"I could be of little service," said Richie, "since you purpose to hire another page and groom. "Why, thou jealous ass,' said the young lord, "will not thy load of duty lie the lighter?-Go, take thy breakfast, and drink thy ale double strong, to put such absurdities out of thy head-I could be angry with thee for thy folly, man-but I remember how thou hast stuck to me in adversity."

Adversity, my lord, should never have parted us," said Richie; "methinks, had the warst come to warst, I could have starved as gallantly as your lordship, or more so, being in some sort used to it; for, though I was bred at a flesher's stall, I have not through my life had a constant intimacy with collops."

'Now, what is the meaning of all this trash?" said Nigel; "or has it no other end than to provoke my patience? You know well enough, that, had I twenty serving-men, I would hold the faithful follower that stood by me in my distress the most valued of them all. But it is totally out of reason to plague me with your solemn capriccios."

"No man dare say so!" replied Nigel, very angrily. I play with whom I please, but I will only play for what stake I please."

"That is just what they say, my lord," said the unmerciful Richie, whose natural love of lecturing, as well as his bluntness of feeling, prevented him from having any idea of the pain which he was inflicting on his master; "these are even their own very words. It was but yesterday your lordship was pleased, at that same ordinary, to win from yonder young haffling gentleman, with the crimson velvet doublet, and the cock's feather in his beaver-him, I mean, who fought with the ranting captain-a matter of five pounds, or thereby. I saw him come through the hall; and, if he was not cleaned out of cross and pile, I never saw a ruined man in my life."

Impossible!" said Lord Glenvarloch-"Why, who is he? he looked like a man of substance."

All is not gold that glistens, my lord," replied Richie; "'broidery and bullion buttons make bare pouches. And if you ask who he is-maybe I have a guess, and care not to tell."

"At least, if I have done any such a fellow an injury," said the Lord Nigel, "let me know how I can repair it."

My lord," said Richie, "in declaring your trust in me, you have done what is honourable to yourself, if I may with humility say so much, and in no way undeserved on my side. Nevertheless, we must part.' "Body of me, man, why?" said Lord Nigel; "what "Never fash your beard about that, my lord,-with reason can there be for it, if we are mutually satis-reverence always," said Richie," he shall be suitafied ?" bly cared after. Think on him but as ane wha was running post to the devil, and got a shouldering from your lordship to help him on his journey. But I will stop him, if reason can; and so your lordship needs ask nae mair about it, for there is no use in your knowing it, but much the contrair."

"My lord," said Richie Moniplies, "your lordship's occupations are such as I cannot own or countenance by my presence."

"How now, sirrah!" said his master angrily. "Under favour, my lord," replied his domestic, "it is unequal dealing to be equally offended by my speech and by my silence. If you can hear with patience the grounds of my departure, it may be, for aught I know, the better for you here and hereafter-if not, let me have may license of departure in silence, and so no more about it."

་

Hark you sirrah," said his master, "I have borne with you thus far, for certain reasons; but abuse my good-nature no farther-and since you must needs go, why,, go a God's name, and here is to pay your journey. So saying, he put gold into his hand, which Richie told over, piece by piece, with the utmost ac

"Go to, sir!" said Nigel; "speak out your mind-curacy. only remember to whom you speak it."

Weel, weel, my lord-I speak it with humility" (never did Richie look with more starched dignity than when he uttered the word;)" but do you think this dicing and card-shuffling, and haunting of taverns and playhouses, suits your lordship-for I'am sure it does not suit me?"

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Why, you are not turned precisian or puritan, fool?" said Lord Glenvarloch, laughing, though betwixt resentment and shame, it cost him some trouble

to do so.

"Is it all right-or are they wanting in weight-or what the devil keeps you, when your hurry was so great five minutes since?" said the young ford, now thoroughly nettled at the presumptuous precision with which Richie dealt forth his canons of morality.

the pity!"
"The more is your folly, then," said Nigel, whose
anger was only momentary, that leave the land
where there is enough of them."

"The tale of coin is complete," said Richie, with the most imperturbable gravity;" and, for the weight, though they are sae scrupulous in this town, as make mouths at a piece that is a wee bit light, or that has been cracked within the ring, my sooth, they will jump at them in Edinburgh like a cock at a My lord," replied the follower, "I ken the pur-grosart. Gold pieces are not so plenty there, the mair port of your query. I am, it may be, a little of a precisian, and I wish to Heaven I was mair worthy of the name; but let that be a pass-over.-I have stretched the duties of a serving-man as far as my northern conscience will permit. I can give my gude word to my master, or to my native country, when I am in a foreign land, even though I should leave downright truth a wee bit behind me. Ay, and I will take or give a slash with ony man that speaks to the derogation of either. But this chambering, dicing, and playhaunting, is not my element-I can not draw breath in it-and when I hear of your lordship winning the siller that some poor creature may full sairly missby my saul, if it wad serve your necessity, rather than you gained it from him, I wad tak a jump over the hedge with your lordship, and cry Stand!' to the first grazier we met, that was coming from Smithfield with the price of his Essex calves in his leathern pouch." "Laughed at!" said Nigel, who, like others of his "You are a simpleton," said Nigel, who felt, how-age, was more sensible to ridicule than to reasonever, much conscience-struck; "I never play but for "Who dares laugh at me?" small sums.' ""

