Hayston, replied Ravenswood, with the same composure, you should choose your society better, or you are like to have much work in your capacity of their champion. Go home, sir; sleep, and have more reason in your wrath tomorrow. Not so, Master, you have mistaken your man; high airs and wise saws shall not carry it off thus. Besides, you termed me bully, and you shall retract the word before we part. Faith, scarcely, said Ravenswood, unless you show me better reason for thinking myself mistaken than you are now producing. Then, Master, said Bucklaw, though I should be sorry to offer it to a man of your quality, if you will not justify your incivility, or retract it, or name a place of meeting, you must here undergo the hard word and the hard blow. Neither will be necessary, said Ravenswood; I am satisfied with what I have done to avoid an affair with you. If you are serious, this place will serve as well as another. Dismount then, and draw, said Bucklaw, setting him an example. I always thought and said you were a pretty man; I should be sorry to report you otherwise. You shall have no reason, sir, said Ravenswood, alighting, and putting himself into a posture of defence. Their swords crossed, and the combat commenced with great spirit on the part of Bucklaw, who was well accustomed to affairs of the kind, and distinguished by address and dexterity at his weapon. In the present case, however, he did not use his skill to advantage; for, having lost temper at the cool and contemptuous manner in which the Master of Ravenswood had long refused, and at length granted, him satisfaction, and urged by his impatience, he adopted the part of an assailant with inconsiderate eagerness. The Master, with equal skill, and much greater composure, remained chiefly on the defensive, and even declined to avail himself of one or two advantages afforded him by the eagerness of his adversary. At length, in a desperate lunge, which he followed with an attempt to close, Bucklaws foot slipped, and he fell on the short grassy turf on which they were fighting. Take your life, sir, said the Master of Ravenswood, and mend it if you can. It would be but a cobbled piece of work, I fear, said Bucklaw, rising slowly and gathering up his sword, much less disconcerted with the issue of the combat than could have been expected from the impetuosity of his temper. I thank you for my life, Master, he pursued. There is my hand; I bear no illwill to you, either for my bad luck or your better swordsmanship. The Master looked steadily at him for an instant, then extended his hand to him. Bucklaw, he said, you are a generous fellow, and I have done you wrong. I heartily ask your pardon for the expression which offended you; it was hastily and incautiously uttered, and I am convinced it is totally misapplied. Are you indeed, Master? said Bucklaw, his face resuming at once its natural expression of lighthearted carelessness and audacity; that is more than I expected of you; for, Master, men say you are not ready to retract your opinion and your language. Not when I have well considered them, said the Master. Then you are a little wiser than I am, for I always give my friend satisfaction first, and explanation afterwards. If one of us falls, all accounts are settled; if not, men are never so ready for peace as after war. But what does that bawling brat of a boy want? said Bucklaw. I wish to Heaven he had come a few minutes sooner! and yet it must have been ended some time, and perhaps this way is as well as any other. As he spoke, the boy he mentioned came up, cudgelling an ass, on which he was mounted, to the top of its speed, and sending, like one of Ossians heroes, his voice before him Gentlemengentlemen, save yourselves! for the gudewife bade us tell ye there were folk in her house had taen Captain Craigengelt, and were seeking for Bucklaw, and that ye behoved to ride for it. By my faith, and thats very true, my man said Bucklaw; and theres a silver sixpence for your news, and I would give any man twice as much would tell me which way I should ride. That will I, Bucklaw, said Ravenswood; ride home to Wolfs Crag with me. There are places in the old tower where you might lie hid, were a thousand men to seek you. But that will bring you into trouble yourself, Master; and unless you be in the Jacobite scrape already, it is quite needless for me to drag you in. Not a whit; I have nothing to fear. Then I will ride with you blythely, for, to say the truth, I do not know the rendezvous that Craigie was to guide us to this night; and I am sure that, if he is taken, he will tell all the truth of me, and twenty lies of you, in order to save himself from the withie. They mounted and rode off in company accordingly, striking off the ordinary road, and holding their way by wild moorish unfrequented paths, with which the gentlemen were well acquainted from the exercise of the chase, but through which others would have had much difficulty in tracing their course. They rode for some time in silence, making such haste as the condition of Ravenswoods horse permitted, until night having gradually closed around them, they discontinued their speed, both from the difficulty of discovering their path, and from the hope that they were beyond the reach of pursuit or observation. And now that we have drawn bridle a bit, said Bucklaw, I would fain ask you a question, Master. Ask and welcome, said Ravenswood, but forgive not answering it, unless I think proper. Well, it is simply this, answered his late antagonist What, in the name of old Sathan, could make you, who stand so highly on your reputation, think for a moment of drawing up with such a rogue as Craigengelt, and such a scapegrace as folk call Bucklaw? Simply, because I was desperate, and sought desperate associates. And what made you break off from us at the nearest? again demanded Bucklaw. Because I had changed my mind, said the Master, and renounced my enterprise, at least for the present. And now that I have answered your questions fairly and frankly, tell me what makes you associate with Craigengelt, so much beneath you both in birth and in spirit? In plain terms, answered Bucklaw, because I am a fool, who have gambled away my land in these times. My grandaunt, Lady Girnington, has taen a new tack of life, I think, and I could only hope to get something by a change of government. Craigie was a sort of gambling acquaintance; he saw my condition, and, as the devil is always at ones elbow, told me fifty lies about his credentials from Versailles, and his interest at Saint Germains, promised me a captains commission at Paris, and I have been ass enough to put my thumb under his belt. I dare say, by this time, he has told a dozen pretty stories of me to the government. And this is what I have got by wine, women, and dice, cocks, dogs, and horses. Yes, Bucklaw, said the Master, you have indeed nourished in your bosom the snakes that are now stinging you. Thats home as well as true, Master, replied his companion; but, by your leave, you have nursed in your bosom one great goodly snake that has swallowed all the rest, and is as sure to devour you as my halfdozen are to make a meal on all thats left of Bucklaw, which is but what lies between bonnet and bootheel. I must not, answered the Master of Ravenswood, challenge the freedom of speech in which I have set example. What, to speak without a metaphor, do you call this monstrous passion which you charge me with fostering? Revenge, my good sirrevenge; which, if it be as gentle manlike a sin as wine and wassail, with their et cteras, is equally unchristian, and not so bloodless. It is better breaking a parkpale to watch a doe or damsel than to shoot an old man. I deny the purpose, said the Master of Ravenswood. On my soul, I had no such intention; I meant but to confront the oppressor ere I left my native land, and upbraid him with his tyranny and its consequences. I would have stated my wrongs so that they would have shaken his soul within him. Yes, answered Bucklaw, and he would have collared you, and cried help, and then you would have shaken the soul out of him, I suppose. Your very look and manner would have frightened the old man to death. Consider the provocation, answered Ravenswoodconsider the ruin and death procured and caused by his hardhearted crueltyan ancient house destroyed, an affectionate father murdered! Why, in our old Scottish days, he that sat quiet under such wrongs would have been held neither fit to back a friend nor face a foe. Well, Master, I am glad to see that the devil deals as cunningly with other folk as he deals with me; for whenever I am about to commit any folly, he persuades me it is the most necessary, gallant, gentlemanlike thing on earth, and I am up to saddlegirths in the bog before I see that the ground is soft. And you, Master, might have turned out a murda homicide, just out of pure respect for your fathers memory. There is more sense in your language, Bucklaw, replied the Master, than might have been expected from your conduct. It is too true, our vices steal upon us in forms outwardly as fair as those of the demons whom the superstitious represent as intriguing with the human race, and are not discovered in their native hideousness until we have clasped them in our arms. But we may throw them from us, though, said Bucklaw, and that is what I shall think of doing one of these daysthat is, when old Lady Girnington dies. Did you ever hear the expression of the English divine? said RavenswoodHell is paved with good intentions,as much as to say, they are more often formed than executed. Well, replied Bucklaw, but I will begin this blessed night, and have determined not to drink above one quart of wine, unless your claret be of extraordinary quality. You will find little to tempt you at Wolfs Crag, said the Master. I know not that I can promise you more than the shelter of my roof; all, and more than all, our stock of wine and provisions was exhausted at the late occasion. Long may it be ere provision is needed for the like purpose, answered Bucklaw; but you should not drink up the last flask at a dirge; there is ill luck in that. There is ill luck, I think, in whatever belongs to me, said Ravenswood. But yonder is Wolfs Crag, and whatever it still contains is at your service. The roar of the sea had long announced their approach to the cliffs, on the summit of which, like the nest of some seaeagle, the founder of the fortalice had perched his eyrie. The pale moon, which had hitherto been contending with flitting clouds, now shone out, and gave them a view of the solitary and naked tower, situated on a projecting cliff that beetled on the German Ocean. On three sides the rock was precipitous; on the fourth, which was that towards the land, it had been originally fenced by an artificial ditch and drawbridge, but the latter was broken down and ruinous, and the former had been in part filled up, so as to allow passage for a horseman into the narrow courtyard, encircled on two sides with low offices and stables, partly ruinous, and closed on the landward front by a low embattled wall, while the remaining side of the quadrangle was occupied by the tower itself, which, tall and narrow, and built of a greyish stone, stood glimmering in the moonlight, like the sheeted spectre of some huge giant. A wilder or more disconsolate dwelling it was perhaps difficult to conceive. The sombrous and heavy sound of the billows, successively dashing against the rocky beach at a profound distance beneath, was to the ear what the landscape was to the eyea symbol of unvaried and monotonous melancholy, not unmingled with horror. Although the night was not far advanced, there was no sign of living inhabitant about this forlorn abode, excepting that one, and only one, of the narrow and stanchelled windows which appeared at irregular heights and distances in the walls of the building showed a small glimmer of