bodach Glas_--the Grey Spectre."
+
+Edward looked the surprise he did not speak.
+
+"Why!" continued Fergus, in a low voice, "were you so long about
+Glennaquoich and yet never heard of the Bodach Glas? The story is well
+known to every son of Ivor. I will tell it you in a word. My forefather,
+Ian nan Chaistel, wasted part of England along with a Lowland chief
+named Halbert Hall. After passing the Cheviots on their way back, they
+quarrelled about the dividing of the spoil, and from words came speedily
+to blows. In the fight, the Lowlanders were cut off to the last man, and
+their leader fell to my ancestor's sword. But ever since that day the
+dead man's spirit has crossed the Chief of Clan Ivor on the eve of any
+great disaster. My father saw him twice, once before he was taken
+prisoner at Sheriff-Muir, and once again on the morning of the day on
+which he died."
+
+Edward cried out against such superstition.
+
+"How can you," he said, "you who have seen the world, believe such
+child's nonsense as that?"
+
+"Listen," said the Chief, "here are the facts, and you can judge for
+yourself. Last night I could not sleep for thinking on the downfall of
+all my hopes for the cause, for the Prince, for the clan--so, after
+lying long awake, I stepped out into the frosty air. I had crossed a
+small foot-bridge, and was walking backward and forward, when I saw,
+clear before me in the moonlight, a tall man wrapped in a grey plaid,
+such as the shepherds wear. The figure kept regularly about four yards
+from me."
+
+"That is an easy riddle," exclaimed Edward; "why, my dear Fergus, what
+you saw was no more than a Cumberland peasant in his ordinary dress!"
+
+"So I thought at first," answered Fergus, "and I was astonished at the
+man's audacity in daring to dog me. I called to him, but got no answer.
+I felt my heart beating quickly, and to find out what I was afraid of, I
+turned and faced first north, and then south, east, and west. Each way I
+turned, I saw the grey figure before my eyes at precisely the same
+distance! Then I knew I had seen the Bodach Glas. My hair stood up, and
+so strong an impression of awe came upon me that I resolved to return to
+my quarters. As I went, the spirit glided steadily before me, till we
+came to the narrow bridge, where it turned and stood waiting for me. I
+could not wade the stream. I could not bring myself to turn back. So,
+making the sign of the cross, I drew my sword and cried aloud, 'In the
+name of God, Evil Spirit, give place!'
+
+"'_Vich Ian Vohr_,' it said in a dreadful voice, '_beware of
+to-morrow!_'
+
+"It was then within half a yard of my sword's point, but as the words
+were uttered it was gone. There was nothing either on the bridge or on
+the way home. All is over. I am doomed. I have seen the Bodach Glas,
+the curse of my house."
+
+[Illustration: "THE spirit glided steadily before me, till we came to
+the narrow bridge, where it turned and stood waiting for me. I could not
+wade the stream. I could not bring myself to turn back. So, making the
+sign of the cross, I drew my sword and cried aloud, 'In the name of God,
+Evil Spirit, give place!'
+
+"'_Vich Ian Vohr_,' it said in a dreadful voice, '_beware of
+to-morrow!_'"]
+
+Edward could think of nothing to say in reply. His friend's belief in
+the reality of the vision was too strong. He could only ask to be
+allowed to march once more with the sons of Ivor, who occupied the post
+of danger in the rear. Edward easily obtained the Baron's leave to do
+so, and when the Clan Mac-Ivor entered the village, he joined them, once
+more arm in arm with their Chieftain. At the sight, all the Mac-Ivors'
+ill feeling was blown away in a moment. Evan Dhu received him with a
+grin of pleasure. And the imp Callum, with a great patch on his head,
+appeared particularly delighted to see him.
+
+But Waverley's stay with the Clan Ivor was not to be long. The enemy was
+continually harassing their flanks, and the rear-guard had to keep
+lining hedges and dikes in order to beat them off. Night was already
+falling on the day which Fergus had foretold would be his last, when in
+a chance skirmish of outposts the Chief with a few followers found
+himself surrounded by a strong attacking force of dragoons. A swift eddy
+of the battle threw Edward out to one side. The cloud of night lifted,
+and he saw Evan Dhu and a few others, with the Chieftain in their midst,
+desperately defending themselves against a large number of dragoons who
+were hewing at them with their swords. It was quite impossible for
+Waverley to break through to their assistance. Night shut down
+immediately, and he found it was equally impossible for him to rejoin
+the retreating Highlanders, whose warpipes he could still hear in the
+distance.
+
+
+INTERLUDE OF BREVITY
+
+    The _Bodach Glas_ held the children. The brilliant
+    sunshine of the High Garden in which they had
+    listened to the tale became instantly palest
+    moonlight, and between them and the strawberry bed
+    they saw the filmy plaid of the Grey Spectre of the
+    House of Ivor. It had been helpful and even
+    laudable to play-act the chief scenes when the
+    story was beginning, but now they had no time. It
+    would have been an insult to the interest of the
+    narrative.
+
+    Doubtless, if they had had the book, they would
+    have _skipped_, to know "how it all ended." But it
+    was time for the evening walk. So, instead of
+    stringing themselves out along the way as was their
+    custom, seeing if the raspberry bushes had grown
+    any taller since the morning, the four collected in
+    a close swarm about the tale-teller, like bees
+    about an emigrant queen.
+
+    "You must tell us the rest--you _must!_" they said,
+    linking arms about my waist to prevent any attempt
+    at an evasion of such just demands.
+
+    So, being secretly no little pleased with their
+    eagerness, I launched out upon the conclusion of
+    the whole matter--which showed, among other things,
+    how Waverley-Honour was more honoured than ever and
+    the Blessed Bear of Bradwardine threefold blessed.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST TALE FROM "WAVERLEY"
+
+
+THE BARON'S SURPRISE
+
+AFTER wandering about for some time Edward came unexpectedly upon a
+hamlet. Lights gleamed down the street, and Edward could hear loud
+voices and the tramp of horses. The sound of shouted orders and
+soldiers' oaths soon told him that he was in great danger. For these
+were English troops, and if they caught him in his Mac-Ivor tartan,
+would assuredly give him short shrift and a swift bullet.
+
+Lingering a moment uncertainly near the gate of a small garden
+enclosure, he felt himself caught by gentle hands and drawn toward a
+house.
+
+"Come, Ned," said a low voice, "the dragoons are down the village, and
+they will do thee a mischief. Come with me into feyther's!"
+
+Judging this to be very much to the purpose, Edward followed, but when
+the girl saw the tall figure in tartans instead of the sweetheart she
+had expected, she dropped the candle she had lighted, and called out for
+her father.
+
+A stout Westmoreland peasant at once appeared, poker in hand, and
+presently Edward found himself not ill received--by the daughter on
+account of a likeness to her lover (so she said) and by the father
+because of a certain weakness for the losing side. So, in the house of
+Farmer Jopson, Edward slept soundly that night, in spite of the dangers
+which surrounded him on every side. In the morning the true Edward,
+whose name turned out to be Ned Williams, was called in to consult with
+father and daughter. It seemed impossible for Edward to go north to
+rejoin the Prince's forces. They had evacuated Penrith and marched away
+toward Carlisle. The whole intervening country was covered by scouting
+parties of government horsemen. Whereupon Ned Williams, who wished above
+all things to rid the house of his handsome namesake, lest his
+sweetheart Cicely should make other mistakes, offered to get Waverley a
+change of clothes, and to conduct him to his father's farm near
+Ulswater. Neither old Jopson nor his daughter would accept a farthing of
+money for saving Waverley's life. A hearty handshake paid one; a kiss,
+the other. And so it was not long before Ned Williams was introducing
+our hero to his family, in the character of a young clergyman who was
+detained in the north by the unsettled state of the country.
+
+On their way into Cumberland they passed the field of battle where
+Edward had lost sight of Fergus. Many bodies still lay upon the face of
+the moorland, but that of Vich Ian Vohr was not among them, and Edward
+passed on with some hope that in spite of the _Bodach Glas_, Fergus
+might have escaped his doom. They found Callum Beg, however, his tough
+skull cloven at last by a dragoon's sword, but there was no sign either
+of Evan or of his Chieftain.
+
+In the secure shelter of good Farmer Williams's house among the hills,
+it was Edward's lot to remain somewhat longer than he intended. In the
+first place, it was wholly impossible to move for ten days, owing to a
+great fall of snow. Then he heard how that the Prince had retreated
+farther into Scotland, how Carlisle had been besieged and taken by the
+English, and that the whole north was covered by the hosts of the Duke
+of Cumberland and General Wade.
+
+But in the month of January it happened that the clergyman who came to
+perform the ceremony at the wedding of Ned Williams and Cicely Jopson,
+brought with him a newspaper which he showed to Edward. In it Waverley
+read with astonishment a notice of his father's death in London, and of
+the approaching trial of Sir Everard for high treason--unless (said the
+report) Edward Waverley, son of the late Richard Waverley, and heir to
+the baronet, should in the meantime surrender himself to justice.
+
+It was with an aching anxious heart that Waverley set out by the
+northern diligence for London. He found himself in the vehicle opposite
+to an officer's wife, one Mrs. Nosebag, who tormented him all the way
+with questions, on several occasions almost finding him out, and once at
+least narrowly escaping giving him an introduction to a recruiting
+sergeant of his own regiment.
+
+However, in spite of all risks, he arrived safely under Colonel Talbot's
+roof, where he found that, though the news of his father's death was
+indeed true, yet his own conduct certainly had nothing to do with the
+matter--nor was Sir Everard in the slightest present danger.
+
+Whereupon, much relieved as to his family, Edward proclaimed his
+intention of returning to Scotland as soon as possible--not indeed to
+join with the rebels again, but for the purpose of seeking out Rose
+Bradwardine and conducting her to a place of safety.
+
+It was not, perhaps, the wisest course he might have pursued. But during
+his lonely stay at Farmer Williams's farm, Edward's heart had turned
+often and much to Rose. He could not bear to think of her alone and
+without protection. By means of a passport (which had been obtained for
+one Frank Stanley, Colonel Talbot's nephew), Waverley was able easily to
+reach Edinburgh. Here from the landlady, with whom he and Fergus had
+lodged, Edward first heard the dread news of Culloden, of the slaughter
+of the clans, the flight of the Prince, and, worst of all, how Fergus
+and Evan Dhu, captured the night of the skirmish, were presently on
+trial for their lives at Carlisle. Flora also was in Carlisle, awaiting
+the issue of the trial, while with less certainty Rose Bradwardine was
+reported to have gone back to her father's mansion of Tully-Veolan.
+Concerning the brave old Baron himself, Edward could get no news, save
+that he had fought most stoutly at Culloden, but that the government
+were particularly bitter against him because he had been '_out_'
+twice--that is, he had taken part both in the first rising of the year
+1715, and also in that which had just been put down in blood at
+Culloden.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation, Edward set off for Tully-Veolan, and
+after one or two adventures he arrived there, only to find the white
+tents of a military encampment whitening the moor above the village. The
+house itself had been sacked. Part of the stables had been burned, while
+the only living being left about the mansion of Tully-Veolan was no
+other than poor Davie Gellatley, who, chanting his foolish songs as
+usual, greeted Edward with the cheering intelligence that "_A' were dead
+and gane--Baron--Bailie--Saunders Saunderson--and Lady Rose that sang
+sae sweet!_"
+
+However, it was not long before he set off at full speed, motioning
+Waverley to follow him. The innocent took a difficult and dangerous path
+along the sides of a deep glen, holding on to bushes, rounding perilous
+corners of rock, till at last the barking of dogs directed them to the
+entrance of a wretched hovel. Here Davie's mother received Edward with a
+sullen fierceness which the young man could not understand--till, from
+behind the door, holding a pistol in his hand, unwashed, gaunt, and
+with a three weeks' beard fringing his hollow cheeks, he saw come
+forth--the Baron of Bradwardine himself.
+
+After the first gladsome greetings were over, the old man had many a
+tale to tell his young English friend. But his chief grievance was not
+his danger of the gallows, nor the discomfort of his hiding-place, but
+the evil-doing of his cousin, to whom, as it now appeared, the Barony of
+Bradwardine now belonged. Malcolm of Inch-Grabbit had, it appeared, come
+to uplift the rents of the Barony. But the country people, being
+naturally indignant that he should have so readily taken advantage of
+the misfortune of his kinsman, received him but ill. Indeed, a shot was
+fired at the new proprietor by some unknown marksman in the gloaming,
+which so frightened the heir that he fled at once to Stirling and had
+the estate promptly advertised for sale.
+
+"In addition to which," continued the old man, "though I bred him up
+from a boy, he hath spoken much against me to the great folk of the
+time, so that they have sent a company of soldiers down here to destroy
+all that belongs to me, and to hunt his own blood-kin like a partridge
+upon the mountains."
+
+"Aye," cried Janet Gellatley, "and if it had not been for my poor Davie
+there, they would have catched the partridge, too!"
+
+Then with a true mother's pride Janet told the story of how the poor
+innocent had saved his master. The Baron was compelled by the strictness
+of the watch to hide, all day and most of the nights, in a cave high up
+in a wooded glen.
+
+"A comfortable place enough," the old woman explained; "for the goodman
+of Corse-Cleugh has filled it with straw. But his Honour tires of it,
+and he comes down here whiles for a warm at the fire, or at times a
+sleep between the blankets. But once, when he was going back in the
+dawn, two of the English soldiers got a glimpse of him as he was
+slipping into the wood and banged off a gun at him. I was out on them
+like a hawk, crying if they wanted to murder a poor woman's innocent
+bairn! Whereupon they swore down my throat that they had seen 'the auld
+rebel himself,' as they called the Baron. But my Davie, that some folk
+take for a simpleton, being in the wood, caught up the old grey cloak
+that his Honour had dropped to run the quicker, and came out from among
+the trees as we were speaking, majoring and play-acting so like his
+Honour that the soldier-men were clean beguiled, and even gave me
+sixpence to say nothing about their having let off their gun at 'poor
+crack-brained Sawney,' as they named my Davie!"
+
+It was not till this long tale was ended that Waverley heard what he had
+come so far to find out--that Rose was safe in the house of a Whig
+Laird, an old friend of her father's, and that the Bailie, who had early
+left the army of the Prince, was trying his best to save something out
+of the wreck for her.
+
+The next morning Edward went off to call on Bailie Macwheeble. At first
+the man of law was not very pleased to see him, but when he learned that
+Waverley meant to ask Rose to be his wife, he flung his best wig out of
+the window and danced the Highland fling for very joy. This rejoicing
+was a little marred by the fact that Waverley was still under
+proscription. But when a messenger of the Bailie's had returned from the
+nearest post-town with a letter from Colonel Talbot, all fear on this
+account was at an end. Colonel Talbot had, though with the greatest
+difficulty, obtained royal Protections for both the Baron of Bradwardine
+and for Edward himself. There was no doubt that full pardons would
+follow in due course.
+
+Right thankfully the Baron descended from his cave, as soon as Edward
+carried him the good news, and with Davie Gellatley and his mother, all
+went down to the house of Bailie Macwheeble, where supper was
+immediately served.
+
+It was from old Janet Gellatley, Davie's mother, that Waverley learned
+whom he had to thank for rescuing him from the hands of Captain Gifted
+Gilfillan, and to whom the gentle voice belonged which had cheered him
+during his illness. It was none other than Rose Bradwardine herself. To
+her, Edward owed all. She had even given up her jewels to Donald Bean
+Lean, that he might go scatheless. She it was who had provided a nurse
+for him in the person of old Janet Gellatley herself, and lastly she had
+seen him safely on his way to Holyrood under the escort of the sulky
+Laird of Balmawhapple.
+
+So great kindness certainly required very special thanks. And Edward was
+not backward in asking the Baron for permission to accompany him to the
+house of Duchran, where Rose was at present residing. So well did Edward
+express his gratitude to Rose, that she consented to give all her life
+into his hands, that he might go on showing how thankful he was.
+
+Of course the marriage could not take place for some time, because the
+full pardons of the Baron and Edward took some time to obtain. For
+Fergus Mac-Ivor, alas, no pardon was possible. He and Evan Dhu were
+condemned to be executed for high treason at Carlisle, and all that
+Edward could do was only to promise the condemned Chieftain that he
+would be kind to the poor clansmen of Vich Ian Vohr, for the sake of his
+friend.
+
+As for Evan Dhu, he might have escaped. The Judge went the length of
+offering to show mercy, if Evan would only ask it. But when Evan Dhu was
+called upon to plead before the Court, his only request was that he
+might be permitted to go down to Glennaquoich and bring up six men to be
+hanged in the place of Vich Ian Vohr.
+
+"And," he said, "ye may begin with me the first man!"
+
+At this there was a laugh in the Court. But Evan, looking about him
+sternly, added: "If the Saxon gentlemen are laughing because a poor man
+such as me thinks my life, or the life of any six of my degree, is worth
+that of Vich Ian Vohr, they may be very right. But if they laugh because
+they think I would not keep my word, and come back to redeem him, I can
+tell them they ken neither the heart of a Hielandman nor the honour of a
+gentleman!"
+
+After these words, there was no more laughing in that Court.
+
+Nothing now could save Fergus Mac-Ivor. The government were resolved on
+his death as an example, and both he and Evan were accordingly executed,
+along with many others of the unhappy garrison of Carlisle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Edward and Rose were married from the house of Duchran, and some days
+after they started, according to the custom of the time, to spend some
+time upon an estate which Colonel Talbot had bought, as was reported, a
+very great bargain. The Baron had been persuaded to accompany them,
+taking a place of honour in their splendid coach and six, the gift of
+Sir Everard. The coach of Mr. Rubrick of Duchran came next, full of
+ladies, and many gentlemen on horseback rode with them as an escort to
+see them well on their way.
+
+At the turning of the road which led to Tully-Veolan, the Bailie met
+them. He requested the party to turn aside and accept of his hospitality
+at his house of Little Veolan. The Baron, somewhat put out, replied that
+he and his son-in-law would ride that way, but that they would not bring
+upon him the whole matrimonial procession. It was clear, however, that
+the Baron rather dreaded visiting the ancient home of his ancestors,
+which had been so lately sold by the unworthy Malcolm of Inch-Grabbit
+into the hands of a stranger. But as the Bailie insisted, and as the
+party evidently wished to accept, he could not hold out.
+
+When the Baron arrived at the avenue, he fell into a melancholy
+meditation, thinking doubtless of the days when he had taken such pride
+in the ancient Barony which had passed for ever away from the line of
+the Bradwardines. From these bitter thoughts he was awakened by the
+sight of the two huge stone bears which had been replaced over the
+gate-posts.
+
+Then down the avenue came the two great deer-hounds, Ban and Buscar,
+which had so long kept their master company in his solitude, with Daft
+Davie Gellatley dancing behind them.
+
+The Baron was then informed that the present owner of the Barony was no
+other than Colonel Talbot himself. But that if he did not care to visit
+the new owner of Bradwardine, the party would proceed to Little Veolan,
+the house of Bailie Macwheeble.
+
+Then, indeed, the Baron had need of all his greatness of mind. But he
+drew a long breath, took snuff abundantly, and remarked that as they had
+brought him so far, he would not pass the Colonel's gate, and that he
+would be happy to see the new master of his tenants. When he alighted in
+front of the Castle, the Baron was astonished to find how swiftly the
+marks of spoliation had been removed. Even the roots of the felled trees
+had disappeared. All was fair and new about the house of Tully-Veolan,
+even to the bright colours of the garb of Davie Gellatley, who ran first
+to one and then to the other of the company, passing his hands over his
+new clothes and crying, "Braw, braw Davie!"
+
+The dogs, Bran and Buscar, leaping upon him, brought tears into the
+Baron's eyes, even more than the kind welcome of Colonel Talbot's wife,
+the Lady Emily. Still more astonishing appeared the changes in the so
+lately ruined courtyard. The burned stables had been rebuilt upon a
+newer and better plan. The pigeon-house was restocked, and populous with
+fluttering wings. Even the smallest details of the garden, and the
+multitude of stone bears on the gables, had all been carefully restored
+as of old.
+
+The Baron could hardly believe his eyes, and he marvelled aloud that
+Colonel Talbot had not thought fit to replace the Bradwardine arms by
+his own. But here the Colonel, suddenly losing patience, declared that
+he would not, even to please these foolish boys, Waverley and Frank
+Stanley (and his own more foolish wife), continue to impose upon another
+old soldier. So without more ado he told the Baron that he had only
+advanced the money to buy back the Barony, and that he would leave
+Bailie Macwheeble to explain to whom the estate really belonged.
+
+Trembling with eagerness the Bailie advanced, a formidable roll of
+papers in his hand.
+
+He began triumphantly to explain that Colonel Talbot had indeed bought
+Bradwardine, but that he had immediately exchanged it for Brere-wood
+Lodge, which had been left to Edward under his father's will.
+Bradwardine had therefore returned to its ancient Lord in full and
+undisputed possession, and the Baron was once more master of all his
+hereditary powers, subject only to an easy yearly payment to his
+son-in-law.
+
+Tears were actually in the old gentleman's eyes as he went from room to
+room, so that he could scarce speak a word of welcome either to the
+guests within, or of thanks to the rejoicing farmers and cottars who,
+hearing of his return, had gathered without. The climax of his joy was,
+however, reached when the Blessed Bear of Bradwardine itself, the
+golden cup of his line, mysteriously recovered out of the spoil of the
+English army by Frank Stanley, was brought to the Baron's elbow by old
+Saunders Saunderson.
+
+Truth to tell, the recovery of this heirloom afforded the old man almost
+as much pleasure as the regaining of his Barony, and there is little
+doubt that a tear mingled with the wine, as, holding the Blessed Bear in
+his hand, the Baron solemnly proposed the healths of the united families
+of Waverley-Honour and Bradwardine.
+
+
+THE END OF THE LAST TALE FROM "WAVERLEY."
+
+
+
+
+RED CAP TALES
+
+TOLD FROM
+
+GUY MANNERING
+
+
+
+
+GUY MANNERING
+
+
+WHERE WE TOLD THE SECOND TALE
+
+SUMMER there had been none. Autumn was a mockery. The golden harvest
+fields lay prostrate under drenching floods of rain. Every burn foamed
+creamy white in the linns and sulked peaty brown in the pools. The
+heather, rich in this our Galloway as an emperor's robe, had scarce
+bloomed at all. The very bees went hungry, for the lashing rain had
+washed all the honey out of the purple bells.
+
+Nevertheless, in spite of all, we were again in Galloway--that is, the
+teller of tales and his little congregation of four. The country of _Guy
+Mannering_ spread about us, even though we could scarce see a hundred
+yards of it. The children flattened their noses against the blurred
+window-panes to look. Their eyes watered with the keen tang of the peat
+reek, till, tired with watching the squattering of ducks in farm
+puddles, they turned as usual upon the family sagaman, and demanded,
+with that militant assurance of youth which succeeds so often, that he
+should forthwith and immediately "tell them something."
+
+The tales from _Waverley_ had proved so enthralling that there was a
+general demand for "another," and Sir Toady Lion, being of an
+arithmetical turn of mind, proclaimed that there was plenty of material,
+in so much as he had counted no fewer than twenty-four "all the same"
+upon the shelf before he left home.
+
+Thus, encouraged by the dashing rain on the windows and with the low
+continual growl of Solway surf in our ears, we bent ourselves to fill a
+gap in a hopeless day by the retelling of
+
+
+
+
+A FIRST TALE FROM "GUY MANNERING"
+
+
+I. WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
+
+THROUGH storm and darkness a young Oxford scholar came to the New Place
+of Ellangowan. He had been again and again refused shelter along the
+road for himself and his tired horse, but at last he found himself
+welcomed by Godfrey Bertram, the Laird of Ellangowan, attended by
+Dominie Sampson, his faithful companion, the village schoolmaster, on
+the threshold of the great house.
+
+That very night an heir was born to the line of the Bertrams of
+Ellangowan, one of the most ancient in Galloway, and as usual the New
+Place was full of company come from far and near to make merry over the
+event. Godfrey himself, a soft, good-natured, pliable man, welcomed
+Mannering (for that was the name of the young Oxford student), and set
+him forthwith to calculating the horoscope of the babe from the stars.
+This, Mannering, to whom astrology seemed no better than child's play,
+was at first unwilling to do, until the awkward opposition of Dominie
+Sampson, as well as some curiosity to see if he could remember the terms
+of the sham-science learned in youth, caused him to consent to make the
+calculation.
+
+He was still further pushed on by the appearance of a wild gipsy woman,
+a sort of queen among the ragged wandering tribe which camped in a
+little hamlet on the Laird's estates. She entered the house singing
+shrilly a kind of ancient spell:
+
+        "Trefoil, vervain, John's wort, dill,
+         Hinder witches of their will!
+         Weel is them, that weel may
+         Fast upon Saint Andrew's day.
+         Saint Bride and her brat,
+         Saint Colme and his cat,
+         Saint Michael and his spear
+         Keep the house frae reif and weir."
+
+So sang Meg Merrilies, the gipsy, a great cudgel in her hand, and her
+dress and bearing more like those of a man than of a woman. Elf-locks
+shot up through the holes in her bonnet, and her black eyes rolled with
+a kind of madness. Soon, however, Godfrey, who evidently only half
+disbelieved in her powers as a witch, dismissed her to the kitchen with
+fair words, while Guy Mannering, whom his strange adventure had rendered
+sleepless, walked forth into the night. The vast ruins of the ancient
+castle of the Bertrams rose high and silent on the cliffs above him, but
+beneath, in the little sandy cove, lights were still moving briskly,
+though it was the dead hour of the night. A smuggler brig was disloading
+a cargo of brandy, rum, and silks, most likely, brought from the Isle of
+Man.
+
+At sight of his figure moving on the cliffs above, a voice on the shore
+sang out, "Ware hawk! Douse the glim!" And in a moment all was darkness
+beneath him.
+
+When Mannering returned to his chamber in the dim light of the morning,
+he proceeded to carry out his calculations according to the strictest
+rules of astrology, marking carefully the hour of the birth of the babe.
+He found that young Harry Bertram, for so it had been decided to name
+the child, was threatened with danger in his _fifth_, his _tenth_, and
+his _twenty-first_ years.
+
+More dissatisfied than he cared to own with these results, Mannering
+walked out again to view the ruins of the old castle of Ellangowan in
+the morning light. They were, he now saw, of vast extent and much
+battered on the side toward the sea--so much so, indeed, that he could
+observe through a gap in the mason-work, the smuggling brig getting
+ready to be off with the tide. Guy Mannering penetrated into the
+courtyard, and was standing there quietly, thinking of the past
+greatness of the house of Bertram, when suddenly, from a chamber to the
+left, he heard the voice of the gipsy, Meg Merrilies. A few steps took
+him to a recess from which, unseen himself, he could observe what she
+was doing. She continued to twirl her distaff, seemingly unconscious of
+his presence, and also, after her own fashion, to "spae" the fortune of
+young Harry Bertram, just as Mannering had so lately been doing himself.
+Curiosity as to whether their results would agree kept him quiet while
+she wove her spell. At last she gave her verdict: "A long life, three
+score and ten years, but thrice broken by trouble or danger. The threads
+thrice broke, three times united. He'll be a lucky lad if he wins
+through wi' it!"
+
+Mannering had hardly time to be astonished at the manner in which the
+gipsy's prophecy confirmed his own half-playful calculations, before a
+voice, loud and hoarse as the waves that roared beneath the castle,
+called to the witch-wife, "Meg, Meg Merrilies--gipsy--hag--tousand
+deyvils!"
+
+"Coming, Captain--I am coming!" answered Meg, as calmly as if some one
+had been calling her pet names. Through the broken portion of the wall
+to seaward a man made his appearance. He was hard of feature,
+savage-looking, and there was a cruel glint in his eyes which told of a
+heart without pity.
+
+The man's body, powerful and thick-set as an oak, his immense strength,
+his savage temper made him shunned and disliked. There were few indeed
+who would have ventured to cross the path of Dirk Hatteraick, whose best
+name was "black smuggler," and whose worst a word it was safest to speak
+in a whisper, lest a bird of the air should carry the matter.
+
+On the present occasion Dirk had come to the gipsy queen to demand of
+her a charm for a fair wind and a prosperous voyage. For the less
+religion such a man has, the more superstitious he is apt to be.
+
+"Where are you, Mother Deyvilson?" he cried again. "Donner and blitzen,
+here we have been staying for you full half an hour! Come, bless the
+good ship and the voyage--and be cursed to ye for a hag of Satan!"
+
+At that moment, catching sight of Mannering, the smuggler stopped with a
+strange start. He thrust his hand into his pocket as if to draw out a
+hidden weapon, exclaiming: "What cheer, brother? You seem on the
+outlook, eh?"
+
+But with a glance at the intruder Meg Merrilies checked him. In a moment
+Hatteraick had altered his tone, and was speaking to Mannering civilly,
+yet still with an undercurrent of sullen suspicion which he tried to
+disguise under a mask of familiarity.
+
+"You are, I suppose," said Mannering, calmly, "the master of that vessel
+in the bay?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," answered the sailor, "I am Captain Dirk Hatteraick of the
+_Yungfrauw Hagenslaapen_, and I am not ashamed of my name or of my
+vessel, either. Right cognac I carry--rum, lace, real Mechlin, and
+Souchong tea--if you will come aboard, I will send you ashore with a
+pouchful of that last--Dirk Hatteraick knows how to be civil!"
+
+Mannering got rid of his offers without openly offending the man, and
+was well content to see the precious pair vanish down the stone stairs
+which had formerly served the garrison of the castle in time of siege.
+
+On his return to the house of Ellangowan, Mannering related his
+adventure, and asked of his host who this villanous-looking Dutchman
+might be, and why he was allowed to wander at will on his lands.
+
+This was pulling the trigger, and Mr. Bertram at once exploded into a
+long catalogue of griefs. According to him, the man was undoubtedly one
+Captain Dirk Hatteraick, a smuggler or free-trader. As for allowing him
+on his lands--well, Dirk was not very canny to meddle with. Besides,
+impossible as it was to believe, he, Godfrey Bertram of Ellangowan, was
+not upon his Majesty's commission of the peace for the county. Jealousy
+had kept him off--among other things the ill-will of the sitting member.
+Besides which--after all a gentleman must have his cognac, and his lady
+her tea and silks. Only smuggled articles came into the country. It was
+a pity, of course, but he was not more to blame than others.
+
+Thus the Laird maundered on, and Mannering, glad to escape being asked
+about the doubtful fortune which the stars had predicted for the young
+heir, did not interrupt him. On the next day, however, before he mounted
+his horse, he put the written horoscope into a sealed envelope, and,
+having strictly charged Bertram that it should not be opened till his
+son reached the age of five years, he took his departure with many
+expressions of regret.
+
+The next five years were outwardly prosperous ones for Godfrey Bertram
+of Ellangowan. As the result of an election where he had been of much
+service to the winning candidate, he was again made a Justice of the
+Peace, and immediately he set about proving to his brothers of the bench
+that he could be both a determined and an active magistrate. But this
+apparent good, brought as usual much of evil with it. Many old kindly
+customs and courtesies had endeared Godfrey Bertram to his poorer
+neighbours. He was, they said, no man's enemy, and even the gipsies of
+the little settlement would have cut off their right hands before they
+touched a pennyworth belonging to the Laird, their patron and protector.
+But the other landlords twitted him with pretending to be an active
+magistrate, and yet harbouring a gang of gipsies at his own door-cheek.
+Whereupon the Laird went slowly and somewhat sadly home, revolving
+schemes for getting rid of the colony of Derncleugh, at the head of
+which was the old witch-wife Meg Merrilies.
+
+Occasions of quarrel were easy to find. The sloe-eyed gipsy children
+swinging on his gates were whipped down. The rough-coated donkeys
+forbidden to eat their bite of grass in peace by the roadside. The men
+were imprisoned for poaching, and matters went so far that one stout
+young fellow was handed over to the press-gang at Dumfries and sent to
+foreign parts to serve on board a man-of-war.
+
+The gipsies, on their side, robbed the Ellangowan hen-roosts, stole the
+linen from my lady's bleaching-green, cut down and barked the young
+trees--though all the while scarce believing that their ancient friend
+the Laird of Ellangowan had really turned against them.
+
+During these five years the son, so strangely brought into the world on
+the night of Mannering's visit, had been growing into the boldest and
+brightest of boys. A wanderer by nature from his youth, he went
+fearlessly into each nook and corner of his father's estates in search
+of berries and flowers. He hunted every bog for rushes to weave
+grenadiers' caps, and haled the hazelnuts from the lithe coppice boughs.
+
+To Dominie Sampson, long since released from his village school, the
+difficult task was committed of accompanying, restraining, and guiding
+this daring spirit and active body. Shy, uncouth, awkward, with the
+memory of his failure in the pulpit always upon him, the Dominie was
+indeed quite able to instruct his pupil in the beginnings of learning,
+but it proved quite out of his power to control the pair of twinkling
+legs belonging to Master Harry Bertram. Once was the Dominie chased by a
+cross-grained cow. Once he fell into the brook at the stepping-stones,
+and once he was bogged in his middle in trying to gather water-lilies
+for the young Laird. The village matrons who relieved Dominie Sampson
+on this last occasion, declared that the Laird might just as well "trust
+the bairn to the care o' a tatie-bogle!"[2] But the good tutor, nothing
+daunted, continued grave and calm through all, only exclaiming, after
+each fresh misfortune, the single word "Prodeegious!"
+
+Often, too, Harry Bertram sought out Meg Merrilies at Derncleugh, where
+he played his pranks among the gipsies as fearlessly as within the walls
+of Ellangowan itself. Meanwhile the war between that active magistrate
+Godfrey Bertram and the gipsies grew ever sharper. The Laird was
+resolved to root them out, in order to stand well with his brother
+magistrates. So the gipsies sullenly watched while the ground officer
+chalked their doors in token that they must "flit" at the next term.
+
+At last the fatal day arrived. A strong force of officers summoned the
+gipsies to quit their houses, and when they did not obey, the sheriff's
+men broke down the doors and pulled the roofs off the poor huts of
+Derncleugh.
+
+Godfrey Bertram, who was really a kindly man, had gone away for the day
+to avoid the sight, leaving the business to the chief exciseman of the
+neighbourhood,--one Frank Kennedy, a bold, roistering blade, who knew no
+fear, and had no qualms whatever about ridding the neighbourhood of a
+gang of "sorners and thieves," as he called the Derncleugh gipsies.
+
+But as Godfrey was riding back to Ellangowan with a single servant,
+right in the middle of the King's highway, he met the whole congregation
+of the exiles, evicted from their ruined houses, and sullenly taking
+their way in search of a new shelter against the storms of the oncoming
+winter. His servant rode forward to command every man to stand to his
+beast's head while the Laird was passing.
+
+"He shall have his half of the road," growled one of the tall thin
+gipsies, his features half-buried in a slouch hat, "but he shall have no
+more. The highway is as free to our cuddies as to his horse."
+
+Never before had the Laird of Ellangowan received such a discourteous
+reception. Anxious at the last to leave a good impression, he stammered
+out as he passed one of the older men, "And your son, Gabriel Baillie,
+is he well?" (He meant the young man who had been sent by means of the
+press-gang to foreign parts.) With a deep scowl the old man replied, "If
+I had heard otherwise, _you_ would have heard it too!"
+
+At last Godfrey Bertram thought that he had escaped. He had passed the
+last laden donkey of the expelled tribe. He was urging his beast toward
+Ellangowan with a saddened spirit, when suddenly at a place where the
+road was sunk between two high banks, Meg Merrilies appeared above him,
+a freshly cut sapling in her hand, her dark eyes flashing anger, and her
+elf-locks straying in wilder confusion than ever.
+
+"Ride your ways, Laird of Ellangowan," she cried, "ride your ways,
+Godfrey Bertram! This day ye have quenched seven smoking hearths--see if
+the fire in your own parlour burns the brighter for that? Ye have riven
+the thatch off seven cottars' houses--look if your roof-tree stands the
+faster. There are thirty yonder that would have shed their lifeblood for
+you--thirty, from the child of a week to the auld wife of a hundred,
+that you have made homeless, that you have sent out to sleep with the
+fox and the blackcock. Our bairns are hanging on our weary backs--look
+to it that your braw cradle at hame is the fairer spread! Now ride your
+ways, Godfrey Bertram. These are the last words ye shall ever hear from
+Meg Merrilies, and this the last staff that I shall ever cut in the
+bonny woods of Ellangowan!"
+
+[Illustration: "MEG MERRILIES appeared above him, a freshly cut sapling
+in her hand, her dark eyes flashing anger, and her elf-locks straying
+in wilder confusion than ever.
+
+"'Ride your ways, Laird of Ellangowan,' she cried, 'ride your ways,
+Godfrey Bertram! This day ye have quenched seven smoking hearths--see if
+the fire in your own parlour burns the brighter for that!'"]
+
+And with the gesture of a queen delivering sentence she broke the
+sapling she had held in her hand, and flung the fragments into the road.
+The Laird was groping in his pocket for half a crown, and thinking
+meanwhile what answer to make. But disdaining both his reply and his
+peace-offering, Meg strode defiantly downhill after the caravan.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Not only was there war by land at Ellangowan. There was also war by sea.
+The Laird, determined for once not to do things by halves, had begun to
+support Frank Kennedy, the chief revenue officer, in his campaign
+against the smugglers. Armed with Ellangowan's warrant, and guided by
+his people who knew the country, Kennedy swooped down upon Dirk
+Hatteraick as he was in the act of landing a large cargo upon
+Ellangowan's ground. After a severe combat he had been able to clap the
+government broad-arrow upon every package and carry them all off to the
+nearest customs' post. Dirk Hatteraick got safely away, but he went,
+vowing in English, Dutch, and German, the direst vengeance against Frank
+Kennedy, Godfrey Bertram, and all his enemies.
+
+It was a day or two after the eviction of the gipsies when the Lady of
+Ellangowan, suddenly remembering that it was her son Harry's fifth
+birthday, demanded of her husband that he should open and read the
+horoscope written by the wandering student of the stars five years
+before. While they were arguing about the matter, it was suddenly
+discovered that little Harry was nowhere to be found. His guardian,
+Dominie Sampson, having returned without him, was summoned to give an
+account of his stewardship by the angry mother.
+
+"Mr. Sampson," she cried, "it is the most extraordinary thing in the
+world wide, that you have free up-putting in this house,--bed, board,
+washing, and twelve pounds sterling a year just to look after that
+boy,--and here you have let him out of your sight for three hours at a
+time!"
+
+Bowing with awkward gratitude at each clause in this statement of his
+advantages, the poor Dominie was at last able to stammer out that Frank
+Kennedy had taken charge of Master Harry, in the face of his protest,
+and had carried him off to Warroch Head to see the taking of Dirk
+Hatteraick's ship by the King's sloop-of-war, which he had ridden all
+the way to Wigton Bay to bring about.
+
+"And if that be so," cried the Lady of Ellangowan, "I am very little
+obliged to Frank Kennedy. The bairn may fall from his horse, or anything
+may happen."
+
+The Laird quieted his wife by telling her that he and Frank Kennedy had
+together seen the sloop-of-war giving chase to Dirk Hatteraick's ship,
+and that even then the Dutchman, disabled and on fire, was fast drifting
+upon the rocks. Frank Kennedy had ridden off to assist in the capture by
+signalling to the man-of-war from Warroch Head, and had evidently picked
+up little Harry upon the way. He would doubtless, continued the Laird,
+be back in a little time. For he had ordered the punch-bowl to be made
+ready, that they might drink good luck to the King's service and
+confusion to all smugglers and free-traders wherever found.
+
+But hour after hour went by, and neither Frank Kennedy nor the boy Harry
+returned. The night approached. Parties of searchers anxiously beat the
+woods and patrolled the cliffs. For long they found nothing, but at last
+a boat's crew, landing perilously at the foot of the precipices, came
+upon the body of the excise officer, a sword-cut in his head, lying
+half in and half out of the water. He had been flung from the cliffs
+above. Frank Kennedy was dead--as to that there was no question. But
+what had become of the child, Harry Bertram? That--no one could answer.
+Not a trace of him was to be found. The smuggler's ship still burned
+fiercely, but Dirk Hatteraick and his men had completely vanished. Some
+one suggested the gipsies, whereupon the Laird mounted the first horse
+he came across and rode furiously to the huts of Derncleugh. Bursting in
+a door, he found on the ruined hearth of the house that had once
+sheltered Meg Merrilies, a fire still smouldering. But there, too,
+Godfrey Bertram discovered nothing and no one.
+
+While he remained on the spot, dazed and uncertain, looking at the
+blackened hearthstone, his old servant entered hastily to bid him return
+at once to Ellangowan. His wife had been taken dangerously ill. Godfrey
+spurred as fast as horse would carry him, but Death had gone faster, and
+had arrived before him. When he reached the gate, the Lady of Ellangowan
+was dead, leaving him with a little baby girl less than an hour old. The
+shock of Kennedy's murder and her own little Harry's loss had killed
+her.
+
+
+
+INTERLUDE OF INTERROGATION
+
+    The melancholy conclusion of the first _Guy
+    Mannering_ tale kept the children quieter than
+    usual. I think they regretted a little the gallant
+    opening of _Waverley_, but as ever they were full
+    of questions.
+
+    "And all that happened here, in our Galloway?"
+    began Sweetheart, looking about her at the hills of
+    dark heather and the sparkling Solway sands, from
+    which the storm-clouds were just beginning to lift.
+
+    "Yes," I answered her, "though it is doubtful if
+    Scott ever _was_ in Galloway. But he had seen
+    Criffel across from Dumfries-shire, and the castle
+    of Ellangowan is certainly described from the ruins
+    of Caerlaverock, opposite New Abbey. Besides, had
+    he not good old Joseph Train, the Castle Douglas
+    exciseman, to tell him everything--than whom no man
+    knew Galloway better?"
+
+    "Did gipsies really steal children?" said Maid
+    Margaret, with some apprehension. She was somewhat
+    anxious, for an affirmative answer might interfere
+    with certain wide operations in blackberrying which
+    she was planning.