Ay, my lord," replied the unyielding domestic, "and -still with reverence-it is even sae much the waur. If you played with your equals, there might be like sin, but there wad be mair warldly honour in it. Your lordship kens, or may ken by experience of your ain, whilk is not as yet mony weeks auld, that small sums can ill be missed by those that have nane larger; and I maun e'en be plain with you, that men notice it of your lordship, that ye play wi' nane but the misguided creatures that can but afford to lose bare stakes."

"My lord," said Richie, "to be round with you, the grace of God is better than gold pieces. When Goblin, as you call yonder Monsieur Lutin, and you might as well call him Gibbet, since that is what he is like to end in,-shall recommend a page to you, ye will hear little such doctrine as ye have heard from me.-And if they were my last words," he said, raising his voice, "I would say you are misled, and are forsaking the paths which your honourable father trode in; and, what is more, you are going-still under correction-to the devil with a dishclout, for ye are laughed at by them that lead you into these disordered bypaths."

My lord, as sure as I live by bread-nay, more, as I am a true man-and, I think, your lordship never found Richie's tongue bearing aught but the truth,unless that your lordship's credit, my country's profit, or, it may be, some sma' occasion of my ain, made it unnecessary to promulgate the haill veritie,-I say then, as I am a true man, when I saw that puir creature come through the ha', at that ordinary, whilk is accurst (Heaven forgive me for swearing!) of God and man, with his teeth set, and his hands clenched, and his bonnet drawn over his brows like a desperate man, Goblin said to me, 'There goes a dunghill

chicken, that your master has plucked clean enough; | his former resentment, could now scarcely forbear it will be long ere his lordship ruffle a feather with a laughing. cock of the game.' And so, my lord, to speak it out, the lackeys, and the gallants, and more especially your sworn brother, Lord Dalgarno, call you the sparrow-hawk.-I had some thought to have cracked Lutin's pate for the speech, but, after a', the controversy was not worth it."

slip of paper, carefully bound round with a string of flox-silk and sealed-it had been given in, he said, by a woman, who did not stop an instant. The contents harped upon the same string which Richie Moniplies had already jarred. The epistle was in the following words:

"For the Right Honourable hands of Lord Glenvarloch.

"These, from a friend unknown:"MY LORD,-You are trusting to an unhonest friend, and diminishing an honest reputation. An unknown but real friend of your lordship will speak in one word what you would not learn from flatterers in so many days, as should suffice for your utter ruin. He whom you think most true-I say your friend Lord Dalgarno-is utterly false to you, and doth but seek, under pretence of friendship, to mar your fortune, and diminish the good name by which you might mend it. The kind countenance which he shows to you, is more dangerous than the Prince's frown; even as to gain at Beaujeu's ordinary, is more discreditable than to lose. Beware of both.-And this is all from your true but nameless friend, IGNOTO."

Lord Glenvarloch paused for an instant, and crushed the paper together-then again unfolded and read it with attention-bent his brows-mused for a moment, and then tearing it to fragments, exclaimed,"Begone for a vile calumny! But I will watch-I will observe"

Thought after thought rushed on him; but, upon the whole, Lord Glenvarloch was so little satisfied with the result of his own reflections, that he resolved to dissipate them by a walk in the Park, and, taking his cloak and beaver, went thither accordingly.

CHAPTER XV.

"Twas when fleet Snowball's head was waxen gray
A luckless lev'ret met him on his way.---
Who knows not Snowball-he, whose race renown'd
Is still victorious on each coursing ground?
Swaffham, Newmarket, and the Roman Camp,
Have seen them victors o'er each meaner stamp.-
In vain the youngling sought, with doubling wile,
The hedge, the hill, the thicket, or the stile."
Experience sage the lack of speed supplied,
And in the gap he sought, the victim died.
So was I once, in thy fair street, Saint James,
Through walking cavaliers, and car-borne dames,
Descried, pursued, turn'd o'er again, and o'er,
Coursed, coted, mouth'd by an unfeeling bore.

&c. &c. &c. THE Park of Saint James's, though enlarged, planted with verdant alleys, and otherwise decorated by Charles II., existed in the days of his grandfather, as a public and pleasant promenade; and, for the sake of exercise or pastime, was much frequented by the better classes.

mounted with a well-worn beaver, bearing a black velvet band for a chain, and a capon's feather for an ostrich plume.