light. There, said Ravenswood, sits the only male domestic that remains to the house of Ravenswood; and it is well that he does remain there, since otherwise we had little hope to find either light or fire. But follow me cautiously; the road is narrow, and admits only one horse in front. In effect, the path led along a kind of isthmus, at the peninsular extremity of which the tower was situated, with that exclusive attention to strength and security, in preference to every circumstances of convenience, which dictated to the Scottish barons the choice of their situations, as well as their style of building. By adopting the cautious mode of approach recommended by the proprietor of this wild hold, they entered the courtyard in safety. But it was long ere the efforts of Ravenswood, though loudly exerted by knocking at the lowbrowed entrance, and repeated shouts to Caleb to open the gate and admit them, received any answer. The old man must be departed, he began to say, or fallen into some fit; for the noise I have made would have waked the seven sleepers. At length a timid and hesitating voice replied MasterMaster of Ravenswood, is it you? Yes, it is I, Caleb; open the door quickly. But it is you in very blood and body? For I would sooner face fifty deevils as my masters ghaist, or even his wraith; wherefore, aroint ye, if ye were ten times my master, unless ye come in bodily shape, lith and limb. It is I, you old fool, answered Ravenswood, in bodily shape and alive, save that I am half dead with cold. The light at the upper window disappeared, and glancing from loophole to loophole in slow succession, gave intimation that the bearer was in the act of descending, with great deliberation, a winding staircase occupying one of the turrets which graced the angles of the old tower. The tardiness of his descent extracted some exclamations of impatience from Ravenswood, and several oaths from his less patient and more mecurial companion. Caleb again paused ere he unbolted the door, and once more asked if they were men of mould that demanded entrance at this time of night. Were I near you, you old fool, said Bucklaw, I would give you sufficient proofs of my bodily condition. Open the gate, Caleb, said his master, in a more soothing tone, partly from his regard to the ancient and faithful seneschal, partly perhaps because he thought that angry words would be thrown away, so long as Caleb had a stout ironclenched oaken door betwixt his person and the speakers. At length Caleb, with a trembling hand, undid the bars, opened the heavy door, and stood before them, exhibiting his thin grey hairs, bald forehead, and sharp high features, illuminated by a quivering lamp which he held in one hand, while he shaded and protected its flame with the other. The timorous, courteous glance which he threw around him, the effect of the partial light upon his white hair and illumined features, might have made a good painting; but our travellers were too impatient for security against the rising storm to permit them to indulge themselves in studying the picturesque. Is it you, my dear master?is it you yourself, indeed? exclaimed the old domestic. I am wae ye suld hae stude waiting at your ain gate; but wha wad hae thought o seeing ye sae sune, and a strange gentleman with a(Here he exclaimed apart, as it were, and to some inmate of the tower, in a voice not meant to be heard by those in the court)MysieMysie, woman! stir for dear life, and get the fire mended; take the auld threelegged stool, or ony thing thats readiest that will make a lowe. I doubt we are but puirly provided, no expecting ye this some months, when doubtless ye was hae been received conform till your rank, as gude right is; but natheless Natheless, Caleb, said the Master, we must have our horses put up, and ourselves too, the best way we can. I hope you are not sorry to see me sooner than you expected? Sorry, my lord! I am sure ye sall aye be my lord wi honest folk, as your noble ancestors hae been these three hundred years, and never asked a Whigs leave. Sorry to see the Lord of Ravenswood at ane o his ain castles! (Then again apart to his unseen associate behind the screen) Mysie, kill the broodhen without thinking twice on it; let them care that come ahint. No to say its our best dwelling, he added, turning to Bucklaw; but just a strength for the Lord of Ravenswood to flee untilthat is, no to flee, but to retreat until in troublous times, like the present, when it was ill convenient for him to live farther in the country in ony of his better and mair principal manors; but, for its antiquity, maist folk think that the outside of Wolfs Crag is worthy of a large perusal. And you are determined we shall have time to make it, said Ravenswood, somewhat amused with the shifts the old man used to detain them without doors until his confederate Mysie had made her preparations within. Oh, never mind the outside of the house, my good friend, said Bucklaw; lets see the inside, and let our horses see the stable, thats all. Oh yes, siray, sirunquestionably, sirmy lord and ony of his honourable companions But our horses, my friendour horses; they will be deadfounded by standing here in the cold after riding hard, and mine is too good to be spoiled; therefore, once more, our horses! exclaimed Bucklaw. Trueayyour horsesyesI will call the grooms; and sturdily did Caleb roar till the old tower rang again JohnWilliamSaunders! The lads are gane out, or sleeping, he observed, after pausing for an answer, which he knew that he had no human chance of receiving. A gaes wrang when the Masters outbye; but Ill take care o your cattle mysell. I think you had better, said Ravenswood, otherwise I see little chance of their being attended to at all. Whisht, my lordwhisht, for Gods sake, said Caleb, in an imploring tone, and apart to his master; if ye dinna regard your ain credit, think on mine; well hae hard eneugh wark to make a decent night ot, wi a the lees I can tell. Well, well, never mind, said his master; go to the stable. There is hay and corn, I trust? Ou ay, plenty of hay and corn; this was uttered boldly and aloud, and, in a lower tone, there was some half fous o aits, and some taits o meadowhay, left after the burial. Very well, said Ravenswood, taking the lamp from his domestics unwilling hand, I will show the stranger upstairs myself. I canna think o that, my lord; if ye wad but have five minutes, or ten minutes, or, at maist, a quarter of an hours patience, and look at the fine moonlight prospect of the Bass and North Berwick Law till I sort the horses, I would marshal ye up, as reason is ye suld be marshalled, your lordship and your honourable visitor. And I hae lockit up the siller candlesticks, and the lamp is not fit It will do very well in the mean time, said Ravenswood, and you will have no difficulty for want of light in the stable, for, if I recollect, half the roof is off. Very true, my lord, replied the trusty adherent, and with ready wit instantly added, and the lazy sclater loons have never come to put it on a this while, your lordship. If I were disposed to jest at the calamities of my house, said Ravenswood, as he led the way upstairs, poor old Caleb would furnish me with ample means. His passion consists in representing things about our miserable menage, not as they are, but as, in his opinion, they ought to be; and, to say the truth, I have been often diverted with the poor wretchs expedients to supply what he thought was essential for the credit of the family, and his still more generous apologies for the want of those articles for which his ingenuity could discover no substitute. But though the tower is none of the largest, I shall have some trouble without him to find the apartment in which there is a fire. As he spoke thus, he opened the door of the hall. Here, at least, he said, there is neither hearth nor harbour. It was indeed a scene of desolation. A large vaulted room, the beams of which, combined like those of Westminster Hall, were rudely carved at the extremities, remained nearly in the situation in which it had been left after the entertainment at Allan Lord Ravenswoods funeral. Overturned pitchers, and blackjacks, and pewter stoups, and flagons still cumbered the large oaken table; glasses, those more perishable implements of conviviality, many of which had been voluntarily sacrificed by the guests in their enthusiastic pledges to favourite toasts, strewed the stone floor with their fragments. As for the articles of plate, lent for the purpose by friends and kinsfolk, those had been carefully withdrawn so soon as the ostentatious display of festivity, equally unnecessary and strangely timed, had been made and ended. Nothing, in short, remained that indicated wealth; all the signs were those of recent wastefulness and present desolation. The black cloth hangings, which, on the late mournful occasion, replaced the tattered motheaten tapestries, had been partly pulled down, and, dangling from the wall in irregular festoons, disclosed the rough stonework of the building, unsmoothed either by plaster or the chisel. The seats thrown down, or left in disorder, intimated the careless confusion which had concluded the mournful revel. This room, said Ravenswood, holding up the lampthis room, Mr. Hayston, was riotous when it should have been sad; it is a just retribution that it should now be sad when it ought to be cheerful. They left this disconsolate apartment, and went upstairs, where, after opening one or two doors in vain, Ravenswood led the way into a little matted anteroom, in which, to their great joy, they found a tolerably good fire, which Mysie, by some such expedient as Caleb had suggested, had supplied with a reasonable quantity of fuel. Glad at the heart to see more of comfort than the castle had yet seemed to offer, Bucklaw rubbed his hands heartily over the fire, and now listened with more complacency to the apologies which the Master of Ravenswood offered. Comfort, he said, I cannot provide for you, for I have it not for myself; it is long since these walls have known it, if, indeed, they were ever acquainted with it. Shelter and safety, I think, I can promise you. Excellent matters, Master, replied Bucklaw, and, with a mouthful of food and wine, positively all I can require tonight. I fear, said the Master, your supper will be a poor one; I hear the matter in discussion betwixt Caleb and Mysie. Poor Balderstone is something deaf, amongst his other accomplishments, so that much of what he means should be spoken aside is overheard by the whole audience, and especially by those from whom he is most anxious to conceal his private manuvres. Hark! They listened, and heard the old domestics voice in conversation with Mysie to the following effect Just mak the best otmake the bestot, woman; its easy to put a fair face on ony thing. But the auld broodhen? Shell be as teugh as bowstrings and bendleather! Say ye made a mistakesay ye made a mistake, Mysie, replied the faithful seneschal, in a soothing and undertoned voice; tak it a on yoursell; never let the credit o the house suffer. But the broodhen, remonstrated Mysieou, shes sitting some gate aneath the dais in the hall, and I am feared to gae in in the dark for the bogle; and if I didna see the bogle, I could as ill see the hen, for its pitmirk, and theres no another light in the house, save that very blessed lamp whilk the Master has in his ain hand. And if I had the hen, shes to pu, and to draw, and to dress; how can I do that, and them sitting by the only fire we have? Weel, weel, Mysie, said the butler, bide ye there a wee, and Ill try to get the lamp wiled away frae them. Accordingly, Caleb Balderstone entered the apartment, little aware that so much of his byplay had been audible there. Well, Caleb, my old friend, is there any chance of supper? said the Master of Ravenswood. Chance of supper, your lordship? said Caleb, with an emphasis of