+
+    "Sometimes they did," I answered, "but not nearly
+    so often as they were blamed for. They had usually
+    enough mouths of their own to feed. So, unless they
+    were sure of a ransom, or perhaps occasionally for
+    the sake of revenge, gipsies very seldom were
+    guilty of kidnapping."
+
+    "But they always do steal them in books," said Hugh
+    John; "well, I would just like to see them cart me
+    off! And if they took Sir Toady Lion, they would
+    soon send him back. He eats so much!"
+
+    This was Hugh John's idea of a joke, and somewhat
+    hastily I interrupted fraternal strife by returning
+    to the general subject.
+
+    "Adam Smith, a very learned man, who afterwards
+    wrote _The Wealth of Nations_, was stolen by
+    gipsies when a child," I said.
+
+    "_I_ wish they had just kept him," said Hugh John,
+    unexpectedly; "then we wouldn't have had to
+    paraphrase the beastly thing at school. It is as
+    full of jaw-breakers as a perch is full of bones."
+
+    "Was little Harry really stolen by gipsies, or was
+    he killed over the cliff?" queried Maid Margaret.
+
+    "Of course he was stolen, silly," broke in Sir
+    Toady Lion, sagely; "look how much more of the book
+    there has got to be all about him. Think there
+    would be all that, if he got killed right at the
+    beginning, eh?"
+
+    "Do any people smuggle nowadays?" demanded Hugh
+    John.
+
+    "Of course they do--in Spain," interjected Sir
+    Toady Lion, "father got put in prison there once."
+
+    "That was all owing to a mistake," I explained
+    hastily (for really this had nothing to do with
+    Scott); "it was only because your parent happened
+    to be wearing the same kind of hat as a certain
+    well-known smuggler, a very desperate character."
+
+    "HUM-M!" said Sir Toady Lion, suddenly developing a
+    cold in the nose.
+
+    "Well, anyway, they do smuggle--though not much in
+    this country now," said Sweetheart, "and I'm glad
+    father knew a man who smuggled in Spain. It makes
+    this book so much more real."
+
+    "Getting put in prison instead of him made it
+    almost _too_ real," said Sir Toady. He is a most
+    disconcerting and ironical boy. One often wonders
+    where he gets it from.
+
+    So to shut off further questioning, I proceeded
+    immediately with the telling of the second tale
+    from _Guy Mannering_.
+
+
+
+
+THE SECOND TALE FROM "GUY MANNERING"
+
+
+I. HAPPY DOMINIE SAMPSON
+
+IT was seventeen long years after the murder of Frank Kennedy and the
+disappearance of little Harry Bertram when Guy Mannering, now a soldier
+famous for his wars in the East, penetrated a second time into Galloway.
+His object was to visit the family of Ellangowan, and secretly, also, to
+find out for himself in what way his random prophesies had worked out.
+
+But he arrived at an unfortunate time. He found that, chiefly by the
+plotting and deceit of a rascally lawyer, one Gilbert Glossin, the
+Bertrams were on the point of being sold out of Ellangowan. All their
+money had been lost, and the sale of the estate was being forced on by
+the rascally lawyer Glossin for his own ends.
+
+The old man Godfrey Bertram also was very near his end. And indeed on
+the very day of the sale, and while Mannering was paying his respects to
+his former host, the sight of Glossin so enraged the feeble old man that
+he was taken with a violent passion, falling back in his chair and dying
+in a few minutes.
+
+Mannering, whose heart was greatly touched, was most anxious to do all
+that he could to assist Lucy Bertram, the old man's daughter, but he was
+compelled by an urgent summons to return into England. It had been his
+intention to save the estate of Ellangowan from the clutches of the
+scoundrel Glossin by buying it himself, but the drunkenness of a postboy
+whom he had sent with a letter to Mr. Mac-Morlan, the lawyer in charge
+of the sale, defeated his intentions, so that Ellangowan became the
+property of the traitor. So young Lucy Bertram and Dominie Sampson (who
+refused to be separated from her) became for the moment inmates of Mr.
+Mac-Morlan's house. The Dominie found a pupil or two in the
+neighbourhood that he might not be chargeable to his dear Lucy or her
+friend Mr. Mac-Morlan. And so, in the twenty-first year after the birth
+of an heir, and after Mannering's prophecy concerning him, there seemed
+an end to the ancient house of the Bertrams of Ellangowan.
+
+During these years, Colonel Mannering also had a tale to tell. Wedded
+early to the wife of his youth and his heart, he had gone to India in
+the service of the Honourable, the East India Company. There by his
+valour and talent he had rapidly acquired both wealth and position. But
+during the twenty-first year an event occurred which gave him a distaste
+for the land of his adoption, and he had come back to his native country
+with the idea of settling down, far away from old memories and new
+entanglements.
+
+In a duel which he had fought in India with a young man named Brown--a
+brave youth of no position, who had offended Mannering by his attentions
+to his daughter, and by establishing himself in his house as a friend of
+the family--he had left Brown for dead on the field, hardly escaping
+himself with his life from a sudden attack of the armed banditti who, in
+the India of that day, were always hovering round desert places. The
+shock of that morning had so told on the health of Mannering's wife that
+she died shortly afterwards, leaving him with one daughter, Julia--a
+proud, sprightly, sentimental girl, whom he had brought home, and placed
+under the care of a friend named Mervyn, whose house stood upon one of
+the Cumberland lakes.
+
+So it came about that when Mannering was in Scotland, he received a
+letter from his friend which took him to Mervyn Hall as fast as
+horse-flesh could carry him.
+
+His friend wrote, as he was careful to say, without his wife's
+knowledge. Mr. Mervyn told Colonel Mannering that he was certain that
+his daughter Julia was receiving secret visits from some one whom she
+did not dare to see openly. Not only were there long solitary walks and
+hill-climbings, but on several occasions he had heard up the lake at
+midnight, as if under her windows, a flageolet playing a little Indian
+air to which Julia Mannering was partial. This was evidently a signal,
+for a boat had been seen hastily crossing the lake, and the sash of
+Julia's window had been heard to shut down at the first alarm. Mr.
+Mervyn said that, little as he liked playing the part of tale-bearer, he
+felt that Julia was under his care, and he would not deserve his old
+name of Downright Dunstable if he did not inform her father of what he
+had discovered. Julia, he said, was both a charming and high spirited
+girl, but she was too much her own father's daughter to be without
+romantic ideas. On the whole, concluded Mr. Mervyn, it behooved the
+Colonel to come at once to Mervyn Hall and look after his own property.
+
+This was the letter which, put into his hands at a seaport town in
+Scotland, lost Mannering the estate of Ellangowan, and threw the ancient
+seat of many generations of Bertrams into the clutches of the
+scoundrelly Glossin. For Colonel Mannering instantly posted off to the
+south, having first of all sent despatches to Mr. Mac-Morlan by the
+untrustworthy postilion--the same who arrived a day too late for the
+sale.
+
+When Colonel Mannering first went to Mervyn Hall, he could make nothing
+of the case. Of course he believed Brown to have died by his hand in
+India, and he could find no traces of any other man likely to be making
+love to his daughter. Nevertheless he had brought back a plan with him
+from Scotland, which, he thought, would put an end to all future
+difficulties. The helplessness of Lucy Bertram had moved his heart.
+Besides, he was more amused than he cared to own by the originality of
+the Dominie. He had easily obtained, by means of Mr. Mac-Morlan, a
+furnished house in the neighbourhood of Ellangowan, and he resolved for
+a time at least to repose himself there after his campaigns. His
+daughter Julia would thus have a companion in Lucy Bertram, and it was
+easy to provide the Dominie with an occupation. For the library of an
+uncle of Mannering's, who had been a learned bishop of the Church of
+England, had been willed to him. The Dominie was the very man to put the
+books in order. So indeed it was arranged, after some saucy remarks from
+Miss Mannering as to the supposed Scottish accent and probable red hair
+of her companion.
+
+Then Colonel Mannering, accustomed to do nothing by halves, sent down
+his directions about Dominie Sampson, whose heart indeed would have been
+broken if he had been separated from the young mistress over whom he had
+watched from childhood.
+
+"Let the poor man be properly dressed," wrote the Colonel to Mr.
+Mac-Morlan, "and let him accompany his young lady to Woodbourne!"
+
+The dressing of Dominie Sampson was, however, easier said than done. For
+it would hurt the pride of the Dominie to have clothes presented to him
+as to a schoolboy. But Lucy Bertram soon settled the matter. The
+Dominie, she said, would never notice the difference, if they put one
+garment at a time into his sleeping room and took away the other. This
+was what her father had always done when the wardrobe of his dependent
+needed renewing. Nor had the Dominie ever showed the least consciousness
+of the change.
+
+So said, so done. A good tailor, having come and looked Mr. Sampson
+over, readily agreed to provide him with two excellent suits, one black
+and one raven grey, such as would fit the Dominie as well as a man of
+such an out-of-the-way build could be fitted by merely human needles and
+shears.
+
+The Dominie, when completely equipped, made no remark upon the
+change--further than that, in his opinion, the air of a seaport town
+like Kippletringan seemed to be favourable to wearing-apparel.
+
+It was the depth of winter when the Mannerings arrived at Woodbourne.
+All were a little anxious. Even Dominie Sampson longed to be at his
+books, and going repeatedly to the windows demanded, "Why tarry the
+wheels of their chariot?" But when at last they came, Lucy and Julia
+Bertram were soon friends, while the Dominie stood with uplifted hands,
+exclaiming, "Prodeegious! Prodeegious!" as, one after another, the
+thirty or forty cart-loads of books were deposited on the library floor
+ready to his hand. His arms flapped like windmills, and the uncouth
+scholar counted himself the happiest man on earth as he began to
+arrange the great volumes on the shelves. Not that he got on very
+quickly. For he wrote out the catalogue in his best running-hand. He put
+the books on the shelves as carefully as if they had been old and
+precious china. Yet in spite of the Dominie's zeal, his labours advanced
+but slowly. Often he would chance to open a volume when halfway up the
+ladder. Then, his eye falling upon some entrancing passage, he would
+stand there transfixed, oblivious of the flight of time, till a
+serving-maid pulled his skirts to tell him dinner was waiting. He would
+then bolt his food in three-inch squares, and rush back to the library,
+often with his dinner napkin still tied round his neck like a pinafore.
+Thus, for the first time in his life, Dominie Sampson was perfectly
+content.
+
+[Illustration: "HIS eye falling upon some entrancing passage, he would
+stand there transfixed, oblivious of the flight of time, till a
+serving-maid pulled his skirts to tell him dinner was waiting."]
+
+
+II. DANDIE DINMONT
+
+But the story now turns to the young man Brown, or, to give him his full
+title, Captain Vanbeest Brown, whom Colonel Mannering had left for dead
+on an Indian field. He did not die, but he had been compelled to
+undergo a long captivity among the bandits before he found his way back
+to his regiment. The new Colonel whom he found in Mannering's place had
+been kind to him, and he soon found himself in command of a troop of
+dragoons. He was at present on leave in England, and, as he was
+conscious that Mannering had no reason for his ill-will and apparent
+cruelty, Brown felt that he on his part had no reason for standing on
+ceremony with such a man. He loved Julia Mannering, and, to say the
+least of it, she did not discourage him. So it was he who had played the
+Hindoo air upon the lake--he with whom Julia had talked at her window,
+even as Mervyn had related in his letter to his friend Colonel
+Mannering.
+
+When the Colonel and his daughter went away to Scotland, Captain Brown,
+having no relatives in the country, resolved to follow them. He set out
+on foot, having for sole companion a little terrier named Wasp. On the
+way he had to pass a long and weary waste of heath and morass. One house
+alone broke the monotonous expanse. It was little better than a shed,
+but was sheltered by an ash tree, and a clay-built shed alongside served
+for a rude stable. A stout pony stood tethered in front of the door,
+busy with a feed of oats. Stillness brooded all around. It was a poor
+place, but Captain Brown had wandered too far and seen too much to care
+about appearances. He stooped his head and entered at the low door. In
+a few minutes he found himself attacking a round of beef and washing it
+down with home-brewed ale in company with the owner of the pony tethered
+outside, a certain Mr. Dandie Dinmont, a store-farmer on his way home
+from a Cumberland fair. At first only pleasant nods passed between them
+as they drank to each other in silence.
+
+Presently Brown noticed, seated in the great chimney, a very tall old
+woman clad in a red cloak and a slouched bonnet, having all the
+appearance of a gipsy or tinker. She smoked silently at her clay pipe,
+while the doubtful-looking landlady went about her affairs.
+
+Brown's terrier Wasp was the means of his striking up an acquaintance
+with the sturdy farmer opposite, who, hearing that he had never seen a
+blackcock, invited him forthwith to Charlies-hope, the name of his farm,
+where he promised him he should both see blackcock, shoot blackcock, and
+eat blackcock. Dandie Dinmont was going on to tell Brown of his
+wanderings, when the old crone in the red cloak by the side of the fire
+suddenly broke silence by asking if he had been recently in Galloway,
+and if he knew Ellangowan.
+
+"Ellangowan!" cried the farmer, "I ken it weel! Auld Laird Bertram died
+but a fortnight ago, and the estate and everything had to be sold for
+want of an heir male."
+
+The old gipsy (who, of course, was no other than Meg Merrilies) sprang
+at once to her feet.
+
+"And who dared buy the estate, when the bonny knave-bairn that heirs it
+may any day come back to claim his ain?"
+
+"It was, I believe," said Dandie Dinmont, "one of these writer bodies
+that buy up everything,--Gilbert Glossin by name!"
+
+"Ay, Gibbie Glossin," said the old witch-wife, "mony a time I hae
+carried him in my creels. But maybe ye'll hae heard o' Derncleugh, about
+a mile frae Ellangowan?"
+
+"And a wild-looking den it is," said the farmer; "nothing but old ruined
+walls."
+
+"It was a blithe bit once," said the gipsy, as if talking to herself;
+"did ye notice if there was a willow tree half blown down, that hangs
+over the bit burnie? Mony is the time hae I sat there and knitted my
+stockin'."
+
+"The deil's in the wife," cried Dandie; "let me away! Here's saxpence
+for ye to buy half-a-mutchkin, instead o' claverin' o' auld-world
+tales."
+
+The gipsy took the money from the farmer, and tendered in return this
+advice: "When Tib Mumps brings ye out the stirrup-cup, and asks ye
+whether ye will gang ower Willie's brae or by the Conscowthartmoss, be
+sure to choose the road ye _dinna_ tell her."
+
+The farmer laughed and promised. But to Brown he said that after all he
+would rather that Tib Mumps kenned where he was going than yon gipsy
+queen, so he would e'en hold on his way.
+
+Captain Brown soon followed on foot, but at the door he found himself
+stopped by Meg Merrilies, who, with much earnestness, asked his name and
+from whence he came.
+
+"My name is Brown," he answered, a little impatiently; "I come from the
+East Indies."
+
+[Illustration: "HE had not gone very far, and was still in the heart of
+the morass, when he saw his late companion of the ale-house engaged in
+deadly combat with a couple of rascals, one of them armed with a
+cutlass, and the other with a bludgeon."]
+
+The old gipsy appeared disappointed by his answer, and Brown put a
+shilling into her hand as he took his leave. However, he had not gone
+very far, and was still in the heart of the morass, when he saw his late
+companion of the ale-house engaged in deadly combat with a couple of
+rascals, one of them armed with a cutlass, and the other with a
+bludgeon. Brown's terrier Wasp ran forward, barking furiously, but
+before Brown could come to his assistance the ruffians had got Dandie
+Dinmont down, and the man with the bludgeon bestowed some merciless
+blows upon his head. Then with a shout they turned their attention to
+Brown, crying that "the first one was content." But Brown was a staunch
+antagonist, and they soon found that they had met more than their match.
+Whereupon the leader bade him follow his nose over the heath, for that
+they had nothing to say to him.
+
+But, since to do this was to abandon Dandie Dinmont to their mercy,
+Brown refused point-blank. Affairs were at this pass when Dandie,
+staggering to his feet, his loaded whip in his hand, managed to come to
+the assistance of his rescuer, whereupon the two men took to their heels
+and ran as hard as they could over the moor.
+
+Then the farmer, who knew their ways, bade Brown mount behind him on his
+horse Dumple, for he warned him that in five minutes "the whole
+clanjamphrey" would be down upon them. And even as he spoke five or six
+men made their appearance, running toward them over the moss. But Dumple
+was staunch, and by dint of following the safest roads, and being left
+to pick his own way in the difficult places, Dandie's pony soon left the
+villains behind him. Then, following the old Roman road, they reached
+Dinmont's farm of Charlies-hope, across the border, not long after
+nightfall.
+
+A furious barking from innumerable terriers and dogs of all breeds was
+their welcome. And soon Brown found himself within four hospitable
+walls, where not only were his own wants satisfied, but the wounds of
+the master of the house were bound up by his buxom wife.
+
+At kindly Charlies-hope, Brown remained several days, while Dandie
+Dinmont showed him the best sport to be had upon the border. Together
+they hunted the fox after the manner of the country--that is, treating
+Reynard as a thief and a robber, with whom no conditions are to be
+observed. Together they went to the night fishing, where Brown heard the
+leisters or steel tridents ringing on the stones at the bottom of the
+water, as the fishers struck at the salmon in the light of the blazing
+torches kindled to attract the fish. Otter-hunting and badger-baiting
+filled in the time, so that Brown had never been so well amused in his
+life. But he begged from his host that the badger, which had made so
+gallant a defence, should be allowed henceforth to go scot-free. Dandie
+promised with willingness, happy to oblige his guest, though quite
+unable to understand why any one should "care about a brock." When Brown
+told this hearty family that he must leave them, he was compelled to
+promise, over and over again, that he would soon return. The chorus of
+Dandie's tow-headed youngsters burst into one unanimous howl.
+
+"Come back again, Captain," cried one sturdy little chap, "and Jennie
+shall be your wife."
+
+Jennie, a girl of eleven, promptly ran and hid herself behind her
+mother.
+
+"Captain, come back," said a little fat roll-about girl of six, holding
+up her mouth to be kissed; "come back and I'll be your wife my
+ainsel'!"
+
+It was hard to leave so hospitable a home to go where, to say the least
+of it, one was not wanted. Especially was it so when the sturdy farmer,
+grasping Brown's hand, said with a certain shamefacedness, "There's a
+pickle siller that I do not ken what to do wi', after Ailie has gotten
+her new goon and the bairns their winter duds. But I was thinking, that
+whiles you army gentlemen can buy yoursel's up a step. If ye wad tak the
+siller, a bit scrape o' a pen wad be as guid to me. Ye could take your
+ain time about paying it back. And--and it would be a great convenience
+to me."
+
+Brown was much moved, but he could only thank his kind host heartily and
+promise that in case of need he would not forget to draw upon his purse.
+So they parted, Brown leaving his little terrier Wasp to share bed and
+board with the eldest of the Dinmont boys, who right willingly undertook
+the task as a kind of security for his master's return.
+
+Dinmont conveyed his guest some distance, and afterward, from the first
+Dumfries-shire town which they entered, Brown took a carriage to carry
+him part of the way in the direction of Woodbourne, where Julia
+Mannering was at present residing.
+
+
+III. IN THE LION'S MOUTH
+
+Night and mist stopped him after many miles of journeying. The postboy
+had lost his way, and could offer no suggestions. Brown descended to see
+if by chance, in this wild place, they were near any farm-house at which
+he could ask the way. Standing tiptoe upon a bank, it seemed as if he
+could see in the distance a light feebly glimmering.
+
+Brown proceeded toward it, but soon found himself stumbling among ruins
+of cottages, the side walls of which were lying in shapeless heaps, half
+covered with snow, while the gables still stood up gaunt and black
+against the sky. He ascended a bank, steep and difficult, and found
+himself in front of a small square tower, from the chinks of which a
+light showed dimly. Listening cautiously, he heard a noise as of stifled
+groaning.
+
+Brown approached softly, and looked through a long arrow-slit upon a
+dismal scene. Smoke filled a wretched apartment. On a couch a man lay,
+apparently dying, while beside him, wrapped in a long cloak, a woman sat
+with bent head, crooning to herself and occasionally moistening the
+sufferer's lips with some liquid.
+
+"It will not do," Brown heard her say at last "he cannot pass away with
+the crime on his soul. It tethers him here. I must open the door."
+
+As she did so she saw Brown standing without. He, on his part,
+recognised in the woman the gipsy wife whom he had seen on the Waste of
+Cumberland, when he and Dandie Dinmont had had their fight with the
+robbers.
+
+"Did I not tell you neither to mix nor mingle?" said the woman; "but
+come in. Here is your only safety!"
+
+Even as she spoke, the head of the wounded man fell back. He was dead,
+and, before Brown could think of seeking safety in flight, they heard in
+the distance the sound of voices approaching.
+
+"They are coming!" whispered the gipsy; "if they find you here, you are
+a dead man. Quick--you cannot escape. Lie down, and, whatever you see or
+hear, do not stir, as you value your life."
+
+Brown had no alternative but to obey. So the old gipsy wife covered him
+over with old sacks as he lay in the corner upon a couch of straw.
+
+Then Meg went about the dismal offices of preparing the dead man for
+burial, but Brown could see that she was constantly pausing to listen to
+the sounds which every moment grew louder without. At last a gang of
+fierce-looking desperadoes poured tumultuously in, their leader abusing
+the old woman for leaving the door open.
+
+But Meg Merrilies had her answer ready.
+
+"Did you ever hear of a door being barred when a man was in the
+death-agony?" she cried. "Think ye the spirit could win away through all
+these bolts and bars?"
+
+"Is he dead, then?" asked one of the ruffians, glancing in the direction
+of the bed.
+
+"Ay, dead enough," growled another; "but here is the wherewithal to give
+him a rousing lykewake!" And going to the corner he drew out a large jar
+of brandy, while Meg busied herself in preparing pipes and tobacco.
+
+Brown in his corner found his mind a little eased when he saw how
+eagerly she went about her task.
+
+"She does not mean to betray me, then!" he said to himself. Though for
+all that, he could see no gleam of womanly tenderness on her face, nor
+imagine any reason she should not give him up to her associates.
+
+That they were a gang of murderers was soon evident from their talk. The
+man, now wrapped in the dark sea-cloak, whose dead face looked down on
+their revels, was referred to as one who had often gloried in the murder
+of Frank Kennedy. But some of the others held that the deed was not
+wisely done, because after that the people of the country would not do
+business with the smugglers.
+
+"It did up the trade for one while!" said one; "the people turned
+rusty!"
+
+Then there were evident threats uttered against some one whose name
+Brown did not hear.
+
+"I think," said the leader of the ruffians, "that we will have to be
+down upon the fellow one of these nights, and let him have it well!"
+
+After a while the carousing bandits called for what they called "Black
+Peter." It was time (they said) "to flick it open."
+
+To Brown's surprise and indignation, Black Peter proved to be nothing
+else than his own portmanteau, which gave him reasons for some very dark
+thoughts as to the fate of his postboy. He watched the rascals force his
+bag open and coolly divide all that was in it among them. Yet he dared
+not utter a word, well aware that had he done so, the next moment a
+knife would have been at his throat.
+
+At last, to his great relief, Brown saw them make their preparations for
+departure. He was left alone with the dead man and the old woman.
+
+Meg Merrilies waited till the first sun of the winter's morn had come,
+lest one of the revellers of the night should take it into his head to
+turn back. Then she led Brown by a difficult and precipitous path, till
+she could point out to him, on the other side of some dense plantations,
+the road to Kippletringan.
+
+"And here," said she, mysteriously putting a large leathern purse into
+his hand, "is what will in some degree repay the many alms your house
+has given me and mine!"
+
+She was gone before he could reply, and when Brown opened the purse, he
+was astonished to find in it gold to the amount of nearly one hundred
+pounds, besides many valuable jewels. The gipsy had endowed him with a
+fortune.
+
+
+INTERLUDE OF LOCALITY
+
+    "And all this happened here?" repeated Sweetheart,
+    incredulously, pointing up at the dark purple
+    mountains of Screel and Ben Gairn.
+
+    "Well," I answered, "Scott's Solway is the Dumfries
+    Solway, not the Galloway Solway. Portanferry exists
+    not far from Glencaple on the eastern bank of Nith,
+    and the castle of Ellangowan is as like as possible
+    to Caerlaverock."
+
+    "But he _says_ Galloway!" objected Sweetheart, who
+    has a pretty persistence of her own. "And I wanted
+    Ellangowan to be in Galloway. What with Carlyle
+    having been born there, the Dumfries folk have
+    quite enough to be proud of!"
+
+    "Yes, Scott _says_ Ellangowan is in Galloway," said
+    I, "but nevertheless to any one who knows the
+    country, it remains obstinately in Dumfries-shire.
+    His swamps and morasses are those of Lochar. The
+    frith is the Dumfries-shire Solway, the castle a
+    Dumfries-shire castle, and what Scott put in of
+    Galloway tradition was sent him by his friend the
+    Castle Douglas exciseman."
+
+    "Oh!" said Sweetheart, a little ruefully, "but are
+    you sure?"
+
+    "Certain," I answered, "if you consider time and
+    distance from the border--say from Charlies-hope,
+    you will see that Brown could not possibly have
+    reached the heart of Galloway. Besides, Scott was
+    far too wise a man to write about what he did not
+    know. So he wove in Train's Galloway legends, but
+    he put the people into his own well-kenned dresses,
+    and set them to act their parts under familiar
+    skies. Hence it is, that though the taste of Scott
+    was never stronger than in _Guy Mannering_, the
+    flavour of Galloway is somehow not in the mouth!"
+
+    "What does it matter where it all happened?" cried
+    Hugh John; "it is a rattling good tale, anyway, and
+    if the Man-who-Wrote-It imagined that it all
+    happened in Galloway, surely _we_ can!"
+
+    This being both sensible and unanswerable, the
+    party scattered to improvise old castles of
+    Ellangowan, and to squabble for what was to them
+    the only wholly desirable part, that of Dirk
+    Hatteraick. The combat between the smuggler and the
+    exciseman was executed with particular zeal and
+    spirit, Sir Toady Lion prancing and curvetting, as
+    Frank Kennedy, on an invisible steed, with Maid
+    Margaret before him on the saddle. So active was
+    the fight indeed, that the bold bad smuggler, Dirk,
+    assailed as to the upper part of his body by Sir
+    Toady, and with the Heir tugging at his legs, found
+    himself presently worsted and precipitated over the
+    cliff in place of Frank Kennedy. This ending
+    considerably disarranged the story, so that it was
+    with no little trouble that the pair of strutting
+    victors were induced to "play by the book," and to
+    accept (severally) death and captivity in the hold
+    of the smuggling lugger.
+
+    On the other hand, after I had read the
+    Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Chapters of _Guy
+    Mannering_ to them in the original, it was
+    remarkable with what accuracy of detail Sweetheart
+    wrapped a plaid about her and played the witch, Meg
+    Merrilies, singing wild dirges over an imaginary
+    dead body, while Hugh John hid among the straw till
+    Sir Toady and Maid Margaret rushed in with
+    incredible hubbub and sat down to carouse like a
+    real gang of the most desperate characters.
+
+    Seated on a barrel of gunpowder, Sir Toady declared
+    that he smelt traitors in the camp, whereupon he
+    held a (paper) knife aloft in the air, and cried,
+    "If any deceive us or betray the gang, we will
+    destroy them--_thus!_"
+
+    "Yes," chimed in the rosebud mouth of Maid
+    Margaret, "and us will chop them into teeny-weeny
+    little bits wif a sausage minchine, and feed them
+    to our b-r-r-lood-hounds!"
+
+    "Little monsters!" cried Sweetheart, for the moment
+    forgetting her proper character of witch-wife.
+    Nevertheless, all in the Kairn of Derncleugh were
+    happy, save Hugh John, who declared that Scott's
+    heroes were always getting put under soft cushions
+    or up the chimney. "You can't really distinguish
+    yourself," he insisted, "in such situations!" And
+    he referred once more to the luck of a certain Mr.
+    James Hawkins, ship's boy, late of "Treasure
+    Island."
+
+    "It's the nobodies that have all the fun--real
+    heroes don't count!" he continued ruefully, as he
+    dusted himself from the bits of straw.
+
+    "Wait," said I; "you have not heard the third tale
+    from Guy Mannering. Then there will be lots for you
+    to do!"
+
+    "High time!" he answered with awful irony.
+
+
+
+
+THE THIRD TALE FROM "GUY MANNERING"
+
+
+THE RETURN OF DIRK HATTERAICK
+
+ONE event deeply stirred all Solway-side in the year of Colonel
+Mannering's arrival at Woodbourne--the smugglers had returned in force,
+and proved themselves ripe for any desperate act. Their stronghold was
+as of old, the Isle of Man, from which they could descend in a few hours
+upon the Solway coasts. Stricter laws and more severe penalties had only
+rendered them fiercer than of old, and in case of need, they did not
+hesitate in the least to shed blood.
+
+As of yore also, their leader was the savage Dirk Hatteraick, under whom
+served a Lieutenant named Brown. One of their first exploits was a
+daring attack upon the house of Woodbourne, where dwelt Colonel
+Mannering with his daughter and Lucy Bertram.
+
+It happened thus. Mannering, in company with young Charles Hazlewood,
+was setting out for a loch some miles away to look at the skaters.
+Hazlewood had quite often come to visit the house of Woodbourne since
+Lucy Bertram went to live there. Suddenly a few men, each leading a
+laden horse, burst through the bushes, and, pressing straight across the
+lawn, made for the front door. Mannering hastened to demand what they
+wanted. They were revenue officers, they said, and as they knew that
+Colonel Mannering had served in the East, they called upon him in the
+King's name to protect them and their captures.
+
+To this Mannering instantly agreed. No time was to be lost. The
+smugglers were hot in pursuit, strongly reinforced. Immediately the
+goods were piled in the hall. The windows were blocked up with cushions,
+pillows, and (what caused the Dominie many a groan) great folios out of
+the library, bound in wood, covered with leather, and studded with
+brazen bosses like a Highland targe.
+
+While these preparations were being made within the house of Woodbourne
+the steady earth-shaking beat of a body of horsemen was heard
+approaching, and in a few minutes a body of thirty mounted men rushed
+out upon the lawn, brandishing weapons and uttering savage yells. Most
+of them had their heads tied up in coloured handkerchiefs, while many
+wore masks by way of disguising themselves.
+
+Finding the mansion in an unexpected state of defence, they halted a
+moment, as if to take counsel together. But finally one of them, his
+face all blackened with soot, dismounted and came forward, waving a
+white cloth in his hand.
+
+Colonel Mannering immediately threw up a window, and asked the smuggler
+what he wanted.
+
+"We want our goods, of which we have been robbed by these sharks," cried
+the man with the blackened face, "and we mean to have them. If you give
+them up, we will go away quietly without harming any one, but if you
+refuse, then we will burn the house and have the life-blood of every
+soul under your roof."
+
+This he swore with many horrible and cruel oaths.
+
+"If you do not instantly ride off my lawn," answered Colonel Mannering,
+"I will fire upon you without any further warning!"
+
+The Ambassador returned to his troop, and no sooner had he told them the
+Colonel's answer than they rushed forward to the attack with horrid
+yells. Three volleys were fired, shattering the window-glass in all
+directions, but, thanks to the Colonel's preparations, the slugs and
+bullets rattled harmlessly against his defences. Many of the smugglers
+now dismounted and advanced with axe and crow-bar to force the front
+door. It was time for those within to take action.
+
+"Let only Charles Hazlewood and myself shoot!" said the Colonel,
+"Hazlewood, do you mark the Ambassador. I will take the commander of the
+rascals--the man on the grey horse, whom they call their Lieutenant!"
+
+Both men fell as the shots rang out. Astonished by this reception, the
+smugglers retreated, carrying with them their wounded. It was one of
+these whom Captain Brown saw die in the little ruined keep at Derncleugh
+the night when he was overtaken in the darkness--indeed, that very
+namesake of his own, Brown, the mate of Hatteraick's vessel.
+
+There were many who thought that after this Captain Mannering ought to
+remove his family out of danger. But that gentleman confined himself to
+taking greater precautions at locking-up time, and insisting that when
+the ladies went out walking, a gun should be carried by an attendant for
+their protection.
+
+One day Julia Mannering and Lucy Bertram had gone out with young Charles
+Hazlewood to visit a small lake much frequented by skaters and curlers,
+while a servant followed behind with a gun.
+
+It chanced that Lucy, who never kept Hazlewood's arm when she could
+avoid it, had dropped behind as they were passing along a narrow path
+through a pine plantation. Julia Mannering was therefore alone at
+Charles Hazlewood's side when Brown suddenly appeared from among the
+trees, right in their path. He was roughly dressed, and young
+Hazlewood, taking him for one of the smugglers, and mistaking the
+meaning of Julia's cry of surprise at seeing her lover, snatched the gun
+from the servant, and haughtily ordered Brown to stand back so as not to
+alarm the lady. Brown, piqued at finding Julia on the arm of a stranger,
+replied as haughtily that he did not require to take lessons from
+Hazlewood how to behave to any lady. Instantly Charles Hazlewood pointed
+the gun at his breast. Upon which Brown sprang upon him, and in the
+struggle the gun went off by accident, and Hazlewood fell to the ground
+wounded. Brown, anxious not to bring Julia Mannering into the affair, at
+once sprang over the hedge and disappeared.
+
+[Illustration: "HE was roughly dressed, and young Hazlewood, taking him
+for one of the smugglers, and mistaking the meaning of Julia's cry of
+surprise at seeing her lover, snatched the gun from the servant, and
+haughtily ordered Brown to stand back so as not to alarm the lady."]
+
+Hazlewood's wound was, happily, not serious, and being an honest open
+young fellow, he was the first to own himself in the wrong. Nothing of
+importance would have come of the affair, but for the officiousness of
+Glossin, the new Laird of Ellangowan, who saw in it a way of
+ingratiating himself with the two powerful families of Mannering and
+Hazlewood.
+
+Glossin began by questioning the landlady of the hotel where Brown had
+been staying. Then he tried to draw out the postboy. From them he
+gathered little, save the fact that a young man named Brown had been
+staying at the Gordon Arms at Kippletringan. On the day of the accident
+to Charles Hazlewood, Brown had taken the postboy with him to show him
+the skating and curling on the pond in the neighbourhood of which the
+supposed attack had taken place. Jock Jabos, the postboy, however,
+denied that "the stoutest man in Scotland could take a gun frae him and
+shoot him wi' it, though he was but a feckless little body, fit only for
+the outside o' a saddle or the fore-end of a post-chaise. Na, nae living
+man wad venture on the like o' that!"
+
+So Glossin, in order the better to carry out his plans, pretended to
+believe that Brown was the Lieutenant of the gang which had assaulted
+the house of Woodbourne.
+
+Much more to the point was the information which was waiting for Glossin
+on his return to his house of Ellangowan. Mac-Guffog, the county
+thief-taker, and two of his people were there. With them they had
+brought a prisoner, whom they had first beguiled into drink, and then
+easily handcuffed while asleep. Glossin was delighted. He was under a
+great hope that this might prove to be Brown himself. Instead, he
+recognised an old acquaintance--no other than Dirk Hatteraick, the
+smuggler. In the interview which followed, Dirk told Glossin some facts
+which made him tremble. His possession of Ellangowan was threatened. The
+true heir, the young lad Harry Bertram, lost on the night of the murder
+of Frank Kennedy, had not perished as had been supposed. He had been
+brought up by the principal partner of the Dutch firm to which he had
+been bound apprentice, sent to the East Indies under the name of
+Vanbeest Brown, and he was at that very moment upon the coast of
+Solway--it might be very near to Ellangowan itself.
+
+Glossin saw his hopes wither before his eyes. If the heir should find
+out his rights, then the fruits of his villany, the estate of Ellangowan
+itself, must return to its true owner. The lawyer secretly gave Dirk
+Hatteraick a small file with which to rid himself of his irons, and then
+bade his captors confine him in the strong-room of the ancient castle.
+
+"The stanchions are falling to pieces with rust," he whispered to Dirk,
+"the distance to the ground is not twelve feet, and the snow lies thick.
+After that, you must steal my boat which lies below in the cove, and
+wait till I come to you in the cave of the Wood of Warroch!"
+
+So saying, he called the thief-takers in, and made his arrangements.
+Glossin could not sleep that night. Eagerly he watched the window of the
+old castle. He heard the iron bars fall outward upon the rocks with a
+clinking sound, and feared that all was lost. The light in the window
+was obscured, and presently he saw a black object drop upon the snow.
+Then the little boat put out from the harbour, the wind caught the sail,
+and she bore away in the direction of Warroch Point.
+
+On the morrow, however, he overwhelmed Mac-Guffog with the full force of
+his anger for his carelessness in allowing his prisoner to escape. Then
+he sent his men off in different directions, as fast as they could, to
+retake Hatteraick--in all directions, that is, except the true one.
+
+Having thus disposed of the thief-takers, he set out for Warroch Head
+alone. But the marks of his feet in the snow startled him. Any officer,
+coming upon that trail, would run it up like a bloodhound. So he changed
+his path, descending the cliff, and making his way cautiously along the
+sea-beach where the snow did not lie. He passed the great boulder which
+had fallen with Frank Kennedy. It was now all overgrown with mussels and
+seaweed. The mouth of the cave opened black and dismal before him.
+Glossin drew breath before entering such a haunt of iniquity, and
+recharged his pistols. He was, however, somewhat heartened by the
+thought that Dirk Hatteraick had nothing to gain by his death. Finally
+he took courage to push forward, and immediately the voice of Hatteraick
+came hoarse from the back of the cave.
+
+"Donner and hagel! Be'st du?" he growled.
+
+"Are you in the dark?" said Glossin, soothingly.
+
+"Dark? Der deyvel, ay!" retorted Hatteraick, "where should I get a glim?
+I am near frozen also! Snow-water and hagel--I could only keep myself
+warm by tramping up and down this vault and thinking on the merry rouses
+we used to have here!"
+
+Glossin made a light, and having set down the little lantern which he
+carried, he gathered together some barrel-staves and driftwood. The
+flame showed Hatteraick's fierce and bronzed visage as he warmed his
+sinewy hands at the blaze. He sat with his face thrust forward and
+actually in the smoke itself, so great had been his agony of cold. When
+he was a little warmed up, Glossin gave him some cold meat and a flask
+of strong spirits. Hatteraick eagerly seized upon these, exclaiming,
+after a long draught, "Ah, that is good--that warms the liver!"
+
+After the liquor and the food had put the smuggler into a somewhat
+better temper, the two associates settled themselves to discuss the
+project which had brought Glossin to the Cave of the Warroch Point.
+
+Up to the present, Glossin had believed that the Vanbeest Brown who had
+wounded young Hazlewood was the mate of the smuggling lugger. But now,
+hearing that this Brown had been shot on the night of the Woodbourne
+attack, all at once a light broke upon him. The assailant could be no
+other than the rightful heir of Ellangowan, Harry Bertram.
+
+"If he is on this coast," he meditated, half to himself, "I can have him
+arrested as the leader of the attack upon Woodbourne, and also for an
+assault upon Charles Hazlewood!"
+
+"But," said Dirk Hatteraick, grimly, "he will be loose again upon you,
+as soon as he can show himself to carry other colours!"
+
+"True, friend Hatteraick," said Glossin; "still, till that is proved, I
+can imprison him in the custom-house of Portanferry, where your goods
+are also stowed. You and your crew can attack the custom-house, regain
+your cargo, and--"
+
+"Send the heir of Ellangowan to Jericho--or the bottom of the sea!"
+cried Hatteraick, with fierce bitterness.
+
+"Nay, I advise no violence," said Glossin, softly, looking at the
+ground.
+
+"Nein--nein," growled the smuggler; "you only leave that to me.
+Sturm-wetter, I know you of old! Well, well, if I thought the trade
+would not suffer, I would soon rid you of this younker--as soon, that
+is, as you send me word that he is under lock and key!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It so happened that at the very moment when Colonel Mannering and
+Dominie Sampson had gone to Edinburgh to see after an inheritance,
+Brown, or rather young Bertram (to give his real name), had succeeded in
+crossing the Solway in a sailing-boat, and was safe in Cumberland.
+
+Mannering's mission was one of kindliness to his guest, Lucy Bertram.
+Her aunt, old Miss Bertram of Singleside, had formerly made Lucy her
+heiress, and the Colonel hoped that she might have continued of this
+excellent mind. By Mr. Mac-Morlan's advice he engaged a whimsical but
+able Scottish lawyer to go with him to the opening of the will--at which
+ceremony, among other connections of the deceased, Dandie Dinmont was
+also present. But all were disappointed. For Miss Bertram had put her
+whole property in trust on behalf of the lost heir of Ellangowan, young
+Harry Bertram, whom (said the will) she had good reason for believing to
+be still alive.
+
+The object of all these plots and plans, good and evil intentions, was,
+however, safe in Cumberland. And had he been content to stay where he
+was, safe he would have remained. But as soon as young Bertram arrived
+upon the English coast he had written to Julia Mannering to explain his
+conduct in the affair with Hazlewood, to the Colonel of his regiment to
+ask him for the means of establishing his identity as a Captain in one
+of his Majesty's dragoon regiments, to his agent to send him a sum of
+money, and in the meantime to Dandie Dinmont for a small temporary loan
+till he could hear from his man-of-affairs.
+
+So he had nothing to do but wait. However, a sharp reply from Julia
+Mannering stung him to the quick. In this she first of all informed him
+that the Colonel would be from home for some days, then reproached him
+for the hastiness of his conduct, and concluded by saying that he was
+not to think of returning to Scotland.
+
+This last was, of course, what Bertram at once proceeded to do, as
+perhaps the young lady both hoped and anticipated.
+
+So once more the heir of Ellangowan was set ashore beneath the old
+castle which had been built by his forefathers. He had worked his
+passage manfully, and it was with regret that the sailors put him ashore
+in the bay directly beneath the Auld Place of Ellangowan. Some
+remembrance came across him, drifting fitfully over his mind, that
+somehow he was familiar with these ruins. When he had entered and looked
+about him, this became almost a certainty. It chanced that lawyer
+Glossin had entered the castle at about the same time, coming, as he
+said aloud, to see "what could be made of it as a quarry of good hewn
+stone," and adding that it would be better to pull it down at any rate,
+than to preserve it as a mere haunt of smugglers and evil-doers.