Lord Glenvarloch would fain have made his escape, but, as our motto intimates, a leveret had as little chance to free herself of an experienced greyhound. Sir Mungo, to continue the simile, had long ago learned to run cunning, and make sure of mouthing his game. So Nigel found himself compelled to stand and answer the hackneyed question "What news to-day-?"

'Nothing extraordinary, I believe," answered the young nobleman, attempting to pass on.

"O, ye are ganging to the French ordinary belive,” replied the knight; "but it is early day yet-we will take a turn in the Park in the meanwhile it will sharpen your appetite."

So saying, he quietly slipped his arm under Lord Glenvarloch's, in spite of all the decent reluctance which his victim could exhibit, by keeping his elbow close to his side; and having fairly grappled the prize, he proceeded to take it in tow.

Nigel was sullen and silent, in hopes to shake off his unpleasant companion; but Sir Mungo was determined, that if he did not speak, he should at least hear.

"Ye are bound for the ordinary, my lord ?" said the cynic ;-" weel, ye canna do better-there is choice company there, and peculiarly selected, as I am tauld, being, dootless, sic as it is desirable that young noblemen should herd withal-and your noble father wad have been blithe to see you keeping such worshipful society.'

I believe," said Lord Glenvarloch, thinking himself obliged to say something, "that the society is as good as generally can be found in such places, where the door can scarcely be shut against those who come to spend their money,"

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"Right, my lord-vera right," said his tormentor, bursting out into a chuckling, but most discordant laugh. These citizen chuffs and clowns will press in amongst us, when there is but an inch of a door open. And what remedy ?-Just e'en this, that as their cash gies them confidence, we should strip them of it. Flay them, my lord-singe them as the kitchen wench does the rats, and then they winna long to come back again.-Ay, ay-pluck them, plume them and then the larded capons will not be for flying so high a wing, my lord, among the gosshawks and sparrow-hawks, and the like."

And, therewithal, Sir Mungo fixed on Nigel his quick, sharp, gray eye, watching the effect of his sarcasm as keenly as the surgeon, in a delicate operation, remarks the progress of his anatomical scalpel.

Nigel, however willing to conceal his sensations, could not avoid gratifying his tormentor by wincing Lord Glenvarloch repaired thither to dispel the un- under the operation. He coloured with vexation pleasant reflections which had been suggested by his and anger; but a quarrel with Sir Mungo Malaparting with his trusty squire, Richie Moniplies, in a growther would, he felt, be unutterably ridiculous; manner which was agreeable neither to his pride nor and he only muttered to himself the words, "Imperhis feelings; and by the corroboration which the hints tinent coxcomb!" which, on this occasion, Sir Munof his late attendant had received from the anony-go's imperfection of organ did not prevent him from mous letter mentioned in the end of the last chapter. hearing and replying to. There was a considerable number of company in the Park when he entered it, but, his present state of mind inducing him to avoid society, he kept aloof from the more frequented walks towards Westminster and Whitehall, and drew to the north, or, as we should now say, the Piccadilly verge of the enclosure, believing he might there enjoy, or rather combat, his own thoughts unmolested.

In this, however, Lord Glenvarloch was mistaken for, as he strolled slowly along with his arms folded in his cloak, and his hat drawn over his eyes, he was suddenly pounced upon by Sir Mungo Malagrowther, who, either shunning or shunned, had retreated, or had been obliged to retreat, to the same less frequented corner of the Park.

Nigel started when he heard the high, sharp, and querulous tones of the knight's cracked voice, and was no less alarmed when he beheld his tall thin figure hobbling towards him, wrapped in a threadbare cloak, on whose surface ten thousand varied stains eclipsed the original scarlet, and having his head sur

"Ay, ay-vera true," "exclaimed the caustic old courtier-"Impertinent coxcombs they are, that thus intrude themselves on the society of their betters; but your lordship kens how to gar them as gude-ye have the trick on't.-They had a braw sport in the presence last Friday, how ye suld have routed a young shopkeeper, horse and foot, ta'en his spolia opima, and a' the specie he had about him, down to the very silver buttons of his cloak, and sent him to graze with Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Muckle honour redounded to your lordship thereby.We were tauld the loon threw himself into the Thames in a fit of desperation. There's enow of them behind-there was mair tint on Flodden-edge."

"You have been told a budget of lies, so far as I am concerned, Sir Mungo," said Nigel, speaking loud and sternly.