strong scorn at the implied doubt. How should there be ony question of that, and us in your lordships house? Chance of supper, indeed! But yell no be for butchermeat? Theres walth o fat poultry, ready either for spit or brander. The fat capon, Mysie! he added, calling out as boldly as if such a thing had been in existence. Quite unnecessary, said Bucklaw, who deemed himself bound in courtesy to relieve some part of the anxious butlers perplexity, if you have anything cold, or a morsel of bread. The best of bannocks! exclaimed Caleb, much relieved; and, for cauld meat, a that we hae is cauld eneugh,howbeit, maist of the cauld meat and pastry was gien to the poor folk after the ceremony of interment, as gude reason was; nevertheless Come, Caleb, said the Master of Ravenswood, I must cut this matter short. This is the young Laird of Bucklaw; he is under hiding, and therefore, you know Hell be nae nicer than your lordships honour, Ise warrant, answered Caleb, cheerfully, with a nod of intelligence; I am sorry that the gentleman is under distress, but I am blythe that he canna say muckle agane our housekeeping, for I believe his ain pinches may match ours; no that we are pinched, thank God, he added, retracting the admission which he had made in his first burst of joy, but nae doubt we are waur aff than we hae been, or suld be. And for eatingwhat signifies telling a lee? theres just the hinder end of the muttonham that has been but three times on the table, and the nearer the bane the sweeter, as your honours weel ken; andtheres the heel of the ewemilk kebbuck, wi a bit of nice butter, andandthats a thats to trust to. And with great alacrity he produced his slender stock of provisions, and placed them with much formality upon a small round table betwixt the two gentlemen, who were not deterred either by the homely quality or limited quantity of the repast from doing it full justice. Caleb in the mean while waited on them with grave officiousness, as if anxious to make up, by his own respectful assiduity, for the want of all other attendance. But, alas! how little on such occasions can form, however anxiously and scrupulously observed, supply the lack of substantial fare! Bucklaw, who had eagerly eaten a considerable portion of the thricesacked muttonham, now began to demand ale. I wanda just presume to recommend our ale, said Caleb; the maut was ill made, and there was awfu thunner last week; but siccan water as the Tower well has yell seldome see, Bucklaw, and that Ise engage for. But if your ale is bad, you can let us have some wine, said Bucklaw, making a grimace at the mention of the pure element which Caleb so earnestly recommended. Wine! answered Caleb, undauntedly, eneugh of wine! It was but twa days synewaes me for the causethere was as much wine drunk in this house as would have floated a pinnace. There never was lack of wine at Wolfs Crag. Do fetch us some then, said the master, instead of talking about it. And Caleb boldly departed. Every expended butt in the old cellar did he set atilt, and shake with the desperate expectation of collecting enough of the grounds of claret to fill the large pewter measure which he carried in his hand. Alas! each had been too devoutly drained; and, with all the squeezing and manoeuvring which his craft as a butler suggested, he could only collect about half a quart that seemed presentable. Still, however, Caleb was too good a general to renounce the field without a strategem to cover his retreat. He undauntedly threw down an empty flagon, as if he had stumbled at the entrance of the apartment, called upon Mysie to wipe up the wine that had never been spilt, and placing the other vessel on the table, hoped there was still enough left for their honours. There was indeed; for even Bucklaw, a sworn friend to the grape, found no encouragement to renew his first attack upon the vintage of Wolfs Crag, but contented himself, however reluctantly, with a draught of fair water. Arrangements were now made for his repose; and as the secret chamber was assigned for this purpose, it furnished Caleb with a firstrate and most plausible apology for all deficiencies of furniture, bedding, etc. For wha, said he, would have thought of the secret chaumer being needed? It has not been used since the time of the Gowrie Conspiracy, and I durst never let a woman ken of the entrance to it, or your honour will allow that it wad not hae been a secret chaumer lang. CHAPTER VIII. The hearth in hall was black and dead, No board was dight in bower within, Nor merry bowl nor welcome bed; Heres sorry cheer, quoth the Heir of Linne. Old Ballad The feelings of the prodigal Heir of Linne, as expressed in that excellent old song, when, after dissipating his whole fortune, he found himself the deserted inhabitant of the lonely lodge, might perhaps have some resemblance to those of the Master of Ravenswood in his deserted mansion of Wolfs Crag. The Master, however, had this advantage over the spendthrift in the legend, that, if he was in similar distress, he could not impute it to his own imprudence. His misery had been bequeathed to him by his father, and, joined to his high blood, and to a title which the courteous might give or the churlish withhold at their pleasure, it was the whole inheritance he had derived from his ancestry. Perhaps this melancholy yet consolatory reflection crossed the mind of the unfortunate young nobleman with a breathing of comfort. Favourable to calm reflection, as well as to the Muses, the morning, while it dispelled the shades of night, had a composing and sedative effect upon the stormy passions by which the Master of Ravenswood had been agitated on the preceding day. He now felt himself able to analyse the different feelings by which he was agitated, and much resolved to combat and to subdue them. The morning, which had arisen calm and bright, gave a pleasant effect even to the waste moorland view which was seen from the castle on looking to the landward; and the glorious ocean, crisped with a thousand rippling waves of silver, extended on the other side, in awful yet complacent majesty, to the verge of the horizon. With such scenes of calm sublimity the human heart sympathises even in its most disturbed moods, and deeds of honour and virtue are inspired by their majestic influence. To seek out Bucklaw in the retreat which he had afforded him, was the first occupation of the Master, after he had performed, with a scrutiny unusually severe, the important task of selfexamination. How now, Bucklaw? was his mornings salutationhow like you the couch in which the exiled Earl of Angus once slept in security, when he was pursued by the full energy of a kings resentment? Umph! returned the sleeper awakened; I have little to complain of where so great a man was quartered before me, only the mattress was of the hardest, the vault somewhat damp, the rats rather more mutinous than I would have expected from the state of Calebs larder; and if there had been shutters to that grated window, or a curtain to the bed, I should think it, upon the whole, an improvement in your accommodations. It is, to be sure, forlorn enough, said the Master, looking around the small vault; but if you will rise and leave it, Caleb will endeavour to find you a better breakfast than your supper of last night. Pray, let it be no better, said Bucklaw, getting up, and endeavouring to dress himself as well as the obscurity of the place would permitlet it, I say, be no better, if you mean me to preserve in my proposed reformation. The very recollection of Calebs beverage has done more to suppress my longing to open the day with a morning draught than twenty sermons would have done. And you, master, have you been able to give battle valiantly to your bosomsnake? You see I am in the way of smothering my vipers one by one. I have commenced the battle, at least, Bucklaw, and I have had a fair vision of an angel who descended to my assistance, replied the Master.


Woes me! said his guest, no vision can I expect, unless my aunt, Lady Grinington, should betake herself to the tomb; and then it would be the substance of her heritage rather than the appearance of her phantom that I should consider as the support of my good resolutions. But this same breakfast, Masterdoes the deer that is to make the pasty run yet on foot, as the ballad has it? I will inquire into that matter, said his entertainer; and, leaving the apartment, he went in search of Caleb, whom, after some difficulty, he found in an obscure sort of dungeon, which had been in former times the buttery of the castle. Here the old man was employed busily in the doubtful task of burnishing a pewter flagon until it should take the hue and semblance of silverplate. I think it may doI think it might pass, if they winna bring it ower muckle in the light o the window! were the ejaculations which he muttered from time to time, as if to encourage himself in his undertaking, when he was interrupted by the voice of his master. Take this, said the Master of Ravenswood, and get what is necessary for the family. And with these words he gave to the old butler the purse which had on the preceding evening so narrowly escaped the fangs of Craigengelt. The old man shook his silvery and thin locks, and looked with an expression of the most heartfelt anguish at his master as he weighed in his hand the slender treasure, and said in a sorrowful voice, And is this a thats left? All that is left at present, said the Master, affecting more cheerfulness than perhaps he really felt, is just the green purse and the wee pickle gowd, as the old song says; but we shall do better one day, Caleb. Before that day comes, said Caleb, I doubt there will be an end of an auld sang, and an auld servingman to boot. But it disna become me to speak that gate to your honour, and you looking sae pale. Tak back the purse, and keep it to be making a show before company; for if your honour would just take a bidding, and be whiles taking it out afore folk and putting it up again, theres naebody would refuse us trust, for a thats come and gane yet. But, Caleb, said the Master, I still intend to leave this country very soon, and desire to do so with the reputation of an honest man, leaving no debt behind me, at least of my own contracting. And gude right ye suld gang away as a true man, and so ye shall; for auld Caleb can tak the wyte of whatever is taen on for the house, and then it will be a just ae mans burden; and I will live just as weel in the tolbooth as out of it, and the credit of the family will be a safe and sound. The Master endeavoured, in vain, to make Caleb comprehend that the butlers incurring the responsibility of debts in his own person would rather add to than remove the objections which he had to their being contracted. He spoke to a premier too busy in devising ways and means to puzzle himself with refuting the arguments offered against their justice or expediency. Theres Eppie Smatrash will trust us for ale, said Caleb to himselfshe has lived a her life under the familyand maybe wi a soup brandy; I canna say for wineshe is but a lone woman, and gets her claret by a runlet at a time; but Ill work a wee drap out o her by fair means or foul. For doos, theres the doocot; there will be poultry amang the tenants, though Luckie Chirnside says she has paid the kain twice ower. Well mak shift, an it like your honourwell mak shift; keep your heart abune, for the house sall haud its credit as lang as auld Caleb is to the fore. The entertainment which the old mans exertions of various kinds enabled him to present to the young gentlemen for three or four days was certainly of no splendid description, but it may readily be believed it was set before no critical guests; and even the distresses, excuses, evasions, and shifts of Caleb afforded amusement to the young men, and added a sort of interest to the scrambling and irregular style of their table. They