+
+"And would you destroy this fine old ruin?" said Bertram, who had
+overheard the last part of Glossin's remarks. The lawyer was struck
+dumb, so exactly were the tone and attitude those of Harry Bertram's
+father in his best days. Indeed, coming suddenly face to face with the
+young man there within the ancient castle of Ellangowan, it seemed to
+Glossin as if Godfrey Bertram had indeed risen from the dead to denounce
+and punish his treachery.
+
+But the lawyer soon recovered himself. The scheme he had worked out
+together with Dirk Hatteraick matured in his mind, and this seemed as
+good a time as any for carrying it out. So he waited only for the coming
+of two of his thief-takers to lay hands on Bertram, and to send word to
+the father of Charles Hazlewood that he held the would-be murderer of
+his son at his disposition.
+
+Now Sir Robert Hazlewood was a formal old dunderhead, who was of opinion
+that his family, and all connected with it, were the only really
+important things in the universe. Still when the prisoner was brought
+before him, he was a good deal startled by Bertram's quiet assurance,
+and, in spite of Glossin's sneers, could not help being influenced by
+the information that Colonel Guy Mannering could speak to the fact of
+his being both an officer and a gentleman. But Glossin pointed out that
+Mannering was in Edinburgh, and that they could not let a possible
+malefactor go merely because he said that he was known to an absent
+man. It was, therefore, arranged that, pending the arrival of the
+Colonel, Harry Bertram (or Captain Vanbeest Brown) should be confined in
+the custom-house at Portanferry, where there was a guard of soldiers for
+the purpose of guarding the goods taken from the smugglers.
+
+Happy that his schemes were prospering so well, Glossin went off to
+arrange with Dirk Hatteraick for the attack, and also as to the removal
+of the soldiers, in such a way that no suspicion might fall upon that
+honourable gentleman, Mr. Gilbert Glossin, Justice of the Peace and
+present owner of Ellangowan.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, however, the emissaries of Meg Merrilies were not idle. They
+brought her the earliest information that the heir of Ellangowan was in
+the custom-house at Portanferry, and in imminent danger of his life. Far
+on the hills of Liddesdale one Gibbs Faa, a gipsy huntsman, warned
+Dandie Dinmont that if he wished his friend well, he had better take
+horse and ride straight for Portanferry--where, if he found Brown in
+confinement, he was to stay by him night and day. For if he did not, he
+would only regret it once--and that would be for his whole life.
+
+Glossin's plan was to work on the fears of the stupid pompous Sir Robert
+Hazlewood, so that he would summon all the soldiers for the defence of
+Hazlewood House, in the belief that it was to be assaulted by the
+gipsies and smugglers. But Meg Merrilies herself sent young Charles
+Hazlewood to order the soldiers back, in which mission he would have
+succeeded but for the dull persistence of his father. However, Mr.
+Mac-Morlan, as Sheriff-Substitute of the county, was able to do that in
+spite of Sir Robert's protest which the good sense of his son had been
+powerless to effect. The soldiers left Hazlewood House, and took the
+direct road back to Portanferry in spite of Sir Robert's threats and
+remonstrances.
+
+Lastly Colonel Mannering, but recently returned from Edinburgh, was
+warned by a missive which Dominie Sampson had brought from Meg herself.
+So that on one particular night all the forces of order, as well as
+those of disorder, were directing themselves toward the custom-house of
+Portanferry, where in a close and ignoble apartment Harry Bertram and
+his worthy friend, Dandie Dinmont, were sleeping. It was Bertram who
+wakened first. There was a strong smell of burning in the room. From the
+window he could see a crowded boat-load of men landing at the little
+harbour, and in the yard below a huge mastiff was raging on his chain.
+
+"Go down and let loose the dog!" the wife of Mac-Guffog called to her
+husband; "I tell you they are breaking in the door of the liquor store!"
+
+But the good man appeared to be more anxious about his prisoners. He
+went from cell to cell, making sure that all was safe, while his wife,
+affirming that he had not the heart of a chicken, descended herself into
+the courtyard.
+
+In the meantime, Bertram and Dandie watched from their barred window the
+savage figures of the smugglers triumphantly loading their boats with
+their recovered goods, while the whole custom-house flamed to the
+heavens, sending sparks and blazing fragments upon the roof of the
+adjoining prison.
+
+Soon at the outer gate was heard the thunder of sledge-hammers and
+crows. It was being forced by the smugglers. Mac-Guffog and his wife had
+already fled, but the underlings delivered the keys, and the prisoners
+were soon rejoicing in their liberty. In the confusion, four or five of
+the principal actors entered the cell of Bertram.
+
+"Der deyvil," exclaimed the leader, "here's our mark!"
+
+Two of them accordingly seized Bertram and hurried him along. One of
+them, however, whispered in his ear to make no resistance for the
+present--also bidding Dinmont over his shoulder to follow his friend
+quietly and help when the time came. Bertram found himself dragged along
+passages, through the courtyard, and finally out into the narrow street,
+where, in the crowd and confusion, the smugglers became somewhat
+separated from each other. The sound of cavalry approaching rapidly made
+itself heard.
+
+"Hagel and wetter!" cried the leader, no other than Hatteraick himself,
+"what is that? Keep together--look to the prisoner!"
+
+But, for all that, the two who held Bertram were left last of the party.
+The crowd began to break, rushing this way and that. Shots were fired,
+and above the press the broadswords of the dragoons were seen to
+glitter, flashing over the heads of the rioters.
+
+"Now," whispered the man who had before advised Bertram to be quiet,
+"shake off that fellow and follow me."
+
+Bertram easily did so, and his left-hand captor, attempting to draw a
+pistol, was instantly knocked senseless by the huge fist of Dandie
+Dinmont.
+
+"Now, follow quick!" said the first, diving at the word into a dirty and
+narrow lane. There was no pursuit. Mr. Mac-Morlan and the soldiers had
+appeared in the nick of time. The smugglers had enough to do to provide
+for their own safety.
+
+At the end of the lane they found a post-chaise with four horses.
+
+"Are you here, in God's name?" cried their guide.
+
+"Ay, troth am I," said Jock Jabos; "and I wish I were ony gate else!"
+
+The guide opened the carriage door.
+
+"Get in," he said to Bertram, "and remember your promise to the gipsy
+wife!"
+
+Through the windows of the coach Dinmont and he could see the village of
+Portanferry, and indeed the whole landscape, brilliantly lighted by a
+tall column of light. The flames had caught the stores of spirits kept
+in the custom-house. But soon the carriage turned sharply through dark
+woods at the top speed of the horses, and, after a long journey, finally
+drew up in front of a mansion, in the windows of which lights still
+burned, in spite of the lateness of the hour.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    The listening children remained breathless as I
+    paused. I had meant this to be the end of my tale,
+    but I saw at once that no excuse would be held
+    valid for such a shameful dereliction of duty.
+
+    "Go on--go on," they cried; "where was the house
+    and what happened?"
+
+    "I know!" said Sweetheart; "it was the house of
+    Julia Mannering, and her lover--"
+
+    "Oh, bother her lover," cried Hugh John,
+    impatiently; "_we_ don't want to hear about how
+    they lived happy ever after. Tell us about the
+    gipsy, Meg Merrilies--"
+
+    "And about Dirk Hatteraick!" said Sir Toady Lion,
+    getting his word in. "I just love Dirk!"
+
+    "And how many people he killed wif his big knife,
+    and if he was burnt up alive in the fire!" For Maid
+    Margaret also delights in the most gory details,
+    though she would not willingly tread upon a worm.
+
+    "Yes, go on, tell us all--everything that
+    happened!" said Sweetheart.
+
+    "But do skip the lovering parts," cried the boys in
+    chorus.
+
+    So within these statutes of limitation I had
+    perforce to recommence, without further preface,
+    telling the fourth and last tale from _Guy
+    Mannering_.
+
+
+
+
+THE FOURTH TALE FROM "GUY MANNERING"
+
+
+THE FIGHT IN THE CAVE
+
+IMMEDIATELY upon receiving the message of Meg Merrilies, brought by
+Dominie Sampson, Colonel Mannering had sent a carriage to the place
+designated. Bertram and his companion Dandie, having by the help of the
+gipsies, Meg's companions, made good their escape from the burning
+custom-house, took their places in it and were whirled through the
+darkness, they knew not whither. But it was at the door of the house of
+Woodbourne that they found themselves. Mr. Pleydell, the lawyer, had
+also arrived from Edinburgh, so that all were presently met together in
+the drawing-room, and it is difficult to say which of the party appeared
+the most surprised.
+
+In Captain Brown (or Harry Bertram, to call him by his own proper name),
+Colonel Mannering saw the man whom he had believed slain by his hand in
+India. Julia met her lover in her father's house, and apparently there
+by his invitation. Dominie Sampson stood half aghast to recognise the
+lost heir of Ellangowan. Bertram himself feared the effect which his
+sudden appearance might have on Julia, while honest Dandie wished his
+thick-soled boots and rough-spun Liddesdale plaid anywhere else than in
+a room filled with ladies and gentlemen.
+
+Only the lawyer, Mr. Pleydell, was wholly master of the situation, and
+bustled about, putting everybody at their ease. He saw himself in the
+thick of a great mysterious lawsuit which he alone could unravel, and he
+proceeded on the spot to cross-examine Bertram as to what he remembered
+of his life before he went to Holland.
+
+Bertram remembered, he said, quite clearly, a good-looking gentleman
+whom he had called father, a delicate lady who must have been his
+mother, but more distinctly than either he recalled a tall man in worn
+black who had taught him his lessons and whom he loved for his kindness.
+
+At these words Dominie Sampson could contain himself no longer. He rose
+hastily from his chair, and with clasped hands and trembling limbs cried
+out, "Harry Bertram--look at me! Was not I the man?"
+
+Bertram started up as if a sudden light had dawned upon him.
+
+"Yes," he cried, "that is my name--Bertram--Harry Bertram! And those are
+the voice and figure of my kind old master!"
+
+The Dominie threw himself into his arms, his whole frame shaking with
+emotion, and at last, his feelings overcoming him, he lifted up his
+voice and wept. Even Colonel Mannering had need of his handkerchief.
+Pleydell made wry faces and rubbed hard at his glasses, while Dandie
+Dinmont, after two strange blubbering explosions, fairly gave way and
+cried out, "Deil's in the man! He's garred me do what I haena done since
+my auld mither died!"
+
+After this, the examination went on more staidly. Bertram said that he
+remembered very well the walk he had taken with the Dominie and somebody
+lifting him up on horseback--then, more indistinctly, a scuffle in which
+he and his guide had been pulled from the saddle. Vaguely and gradually
+the memory came back of how he had been lifted into the arms of a very
+tall woman who protected him from harm. Again he was a poor half-starved
+cabin-boy in the Holland trade. Quickly, however, gaining the good-will
+of the leading partner of the firm to which the vessel belonged, he had
+been thoroughly well educated in Holland, before being sent to seek his
+fortune in India. He passed over his career there, but told in detail
+the accidental way in which young Hazlewood had been wounded, and ended
+by a request that he should now be told who the questioner might be who
+took such an interest in his affairs.
+
+"Why, for myself, sir," answered the counsellor, "I am Paulus Pleydell,
+an advocate at the Scottish bar. And as for you, it is not easy for the
+moment to say who you are. But I trust in a short time to hail you by
+the title of Henry Bertram, Esquire, representative of one of the oldest
+families in Scotland, and heir of entail to the estates of Ellangowan."
+
+On the morrow the plotting at Woodbourne still went on merrily, around
+the person of the newly found heir. The counsellor-at-law arranged his
+plan of campaign. The Dominie, having left Harry Bertram at half-text
+and words of two syllables when he was carried off in Warroch Wood,
+prepared to take up his education at that exact point.
+
+"Of a surety, little Harry," he said, "we will presently resume our
+studies. We will begin from the foundation. Yes, I will reform your
+education upward from the true knowledge of English grammar, even to
+that of the Hebrew or Chaldaic tongue!"
+
+In the meantime, Colonel Mannering, having first had an interview with
+the counsellor in his room, gently drew from Julia that it was no other
+than Bertram who had spoken with her under her window at Mervyn Hall;
+also that, though she had remained silent, she had perfectly recognised
+him before the scuffle took place with young Hazlewood at the pond. For
+these concealments from her father, Mannering as gently forgave her, and
+received in return a promise that, in future, she would hide nothing
+from him which it concerned him to know.
+
+The first step of the conspirators was to obtain a legal release for
+Bertram from Sir Robert Hazlewood, who granted it most unwillingly,
+having (it was evident) been secretly primed by Glossin as to what he
+should say and do. But it was secured at last, upon Colonel Mannering's
+pledging his word of honour for his appearance. And while the business
+was being settled, Harry Bertram, with the two ladies, wandered out to a
+knoll above the ancient castle of Ellangowan to look once again upon the
+home of his ancestors.
+
+They were standing here, looking on the crumbling walls, when suddenly,
+as if emerging from the earth, Meg Merrilies ascended from the hollow
+way beneath, and stood before them.
+
+"I sought ye at the house," she said, "but ye are right and I was wrong.
+It is here we should meet--here, on the very spot where my eyes last saw
+your father. And now, remember your promise and follow me!"
+
+In spite of the unwillingness of Lucy and Julia to allow him to depart
+with such a companion, Bertram and Dandie (for Meg invited Dinmont also
+to follow her) hastened to obey the gipsy's summons. There was something
+weird in the steady swiftness of her gait as she strode right forward
+across the moor, taking no heed either of obstacle or of well-trodden
+path. She seemed like some strange withered enchantress drawing men
+after her by her witchcrafts. But Julia and Lucy were somewhat comforted
+by the thought that if the gipsy had meditated any evil against Bertram,
+she would not have asked so doughty a fighter as Dandie Dinmont to
+accompany him.
+
+They therefore made the best of their way home, and while they were
+telling the adventure to the Colonel, young Hazlewood, who happened to
+be at Woodbourne, courageously offered to follow after, to see that no
+harm came to Dandie and his former antagonist.
+
+Meg Merrilies led them through the wood of Warroch, along the same path
+by which Harry had been carried on the night of the exciseman's murder.
+
+Turning for a moment, she asked Bertram if he remembered the way.
+
+"Not very clearly!" he answered.
+
+"Ay," she said, "here was the very spot where Frank Kennedy was pulled
+from his horse. I was hiding behind the bour-tree bush at the moment.
+Sair, sair he strove and sair he cried for mercy. But he was in the
+hands of them that never kenned the word."
+
+Continuing her way, she led them downward to the sea by a secret and
+rugged path, cut in the face of the cliff, and hidden among brushwood.
+There on the shore lay the stone under which the body of Frank Kennedy
+had been found crushed. A little farther on was the cave itself in which
+the murderers had concealed themselves. The gipsy pointed mysteriously.
+
+"He is there," she said, in a low voice, "the man who alone can
+establish your right--Jansen Hatteraick, the tyrant of your youth, and
+the murderer of Frank Kennedy. Follow me--I have put the fire between
+you. He will not see you as you enter, but when I utter the words, 'The
+Hour and the Man'--then do you rush in and seize him. But be prepared.
+It will be a hard battle, for Hatteraick is a very devil!"
+
+"Dandie, you must stand by me now!" said Bertram to his comrade.
+
+"That ye need never doubt," returned the Borderer; "but a' the same it's
+an awesome thing to leave the blessed sun and free air, and gang and be
+killed like a fox in his hole. But I'll never baulk ye--it'll be a
+hard-bitten terrier that will worry Dandie!"
+
+So forward they went, creeping cautiously on all fours after the gipsy
+woman. When they were about halfway in, a hand was laid on Dandie
+Dinmont's heel, and it was all the stout farmer could do to keep from
+crying out--which, in the defenceless position in which they were
+placed, might well have cost them all their lives.
+
+However, Dandie freed his ankle with a kick, and instantly a voice
+behind him whispered, "It is a friend--Charles Hazlewood!"
+
+As soon as they had gained the higher part of the cave, Meg Merrilies
+began rustling about among the dried branches, murmuring and singing, to
+cover the noise made by the entrance of the three men who followed her.
+From the deep dark where they stood, they could see Dirk Hatteraick at
+the farther end of the cave, behind a fire which he was continually
+building up by throwing into it bits of dried sticks. Hatteraick was of
+powerful build, and his features were beyond description savage and
+rugged. A cutlass hung by his side, and into his belt he had thrust,
+ready to his hand at a moment's notice, two pairs of pistols. Truly the
+capture of Dirk Hatteraick was no light adventure, and Bertram, having
+been warned by Dandie in a cautious whisper of Hazlewood's arrival,
+thought within himself that they would be none the worse of the third
+who had come so opportunely to their assistance.
+
+"Here, beldam--deyvil's kind," cried Hatteraick in his harshest voice,
+"have you brought me the brandy and news of my people?"
+
+"Here is the flask for you," answered Meg, passing it to him; "but as
+for your crew, they are all cut down and scattered by the redcoats!"
+
+"Storm and wetter, ye hag," he cried, "ye bring ill news. This coast is
+fatal to me! And what of Glossin?"
+
+"Ye missed your stroke there," she said; "ye have nothing to expect from
+him!"
+
+"Hagel," cried the ruffian, "if only I had him by the throat! He has led
+me to perdition--men lost, boat lost, credit lost. I dare never show my
+face in Flushing again!"
+
+"_You will never need!_" croaked the gipsy.
+
+Meg's sombre prophecy startled Hatteraick. He looked up suddenly.
+
+"What is that you say, witch? And what are you doing there?" he cried.
+Meg dropped a firebrand steeped in spirit upon some loose flax.
+Instantly a tall column of brilliant wavering light filled the cave.
+
+"Ye will never need to go to Flushing," she said, "because 'The Hour's
+come and the Man!'"
+
+At the signal, Bertram and Dandie Dinmont, springing over the brushwood,
+rushed upon Hatteraick. Hazlewood, not knowing the plan of assault, was
+a moment later. The ruffian instantly understood that he had been
+betrayed, and the first brunt of his anger fell upon Meg Merrilies, at
+whose breast he fired a pistol point-blank. She fell with a shriek which
+was partly the sudden pain of the wound, and partly a shout of
+triumphant laughter.
+
+"I kenned it would end that way--and it is e'en this way that it should
+end!"
+
+Bertram had caught his foot on some slippery weed as he advanced, and
+the chance stumble saved his life. For otherwise Hatteraick's second
+bullet, aimed coolly and steadily, would certainly have crashed through
+his skull. Before he could draw a third, Dandie Dinmont was upon him.
+Yet such was the giant smuggler's strength and desperation, that he
+actually dragged Dandie through the burning flax, before Bertram and
+Hazlewood could come to the farmer's assistance. Then in a moment more
+Hatteraick was disarmed and bound, though to master him took all the
+strength of three strong well-grown men.
+
+After he had been once bound securely, Hatteraick made no further
+attempt to escape. He lay perfectly still while Bertram, leaving Dandie
+to guard his prisoner, went to look to Meg Merrilies. The soldier,
+familiar with gunshot wounds, knew at once that her case was hopeless.
+
+But he did what he could to bind up the old gipsy's wound, while
+Dandie, his hand laid heavily on Hatteraick's breast, watched pistol in
+hand the entrance of the cave. Hazlewood, whose horse had been tied
+outside, mounted to ride for assistance, and in a few moments silence
+fell on the scene of so fierce a combat, broken only by the low moans of
+the wounded gipsy.
+
+It was no more than three-quarters of an hour that Bertram and Dandie
+Dinmont had to keep their watch. But to them it seemed as if ages had
+passed before Hazlewood returned and they were clear of the fatal
+cavern. Hatteraick allowed himself to be removed without either
+assisting or hindering those who had charge of him. But when his captors
+would have had him rest against the huge boulder which had been thrown
+down along with the murdered exciseman, Hatteraick shrank back with a
+shout:
+
+"Hagel--not there," he cried, "you would not have me sit _there!_"
+
+On the arrival of a doctor, he could only confirm Bertram's opinion that
+Meg Merrilies was indeed wounded to the death. But she had enough
+strength left to call the assembled people to witness that Bertram was
+indeed young Harry Bertram the lost heir of Ellangowan.
+
+"All who have ever seen his father or grandfather, bear witness if he is
+not their living image!" she cried.
+
+Then with her failing breath she told the tale of the murder, and how
+she had pleaded for the child's life. She dared Dirk Hatteraick to deny
+the truth of what she was saying. But the villain only kept his grim
+silence. Then suddenly the enthusiasm broke forth at the chance
+testimony of the driver of a return coach to Kippletringan, who
+exclaimed at sight of Bertram, "As sure as there's breath in man,
+there's auld Ellangowan risen from the dead!" The shouts of the people,
+many of whom had lived all their lives on his father's land, came
+gratefully to the ear of the dying woman.
+
+"Dinna ye hear?" she cried, "dinna ye hear? He's owned--he's owned! I am
+a sinfu' woman! It was my curse that brought the ill, but it has been my
+blessing that has ta'en it off! Stand oot o' the light that I may see
+him yince mair. But no--it may not be! The darkness is in my ain e'en.
+It's a' ended now:
+
+        "Pass breath,
+         Come death!"
+
+And sinking back on her bed of straw, Meg Merrilies died without a
+groan.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Pleydell having, as Sheriff of the county, formerly conducted the
+inquiry into Frank Kennedy's death, was asked by the other magistrates
+to preside at this. The meeting was held in the court-house of
+Kippletringan, and many of the chief people in the neighbourhood
+hastened to the little town to be present at the examination of
+Hatteraick. Pleydell, among the evidence formerly collected, had by him
+the sizes and markings of the footmarks found round the place of Frank
+Kennedy's death-struggle. These had, of course, been safely preserved,
+ever since the failure of justice on that occasion. One set evidently
+belonged to a long and heavy foot, and fitted the boots of Brown, the
+mate of Hatteraick's vessel, the same who had been killed at the attack
+on Woodbourne. The stouter and thicker moulds fitted those of the
+prisoner himself.
+
+At this Hatteraick cried out suddenly, "Der deyvil, how could there be
+footmarks at all on the ground when it was as hard as the heart of a
+Memel log?"
+
+Instantly Pleydell noted the smuggler's slip.
+
+"In the evening," he said, "I grant you the ground was hard--not,
+however, in the morning. But, Captain Hatteraick, will you kindly tell
+me where you were on the day which you remember so exactly?"
+
+Hatteraick, seeing his mistake, again relapsed into silence, and at that
+moment Glossin bustled in to take his place on the bench with his
+brother magistrates. He was, however, very coldly received indeed,
+though he did his best to curry favour with each in succession. Even
+Hatteraick only scowled at him, when he suggested that "the poor man,
+being only up for examination, need not be so heavily ironed."
+
+"The poor man has escaped once before," said Mr. Mac-Morlan, drily. But
+something worse was in store for Glossin than the cold shoulder from his
+fellow-justices. In his search through the documents found upon
+Hatteraick, Pleydell had come upon three slips of paper, being bills
+which had been drawn and signed by Hatteraick on the very day of the
+Kennedy murder, ordering large sums of money to be paid to Glossin. The
+bills had been duly honoured. Mr. Pleydell turned at once upon Glossin.
+
+"That confirms the story which has been told by a second eye-witness of
+the murder, one Gabriel, or Gibbs Faa, a nephew of Meg Merrilies, that
+you were an accessory after the fact, in so far as, though you did not
+take part in the slaughter of Kennedy, you concealed the guilty persons
+on account of their giving you this sum of money."
+
+In a few minutes Glossin found himself deserted by all, and he was even
+ordered to be confined in the prison of Kippletringan, in a room
+immediately underneath the cell occupied by Hatteraick. The smuggler,
+being under the accusation of murder and having once already escaped,
+was put for safety in the dungeon, called the "condemned cell," and
+there chained to a great bar of iron, upon which a thick ring ran from
+one side of the room to the other.
+
+Left to his unpleasant reflections, Glossin began to count up the
+chances in his favour. Meg Merrilies was dead. Gabriel Faa, besides
+being a gipsy, was a vagrant and a deserter. The other witnesses--he did
+not greatly fear them! If only Dirk Hatteraick could be induced to be
+steady, and to put another meaning upon the sums of money which had
+been paid to him on the day of Kennedy's murder!
+
+He must see Hatteraick--that very night he must see him! He slipped two
+guineas into Mac-Guffog's hand (who since the burning of Portanferry
+prison had been made under-turnkey at Kippletringan), and by the
+thief-taker's connivance he was to be admitted that very night at
+locking-up time into the cell of Dirk Hatteraick.
+
+"But you will have to remain there all night," said the man. "I have to
+take the keys of all the cells directly to the captain of the prison!"
+
+So on his stocking-soles Glossin stole up after his guide, and was
+presently locked in with the savage and desperate smuggler. At first
+Hatteraick would neither speak to Glossin nor listen to a word
+concerning his plans.
+
+"Plans," he cried at last, in a burst of fury, "you and your plans! You
+have planned me out of ship, cargo, and life. I dreamed this moment that
+Meg Merrilies dragged you here by the hair, and put her long clasp-knife
+into my hand. Ah, you don't know what she said! Sturm-wetter, it will be
+your wisdom not to tempt me!"
+
+"Why, Hatteraick," said Glossin, "have you turned driveller? Rise and
+speak with me!"
+
+"Hagel, nein--let me alone!"
+
+"Get up, at least! Up with you for an obstinate Dutch brute!" said
+Glossin, all at once losing his temper and kicking him with his heavy
+boot.
+
+"Donner and blitzen," cried Hatteraick, leaping up and grappling with
+him, "you shall have it then!"
+
+Glossin resisted as best he could, but his utmost strength was as
+nothing in the mighty grasp of the angry savage. He fell under
+Hatteraick, the back of his neck coming with a fearful crash upon the
+iron bar.
+
+In the morning, true to his promise, Mac-Guffog called Glossin to come
+out of Hatteraick's cell.
+
+"Call louder!" answered a voice from within, grimly.
+
+"Mr. Glossin, come away," repeated Mac-Guffog; "for Heaven's sake come
+away!"
+
+"He'll hardly do that without help!" said Hatteraick.
+
+"What are you standing chattering there for, Mac-Guffog?" cried the
+captain of the prison, coming up with a lantern. They found Glossin's
+body doubled across the iron bar. He was stone dead. Hatteraick's grip
+had choked the life out of him as he lay.
+
+The murderer, having thus done justice on his accomplice, asked neither
+favour nor mercy for himself, save only that he might have paper whereon
+to write to his firm in Holland.
+
+"I was always faithful to owners," he said, when they reproached him
+with his crimes. "I always accounted for cargo to the last stiver! As
+for that carrion," he added (pointing to Glossin), "I have only sent him
+to the devil a little ahead of me!"
+
+They gave him what he asked for--pens, ink, and paper. And on their
+return, in a couple of hours, they found his body dangling from the
+wall. The smuggler had hanged himself by a cord taken from his own
+truckle-bed.
+
+And though Mac-Guffog lost his place, on the suspicion of having
+introduced Glossin into Hatteraick's cell, there were many who believed
+that it was the Evil One himself who had brought the rogue and the
+ruffian together in order that they might save the hangman the trouble
+of doing his office upon them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The end can be told in a word. Harry Bertram was duly and legally
+returned as heir of Ellangowan. His father's debts were soon paid, and
+the Colonel, in giving him his daughter, gave him also the means of
+rebuilding the ancient castle of the Ellangowan race. Sir Robert
+Hazlewood had no objections to Lucy Bertram as a daughter-in-law, so
+soon as he knew that she brought with her as a dowry the whole estate of
+Singleside, which her brother insisted on her taking in accordance with
+her aunt's first intention. And lastly, in the new castle, there was one
+chamber bigger than all the others, called the Library, and just off it
+a little one, in which dwelt the happiest of men upon the earth. This
+chamber was called on the plans "Mr. Sampson's Apartment."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE END OF THE FOURTH AND LAST TALE FROM "GUY MANNERING."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INTERLUDE OF CONSULTATION
+
+    A unanimous sigh greeted the close of _Guy
+    Mannering_. It was the narrator's reward--the same
+    which the orator hears, when, in a pause of speech,
+    the strained attention relaxes, and the people,
+    slowly bent forward like a field of corn across
+    which the wind blows, settle back into their
+    places.
+
+    "A jolly ending--and the cave part was ripping!"
+    summed up Hugh John, nodding his head in grave
+    approval of Sir Walter, "but why can't he always
+    write like that?"
+
+    "Couldn't keep it up," suggested Sir Toady Lion;
+    "books can't all be caves, you know."
+
+    "Well, anyhow, I'm not going to play any more
+    heroes," said Hugh John, emphatically. "I bags
+    Hatteraick--when we get out to the Den!"
+
+    The young man intimated by these cabalistic words
+    that the part of Hatteraick was to be his in any
+    future play-acting.
+
+    "Which being interpreted," said Sweetheart, with
+    spirit, "means that I am to be Gilbert Faa the
+    gipsy, and Glossin, and all these nasty sort of
+    people. Now I don't mind Meg Merrilies a bit. And
+    being shot like that--that's always something. But
+    I warn you, Hugh John, that if you were Hatteraick
+    ten times over, you couldn't get me down over that
+    iron bar!"
+
+    "No, that you couldn't," said Sir Toady Lion,
+    seeing a far-off chance for himself; "why,
+    Sweetheart could just batter your head against the
+    wall! And then when Mac-Guffog came in the morning
+    with his lantern, he'd find that old Hatteraick
+    hadn't any need to go and hang himself! But don't
+    you two squabble over it; _I_ will do Hatteraick
+    myself!"
+
+    "A very likely thing!" sneered Hugh John. "You
+    heard me say 'Bags Hatteraick,' Toady Lion! Every
+    one heard me--you can't go back on that. You know
+    you can't!"
+
+    This was unanswerable. It was felt that to palter
+    with such sacred formulas would be to renounce the
+    most sacred obligations and to unsettle the very
+    foundations of society.
+
+    Whereupon I hastened to keep his Majesty's peace by
+    proposing a compromise.
+
+    "The girls surely don't want to play the villains'
+    parts," I began.
+
+    "Oh, but just don't they!" ejaculated Maid
+    Margaret, with the eyes of a child-saint
+    momentarily disappointed of Paradise. "Why does a
+    cat not eat butter for breakfast every morning?
+    Because it jolly well can't get it."
+
+    "Well, at any rate," said I, severely, "girls
+    oughtn't to _want_ to play the villains' parts."
+
+    "No," said Sweetheart, with still, concentrated
+    irony, "they ought always to do just what boys tell
+    them to, of course--never think of wanting anything
+    that boys want, and always be thankful for boys'
+    leavings! U-m-m! _I_ know!"
+
+    "You should wait till you hear what I meant to say,
+    Sweetheart," I went on, with as much dignity as I
+    could muster. "There are plenty of characters you
+    will like to be, in every one of the books, but I
+    think it would be fair always to draw lots for the
+    first choice!"
+
+    "Yes--yes--oh, yes!" came the chorus, from three of
+    the party. But Hugh John, strong in the
+    indefeasible rights of man, only repeated, "_I_
+    said 'Bags Hatteraick!'"
+
+    "Well, then," I said, "for this time Hatteraick is
+    yours, but for the future it will be fairer to draw
+    lots for first choice."
+
+    "All right," growled Hugh John; "then I suppose
+    I'll have to put up with a lot more heroes!
+    Milksops, I call them!"
+
+    "Which book shall we have next?" said Sweetheart,
+    who was beginning to be rather ashamed of her heat.
+    "I don't believe that you could tell us _Rob Roy!_"
+
+    "Well, I can try," said I, modestly. For so it
+    behooves a modern parent to behave in the presence
+    of his children.
+
+    "_She_," said Hugh John, pointing directly at his
+    sister, "she read nearly half the book aloud, and
+    we never came to Rob at all. That's why she asks
+    for _Rob Roy_."
+
+    "But there's all about Alan Breck in the
+    preface--ripping, it is!" interpolated Sir Toady,
+    who had been doing some original research, "tell us
+    about him."
+
+    But Alan Breck was quite another story, and I said
+    so at once. _Rob Roy_ they had asked for. _Rob Roy_
+    they should have. And then I would stand or fall by
+    their judgment.
+
+
+
+
+RED CAP TALES
+
+TOLD FROM
+
+ROB ROY
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FIRST TALE FROM "ROB ROY"
+
+
+FRANK THE HIGHWAYMAN
+
+FRANK OSBALDISTONE had come back from France to quarrel with his father.
+A merchant he would not be. He hated the three-legged stool, and he used
+the counting-house quills to write verses with.
+
+His four years in Bordeaux had spoiled him for strict business, without
+teaching him anything else practical enough to please his father, who,
+when he found that his son persisted in declining the stool in the dark
+counting-room in Crane Alley, packed him off to the care of his brother,
+Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone of Osbaldistone Hall in Northumberland,
+there to repent of his disobedience.
+
+"I will have no idlers about me," he said, "I will not ask even my own
+son twice to be my friend and my partner. One of my nephews shall take
+the place in the firm which you have declined."
+
+And old Mr. Osbaldistone, of the firm of Osbaldistone and Tresham,
+merchants in London town, being above all things a man of his word,
+Master Frank took to the North Road accordingly, an exile from his home
+and disinherited of his patrimony.
+
+At first he was gloomy enough. He was leaving behind him wealth, ease,
+society. As he looked back from the heights of Highgate, the bells of
+the city steeples rang out their "Turn again, Whittington!" And to tell
+the truth, Frank Osbaldistone felt half inclined to obey. But the
+thought of his father's grave scorn held him to his purpose, and soon
+the delights of travel and the quickly changing scene chased the sadness
+from his heart. Indeed, as was natural to a young man, a good horse
+under his thigh and fifty guineas in his pocket helped amazingly to put
+him in the best humour with himself.
+
+The company Frank met with on the North Road was commonplace and dull.
+But one poor man, a sort of army officer in a gold-laced hat, whose
+martial courage was more than doubtful, amused Frank Osbaldistone by
+clinging desperately to a small but apparently very heavy portmanteau,
+which he carried on the pillion before him, never parting from it for a
+moment. This man's talk was all of well-dressed highwaymen, whose
+conversation and manners induced the unwary to join company with them.
+Then in some shady dell whistling up their men, the unlucky traveller
+found himself despoiled--of his goods certainly, perhaps also of his
+life.
+
+It delighted Frank's boyish humour beyond measure to play upon the fears
+of this gallant King's officer--which he proceeded to do by asking him
+first whether his bag were heavy or not, then by hinting that he would
+like to be informed as to his route, and finally by offering to take the
+bag on his own pillion and race him with the added weight to the nearest
+village.
+
+This last audacious proposal almost took the man's breath away, and from
+that moment he was convinced that Frank was none other than the "Golden
+Farmer" himself in disguise.
+
+At Darlington, the landlord of their inn introduced a Scotch cattle
+dealer, a certain Mr. Campbell, to share their meal. He was a
+stern-faced, dark-complexioned man, with a martial countenance and an
+air of instinctive command which took possession of the company at once.
+The lawyer, the doctor, the clergyman, even Frank himself, found
+themselves listening with deference to the words of this plainly
+dressed, unobtrusive, Scottish drover. As for the man with the weighty
+bag, he fairly hung upon his words. And especially so when the landlord
+informed the company that Mr. Campbell had with his own hand beaten off
+seven highwaymen.
+
+"Thou art deceived, friend Jonathan," said the Scot, "they were but two,
+and as beggarly loons as man could wish to meet withal!"
+
+"Upon my word, sir," cried Morris, for that was the name of the man with
+the portmanteau, edging himself nearer to Mr. Campbell, "really and
+actually did you beat two highwaymen with your own hand?"
+
+"In troth I did, sir," said Campbell, "and I think it nae great thing to
+mak' a sang about."
+
+"Upon my word, sir," said Morris, eagerly, "I go northward, sir--I
+should be happy to have the pleasure of your company on my journey."
+
+And, in spite of short answers, he continued to press his proposal upon
+the unwilling Scot, till Campbell had very unceremoniously to extricate
+himself from his grip, telling him that he was travelling upon his own
+private business, and that he could not unite himself to any stranger on
+the public highway.
+
+The next day Frank approached Osbaldistone Hall, which stood under the
+great rounded range of the Cheviot Hills. He could already see it
+standing, stark and grey, among its ancestral oaks, when down the ravine
+streamed a band of huntsmen in full chase, the fox going wearily before,
+evidently near the end of his tether. Among the rout and nearer to Frank
+than the others, owing to some roughness of the ground, rode a young
+lady in a man's coat and hat--which, with her vest and skirt, made the
+first riding-habit Frank had ever seen.
+
+The girl's cheeks were bright with the exercise. Her singular beauty was
+the more remarkable, chanced upon in so savage a scene. And when, after
+hearing the "Whoop--dead!" which told of poor Reynard's decease, she
+paused to tie up her loosened locks, Master Frank stared most
+undisguisedly and even impolitely.
+
+One of the young huntsmen, clad in red and green, rode towards her,
+waving the brush in his hand as if in triumph over the girl.
+
+"I see," she replied, "I see. But make no noise about it. If Phoebe
+here (patting the neck of her mare) had not got among the cliffs, _you_
+would have had little cause for boasting."
+
+Then the two of them looked at Frank and spoke together in a low tone.
+The young man seemed sheepishly to decline some proposal which the girl
+made to him.
+
+"Then if you won't, Thornie," she said at last, "I must."
+
+And turning to Frank she asked him if he had seen anything of a friend
+of theirs, one Mr. Francis Osbaldistone, who for some days past had been
+expected at the Hall.
+
+Frank instantly and gladly claimed kindred.
+
+"Then," said the girl, smiling, "as this young man's politeness seems to
+have fallen asleep, I must e'en be master of the ceremonies, however
+improper it may be. So I beg to present to you young Squire Thorncliff
+Osbaldistone, your cousin, and Die Vernon, your accomplished cousin's
+poor kinswoman."
+
+The "accomplished cousin" finally decided to shake hands with mingled
+awkwardness and an assumption of sulky indifference. This being done, he
+immediately announced his intention of going to help the huntsmen couple
+up the hounds, and so he took himself off.
+
+"There he goes," said the young lady, following him with disdainful
+eyes, "the prince of grooms and cock-fighters and blackguard
+horse-racers. But truly there is not one of them to mend another!"
+
+She turned sharply upon Frank.
+
+"Have you read Markham?" she demanded.
+
+Poor Frank had never even heard of that author. The girl held up her
+hands in horror.
+
+"Never to have heard of Markham--the Koran of this savage tribe--the
+most celebrated author on farriery!" she cried. "Then I fear you are
+equally a stranger to the more modern names of Gibson and Bartlett?"
+
+"I am, indeed, Miss Vernon," answered Frank, meekly.
+
+"And do you not blush to own it?" she cried. "Why, we will disown the
+alliance. Then I suppose you can neither give a ball, nor a mash, nor a
+horn?"
+
+"I confess," said Frank, "I trust all these matters to my groom."
+
+"Incredible carelessness!" she continued. "What was your father thinking
+of? And you cannot shoe a horse, or cut his mane and tail. Or worm a
+dog, or crop his ears, or cut his dew-claws; or reclaim a hawk or give
+him casting-stones, or direct his diet when he is sealed! Or--"
+
+Frank could only once for all profess his utter ignorance of all such
+accomplishments.
+
+"Then in the name of Heaven, Mr. Frank Osbaldistone, what _can_ you
+do?"
+
+"Very little to the purpose, I am afraid, Miss Vernon," answered Frank;
+"only this--when my groom has dressed my horse I can ride him, and when
+my hawk is in the field, I can fly him."
+
+"Can you do this?" said Die Vernon, setting her horse to a rude gate
+composed of pieces of wood from the forest, and clearing it at a bound.
+In a moment Frank was at her side.
+
+"There are hopes for you yet," she said. "I was afraid that you were a
+very degenerate Osbaldistone. But what brings you to Cub Hall? I suppose
+you could have stayed away if you had liked?"
+
+"The Cubs of the Hall may be as you describe them," said Frank, looking
+at his companion, "but I am convinced there is one exception that will
+make amends for all their deficiencies."
+
+"Oh, you mean Rashleigh!" said Die Vernon.
+
+"Indeed, I do not," said Frank, who had not been four years in France
+for nothing, "I never even heard of Rashleigh. I mean some one very much
+nearer me."
+
+"I suppose I should pretend not to understand you," she answered, "but
+that is not my way. If I were not in the saddle, I would make you a
+courtesy. But seriously, I deserve your exception, for besides Rashleigh
+and the old priest, I am the only conversable being about Osbaldistone
+Hall."
+
+"And who, for Heaven's sake, is Rashleigh?"
+
+"Your youngest cousin, about your own age, but not so--so well-looking.
+Full of natural sense--learned, as being bred to the church, but in no
+hurry to take orders--and in addition by all odds the cleverest man in a
+country where such are scarce."
+
+They rode back to the Hall, but as it was some time before Frank could
+get any one to attend to his own horse and Diana's mare, which she had
+left in his charge, he had time to look about him and take in the old
+castle and its rough, wasteful prodigality of service. By and by,
+however, there arrived Sir Hildebrand, who, among his sons, seemed, by
+comparison at least, both intelligent and a gentleman. He gave Frank a
+rough but hearty welcome to his mansion.
+
+"Art welcome, lad!" he said. "I would have seen thee before but had to
+attend to the kennelling of the hounds. So thy father has thought on the
+old Hall and old Sir Hildebrand at last! Well, better late than never!
+Here are thy cousins--Percie, Thornie, John, Dick, and Wilfred. But
+where's Rashleigh? Ay, here's Rashleigh! Take thy long body aside,
+Thornie, and let's see thy brother a bit. And here's my little Die, my
+sister's daughter, the prettiest girl on our dales, be the next who she
+may. And so now let's to the sirloin!"
+
+The five elder brethren of Osbaldistone Hall were all cast in one
+mould--tall, well-formed, athletic men, but dull of feature and
+expression, and seemingly without any intellect whatever. Rashleigh, the
+youngest, was the exact opposite of his brethren. Short in stature,
+thick-set, and with a curious halt in his gait, there was something
+about his dark irregular features--something evil, relentless, and
+cruel, which even the assumed gentleness of his words and the melody of
+his voice could not hide. His brothers were mere oafs in learning, none
+of whom ever looked at printed paper save to make a fly-book of it. But
+Rashleigh was learned, and, when he pleased, of manners exquisitely
+refined.
+
+It was, however, Miss Diana who really introduced Frank to his cousins,
+and the ceremony took place that day at dinner, while the young men were
+devoting themselves heartily to the meat which they piled up on their
+platters. The clatter of knives and forks covered her voice.
+
+"Your cousins," she said, "taken all together, form a happy compound of
+the sot, the gamekeeper, the bully, the horse-jockey, and the fool. But
+as no two leaves off the same tree are quite exactly alike, so these
+ingredients are differently mingled in your kinsmen. Percie, the son and
+heir, has more of the sot than of the gamekeeper, bully, horse-jockey,
+or fool. My precious Thornie is more of the bully--John, who sleeps
+whole weeks among the hills, has most of the gamekeeper. The jockey is
+powerful with Dickon, who rides two hundred miles by day and night, to
+be bought and sold himself at a race-meeting. And the fool so
+predominates over Wilfred's other characteristics that he may be termed
+a fool positive."
+
+Though Frank pressed her, Die Vernon refused to add Sir Hildebrand to
+her gallery of family portraits.
+
+"I owe him some kindnesses," she said, "or what at least were meant for
+such. And besides, I like him. You will be able to draw his picture
+yourself when you know him better."
+
+Having once before been successful with a compliment, when talking to
+his beautiful companion, Frank now summoned his French breeding and
+tried a second. He had been silent for a minute, and Miss Vernon,
+turning her dark eyes on him, had said with her usual careless
+frankness, "You are thinking of me!"
+
+"How is it possible," answered Master Frank, "that I should think of
+anything else, seated where I have the happiness to be."
+
+But Diana only smiled with a kind of haughty scorn, and replied, "I must
+tell you at once, Mr. Osbaldistone, that your pretty sayings are wholly
+lost on me. Keep them for the other maids whom you will meet here in the
+north. There are plenty who will thank you for them. As for me, I happen
+to know their value. Come, be sensible! Why, because she is dressed in
+silk and gauze, should you think that you are compelled to unload your
+stale compliments on every unfortunate girl? Try to forget my sex. Call
+me Tom Vernon. Speak to me as to a friend and companion, and you have no
+idea how much I shall like you."
+
+Frank's expression of amazement at these words egged on Diana to
+further feats of daring.
+
+"But do not misjudge me," she said, "as I see you are likely to do. You
+are inclined to think me a strange bold girl, half coquette, half romp,
+desirous, perhaps, of storming you into admiration. You never were more
+mistaken. I would show as much favour to your father, as readily make
+_him_ my confidant, if he were here--and if I thought he were capable of
+understanding me. The truth is, I must speak of these things to some one
+or die."
+
+Frank changed the subject. "Will you not add Rashleigh to the family
+gallery?" he said.
+
+"No, no," she said hastily, "it is never safe to speak of Rashleigh--no,
+not even when, as you now think, he has left the table. Do not be too
+sure even of that--and when you speak of Rashleigh Osbaldistone, get up
+to the top of Otterscope Hill, stand on the very peak, and speak in
+whispers. And, after all, do not be too sure that a bird of the air may
+not carry the matter. Rashleigh was my tutor for four years. We are
+mutually tired of each other, and we shall heartily rejoice to be
+separated!"
+
+Nevertheless Rashleigh it was who had been selected in full family
+conclave to take Frank's empty stool in the counting-house of
+Osbaldistone, Tresham and Company in Crane Alley. Indeed, there was no
+choice. His brothers were incapable even of the multiplication table.
+Besides, they wished him away, with the feelings of mice who hear that
+the family cat is going off to fill another situation. Even his father,
+who stood no little in awe of his clever son, breathed more freely at
+the thought of Osbaldistone Hall without Rashleigh.
+
+It was not long before Mr. Frank Osbaldistone had a taste of his cousin
+Rashleigh's quality. The very next morning his uncle and cousins looked
+at him curiously when he came down early. Sir Hildebrand even quoted a
+rhyme for his benefit,
+
+        "He that gallops his horse on Blackstone Edge,
+                May chance to catch a fall."
+
+It was a fox-hunting morning, and during a long run Frank sustained his
+character as a good and daring rider, to the admiration of Diana and Sir
+Hildebrand, and to the secret disappointment of his other kind
+kinsfolk, who had prophesied that he would certainly "be off at the
+first burst," chiefly for the reason that he had a queer, outlandish
+binding round his hat.
+
+It was plain that Diana wanted to speak with him apart, but the close
+attendance of Cousin Thornie for some time made this impossible. That
+loutish youth's persistence finally fretted the girl, and having been
+accustomed all her life to ride the straightest way to her desire, she
+bade him be off to see that the earths above Woolverton Mill were duly
+stopped.
+
+After some objections Thornie was got safely out of the road, and Diana
+led the way to a little hill whence there was a fine view in every
+direction. She pointed, as Frank thought, somewhat significantly to the
+north.
+
+"Yonder whitish speck is Hawkesmore Crag in Scotland," she said, "the
+distance is hardly eighteen miles, as the crow flies. Your horse will
+carry you there in two hours--and I will lend you my mare if you think
+her less blown."
+
+"But," said Frank, quite mystified, "I have so little wish to be in
+Scotland, that if my horse's head were in Scotland, I would not give his
+tail the trouble of following. What should I do in Scotland, Miss
+Vernon?"
+
+"Why, provide for your safety--do you understand me now, Mr. Frank?"
+
+"Less than ever, Miss Vernon," he answered. "I have not the most distant
+conception of what you mean."
+
+"Why, then," said Diana, "to be plain, there is an information lodged
+with our nearest Justice of the Peace, Squire Inglewood, that you were
+concerned in a robbery of government papers and money sent to pay the
+troops in Scotland. A man with whom you travelled, and whom you
+certainly frightened, has lodged such a complaint against you. His name
+is Morris."
+
+"Morris has been robbed?"
+
+"Ay," said Diana, "and he swears you are the man who robbed him."
+
+"Then Sir Hildebrand believes it?" cried Frank.
+
+"He does," answered Diana, "and to tell the truth, so did I until this
+moment."
+
+"Upon my word, I am obliged to you and my uncle for your opinion of me."
+
+"Oh, it is nothing to be ashamed of," she said, smiling, "no mere
+highway robbery. The man was a government messenger. We are all
+Jacobites about here, and no man would have thought the worse of you for
+bidding him stand and deliver. Why, my uncle had a message from Squire
+Inglewood himself, that he had better provide for your safety by
+smuggling you over the border into Scotland."
+
+"Tell me," said Frank, somewhat impatiently, "where does this Squire
+Inglewood live? I will go and answer the charge instantly and in
+person."
+
+"Well said--I will go with you," said Diana, promptly, "it was never the
+Vernon way to desert a friend in time of need."
+
+Frank tried to dissuade her from this, but he could not combat the
+girl's resolution. So they set off together for Inglewood Hall. As they
+entered the courtyard, they met Rashleigh just coming out.
+
+Miss Vernon instantly challenged him, before he got time to make up a
+story.
+
+"Rashleigh," she said, "you have heard of Mr. Frank's affair, and you
+have been over to the Justice talking about it."
+
+But Rashleigh was equally ready.
+
+"Certainly," he answered, "I have been endeavouring to render my cousin
+what service I could. But at the same time I am sorry to meet him here."
+
+"As a friend and kinsman, Mr. Osbaldistone," said Frank, "you should
+have been sorry to meet me anywhere else but where my character is at
+stake, and where it is my intention to clear it."
+
+However, it was evidently not Miss Vernon's purpose to quarrel with
+Rashleigh at that time. She led him apart, and began talking to him--at
+first quietly, then with obvious anger. From her manner she was charging
+him with knowing who had really committed the robbery, and pressing upon
+him in some way to make plain his cousin's innocence. He resisted long,
+but at length gave way.
+
+"Very well, then," he said, "you are a tyrant, Diana. Still, it shall be
+as you desire. But you know that you ought not to be here. You must
+return with me at once!"
+
+"I will do no such thing," said the girl; "not a foot will I go back
+till such time as I see Frank well out of the hands of the Philistines.
+He has been bidding me to go back all the time, himself. But I know
+better. Also, I know you, my cousin Rashleigh, and my being here will
+give you a stronger motive to be speedy in performing your promise."
+
+Rashleigh departed in great anger at her obstinacy, and Frank and Die
+together sought the den of the Justice, to which they were guided by a
+high voice chanting the fag-end of an old bottle-song:
+
+         "Oh, in Skipton-in-Craven
+          Is never a haven
+          But many a day foul weather,
+        And he that would say
+        A pretty girl nay
+          I wish for his cravat a tether."
+
+"Hey day," said Die Vernon, "the genial Justice must have dined
+already--I did not think it had been so late."
+
+As Diana had supposed, the Justice had dined. But though both his clerk
+Jobson and Frank's accuser Morris were with him, he showed himself as
+pleased to see Diana as he was evidently disinclined for all further
+legal business.
+
+"Ah, ha, Die Vernon," he cried, starting up with great alacrity, "the
+heath-bell of Cheviot and the blossom of the border, come to see how the
+old bachelor keeps house? Art welcome, girl, as the flowers in May!"
+
+Miss Vernon told him that on this occasion she could not stay. She had
+had a long ride that morning, and she must return at once. But if he
+were a good kind Justice, he would immediately despatch young Frank's
+business and let them go.
+
+This the "good Justice" was very willing to do, but Clerk Jobson, alert
+in his office, pressed that the law should have its course, while Frank
+himself demanded no better than that the mystery should be cleared up
+once and for all.
+
+Whereupon the man who had been robbed repeated his statement. He had, it
+seemed, been first of all terrified by Frank's antics. And then on the
+open moor, when he had found himself stopped, and relieved of his
+portmanteau by two masked men, he had distinctly heard the name
+"Osbaldistone" applied by one of his assailants in speaking to the
+other. He furthermore certified that all the Osbaldistones had been
+Papists and Jacobites from the time of William the Conquerer. From which
+it was clear that Frank was the guilty man!
+
+Frank replied that it was true that, like a foolish, gamesome youth, he
+had certainly practised somewhat on the fears of the man Morris, but
+that he had never seen him since he parted from him at Darlington, and
+that, far from being a Papist and a Jacobite, he could easily prove that
+he had been brought up in the strictest school of Presbyterianism and in
+full obedience to the government of King George.
+
+Clerk Jobson, however, was sharp enough to turn Frank's admissions
+against him, and said that since he had voluntarily assumed the
+behaviour of a robber or malefactor, he had by that very act brought
+himself within the penalties of the law.
+
+But at this moment a letter was handed to the Clerk, which informed him
+that a certain old Gaffer Rutledge was at the point of death, and that
+he, Clerk Jobson, must go immediately to his house in order to settle
+all his worldly affairs.
+
+The clerk, after offering to make out the warrant of commitment before
+setting out, at last, and with great reluctance, rode away. Then the
+Justice, who evidently still fully believed in Frank's guilt, counselled
+him as a friend to let bygones be bygones, and to give Mr. Morris back
+his portmanteau. Frank had hardly time to be indignant at this when a
+servant announced--"A stranger to wait upon the Justice!"
+
+"A stranger!" echoed the Justice, in very bad temper; "not upon
+business, or I'll--" But his protestation was cut short by the entrance
+of the stranger himself, and by the stern deep voice of Mr. Campbell,
+who immediately produced his usual effect upon Squire Inglewood.
+
+"My business is peculiar," said the Scot, "and I ask your Honour to give
+it your most instant consideration."
+
+Then Mr. Campbell turned on Morris such a look of ferocity that it made
+that valiant gentleman shake visibly from head to foot.
+
+"I believe you cannot have forgotten what passed between us at our last
+meeting," he said, "and you can bear me witness to the Justice that I am
+a man of fortune and honour. You will be some time resident in my
+vicinity, and you know it will be in my power to do as much for you.
+Speak out, man, and do not sit there chattering your jaws like a pair of
+castanets."
+
+At last an answer was extracted from the trembling Mr. Morris, but with
+as much difficulty as if it had been a tooth.
+
+"Sir--sir--," he stammered, "yes--I do believe you to be a man of
+fortune and of honour--I do believe it!"
+
+"Then," said Campbell, "you will bear me witness that I was in your
+company when the valise was stolen, but did not think fit to interfere,
+the affair being none of mine. Further you will tell the Justice that no
+man is better qualified than I to bear testimony in this case."
+
+"No man better qualified, certainly," assented Morris, with a heavy
+sigh. In order to prove his character, Mr. Campbell put into the hands
+of Justice Inglewood a certificate given under the seal and in the
+handwriting of the great Duke of Argyle himself. The Justice, who had
+stood by the Duke in 1714, was duly impressed, and told the Scot that
+his additional testimonial was perfectly satisfactory.
+
+"And now," he added, "what have you to say about this robbery?"
+
+"Briefly this," said Mr. Campbell, "the robber for whom Mr. Morris took
+Mr. Osbaldistone was both a shorter and a thicker man. More than that, I
+saw under the false face he wore, when it slipped aside, that his
+features were altogether different!"
+
+Between terror and the determined attitude of Campbell, Morris was soon
+forced to withdraw his information against Frank, and the Justice, glad
+to be rid of so troublesome a case, instantly threw the papers into the
+fire.
+
+"You are now at perfect liberty, Mr. Osbaldistone," said Squire
+Inglewood, "and you, Mr. Morris, are set quite at your ease."
+
+In spite of this Mr. Morris did not seem exactly comfortable, especially
+as Mr. Campbell expressed his intention of accompanying him to the next
+highway, telling him that he would be as safe in his company as in his
+father's kailyard.
+
+"Zounds, sir," he said as they went out, "that a chield with such a
+black beard should have no more heart than a hen-partridge. Come on wi'
+ye, like a frank fellow, once and for all!"
+
+The voices died away, the clatter of horses' hoofs was heard, and after
+a few kindly words from the Justice, Diana and Frank set out on their
+way home. On the road they met Clerk Jobson returning in great haste and
+in a most villanous temper. The will-making, even the illness of Gaffer
+Rutledge, had proved to be a "bam," that is to say, a hoax. The clerk's
+language became so impertinent towards Miss Vernon, that, if she had not
+prevented him, Frank would certainly have broken the rascal's head.
+
+The revel was in full swing at Osbaldistone Hall when they returned. So
+for the sake of peace Diana ordered some dinner to be brought to them in
+the library. This was a large neglected room, walled about with great
+books, into which hardly any of the Osbaldistones ever came, and which
+accordingly Diana had appropriated as her peculiar sanctum.
+
+To this chamber Rashleigh Osbaldistone penetrated after dinner had been
+removed. He came to explain the events of the day, but except that he
+had met Campbell by chance, and that, having learned that he had been an
+eye-witness to the robbery, he had sent him on to Squire Inglewood's,
+there was not much more that he seemed inclined to reveal.
+
+Afterwards, however, in his own room, Rashleigh became more
+communicative. He desired to know what kind of man Frank's father was,
+with whom in future he was to be placed. And in return for this
+information he told Frank what he wished to know as to Diana Vernon. She
+was, said Rashleigh, to marry Thorncliff, according to a family compact
+of long standing. But he intimated in addition that she would greatly
+have preferred himself, and that, indeed, he had withdrawn from the care
+of her studies on account of the too evident affection she had begun to
+show towards one, who, as a son of the church, was destined never to
+marry.
+
+This information rankled in Frank's mind, and all the next day he was
+sullen and even brutal in his manner towards Miss Vernon. But she did
+not grow angry, and merely left him to fill up the measure of his
+folly--which he presently did by an affray with Rashleigh and his other
+cousins over the wine-cups in the evening, in which swords were drawn
+and blows given.
+
+The next morning, however, Miss Vernon called him to account.
+
+"Upon my word, Mr. Francis Osbaldistone," she said, seating herself in
+one of the great chairs in the library, like a judge upon the bench,
+"your character improves upon us. Last night's performance was a
+masterpiece. You contrived to exhibit in the course of one evening all
+the various qualifications of your several cousins--the gentle and
+generous temper of Rashleigh, the temperance of Percie, the cool courage
+of Thorncliff, John's skill in dog-breaking, Dickon's aptitude for
+betting--all these were exhibited by the same Mr. Francis, and with a
+choice of time and place worthy of the taste and sagacity of Wilfred."
+
+Frank expressed his shame and sorrow as best he could. He had been
+troubled, he said, by some information that he had received.
+
+Instantly Miss Vernon took him up.
+
+"And now," she said, "please tell me instantly what it was that
+Rashleigh said of me--I have a right to know and know I will!"
+
+It was some time before Frank could bring himself to tell Diana what her
+cousin had really hinted concerning herself, and when she heard that he
+had affirmed her wish to marry him in preference to Thorncliff, she
+shuddered from head to foot.
+
+"No," she cried, all her soul instantly on fire, "any lot rather than
+that--the sot, the gambler, the bully, the jockey, the insensate fool
+were a thousand times preferable to Rashleigh! But the convent, the
+jail--the grave--shall be welcome before them all!"
+
+
+INTERLUDE OF DISCUSSION
+
+    At the abrupt close of the story the children
+    looked not a little surprised, nor did they
+    manifest their usual eagerness to rush out of doors
+    and instantly to reduce the tale to action.
+
+    The first difficulty was as to who the real
+    highwayman could be.
+
+    "Did Frank _really_ take the man's bag with the
+    money and things?" ventured Maid Margaret, a little
+    timidly. She knew that she would be promptly
+    contradicted.
+
+    "No, of course not," shouted Hugh John, "it was the
+    Scotch drover, Campbell,--for how else could he
+    know so well about it? Of course it was--_I_ knew
+    it from the first."
+
+    Meantime Sweetheart had been musing deeply.
+
+    "Do you know," she said gently, "I am most of all
+    sorry for Die Vernon. I don't think that I want to
+    play in this story. It is too real. I think Die
+    Vernon lived."
+
+    "Why--didn't they all live?" said Maid Margaret,
+    plaintively. For the world of books was still
+    quite alive for her. She had not lost the most
+    precious of all the senses. Dream-gold was as good
+    as Queen's-head-gold fresh out of the mint for her.
+    Happy Maid Margaret!
+
+    "I am sure Die Vernon was real," Sweetheart went
+    on; "last night when you were all out cycle-riding
+    and I was waiting for my Latin lesson, I read a bit
+    of the book--a chapter that father has not told us.
+    And it made me sorry for Die. She wished that she
+    had been born a man, so that she might say and do
+    the same things as others. She was alone in the
+    world, she said. She needed protection, yet if she
+    said or did anything naturally, every one thought
+    what a bold, forward girl she was! I have felt that
+    too!"
+
+    "Rubbish!" said Hugh John, in high remorseless
+    scorn, "_you_ are not 'alone in the world!' No, not
+    much. And if we say or do anything to you, you
+    jolly well whack us over the head. Why, the last
+    time I called you--"
+
+    "That will do, Hugh John," interrupted Sweetheart,
+    in very Die Vernonish voice.
+
+    "Well, when I called you--'Thinggummy'--_you
+    know_--you hit me with a stick and the mark lasted
+    three days!"
+
+    "And served you right!" said Sweetheart, calmly.
+
+    "Well, I'm not saying it didn't, am I?" retorted
+    honest Hugh John, "but anyway _you_ needn't go
+    about doing  _wooly-woo_--
+
+        "'My nest it is harried,
+         My children all gone!'"
+
+    "Oh, you are a boy and can't understand--or
+    won't!" said Sweetheart, with a sigh, "I needn't
+    have expected it. But Diana Vernon did make me cry,
+    especially the bit about her being a
+    Catholic--stop--I will find it!"
+
+    And she foraged among the books on the shelf for
+    the big Abbotsford edition of _Rob Roy_, the one
+    with the fine old-fashioned pictures.
+
+    "Here it is," she said with her finger on the
+    place.
+
+    "'I belong to an oppressed sect and antiquated
+    religion (she read), and instead of getting credit
+    for my devotion, as is due to all other good girls,
+    my kind friend Justice Inglewood might send me to
+    the house of correction for it. . . . I am by
+    nature of a frank and unreserved disposition,--a
+    plain, true-hearted girl, who would willingly act
+    honestly and openly by all the world, and yet fate
+    has entangled me in such a series of nets and
+    toils and entanglements, that I dare not speak a
+    word for fear of consequences, not to myself but to
+    others.'"
+
+    Sweetheart sighed again and repeated thoughtfully,
+    "I _am_ sorry for Die Vernon!"
+
+    "Humph," said Hugh John, with dogged masculine
+    logic, "girls are always making up troubles, I
+    think. I don't see what she has to 'whimp'
+    about--everybody did just as she said at that
+    Hall--more than I would do for any silly girl, I
+    bet! Just you try it on, only once, Miss
+    Sweetheart, that's all! She has all she can eat and
+    can order it herself--lots of horses and riding--a
+    gun--cricky, I only wish I had her chances! Think
+    of it--just oblige me by thinking of it--secret
+    passages to come and go by, night and day, right
+    plumb in the wall under your nose, mysterious
+    priests, Jesuits, Jacobites, and things. Why, it's
+    nearly as good as Crusoe's Island, I declare."
+
+    Sweetheart looked at Hugh John with the far-away
+    gentle compassion which always drove that
+    matter-of-fact warrior wild.
+
+    "All girls are the same," he asserted insultingly,
+    "they always get thinking they are going to die
+    right off, if only their little finger aches!"
+
+    "You'll be sorry!" said Sweetheart, warningly.
+
+    "Oh, will I?" said Hugh John, truculently, "isn't
+    what I say true, Toady Lion?"
+
+    But Toady Lion was sitting upon a buffet, in the
+    character of Morris upon his portmanteau. He was
+    shaking and chattering with such exaggerated terror
+    that Maid Margaret, wrapped in a dust-sheet for a
+    disguise and armed with the kitchen poker, could
+    not rob him for very laughter. So neither of them
+    paid any heed.
+
+    "You'll be sorry for speaking like that about Die
+    Vernon," Sweetheart went on; "I've looked and I
+    know. She was a true heroine. And she is worth a
+    whole pack of your heroes any day."
+
+    "And, indeed, that's not saying much!" said Hugh
+    John, who also had his sorrows. "But at any rate
+    that was no proper place to break off a story. And
+    I'll tell father so. Let's tease to have some more.
+    It's a wet day, and we can't do anything else!"
+
+    "Oh, yes--let's!" said Sweetheart. "Stop all that,
+    Toady Lion, and you, Maid Margaret. We are going to
+    ask for the second tale from _Rob Roy!_"
+
+    "Well," grumbled Hugh John, "I hope that there will
+    be more about Rob Roy in it this time. It's not too
+    soon."
+
+    And Sweetheart only continued to regard him with
+    the same quiet but irritating smile, and nodded
+    her head as who would say, "Those who live the
+    longest see the most!"
+
+
+
+THE SECOND TALE FROM "ROB ROY"
+
+
+I. IN THE TOILS OF RASHLEIGH
+
+BUT it became more and more evident that Frank's time at Osbaldistone
+Hall was growing short. A certain travelling merchant, a friend and
+countryman of Andrew Fairservice, the Osbaldistone gardener, brought
+news from London of how Frank's character had been attacked there in the
+matter of Morris, and that in the high court of Parliament itself.
+
+Moreover, Frank felt that he could not much longer remain in the same
+house with Miss Vernon. His love for her daily increased. Yet she told
+him plainly that she could and would only be a friend to him. He must
+ask her no questions, however deep the mysteries which encircled her
+might seem. One day he found a man's glove lying on the library table.
+On another occasion, after Rashleigh's departure for London, he
+distinguished two shadows on the windows of the library while he was
+patrolling the garden after dark.
+
+Last of all Frank received a letter through some secret channel of
+Diana's written by his father's partner, Mr. Tresham. This informed him
+that his father had been for some time in Holland on business of the
+firm, and that Rashleigh had gone north to Scotland some time ago, with
+a large amount of money to take up bills granted by his father to
+merchants in that country. Since his setting out, nothing whatever had
+been heard of Rashleigh, and Owen had gone north to find him. Frank was
+urgently prayed to proceed to Glasgow for the same purpose as soon as
+possible. For if Rashleigh were not found, it was likely that the great
+house of Osbaldistone and Tresham might have to suspend payment.
+
+At this news Frank was stricken to the heart. He saw now how his
+foolishness had ruined his father, because it was through his obstinacy
+that Rashleigh had gained admission to his father's confidence. Mr.
+Osbaldistone, he knew, would never survive the disgrace of bankruptcy.
+He must, therefore, instantly depart. And Diana willingly sped him on
+his way, giving him a letter which he was only to open if all other
+means of paying his father's debts had failed.
+
+Frank resolved to quit Osbaldistone Hall by night secretly, leaving only
+a letter of thanks for his uncle, and informing him that immediate and
+urgent business called him to Glasgow. He found a willing guide ready to
+his hand in the gardener Andrew Fairservice, who, as he said, had long
+been awaiting such an opportunity of quitting his employment.
+
+But this same Andrew came near to involving Frank in a fresh breach of
+the law. For, as Squire Thorncliff owed him ten pounds which he refused
+to pay, Andrew had mounted himself on Squire Thornie's good beast. And
+it was not until the animal was safely arrested by the law in the first
+Scotch town across the border, and Frank had written the whole story to
+Sir Hildebrand, that he felt easy in his mind as to the irregular act of
+his attendant.
+
+They arrived at Glasgow, then a small but ancient town, on the eve of
+the Sabbath day. It was impossible for Frank to discover Owen that
+night, and it proved to be no more easy the following morning.
+
+For when he proposed to his landlady to go to the dwelling-house of Mr.
+MacVittie, or to the counting-house of that firm, in search of Owen,
+she held up her hands in horror.
+
+"There will not be a soul in either place," she cried; "they are all
+serious men and will only be found where all good Christians ought to be
+on the Lord's Day Morning, and that's in the Barony Laigh (Low) Kirk!"
+
+So thither accordingly Frank betook himself, accompanied, of course, by
+his faithful follower, Andrew Fairservice. They found the Laigh Kirk to
+be a gloomy underground crypt into which light was but sparingly
+admitted by a few Gothic windows. In the centre the pews were already
+full to overflowing with worshippers, and Andrew and Frank had to take
+their places in the ring of those who stood in the outer dark among the
+gloomy ranges of pillars which stretched away into complete obscurity.
+
+Frank listened to the sermon for some time with what attention he could
+muster. But the thought of his father's loss and his own share in it
+recurred often to his mind. Suddenly he was roused from his revery by a
+whisper from the darkness behind, "Listen," a voice said, low but very
+distinct, in his ear, "do not look back. You are in danger in this
+place. So am I. Meet me to-night at the Brig, at twelve o'clock
+precisely. Keep at home till the gloaming and avoid observation!"
+
+Frank tried to find out who could be so well acquainted with his journey
+as to give him this rendezvous. But all that he could see, vanishing
+into the darkness of the vaulted arches, was a figure, wrapped in a long
+cloak which revealed nothing whatever of its wearer. Instinctively Frank
+attempted to pursue, but he had not gone many yards, when he fell over a
+tombstone with such a clatter that it caused the preacher to stop and
+order the officers to take into custody the author of the unseemly
+disturbance.
+
+There was nothing for it, therefore, but to wait with as much patience
+as he could muster for the time appointed. He did, however, see Mr.
+MacVittie, his father's correspondent, when as Andrew said the "kirk
+scaled." But he did not take that worthy's advice to speak to the
+merchant. The hard features of the man had in them something
+disagreeable and even menacing which vaguely recalled Rashleigh
+Osbaldistone. And Frank, remembering the warnings of his unknown friend,
+resolved to refrain from making his presence in Glasgow known, at least
+for the present, to that notable merchant Mr. MacVittie.
+
+This Sunday was the longest day of Frank Osbaldistone's life. It seemed
+as if the hours would never go past. Twilight came at last, however, and
+he issued forth to walk up and down in the public park, among the
+avenues of trees, till the time of his appointment should arrive.
+
+As he marched to and fro, keeping as much as possible out of sight of
+the passers-by, he heard the voice of Andrew Fairservice in close and
+somewhat loud conversation with a man in a long cloak and a slouched
+hat. Andrew was retailing the character of his master to the stranger,
+and though Frank Osbaldistone promised to himself to break Andrew's pate
+for his insolence on the first suitable occasion, he could not but
+acknowledge the fidelity of the likeness which Andrew painted.
+
+"Ay, ay, Mr. Hammorgaw," Andrew was saying, "the lad is a good lad. He
+is not altogether void of sense. He has a gloaming sight of what is
+reasonable, but he is crack-brained and cockle-headed about his
+nipperty-tipperty poetry nonsense. A bare crag wi' a burn jawing over it
+is unto him as a garden garnished with flowering knots and choice
+pot-herbs. And he would rather claver with a daft quean they call Diana
+Vernon, than hear what might do him good all the days of his life from
+you or me, or any other sober and sponsible person. Reason, sir, he
+cannot endure. He is all for the vanities and the volubilities. And he
+even once told me, poor blinded creature, that the Psalms of David were
+excellent poetry. As if the holy Psalmist thought of rattling rhymes in
+blether, like his own silly clinkum-clankum that he calls verse! Gude
+help him! Two lines of Davie Lindsay wad ding a' that he ever clerkit!"
+
+At last, after a weary waiting, the bell of the church of St. Mungo
+tolled the hour of midnight. The echoes had not ceased upon the air when
+a figure approached across the bridge, coming from the southern side.
+The man was strong, thick-set, and wore a horseman's cloak wrapped about
+him. But he passed without speaking, and held on his way to the farther
+end of the bridge. There he turned, and meeting Frank full in face, bade
+him follow him and he would know his reasons for thus warning him.
+
+Frank first demanded to know who he was, and what were his purposes with
+him.
+
+"I am a man," was the reply, "and my purpose is friendly to you."
+
+More than that he would not say. Frank could follow him or not, just as
+he chose. Only if he did not, he would rue it all his life.
+
+Furthermore, he stung the young man, perhaps intentionally, with the
+taunt of being afraid. Frank cast back his words in his teeth. He was
+young, active, armed, of a good conscience. Why then had he need to be
+afraid?
+
+"But," said the stranger, "if you are not afraid of what I can do to
+you, do you not fear the consequences of being found in the company of
+one whose very name whispered in this lonely street would make the
+stones themselves rise up to apprehend him--on whose head half the men
+in Glasgow would build their fortune as on a found treasure, had they
+the luck to grip him by the collar--the sound of whose apprehension were
+as welcome at the Cross of Edinburgh as ever the news of a field
+stricken and won in Flanders?"
+
+"And who, then, are you?" cried Frank, "whose name should create so deep
+a terror?"
+
+"No enemy of yours, since I am taking you to a place where, if I were
+recognised, cold iron for my heels and hemp for my throat would be my
+brief dooming."
+
+Instinctively Frank laid his hand on his sword.
+
+"What," said the stranger, "on an unarmed man and your friend?"
+
+"I am ignorant if you be either the one or the other!" said Frank, "and
+indeed your language and manner lead me to doubt both."
+
+"Manfully spoken," said the unknown; "well, I will be frank and free
+with you--I am conveying you to prison!"
+
+"To prison," cried Frank, "and by what warrant--for what offence? You
+shall have my life sooner than my liberty. I defy you! I will not follow
+you a step farther!"
+
+The unknown drew himself up haughtily.
+
+"I am not taking you there as a prisoner," he said. "I am neither
+messenger nor sheriff's officer. _Your_ liberty is little risked by the
+visit. _Mine_ is in some peril. But I care not for the risk. For I love
+a free young blood, that kens no protector but the cross of his sword."
+
+So saying he tapped at a low wicket, and was answered sharply from
+within, as by one awakened suddenly from a dream.
+
+"Fat's tat? Wha's that, I wad say? And what the deil want ye at this
+hour o' the e'en? Clean again rules--clean again rules--as they call
+them!"
+
+The speaker seemed by the yawning drone of the last words again to be
+composing himself to slumber.
+
+Then the stranger, who had hitherto guided Frank, spoke in a loud
+whisper, "Dougal man! hae ye forgotten _Ha nun Gregarach?_"
+
+Instantly there was a bustle inside.
+
+"Deil a bit, deil a bit!" said the voice within, briskly.
+
+Bolts were drawn, whispers passed in Gaelic, and presently Frank and his
+companion stood both of them in the vestibule of the tolbooth or public
+prison of Glasgow. It was a small but strong guard-room, from which
+passages led away to the right and left, and staircases ascended to the
+cells of the prisoners. Iron fetters fitly adorned the walls. Muskets,
+pistols, and partizans stood about, ready alike for defence or offence.
+Still more strange was the jailer who greeted them.
+
+This man was a wild, shock-headed savage with a brush of red hair, but
+he knelt and almost worshipped Frank's guide. He could not take his
+eyes off him.
+
+"Oich--oich," grunted Dougal, for that was the turnkey's name, "to see
+ye here! What would happen to ye if the bailies should come to get
+witting of it?"
+
+The guide, still wrapped in his cloak, placed his finger on his lip.
+
+"Fear nothing, Dougal," he said, "your hands shall never draw a bolt on
+me."
+
+"That shall they no," said Dougal, emphatically, "she wishes them hacked
+off by the elbows first. And when are ye gaun yonder again? When you
+return, you will not forget to tell your poor cousin--only seven times
+removed."
+
+"I will let you know, Dougal," said the man, "as soon as my plans are
+settled."
+
+"And by my sooth," cried Dougal, "when you do, I will fling my keys at
+the provost's head, and never gie them anither turn--see if I winna!"
+
+But Frank's guide, who had listened to all this rhapsody very much with
+the air of a prince accustomed to royal service and thinking little of
+it, interrupted Dougal with some words in Gaelic.
+
+Whereupon the turnkey, taking a lantern, led the young man up the
+winding stair and introduced him to a cell, where, lying on a bed, he
+recognised--no other than Owen, the head clerk of his father's house.
+
+At first the good Owen could only bemoan the hardness of fate, thinking
+that Frank also had met with the same treatment as himself, by being
+sent to prison. He had, it seemed, as in duty bound, gone at once to
+Messrs. MacVittie, MacFin, and Company and exposed to them his case,
+stating the difficulty in which the house were placed by Rashleigh's
+disappearance. Hitherto they had been most smooth and silver-tongued,
+but at the first word of difficulty as to payment, they had clapped poor
+Owen into prison on the charge of meditating flight out of the country.
+
+He had, he continued, sent a note to Bailie Nicol Jarvie, the other
+correspondent of the house in Glasgow. But, as he said, "If the civil
+house in the Gallowgate used him thus, what was to be expected from the
+cross-grained old crab-stock in the Salt Market?"
+
+It had fallen out even as he had expected. Bailie Nicol Jarvie had not
+so much as answered his letter, though it had been put into his hand as
+he was on his way to church that morning.
+
+Hardly were the words out of Owen's mouth, when from below came the
+voice of Dougal the turnkey, evidently urging Frank's guide to conceal
+himself.
+
+"Gang upstairs and hide behind the Sassenach gentleman's bed. Ay,
+ay--coming--coming!"
+
+The Highlander hastily entered Owen's cell, and, stripping off his heavy
+coat, stood at bay, evidently gathering himself for a leap at the
+officers, should it indeed prove to be the provost, magistrates, and
+guard of the city of Glasgow, as Dougal believed. It was obvious that he
+meant to spring right at any who might be seeking to apprehend him. But
+instead of a guard with fixed bayonets, it was only a good-looking young
+woman in kilted petticoats holding a lantern in her hand, who ushered in
+a magistrate, stout, bob-wigged, bustling, and breathless. At the sight
+of his face Frank's conductor instantly drew back and resumed the
+muffling cloak which hid the lower part of his features.
+
+The chief captain of the jail now showed himself at the door, having
+descended hastily to wait on the great man. But the Bailie's anger was
+huge against all and sundry.
+
+"A bonny thing, Captain Stanchells," he cried, "that I, a magistrate of
+the city, should have been kept half an hour knocking as hard for
+entrance into the tolbooth as the poor creatures within knock to get
+out! And what, pray, is the meaning of this--strangers in the jail after
+lock-up time? I will look after this, Stanchells, depend upon it. Keep
+the door locked. By and by I will speak with these gentlemen. But first,
+I must have a talk with an old acquaintance here. Mr. Owen, Mr. Owen,
+how's all with you, man?"
+
+"Well in body, I thank you, Mr. Jarvie," said poor Owen, "but sore
+afflicted in spirit."
+
+"Ay, ay--no doubt--no doubt," said the Bailie, briskly, "but we are all
+subject to a downcome, and it comes hard on those that have held their
+heads high. But I have not come out at twelve o'clock of a Sabbath night
+to cast up to an unfortunate man his backslidings. That was never
+Bailie Nicol Jarvie's way, nor yet was it his father the deacon's
+before him. Why, man, even in the Kirk I was thinking on your letter.
+And after supper I sat yawning wide enough to swallow St. Enoch's Kirk,
+till twelve of the clock struck. Then I took a bit look at my ledger
+just to see how matters stood between us. Syne I called up Mattie and
+bade her light the lamp and convoy me down to the tolbooth. I have entry
+here at any hour of the night and day, and so had my father before me,
+God bless him!"
+
+
+II. ROB ROY AT LAST
+
+During this harangue Frank's mysterious guide had been gradually edging
+toward the door, and showing signs of slipping away. But even when
+looking carefully over Mr. Owen's papers, the keen eyes of the
+magistrate detected the movement.
+
+"Shut the door, Stanchells, and keep it locked!" he cried.
+
+The Highlander took three or four steps across the room, muttered an
+execration in Gaelic, and then with an air of careless defiance set
+himself down on a table and proceeded to whistle a stave with all
+possible assurance.
+
+The Bailie soon arranged Mr. Owen's affairs. He would become his bail
+himself, and promised to secure his liberation early next morning. Then
+he took the lantern from his servant Mattie, and, holding it up,
+proceeded to examine the stern, set countenance of Frank's guide. That
+stout-hearted Celt did not move a muscle under the inspection, but with
+his arms folded carelessly, his heel beating time to the lilt of his
+whistled strathspey, he came very near to deceiving the acuteness of his
+investigator.
+
+
+
+"Eh--ah--no--it cannot be. It is! Eh, ye born deevil, ye robber--ye
+catheran! Can this be you?"
+
+"E'en as ye see me, Bailie!" was the short response.
+
+"Ye cheat-the-gallows, ye reiving villain--what think you is the value
+of your head now!" cried the Bailie.
+
+"Umph! Fairly weighed and Dutch measure," came the answer, "it might
+weigh down one provost's, four bailies', a town-clerk's, six deacons',
+besides stent-masters'--!"
+
+"Tell over your sins," interrupted Mr. Nicol Jarvie, "and prepare ye,
+for if I speak the word--"
+
+"But ye will _not_ speak the word," said the Highlander, coolly.
+
+[Illustration: "HE took the lantern from his servant Mattie, and,
+holding it up, proceeded to examine the stern, set countenance of
+Frank's guide. That stout-hearted Celt did not move a muscle under the
+inspection, but with his arms folded carelessly, his heel beating time
+to the lilt of his whistled strathspey, he came very near to deceiving
+the acuteness of his investigator."]
+
+"And why should I not?" said the Bailie, "answer me that--why should I
+not?"
+
+"For three sufficient reasons, Bailie Jarvie," he retorted, "first, for
+auld langsyne. Second, for the sake of the auld wife ayont the fire at
+Stuckavrallachan, that made some mixture of our bloods--to my shame be
+it spoken that _I_ should have a cousin a weaver. And lastly, Bailie,
+because if I saw a sign of your betraying me, I would plaster the wall
+there with your brains, long before any hand of man could rescue you!"
+
+"Ye are a bold, desperate villain, sir," retorted the undaunted Bailie,
+"and ye ken that I ken ye to be so--but that were it only my own risk, I
+would not hesitate a moment."
+
+"I ken well," said the other, "ye have gentle blood in your veins, and I
+would be loath to hurt my own kinsman. But I go out of here free as I
+came in, or the very walls of Glasgow tolbooth shall tell the tale these
+ten years to come!"
+
+"Well, well," said Mr. Jarvie, "after all, blood is thicker than water.
+Kinsfolk should not see faults to which strangers are blind. And, as you
+say, it would be sore news to the auld wife below the Ben, that you, ye
+Hieland limmer, had knockit out my brains, or that I had got you strung
+up in a halter. But, among other things, where is the good thousand
+pound Scots that I lent you, and when am I to be seeing it?"
+
+"Where is it?" said the unknown, grimly, "why, where last year's snow
+is, I trow!"
+
+"And that's on the tap o' Schehallion, ye Hieland dog," said Mr. Jarvie,
+"and I look for payment from ye where ye stand."
+
+"Ay," said the Highlander, unmoved, "but I carry neither snow nor silver
+in my sporran. Ye will get it, Bailie--just when the King enjoys his ain
+again, as the auld sang says!"
+
+Then the magistrate turned to Frank.
+
+"And who may this be?" he demanded, "some reiver ye hae listed, Rob? He
+looks as if he had a bold heart for the highway, and a neck that was
+made express for the hangman's rope!"
+
+"This," said Owen, horrified at the Bailie's easy prediction as to the
+fate of his young master, "this is Mr. Francis Osbaldistone, only son of
+the head of our house--"
+
+"Ay, I have heard of him," said the Bailie, still more contemptuously,
+"he that ran away and turned play-actor, through pure dislike to the
+work an honest man should live by!"
+
+"Indeed," said the Highlander, "I had some respect for the callant even
+before I kenned what was in him. But now I honour him for his contempt
+of weavers and spinners, and sic-like mechanical persons."
+
+"Ye are mad, Rob," said the Bailie, "mad as a March hare--though
+wherefore a hare should be madder in the month of March than at
+Martinmas is more than I can well say. But this young birkie here, that
+ye are hounding the fastest way to the gallows--tell me, will all his
+stage-plays and his poetries, or your broad oaths and drawn dirks tell
+him where Rashleigh Osbaldistone is? Or Macbeth and all his kernes and
+galloglasses, and your own to boot, procure him the five thousand pounds
+to answer the bills that must fall due ten days hence--were they all
+sold by auction at Glasgow Cross--basket hilts, Andrea Ferraras,
+leathern targets, brogues, brechan, and sporrans?"