had indeed occasion to seize on every circumstance that might serve to diversify or enliven time, which otherwise passed away so heavily. Bucklaw, shut out from his usual fieldsports and joyous carouses by the necessity of remaining concealed within the walls of the castle, became a joyless and uninteresting companion. When the Master of Ravenswood would no longer fence or play at shovelboard; when he himself had polished to the extremity the coat of his palfrey with brush, curry comb, and haircloth; when he had seen him eat his provender, and gently lie down in his stall, he could hardly help envying the animals apparent acquiescence in a life so monotonous. The stupid brute, he said, thinks neither of the raceground or the huntingfield, or his green paddock at Bucklaw, but enjoys himself as comfortably when haltered to the rack in this ruinous vault, as if he had been foaled in it; and, I who have the freedom of a prisoner at large, to range through the dungeons of this wretched old tower, can hardly, betwixt whistling and sleeping, contrive to pass away the hour till dinnertime. And with this disconsolate reflection, he wended his way to the bartizan or battlements of the tower, to watch what objects might appear on the distant moor, or to pelt, with pebbles and pieces of lime, the seamews and cormorants which established themselves incautiously within the reach of an idle young man. Ravenswood, with a mind incalculably deeper and more powerful than that of his companion, had his own anxious subjects of reflection, which wrought for him the same unhappiness that sheer enui and want of occupation inflicted on his companion. The first sight of Lucy Ashton had been less impressive than her image proved to be upon reflection. As the depth and violence of that revengeful passion by which he had been actuated in seeking an interview with the father began to abate by degrees, he looked back on his conduct towards the daughter as harsh and unworthy towards a female of rank and beauty. Her looks of grateful acknowledgment, her words of affectionate courtesy, had been repelled with something which approached to disdain; and if the Master of Ravenswood had sustained wrongs at the hand of Sir William Ashton, his conscience told him they had been unhandsomely resented towards his daughter. When his thoughts took this turn of selfreproach, the recollection of Lucy Ashtons beautiful features, rendered yet more interesting by the circumstances in which their meeting had taken place, made an impression upon his mind at once soothing and painful. The sweetness of her voice, the delicacy of her expressions, the vivid glow of her filial affection, embittered his regret at having repulsed her gratitude with rudeness, while, at the same time, they placed before his imagination a picture of the most seducing sweetness. Even young Ravenswoods strength of moral feeling and rectitude of purpose at once increased the danger of cherishing these recollections, and the propensity to entertain them. Firmly resolved as he was to subdue, if possible, the predominating vice in his character, he admitted with willingnessnay, he summoned up in his imaginationthe ideas by which it could be most powerfully counteracted; and, while he did so, a sense of his own harsh conduct towards the daughter of his enemy naturally induced him, as if by way of recompense, to invest her with more of grace and beauty than perhaps she could actually claim. Had any one at this period told the Master of Ravenswood that he had so lately vowed vengeance against the whole lineage of him whom he considered, not unjustly, as author of his fathers ruin and death, he might at first have repelled the charge as a foul calumny; yet, upon serious selfexamination, he would have been compelled to admit that it had, at one period, some foundation in truth, though, according to the present tone of his sentiments, it was difficult to believe that this had really been the case. There already existed in his bosom two contradictory passionsa desire to revenge the death of his father, strangely qualified by admiration of his enemys daughter. Against the former feeling he had struggled, until it seemed to him upon the wane; against the latter he used no means of resistance, for he did not suspect its existence. That this was actually the case was chiefly evinced by his resuming his resolution to leave Scotland. Yet, though such was his purpose, he remained day after day at Wolfs Crag, without taking measures for carrying it into execution. It is true, that he had written to one or two kinsmen who resided in a distant quarter of Scotland, and particularly to the Marquis of A, intimating his purpose; and when pressed upon the subject by Bucklaw, he was wont to allege the necessity of waiting for their reply, especially that of the Marquis, before taking so decisive a measure. The Marquis was rich and powerful; and although he was suspected to entertain sentiments unfavourable to the government established at the Revolution, he had nevertheless address enough to head a party in the Scottish privy council, connected with the High Church faction in England, and powerful enough to menace those to whom the Lord Keeper adhered with a probable subversion of their power. The consulting with a personage of such importance was a plausible excuse, which Ravenswood used to Bucklaw, and probably to himself, for continuing his residence at Wolfs Crag; and it was rendered yet more so by a general report which began to be current of a probable change of ministers and measures in the Scottish administration. The rumours, strongly asserted by some, and as resolutely denied by others, as their wishes or interest dictated, found their way even to the ruinous Tower of Wolfs Crag, chiefly through the medium of Caleb, the butler, who, among his other excellences, was an ardent politician, and seldom made an excursion from the old fortress to the neighbouring village of Wolfs Hope without bringing back what tidings were current in the vicinity. But if Bucklaw could not offer any satisfactory objections to the delay of the Master in leaving Scotland, he did not the less suffer with impatience the state of inaction to which it confined him; and it was only the ascendency which his new companion had acquired over him that induced him to submit to a course of life so alien to his habits and inclinations. You were wont to be thought a stirring active young fellow, Master, was his frequent remonstrance; yet here you seem determined to live on and on like a rat in a hole, with this trifling difference, that the wiser vermin chooses a hermitage where he can find food at least; but as for us, Calebs excuses become longer as his diet turns more spare, and I fear we shall realise the stories they tell of the sloth,we have almost eat up the last green leaf on the plant, and have nothing left for it but to drop from the tree and break our necks. Do not fear it, said Ravenswood; there is a fate watches for us, and we too have a stake in the revolution that is now impending, and which already has alarmed many a bosom. What fatewhat revolution? inquired his companion. We have had one revolution too much already, I think. Ravenswood interrupted him by putting into his hands a letter. Oh, answered Bucklaw, my dreams out. I thought I heard Caleb this morning pressing some unfortunate fellow to a drink of cold water, and assuring him it was better for his stomach in the morning than ale or brandy. It was my Lord of As courier, said Ravenswood, who was doomed to experience his ostentatious hospitality, which I believe ended in sour beer and herrings. Read, and you will see the news he has brought us. I will as fast as I can, said Bucklaw; but I am no great clerk, nor does his lordship seem to be the first of scribes. The reader will peruse, in a few seconds, by the aid our friend Ballantynes types, what took Bucklaw a good half hour in perusal, though assisted by the Master of Ravenswood. The tenor was as follows RIGHT HONOURABLE OUR COUSIN Our hearty commendations premised, these come to assure you of the interest which we take in your welfare, and in your purpose towards its augmentation. If we have been less active in showing forth our effective goodwill towards you than, as a loving kinsman and bloodrelative, we would willingly have desired, we request that you will impute it to lack of opportunity to show our goodliking, not to any coldness of our will. Touching your resolution to travel in foreign parts, as at this time we hold the same little advisable, in respect that your illwillers may, according to the custom of such persons, impute motives for your journey, whereof, although we know and believe you to be as clear as ourselves, yet natheless their words may find credence in places where the belief in them may much prejudice you, and which we should see with more unwillingness and displeasure than with means of remedy. Having thus, as becometh our kindred, given you our poor mind on the subject of your journeying forth of Scotland, we would willingly add reasons of weight, which might materially advantage you and your fathers house, thereby to determine you to abide at Wolfs Crag, until this harvest season shall be passed over. But what sayeth the proverb, verbum sapientia word is more to him that hath wisdom than a sermon to a fool. And albeit we have written this poor scroll with our own hand, and are well assured of the fidelity of our messenger, as him that is many ways bounden to us, yet so it is, that sliddery ways crave wary walking, and that we may not peril upon paper matters which we would gladly impart to you by word of mouth. Wherefore, it was our purpose to have prayed you heartily to come to this our barren Highland country to kill a stag, and to treat of the matters which we are now more painfully inditing to you anent. But commodity does not serve at present for such our meeting, which, therefore, shall be deferred until sic time as we may in all mirth rehearse those things whereof we now keep silence. Meantime, we pray you to think that we are, and will still be, your good kinsman and wellwisher, waiting but for times of whilk we do, as it were, entertain a twilight prospect, and appear and hope to be also your effectual welldoer. And in which hope we heartily write ourself, Right Honourable, Your loving cousin, A. Given from our poor house of B, etc. SuperscribedFor the right honourable, and our honoured kinsman, the Master of RavenswoodThese, with haste, haste, post hasteride and run until these be delivered. What think you of this epistle, Bucklaw? said the Master, when his companion had hammered out all the sense, and almost all the words of which it consisted. Truly, that the Marquiss meaning is as great a riddle as his manuscript. He is really in much need of Wits Interpreter, or the Complete LetterWriter, and were I you, I would send him a copy by the bearer. He writes you very kindly to remain wasting your time and your money in this vile, stupid, oppressed country, without so much as offering you the countenance and shelter of his house. In my opinion, he has some scheme in view in which he supposes you can be useful, and he wishes to keep you at hand, to make use of you when it ripens, reserving the power of turning you adrift, should his plot fail in the concoction. His plot! Then you suppose it is a treasonable business, answered Ravenswood. What else can it be? replied Bucklaw; the Marquis has been long suspected to have an eye to Saint Germains. He should not engage me rashly in such an adventure, said Ravenswood; when I recollect the times of the first and second Charles, and of the last James, truly I see little reason that, as a man or a patriot, I should draw my sword for their descendants. Humph! replied Bucklaw; so you have set yourself down to mourn over the cropeared dogs whom honest Claverse treated as they deserved? They first gave the dogs an ill name, and then hanged them, replied Ravenswood. I hope to see the day when justice shall be open to Whig and Tory, and when these nicknames shall only be used among coffeehouse politicians, as slut and jade are among applewomen, as cant terms of idle spite and rancour. That will not be in our days, Master the iron has entered too deeply into our sides and our souls. It will be, however, one day, replied the Master; men will not always start at these nicknames as at a trumpetsound. As social life is better protected, its comforts will become too dear to be hazarded without some better reasons than speculative politics. It is fine talking, answered Bucklaw; but my heart is with the old song To see good corn upon the rigs, And a gallow built to hang the Whigs, And the right restored where the right should be. Oh, that is the thing that would wanton me. You may sing as loudly as you will, cantabit vacuus,answered the Master; but I believe the Marquis is too wise, at least too wary, to join you in such a burden. I suspect he alludes to a revolution in the Scottish privy council, rather than in the British kingdoms. Oh, confusion to your state tricks! exclaimed Bucklawyour cold calculating manuvres, which old gentlemen in wrought nightcaps and furred gowns execute like so many games at chess, and displace a treasurer or lord commissioner as they would take a rook or a pawn. Tennis for my sport, and battle for my earnest! And you, Master, so deep and considerate as you would seem, you have that within you makes the blood boil faster than suits your present humour of moralising on political truths. You are one of those wise men who see everything with great composure till their blood is up, and thenwoe to any one who should put them in mind of their own prudential maxims! Perhaps, said Ravenswood, you read me more rightly than I can myself. But to think justly will certainly go some length in helping me to act so. But hark! I hear Caleb tolling the dinnerbell. Which he always does with the more sonorous grace in proportion to the meagreness of the cheer which he has provided, said Bucklaw; as if that infernal clang and jangle, which will one day bring the belfry down the cliff, could convert a starved hen into a fat capon, and a bladebone of mutton into a haunch of venison. I wish we may be so well off as your worst conjectures surmise, Bucklaw, from the extreme solemnity and ceremony with which Caleb seems to place on the table that solitary covered dish. Uncover, Caleb! uncover, for Heavens sake! said Bucklaw; let us have what you can give us without preface. Why, it stands well enough, man, he continued, addressing impatiently the ancient butler, who, without reply, kept shifting the dish, until he had at length placed it with mathematical precision in the very midst of the table. What have we got here, Caleb? inquired the Master in his turn. Ahem! sir, ye suld have known before; but his honour the Laird of Bucklaw is so impatient, answered Caleb, still holding the dish with one hand and the cover with the other, with evident reluctance to disclose the contents. But what is it, a Gods namenot a pair of clean spurs, I hope, in the Border fashion of old times? Ahem! ahem! reiterated Caleb, your honour is pleased to be facetious; natheless, I might presume to say it was a convenient fashion, and used, as I have heard, in an honourable and thriving family. But touching your present dinner, I judged that this being St. Magdalens [Margarets] Eve, who was a worthy queen of Scotland in her day, your honours might judge it decorous, if not altogether to fast, yet only to sustain nature with some slight refection, as ane saulted herring or the like. And, uncovering the dish, he displayed four of the savoury fishes which he mentioned, adding, in a subdued tone, that they were no just common herring neither, being every ane melters, and sauted with uncommon care by the housekeeper (poor Mysie) for his honours especial use. Out upon all apologies! said the Master, let us eat the herrings, since there is nothing better to be had; but I begin to think with you, Bucklaw, that we are consuming the last green leaf, and that, in spite of the Marquiss political machinations, we must positively shift camp for want of forage, without waiting the issue of them. CHAPTER IX. Ay, and when huntsmen wind the merry horn, And from its covert starts the fearful prey, Who, warmd with youths blood in his swelling veins, Would, like a lifeless clod, outstretched lie, Shut out from all the fair creation offers? Ethwald, Act I. Scene 1. Light meals procure light slumbers; and therefore it is not surprising that, considering the fare which Calebs conscience, or his necessity, assuming, as will sometimes happen, that disguise, had assigned to the guests of Wolfs Crag, their slumbers should have been short. In the morning Bucklaw rushed into his hosts apartment with a loud halloo, which might have awaked the dead. Up! up! in the name of Heaven! The hunters are out, the only piece of sport I have seen this month; and you lie here, Master, on a bed that has little to recommend it, except that it may be something softer than the stone floor of your ancestors vault. I wish, said Ravenswood, raising his head peevishly, you had forborne so early a jest, Mr. Hayston; it is really no pleasure to lose the very short repose which I had just begun to enjoy, after a night spent in thoughts upon fortune far harder than my couch, Bucklaw. Pschaw, pshaw! replied his guest; get upget up; the hounds are abroad. I have saddled the horses myself, for old Caleb was calling for grooms and lackeys, and would never have proceeded without two hours apology for the absence of men that were a hundred miles off. Get up, Master; I say the hounds are outget up, I say; the hunt is up. And off ran Bucklaw. And I say, said the Master, rising slowly, that nothing can concern me less. Whose hounds come so near to us? The Honourable Lord Bittlebrains, answered Caleb, who had followed the impatient Laird of Bucklaw into his masters bedroom, and truly I ken nae title they have to be yowling and howling within the freedoms and immunities of your lordships right of free forestry. Nor I, Caleb, replied Ravenswood, excepting that they have bought both the lands and the right of forestry, and may think themselves entitled to exercise the rights they have paid their money for. It may be sae, my lord, replied Caleb; but its no gentlemans deed of them to come here and exercise suchlike right, and your lordship living at your ain castle of Wolfs Crag. Lord Bittlebrains would weel to remember what his folk have been. And what we now are, said the Master, with suppressed bitterness of feeling. But reach me my cloak, Caleb, and I will indulge Bucklaw with a sight of this chase. It is selfish to sacrifice my guests pleasure to my own. Sacrifice! echoed Caleb, in a tone which seemed to imply the total absurdity of his master making the least concession in deference to any onesacrifice, indeed!but I crave your honours pardon, and whilk doublet is it your pleasure to wear? Any one you will, Caleb; my wardrobe, I suppose, is not very extensive. Not extensive! echoed his assistant; when there is the grey and silver that your lordship bestowed on Hew Hildebrand, your outrider; and the French velvet that went with my lord your fatherbe gracious to him!my lord your fathers auld wardrobe to the puir friends of the family; and the drapdeBerry Which I gave to you, Caleb, and which, I suppose, is the only dress we have any chance to come at, except that I wore yesterday; pray, hand me that, and say no more about it. If your honour has a fancy, replied Caleb, and doubtless its a sadcoloured suit, and you are in mourning; nevertheless, I have never tried on the drapdeBerryill wad it become meand your honour having no change of claiths at this presentand its weel brushed, and as there are leddies down yonder Ladies! said Ravenswood; and what ladies, pray? What do I ken, your lordship? Looking down at them from the Wardens Tower, I could but see them glent by wi their bridles ringing and their feathers fluttering, like the court of Elfland. Well, well, Caleb, replied the Master, help me on with my cloak, and hand me my swordbelt. What clatter is that in the courtyard? Just Bucklaw bringing out the horses, said Caleb, after a glance through the window, as if there werena men eneugh in the castle, or as if I couldna serve the turn of ony o them that are out o the gate. Alas! Caleb, we should want little if your ability were equal to your will, replied the Master. And I hope your lordship disna want that muckle, said Caleb; for, considering a things, I trust we support the credit of the family as weel as things will permit of,only Bucklaw is aye sae frank and sae forward. And there he has brought out your lordships palfrey, without the saddle being decored wi the broidered sumptercloth! and I could have brushed it in a minute. It is all very well, said his master, escaping from him and descending the narrow and steep winding staircase which led to the courtyard. It may be a very weel, said Caleb, somewhat peevishly; but if your lordship wad tarry a bit, I will tell you what will not be very weel. And what is that? said Ravenswood, impatiently, but stopping at the same time. Why, just that ye suld speer ony gentleman hame to dinner; for I canna mak anither fast on a feast day, as when I cam ower Bucklaw wi Queen Margaret; and, to speak truth, if your lordship wad but please to cast yoursell in the way of dining wi Lord Bittlebrains, Ise warrand I wad cast about brawly for the morn; or if, stead o that, ye wad but dine wi them at the changehouse, ye might mak your shift for the awing ye might say ye had forgot your purse, or that the carline awed ye rent, and that ye wad allow it in the settlement. Or any other lie that came uppermost, I suppose? said his master. Goodbye, Caleb; I commend your care for the honour of the family. And, throwing himself on his horse, he followed Bucklaw, who, at the manifest risk of his neck, had begun to gallop down the steep path which led from the Tower as soon as he saw Ravenswood have his foot in the stirrup. Caleb Balderstone looked anxiously after them, and shook his thin grey locks And I trust they will come to no evil; but they have reached the plain, and folk cannot say but that the horse are hearty and in spirits. Animated by the natural impetuosity and fire of his temper, young Bucklaw rushed on with the careless speed of a whirlwind. Ravenswood was scarce more moderate in his pace, for his was a mind unwillingly roused from contemplative inactivity, but which, when once put into motion, acquired a spirit of forcible and violent progression. Neither was his eagerness proportioned in all cases to the motive of impulse, but might be compared to the speed of a stone, which rushes with like fury down the hill whether it was first put in motion by the arm of a giant or the hand of a boy. He felt, therefore, in no ordinary degree, the headlong impulse of the chase, a pastime so natural to youth of all ranks, that it seems rather to be an inherent passion in our animal nature, which levels all differences of rank and education, than an acquired habit of rapid exercise. The repeated bursts of the French horn, which was then always used for the encouragement and direction of the hounds; the deep, though distant baying of the pack; the halfheard cries of the huntsmen; the halfseen forms which were discovered, now emerging from glens which crossed the moor, now sweeping over its surface, now picking their way where it was impeded by morasses; and, above all, the feeling of his own rapid motion, animated the Master of Ravenswood, at last for the moment, above the recollections of a more painful nature by which he was surrounded. The first thing which recalled him to those unpleasing circumstances was