+
+"Ten days!" said Frank, instinctively drawing Diana Vernon's letter out
+of his pocket. The time had elapsed, and he was now free to open it.
+
+A thin sealed enclosure fell out, and the wandering airs of the prison
+wafted it to Bailie Jarvie's feet. He lifted it and at once handed it to
+the Highlander, who, after glancing at the address, proceeded calmly to
+open it.
+
+Frank tried vainly to interpose.
+
+"You must first satisfy me that the letter is intended for you, before I
+can allow you to read it," he said.
+
+"Make yourself easy, Mr. Osbaldistone," answered the Highlander, looking
+directly at him for the first time, "remember Justice Inglewood, Clerk
+Jobson, Mr. Morris--above all, remember your very humble servant, Robert
+Campbell, and the beautiful Diana Vernon."
+
+The vague resemblance which had been haunting Frank ever since he had
+heard this man's voice was now at once made plain. The cloak being
+dropped and the man's face turned full upon him, he saw that it was
+indeed the same Highland drover who had borne unexpected testimony in
+his favour when he was in danger of his life in the house of Mr. Justice
+Inglewood.
+
+"It is a difficult cast she has given me to play," said the Highlander,
+looking at Die Vernon's letter, "but I daresay I shall be able to serve
+you. Only you must come and visit me in my own country. I cannot hope to
+aid you on the paving stones of Glasgow. And you, Bailie, if you will
+come up with this young gentleman as far as the Clachan of Aberfoil, I
+will pay you the thousand pounds Scots that I owe you."
+
+"Such a journey ill becomes my place," said the Bailie, doubtfully, "but
+if I did come, would you really and soothfully pay me the siller?"
+
+"I swear to you," said the Highlander, "by him that sleeps beneath the
+grey stane at Inch Cailleach!
+
+"But," he continued, "I must be budging. For the air of the Glasgow
+tolbooth is no that over salutary to a Highland constitution."
+
+"Ohon," said the Bailie, "that I should be art and part in an escape
+from justice--it will be a disgrace to me all the days of my life!
+Aweel, we have all our backslidings to answer for. Stanchells, open the
+door!"
+
+The head jailor stared at the two visitors who had gotten into Mr.
+Owen's cell without his leave, but he was reassured by the Bailie's
+careless "Friends of mine, Stanchells, friends of mine!"
+
+The party descended to the lower vestibule, and there called more than
+once for Dougal, but without effect.
+
+Whereupon Campbell observed, with a quiet smile, that "if Dougal was the
+lad he kenned him, he would scarce wait to be thanked for his share of
+that night's work, but would now be full trot for the pass of
+Ballamaha--"
+
+"And am I myself," cried the angry Bailie, "to be locked up in the
+tolbooth all night? Send for fore-hammers, sledge-hammers, pincers! Send
+for Deacon Yettlin, the smith. And as for that Hieland blackguard, he
+shall hang as high as Haman--"
+
+"When ye catch him," said Campbell, gravely, "but wait, surely the jail
+door is not locked!"
+
+And so it turned out.
+
+"He has some glimmerings of sense, that Dougal creature," added the
+Highlander; "he kenned that an open door might have served me at a
+pinch!"
+
+So saying he sprang into the darkness, and soon the street resounded to
+low signal whistles, uttered and instantly replied to.
+
+"Hear to the Hieland deevils," said Mr. Jarvie; "they think themselves
+already on the skirts of Ben Lomond! But what's this?"
+
+There was a clash of iron at his feet, and stooping to the causeway
+cobbles, the Bailie lifted the keys of the jail which Dougal had carried
+away in his flight.
+
+"Indeed," he said, "and that's just as well. For they cost the burgh
+siller, and there might have been some talk in the council about the
+loss of them, that I would little like to have heard. It would not be
+the first time they had cast up my kin to me, if Bailie Grahame and some
+others should get wind of this night's work."
+
+The next morning at the Bailie's hospitable table, Frank Osbaldistone
+met Mr. Owen--but altogether another Owen from him of the
+tolbooth--neat, formal, and well brushed as ever, though still in the
+lowest of spirits about the misfortunes of the house.
+
+They had not long begun when Frank, who could be brusque enough upon
+occasion, startled the Bailie by the question, "And pray, by the bye,
+Mr. Nicol Jarvie, who is this Mr. Robert Campbell whom I met last
+night?"
+
+The question, abruptly put, seemed to knock the worthy Bailie all of a
+heap. He stammered and repeated it over and over, as if he had no answer
+ready.
+
+"Wha's Mr. Robert Campbell? Ahem--ahay--! Wha's Mr. Robert Campbell,
+quo' he?"
+
+"Yes," repeated the young Englishman, "I mean who and what is he?"
+
+"Why, he's--ahay! He's--ahem! Where did _you_ meet Mr. Robert Campbell,
+as you call him yourself?"
+
+"I met him by chance," Frank answered promptly, "some months ago, in the
+north of England."
+
+"Then, Mr. Osbaldistone," said the Bailie, doggedly, "ye ken just as
+much about him as I do!"
+
+"I should suppose not, Mr. Jarvie," said Frank, "since you are, it
+seems, both his relation and his friend!"
+
+"There is doubtless some cousinship between us," said the Bailie, with
+reluctance, "but I have seen little of Rob since he left the
+cattle-dealing. He was hardly used by those who might have treated him
+better, poor fellow."
+
+More than this for the moment Frank could not extract from Mr. Jarvie,
+and indeed his father's affairs were naturally the first consideration.
+As Frank could not help with their business matters and arrangements,
+the Bailie dismissed him without ceremony, telling him that he might go
+up to the College Yards, where he would find some that could speak Greek
+and Latin, but that he must be back at one o'clock "_preceesely_" to
+partake of the Bailie's family leg of mutton and additional tup's head.
+
+It was while Frank Osbaldistone was pacing to and fro in the College
+Yards, that, from behind a hedge, he saw three men talking together. At
+first he could hardly believe his eyes. For one of them, the very sight
+of whom caused a disagreeable thrill to pass through his body, was none
+other than Rashleigh himself, while the other two were Morris and Mr.
+MacVittie,--the very three men who could do him the most harm in the
+world.
+
+At the end of the avenue MacVittie and Morris left the gardens, while
+Rashleigh returned alone, apparently pacing the walk in deep meditation.
+Frank suddenly appeared before him, and challenged him to give up the
+deeds and titles he had stolen from his father.
+
+Rashleigh, whom no surprise could stir out of his cool native audacity,
+answered that it would be better for his cousin to go and amuse himself
+in his world of poetical imagination, and to leave the business of life
+to men who understood and could conduct it.
+
+Words grew hotter and hotter between the two young men, till Rashleigh,
+stung by a reference to Diana Vernon, bade Frank follow him to a
+secluded place where he would be able to chastise him for his boyish
+insolence.
+
+Accordingly Frank followed him, keeping a keen watch on his adversary
+lest he should attempt any treachery. And it was well that he did so.
+For Rashleigh's sword was at his breast before he had time to draw, or
+even to lay down his cloak, and he only saved his life by springing a
+pace or two backward in all haste.
+
+In the matter of fence, Frank found Rashleigh quite his match--his own
+superior skill being counterbalanced by Rashleigh's longer and more
+manageable sword and by his great personal strength and ferocity. He
+fought, indeed, more like a fiend than a man. Every thrust was meant to
+kill, and the combat had all the appearance of being to the death.
+
+At last Frank stumbled accidentally, and Rashleigh's sword passed
+through his coat and out at the back, just grazing his side, whereupon
+Frank, seizing the hilt of his antagonist's sword, shortened his grip
+and was on the point of running him through the body. But the
+death-grapple was put an end to in the nick of time, by the intervention
+of Campbell, who suddenly appeared out of the bushes and threw himself
+between them. Rashleigh demanded fiercely of the Highlander how he dared
+to interfere where his honour was concerned.
+
+
+
+
+But Campbell, with a whistle of his broadsword about his head, reminded
+him that so far as "daring" went, he was ready to make mincemeat of the
+pair of them. But though this cooled Rashleigh's temper at once, it was
+far from appeasing Frank, who swore that he would keep hold of his
+cousin till he had given up all he had stolen from his father.
+
+[Illustration: "THE death-grapple was put an end to in the nick of time
+by the intervention of Campbell, who suddenly appeared out of the bushes
+and threw himself between them. Rashleigh demanded fiercely of the
+Highlander how he dared to interfere where his honour was concerned."]
+
+"You hear!" said Rashleigh to Campbell; "he rushes upon his fate. On his
+own head be it!"
+
+But the Highlander would not permit the young man to be ill treated,
+only for standing up for his own father. He took hold of Frank, however,
+and by a gigantic effort he caused him to release Rashleigh's coat which
+he had seized in his anger.
+
+"Let go his collar, Mr. Francis," he commanded. "What he says is true.
+Ye are more in danger of the magistrate in this place than what he is.
+Take the bent, Mr. Rashleigh. Make one pair of legs worth two pair of
+hands. You have done that before now."
+
+Rashleigh, with a last threat of future revenge, took up his sword,
+wiped it, put it back in its sheath, and disappeared in the bushes.
+
+In spite of his struggles the Highlander held Frank till it was vain for
+him to pursue Rashleigh, and then Campbell had some advice to give him.
+
+"Let him alone," he said. "I tell you, man, he has the old trap set for
+you. And here I cannot give you the same help that I did in the house of
+Justice Inglewood. Now go your ways home, like a good bairn. Keep out of
+the sight of Rashleigh, and Morris, and that MacVittie animal. Mind the
+Clachan of Aberfoil, and by the word of a gentleman I will not see you
+wronged."
+
+On his way back Frank had his slight wound dressed by a surgeon and
+apothecary in the neighbourhood, who refused to believe his explanation
+about the button of his adversary's foil slipping.
+
+"There never was button on the foil that made this!" he said. "Ah, young
+blood--young blood! But fear not--we surgeons are a secret generation!"
+
+And so dismissed, Frank soon found his way back to Mr. Jarvie's family
+leg of mutton and tup's head, only a few minutes after the appointed
+stroke of one.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+III. THE BAILIE FIGHTS WITH FIRE
+
+When Frank Osbaldistone, the Bailie, and Andrew Fairservice, set forward
+toward the Highlands, their way lay for the first stage over barren
+wastes, with the blue line of the Grampian Hills continually before
+their eyes.
+
+Andrew had as usual tried to cheat his master by getting rid of his own
+pony and buying another on Frank's account. But the Bailie soon caused
+Andrew to recover his old horse on the penalty of being at once haled
+off to prison.
+
+Night came on before the little party of three arrived at the inn of the
+Clachan of Aberfoil, having previously crossed the infant Forth by an
+ancient bridge, high and narrow.
+
+The inn was a mere hovel, but the windows were cheerfully lighted up.
+There was a sound of revelry within that promised good cheer to hungry
+men, and the party were on the point of entering, when Andrew
+Fairservice showed them a peeled wand which was set across the half-open
+door.
+
+"That means," he said, "that some of their great men are birling at the
+wine within, and will little like to be disturbed."
+
+It proved to be even so. The landlady was most anxious to keep them out.
+They could get rest and shelter, she promised them, within seven
+Scottish miles--that is to say, within at least double that number of
+English ones. Her house was taken up, and the gentlemen in possession
+would ill like to be intruded on by strangers. Better gang farther than
+fare worse.
+
+But Frank, being an Englishman and hungry for his dinner, was ready to
+do battle against all odds in order to get it.
+
+The interior of the inn of Aberfoil was low and dark. The smoke of the
+fire hung and eddied under the gloomy roof about five feet from the
+ground. But underneath all was kept clear by the currents of air that
+rushed about the house when the wind blew through the wicker door and
+the miserable walls of stone plastered with mud.
+
+Three men were sitting at an oak table near the fire. Two of these were
+in Highland dress, the first small and dark, with a quick and irritable
+expression of countenance. He wore the "trews" of tartan, which in
+itself showed him a man of consideration. The other Highlander was a
+tall, strong man, with the national freckled face and high cheekbones.
+The tartan he wore had more of red in it than that of the other. The
+third was in Lowland dress, a bold, stout-looking man, in a showily
+laced riding-dress and a huge cocked hat. His sword and a pair of
+pistols lay on the table before him.
+
+All three were drinking huge draughts of the Highland drink called
+"Usquebagh," and they spoke loudly and eagerly one to the other, now in
+Gaelic, now in English. A third Highlander, wrapped in his plaid and
+with his face hidden, lay on the floor, apparently asleep.
+
+The three gentlemen were at first unconscious of the invasion. They
+continued their loud conversation, and it was not until Frank
+Osbaldistone called the landlady that they paused and looked at them,
+apparently stricken dumb by his audacity.
+
+"You make yourself at home," said the lesser Celt, in very good English,
+which however he spoke with an air of haughty disdain.
+
+"I usually do, sir," said Frank, "when I come into a house of public
+entertainment."
+
+"And did she not see," demanded the taller man, "by the white wand at
+the door, that gentlemans had taken up the public house on their ain
+business?"
+
+"I do not pretend to understand the customs of this country," said
+Frank, with firmness, "but I have yet to learn how any three persons are
+entitled to exclude all other travellers from the only place of shelter
+and refreshment for miles around."
+
+The Bailie here offered a stoup of brandy as an appropriate means of
+establishing a good understanding, but the three natives proceeded to
+snuff the air and work themselves up into a passion with the evident
+intention of ending the quarrel by a fray.
+
+"We are three to three," said the lesser Highlander, glancing his eyes
+at the intruding party. "If ye be pretty men, draw!"
+
+And so saying, he drew his own broadsword and advanced upon Frank. The
+young Englishman, knowing the superiority of his rapier to the claymore,
+especially in the confined space, was in no fear as to the issue of the
+combat. But when the gigantic Highlander advanced upon the worthy
+magistrate of Glasgow, after trying in vain once or twice to draw his
+father's _shabble_, as he called it, from its sheath,--a weapon which
+had last seen the light at Bothwell Bridge,--the Bailie seized as a
+substitute the red-hot coulter of a plough, which had been sticking in
+the fire. At the very first pass he set the Highlander's plaid on fire,
+and thereafter compelled him to keep a respectful distance. Andrew
+Fairservice had, of course, vanished at the very first symptoms of a
+storm, but the Lowlander, disappointed of an antagonist, drew honourably
+off and took no share in the fight. Nevertheless the Bailie, built for
+more peaceful pursuits, was quickly getting the worst of it, when from
+the floor started up the sleeping Highlander, crying, "Hersel' has eaten
+the town bread at the Cross of Glasgow, and by her troth, she will fight
+for Bailie Jarvie at the Clachan of Aberfoil!"
+
+And seconding words with blows, he fell upon his tall countryman. As
+both were armed with targes made of wood and studded with brass, the
+combat was more remarkable for noise and clatter than for serious
+damage. And it was not long before the Lowlander cried out, taking upon
+himself the office of peacemaker: "Hold your hands, gentlemen--enough
+done, enough done! The strangers have shown themselves men of honour,
+and have given reasonable satisfaction."
+
+There was no wish to continue the fray, save perhaps on the part of the
+Bailie's antagonist, who demanded to know who was going to pay for the
+hole burnt in his bonnie plaid, through which, he declared, any one
+might put a kail-pot.
+
+But the Bailie, pleased with himself for having shown spirit, declared
+that the Highlander should have a new plaid, especially woven, of his
+own clan-colours. And he added that if he could find the worthy lad who
+had taken his quarrel upon himself, he would bestow upon him a gill of
+_aqua-vitae_.
+
+But the Highlander who had been so ready on the Bailie's behalf was now
+nowhere to be found. The supper was brought in presently, as if the
+landlady had only been waiting for the end of the fray in order to serve
+the repast.
+
+The Bailie had from the first recognised the Lowlander as one to whom
+the deacon his father had lent money, and with whose family there were
+many ties of cordiality and confidence. So while the friendly converse
+was thus proceeding indoors, Frank went out to find Andrew Fairservice,
+and on his way the landlady gave him a folded scrap of paper, saying
+that she was glad to be rid of it--what with Saxons, soldiers, and
+robbers--life was not worth living on the Highland line!
+
+By the light of a torch Frank read as follows, "For the honoured hands
+of Mr. F. O., a Saxon young gentleman--These!"
+
+The letter proved to be from Campbell, and informed Frank that as there
+were night hawks abroad, he must hold no communication with any one lest
+it should lead to future trouble. The person who gave him the letter
+might be trusted, but that in the meantime it would be well to avoid a
+meeting with "R. M. C."
+
+Frank was much disappointed at this deferring of the hope of aiding his
+father, by recovering the papers and titles which Rashleigh had stolen.
+But still there was no help for it. And so, after dragging Andrew out of
+the corner of the shed, where he was hidden behind a barrel of feathers,
+he returned to the inn.
+
+Here he found the Bailie high in dispute with his quondam friend, the
+Lowlander Galbraith. The quarrel concerned the Duke of Argyle and the
+Clan Campbell, but most of all a certain freebooter of the name of Rob
+Roy, who, as it now appeared, they were all assembled to pursue and make
+an end of.
+
+North and east the passes were being held. The westland clans were out.
+Southward Major Galbraith was in command of a body of Lennox horse, and
+to a certainty Rob Roy would swing in a rope by the morrow's morn.
+
+Scarcely were the words spoken when the ordered tramp of infantry on the
+march was heard, and an officer, followed by two or three files of
+soldiers, entered the apartment. It gave Frank a thrill of pleasure to
+remark his English accent, after the Scotch which he had been listening
+to ever since he left Osbaldistone Hall.
+
+But he liked somewhat less what he was next to hear. The English officer
+had received instructions to place under arrest two persons, one young
+and the other elderly, travelling together. It seemed to him that Frank
+and the Bailie answered fairly well to this description.
+
+In spite of the protests and threats of the honourable magistrate, he
+ordered them both to follow him in his advance into the Highland
+country, upon which he was immediately to set out.
+
+The letter which Frank had received from the landlady of the inn, being
+found upon him, was held to be evidence that he had been in treasonable
+correspondence with Rob Roy, whose usual initials, indeed, were at the
+bottom of the note. Next the shock-headed Highlander who had taken the
+Bailie's quarrel upon him, having been captured, was brought before the
+officer, and commanded, on pain of being instantly hanged, to lead them
+to the place where he had left the Mac-Gregor. After long persuasion,
+some of it of the roughest sort, poor Dougal consented for five guineas
+to act as guide to the party of soldiers under Captain Thornton--for
+such was the name of the English officer.
+
+This sinful compliance of Dougal's angered the Bailie so much that he
+cried to the soldiers to take Dougal away, because now he deserved
+hanging for his treachery more than ever.
+
+This drew the retort from the Corporal who was acting as hangman, that
+if it were the Bailie who was going to be hanged, he would be in no
+such desperate hurry!
+
+But Dougal promised to be faithful, and in a few minutes the English
+officer had paid the reckonings of the three gentlemen whom Frank had
+found drinking at the inn of Aberfoil. The hot and smoky atmosphere of
+the miserable inn was exchanged for the wide hill breezes. But on their
+passage through the villages the hatred of the natives, mostly women and
+children, for the "red soldiers" broke forth into shrill cursing. Andrew
+Fairservice, who alone of the three understood Gaelic, grew pale with
+terror at the threats which were lavished upon them.
+
+"And the worst of all is," he said, trembling, "that the owercome o'
+their sang is that we are to gang up the glen and see what we are to
+get."
+
+
+IV. THE DROWNING OF THE SPY
+
+Whereupon the Bailie took it on himself to warn Captain Thornton that
+the Highlanders, especially under a leader so daring as Rob Roy, were in
+the habit of attacking their enemies in narrow passes where regular
+troops had no chance against them. But the officer was not to be turned
+aside. He had his orders and he meant to carry them out. Rob Roy was
+certainly trapped, he said. All the upper passes were in the hands of
+the Highlanders of the western clans. Garschattachin had closed in on
+the south with the Lennox Horse. The latest tidings of the freebooter
+were in accordance with the information so reluctantly given by Dougal,
+and were to the effect that Rob Roy had sent away the larger part of his
+clan, and was seeking escape alone, or with very few in his company,
+trusting most likely to his superior knowledge of the passes.
+
+Meanwhile Dougal their guide answered with a natural impatience to all
+complaints that he was leading them by difficult or dangerous roads.
+
+"If," he said, with an appearance of reason, "gentlemans were seeking
+the Red Gregarach, they must expect some wee danger. And if they likit
+grand roads, they should hae bided at Glasgow."
+
+The party was continuing to follow the narrow path by the lake, till
+they came to a halt at a place where the path left the water and climbed
+upward by several zigzags to the top of a rock, on which the advance
+guard reported that they had seen the bonnets of the Highlanders as well
+as the shining barrels of their long muskets.
+
+The officer now ordered the Corporal with three files to dislodge the
+enemy from this stronghold. The soldiers accordingly moved forward while
+Captain Thornton, with the rest of his party, followed in support. But
+immediate attack was prevented by the appearance of a woman on the top
+of the rock.
+
+"Stand!" she cried in commanding tones, "and tell me what you seek in
+Mac-Gregor's country."
+
+[Illustration: "THE soldiers accordingly moved forward while Captain
+Thornton, with the rest of his party, followed in support. But immediate
+attack was prevented by the appearance of a woman on the top of the
+rock.
+
+"'Stand!' she cried in commanding tones, 'and tell me what you seek in
+Mac-Gregor's country.'"]
+
+She was tall and imposing in figure. Her features had once been
+handsome, but were now wasted with grief and passion. She wore a man's
+plaid and belt, a man's bonnet was on her head, and she held a naked
+sword in her hand.
+
+"That's Helen Mac-Gregor, Rob's wife," said the Bailie, in a whisper of
+alarm; "there will be broken heads before long!"
+
+"What seek ye here?" she demanded again of Captain Thornton, who had
+advanced to reconnoitre.
+
+"We seek the outlaw Rob Roy Mac-Gregor Campbell," said the officer; "we
+make no war upon women. Therefore offer no opposition to the King's
+troops and assure yourself of civil treatment."
+
+"I am no stranger to your tender mercies," the woman said, "you have
+left me neither name nor fame--neither house nor hold, blanket nor
+bedding, cattle to feed us, nor flocks to clothe us! Ye have taken from
+us all--all! The very name of our ancestors ye have taken away, and now
+ye come for our lives!"
+
+"I seek no man's life," said the officer. "I only execute my orders.
+Forward there--march!"
+
+"Hurrah, boys--for Rob Roy's head and a purse of gold!" cried the
+Corporal, taking the word from his officer.
+
+He quickened his pace to a run, followed by his six men. But as they
+reached the first loop of the ascent of the cliff, there came the flash
+of a dozen muskets from both sides of the pass. The Corporal, shot
+through the body, still struggled to reach the summit. He clung to the
+rock, but after a desperate effort his grasp relaxed. He slipped from
+the bare face of the cliff into the deep lake, where he perished. Of the
+soldiers three fell with him, while the others retired as best they
+could upon their main body.
+
+"Grenadiers, to the front!" cried the steady voice of Captain Thornton,
+"open your pouches--handle your grenades--blow up your matches--fall
+on!"
+
+The whole party advanced with a shout, headed by Captain Thornton, the
+grenadiers preparing to throw their grenades among the bushes, and the
+rank and file ready to support them in a close and combined assault.
+
+Dougal, finding himself forgotten in the scuffle, had wisely crept into
+the thicket which overhung the road, and was already mounting the cliff
+with the agility of a wild-cat. Frank hastily followed his example. For
+the spattering fire, directed on the advancing party of soldiers, the
+loud reports of muskets, and the explosion of the grenades, made the
+path no comfortable place for those without arms. The Bailie, however,
+had only been able to scramble about twenty feet above the path when,
+his foot slipping, he would certainly have fallen into the lake had not
+the branch of a ragged thorn caught his riding-coat and supported him in
+mid-air, where he hung very like a sign in front of a hostelry. Andrew
+Fairservice had made somewhat better speed, but even he had only
+succeeded in reaching a ledge from which he could neither ascend nor yet
+come down. On this narrow promontory he footed it up and down, much like
+a hen on a hot girdle, and roared for mercy in Gaelic and English
+alternately, accordingly as he thought the victory inclined toward the
+soldiers or went in favour of the outlaws.
+
+But on this occasion it was the Highlanders who were destined to win.
+They fought altogether under cover, and, from the number of musket
+flashes they held also a great superiority in point of numbers. At all
+events Frank soon saw the English officer stripped of his hat and arms,
+and his men, with sullen and dejected countenances, delivering up their
+muskets to the victorious foe.
+
+The Bailie was, however, rescued by "the Dougal cratur," as the
+magistrate called him, who cut off the tails of his coat and lowered him
+to the ground. Then, when at last he was somewhat appeased, on account
+of Frank's seeming desertion, he counselled that they should be in no
+hurry to approach Mac-Gregor's wife, who would certainly be most
+dangerous in the moment of victory.
+
+Andrew Fairservice had already been espied on his airy perch, from which
+the Highlanders soon made him descend, by threatening him with their
+guns and even firing a stray shot or two over his head, so that
+presently he fell to the earth among them. The outlaws stood ready to
+receive him, and ere he could gain his legs, they had, with the most
+admirable celerity, stripped him of periwig, hat, coat, doublet,
+stockings, and shoes. In other circumstances this might have been
+amusing for Frank to watch. For though Andrew fell to the earth a
+well-clothed and decent burgher--he arose a forked, uncased, bald-pated,
+and beggarly-looking scarecrow.
+
+And indeed Frank and the Bailie would soon have shared the same fate,
+had not Dougal appeared on the scene in the nick of time, and compelled
+the plunderers to restore their spoil. So to Helen Mac-Gregor they were
+taken, Dougal fighting and screaming all the way, evidently determined
+to keep his captives to himself, or at least to prevent others from
+claiming them.
+
+With many but (considering the time and occasion) somewhat ill-chosen
+words of familiarity, the Bailie claimed kindred with Rob Roy's wife.
+But in this he did himself more harm than good, for his ill-timed
+jocularity grated on Helen Mac-Gregor's ear, in her present mood of
+exaltation, and she promptly commanded that the Sassenachs should one
+and all be bound and thrown into the deeps of the lake.
+
+But here Dougal threw himself between the angry woman and her prisoners
+with such vehemence that he was able to stave off, at least for a time,
+the execution of the supreme sentence. These men were, he said, friends
+of the Chief and had come up on his assurance to meet him at the Clachan
+of Aberfoil.
+
+But at that very moment the wild strains of the pibroch were heard
+approaching, and a strong body of Highlanders in the prime of life
+arrived on the scene. It now appeared that those who had fought and
+beaten the troops were either beardless boys or old men scarcely able to
+hold a musket. But there was no joy of victory on the faces of the
+newcomers. The pipes breathed a heart-breaking lament.
+
+_Rob Roy was taken!_
+
+"Taken," repeated Helen Mac-Gregor, "taken!--And do you live to say so?
+Did I nurse you for this, coward dogs--that you should see your father
+prisoner, and come back to tell it?"
+
+The sons of Rob Roy, the elder James, tall and handsome, the younger
+Robin Oig, ruddy and dark, both hung their heads. And after the first
+burst of her indignation was over, the elder explained how Rob Roy had
+been summoned to bide tryst with--(here Frank Osbaldistone missed the
+name, but it sounded like his own). Having, however, some suspicion of
+treachery, Rob Roy had ordered the messenger to be detained, and had
+gone forth attended by only Angus Breck and little Rory. Within half an
+hour Angus Breck came back with the tidings that the Chief had been
+captured by a party of the Lennox militia under Galbraith of
+Garschattachin, who were in waiting for him.
+
+Helen Mac-Gregor had now two purposes to carry out. First, she sent
+messengers in every direction to gather assistance for an immediate
+attack on the Lowlanders, in order to effect the rescue of her husband.
+Second, she ordered the spy, whose false message had sent her husband to
+his doom, to be brought before her. For him there was no pity.
+
+When he was haled, pale and trembling before the enraged wife of the
+Mac-Gregor, what was Frank's astonishment to discover that he was none
+other than Morris, the very same man who had accused him of the robbery
+of his portmanteau at Squire Inglewood's, and whom he had last seen in
+the Glasgow College Yards, walking and talking with Rashleigh
+Osbaldistone.
+
+A brief command to her followers--and the wretched man was bound. A
+heavy stone was tied about his neck in a plaid, and he was hurled
+instantly into the depths of the lake, where he perished, amid the loud
+shouts of vindictive triumph which went up from the clan.
+
+
+INTERLUDE OF EXPOSTULATION
+
+    "Oh, do go on," said Sweetheart, actually pushing
+    the narrator's arm, as if to shake more of the tale
+    out of him. "What a perfectly horrid place to stop
+    at! Tell us what happened after."
+
+    "Nothing more happened to Morris, I can promise
+    you that!" I replied.
+
+    "That's not nice of you," said Sweetheart. "I am
+    quite sorry for the poor man--in spite of all he
+    had done!"
+
+    "Well, I'm not," said Sir Toady Lion, truculently,
+    "he deserved it all, and more. He has done nothing
+    but tell lies and betray people all through the
+    story--right from the very beginning."
+
+    "Besides, he was afraid!" said Hugh John, with whom
+    this was the sin without forgiveness.
+
+    "Well," said Sweetheart, "so am I afraid often--of
+    mice, and rats, and horrid creeping things."
+
+    "Huh," said Sir Toady, crinkling up his nose, "you
+    are a girl--of course you are afraid!"
+
+    "And I know," retorted Sweetheart, "two noble,
+    brave, gallant, fearless, undaunted BOYS, who
+    daren't go up to the garret in the dark--_there!_"
+
+    "That's not fair," said Hugh John; "that was only
+    once, after father had been telling us about the
+    Hand-from-under-the-Bed that pulled the bedclothes
+    off! Anybody would have been frightened at that.
+    You, yourself--"
+
+    "Oh, but I don't pretend," cried Sweetheart; "I
+    don't need to. I am only a girl. But for all that,
+    I went up and lit the candle in a bedroom belonging
+    to two boys, who dared not even go up the stair
+    holding each other by the hand!"
+
+    "If you say that, I'll hit you," said Sir Toady.
+
+    "Will you!" said Sweetheart, clearing for action;
+    "we'll see about that. It's only mice _I_ am afraid
+    of--not cowardly boys!"
+
+    I hastened to still the rising storm, and in order
+    to bring the conversation back to the subject of
+    Rob Roy, I asked Hugh John if this were not more to
+    his taste in the matter of heroes.
+
+    "Oh, Rob Roy's all right," he said; "that is, when
+    once you get to him. But Frank Osbaldistone is just
+    like the rest--always being tied up, or taken round
+    where he doesn't want to go. Besides, he ran away
+    at the battle!"
+
+    "Well," said I, "he had no arms, and besides it was
+    not his quarrel. He couldn't fight either for the
+    soldiers or for the Highlanders. At any rate, you
+    can't deny that he did fight with Rashleigh in the
+    College Yards of Glasgow!"
+
+    "Yes, and he got wounded. And then Rob Roy
+    threatened to lick them both--I don't count that
+    much!" said the contemner of heroes. "But, at any
+    rate, it was something. And he didn't go spooning
+    about after girls--that's good, anyway."
+
+    "Don't be too sure," said Sweetheart; "there's Die
+    Vernon in the background."
+
+    "Well, of course, a fellow _has_ to do some of it
+    if he's a hero," said Hugh John, who has always
+    high ideas of the proper thing; "it's in his part,
+    you see, and he has to--else he wouldn't be
+    respected. But I think if ever I had to be a hero,
+    I would dress up Sir Toady for the girl's part.
+    Then if he monkeyed too much, why--I could welt him
+    well after. But (he added with a sigh), with a
+    girl, you can't, of course."
+
+    "Well, anyway," said Sweetheart, thinking that
+    possibly the tale-teller might feel aggrieved at
+    these uncomplimentary remarks, "_I_ think it is
+    just a beautiful story, and I love the dear Bailie
+    for being willing to go all that way with Frank,
+    and get hung up in the tree by the coat-tails and
+    all!"
+
+    "Rats!" said Hugh John, contemptuously, "think if
+    he had known _that_, he would ever have left
+    Glasgow--not much!"
+
+    "Well, it was beautiful, I think," said Sweetheart,
+    "but I _am_ sorry that they drowned the poor man
+    Morris, especially when he was so very frightened."
+
+    But the instant indignant outcry of the boys
+    silenced her. Lochs twelve feet deep, it speedily
+    appeared, ought to be provided by law everywhere
+    over the kingdoms three, for the accommodation of
+    such "sweeps" and "sneaks" and "cowards."
+
+    Then Mistress Margaret spoke up for the first time.
+    She had been sitting with her eyes fixed dreamily
+    on the sparkle of the logs in the library
+    fireplace.
+
+    "What a blessing it is," she said, "that this is a
+    rainy Saturday, and so we do not need to wait for
+    more. Please go on with the story--JUST where you
+    left off."
+
+    And Maid Margaret's form of government being
+    absolute monarchy, I did so, and the result was
+
+
+
+
+THE THIRD TALE FROM "ROB ROY"
+
+
+I. IN THE HANDS OF THE PHILISTINES
+
+AFTER the victory of the Highlanders and the drowning of Morris the spy,
+it was for some little while touch-and-go whether the Bailie and Frank
+should be made to follow him to the bottom of the loch. But at last
+Frank was ordered to go as an ambassador to those who had captured Rob
+Roy, while the Bailie with Captain Thornton and all the other prisoners
+remained as hostages in the hands of the victorious Helen.
+
+This was the message he was to carry to the Sassenach.
+
+The whole district of the Lennox would be ravished if the Mac-Gregor
+were not set free within twelve hours. Farmhouses would be burned,
+stack-yard and byre made desolate. In every house there would be a
+crying of the death wail--the coronach of sorrow. Furthermore, to begin
+with, Helen Mac-Gregor promised that if her request was not granted
+within the time specified, she would send them this Glasgow Bailie, with
+the Saxon Captain, and all the captive soldiers, bundled together in a
+plaid, and chopped into as many pieces as there were checks in the
+tartan!
+
+When the angry Chieftainess paused in her denunciations, the cool level
+voice of the soldier struck in: "Give my compliments--Captain Thornton's
+of the Royal's--to the commanding officer, and tell him to do his duty
+and secure his prisoner, without wasting a thought on me. If I have been
+fool enough to let myself be led into this trap, I am at least wise
+enough to know how to die for it without disgracing the service. I am
+only sorry for my poor fellows," he added, "fallen into such butcherly
+hands!"
+
+But the Bailie's message was far different in tone.
+
+"Whisht, man, whisht," he cried, "are ye weary of your life? Ye'll gie
+_my_ service, Bailie Nicol Jarvie's service--a magistrate o' Glasgow, as
+his father was before him--to the commanding officer, and tell him that
+there are here a wheen honest men in sore trouble, and like to come to
+mair. And tell him that the best thing he can do for the common good is
+just to let Rob come his ways up the glen, and nae mair about it! There
+has been some ill done already, but as it has lighted mostly on the
+exciseman Morris it will not be muckle worth making a stir about!"
+
+So young Hamish Mac-Gregor led Frank Osbaldistone across the mountains
+to the place where his father's captors, the horsemen of the Lennox, had
+taken up their position on a rocky eminence, where they would be safe
+from any sudden attack of the mountaineers.
+
+Before parting he made Frank promise not to reveal, either who had
+guided him thither, or where he had parted from his conductor. Happily
+Frank was not asked either of these questions. He and Andrew (who, in a
+tattered cloak and with a pair of brogues on his feet, looked like a
+Highland scarecrow) were soon perceived by the sentries and conducted to
+the presence of the commanding officer, evidently a man of rank, in a
+steel cuirass, crossed by the ribband of the Thistle, to whom the
+others seemed to pay great deference. This proved to be no other than
+his Grace the Duke of Montrose, who in person had come to conduct the
+operations against his enemy, Rob Roy.
+
+Frank's message was instantly listened to, and very clearly and
+powerfully he pointed out what would occur if Rob Roy were not suffered
+to depart. But the Duke bade him return to those who sent him, and tell
+them that if they touched so much as a hair upon the heads of their
+hostages, he would make their glens remember it for a hundred years. As
+for Rob Roy, he must surely die!
+
+But Frank Osbaldistone pointed out that to return with such a message
+would be to go to certain death, and pleaded for some reply which might
+save the lives of Captain Thornton, the Bailie, and the soldiers who
+were captive in Helen Mac-Gregor's hands upon the hostile shores of Loch
+Ard.
+
+"Why, if you cannot go yourself, send your servant!" returned the Duke.
+At which Andrew burst forth. He had had, he said, enough and to spare of
+Highland hospitality.
+
+"The deil be in my feet," quoth Andrew, "if I go the length of my toe
+on such an errand. Do the folk think I have a spare windpipe in my
+pocket, after John Highlandman has slit this one with his jocteleg? Or
+that I can dive down at one side of a Highland loch and come up at the
+other like a sheldrake? Na, na, every one for himself, and God for us
+all! Folk may just go on their own errands. Rob Roy is no concern of
+mine. He never came near my native parish of Dreepdaily to steal either
+pippin or pear from me or mine!"
+
+The Duke seemed much affected by the hard case of the King's officer,
+but he replied that the state of the country must come first, and it was
+absolutely necessary that Rob Roy should die. He held to this resolution
+even when Galbraith of Garschattachin and others of his followers seemed
+inclined to put in a good word for Rob. He was about to examine the
+prisoner further, when a Highlander brought him a letter which seemed to
+cause the great man much annoyance. It announced that the Highland
+clans, on whom the Lowlanders had been relying, had made a separate
+peace with the enemy and had gone home.
+
+As the night was now fast coming on, the Duke ordered Garschattachin to
+draw off his party in one direction, while he himself would escort the
+prisoner to a place called Duchray.
+
+"Here's auld ordering and counter-ordering," growled Garschattachin
+between his teeth, "but bide a wee--we may, ere long, play at Change
+Seats--for the King's coming!"
+
+The two divisions of cavalry began to move down the valley at a slow
+trot. One party, that commanded by Galbraith, turned to the right, where
+they were to spend the night in an old castle, while the other, taking
+along with them Frank Osbaldistone, escorted the prisoner to a place of
+safety. Rob Roy was mounted behind one of the strongest men present, one
+Ewan of Brigglands, to whom he was fastened by a horse-belt passed round
+both and buckled before the yeoman's breast. Frank was set on a
+troop-horse and placed immediately behind. They were as closely
+surrounded by soldiers as the road would permit, and there were always
+one or two troopers, pistol in hand, riding on either side of Rob Roy.
+
+Nevertheless the dauntless outlaw was endeavouring all the time to
+persuade Ewan of Brigglands to give him a last chance for his life.
+
+"Your father, Ewan," he said, so low that Frank had difficulty in
+catching the words, "would not thus have carried an old friend to the
+shambles, like a calf, for all the dukes in Christendom!"
+
+To this Ewan returned no answer--only shrugging his shoulders as a sign
+that what he was doing was by no choice of his own.
+
+"And when the Mac-Gregors come down the glen," the voice of the tempter
+went on in Ewan's ear, "and ye see empty folds, a bloody hearthstone,
+and the fire flashing out between the rafters of your house, ye may be
+thinking then, Ewan, that were your friend Rob Roy to the fore, you
+might have had that safe, which it will make your heart sore to lose!"
+
+They were at this time halted on the river-bank, waiting for the signal
+to bring over the Mac-Gregor. Rob made one last attempt.
+
+"It's a sore thing," said Rob Roy, still closer in the ear of his
+conductor, "that Ewan of Brigglands, whom Rob Roy has helped with hand,
+sword, and purse, should mind a gloom from a great man more than a
+friend's life."
+
+Ewan, sorely agitated, was silent.
+
+Then came the Duke's loud call from the opposite bank, "Bring over the
+prisoner!"
+
+Dashing forward precipitately, Ewan's horse, with the two men on his
+back, entered the water. A soldier kept back Frank from following. But
+in the waning light he could see the Duke getting his people into order
+across the river, when suddenly a splash and a cry warned him that Rob
+had prevailed on Ewan of Brigglands to give him one more chance for
+life.
+
+
+II. THE ESCAPE
+
+In a moment all was confusion. The Duke shouted and ordered. Men rode
+hither and thither in the fast-falling darkness, some really anxious to
+earn the hundred guineas which the Duke promised to the captor of his
+foe, but the most part trying rather by shouting and confusion to cover
+Rob's escape. At one time, indeed, he was hardly pressed, several shots
+coming very near him before he could lose himself in the darkness. He
+was compelled to come to the surface to breathe, but in some way he
+contrived to loosen his plaid, which, floating down the stream, took off
+the attention of his more inveterate pursuers while he himself swam into
+safety.
+
+In the confusion Frank had been left alone upon the bank, and there he
+remained till he heard the baffled troopers returning, some with vows of
+vengeance upon himself.
+
+"Where is the English stranger?" called one; "it was he who gave Rob the
+knife to cut the belt!"
+
+"Cleave the pock-pudding to the chafts!" said another.
+
+"Put a brace of balls into his brain-pan!" suggested yet another.
+
+"Or three inches of cold iron into his briskit!"
+
+So, in order to nullify these various amiable intentions, Frank
+Osbaldistone leaped from his horse, and plunged into a thicket of alder
+trees, where he was almost instantly safe from pursuit. It was now
+altogether dark, and, having nowhere else to go, Frank resolved to
+retrace his way back to the little inn at which he had passed the
+previous night. The moon rose ere he had proceeded very far, bringing
+with it a sharp frosty wind which made Frank glad to be moving rapidly
+over the heather. He was whistling, lost in thought, when two riders
+came behind him, ranging up silently on either side. The man on the
+right of Frank addressed him in an English tongue and accent strange
+enough to hear in these wilds.
+
+"So ho, friend, whither so late?"
+
+"To my supper and bed at Aberfoil!" replied Frank, curtly.
+
+"Are the passes open?" the horseman went on, in the same commanding tone
+of voice.
+
+"I do not know," said Frank; "but if you are an English stranger, I
+advise you to turn back till daybreak. There has been a skirmish, and
+the neighbourhood is not perfectly safe for travellers."
+
+"The soldiers had the worst of it, had they not?"
+
+"They had, indeed--an officer's party was destroyed or made prisoners."
+
+"Are you sure of that?" persisted the man on horseback.
+
+"I was an unwilling spectator of the battle!" said Frank.
+
+"Unwilling! Were not you engaged in it?"
+
+"Certainly not," he answered, a little nettled at the man's tone. "I was
+held a prisoner by the King's officer!"
+
+"On what suspicion? And who and what are you?"
+
+"I really do not know, sir," said Frank, growing quickly angry, "why I
+should answer so many questions put to me by a stranger. I ask you no
+questions as to your business here, and you will oblige me by making no
+inquiries as to mine."
+
+But a new voice struck in, in tones which made every nerve in the young
+man's body tingle.
+
+"Mr. Francis Osbaldistone," it said, "should not whistle his favourite
+airs when he wishes to remain undiscovered."
+
+And Diana Vernon, for it was she, wrapped in a horseman's cloak,
+whistled in playful mimicry the second part of the tune, which had been
+on Frank's lips as they came up with him.
+
+"Great heavens, can it be you, Miss Vernon," cried Frank, when at last
+he found words, "in such a spot--at such an hour--in such a lawless
+country!"
+
+While Frank was speaking, he was trying to gain a glimpse of her
+companion. The man was certainly not Rashleigh. For so much he was
+thankful, at least, nor could the stranger's courteous address proceed
+from any of the other Osbaldistone brothers. There was in it too much
+good breeding and knowledge of the world for that. But there was also
+something of impatience in the attitude of Diana's companion, which was
+not long in manifesting itself.
+
+"Diana," he said, "give your cousin his property, and let us not spend
+time here."
+
+Whereupon Miss Vernon took out a small case, and with a deeper and
+graver tone of feeling she said, "Dear cousin, you see I was born to be
+your better angel. Rashleigh has been compelled to give up his spoil,
+and had we reached Aberfoil last night, I would have found some
+messenger to give you these. But now I have to do the errand myself."
+
+"Diana," said the horseman, "the evening grows late, and we are yet far
+from our home."
+
+"Pray consider, sir," she said, lightly answering him, "how recently I
+have been under control. Besides, I have not yet given my cousin his
+packet--or bidden him farewell--farewell forever! Yes, Frank, forever.
+(She added the last words in a lower tone.) There is a gulf fixed
+between us! Where I go, you must not follow--what we do, you must not
+share in--farewell--be happy!"
+
+In the attitude in which she bent from her Highland pony, the girl's
+face, perhaps not altogether unintentionally, touched that of Frank
+Osbaldistone. She pressed his hand, and a tear that had gathered on Die
+Vernon's eyelash found its way to the young man's cheek.
+
+
+That was all. It was but a moment, yet Frank Osbaldistone never forgot
+that moment. He stood dumb and amazed with the recovered treasure in his
+hand, mechanically counting the sparkles which flew from the horses'
+hoofs which carried away his lost Diana and her unknown companion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Frank was still dreaming over his almost unbelievable encounter with
+Miss Vernon--more concerned perhaps, be it said, about the fact that she
+had wept to part with him than about the recovery of his father's
+papers, when another traveller overtook him, this time on foot.
+
+"A braw nicht, Mr. Osbaldistone," said a voice which there was no
+mistaking for that of the Mac-Gregor himself; "we have met at the mirk
+hour before now, I am thinking!"
+
+Frank congratulated the Chieftain heartily on his recent wonderful
+escape from peril.
+
+"Ay," said Rob Roy, coolly, "there is as much between the throat and the
+halter as between the cup and the lip. But tell me the news!"
+
+[Illustration: "IN the attitude in which she bent from her Highland
+pony, the girl's face, perhaps not altogether unintentionally, touched
+that of Frank Osbaldistone. She pressed his hand, and a tear that had
+gathered on Die Vernon's eyelash found its way to the young man's
+cheek."]
+
+He laughed heartily at the exploits of the Bailie and the red-hot
+coulter in the inn of Aberfoil, and at the apprehension of Frank and his
+companion by the King's officer.
+
+"As man lives by bread," he cried, "the buzzards have mistaken my friend
+the Bailie for his Excellency, and you for Diana Vernon--oh, the most
+egregious night owlets!"
+
+"Miss Vernon," said Frank, trying to gain what information he could,
+"does she still bear that name?"
+
+But the wary Highlander easily evaded him.
+
+"Ay, ay," he said, "she's under lawful authority now; and it's time, for
+she's a daft hempie. It's a pity that his Excellency is a thought
+elderly for her. The like of you or my son Hamish would have sorted
+better in point of years."
+
+This blow, which destroyed all Frank's hopes, quite silenced him--so
+much so that Rob Roy had to ask if he were ill or wearied with the long
+day's work, being, as he said, "doubtless unused to such things."
+
+But in order to divert his attention Mac-Gregor asked him as to the
+skirmish, and what had happened afterwards. It was with genuine agony
+that Rob Roy listened to the tale which Frank had to tell--though he
+modified, as far as he could, the treatment the Bailie and himself had
+met with from the Mac-Gregors.
+
+"And the excise collector," said Rob Roy; "I wish he may not have been
+at the bottom of the ploy himself! I thought he looked very queer when I
+told him that he must remain as a hostage for my safe return. I wager he
+will not get off without ransom!"
+
+"Morris," said Frank, with great solemnity, "has paid the last great
+ransom of all!"
+
+"Eh--what?" cried the Mac-Gregor, "what d'ye say? I trust it was in the
+skirmish that he was killed?"
+
+"He was slain in cold blood, after the fight was over, Mr. Campbell!"
+
+"Cold blood!" he muttered rapidly between his teeth, "how fell this?
+Speak out, man, and do not Mister or Campbell me--my foot is on my
+native heath, and my name is Mac-Gregor!"
+
+Without noticing the rudeness of his tone, Frank gave him a distinct
+account of the death of Morris. Rob Roy struck the butt of his gun with
+great vehemence on the ground, and broke out, "I vow to God, such a deed
+might make one forswear kin, clan, country, wife, and bairns! And yet
+the villain wrought long for it. He but drees the doom he intended for
+me. Hanging or drowning--it is just the same. But I wish, for all that,
+they had put a ball or a dirk through the traitor's breast. It will
+cause talk--the fashion of his death--though all the world knows that
+Helen Mac-Gregor has deep wrongs to avenge."
+
+Whereupon he quitted the subject altogether, and spoke of Frank
+Osbaldistone's affairs. He was glad to hear that he had received the
+stolen papers from Diana Vernon's own hands.
+
+"I was sure you would get them," he said; "the letter you brought me
+contained his Excellency's pleasure to that effect, and it was for that
+purpose I asked ye to come up the glen in order that I might serve you.
+But his Excellency has come across Rashleigh first."
+
+Rob Roy's words made much clear to the young man, yet some things
+remained mysterious. He remembered that Diana Vernon had left the
+library and immediately returned with the letter which was afterwards
+claimed by Rob Roy in the tolbooth of Glasgow. The person whom he now
+called his Excellency must therefore have been in Osbaldistone Hall at
+the same time as himself, and unknown to all except Diana and possibly
+to her cousin Rashleigh. Frank remembered the double shadows on the
+windows, and thought that he could now see the reason of those.
+
+But Rob would give him no clew as to who or what his Excellency was.
+
+"I am thinking," he said cautiously, "that if you do not know that
+already, it cannot be of much consequence for you to know at all. So I
+will e'en pass over that part of it. But this I will tell you. His
+Excellency was hidden by Diana Vernon in her own apartment at the Hall,
+as best reason was, all the time you were there. Only Sir Hildebrand and
+Rashleigh knew of it. You, of course, were out of the question, and as
+for the young squires, they had not enough wit among the five of them to
+call the cat from the cream!"
+
+The two travellers, thus talking together, had approached within a
+quarter of a mile from the village, when an outpost of Highlanders,
+springing upon them, bade them stand and tell their business. The single
+word _Gregarach_, pronounced in the deep commanding tones of Frank's
+companion, sufficed to call forth an answering yell of joyous
+recognition. The men threw themselves down before the escaped Chief,
+clasping his knees, and, as it were, worshipping him with eyes and lips,
+much as poor Dougal had done in the Glasgow tolbooth.
+
+The very hills resounded with the triumph. Old and young, both sexes and
+all ages, came running forth with shouts of jubilation, till it seemed
+as if a mountain torrent was hurrying to meet the travellers. Rob Roy
+took Frank by the hand, and he did not allow any to come near him till
+he had given them to understand that his companion was to be well and
+carefully treated.
+
+So literally was this command acted upon, that for the time being Frank
+was not even allowed the use of his limbs. He was carried--will he, nill
+he--in triumph toward the inn of Mrs. MacAlpine. It was in Frank's heart
+that he might possibly meet there with Diana Vernon, but when he entered
+and looked around, the only known face in the smoky hovel was that of
+the Bailie, who, with a sort of reserved dignity, received the greetings
+of Rob Roy, his apologies for the indifferent accommodation which he
+could give him, and his well-meant inquiries after his health.
+
+"I am well, kinsman," said the Bailie, "one cannot expect to carry the
+Salt Market of Glasgow at one's tail, as a snail does his shell. But I
+am blithe to see that ye have gotten out of the hands of your
+unfriends!"
+
+The Bailie, however, cheered by Highland refreshment, presently unbent
+and had many things to say. He would also have spoken concerning Helen
+Mac-Gregor. But Rob stopped him.
+
+"Say nothing of my wife," he said sternly; "of me, ye are welcome to
+speak your full pleasure."
+
+Next the Bailie offered to bind Rob's two sons as apprentices to the
+weaving trade, which well-meant proposition produced from the outlaw the
+characteristic anathema, mostly (and happily) conceived in Gaelic,
+"_Ceade millia diaoul!_ My sons weavers! _Millia molligheart!_ But I
+would rather see every loom in Glasgow, beam, traddles, and shuttles,
+burnt in the deil's ain fire sooner!"
+
+However Rob Roy honestly paid the Bailie his thousand merks, principal
+and interest, in good French gold. And Frank quite won the outlaw's
+heart by the suggestion that the foreign influence of the house of
+Osbaldistone and Tresham could easily push the fortune of Hamish and
+Robin in the service of the King of France or in that of his Majesty of
+Spain. Rob could not for the present accept, he said. There was other
+work to be done at home. But all the same he thanked him for the offer,
+with, as it seemed, some considerable emotion. Already Frank was
+learning the truth that a hard man is always more moved by what one may
+do for his children, than with what one does for himself.
+
+Lastly he sent "the Dougal cratur," dressed in Andrew Fairservice's
+ancient garments, to see them safe upon their way. He had a boat in
+waiting for them on Loch Lomond side, and there on the pebbles the
+Bailie and his cousin bade each other farewell. They parted with much
+mutual regard, and even affection--the Bailie at the last saying to Rob
+Roy that if ever he was in need of a hundred "or even twa hundred pounds
+sterling," he had only to send a line to the Salt Market. While the
+chief answered that if ever anybody should affront his kinsman, the
+Bailie had only to let him ken, and he would pull the ears out of his
+head if he were the best man in Glasgow!
+
+With these assurances of high mutual consideration, the boat bore away
+for the southwest angle of the lake. Rob Roy was left alone on the
+shore, conspicuous by his long gun, waving tartans, and the single tall
+feather in his bonnet which denoted the chieftain.
+
+The travellers arrived safely in Glasgow, when the Bailie went instantly
+home, vowing aloud that since he had once more gotten within sight of
+St. Mungo's steeple, it would be a long day and a short one before he
+ventured out of eye-shot of it again.
+
+As for Frank, he made his way to his lodgings in order to seek out Owen.
+The door was opened by Andrew Fairservice, who set up a joyous shout,
+and promptly ushered the young man into the presence of the Head Clerk.
+But Mr. Owen was not alone. Mr. Osbaldistone the elder was there also,
+and in another moment Frank was folded in his father's arms.
+
+
+III. THE DEATH OF RASHLEIGH
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Osbaldistone's first impulse seemed to be to preserve his dignity.
+But nature was too strong for him.
+
+"My son--my dear son!" he murmured.
+
+The head of the firm of Osbaldistone and Tresham had returned from
+Holland sooner than was expected, and with the resources which he had
+gathered there, and being now in full credit, he had no difficulty in
+solving the financial problems which had weighed so heavily upon the
+house in his absence. He refused, however, every tender of apology from
+MacVittie and Company, settled the balance of their account, and
+announced to them that that page of their ledger, with all the
+advantages connected with it, was closed to them forever.
+
+Soon after the home-coming of Frank Osbaldistone from the Highlands and
+his reconciliation with his father, the great Jacobite rebellion of 1715
+broke out, in which the greater part of the Highlands burst into a
+flame, as well as much of the more northerly parts of England. Sir
+Hildebrand led out his sons to battle--all, that is to say, with the
+exception of Rashleigh, who had changed his politics and become a spy on
+behalf of the government of King George.
+
+But it was not the will of Fate that the name of Osbaldistone should
+make any figure in that short and inglorious campaign. Thorncliff was
+killed in a duel with one of his brother officers. The sot Percie died
+shortly after, according to the manner of his kind. Dickon broke his
+neck in spurring a blood mare beyond her paces. Wilfred the fool died
+fighting at Proud Preston on the day of the Barricades; and his
+gallantry was no less that he could never remember an hour together for
+which king he was doing battle.
+
+John also behaved boldly and died of his wounds a few days after in the
+prison of Newgate, to the despair of old Sir Hildebrand, who did not
+long survive him. Indeed he willingly laid himself down to die, after
+having first disinherited Rashleigh as a traitor, and left his much
+encumbered estates to his nephew, Frank Osbaldistone.
+
+Mr. Osbaldistone the elder now took an unexpected view of his son's
+prospects. He had cared nothing for his family in the past--indeed,
+never since he had been expelled from Osbaldistone Hall to make way for
+his younger brother. But now he willingly spent his money in taking up
+the mortgages upon the Osbaldistone estates, and he urged upon Frank the
+necessity of going down at once to the Hall, lest Rashleigh should get
+before him in that possession which is nine points of the law.
+
+So to Osbaldistone Hall went Frank once more, his heart not a little
+sore within him for the good days he had spent in it, and especially
+because of the thought that he would now find there no madcap Die
+Vernon to tease and torment him out of his life.
+
+First of all, to make his title clear, Frank had been desired to visit
+the hospitable house of old Justice Inglewood, with whom Sir Hildebrand
+had deposited his will. As it chanced, it was in that good gentleman's
+power to give the young man some information which interested him more
+than the right of possession to many Osbaldistone Halls.
+
+After dinner in the evening Frank and the Justice were sitting together,
+when all of a sudden Squire Inglewood called upon his companion to
+pledge a bumper to "dear Die Vernon, the rose of the wilderness, the
+heath-bell of Cheviot, that blossom transported to an infamous convent!"
+
+"Is not Miss Vernon, then, married?" cried Frank, in great astonishment,
+"I thought his Excellency--"
+
+"Pooh--pooh! His Excellency and his Lordship are all a humbug now, you
+know," said the Justice; "mere St. Germains titles--Earl of Beauchamp
+and ambassador plenipotentiary from France, when the Duke Regent scarce
+knew that he lived, I daresay. But you must have seen old Sir Frederick
+Vernon at the hall, when he played the part of Father Vaughan?"
+
+"Good Heavens," cried Frank, "then Father Vaughan was Miss Vernon's
+father?"
+
+"To be sure he was," said the Justice, coolly; "there's no use keeping
+the secret now, for he must be out of the country by this
+time--otherwise no doubt it would be my duty to apprehend him. Come, off
+with your bumper to my dear lost Die!"
+
+So Frank fared forth to Osbaldistone Hall, uncertain whether to be glad
+or sorry at Squire Inglewood's news. Finally he decided to be glad--or
+at least as glad as he could. For Diana, though equally lost to him, was
+at least not wedded to any one else.
+
+Syddall, the old butler of Sir Hildebrand, seemed at first very
+unwilling to admit them, but Frank's persistence, together with Andrew
+Fairservice's insolence, made a way into the melancholy house. Frank
+ordered a fire to be lighted in the library. Syddall tried to persuade
+him to take up his quarters elsewhere, on the plea that the library had
+not been sat in for a long time, and that the chimney smoked.
+
+To the old man's confusion, however, when they entered the room, a fire
+was blazing in the grate. He took up the tongs to hide his confusion,
+muttering, "It is burning clear now, but it smoked woundily in the
+morning!"
+
+Next Frank ordered Andrew to procure him two stout fellows of the
+neighbourhood on whom he could rely, who would back the new proprietor,
+in case of Rashleigh attempting any attack during Frank's stay in the
+home of his fathers.
+
+Andrew soon returned with a couple of his friends--or, as he described
+them, "sober, decent men, weel founded in doctrinal points, and, above
+all, as bold as lions."
+
+Syddall, however, shook his head at sight of them.
+
+"I maybe cannot expect that your Honour should put confidence in what I
+say, but it is Heaven's truth for all that. Ambrose Wingfield is as
+honest a man as lives, but if there be a false knave in all the country,
+it is his brother Lancie. The whole country knows him to be a spy for
+Clerk Jobson on the poor gentlemen that have been in trouble. But he's a
+dissenter, and I suppose that's enough nowadays."
+
+The evening darkened down, and trimming the wood fire in the old library
+Frank sat on, dreaming dreams in which a certain lady occupied a great
+place. He chanced to lift his eyes at a sound which seemed like a sigh,
+and lo! Diana Vernon stood before him. She was resting on the arm of a
+figure so like the portrait on the wall that involuntarily Frank raised
+his eyes to the frame to see whether it was not indeed empty.
+
+But the figures were neither painted canvas nor yet such stuff as dreams
+are made of. Diana Vernon and her father--for it was they--stood before
+the young man in actual flesh and blood. Frank was so astonished that
+for a while he could not speak, and it was Sir Frederick who first broke
+the silence.
+
+"We are your suppliants, Mr. Osbaldistone," he said; "we claim the
+refuge and protection of your roof, till we can pursue a journey where
+dungeons and death gape for me at every step!"
+
+"Surely you cannot suppose--" Frank found words with great
+difficulty--"Miss Vernon cannot suppose that I am so ungrateful--that I
+could betray any one--much less you!"
+
+"I know it," said Sir Frederick, "though I am conferring on you a
+confidence which I would have been glad to have imposed on any one else.
+But my fate, which has chased me through a life of perils, is now
+pressing me hard, and, indeed, leaving me no alternative."
+
+At this moment the door opened, and the voice of Andrew Fairservice was
+heard without. "I am bringing in the candles--ye can light them when ye
+like--'can do' is easy carried about with one!"
+
+Frank had just time to rush to the door and thrust the officious rascal
+out, shutting the door upon him. Then, remembering the length of his
+servant's tongue, he made haste to follow him to the hall to prevent his
+gabbling of what he might have seen. Andrew's voice was loud as Frank
+opened the door.
+
+"What is the matter with you, you fool?" he demanded; "you stare and
+look wild as if you had seen a ghost."
+
+"No--no--nothing," stammered Andrew, "only your Honour was pleased to be
+hasty!"
+
+Frank Osbaldistone immediately dismissed the two men whom Andrew had
+found for him, giving them a crown-piece to drink his health, and they
+withdrew, apparently contented and unsuspicious. They certainly could
+have no further talk with Andrew that night, and it did not seem
+possible that in the few moments which Andrew had spent in the kitchen
+before Frank's arrival, he could have had time to utter two words.
+
+But sometimes only two words can do a great deal of harm. On this
+occasion they cost two lives.
+
+"You now know my secret," said Diana Vernon; "you know how near and dear
+is the relative who has so long found shelter here. And it will not
+surprise you, that, knowing such a secret, Rashleigh should rule me with
+a rod of iron."
+
+But in spite of all that had happened, Sir Frederick was a strict and
+narrow Catholic, and Frank found him more than ever determined to
+sacrifice his daughter to the life of the convent.
+
+"She has endured trials," he said, "trials which might have dignified
+the history of a martyr. She has spent the day in darkness and the night
+in vigil, and never breathed a syllable of weakness or complaint. In a
+word, Mr. Osbaldistone, she is a worthy offering to that God to whom I
+dedicate her, as all that is left dear or precious to Frederick Vernon!"
+
+Frank felt stunned and bewildered when at last they retired. But he had
+sufficient forethought to order a bed to be made up for him in the
+library, and dismissed Syddall and Andrew with orders not to disturb him
+till seven o'clock in the morning.
+
+That night Frank lay long awake, and was at last dropping over to sleep
+when he was brought back to consciousness by a tremendous noise at the
+front door of Osbaldistone Hall. He hastened downstairs only in time to
+hear Andrew Fairservice bidding Syddall stand aside.
+
+"We hae naething to fear if they come in King George's name," he was
+saying; "we hae spent baith bluid and gold for him."
+
+In an agony of terror Frank could hear bolt after bolt withdrawn by the
+officious scoundrel, who continued to boast all the while of his
+master's loyalty to King George. He flew instantly to Diana's room. She
+was up and dressed.
+
+"We are familiar with danger," she said with a sad smile. "I have the
+key of the little garden door. We will escape by it. Only keep them a
+few moments in play! And dear, dear Frank, again--for the last time,
+farewell!"
+
+By this time the men were on the stairway, and presently rapping on the
+library door.
+
+"You robber dogs!" cried Frank, wilfully misunderstanding their purpose;
+"if you do not instantly quit the house, I will fire a blunderbuss upon
+you through the door!"
+
+"Fire a fool's bauble," returned Andrew Fairservice; "it's Clerk Jobson
+with a legal warrant--"
+
+"To search for, take, and apprehend," said the voice of that abominable
+pettifogger, "the bodies of certain persons in my warrant named, charged
+of high treason under the 13th of King William, chapter third."
+
+The violence on the door was renewed.
+
+"I am rising, gentlemen," said Frank, trying to gain as much time as
+possible; "commit no violence--give me leave to look at your warrant,
+and if it is formal and legal, I shall not oppose it."
+
+"God save great George our King," cried Andrew Fairservice, "I telled ye
+that ye would find no Jacobites here!"
+
+At last the door had to be opened, when Clerk Jobson and several
+assistants entered. The lawyer showed a warrant for the arrest of Diana
+Vernon, her father,--and, to his surprise, of Frank himself.
+
+Clerk Jobson, evidently well-informed, went directly to Diana's chamber.
+
+"The hare has stolen away," he said brutally, "but her form is still
+warm. The greyhounds will have her by the haunches yet."
+
+A scream from the garden announced that he had prophesied too truly. In
+five minutes more Rashleigh entered the library with Diana and her
+father, Sir Frederick, as his prisoners.
+
+"The fox," he said, "knew his old earth, but he forgot it could be
+stopped by a careful huntsman. I had not forgot the garden gate, Sir
+Frederick--or, if the title suits you better, my most noble Lord
+Beauchamp!"
+
+"Rashleigh," said Sir Frederick, "thou art a most detestable villain!"
+
+"I better deserved the name, my Lord," said Rashleigh, turning his eyes
+piously upward, "when under an able tutor I sought to introduce civil
+war into a peaceful country. But I have since done my best to atone for
+my errors."
+
+Frank Osbaldistone could hold out no longer.
+
+"If there is one thing on earth more hideous than another," he cried,
+"it is villainy masked by hypocrisy!"
+
+"Ha, my gentle cousin," said Rashleigh, holding a candle toward Frank
+and surveying him from head to foot, "right welcome to Osbaldistone
+Hall. I can forgive your spleen. It is hard to lose an estate and a
+sweetheart in one night. For now we must take possession of this poor
+manor-house in the name of the lawful heir, Sir Rashleigh Osbaldistone!"
+
+But though Rashleigh braved it out thus, he was clearly far from
+comfortable, and especially did he wince when Diana told him that what
+he had now done had been the work of an hour, but that it would furnish
+him with reflections for a lifetime.
+
+"And of what nature these will be," she added, "I leave to your own
+conscience, which will not slumber forever!"
+
+So presently the three prisoners were carried off. Syddall and Andrew
+were ordered to be turned out of the house, the latter complaining
+bitterly.
+
+"I only said that surely my master was speaking to a ghost in the
+library--and that villain Lancie--thus to betray an auld friend that has
+sung aff the same Psalm-book wi' him for twenty years!"
+
+However, Andrew had just got clear of the avenue when he fell among a
+drove of Highland cattle, the drivers of which questioned him tightly as
+to what had happened at the Hall. They then talked in whispers among
+themselves till the lumbering sound of a coach was heard coming down the
+road from the house. The Highlanders listened attentively. The escort
+consisted of Rashleigh and several peace-officers.
+
+So soon as the carriage had passed the avenue gate, it was shut behind
+the cavalcade by a Highlandman, stationed there for the purpose. At the
+same time the carriage was impeded in its further progress by some
+felled trees which had been dragged across the road. The cattle also got
+in the way of the horses, and the escort began to drive them off with
+their whips.
+
+"Who dares abuse our cattle," said a rough voice; "shoot him down,
+Angus!"
+
+"A rescue--a rescue!" shouted Rashleigh, instantly comprehending what
+had taken place, and, firing a pistol, he wounded the man who had
+spoken.
+
+"_Claymore!_" cried the leader of the Highlanders, and an affray
+instantly engaged. The officers of the law, unused to such prompt
+bloodshed, offered little real resistance. They galloped off in
+different directions as fast as their beasts would carry them.
+Rashleigh, however, who had been dismounted, maintained on foot a
+desperate and single-handed conflict with the leader of the band. At
+last he dropped.
+
+"Will you ask forgiveness for the sake of God, King James, and auld
+friendship?" demanded a voice which Frank knew well.
+
+"No, never!" cried Rashleigh, fiercely.
+
+"Then, traitor, die in your treason!" retorted Mac-Gregor, and plunged
+his sword into the prostrate antagonist.
+
+Rob Roy then drew out the attorney Clerk Jobson from the carriage, more
+dead than alive, and threw him under the wheel.
+
+"Mr. Osbaldistone," he said in Frank's ear, "you have nothing to fear.
+Your friends will soon be in safety. Farewell, and forget not the
+Mac-Gregor!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "_And that_," I said, "_is all!_"
+
+    But I was instantly overwhelmed by the rush of a
+    living wave.
+
+    "No, no," cried the children, throwing themselves
+    upon me, "you must tell us what became of Rob
+    Roy--of the Bailie--of Dougal!"
+
+    These demands came from the boys.
+
+    "And if Diana married Frank, or went to the
+    convent?" interjected Sweetheart.
+
+    "Well," I said, "I can soon answer all these
+    questions. Sir Frederick died soon after, but
+    before his end he relieved his daughter from her
+    promise to enter a convent. She married Mr. Frank
+    Osbaldistone instead."
+
+    "And lived happy ever after?" added Maid Margaret,
+    who was at the "fairy princess" stage of
+    literature.
+
+    "Except when she got cross with him," commented Sir
+    Toady, an uncompromising realist, with pessimistic
+    views on womenkind.
+
+    "And Rob Roy held his ground among his native
+    mountains until he died."
+
+    "Tell us about the Bailie," said Hugh John; "I
+    liked the Bailie--he's jolly!"
+
+    I told him that he was far from being alone in that
+    opinion.
+
+    "The Bailie," I answered, "lived, as the Maid says,
+    happily ever after, having very wisely married his
+    servant Mattie. He carried on all the northern
+    affairs of Osbaldistone and Tresham, now a greater
+    commercial house than ever, and lived to be Lord
+    Provost of the city of Glasgow."
+
+    "Let Glasgow flourish!" cried Sir Toady,
+    spontaneously. And the audience concluded the
+    fourth tale and last from _Rob Roy_ with a very
+    passable imitation of a Highland yell.
+
+
+THE END OF THE LAST TALE FROM "ROB ROY."
+
+
+
+
+RED CAP TALES
+
+TOLD FROM
+
+THE ANTIQUARY
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FIRST TALE FROM "THE ANTIQUARY"
+
+
+    THE children lay prone on the floor of the library
+    in various positions of juvenile comfort, watching
+    the firewood in the big wide grate sparkle and
+    crackle, or the broad snowflakes "spat" against the
+    window-panes, where they stuck awhile as if gummed,
+    and then began reluctantly to trickle down. As Sir
+    Toady Lion said, "It was certainly a nice day on
+    which to stop IN!"
+
+    The choice of the book from which to tell the next
+    Red Cap Tale had been a work of some difficulty.
+    Hugh John had demanded _Ivanhoe_, chiefly because
+    there was a chapter in it about shooting with the
+    bow, the which he had read in his school reader
+    when he ought to have been preparing his Latin. Sir
+    Toady wanted _The Fortunes of Nigel_, because the
+    title sounded adventurous. Sweetheart, who has been
+    sometimes to the play, was insistent for _The Bride
+    of Lammermoor_, while as to Maid Margaret, she was
+    indifferent, so long as it was "nice and eecitin'."
+
+    But the tale-teller, being in the position of the
+    Man-with-the-Purse (or in that of the House of
+    Commons with regard to the granting of supplies),
+    held to it that, in spite of its "growed-up" title,
+    _The Antiquary_ would be the most suitable. First,
+    because we had agreed to go right through the
+    Scottish stories; secondly, because _The Antiquary_
+    was one of the first which Sir Walter wrote; and
+    thirdly and lastly, because he, the tale-teller
+    aforesaid, "felt like it."
+
+    At this, I saw Hugh John look at his brother with
+    the quick glance of intelligence which children
+    exchange when they encounter the Superior Force.
+
+    That unspoken message said clearly and neatly,
+    "Pretty thing asking us to select the book, when he
+    had it all settled from the start!"
+
+    Nevertheless, I made no remark, but with my eyes on
+    the click of Sweetheart's knitting needles (for in
+    the intervals of nursery wars Sweetheart grows a
+    diligent housewife), I began in the restful silence
+    of that snowy Saturday my first tale from _The
+    Antiquary_.
+
+
+I. THE MYSTERIOUS MR. LOVEL
+
+As though all the tin pots on a tinker's wagon had been jolted and
+jangled, the bells of St. Giles's steeple in Edinburgh town, had just
+told the hour of noon. It was the time for the Queensferry diligence
+(which is to say, omnibus) to set out for the passage of the Firth, if
+it were to catch the tide of that day, and connect with the boat which
+sets passengers from the capital upon the shores of Fife.
+
+A young man had been waiting some time. An old one had just bustled up.
+"Deil's in it!" cried the latter, with a glance at the dial of the
+church clock, "I am late, after all!"
+
+But the young man, saluting, informed him that, instead of being late,
+he was early--so far, that is, as the coach was concerned. It had not
+yet appeared upon the stand. This information first relieved the mind of
+the old gentleman, and then, after a moment or two, began (no difficult
+matter) to arouse his anger.
+
+"Good woman! good woman!" he cried down one of the area stairs, common
+in the old town of Edinburgh. Then he added in a lower tone, "Doited old
+hag! she's deaf as a post. I say, Mrs. Macleuchar!"
+
+But Mrs. Macleuchar, the proprietress of the Queensferry diligence, was
+in no hurry to face the wrath of the public. She served her customer
+quietly in the shop below, ascended the stairs, and when at last on the
+level of the street, she looked about, wiped her spectacles as if a mote
+upon them might have caused her to overlook so minute an object as an
+omnibus, and exclaimed, "Did ever anybody see the like o' this?"
+
+"Yes, you abominable woman," cried the traveller, "many have seen the
+like before, and all will yet see the like again, that have aught to do
+with your trolloping sex!"
+
+And walking up and down the pavement in front of Mrs. Macleuchar's
+booth, he delivered a volley of abuse each time he came in front of it,
+much as a battleship fires a broadside as she passes a hostile fortress,
+till the good woman was quite overwhelmed.
+
+"Oh! man! man!" she cried, "take back your three shillings and make me
+quit o' ye!"
+
+"Not so fast--not so fast," her enemy went on; "will three shillings
+take me to Queensferry according to your deceitful programme? Or will it
+pay my charges there, if, by your fault, I should be compelled to tarry
+there a day for want of tide? Will it even hire me a pinnace, for which
+the regular price is five shillings?"
+
+But at that very moment the carriage lumbered up, and the two travellers
+were carried off, the elder of them still leaning out of the window and
+shouting reproaches at the erring Mrs. Macleuchar.
+
+The slow pace of the broken-down horses, and the need to replace a shoe
+at a wayside smithy, still further delayed the progress of the vehicle,
+and when they arrived at Queensferry, the elder traveller, Mr. Jonathan
+Oldbuck by name, saw at once, by the expanse of wet sand and the number
+of the black glistening rocks visible along the shore, that the time of
+tide was long past.
+
+But he was less angry than his young companion, Mr. Lovel, had been led
+to expect from the scolding he had bestowed upon Mrs. Macleuchar in the
+city. On the way the two had discovered a kindred taste for antique
+literature and the remains of the past, upon which last Mr. Jonathan
+Oldbuck was willing to discourse, as the saying is, till all was blue.
+
+The Hawes Inn sat (and still sits) close by the wash of the tides which
+scour the Firth of Forth on its southern side. It was then an
+old-fashioned hostelry, overgrown on one side with ivy, and with the
+woods of Barnbogle growing close down behind it. The host was very
+willing to provide dinner and shelter for the two guests, and, indeed,
+there was a suspicion that Mr. Mackitchinson of the Hawes was in league
+with Mrs. Macleuchar of the Tron, and that this fact went far to explain
+the frequent late appearance of the coach with "the three yellow wheels
+and a black one" belonging to that lady, upon the High Street of
+Edinburgh.
+
+At the Hawes Inn, therefore, the time of waiting before dinner was
+sufficient for young Mr. Lovel to step out and discover who his amusing
+and irascible companion of voyage might be. At South Queensferry every
+one knew Mr. Oldbuck of Monkbarns. Bred a lawyer, he had never
+practised, being ever more interested in the antiquities of his native
+country than in sitting in an office among legal documents and quill
+pens. The death of his brother had made him heir to all his father's
+property, and in due time he had settled comfortably down to country
+life and Roman inscriptions at the family seat of Monkbarns, near by to
+the town of Fairport, the very town to which Mr. Lovel was at that
+moment making his way.
+
+Mr. Oldbuck, though equally anxious, was unable to discover anything
+about his travelling companion. He had, however, discussed the elder
+dramatists with him, and found him so strong in the subject, that his
+mind, always searching for the reasons of things, promptly set the young
+man down as an actor travelling to Fairport, to fulfil an engagement at
+the theatre there.
+
+"Yes," he said to himself, "Lovel and Belville--these are just the names
+which youngsters are apt to assume on such occasions--on my life I am
+sorry for the lad!"
+
+It was this thought which made Mr. Oldbuck, though naturally and of
+habit very careful of his sixpences, slip round to the back of the Hawes
+Inn and settle the bill with the landlord. It was this which made him
+propose to pay two-thirds of the post-chaise which was to carry them
+across to Fairport, when at last they set foot on the northern side of
+the Firth. Arrived at their destination, Mr. Oldbuck recommended Lovel
+to the care of a decent widow, and so left him with many friendly
+expressions, in order to proceed to his own house of Monkbarns.
+
+But no Mr. Lovel appeared on the boards of the theatre at Fairport. On
+the contrary, not even the town gossips, who, having no business of
+their own to attend to, take charge of other people's, could find out
+anything about him. Furthermore they could say no evil. The Sheriff
+called upon him, but the stranger had evidently fully satisfied the man
+of law, for on his return home he sent him an invitation to dinner,
+which was, however, civilly declined. He paid his bills and meddled with
+no one. All which being reported, more or less faithfully, to the
+proprietor of Monkbarns, caused the young man to rise in his estimation,
+as one who had too much good sense to trouble himself with the "bodies"
+of Fairport.
+
+It was five days before Lovel made his way out to the House of Monkbarns
+to pay his respects. The mansion had once on a time been the storehouse
+of the vanished Abbey. There the monks had stored the meal which the
+people dwelling on their lands brought to them instead of rent. Lovel
+found it a rambling, hither-and-thither old house, with tall hedges of
+yew all about it. These last were cut into arm-chairs, crowing cocks,
+and St. Georges in the act of slaying many dragons, all green and
+terrible. But one great yew had been left untouched by the shears, and
+under it Lovel found his late fellow-traveller sitting, spectacles on
+nose, reading the _London Chronicle_.
+
+The old gentleman immediately rose to welcome his guest, and having
+taken him indoors, he guided him with some difficulty to the "den," as
+he called his study. Here Mr. Oldbuck found his niece in company with a
+serving-maid, both in the midst of a thick cloud of dust, endeavouring
+to reduce the place to some order and cleanliness.
+
+The Antiquary instantly exploded, as is the manner of all book-lovers
+when their "things" are disarranged.
+
+"How dare you, or Jenny either, presume to meddle with my private
+affairs? Go sew your sampler, you monkey, and do not let me find you
+here again as you value your ears--"
+
+"Why, uncle," said the girl, who still stood her ground, "your room was
+not fit to be seen, and I just came to see that Jenny laid everything
+down where she took it up."
+
+In the midst of a second discharge of great guns the young lady made her
+escape, with a half-humorous courtesy to Lovel. It was, indeed, some
+time before the young man could see, through the dense clouds of dust
+(which, as the Antiquary said, had been ancient and peaceful enough only
+an hour ago) the chamber of Mr. Oldbuck, full of great books, littered
+with ancient maps, engravings, scraps of parchment, old armour,
+broadswords, and Highland targets.
+
+In the midst of all crouched a huge black cat, glaring steadily with
+great yellow eyes out of the murky confusion, like the familiar spirit
+of this wizard's den.
+
+So, after showing Lovel many of his most valuable antiquities, and in
+especial his treasured books, Mr. Oldbuck gladly led the way into the
+open air. He would take his visitor, he said, to the Kaim of Kinprunes.
+It was on his own land, he affirmed, and not very far away. Arrived at a
+little barren eminence, the Antiquary demanded of his friend what he
+saw.
+
+"A very fine view!" said Lovel, promptly.
+
+But this was not the response for which the proud owner was waiting. He
+went on to ask Lovel if he did not see anything remarkable on the
+surface of the ground.
+
+"Why, yes," said Lovel, readily, "I do see something like a ditch,
+indistinctly marked."
+
+At this, however, the Antiquary was most indignant.
+
+"Indistinct!" he cried, "why, the indistinctness must be in your own
+eyes. It was clear even to that light-headed lassie, my niece, at the
+first glance. Here on this very Kaim of Kinprunes was fought out the
+final conflict between Agricola and the Caledonians! The record
+says--let me remind you--'in sight of the Grampian Hills.' Yonder they
+are! _In conspectu classis_,--'in sight of the fleet,'--and where will
+you find a finer bay than that on your right hand? From this very
+fortification, doubtless, Agrippa looked down on the immense army of
+Caledonians occupying the slopes of the opposite hill, the infantry
+rising rank over rank, the cavalry and charioteers scouring the more
+level space below. From this very _praetorium_--"
+
+But a voice from behind interrupted the Antiquary's poetic description,
+for his voice had mounted almost into a kind of ecstasy.
+
+"_Praetorian here--Praetorian there--I mind the bigging o't!_"
+
+Both at once turned round, Lovel surprised, and the Antiquary both
+surprised and angry. An old man in a huge slouched hat, a long white
+grizzled beard, weather-beaten features of the colour of brick-dust, a
+long blue gown with a pewter badge on the right arm, stood gazing at
+them. In short, it was Edie Ochiltree, the King's Blue-Gownsman, which
+is to say, privileged beggar.
+
+"What is that ye say, Edie?" demanded Oldbuck, thinking that his ears
+must have deceived him.
+
+"About this bit bower, Monkbarns," said the undaunted Edie, "I mind the
+biggin' (building) o' it!"
+
+"The deil ye do!" said the Antiquary with scorn in his voice; "why, you
+old fool, it was here before ye were born, and will be here after ye are
+hanged."
+
+"Hanged or drowned, alive or dead," said Edie, sticking to his guns, "I
+mind the biggin' o't!"
+
+"You--you--you," stammered the Antiquary, between confusion and anger,
+"you strolling old vagabond, what ken ye about it?"
+
+"Oh, I ken just this about it, Monkbarns," he answered, "and what profit
+have I in telling ye a lie? It was just some mason-lads and me, with
+maybe two or three herds, that set to work and built this bit thing here
+that ye call the praetorian, to be a shelter for us in a sore time
+of rain, at auld Aiken Drum's bridal. And look ye, Monkbarns, dig down,
+and ye will find a stone (if ye have not found it already) with the
+shape of a spoon and the letters A.D.L.L. on it--that is to say Aiken
+Drum's Lang Ladle."
+
+The Antiquary blushed crimson with anger and mortification. For indoors
+he had just been showing that identical stone to Lovel as his chiefest
+treasure, and had interpreted the ladle as a Roman sacrificing vessel,
+and the letters upon it as a grave Latin inscription, carved by Agrippa
+himself to celebrate his victory.
+
+Lovel was inclined to be amused by the old beggar's demolishing of all
+the Antiquary's learned theories, but he was speedily brought to himself
+by Edie Ochiltree's next words.
+
+"That young gentleman, too, I can see, thinks little o' an auld carle
+like me, yet I'll wager I could tell him where he was last night in the
+gloaming, only maybe he would not like to have it spoken of in company!"
+
+It was now Lovel's turn to blush, which he did with the vivid crimson of
+two-and-twenty.
+
+"Never mind the old rogue," said Mr. Oldbuck, "and don't think that I
+think any the worse of you for your profession. They are only prejudiced
+fools and coxcombs who do that."
+
+For, in spite of Lovel's interest in ancient history, it still remained
+in the Antiquary's mind that his young friend must be an actor by
+profession.