feeling that his horse, notwithstanding all the advantages which he received from his riders knowledge of the country, was unable to keep up with the chase. As he drew his bridle up with the bitter feeling that his poverty excluded him from the favourite recreation of his forefathers, and indeed their sole employment when not engaged in military pursuits, he was accosted by a wellmounted stranger, who, unobserved, had kept near him during the earlier part of his career. Your horse is blown, said the man, with a complaisance seldom used in a huntingfield. Might I crave your honour to make use of mine? Sir, said Ravenswood, more surprised than pleased at such a proposal. I really do not know how I have merited such a favour at a strangers hands. Never ask a question about it, Master, said Bucklaw, who, with great unwillingness, had hitherto reined in his own gallant steed, not to outride his host and entertainer. Take the goods the gods provide you, as the great John Dryden says; or stayhere, my friend, lend me that horse; I see you have been puzzled to rein him up this halfhour. Ill take the devil out of him for you. Now, Master, do you ride mine, which will carry you like an eagle. And throwing the rein of his own horse to the Master of Ravenswood, he sprung upon that which the stranger resigned to him, and continued his career at full speed. Was ever so thoughtless a being! said the Master; and you, my friend, how could you trust him with your horse? The horse, said the man, belongs to a person who will make your honour, or any of your honourable friends, most welcome to him, flesh and fell. And the owners name is? asked Ravenswood. Your honour must excuse me, you will learn that from himself. If you please to take your friends horse, and leave me your galloway, I will meet you after the fall of the stag, for I hear they are blowing him at bay. I believe, my friend, it will be the best way to recover your good horse for you, answered Ravenswood; and mounting the nag of his friend Bucklaw, he made all the haste in his power to the spot where the blast of the horn announced that the stags career was nearly terminated. These jovial sounds were intermixed with the huntsmens shouts of Hyke a Talbot! Hyke a Teviot! now, boys, now! and similar cheering halloos of the olden huntingfield, to which the impatient yelling of the hounds, now close of the object of their pursuit, gave a lively and unremitting chorus. The straggling riders began now to rally towards the scene of action, collecting from different points as to a common centre. Bucklaw kept the start which he had gotten, and arrived first at the spot, where the stag, incapable of sustaining a more prolonged flight, had turned upon the hounds, and, in the hunters phrase, was at bay. With his stately head bent down, his sides white with foam, his eyes strained betwixt rage and terror, the hunted animal had now in his turn become an object of intimidation to his pursuers. The hunters came up one by one, and watched an opportunity to assail him with some advantage, which, in such circumstances, can only be done with caution. The dogs stood aloof and bayed loudly, intimating at once eagerness and fear, and each of the sportsmen seemed to expect that his comrade would take upon him the perilous task of assaulting and disabling the animal. The ground, which was a hollow in the common or moor, afforded little advantage for approaching the stag unobserved; and general was the shout of triumph when Bucklaw, with the dexterity proper to an accomplished cavalier of the day, sprang from his horse, and dashing suddenly and swiftly at the stag, brought him to the ground by a cut on the hind leg with his short huntingsword. The pack, rushing in upon their disabled enemy, soon ended his painful struggles, and solemnised his fall with their clamour; the hunters, with their horns and voices, whooping and blowing a mort, or deathnote, which resounded far over the billows of the adjacent ocean.


Illustration The huntsman then withdrew the hounds from the throttled stag, and on his knee presented his knife to a fair female form, on a white palfrey, whose terror, or perhaps her compassion, had till then kept her at some distance. She wore a black silk ridingmask, which was then a common fashion, as well for preserving the complexion from the sun and rain, as from an idea of decorum, which did not permit a lady to appear barefaced while engaged in a boisterous sport, and attended by a promiscuous company. The richness of her dress, however, as well as the mettle and form of her palfrey, together with the silvan compliment paid to her by the huntsman, pointed her out to Bucklaw as the principal person in the field. It was not without a feeling of pity, approaching even to contempt, that this enthusiastic hunter observed her refuse the huntsmans knife, presented to her for the purpose of making the first incision in the stags breast, and thereby discovering the venison. He felt more than half inclined to pay his compliments to her; but it had been Bucklaws misfortune, that his habits of life had not rendered him familiarly acquainted with the higher and better classes of female society, so that, with all his natural audacity, he felt sheepish and bashful when it became necessary to address a lady of distinction. Taking unto himself heart of grace (to use his own phrase), he did at length summon up resolution enough to give the fair huntress good time of the day, and trust that her sport had answered her expectation. Her answer was very courteously and modestly expressed, and testified some gratitude to the gallant cavalier, whose exploit had terminated the chase so adroitly, when the hounds and huntsmen seemed somewhat at a stand. Uds daggers and scabbard, madam, said Bucklaw, whom this observation brought at once upon his own ground, there is no difficulty or merit in that matter at all, so that a fellow is not too much afraid of having a pair of antlers in his guts. I have hunted at force five hundred times, madam; and I never yet saw the stag at bay, by land or water, but I durst have gone roundly in on him. It is all use and wont, madam; and Ill tell you, madam, for all that, it must be done with good heed and caution; and you will do well, madam, to have your huntingsword right sharp and doubleedged, that you may strike either forehanded or backhanded, as you see reason, for a hurt with a bucks horn is a perilous and somewhat venomous matter. I am afraid, sir, said the young lady, and her smile was scarce concealed by her vizard, I shall have little use for such careful preparation. But the gentleman says very right for all that, my lady, said an old huntsman, who had listened to Bucklaws harangue with no small edification; and I have heard my father say, who was a forester at the Cabrach, that a wild boars gaunch is more easily healed than a hurt from the deers horn, for so says the old woodmans rhyme If thou be hurt with horn of hart, it brings thee to they bier; But tusk of boar shall leeches heal, thereof have lesser fear. An I might advise, continued Bucklaw, who was now in his element, and desirous of assuming the whole management, as the hounds are surbated and weary, the head of the stag should be cabaged in order to reward them; and if I may presume to speak, the huntsman, who is to break up the stag, ought to drink to your good ladyships health a good lusty bicker of ale, or a tass of brandy; for if he breaks him up without drinking, the venison will not keep well. This very agreeable prescription received, as will be readily believed, all acceptation from the huntsman, who, in requital, offered to Bucklaw the compliment of his knife, which the young lady had declined. This polite proffer was seconded by his mistress. I believe, sir, she said, withdrawing herself from the circle, that my father, for whose amusement Lord Bittlebrains hounds have been out today, will readily surrender all care of these matters to a gentleman of your experience. Then, bending gracefully from her horse, she wished him good morning, and, attended by one or two domestics, who seemed immediately attached to her service, retired from the scene of action, to which Bucklaw, too much delighted with an opportunity of displaying his woodcraft to care about man or woman either, paid little attention; but was soon stript to his doublet, with tuckedup sleeves, and naked arms up to the elbows in blood and grease, slashing, cutting, hacking, and hewing, with the precision of Sir Tristrem himself, and wrangling and disputing with all around him concerning nombles, briskets, flankards, and ravenbones, then usual terms of the art of hunting, or of butchery, whichever the reader chooses to call it, which are now probably antiquated. When Ravenswood, who followed a short pace behind his friend, saw that the stag had fallen, his temporary ardour for the chase gave way to that feeling of reluctance which he endured at encountering in his fallen fortunes the gaze whether of equals or inferiors. He reined up his horse on the top of a gentle eminence, from which he observed the busy and gay scene beneath him, and heard the whoops of the huntsmen, gaily mingled with the cry of the dogs, and the neighing and trampling of the horses. But these jovial sounds fell sadly on the ear of the ruined nobleman. The chase, with all its train of excitations, has ever since feudal times been accounted the almost exclusive privilege of the aristocracy, and was anciently their chief employment in times of peace. The sense that he was excluded by his situation from enjoying the silvan sport, which his rank assigned to him as a special prerogative, and the feeling that new men were now exercising it over the downs which had been jealously reserved by his ancestors for their own amusement, while he, the heir of the domain, was fain to hold himself at a distance from their party, awakened reflections calculated to depress deeply a mind like Ravenswoods, which was naturally contemplative and melancholy. His pride, however, soon shook off this feeling of dejection, and it gave way to impatience upon finding that his volatile friend Bucklaw seemed in no hurry to return with his borrowed steed, which Ravenswood, before leaving the field, wished to see restored to the obliging owner. As he was about to move towards the group of assembled huntsmen, he was joined by a horseman, who, like himself, had kept aloof during the fall of the deer. This personage seemed stricken in years. He wore a scarlet cloak, buttoning high upon his face, and his hat was unlooped and slouched, probably by way of defence against the weather. His horse, a strong and steady palfrey, was calculated for a rider who proposed to witness the sport of the day rather than to share it. An attendant waited at some distance, and the whole equipment was that of an elderly gentleman of rank and fashion. He accosted Ravenswood very politely, but not without some embarrassment. You seem a gallant young gentleman, sir, he said, and yet appear as indifferent to this brave sport as if you had my load of years on your shoulders. I have followed the sport with more spirit on other occasions, replied the Master; at present, late events in my family must be my apology; and besides, he added, I was but indifferently mounted at the beginning of the sport. I think, said the stranger, one of my attendants had the sense to accommodate your friend with a horse. I was much indebted to his politeness and yours, replied Ravenswood. My friend is Mr. Hayston of Bucklaw, whom I dare say you will be sure to find in the thick of the keenest sportsmen. He will return your servants horse, and take my pony in exchange; and will add, he concluded, turning his horses head from the stranger, his best acknowledgments to mine for the accommodation. The Master of Ravenswood, having thus expressed himself, began to move homeward, with the manner of one who has taken leave of his company. But the stranger was not so to be shaken off. He turned his horse at the same time, and rode in the same direction, so near to the Master that, without outriding him, which the formal civility of the time, and the respect due to the strangers age and recent civility, would have rendered improper, he could not easily escape from his company. The stranger did not long remain silent. This, then, he said, is the ancient Castle of Wolfs Crag, often mentioned in the Scottish records, looking to the old tower, then darkening under the influence of a stormy cloud, that formed its background; for at the distance of a short mile, the chase, having been circuitous, had brought the hunters nearly back to the point which they had attained when Ravenswood and Bucklaw had set forward to join them. Ravenswood answered this observation with a cold and distant assent. It was, as I have heard, continued the stranger, unabashed by his coldness, one of the most early possessions of the honourable family of Ravenswood. Their earliest possession, answered the Master, and probably their latest. III should hope not, sir, answered the stranger, clearing his voice with more than one cough, and making an effort to overcome a certain degree of hesitation; Scotland knows what she owes to this ancient family, and remembers their frequent and honourable achievements. I have little doubt that, were it properly represented to her Majesty that so ancient and noble a family were subjected to dilapidationI mean to decaymeans might be found, ad redificandum antiquam domum I will save you the trouble, sir, of discussing this point farther, interrupted the Master, haughtily. I am the heir of that unfortunate houseI am the Master of Ravenswood. And you, sir, who seem to be a gentleman of fashion and education, must be sensible that the next mortification after being unhappy is the being loaded with undesired commiseration. I beg your pardon, sir, said the elder horseman; I did not knowI am sensible I ought not to have mentionednothing could be farther from my thoughts than to suppose There are no apologies necessary, sir, answered Ravenswood, for here, I suppose, our roads separate, and I assure you that we part in perfect equanimity on my side. As speaking these words, he directed his horses head towards a narrow causeway, the ancient approach to Wolfs Crag, of which it might be truly said, in the words of the Bard of Hope, that Frequented by few was the grasscoverd road, Where the hunter of deer and the warrior trode, To his hills that encircle the sea. But, ere he could disengage himself from his companion, the young lady we have already mentioned came up to join the stranger, followed by her servants. Daughter, said the stranger to the unmasked damsel, this is the Master of Ravenswood. It would have been natural that the gentleman should have replied to this introduction; but there was something in the graceful form and retiring modesty of the female to whom he was thus presented, which not only prevented him from inquiring to whom, and by whom, the annunciation had been made, but which even for the time struck him absolutely mute. At this moment the cloud which had long lowered above the height on which Wolfs Crag is situated, and which now, as it advanced, spread itself in darker and denser folds both over land and sea, hiding the distant objects and obscuring those which were nearer, turning the sea to a leaden complexion and the heath to a darker brown, began now, by one or two distant peals, to announce the thunders with which it was fraught; while two flashes of lightning, following each other very closely, showed in the distance the grey turrets of Wolfs Crag, and, more nearly, the rollowing billows of the ocean, crested suddenly with red and dazzling light. The horse of the fair huntress showed symptoms of impatience and restiveness, and it became impossible for Ravenswood, as a man or a gentleman, to leave her abruptly to the care of an aged father or her menial attendants. He was, or believed himself, obliged in courtesy to take hold of her bridle, and assist her in managing the unruly animal. While he was thus engaged, the old gentleman observed that the storm seemed to increase; that they were far from Lord Bittlebrainss, whose guests they were for the present; and that he would be obliged to the Master of Ravenswood to point him the way to the nearest place of refuge from the storm. At the same time he cast a wistful and embarrassed look towards the Tower of Wolfs Crag, which seemed to render it almost impossible for the owner to avoid offering an old man and a lady, in such an emergency, the temporary use of his house. Indeed, the condition of the young huntress made this courtesy indispensable; for, in the course of the services which he rendered, he could not but perceive that she trembled much, and was extremely agitated, from her apprehensions, doubtless, of the coming storm. I know not if the Master of Ravenswood shared her terrors, but he was not entirely free from something like a similar disorder of nerves, as he observed, The Tower of Wolfs Crag has nothing to offer beyond the shelter of its roof, but if that can be acceptable at such a moment he paused, as if the rest of the invitation stuck in his throat. But the old gentleman, his selfconstituted companion, did not allow him to recede from the invitation, which he had rather suffered to be implied than directly expressed. The storm, said the stranger, must be an apology for waiving ceremony; his daughters health was weak, she had suffered much from a recent alarm; he trusted their intrusion on the Master of Ravenswoods hospitality would not be altogether unpardonable in the circumstances of the case his childs safety must be dearer to him than ceremony. There was no room to retreat. The Master of Ravenswood led the way, continuing to keep hold of the ladys bridle to prevent her horse from starting at some unexpected explosion of thunder. He was not so bewildered in his own hurried reflections but that he remarked, that the deadly paleness which had occupied her neck and temples, and such of her features as the ridingmask left exposed, gave place to a deep and rosy suffusion; and he felt with embarrassment that a flush was by tacit sympathy excited in his own cheeks. The stranger, with watchfulness which he disguised under apprehensions of the safety of his daughter, continued to observe the expression of the Masters countenance as they ascended the hill to Wolfs Crag. When they stood in front of that ancient fortress, Ravenswoods emotions were of a very complicated description; and as he led the way into the rude courtyard, and hallooed to Caleb to give attendance, there was a tone of sternness, almost of fierceness, which seemed somewhat alien from the courtesies of one who is receiving honoured guests. Caleb came; and not the paleness of the fair stranger at the first approach of the thunder, nor the paleness of any other person, in any other circumstances whatever, equalled that which overcame the thin cheeks of the disconsolate seneschal when he beheld this accession of guests to the castle, and reflected that the dinner hour was fast approaching. Is he daft? he muttered to himself;is he clean daft athegither, to bring lords and leddies, and a host of folk behint them, and twal oclock chappit? Then approaching the Master, he craved pardon for having permitted the rest of his people to go out to see the hunt, observing, that They wad never think of his lordship coming back till mirk night, and that he dreaded they might play the truant. Silence, Balderstone! said Ravenswood, sternly; your folly is unseasonable. Sir and madam, he said, turning to his guests, this old man, and a yet older and more imbecile female domestic, form my whole retinue. Our means of refreshing you are more scanty than even so miserable a retinue, and a dwelling so dilapidated, might seem to promise you; but, such as they may chance to be, you may command them. The elder stranger, struck with the ruined and even savage appearance of the Tower, rendered still more disconsolate by the lowering and gloomy sky, and perhaps not altogether unmoved by the grave and determined voice in which their host addressed them, looked round him anxiously, as if he half repented the readiness with which he had accepted the offered hospitality. But there was now no opportunity of receding from the situation in which he had placed himself. As for Caleb, he was so utterly stunned by his masters public and unqualified acknowledgment of the nakedness of the land, that for two minutes he could only mutter within his hebdomadal beard, which had not felt the razor for six days, Hes daftclean daftred wud, and awa wit! But deil hae Caleb Balderstone, said he, collecting his powers of invention and resource, if the family shall lose credit, if he were as mad as the seven wise masters! He then boldly advanced, and in spite of his masters frowns and impatience, gravely asked, If he should not serve up some slight refection for the young leddy, and a glass of tokay, or old sackor Truce to this illtimed foolery, said the Master, sternly; put the horses into the stable, and interrupt us no more with your absurdities. Your honours pleasure is to be obeyed aboon a things, said Caleb; nevertheless, as for the sack and tokay which it is not your noble guests pleasure to accept But here the voice of Bucklaw, heard even above the clattering of hoofs and braying of horns with which it mingled, announced that he was scaling the pathway to the Tower at the head of the greater part of the gallant hunting train. The deil be in me, said Caleb, taking heart in spite of this new invasion of Philistines, if they shall beat me yet! The hellicat neerdoweel! to bring such a crew here, that will expect to find brandy as plenty as ditchwater, and he kenning sae absolutely the case in whilk we stand for the present! But I trow, could I get rid of thae gaping gowks of flunkies that hae won into the courtyard at the back of their betters, as mony a man gets preferment, I could make a right yet. The measures which he took to execute this dauntless resolution, the reader shall learn in the next chapter. CHAPTER X. With throat unslaked, with black lips baked, Agape they heard him call; Gramercy they for joy did grin, And all at once their breath drew in, As they had been drinking all! COLERIDGES Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Hayston of Bucklaw was one of the thoughtless class who never hesitate between their friend and their jest. When it was announced that the principal persons of the chase had taken their route towards Wolfs Crag, the huntsmen, as a point of civility, offered to transfer the venison to that mansion; a proffer which was readily accepted by Bucklaw, who thought much of the astonishment which their arrival in full body would occasion poor old Caleb Balderstone, and very little of the dilemma to which he was about to expose his friend the Master, so ill circumstanced to receive such a party. But in old Caleb he had to do with a crafty and alert antagonist, prompt at supplying, upon all emergencies, evasions and excuses suitable, as he thought, to the dignity of the family. Praise be blest! said Caleb to himself, ae leaf of the muckle gate has been swung to wi yestreens wind, and I think I can manage to shut the ither. But he was desirous, like a prudent governor, at the same time to get rid, if possible, of the internal enemy, in which light he considered almost every one who eat and drank, ere he took measures to exclude those whom their jocund noise now pronounced to be near at hand. He waited, therefore, with impatience until his master had shown his two principal guests into the Tower, and then commenced his operations. I think, he said to the stranger menials, that, as they are bringing the stags head to the