+
+But to this Lovel paid no attention. He was engaged in making sure of
+Edie's silence by the simple method of passing a crown-piece out of his
+own pocket into the Blue-Gown's hand; while Monkbarns, equally willing
+to bridle his tongue as to the building of the praetorian, was
+sending him down to the mansion house for something to eat and a bottle
+of ale thereto.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+II. THE NIGHT OF STORM
+
+The Antiquary continued to hear good reports of his young friend, and,
+as it struck him that the lad must be lonely in such a place as
+Fairport, he resolved to ask Lovel to dinner, in order to show him the
+best society in the neighbourhood--that is to say, his friend, Sir
+Arthur Wardour of Knockwinnock, and his daughter Isabella.
+
+Sir Arthur was something of an antiquary also, but far less learned and
+serious than Mr. Oldbuck. Living so near each other the two quarrelled
+often about the Pictish Kings of Scotland, the character of Queen Mary,
+and even other matters more modern--such as the lending of various sums
+of money. For Sir Arthur always wanted to borrow, whereas the Antiquary
+did not always want to lend. Sir Arthur was entirely careless as to
+paying back, while Mr. Oldbuck stood firmly rooted upon the rights of
+principal and interest. But on the whole they were good friends enough,
+and the Baronet accordingly accepted, in a letter written by his
+daughter, the invitation to Monkbarns.
+
+Lovel arrived punctually on the afternoon appointed, for, in the
+Antiquary's day, dinners took place at four o'clock! It was a brooding,
+thundery day, sultry and threatening--the 17th of July, according to the
+calendar.
+
+Mr. Oldbuck had time to introduce his "most discreet sister Griselda" as
+he called her, who came arrayed in all the finery of half a century
+before, and wearing a mysterious erection on her head, something between
+a wedding-cake and the Tower of Babel in a picture Bible, while his
+niece, Miss MacIntyre, a pretty young woman with something of bright wit
+about her, which came undoubtedly from her uncle's family, was arrayed
+more in the fashion of the day.
+
+Sir Arthur, with his daughter on his arm, presently arrived, and
+respects, compliments, and introductions were interchanged. The dinner
+was made up chiefly of Scottish national dainties, and everything went
+well, save that the solan goose, a fragrant bird at all times, proved so
+underdone that Mr. Oldbuck threatened to fling it at the head of the
+housekeeper.
+
+As soon as the ladies left the dining room, Sir Arthur and the Antiquary
+plunged into their controversies, with a bottle of good port wine
+between them, while Lovel set himself to listen with much amusement.
+
+The language of the Picts, the building of the earliest Edinburgh
+Castle, with other subjects, on none of which they agreed, made the two
+wiseacres grow hotter and hotter, till at last the wrath of the man of
+pedigree was roused by a chance statement of the Antiquary's that the
+Baronet's famous ancestor, Gamelyn de Guardover, who had signed the
+Ragman Roll, showed thereby a mean example of submitting to Edward of
+England.
+
+"It is enough, sir," said Sir Arthur, starting up fiercely. "I shall
+hereafter take care how I honour with my company one who shows himself
+so ungrateful for my condescension."
+
+"In that you will do as you find most agreeable, Sir Arthur," returned
+the Antiquary. "I hope that, as I was not aware of the full extent of
+the obligation you had done me by visiting my poor house, I may be
+excused for not having carried my gratitude to the extent of
+servility."
+
+"Mighty well--mighty well, Mr. Oldbuck--I wish you a good evening,
+Mr.--ah--ah--Shovel--I wish you a very good evening."
+
+And so saying Sir Arthur flounced out, and with long strides traversed
+the labyrinth of passages, seeking for the drawing-room of Monkbarns.
+
+"Did you ever see such a tup-headed old ass?" said the Antiquary, "but I
+must not let him burst in on the ladies in this mad way either."
+
+So Mr. Oldbuck ran after his adversary, who was in great danger of
+tumbling down the back stairs and breaking his shins over various
+collections of learned and domestic rubbish piled in dark corners.
+
+"Stay a minute, Sir Arthur," said the Antiquary, at last capturing him
+by the arm; "don't be quite so hasty, my good old friend! I _was_ a
+little rude to you about Sir Gamelyn--why, he is an old acquaintance of
+mine--kept company with Wallace and Bruce, and only subscribed the
+Ragman Roll with the just intention of circumventing the Southern--'twas
+right Scottish craft--hundreds did it! Come, come--forget and
+forgive--confess we have given the young fellow here a right to think us
+two testy old fools."
+
+"Speak for yourself, Mr. Jonathan Oldbuck," said Sir Arthur, with much
+majesty.
+
+"Awell--awell," said the Antiquary, with a sigh, "a wilful man must have
+his way!"
+
+And the Baronet accordingly stalked into the drawing-room, pettishly
+refused to accept either tea or coffee, tucked his daughter under his
+arm, and, having said the driest of good-byes to the company at large,
+off he marched.
+
+"I think Sir Arthur has got the black dog on his back again!" said Miss
+Oldbuck.
+
+"Black dog! Black deil!" cried her brother; "he's more absurd than
+womankind. What say you, Lovel? Why, the lad's gone too."
+
+"Yes," said Miss MacIntyre, "he took his leave while Miss Wardour was
+putting on her things."
+
+"Deil's in the people!" cried the Antiquary. "This is all one gets by
+fussing and bustling, and putting one's self out of the way to give
+dinners. O Seged, Emperor of Ethiopia," he added, taking a cup of tea in
+one hand and a volume of the _Rambler_ in the other, "well hast thou
+spoken. No man can presume to say, 'This shall be a day of happiness.'"
+
+Oldbuck had continued his studies for the best part of an hour, when
+Caxton, the ancient barber of Fairport, thrusting his head into the
+room, informed the company--first, that it was going to be "an awfu'
+nicht," secondly, that Sir Arthur and Miss Wardour had started out to
+return to Knockwinnock Castle _by way of the sands!_
+
+Instantly Miss MacIntyre set off to bear the tidings to Saunders
+Mucklebackit, the old fisherman, while the Antiquary himself, with a
+handkerchief tied round his hat and wig to keep them from being blown
+away, searched the cliffs for any signs of his late guests.
+
+Nor was the information brought by Caxton one whit exaggerated. Sir
+Arthur and his daughter had indeed started out to reach their home by
+the sands. On most occasions these afforded a safe road enough, but in
+times of high tide or when the sea was driven shoreward by a wind, the
+waves broke high against the cliffs in fury.
+
+Talking earnestly together as they walked, Sir Arthur and Miss Wardour
+did not observe the gathering of the tempest till it had broken upon
+them. They had reached a deep sickle-shaped bay, and having with
+difficulty passed one headland, they were looking with some anxiety
+toward the other, hoping to reach and pass it before the tide closed in
+upon them, when they saw a tall figure advancing toward them waving
+hands and arms. Their hearts rejoiced, for, they thought, where that man
+had passed, there would still be a road for them.
+
+But they were doomed to be disappointed. The figure was no other than
+that of the old Blue-Gown Edie Ochiltree. As he advanced he continued to
+sign to them and to shout words which were carried away by the blast,
+till he had arrived quite close.
+
+"Turn back! Turn back!" he cried, when at last they could hear. "Why did
+you not turn back when I waved to you?"
+
+"We thought," said Sir Arthur, much disturbed, "that we could still get
+round Halket Head."
+
+"Halket Head!" cried the vagrant; "why, the tide will be running on
+Halket Head by this time like the Falls of Foyers. It was all I could
+do to get round it twenty minutes since."
+
+[Illustration: "THE figure was no other than that of the old Blue-Gown
+Edie Ochiltree. As he advanced he continued to sign to them and to shout
+words which were carried away by the blast, till he had arrived quite
+close.
+
+"'Turn back! Turn back!' he cried, when at last they could hear. 'Why
+did you not turn back when I waved to you?'"]
+
+It was now equally impossible to turn back. The water was dashing over
+the skerries behind them, and the path by which Miss Wardour and her
+father had passed so recently was now only a confusion of boiling and
+eddying foam.
+
+There was nothing for it but to try to climb as far up the cliffs as
+possible, and trust that the tide would turn back before it reached
+them. With the help of the old beggar, they perched themselves upon the
+highest shelf to which, on that almost perpendicular wall of rock, they
+could hope to attain. But, nevertheless, as the waves leaped white
+beneath, it seemed very far indeed from safety.
+
+Sir Arthur, struck with terror, offered lands and wealth to the
+Blue-Gownsman if he would only guide them to a place of safety.
+
+But the old beggar could only shake his head and answer sadly: "I was a
+bold enough cragsman once. Many a kittywake's and seagull's nest have I
+taken on these very cliffs above us. But now my eyesight and my footstep
+and my handgrip all have failed this many and many a day! But what is
+that?" he cried, looking eagerly upward. "His Name be praised! Yonder
+comes some one down the cliff, even now."
+
+And taking heart of grace, he cried directions up through the gathering
+darkness to the unseen helper who was descending toward them.
+
+"Right! Right! Fasten the rope well round the Crummie's Horn--that's the
+muckle black stone yonder. Cast two plies about it! That's it! Now creep
+a little eastwards, to that other stone--the Cat's Lug, they call it.
+There used to be the root of an old oak tree there. Canny now! Take
+time! Now ye maun get to Bessie's Apron--that's the big, blue, flat
+stone beneath ye! And then, with your help and the rope, I'll win at ye,
+and we will be able to get up the young lady and Sir Arthur!"
+
+The daring adventurer, no other than Lovel himself, soon reached the
+place pointed out, and, throwing down the rope, it was caught by Edie
+Ochiltree, who ascended to the flat blue stone formerly spoken of. From
+this point of vantage the two of them were able by their united strength
+to raise Miss Wardour to safety. Then Lovel descended alone, and
+fastening the rope about Sir Arthur (who was now utterly unable, from
+fear and cold, to do anything for himself), they soon had him beside
+them on Bessie's Apron.
+
+Yet, even so, it seemed impossible that they could remain there all
+night. The wind and the dashing spray every moment threatened to sweep
+them from the narrow ledge they had reached. Besides, how was one so
+delicate as Miss Wardour to stand out such a night? Lovel offered, in
+spite of the gathering darkness, once more to climb the cliff, and to
+seek further assistance. But the old Blue-Gown withheld him.
+
+No cragsman in broadest daylight could do such a thing, he asserted.
+Even he himself, in the fullest of his strength, would never have
+attempted the feat. It was death to ascend ten yards. Miss Wardour
+begged that neither of them should try. She was already much better, she
+said. Besides, their presence was needed to control her father, who was
+clearly not responsible for his actions.
+
+Just then a faint halloo came from high above. Edie answered it with a
+shout, waving at the same time Miss Wardour's handkerchief at the end of
+his long beggar's staff, as far out from the cliff as possible. In a
+little while the signals were so regularly replied to, that the forlorn
+party on Bessie's Apron knew that they were again within hearing, if not
+within reach, of friendly assistance.
+
+On the top of the cliffs Monkbarns was heading the party of searchers.
+Saunders Mucklebackit, an old fisherman and smuggler, had charge of the
+rescue apparatus. This consisted of the mast of a boat, with a yard
+firmly fixed across it. Through the ends of the yard a rope ran in two
+blocks, and by this Saunders hoped to lower a chair down the cliffs, by
+means of which (said the old smuggler) the whole party would presently
+be "boused up and landed on board, as safe as so many kegs of brandy."
+
+The chair was accordingly let down, together with a second rope--which,
+being held by some one below, would keep the chair from dashing about in
+the wind against the rock. This Saunders called the "guy" or guide rope.
+
+Miss Wardour, after some persuasion, mounted first, being carefully
+bound in the rude seat by means of Lovel's handkerchief and neckcloth,
+in addition to the mendicant's broad leathern belt passed about her
+waist.
+
+Sir Arthur, whose brain appeared quite dazed, continued loudly to
+protest. "What are you doing with my bairn?" he cried. "What are you
+doing? She shall not be separated from me. Isabel, stay with me--I
+command you!"
+
+But the signal being given to hoist away, the chair mounted, intently
+watched by Lovel, who stood holding the guide rope, to the last flutter
+of the lady's white dress. Miss Wardour was duly and safely landed. Sir
+Arthur and Edie followed, and it remained for Lovel to make the more
+hazardous final ascent. For now there was no one left below to help him
+by holding the "guy" rope. Nevertheless, being young and accustomed to
+danger, he managed, though much banged and buffeted about by the wind,
+to fend himself off the rocks with the long pike-staff belonging to the
+beggar, which Edie had left him for that purpose.
+
+It was only when Lovel reached the safety of the cliff that he felt
+himself for a moment a little faint. When he came to himself Sir Arthur
+had already been removed to his carriage, and all that Lovel saw of the
+girl he had rescued from death was the last flutter of her dress
+vanishing through the storm.
+
+"She did not even think it worth while waiting to see whether I was dead
+or alive--much less to thank me for anything I had done!"
+
+And he resolved to leave Fairport on the morrow, without visiting
+Knockwinnock, or again seeing Miss Wardour. But what he did not know was
+that Miss Wardour had waited till she had been assured that Lovel was
+safe and sound, having sent Sir Arthur on before her to the carriage.
+
+But as the young man was not aware that she had shown him even this
+limited sympathy, his heart continued to be bitter within him.
+
+It was arranged that he was to sleep that night at Monkbarns. Indeed Mr.
+Oldbuck would hear of no other way of it. The Antiquary had looked
+forward to the chicken pie and the bottle of port which Sir Arthur had
+left untasted when he bounced off in a fume. What then was his wrath
+when his sister, Miss Grizel, told him how that the minister of
+Trotcosey, Mr. Blattergowl, having come down to Monkbarns to sympathise
+with the peril of all concerned, had so much affected Miss Oldbuck by
+his show of anxiety that she had set the pie and the wine before
+him--which he had accordingly consumed to show his good-will.
+
+But after some very characteristic grumbling, cold beef and hard-boiled
+eggs did just as well for the two friends, and while Lovel partook of
+them, Miss Grizel entertained him with tales of the Green Room in which
+he was to sleep. This apartment was haunted, it seemed, by the spirit of
+the first Oldenbuck, the celebrated printer of the Augsburg Confession.
+He had even appeared in person to a certain town-clerk of Fairport, and
+showed him (at the point of his toe) upstairs to an old cabinet in which
+was stored away the very document for the want of which the lairds of
+Monkbarns were likely to be worsted in a famous lawsuit before the Court
+of Session in Edinburgh. Furthermore, a famous German professor, a very
+learned man, Dr. Heavysterne by name, had found his rest so much
+disturbed in that very room that he could never again be persuaded to
+sleep there.
+
+Lovel, however, laughed at such fears, and was accordingly shown by the
+Antiquary up to the famous Green Room, a large chamber with walls
+covered by a tapestry of hunting scenes,--stags, boars, hounds, and
+huntsmen, all mixed together under the greenwood tree, the boughs of
+which, interlacing above, gave its name to the room.
+
+Lovel fell asleep after a while, still bitterly meditating on how
+unkindly Miss Wardour had used him, and his thoughts, mixed with the
+perilous adventures of the evening, made him not a little feverish. At
+first his dreams were wild, confused, and impossible. He flew like a
+bird. He swam like a fish. He was upborne on clouds, and dashed on rocks
+which yet received him soft as pillows of down. But at last, out of the
+gloom a figure approached his bedside, separating himself from the wild
+race of the huntsmen upon the green tapestry,--a figure like that which
+had been described to him as belonging to the first laird of Monkbarns.
+He was dressed in antique Flemish garb, a furred Burgomaster cap was on
+his head, and he held in his hands a black volume with clasps of brass.
+
+Lovel strove to speak, but, as usual in such cases, he could not utter a
+word. His tongue refused its office. The awful figure held up a warning
+finger, and then began deliberately to unclasp the volume he held in his
+hands. He turned the leaves hastily for a few minutes; then, holding the
+book aloft in his left hand, he pointed with his right to a line which
+seemed to start forth from the page glowing with supernatural fire.
+Lovel did not understand the language in which the book was printed, but
+the wonderful light with which the words glowed impressed them somehow
+on his memory. The vision shut the volume. A strain of music was heard,
+and Lovel awoke. The sun was shining full into the Green Room, and
+somewhere not far away a girl's voice was singing a simple Scottish air.
+
+
+INTERLUDE OF WARNING
+
+    It was the spinner of yarns himself who broke the
+    silence which fell on the party at the close of the
+    first tale told out of the treasure-house of _The
+    Antiquary_.
+
+    "If I catch you," were the words of warning which
+    fell from his lips, "you, Hugh John, or you, Toady
+    Lion, trying to hoist one another up a cliff with a
+    rope and a chair--well, the rope will most
+    certainly be used for quite another purpose, and
+    both of you will just hate to look at a chair for a
+    fortnight after! Do you understand?"
+
+    They understood perfectly.
+
+    "It was me they were going to hoist," confided Maid
+    Margaret, coming a little closer. "I saw them
+    looking at me all the time you were telling the
+    story!"
+
+    "Well," I said, "just let me catch them at it,
+    that's all!"
+
+    This caution being necessary for the avoidance of
+    future trouble, I went on to read aloud the whole
+    of the Storm chapters, to the children's
+    unspeakable delight. Hugh John even begged for the
+    book to take to bed with him, which privilege he
+    was allowed, on the solemn promise that he would
+    not "peep on ahead." Since Sweetheart's prophecies
+    as to Die Vernon, such conduct has been voted
+    scoundrelly and unworthy of any good citizen of the
+    nursery.
+
+    On the whole, however, I could not make out
+    whether _The Antiquary_ promised to be a favourite
+    or not. The storm scene was declared "famous," but
+    the accompanying prohibition to break their own or
+    their family's necks, by pulling chairs up and down
+    rocks, somewhat damped the ardour of the usual
+    enthusiasts.
+
+    As, however, the day was hopeless outside, the snow
+    beating more and more fiercely on the windows, and
+    hanging in heavy fleecy masses on the smallest
+    twigs of the tree-branches and leafless rose stems,
+    it was decided that nothing better could be
+    imagined, than just to proceed with our second tale
+    from _The Antiquary_. But before beginning I
+    received two requests, somewhat difficult to
+    harmonize the one with the other.
+
+    "Tell us all about Miss Wardour and Lovel. He's
+    nice!" said Sweetheart.
+
+    "Skip ALL the love-making!" cried Hugh John and Sir
+    Toady in a breath.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE SECOND TALE FROM "THE ANTIQUARY"
+
+
+I. LOVEL FIGHTS A DUEL
+
+THE Antiquary, to whom Lovel told his dream, promptly pulled out a
+black-letter volume of great age and, unclasping it, showed him the very
+motto of his vision. So far, however, from glowing with fire now, the
+words remained in the ordinary calm chill of type. But when the
+Antiquary told him that these words had been the Printer's Mark or
+Colophon of his ancestor, Aldobrand Oldenbuck, the founder of his house,
+and that they meant "SKILL WINS FAVOUR," Lovel, though half ashamed of
+giving any credit to dreams, resolved to remain in the neighbourhood of
+Knockwinnock Castle and of Miss Wardour for at least some time longer.
+
+In vain Oldbuck made light of his vision of the Green Room. In vain he
+reminded him that he had been showing that very volume to Sir Arthur the
+night before in his presence, and had even remarked upon the appropriate
+motto of old Aldobrand Oldenbuck.
+
+Lovel was resolved to give his love for Miss Wardour one more chance.
+And indeed at that very moment, under the lady's window at Knockwinnock
+Castle, a strange love messenger was pleading his cause.
+
+Miss Wardour had been trying to persuade old Edie Ochiltree to accept a
+garden, a cottage, and a daily dole, for his great services in saving
+her own and her father's life. But of this Edie would hear nothing.
+
+"I would weary," he said, "to be forever looking up at the same beams
+and rafters, and out upon the same cabbage patch. I have a queer humour
+of my own, too, and I might be jesting and scorning where I should be
+silent. Sir Arthur and I might not long agree. Besides, what would the
+country do for its gossip--the blithe clatter at e'en about the fire?
+Who would bring news from one farm-town to another--gingerbread to the
+lassies, mend fiddles for the lads, and make grenadier caps of rushes
+for the bairns, if old Edie were tied by the leg at his own cottage
+door?"
+
+"Well, then, Edie," said Miss Wardour, "if this be so, if you feel that
+the folk of the countryside cannot do without you, you must just let me
+know when you feel old enough to settle, and in the meantime take this."
+
+And she handed him a sum of money. But for the second time again the
+beggar refused.
+
+"Na, na," he said, "it is against our rule to take so muckle siller at
+once. I would be robbed and murdered for it at the next town--or at
+least I would go in fear of my life, which is just as bad. But you might
+say a good word for me to the ground-officer and the constable, and
+maybe bid Sandy Netherstanes the miller chain up his big dog, and I will
+e'en come to Knockwinnock as usual for my alms and my snuff."
+
+Edie paused at this point, and, stepping nearer to the window on which
+Miss Wardour leaned, he continued, speaking almost in her ear.
+
+"Ye are a bonny young leddy, and a good one," he said, "and maybe a
+well-dowered one. But do not you sneer away the laddie Lovel, as ye did
+a while syne on the walk beneath the Briery bank, when I both saw ye
+and heard ye too, though ye saw not me. Be canny with the lad, for he
+loves ye well. And it's owing to him, and not to anything I could have
+done, that you and Sir Arthur were saved yestreen!"
+
+Then, without waiting for an answer, old Edie stalked toward a low
+doorway and disappeared. It was at this very moment that Lovel and the
+Antiquary entered the court. Miss Wardour had only time to hasten
+upstairs, while the Antiquary was pausing to point out the various
+features of the architecture of Knockwinnock Castle to the young man.
+
+Miss Wardour met the two gentlemen in the drawing-room of the castle
+with her father's apology for not being able to receive them. Sir Arthur
+was still in bed, and, though recovering, he continued to suffer from
+the fatigues and anxieties of the past night.
+
+"Indeed," said the Antiquary, "a good down pillow for his good white
+head were a couch more meet than Bessie's Apron, plague on her! But what
+news of our mining adventure in Glen Withershins?"
+
+"None," said Miss Wardour, "or at least no good news! But here are some
+specimens just sent down. Will you look at them?"
+
+And withdrawing into a corner with these bits of rock, the Antiquary
+proceeded to examine them, grumbling and pshawing over each ere he laid
+it aside to take up another. This was Lovel's opportunity to speak alone
+with Miss Wardour.
+
+"I trust," he said, "that Miss Wardour will impute to circumstances
+almost irresistible, this intrusion of one who has reason to think
+himself so unacceptable a visitor."
+
+"Mr. Lovel," said Miss Wardour, in the same low tone, "I am sure you are
+incapable of abusing the advantages given you by the services you have
+rendered us--ah, if I could only see you as a friend--or as a sister!"
+
+"I cannot," said Lovel, "disavow my feelings. They are well known to
+Miss Wardour. But why crush every hope--if Sir Arthur's objections could
+be removed?"
+
+"But that is impossible," said Miss Wardour, "his objections cannot be
+removed, and I am sure you will save both of us pain by leaving
+Fairport, and returning to the honourable career which you seem to have
+abandoned!"
+
+"Miss Wardour," said Lovel, "I will obey your wishes, if, within one
+little month I cannot show you the best of reasons for continuing to
+abide at Fairport."
+
+At this moment Sir Arthur sent down a message to say that he would like
+to see his old friend, the Laird of Monkbarns, in his bedroom. Miss
+Wardour instantly declared that she would show Mr. Oldbuck the way, and
+so left Lovel to himself. It chanced that in the interview which
+followed Sir Arthur let out by accident that his daughter had already
+met with Lovel in Yorkshire, when she had been there on a visit to her
+aunt. The Antiquary was at first astonished, and then not a little
+indignant, that neither of them should have told him of this when they
+were introduced, and he resolved to catechise his young friend Lovel
+strictly upon the point as soon as possible. But when at last he bade
+farewell to his friend Sir Arthur and returned below, another subject
+occupied his mind. Lovel and he were walking home over the cliffs, and
+when they reached the summit of the long ridge, Oldbuck turned and
+looked back at the pinnacles of the castle--at the ancient towers and
+walls grey with age, which had been the home of so many generations of
+Wardours.
+
+"Ah," he muttered, sighing, half to himself, "it wrings my heart to say
+it--but I doubt greatly that this ancient family is fast going to the
+ground."
+
+Then he revealed to the surprised Lovel how Sir Arthur's foolish
+speculations, and especially his belief in a certain German swindler,
+named Dousterswivel, had caused him to engage in some very costly mining
+ventures, which were now almost certain to result in complete failure.
+
+As the Antiquary described Dousterswivel, Lovel remembered to have seen
+the man in the inn at Fairport, where he had been pointed out to him as
+one of the _illuminati_, or persons who have dealings with the dwellers
+in another world. But while thus talking and tarrying with his friend
+Monkbarns, an important letter was on its way to call Lovel back to
+Fairport. Oldbuck had so far taken his young friend to his heart, that
+he would not let him depart without making sure that the trouble he read
+on Lovel's face was not the want of money.
+
+"If," he said, "there is any pecuniary inconvenience, I have fifty, or a
+hundred, guineas at your service--till Whitsunday--or indeed as long as
+you like!"
+
+But Lovel, assuring him that the letter boded no difficulty of the
+kind, thanked him for his offer, and so took his leave.
+
+It was some weeks before the Antiquary again saw Lovel. To the great
+astonishment of the town the young man hardly went out at all, and when
+he called upon him in his lodgings at Fairport, Mr. Oldbuck was
+astonished at the change in his appearance. Lovel was now pale and thin,
+and his black dress bore the badge of mourning. The Antiquary's gruff
+old heart was moved toward the lad. He would have had him come instantly
+with him to Monkbarns, telling him that, as they agreed well together,
+there was no reason why they should ever separate. His lands were in his
+own power of gift, and there was no reason why he should not leave them
+to whom he would.
+
+Lovel, touched also by this unexpected affection, answered that he could
+not at present accept, but that before leaving Scotland he would
+certainly pay Monkbarns a long visit.
+
+While the Antiquary remained talking thus to Lovel in his lodgings, a
+letter was brought from Sir Arthur Wardour inviting the young man to be
+a member of a party which proposed to visit the ruins of St. Ruth's
+Priory on the following day, and afterward to dine and spend the
+evening at Knockwinnock Castle. Sir Arthur added that he had made the
+same proposal to the family at Monkbarns. So it was agreed that they
+should go together, Lovel on horseback, and Oldbuck and his womenkind
+(as he called them) in a hired post-chaise.
+
+The morning of the next day dawned clear and beautiful, putting Lovel in
+better spirits than he had known of late. With the Wardour party there
+came the German adept, Mr. Dousterswivel, to whom, after offering his
+thanks to his preserver of the night of storm, Sir Arthur introduced
+Lovel. The young man's instinctive dislike at sight of the impostor was
+evidently shared in by the Antiquary, for the lowering of his shaggy
+eyebrow clearly proclaimed as much.
+
+Nevertheless, the first part of the day went well on the whole. Oldbuck
+took upon himself the office of guide, explaining and translating all
+the while, leading the company from point to point till they were almost
+as much at home as himself among the ruins of the Priory of St. Ruth.
+
+But the peaceful occupations of the day were interrupted by the arrival
+of a young horseman in military undress, whom the Antiquary greeted with
+the words, "Hector, son of Priam, whence comest thou?"
+
+"From Fife, my liege," answered Captain Hector MacIntyre, Mr. Oldbuck's
+nephew, who saluted the company courteously, but, as Lovel thought,
+seemed to view his own presence with a haughty and disapproving eye.
+Captain MacIntyre attached himself immediately to Miss Wardour, and even
+appeared to Lovel to take up a privileged position with regard to her.
+But Miss Wardour, after submitting to this close attendance for some
+time, presently turned sharply round, and asked a question of the
+Antiquary as to the date at which the Priory of St. Ruth was built. Of
+course Mr. Oldbuck started off like a warhorse at the sound of the
+trumpet, and, in the long harangue which ensued, mixed as it was with
+additions and contradictions from Sir Arthur and the minister, Captain
+MacIntyre found no further chance of appropriating Miss Wardour. He left
+her, accordingly, and walked sulkily by his sister's side.
+
+From her he demanded to know who this Mr. Lovel might be, whom he found
+so very much at home in a circle in which he had looked forward to
+shining alone.
+
+Mary MacIntyre answered sensibly that, as to who he was, her brother had
+better ask his uncle, who was in the habit of inviting to his house such
+company as pleased him; adding that, so far as she knew, Mr. Lovel was a
+very quiet and gentlemanly young man.
+
+Far from being satisfied, however, from that moment Captain MacIntyre,
+with the instinct of a dog that returns home to find a stranger making
+free with his bone and kennel, set himself almost openly to provoke
+Lovel. When by chance the latter was called on by the Antiquary to state
+whether or not he had been present at a certain battle abroad,
+MacIntyre, with an accent of irony, asked the number of his regiment.
+And when that had been told him, he replied that he knew the regiment
+very well, but that he could not remember Mr. Lovel as an officer in it.
+
+Whereupon, blushing quickly, Mr. Lovel informed Captain MacIntyre that
+he had served the last campaign on the staff of General Sir Blank Blank.
+
+"Indeed," said MacIntyre, yet more insolently, "that is still more
+remarkable. I have had an opportunity of knowing the names of all the
+officers who have held such a situation, and I cannot recollect that of
+Lovel among them."
+
+Lovel took out of his pocket-book a letter, from which he removed the
+envelope before handing it to his adversary.
+
+"In all probability you know the General's hand," he said, "though I own
+I ought not to show such exaggerated expressions of thanks for my very
+slight services."
+
+Captain MacIntyre, glancing his eye over it, could not deny that it was
+in the General's hand, but drily observed, as he returned it, that the
+address was wanting.
+
+"The address, Captain MacIntyre," answered Lovel, in the same tone,
+"shall be at your service whenever you choose to inquire for it."
+
+"I shall not fail to do so," said the soldier.
+
+"Come, come," exclaimed Oldbuck, "what is the meaning of this? We'll
+have no swaggering, youngsters! Are you come from the wars abroad to
+stir up strife in a peaceful land?"
+
+Sir Arthur, too, hoped that the young men would remain calm. But Lovel,
+from that moment, felt that he was to some extent under suspicion, and
+so, in a short time, he took the opportunity of bidding the company
+good-bye, on the plea of the return of a headache which had lately
+troubled him. He had not ridden far--rather loitering, indeed, to give
+MacIntyre a chance of overtaking him--when the sound of horse's hoofs
+behind told him that his adversary had returned to find him. The young
+officer touched his hat briefly, and began in a haughty tone, "What am I
+to understand, sir, by your telling me that your address was at my
+service?"
+
+"Simply," answered Lovel, "that my name is Lovel, and that my residence
+is, for the present, Fairport, as you will see by this card!"
+
+"And is this," said the soldier, "all the information you are disposed
+to give me?"
+
+"I see no right you have to require more."
+
+"I find you, sir, in company with my sister," said MacIntyre, "and I
+have a right to know who is admitted to her society."
+
+"I shall take the liberty of disputing that right," replied Lovel, to
+the full as haughty in tone and manner.
+
+"I presume then," said the young officer, "since you _say_ you have
+served in his Majesty's army, you will give me the satisfaction usual
+among gentlemen."
+
+"I shall not fail," said Lovel.
+
+"Very well, sir," rejoined Hector, and turning his horse's head he
+galloped off to rejoin the party.
+
+But his uncle suspected his purpose, and was determined to prevent a
+duel at all risks. He demanded where his nephew had been.
+
+"I forgot my glove, sir," said Hector.
+
+"Forgot your glove! You mean that you went to throw it down. But I will
+take order with you, young gentleman. You shall return with me this
+night to Monkbarns."
+
+Yet in spite of the Antiquary the duel was easily enough arranged
+between these two over-hasty young men. It was the custom of the time to
+fight about trifles, and it seemed to Lovel that as a soldier he had
+really no honourable alternative. He was fortunate enough to find a
+second in the Lieutenant-commander of one of the King's gun-brigs,
+which was stationed on the coast to put down smuggling. Lieutenant
+Taffril only put one question to Lovel before offering him every
+assistance. He asked if there was anything whereof he was ashamed, in
+the circumstances which he had declined to communicate to MacIntyre.
+
+"On my honour, no," said Lovel, "there is nothing but what, in a short
+time, I hope I may be able to communicate to the whole world."
+
+The duel thus insolently provoked was to be fought with pistols within
+the ruins of St. Ruth, and as Lovel and his second came near the place
+of combat, they heard no sound save their own voices mingling with those
+of the sheep bleating peacefully to each other upon the opposite hill.
+On the stump of an old thorn tree within the ruins sat the venerable
+figure of old Edie Ochiltree. Edie had a message to deliver.
+
+He told Lovel that he had been at the Sheriff's that very day, and had
+got it from the clerk himself that a warrant had been issued on
+Monkbarns's demand for the apprehension of Lovel. The old beggar had
+come hastily to warn the young man, thinking that perhaps it might be
+some matter of debt. But the appearance of Captain MacIntyre and his
+second, Mr. Lesley, soon informed him otherwise.
+
+The antagonists approached and saluted with the stern civility of the
+place and occasion. MacIntyre instantly ordered the old fellow off the
+field.
+
+"I _am_ an auld fellow," said Edie, "but I am also an auld soldier of
+your father's, and I served with him in the 42nd."
+
+"Serve where you please," said MacIntyre, hotly, "you have no title to
+intrude on us. Be off with you--or--"
+
+He lifted his cane as if to threaten the old man. But the insult roused
+Edie's ancient courage.
+
+"Hold down your switch, Captain MacIntyre! I am an auld soldier, and
+I'll tak' muckle from your father's son--but not a touch o' the wand
+while my pike-staff will hold together!"
+
+"I was wrong--I was wrong," said MacIntyre, relenting, "here is a crown
+for you--go your ways."
+
+But Edie refused the money, exhorting the young men to go and fight the
+French instead of each other, if they were so fighting hot. But neither
+his words nor the efforts of the seconds could reconcile MacIntyre to
+the man with whom he had from the first resolved to quarrel.
+
+The ground was measured out by the seconds, while old Edie stood
+unheeded at the side muttering, "Bairns, bairns--madmen, I should rather
+say! Weel, your blood be on your heads!"
+
+The fatal signal was given. Both fired almost at the same moment.
+Captain MacIntyre's ball grazed the side of his opponent, but failed to
+draw blood. That of Lovel was more true to the aim. MacIntyre reeled and
+fell. Raising himself on his arm, his first exclamation was: "It is
+nothing--it is nothing! Give us the other pistols!"
+
+But the moment after he added in a lower tone: "I believe I have enough,
+and what's worse, I fear I deserve it. Mr. Lovel, or whatever your name
+is, fly and save yourself. Bear witness all of you, I alone provoked the
+quarrel."
+
+Then raising himself on his arm, he added: "Shake hands, Lovel. I
+believe you to be a gentleman--forgive my rudeness, and I forgive you my
+death!"
+
+Lovel stood dizzy and bewildered, while the ship's surgeon approached to
+do his part. But presently his arm was grasped by Edie, who hurried him
+off the field with the assistance of Lieutenant Taffril, his late
+second.
+
+"He is right--he is right!" exclaimed Taffril, "go with him--there, into
+the wood--not by the highroad. Let him bring you to the sands at three
+of the morning. A boat will be in waiting to take you off to my brig,
+which will sail at once."
+
+"Yes--fly--fly!" said the wounded man, his voice faltering as he spoke.
+
+"It is madness to stay here," added Taffril.
+
+"It was worse than madness ever to have come!" said Lovel, following his
+uncouth guide into the thicket. As he went up the valley he realised the
+bitterness of remorse that comes too late. He had passed that way in the
+morning, innocent, and now--he had the stain of blood upon his hands.
+
+
+II. THE SEEKERS OF TREASURE
+
+Edie guided him along a deep ravine till they came to a precipice of
+rock overhung with brushwood and copse. Here completely concealed was
+the mouth of a cave, where, as Edie said, they would be in perfect
+safety. Only two other persons knew of its existence, and these two were
+at present far away. The cavern was in the shape of a cross, and had
+evidently been the abode of some anchorite of a time long past. In the
+corner was a turning stair, narrow but quite passable, which
+communicated with the chapel above--and so, by a winding passage in the
+thickness of the wall, with the interior of the priory of St. Ruth.
+
+Twilight faded into night, and the night itself wore away, while Edie
+sat telling Lovel all the old-world tales he could lay his tongue to, in
+order to keep the mind of the young man from brooding over his
+situation. They sat close together on a little watch-tower niched deep
+in the wall, and breathed the night air, while waiting for the hour at
+which they must betake them to the beach, to meet the boat which
+Lieutenant Taffril was to have in readiness.
+
+Midnight approached, the moon rose high in the sky above, but the voice
+of the Blue-Gown still droned on, telling his tales of old time, when
+suddenly Lovel, whose ears were quicker, laid his hand on his
+companion's arm.
+
+"Hush," he whispered, "I hear some one speaking!"
+
+So saying Lovel pointed in the direction of the sound,--toward the door
+of the chancel at the west end of the building, where a carved window
+let in a flood of moonlight upon the floor.
+
+Two human figures detached themselves from the darkness and advanced.
+The lantern which one of them carried gleamed pale in the bright
+moonlight. It was evident in a moment by their motions that they could
+not be officers searching for Lovel. As they approached nearer, the
+beggar recognised the two figures as those of Dousterswivel and Sir
+Arthur.
+
+Lovel was about to retreat, but a touch on the arm from the old
+Blue-Gown convinced him that his best course was to remain quiet where
+he was. In case of any alarm, there was always the passage behind, and
+they could gain the shelter of the wood long before any pursuit would be
+possible.
+
+Dousterswivel was evidently making some proposition about which Sir
+Arthur was uncertain.
+
+"Great expense--great expense!" were the first words they heard him
+mutter.
+
+"Expenses--to be sure," said Dousterswivel; "there must be great
+expenses. You do not expect to reap before you do sow the seed. Now, Sir
+Arthur, you have sowed this night a little pinch of ten guineas, and if
+you do not reap the big harvest, it is because you have only sowed a
+little pinch of seed. Much seed sown, much harvest reaped. That is the
+way to find treasure. You shall see, Sir Arthur, mine worthy patron!"
+
+The German now put before his dupe a little silver plate engraved
+with strange signs, squares of nine times nine figures, flying
+serpents with turkey-cocks' heads, and other wonderful things.
+Then having professed to lay out the baronet's ten guineas in what he
+called "suffumigations,"--that is, to scare away the demons which kept
+guard over the treasures,--he informed him that he was ready to proceed.
+The treasure itself could not be obtained till the stroke of midnight.
+But in the meanwhile he was willing to show Sir Arthur the guardian
+demon of the treasure-house, which, "like one fierce watchdog" (as the
+pretended wizard explained), could be called up by his magic power.
+
+But Sir Arthur was not particularly keen to see such marvels. He thought
+they had little enough time as it was, and if he could get the
+treasures, he preferred, supposing it to be the same thing to his guide,
+to let sleeping demons lie.
+
+"But I could show you the spirit very well," said Dousterswivel. "I
+would draw a circle with a pentagon, and make my suffumigation within
+it, while you kept the demon at bay with a drawn sword. You would see
+first a hole open in the solid wall. Then through it would come one stag
+pursued by three black greyhounds. They would pull him down, and then
+one black ugly negro would appear and take the stag from them. Then,
+paff! all would be gone. After that horns would be winded, and in would
+come the great Peolphan, the Mighty Hunter of the North, mounted on his
+black steed--but you are sure that you do not care to see all this?"
+
+"Why, I am not afraid," said the poor baronet, "that is, if--do any
+mishaps ever happen on such occasions?"
+
+"Bah--mischiefs, no!" said the German. "Sometimes if the circle be no
+quite just, or the beholder be frightened and not hold the sword firm
+and straight toward him, the Great Hunter will take his advantage, and
+drag him exorcist out of the circle and throttle him. That happen
+sometimes."
+
+This was quite enough for Sir Arthur, who did not desire any intercourse
+with demons on such terms.
+
+Whereupon Dousterswivel, the time of midnight being near, set fire to a
+little pile of chips, which instantly burned up with a bright light.
+Then when the flame was at its highest, he cast into the blaze a handful
+of perfumes which smoked with a strong and pungent odour. This made both
+Dousterswivel and his pupil cough and sneeze heartily, and by and by,
+the vapour mounting upward, it found out Lovel and Edie in their high
+watch-tower, making them also sneeze loudly in their turn.
+
+"Was that an echo? Or are there others present in this place?" cried the
+baronet, astonished at the sound.
+
+"No, no," said the German, who had so long employed himself with magic
+that he had grown half to believe in it, "no--at least, I hope not!"
+
+Here a complete fit of sneezing, together with a kind of hollow
+grunting cough from Edie Ochiltree, so alarmed the wizard that he would
+have fled at once, had not Sir Arthur prevented him by force.
+
+"You juggling villain," cried the baronet, whom impending ruin made
+desperate, "this is some trick of yours to get off fulfilling your
+bargain. Show me the treasure you have promised, or by the faith of a
+ruined man, I will send you where you will see spirits enough!"
+
+"Consider, my honoured patron," said the now thoroughly frightened
+treasure-seeker, "this is not the best treatment. And then the demons--"
+
+[Illustration: "AT this moment Edie Ochiltree, entering fully into the
+spirit of the scene, gave vent to a prolonged and melancholy howl.
+
+Dousterswivel flung himself on his knees.
+
+'Dear Sir Arthurs,' he cried, 'let us go--or at least let _me_ go!'
+
+'No, you cheating scoundrel,' cried the knight, unsheathing his sword,
+'that shift shall not serve you. I will see the treasure before I leave
+this place--or I will run my sword through you as an impostor, though
+all the spirits of the dead should rise around us!'"]
+
+At this moment Edie Ochiltree, entering fully into the spirit of the
+scene, gave vent to a prolonged and melancholy howl.
+
+Dousterswivel flung himself on his knees.
+
+"Dear Sir Arthurs," he cried, "let us go--or at least let _me_ go!"
+
+"No, you cheating scoundrel," cried the knight, unsheathing his sword,
+"that shift shall not serve you. I will see the treasure before I leave
+this place--or I will run my sword through you as an impostor, though
+all the spirits of the dead should rise around us!"
+
+"For the love of Heaven, be patient, mine honoured patron," said the
+German, "you shall have all the treasure I knows of--you shall, indeed!