castle in all honour, we, who are indwellers, should receive them at the gate. The unwary grooms had no sooner hurried out, in compliance with this insidious hint, than, one foldingdoor of the ancient gate being already closed by the wind, as has been already intimated, honest Caleb lost no time in shutting the other with a clang, which resounded from donjonvault to battlement. Having thus secured the pass, he forthwith indulged the excluded huntsmen in brief parley, from a small projecting window, or shothole, through which, in former days, the warders were wont to reconnoitre those who presented themselves before the gates. He gave them to understand, in a short and pity speech, that the gate of the castle was never on any account opened during mealtimes; that his honour, the Master of Ravenswood, and some guests of quality, had just sat down to dinner; that there was excellent brandy at the hostlerwifes at Wolfs Hope down below; and he held out some obscure hint that the reckoning would be discharged by the Master; but this was uttered in a very dubious and oracular strain, for, like Louis XIV., Caleb Balderstone hesitated to carry finesse so far as direct falsehood, and was content to deceive, if possible, without directly lying. This annunciation was received with surprise by some, with laughter by others, and with dismay by the expelled lackeys, who endeavoured to demonstrate that their right of readmission, for the purpose of waiting upon their master and mistress, was at least indisputable. But Caleb was not in a humour to understand or admit any distinctions. He stuck to his original proposition with that dogged but convenient pertinacity which is armed against all conviction, and deaf to all reasoning. Bucklaw now came from the rear of the party, and demanded admittance in a very angry tone. But the resolution of Caleb was immovable. If the king on the throne were at the gate, he declared, his ten fingers should never open it contrair to the established use and wont of the family of Ravenswood, and his duty as their headservant. Bucklaw was now extremely incensed, and with more oaths and curses than we care to repeat, declared himself most unworthily treated, and demanded peremptorily to speak with the Master of Ravenswood himself. But to this also Caleb turned a deaf ear. Hes as soon ableeze as a tap of tow, the lad Bucklaw, he said; but the deil of ony masters face he shall see till he has sleepit and wakend ont. Hell ken himsell better the morns morning. It sets the like o him, to be bringing a crew of drunken hunters here, when he kens there is but little preparation to sloken his ain drought. And he disappeared from the window, leaving them all to digest their exclusion as they best might. But another person, of whose presence Caleb, in the animation of the debate, was not aware, had listened in silence to its progress. This was the principal domestic of the strangera man of trust and consequencethe same who, in the huntingfield, had accommodated Bucklaw with the use of his horse. He was in the stable when Caleb had contrived the expulsion of his fellowservants, and thus avoided sharing the same fate, from which his personal importance would certainly not have otherwise saved him. This personage perceived the manuvre of Caleb, easily appreciated the motive of his conduct, and knowing his masters intentions towards the family of Ravenswood, had no difficulty as to the line of conduct he ought to adopt. He took the place of Caleb (unperceived by the latter) at the post of audience which he had just left, and announced to the assembled domestics, That it was his masters pleasure that Lord Bittlebrains retinue and his own should go down to the adjacent changehouse and call for what refreshments they might have occasion for, and he should take care to discharge the lawing. The jolly troop of huntsmen retired from the inhospitable gate of Wolfs Crag, execrating, as they descended the steep pathway, the niggard and unworthy disposition of the proprietor, and damning, with more than silvan license, both the castle and its inhabitants. Bucklaw, with many qualities which would have made him a man of worth and judgment in more favourable circumstances, had been so utterly neglected in point of education, that he was apt to think and feel according to the ideas of the companions of his pleasures. The praises which had recently been heaped upon himself he contrasted with the general abuse now levelled against Ravenswood; he recalled to his mind the dull and monotonous days he had spent in the Tower of Wolfs Crag, compared with the joviality of his usual life; he felt with great indignation his exclusion from the castle, which he considered as a gross affront, and every mingled feeling led him to break off the union which he had formed with the Master of Ravenswood. On arriving at the changehouse of the village of Wolfs Hope, he unexpectedly met with an acquaintance just alighting from his horse. This was no other than the very respectable Captain Craigengelt, who immediately came up to him, and, without appearing to retain any recollection of the indifferent terms on which they had parted, shook him by the hand in the warmest manner possible. A warm grasp of the hand was what Bucklaw could never help returning with cordiality, and no sooner had Craigengelt felt the pressure of his fingers than he knew the terms on which he stood with him. Long life to you, Bucklaw! he exclaimed; theres life for honest folk in this bad world yet! The Jacobites at this period, with what propriety I know not, used, it must be noticed, the term of honest men as peculiarly descriptive of their own party. Ay, and for others besides, it seems, answered Bucklaw; otherways, how came you to venture hither, noble Captain? WhoI? I am as free as the wind at Martinmas, that pays neither landrent nor annual; all is explainedall settled with the honest old drivellers yonder of Auld Reekie. Pooh! pooh! they dared not keep me a week of days in durance. A certain person has better friends among them than you wot of, and can serve a friend when it is least likely. Pshaw! answered Hayston, who perfectly knew and thoroughly despised the character of this man, none of your cogging gibberish; tell me truly, are you at liberty and in safety? Free and safe as a Whig bailie on the causeway of his own borough, or a canting Presbyterian minister in his own pulpit; and I came to tell you that you need not remain in hiding any longer. Then I suppose you call yourself my friend, Captain Craigengelt? said Bucklaw. Friend! replied Craigengelt, my cock of the pit! why, I am thy very Achates, man, as I have heard scholars sayhand and glovebark and treethine to life and death! Ill try that in a moment, answered Bucklaw. Thou art never without money, however thou comest by it. Lend me two pieces to wash the dust out of these honest fellows throats in the first place, and then Two pieces! Twenty are at thy service, my lad, and twenty to back them. Ay, say you so? said Bucklaw, pausing, for his natural penetration led him to suspect some extraordinary motive lay couched under an excess of generosity. Craigengelt, you are either an honest fellow in right good earnest, and I scarce know how to believe that; or you are cleverer than I took you for, and I scarce know how to believe that either. Lun nempeche pas lautre, said Craigengelt. Touch and try; the gold is good as ever was weighed. He put a quantity of gold pieces into Bucklaws hand, which he thrust into his pocket without either counting or looking at them, only observing, That he was so circumstanced that he must enlist, though the devil offered the pressmoney; and then turning to the huntsmen, he called out, Come along, my lads; all is at my cost. Long life to Bucklaw! shouted the men of the chase. And confusion to him that takes his share of the sport, and leaves the hunters as dry as a drumhead, added another, by way of corollary. The house of Ravenswood was ance a gude and an honourable house in this land, said an old man; but its lost its credit this day, and the Master has shown himself no better than a greedy cullion. And with this conclusion, which was unanimously agreed to by all who heard it, they rushed tumultuously into the house of entertainment, where they revelled till a late hour. The jovial temper of Bucklaw seldom permitted him to be nice in the choice of his associates; and on the present occasion, when his joyous debauch received additional zest from the intervention of an unusual space of sobriety, and almost abstinence, he was as happy in leading the revels as if his comrades had been sons of princes. Craigengelt had his own purposes in fooling him up to the top of his bent; and having some low humour, much impudence, and the power of singing a good song, understanding besides thoroughly the disposition of his regained associate, he headily succeeded in involving him bumperdeep in the festivity of the meeting. A very different scene was in the mean time passing in the Tower of Wolfs Crag. When the Master of Ravenswood left the courtyard, too much busied with his own perplexed reflections to pay attention to the manuvre of Caleb, he ushered his guests into the great hall of the castle. The indefatigable Balderstone, who, from choice or habit, worked on from morning to night, had by degrees cleared this desolate apartment of the confused relics of the funeral banquet, and restored it to some order. But not all his skill and labour, in disposing to advantage the little furniture which remained, could remove the dark and disconsolate appearance of those ancient and disfurnished walls. The narrow windows, flanked by deep indentures into the walls, seemed formed rather to exclude than to admit the cheerful light; and the heavy and gloomy appearance of the thundersky added still farther to the obscurity. As Ravenswood, with the grace of a gallant of that period, but not without a certain stiffness and embarrassment of manner, handed the young lady to the upper end of the apartment, her father remained standing more near to the door, as if about to disengage himself from his hat and cloak. At this moment the clang of the portal was heard, a sound at which the stranger started, stepped hastily to the window, and looked with an air of alarm at Ravenswood, when he saw that the gate of the court was shut, and his domestics excluded. You have nothing to fear, sir, said Ravenswood, gravely; this roof retains the means of giving protection, though not welcome. Methinks, he added, it is time that I should know who they are that have thus highly honoured my ruined dwelling! The young lady remained silent and motionless, and the father, to whom the question was more directly addressed, seemed in the situation of a performer who has ventured to take upon himself a part which he finds himself unable to present, and who comes to a pause when it is most to be expected that he should speak. While he endeavoured to cover his embarrassment with the exterior ceremonials of a wellbred demeanour, it was obvious that, in making his bow, one foot shuffled forward, as if to advance, the other backward, as if with the purpose of escape; and as he undid the cape of his coat, and raised his beaver from his face, his fingers fumbled as if the one had been linked with rusted iron, or the other had weighed equal with a stone of lead. The darkness of the sky seemed to increase, as if to supply the want of those mufflings which he laid aside with such evident reluctance. The impatience of Ravenswood increased also in proportion to the delay of the stranger, and he appeared to struggle under agitation, though probably from a very different cause. He laboured to restrain his desire to speak, while the stranger, to all appearance, was at a loss for words to express what he felt necessary to say. At length Ravenswoods impatience broke the bounds he had imposed upon it.