+But do not speak about the spirits. It makes them angry!"
+
+Muttering exorcisms and incantations all the while, Dousterswivel
+proceeded to a flat stone in the corner, which bore on its surface the
+carved likeness of an armed warrior.
+
+He muttered to Sir Arthur: "Mine patrons, it is here! God save us all!"
+
+Together they managed to heave up the stone, and then Dousterswivel with
+a mattock and shovel proceeded to dig. He had not thrown out many
+spadefuls, when something was heard to ring on the ground with the sound
+of falling metal. Then the treasure-seeker, snatching up the object
+which his mattock had thrown out, exclaimed: "On mine dear word, mine
+patrons, this is all. I mean all that we can do to-night!"
+
+"Let me see it," said Sir Arthur, sternly, "I will be satisfied--I will
+judge with my own eyes!"
+
+He held the object up in the light of the lantern. It was a small case
+of irregular shape, which, from the joyful exclamation of the baronet,
+seemed to be filled with coin.
+
+"Ah!" said Sir Arthur; "this is good luck, indeed. This is a beginning.
+We will try again at the very next change of the moon. That six hundred
+pounds I owe to Goldieword would be ruin indeed unless I can find
+something to meet it. But this puts new hope into me!"
+
+But now Dousterswivel was more than ever eager to be gone, and he
+hurried Sir Arthur away with his treasure, having only taken time to
+thrust back the earth and replace the tombstone roughly in its place, so
+as to leave no very obvious traces of the midnight search for treasure.
+
+
+III. MISTICOT'S GRAVE
+
+The hour of going to meet the boat was now approaching, and Edie
+conducted Lovel by a solitary path through the woods to the sea-shore.
+There in the first level beams of the rising sun, they saw the little
+gun-brig riding at anchor in the offing. Taffril himself met his friend,
+and eased Lovel's mind considerably by telling him that Captain
+MacIntyre's wound, though doubtful, was far from desperate, and that he
+trusted a short cruise would cover all the consequences of his
+unfortunate encounter.
+
+Lovel offered gold to the beggar, but Edie once more refused it,
+declaring that he thought all the folk had "gone clean daft."
+
+"I have had more gold offered to me these last two or three weeks," he
+said, "than I have seen in all my life before. Na, na, take back your
+guineas, and for luck let me have but one lily-white shilling!"
+
+The boat put off toward the lieutenant's brig, impelled by six stout
+rowers. Lovel saw the old beggar wave his blue bonnet to him, before
+turning slowly about as if to resume his customary wanderings from farm
+to farm, and from village to village.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So excellently well did Captain MacIntyre progress toward recovery that
+in a little while the Antiquary declared it clean impossible for him to
+get a single bite of breakfast, or have his wig made decent, or a slice
+of unburnt toast to eat--all because his womenfolk were in constant
+attendance upon the wounded Captain, whose guns and spaniels filled the
+house, and for whom even the faithful Caxon ran messages, while his own
+master waited for him in his chamber, fuming and stamping the while.
+
+But as his sister often said, and as all who knew him,
+knew--"Monkbarns's bark was muckle waur than his bite."
+
+But an unexpected visit from Sir Arthur soon gave the Antiquary other
+matters to think about. The Baronet came, so he said, to ask his old
+friend's advice about the disposal of a sum of money. The Antiquary
+drew from a right-hand corner of his desk a red-covered book, of which
+Sir Arthur hated the very sight, and suggested that if he had money to
+dispose of, it might be as well to begin by clearing off encumbrances,
+of which the debt marked in his own red book accounted for no less than
+eleven hundred and thirteen pounds. But Sir Arthur put away the red book
+as if Monkbarns had offered him so much physic, and hastened to say that
+if the Antiquary would wait a few days, he would have the sum in
+full--that is, if he would take it in bullion.
+
+The Antiquary inquired from what Eldorado this treasure was forthcoming.
+
+"Not far from here," said Sir Arthur, confidently, "and now I think of
+it, you shall see the whole process in working, on one small condition."
+
+"And what is that?" inquired the Antiquary.
+
+"That it will be necessary to give me your friendly assistance, by
+advancing the small sum of one hundred pounds."
+
+The Antiquary, who had been rejoicing in the hope of getting both
+principal and interest of a debt which he had long thought desperate,
+could only gasp out the words, "Advance one hundred pounds!"
+
+"Yes, my good sir," said Sir Arthur, "but upon the best possible
+security of having it repaid in the course of a few days."
+
+To this the Antiquary said nothing. He had heard the like before from
+Sir Arthur's lips. So the Baronet went on to explain. "Mr. Dousterswivel
+having discovered--"
+
+But the Antiquary would not listen. His eyes sparkled with indignation.
+"Sir Arthur," he said, "I have so often warned you against that rascally
+quack, that I wonder you quote him to me!"
+
+But this time Sir Arthur had something to show for his faith in the
+expert. He placed a large ram's horn with a copper cover in his friend's
+hand. It contained Scottish, English, and foreign coins of the fifteenth
+and sixteenth centuries. Most were silver but some were of gold, and, as
+even the Antiquary allowed, of exceeding rarity.
+
+"These," said the Baronet, "were found at midnight, at the last full
+moon, in the ruins of St. Ruth's Priory, in the course of an experiment
+of which I was myself the witness."
+
+"Indeed," said Oldbuck, "and what means of discovery did you employ?"
+
+"Only a simple suffumigation," said the Baronet, "accompanied by
+availing ourselves of a suitable planetary hour."
+
+"Simple suffumigation! Simple nonsensification! Planetary
+hour--planetary fiddlestick! My dear Sir Arthur, the fellow has made a
+gull of you under ground, and now he would make a gull of you above
+ground!"
+
+"Well, Mr. Oldbuck," said the Baronet, "I am obliged to you for your
+opinion of my discernment, but you will at least give me credit for
+seeing what I say I saw!"
+
+"I will give you credit for saying that you saw what you _thought_ you
+saw!"
+
+"Well, then," said the Baronet, "as there is a heaven above us, Mr.
+Oldbuck, I saw with my own eyes these coins dug out of the chancel of
+St. Ruth's at midnight! And if I had not been there, I doubt if
+Dousterswivel would have had the courage to go through with it!"
+
+The Antiquary inquired how much the discovery had cost.
+
+"Only ten guineas," said the Baronet, "but this time it is to cost a
+hundred and fifty pounds, but of course the results will be in
+proportion. Fifty I have already given him, and the other hundred I
+thought you might be able to assist me with."
+
+The Antiquary mused.
+
+"This cannot be meant as a parting blow," he said; "it is not of
+consequence enough. He will probably let you win this game also, as
+sharpers do with raw gamesters. Sir Arthur, will you permit me to speak
+to Dousterswivel? I think I can recover the treasure for you without
+making any advance of money."
+
+Dousterswivel had on his part no desire to see the Laird of Monkbarns.
+He was more in fear of him than even of the spirits of the night. Still
+he could not refuse, when summoned to leave Sir Arthur's carriage and
+face the two gentlemen in the study at Monkbarns.
+
+The Antiquary then and there told him that he and Sir Arthur proposed to
+trench the whole area of the chancel of St. Ruth, in plain daylight,
+with good substantial pickaxes and shovels, and so, without further
+expense, ascertain for themselves the truth as to the existence of this
+hidden treasure.
+
+"Bah," said the German, "you will not find one copper thimble. But it is
+as Sir Arthur likes--once I have showed him the real method. If he likes
+to try others, he only loses the gold and the silver, that is all!"
+
+The journey to the Priory was made in silence, each of the party having
+enough on his mind to employ his thoughts. Edie Ochiltree joined them at
+the ruins, and when the Antiquary pulled out of his pocket the ram's
+horn in which the coins had been found, Edie claimed it at once for a
+snuff-box of his which he had bartered with a miner at Mr.
+Dousterswivel's excavations in Glen Withershins.
+
+"And that brings it very near a certain friend of ours," said the
+Antiquary to Sir Arthur. "I trust we shall be as successful to-day
+without having to pay for it."
+
+It was decided to begin operations at the tomb with the carven figure
+on top--the same which Sir Arthur and Dousterswivel had disturbed on a
+former occasion, but which neither the Antiquary nor Edie ever
+remembered to have seen before. It appeared, however, that a large pile
+of rubbish, which had formerly filled up the corner of the ruins, must
+have been dispersed in order to bring it to light.
+
+But the diggers reached the bottom of the grave, without finding either
+treasure or coffin.
+
+"Some cleverer chield has been before us," said one of the men.
+
+But Edie pushed them impatiently aside, and leaping into the grave, he
+cried, "Ye are good seekers, but bad finders!"
+
+For the first stroke of his pike-staff into the bottom of the pit hit
+upon something hard and resisting.
+
+All now crowded around. The labourers resumed their task with good-will,
+and soon a broad surface of wood was laid bare, and a heavy chest was
+raised to the surface, the lid of which, being forced with a pickaxe,
+displayed, beneath coarse canvas bags and under a quantity of oakum, a
+large number of ingots of solid silver.
+
+The Antiquary inspected them one by one, always expecting that the lower
+layers would prove to be less valuable. But he was at last obliged to
+admit that the Baronet had really and truly possessed himself of
+treasure to the amount of about one thousand pounds.
+
+It chanced that Edie Ochiltree had observed Dousterswivel stand somewhat
+disconsolate and sad, looking into the open grave. Age had not dulled
+Edie's wit, nor caused him to relish less a boyish prank. His quick eye
+had caught some writing on the lid of the box of treasure, and while all
+were admiring the solid ingots of precious metal laid bare before them,
+Edie kicked the piece of wood aside without being observed by any one.
+
+Then, with all due caution, he whispered to Dousterswivel that there
+must certainly be more and better treasure yet to be brought to light in
+the place where the silver had been found, and that if he would wait
+only a little behind the others he would show him proof of it. When they
+were alone he showed him on the lid of the treasure-chest the words,
+written in black letter:
+
+        "=Search--Number One="
+
+Dousterswivel at once agreed to meet Edie at midnight within the ruins
+of the Priory, and he kept his word. It was a stormy night, great clouds
+being hurried across the face of the moon, and the woods were bending
+and moaning in the fierce blast. Edie marched up and down while he
+waited for the German, shouldering his pike-staff, and dreaming that he
+was back again on the outposts with a dozen hostile riflemen hidden in
+front of him.
+
+After a little, Dousterswivel arrived, having brought with him a horse
+and saddle-bags in which to carry away the expected treasure. Edie led
+him once more to the place of the former search--to the grave of the
+Armed Knight. On the way he told his companion the tale of that Malcolm
+Misticot whose treasure was supposed to have been found and rifled that
+day.
+
+"There is a story that the Misticot walks," said Edie; "it's an awesome
+nicht and an uncanny to be meeting the like of him here. Besides he
+might not be best pleased to come upon us when we were trying to lift
+his treasure!"
+
+"For the love of Heaven," said Dousterswivel, "say nothing at all,
+either about somebodies or nobodies!"
+
+Edie leaped into the grave and began to strike; but he soon tired or
+pretended to tire. So he called out to the German that turn and turn
+about was fair play. Whereupon, fired with the desire for wealth,
+Dousterswivel began to strike and shovel the earth with all his might,
+while Edie encouraged him, standing very much at his ease by the side of
+the hole.
+
+"At it again," he cried; "strike--strike! What for are ye stopping,
+man?"
+
+"Stopping," cried the German, angrily, looking out of the grave at his
+tormentor; "I am down at the bed-rock, I tell you!"
+
+"And that's the likeliest place of any," said Edie; "it will just be a
+big broad stone laid down to cover the treasure. Ah, that's it! There
+was a Wallace stroke indeed! It's broken! Hurrah, boys, there goes
+Ringan's pickaxe! It's a shame o' the Fairport folk to sell such frail
+gear. Try the shovel; at it again, Maister Dousterdeevil!"
+
+But this time the German, without replying, leaped out of the pit, and
+shouted in a voice that trembled with anger, "Does you know, Mr. Edie
+Ochiltree, who it is you are putting off your gibes and your jests upon?
+You base old person, I will cleave your skull-piece with this shovels!"
+
+"Ay," said Edie, "and where do ye think my pike-staff would be a' the
+time?"
+
+But Dousterswivel, growing more and more furious, heaved up the broken
+pickaxe to smite his tormentor dead--which, indeed, he might have done
+had not Edie, suddenly pointing with his hand, exclaimed in a stern
+voice, "Do ye think that heaven and earth will suffer ye to murder an
+auld man that gate--a man that might be your father? _Look behind you,
+man!_"
+
+Dousterswivel turned, and beheld, to his utter astonishment, a tall dark
+figure standing close behind him. Whether this was the angry Misticot or
+not, the newcomer certainly lifted a sturdy staff and laid it across the
+rascal's back, bestowing on him half-a-dozen strokes so severe that he
+fell to the ground, where he lay some minutes half unconscious with pain
+and terror.
+
+When the German came to himself, he was lying close to Misticot's open
+grave on the soft earth which had been thrown out. He began to turn his
+mind to projects of revenge. It must, he thought, be either Monkbarns or
+Sir Arthur who had done this, in order to be revenged upon him. And his
+mind finally deciding upon the latter, as most likely to have set Edie
+Ochiltree on to deceive him, he determined from that moment to achieve
+the ruin of his "dear and honoured patron" of the last five years.
+
+As he left the precincts of the ruined Priory, he continued his vows of
+vengeance against Edie and all associated with him. He had, he declared
+aloud, been assaulted and murdered, besides being robbed of fifty pounds
+as well. He would, on the very next day, put the law in motion "against
+all the peoples"--but against Edie Ochiltree first of all.
+
+
+A QUITE SUPERFLUOUS INTERLUDE
+
+    The snow was now deep in the woods about the
+    library. It lay sleek and drifted upon the paths,
+    a broad-flaked, mortar-like snow, evidently
+    produced on the borderland between thawing and
+    freezing.
+
+    "It is fine and buttery," said Hugh John, with a
+    glance of intention at Sir Toady Lion, which was
+    equal to any challenge ever sent from Douglas to
+    Percy--or even that which Mr. Lesley carried for
+    Hector MacIntyre to Mr. Lovel's Fairport lodgings.
+
+    Sir Toady nodded with fierce willingness. He
+    scented the battle from afar.
+
+    "Ten yards then, twenty snowballs made before you
+    begin, and then go as you please. But no rushing
+    in, before first volley!"
+
+    "And no holding the balls under the drip of the
+    kitchen roof!" said Hugh John, who had suffered
+    from certain Toady Lionish practices which
+    personally he scorned.
+
+    "Well, then," said I, "out you go in your jerseys
+    for one hot half-hour. But no standing about,
+    mind!"
+
+    Sweetheart and Maid Margaret looked exceedingly
+    wistful.
+
+    "Of course," I said, "Sweetheart will want to go on
+    with her knitting, but if she likes, the Maid can
+    watch them from the window."
+
+    "Oo-oh!" said Maid Margaret, "I _should_ like to go
+    too!"
+
+    "And I should not mind going either," admitted
+    Sweetheart, "just to see that they did not hurt the
+    Maid. They are such rough boys!"
+
+    So it was arranged, as I had known it would be from
+    the first. The snow was still falling, but the wind
+    had gone down. There was to be no standing still,
+    and afterward they were to change immediately for
+    dinner. These were the conditions of permitted
+    civil strife.
+
+    "Please, is rolling in the snow permitted?" said
+    Hugh John, to whom this was a condition of
+    importance.
+
+    "Why, yes," said I, "that is, if you catch the
+    enemy out of his intrenchments."
+
+    "Um-m-m-m!" said Hugh John, grimly rubbing his
+    hands, "I'll catch him." In a lower tone he added,
+    "And I'll teach him to put snowballs in the drip!"
+
+    As he spoke, he mimicked the motions of one who
+    shoves snow down inside the collar of his
+    adversary.
+
+    The cover of a deal box, with a soap advertisement
+    on it, made a very fair intrenching tool, and soon
+    formidable snow-works could be seen rising rapidly
+    on the slopes of the clothes' drying ground,
+    making a semicircle about that corner which
+    contained the big iron swing, erect on its two tall
+    posts. Hugh John and Maid Margaret, the attacking
+    party, were still invisible, probably concocting a
+    plan. But Sweetheart and Sir Toady, laughing and
+    jesting as at some supreme stratagem, were busily
+    employed throwing up the snow till it was nearly
+    breast-high. The formation of the ground was in
+    their favour. It fell away rapidly on all sides,
+    except to the north, where the position was made
+    impregnable by a huge prickly hedge.
+
+    Nominally they were supposed to be enacting _The
+    Antiquary_, but actually I could not see that the
+    scene without bore any precise relation to what
+    they had been hearing within. Perhaps, however, the
+    day was too cold and stormy for standing upon the
+    exactitudes of history.
+
+    I did not remain all the time a spectator of the
+    fray. The stated duel of twenty balls was over
+    before I again reached the window. The combatants
+    had entered upon the go-as-you-please stage.
+    Indeed, I could gather so much even at my desk, by
+    the confusion of yells and slogans emitted by the
+    contending parties.
+
+    Presently the cry of "It's not fair!" brought me to
+    the window.
+
+    Hugh John and Maid Margaret had evidently gained a
+    certain preliminary success. For they had been able
+    to reach a position from which (with long poles
+    used at other times for the protection of the
+    strawberry beds) they were enabled, under shelter
+    themselves, to shake the branches of the big tree
+    which overshadowed the swing and the position of
+    the enemy. Every twig and branch was, of course,
+    laden with snow, and masses fell in rapid
+    succession upon the heads of the defenders. This
+    was annoying at first, but at a word from Sir
+    Toady, Sweetheart and he seized their intrenching
+    tools, calling out: "Thank you--thank you! It's
+    helping us so much! We've been wanting that badly!
+    All our snow was gone, and we had to make balls off
+    the ramparts. But now it's all right. Thank
+    you--thank you!"
+
+    The truth of this grew so evident that the baffled
+    assailants retired to consult. Nothing better than
+    a frontal attack, well sustained and driven home to
+    the hilt, occurred to Hugh John; and, indeed, after
+    all, that was the best thing that could happen on
+    such a day. A yell, a charge, a quick batter of
+    snowballs, and then a rush straight up the
+    bank--Maid Margaret, lithe as a deer-hound,
+    leading, her skirts kilted "as like a boy" as on
+    the spur of the moment she could achieve with a
+    piece of twine. Right on Sweetheart she rushed,
+    who,--as in some sort her senior and legal
+    protector,--of course, could not be very rough with
+    her, nor yet use the methods customary and licensed
+    between embattled brothers.
+
+    But while the Maid thus held Sweetheart in play,
+    Hugh John developed his stratagem. Leaning over the
+    ramparts he seized Sir Toady by the collar, and
+    then, throwing himself backward down the slope,
+    confident in the thick blanketing of snow
+    underneath, he dragged Sir Toady Lion along with
+    him.
+
+    "A prisoner--a prisoner!" he cried, both of them,
+    captor and captive alike, being involved in a misty
+    flurry of snow, which boiled up from the snowbank,
+    in the midst of which they fraternally embraced, in
+    that intimate tangle of legs and arms which only
+    boys can achieve without breaking bones.
+
+    "Back--come back!" rang out the order of the
+    victorious Hugh John. "Sit on him--sit on him
+    hard!"
+
+    Thus, and not otherwise, was Sir Toady captured
+    and Sweetheart left alone in the shattered
+    intrenchments, which a little before had seemed so
+    impregnable. Now in these snow wars, and, indeed,
+    in all the combattings of the redoubtable four, it
+    was the rule that a captive belonged to the side
+    which took him, from the very moment of his giving
+    in. He must utterly renounce his former allegiance,
+    and fight for his new party as fiercely as formerly
+    he had done against them. This is the only way of
+    decently prolonging strife when the combatants are
+    well matched, but various prejudices stand in the
+    way of applying it to international conflicts.
+
+    In this fashion was Sweetheart left alone in the
+    fort which she and Sir Toady had constructed with
+    such complete confidence. She did not, however,
+    show the least fear, being a young lady of a
+    singularly composed mind. On the other hand, she
+    set herself to repair the various breaches in the
+    walls, and so far as might be to contract them, so
+    that she would have less space to defend. Then she
+    sat sedately down on the swing and rocked herself
+    to and fro to keep warm, till the storm should
+    break on her devoted head.
+
+    It broke! With unanimous yell, an army, formidable
+    by being exactly three times her own numbers,
+    rushed across the level space, waving flags and
+    shouting in all the stern and headlong glory of the
+    charge. Snowballs were discharged at the bottom of
+    the glacis, the slope was climbed, and the enemy
+    arrived almost at the very walls, before Sweetheart
+    made a motion. There was something uncanny about
+    it. She did not even dodge the balls. For one thing
+    they were very badly aimed, and her chief safety
+    was in sitting still. They were, you see, aiming at
+    her.
+
+    It soon became evident, however, that the works
+    must be stormed. Still Sweetheart had made no
+    motion to resist, except that, still seated on the
+    broad board of the swing, she had gradually pushed
+    herself back as far as she could go without losing
+    her foothold on the ground.
+
+    "She's afraid!--She is retreating! On--on!"
+
+    No, Hugh John, for once your military genius has
+    been at fault. For at the very moment when the
+    snowy walls were being scaled, Sweetheart suddenly
+    lifted her feet from the ground. The swing, pushed
+    back to the limit of its chains, glided smoothly
+    forward. One solidly shod boot-sole took Hugh John
+    full on the chest. Another "plunked" Sir Toady in a
+    locality which he held yet more tender, especially,
+    as now, before dinner. Both warriors shot backward
+    as if discharged from a petard, disappearing from
+    view down the slope into the big drifts at the
+    foot. Maid Margaret, who had not been touched at
+    all, but who had stood (as it were) in the very
+    middle of affairs, uttered one terrified yell and
+    bolted.
+
+    "Time!" cried the umpire, appearing in the
+    doorway.
+
+    The baffled champions entered first. While
+    changing, they had got ready at least twenty
+    complete explanations of their downfall.
+    Sweetheart, coming in a little late, sat down to
+    her sewing, and listened placidly with a faint,
+    sweet, far-away smile which seemed to say that
+    knitting, though an occupation despised by boys,
+    does not wholly obscure the intellect. But she did
+    not say a word.
+
+    Her brothers somehow found this attitude
+    excessively provoking.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Thus exercised in mind and body, and presently also
+    fortified by the mid-day meal, the company declared
+    its kind readiness to hear the rest of _The
+    Antiquary_. It was not _Rob Roy_, of course--but a
+    snowy day brought with it certain compensations. So
+    to the crackle of the wood fire and the click and
+    shift of the knitting needles, I began the final
+    tale from _The Antiquary_.
+
+
+
+
+THE THIRD TALE FROM "THE ANTIQUARY"
+
+
+I. THE EARL'S SECRET
+
+ON the seashore not far from the mansion-house of Monkbarns stood the
+little fisherman's cottage of Saunders Mucklebackit. Saunders it was who
+had rigged the mast, by which Sir Arthur and his daughter were pulled to
+the top of the cliffs on the night of the storm. His wife came every day
+to the door of Monkbarns to sell fish to Miss Griselda, the Antiquary's
+sister, when the pair of them would stand by the hour "skirling and
+flyting beneath his window like so many seamaws," as Oldbuck himself
+said.
+
+Besides Steenie Mucklebackit, the eldest son, the same who had assisted
+Edie Ochiltree to bestow a well-deserved chastisement upon
+Dousterswivel, and a number of merry half-naked urchins, the family
+included the grandmother, Elspeth Mucklebackit--a woman old, but not
+infirm, whose understanding appeared at most times to be asleep, but the
+stony terror of whose countenance often frightened the bairns more than
+their mother's shrill tongue and ready palm.
+
+Elspeth seldom spoke. Indeed, she had done little for many years except
+twirl the distaff in her corner by the fire. Few cared to have much to
+do with her. She was thought to be "far from canny," and certainly she
+knew more about the great family of Glenallan than it was safe to speak
+aloud.
+
+It chanced on the very night when Edie and Steenie had given a skinful
+of sore bones to the German impostor Dousterswivel, that the Countess of
+Glenallan, mother of the Earl, was brought to be buried at midnight
+among the ruins of St. Ruth.
+
+Such had been the custom of the family from ancient times--indeed, ever
+since the Great Earl fell fighting at the Red Harlaw against Donald of
+the Isles. More recently there had been another reason for such a
+strange fashion of burial. For the family were Catholics, and there had
+long been laws in Scotland against the holding of popish ceremonials
+even on an occasion so solemn.
+
+The news of the death of her ancient mistress, coming at last to the
+ears of old Elspeth, took such hold upon her, that she could not rest
+till she had sent off Edie Ochiltree to the Earl of Glenallan, at
+Glenallan House, with a ring for a token and the message that Elspeth of
+the Craigburnfoot must see him before she died. She had, Edie was to
+say, a secret on her soul, without revealing which she could not hope to
+die in peace.
+
+Accordingly Edie set off for the castle of Glenallan, taking the ring
+with him, but with very little hope of finding his way into the Earl's
+presence; for Lord Glenallan had been long completely withdrawn from the
+world. His mother was Countess in her own right, and so long as she
+lived, her son had been wholly dependent upon her. In addition to which
+some great sorrow or some great crime, the countryside was not sure
+which, pressed sore upon his mind, and being a strict Catholic he passed
+his time in penance and prayer.
+
+However, by the help of an old soldier, one Francie Macraw, who had been
+his rear-rank man at Fontenoy, Edie Ochiltree was able after many delays
+to win a way to the Earl's presence--though the priests who were about
+his person evidently tried to keep everything connected with the outer
+world from his knowledge. The Earl, a tall, haggard, gloomy man, whose
+age seemed twice what it really was, stood holding the token ring in his
+hand. At first he took Edie for a father of his own church, and demanded
+if any further penance were necessary to atone for his sin. But as soon
+as Edie declared his message, at the very first mention of the name of
+Elspeth of the Craigburnfoot, the Earl's cheek became even more
+deathlike than it had been at Edie's entrance.
+
+"Ah," he said, "that name is indeed written on the darkest page of a
+terrible history. But what can the woman want with me? Is she dead or
+living?"
+
+"She is living in the body," said Edie, "and at times her mind lives
+too--but she is an awfu' woman."
+
+"She always was so," said the Earl, answering almost unconsciously. "She
+was different from other women--likest, perhaps, to her who is no
+more--"
+
+Edie knew that he meant his own mother, so lately dead.
+
+"She wishes to see me," continued the Earl; "she shall be gratified,
+though the meeting will be a pleasure to neither of us."
+
+Lord Glenallan gave Edie a handful of guineas, which, contrary to his
+usage, Edie had not the courage to refuse. The Earl's tone was too
+absolute.
+
+Then, as an intimation that the interview was at an end, Lord Glenallan
+called his servant.
+
+"See this old man safe," he said; "let no one ask him any questions. And
+you, my friend, be gone, and forget the road that leads to my house!"
+
+"That would indeed be difficult," said the undaunted Edie, "since your
+lordship has given me such good cause to remember it."
+
+Lord Glenallan stared, as if hardly comprehending the old man's boldness
+in daring to bandy words with him. Then, without answering, he made him
+another signal to depart by a simple movement of his hand, which Edie,
+awed far beyond his wont, instantly obeyed.
+
+
+II. THE MOTHER'S VENGEANCE
+
+The day of Lord Glenallan's visit to the cottage where dwelt old Elspeth
+of the Craigburnfoot seemed at first ill timed. That very day Steenie
+Mucklebackit, the young, the gallant, the handsome eldest son of the
+house had been carried to his grave. He had been drowned while at the
+fishing, though his father had risked his life in vain to save him. The
+family had now returned home, and were sitting alone in the first
+benumbing shock of their grief.
+
+It was some time before the Earl could make good his entrance into the
+cottage. It was still longer before he could convince the old woman
+Elspeth that he was really Lord Glenallan, and so obtain an opportunity
+of speaking with her. But at last they were left alone in the cottage,
+and the thick veil which had fallen upon Elspeth's spirit seemed for a
+while to be drawn aside. She spoke like one of an education far superior
+to her position, clearly and calmly, even when recounting the most
+terrible events.
+
+Her very first words recalled to the Earl the fair young wife, whom he
+had married long ago, against his mother's will and without her
+knowledge.
+
+"Name not her name," he cried, in agony, "all that is dead to me--dead
+long ago!"
+
+"I MUST!" said the old woman; "it is of her I have to speak."
+
+And in the fewest and simplest words she told him how, when his mother
+the Countess had found means to separate husband and wife, while he
+himself was fleeing half mad, none knew whither, the young wife had
+thrown herself in a fit of frenzy over the cliffs into the sea. It was
+to Elspeth's cottage that she and her babe had been brought.
+
+"And here," said the terrible old woman, suddenly thrusting a golden
+bodkin into his hand, "is the very dagger which your mother the Countess
+gave me in order that with it I might slay your infant son."
+
+The Earl looked at the gold bodkin or dagger, as if in fancy he saw the
+blood of his child still red upon it.
+
+"Wretch!" he cried; "and had you the heart?"
+
+"I kenna whether I would or not," said Elspeth. "My mistress commanded
+and I obeyed. So did I ever. But my obedience was not to be tried that
+time. For when I returned, the babe had gone. Your younger brother had
+been called up to the castle. The child had been left in the care of the
+Countess's Spanish maid, and when I returned to my cottage, both she and
+the babe were gone. The dead body of your young wife alone remained. And
+now," concluded Elspeth, abruptly, "can you forgive me?"
+
+Lord Glenallan was going out of the hut, overwhelmed by the disclosure
+to which he had been listening. He saw his young wife hounded to death
+by his fierce and revengeful mother. He thought of the living child so
+wonderfully left to him as a legacy from the dead. Yet he turned at
+Elspeth's last words.
+
+"May God forgive thee, miserable woman," he said. "Turn for mercy to
+Him. He will forgive you as sincerely as I do."
+
+As Lord Glenallan went out into the sunlight, he met face to face with
+the Antiquary himself, who was on his way to the cottage to offer what
+consolation or help might be in his power. The Earl and he recognised
+one another, but the Antiquary's greeting was hard and cold. As a
+magistrate he had made, on his own responsibility and against all the
+power of the Glenallan family, the legal inquiries into the death of the
+Earl's young wife. Indeed, during a residence which she had made at
+Knockwinnock Castle with the Wardour family twenty years ago, and while
+she was still only known as Miss Eveline Neville, the Antiquary had
+loved her and had asked her to be his wife. It was, indeed, chiefly on
+her account that he had never married. Mr. Oldbuck had never ceased to
+mourn her, and now, believing as he had good reason to do, that the Earl
+was the cause of her untimely death, and of the stigma which rested upon
+her name, it was little wonder that he should wish to have no dealings
+with him.
+
+But the Earl had a great need in his heart to speak to some one. In a
+moment the whole world seemed to have changed for him. For the first
+time he knew the truth about a dark deed of cruelty. For the first time,
+also, he knew that he had a son. He desired above all else the wise
+counsel of a true friend. In his heart he had admired the fearlessness
+of the Antiquary in the bold inquiry he had made at the time of Eveline
+Neville's death, and now, refusing to be rebuffed, he followed Mr.
+Oldbuck as he was turning away, and demanded that he should not deny him
+his counsel and assistance at a most terrible and critical moment.
+
+It was not in the good Antiquary's nature to refuse such a request from
+Earl or beggar, and their interview ended in the Earl's accepting the
+hospitality of Monkbarns for the night, in order that they might have
+plenty of time to discuss the whole subject of Elspeth's communication.
+
+On his own part Mr. Oldbuck had some comfort to give Lord Glenallan. He
+had kept the papers which concerned the inquiry carefully, and he was
+able to assure his lordship that his brother had carried off the babe
+with him, probably for the purpose of having it brought up and educated
+upon the English estates he had inherited from his father, and on which
+he had ever afterward lived.
+
+"My brother," said Lord Glenallan, "is recently dead, which makes our
+search the more difficult. Furthermore, I am not his heir. He has left
+his property to a stranger, as indeed he had every right to do. But as
+the heir is like himself a Protestant, he may be unwilling to aid the
+inquiry--"
+
+"I trust," interrupted Mr. Oldbuck, with some feeling, "that you will
+find a Protestant can be as honest and honourable as a Catholic."
+
+The Earl protested that he had no idea of supposing otherwise.
+
+"Only," he continued, "there was an old steward on the estate who in all
+probability is the only man now living who knows the truth. But it is
+not expected that any man will willingly disinherit himself. For if I
+have a living son, my father's estates are entailed on him, and the
+steward may very likely stand by his master."
+
+"I have a friend in Yorkshire," said Mr. Oldbuck, "to whom I can apply
+for information as to the character of your brother's heir, and also as
+to the disposition of his steward. That is all we can do at present. But
+take courage, my lord. I believe that your son is alive."
+
+In the morning Lord Glenallan returned to the castle in his carriage,
+while Mr. Oldbuck, hearing from Hector that he was going down to
+Fairport, in order to see that old Edie Ochiltree had fair play before
+the magistrates, offered to bear him company.
+
+Edie Ochiltree--in prison for thwacking the ribs of Dousterswivel, which
+he had done (or at least poor Steenie Mucklebackit for him), and for
+stealing the German's fifty pounds, which he had not done--willingly
+revealed to Monkbarns what he had refused to breathe to Bailie
+Littlejohn of the Fairport magistracy. After some delay Edie was
+accordingly liberated on the Antiquary's bail, and immediately
+accompanied his good friend to the cottage of old Elspeth Mucklebackit,
+where, by the Earl's request, Oldbuck was to take down a statement from
+her lips, such as might be produced in a court of law. But no single
+syllable would the old beldame now utter against her ancient mistress.
+
+"Ha," she said, at the first question put to her by the Antiquary; "I
+thought it would come to this. It's only sitting silent when they
+question me. There's nae torture in our days, and if there was, let them
+rend me! It ill becomes a vassal's mouth to betray the bread which it
+has eaten."
+
+Then they told her that her mistress, the Countess Jocelin, was dead,
+hoping this might bring her to confession. But the news had quite an
+opposite effect.
+
+"Dead!" cried Elspeth, aroused as ever by the sound of her mistress's
+name, "then, if she be gone before, the servant must follow. All must
+ride when she is in the saddle. Bring my scarf and hood! Ye wadna hae me
+gang in the carriage with my lady, and my hair all abroad in this
+fashion!"
+
+She raised her withered arms, and her hands seemed busied like those of
+a woman who puts on a cloak to go a journey.
+
+"Call Miss Neville," she continued; "what do you mean by Lady Geraldin?
+I said Eveline Neville. There's no Lady Geraldin. But tell her to change
+her wet gown and not to look so pale. Bairn--what should she do wi' a
+bairn? She has nane, I trow! Teresa--Teresa--my lady calls us! Bring a
+candle! The grand staircase is as black before me as a Yule midnight!
+Coming, my lady, we are coming!"
+
+With these words, and as if following in the train of her mistress, old
+Elspeth, once of the Craigburnfoot, sunk back on the settle, and from
+thence sidelong to the floor.
+
+
+III. THE HEIR OF GLENALLAN
+
+Meanwhile doom was coming fast upon poor Sir Arthur Wardour. He seemed
+to be utterly ruined. The treachery of Dousterswivel, the pressing and
+extortionate demands of a firm called Goldiebirds, who held a claim over
+his estate, the time-serving of his own lawyers, at last brought the
+officers of the law down upon him. He found himself arrested for debt in
+his own house. He was about to be sent to prison, when Edie Ochiltree,
+who in his day had been deep in many plots, begged that he might be
+allowed to drive over to Tannanburgh, and promised that he would
+certainly bring back some good news from the post-office there.
+
+It was all that Oldbuck, with his best tact and wisdom, could do to keep
+Hector MacIntyre from assaulting the officers of the law during the
+absence of Edie. Two long hours they waited. The carriage had already
+been ordered round to the door to convey Sir Arthur to prison. Miss
+Wardour was in agony, her father desperate with shame and grief, when
+Edie arrived triumphantly grasping a packet. He delivered it forthwith
+to the Antiquary. For Sir Arthur, knowing his own weakness, had put
+himself unreservedly into the hands of his abler friend. The packet,
+being opened, was found to contain a writ stopping the proceedings, a
+letter of apology from the lawyers who had been most troublesome, and a
+note from Captain Wardour, Sir Arthur's son, enclosing a thousand pounds
+for his father's immediate needs. It also declared that ere long he
+himself would come to the castle along with a distinguished officer,
+Major Neville, who had been appointed to report to the War Office
+concerning the state of the defences of the country.
+
+"Thus," said the Antiquary, summing up the situation, "was the last
+siege of Knockwinnock House laid by Saunders Sweepclean, the bailiff,
+and raised by Edie Ochiltree, the King's Blue-Gown!"
+
+There was, at the time when the story of the Antiquary and his doings
+draws to a close, a daily expectation of a French invasion. Beacons had
+been prepared on every hill and headland, and men were set to watch. One
+of these beacons had been intrusted to old Caxon the hairdresser, and
+one night he saw, directly in the line of the hill to the south which he
+was to watch, a flame start suddenly up. It was undoubtedly the token
+agreed upon to warn the country of the landing of the French.
+
+He lighted his beacon accordingly. It threw up to the sky a long
+wavering train of light, startling the sea-fowl from their nests, and
+reddening the sea beneath the cliffs. Caxon's brother warders, equally
+zealous, caught and repeated the signal. The district was soon awake and
+alive with the tidings of invasion.
+
+[Illustration: "ONE night he saw, directly in the line of the hill to
+the south which he was to watch, a flame start suddenly up. It was
+undoubtedly the token agreed upon to warn the country of the landing of
+the French.
+
+"He lighted his beacon accordingly."]
+
+From far and near the Lowland burghers, the country lairds, the Highland
+chiefs and clans responded to the summons. They had been drilling for
+long, and now in the dead of the night they marched with speed upon
+Fairport, eager to defend that point of probable attack.
+
+Last of all the Earl of Glenallan came in with a splendidly mounted
+squadron of horse, raised among his Lowland tenants, and five hundred
+Highland clansmen with their pipes playing stormily in the van.
+Presently also Captain Wardour arrived in a carriage drawn by four
+horses, bringing with him Major Neville, the distinguished officer
+appointed to the command of the district. The magistrates assembled at
+the door of their town-house to receive him. The volunteers, the
+yeomanry, the Glenallan clansmen--all were there awaiting the great man.
+
+What was the astonishment of the people of Fairport, and especially of
+the Antiquary, to see descend from the open door of the carriage,--who
+but the quiet Mr. Lovel.
+
+He had brought with him the news that the alarm of invasion was false.
+The beacon which Caxon had seen was only the burning of the mining
+machinery in Glen Withershins which had been ordered by Oldbuck and Sir
+Arthur to make a final end of Dousterswivel's plots and deceits.
+
+But there was yet further and more interesting private news. The proofs
+that Lovel was indeed the son of the Earl of Glenallan were found to be
+overwhelming. His heirship to the title had been fully made out. The
+chaplain who had performed his father's wedding had returned from
+abroad, exiled by the French Revolution. The witnesses also had been
+found. Most decisive of all, among the papers of the Earl's late
+brother, there was discovered a duly authenticated account of his
+carrying off the child, and of how he had had him educated and pushed on
+in the army.
+
+So that very night the Antiquary enjoyed in some degree the crowning
+pleasure of his whole life, in bringing together father and son for the
+first time. That is, if the marriage which took place soon after between
+his young friend Lovel (or Lord William Geraldin) and Miss Isabella
+Wardour of Knockwinnock Castle did not turn out to be a yet greater
+pleasure. Old Edie still travels from farm to farm, but mostly now
+confines himself to the short round between Monkbarns and Knockwinnock.
+It is reported, however, that he means soon to settle with old Caxon,
+who, since the marriage of his daughter to Lieutenant Taffril, has been
+given a cottage near the three wigs which he still keeps in order in the
+parish,--the minister's, Sir Arthur's, and best of all, that of our good
+and well-beloved Antiquary.
+
+
+THE END OF THE LAST TALE FROM "THE ANTIQUARY."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+    "Now," said Sweetheart, nodding particular
+    approval, "that is the way a story ought to end
+    up--everything going on from chapter to chapter,
+    with no roundabouts, and everything told about
+    everybody right to the very end!"
+
+    "Hum," said Hugh John, with a curl of his nose;
+    "well, that's done with! But it was good about the
+    Storm and the Duel! The rest was--"
+
+    "Hush," said Sweetheart, "remember, it was written
+    by Sir Walter."
+
+    "Sir," said I to Hugh John, heavily parental,
+    "_The Antiquary_ may not now be much to your
+    taste, but the day will come when you may probably
+    prefer it to all the rest put together."
+
+    At these words the young man assumed the expression
+    common to boys who are bound to receive the
+    wholesome advice of their elders, yet who do so
+    with silent but respectful doubt, if not with
+    actual disbelief.
+
+    "Well," he said, after a long pause, "anyway, the
+    Duel _was_ good. And I'd jolly well like to find a
+    treasure in Misticot's grave. Can we have another
+    snow fight?"
+
+THE END OF THE FIRST SERIES OF RED CAP TALES FROM THE TREASURE-CHEST OF
+THE WIZARD OF THE NORTH.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] These were Scottish children to whom the stories were retold, and
+they understood the Scottish tongue. So the dialect parts were
+originally told in that speech. Now, however, in pity for children who
+have the misfortune to inherit only English, I have translated all the
+hard words and phrases as best I could. But the old is infinitely
+better, and my only hope and aim is, that the retelling of these stories
+by the living voice may send every reader, every listener, to the Master
+of Romance himself. If I succeed in this, my tale-telling shall not have
+been in vain.
+
+[2] _i.e._ scarecrow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+One reference each of "lifeblood" and "life-blood" were retained. This
+was also done with "sea-shore" and "seashore".
+
+Page 151, "campanion" changed to "companion" (sole companion a)
+
+Page 180, "summons" changed to "summon" (would summon all)
+
+Page 324, "than" changed to "then" (and then began)
+
+Page 374, "hims" changed to "his" (mounted on his)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Red Cap Tales, by Samuel Rutherford Crockett
+
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