"Vera likely-vera likely," said the unabashed and undismayed Sir Mungo; "naething but lies are current in the circle.-So the chield is not drowned, then ?-the mair's the pity.-But I never believed that

"My father was right," said Lord Glenvarloch, in the bitterness of his spirit; "and his curse justly followed me when I first entered that place. There is contamination in the air, and he whose fortune avoids ruin, shall be blighted in his honour and reputation." Sir Mungo, who watched his victim with the delighted yet wary eye of an experienced angler, became now aware, that if he strained the line on him too tightly, there was every risk of his breaking hold. In order to give him room, therefore, to play, he protested that Lord Glenvarloch "should not take his free speech in malam partem. If you were a trifle ower sicker in your amusement, my lord, it canna be denied that it is the safest course to prevent farther endangerment of your somewhat dilapidated fortunes; and if ye play with your inferiors, ye are relieved of the pain of pouching the siller of your friends and equals; forbye, that the plebeian knaves have had the advantage, tecum certasse, as Ajax Telamon sayeth, apud Metamorphoseos; and for the like of them to have played with ane Scottish nobleman, is an honest and honourable consideration to compensate the loss of their stake, whilk, I dare say, moreover, maist of the churls can weel afford."

"Be that as it may, Sir Mungo," said Nigel, "I would fain know"

"Ay, ay," interrupted Sir Mungo; " and as you say, who cares whether the fat bulls of Bashan can spare it or no? gentlemen are not to limit their sport for the like of them."

"Have I not told you already," answered Sirlar fate attended this accomplished courtier, in being Mungo, "that the King said something to that effect at once the reigning favourite of a father and son so -so did the Prince too;-and such being the case, very opposite in manners, that, to ingratiate himself ye may take it on your corporal oath, that every man with the youthful Prince, he was obliged to compress in the circle who was not silent, sung the same song within the strictest limits of respectful observance as they did." the frolicsome and free humour which captivated his aged father.

"You said but now," replied Glenvarloch, "that Lord Dalgarno interfered in my behalf."

It is true, Buckingham well knew the different dispositions both of James and Charles, and had no difficulty in so conducting himself as to maintain the highest post in the favour of both. It has indeed been supposed, as we before hinted, that the Duke, when he had completely possessed himself of the affections of Charles, retained his hold in those of the James, could he have brought himself to form a vigorous resolution, was, in the latter years of his life especially, not unlikely to have discarded Buckingham from his counsels and favour. But if ever the King indeed meditated such a change, he was too "I have no claim on the favour of either the Prince timid, and too much accustomed to the influence or the Duke of Buckingham," said Lord Glenvar- which the Duke had long exercised over him, to loch.-"As you seem to have made my affairs your summon up resolution enough for effecting such a study, Sir Mungo, although perhaps something un- purpose; and at all events it is certain, that Bucknecessarily, you may have heard that I have peti-ingham, though surviving the master by whom he tioned my Sovereign for payment of a debt due to was raised, had the rare chance to experience no my family. I cannot doubt the King's desire to do wane of the most splendid court-favour during two justice, nor can I in decency employ the solicitation reigns, until it was at once eclipsed in his blood by of his Highness the Prince, or his Grace the Duke of the dagger of his assassin Felton. Buckingham, to obtain from his Majesty what either should be granted me as a right, or refused altogether."

"In good troth did he," answered Sir Mungo, with a sneer; "but the young nobleman was soon borne down-by token, he had something of a catarrh, and spoke as hoarse as a roopit raven. Poor gentleman, if he had had his full extent of voice, he would have been as well listened to, dootless, as in a cause of his ain, whilk no man kens better how to plead to pur-father only by the tyranny of custom; and that pose. And let me ask you, by the way," continued Sir Mungo, "whether Lord Dalgarno has ever introduced your lordship to the Prince, or the Duke of Buckingham, either of whom might soon carry through your suit?"

Sir Mungo twisted his whimsical features into one of his most grotesque sneers, as he replied

"It is a vera clear and parspicuous position of the case, my lord; and in relying thereupon, you show an absolute and unimprovable acquaintance with the King, Court, and mankind in general.-But whom have we got here?-Stand up, my lord, and make way-by my word of honour, they are the very men we spoke of-talk of the devil, and-humph!"

It must be here premised, that during the conversation, Lord Glenvarloch, perhaps in the hope of shaking himself free of Sir Mungo, had directed their walk towards the more frequented part of the Park; while the good knight had stuck to him, being totally indifferent which way they went, provided he could keep his talons clutched upon his companion. They were still, however, at some distance from the livelier part of the scene, when Sir Mungo's experienced eye noticed the appearances which occasioned the latter part of his speech to Lord Glenvarloch.

To return from this digression: The Prince, with his train, advanced, and were near the place where Lord Glenvarloch and Sir Mungo had stood aside, according to form, in order to give the Prince passage, and to pay the usual marks of respect. Nigel could now remark that Lord Dalgarno walked close behind the Duke of Buckingham, and, as he thought, whispered something in his ear as they came onward. At any rate, both the Prince's and Duke of Buckingham's attention seemed to be directed by some circumstance towards Nigel, for they turned their heads in that direction and looked at him attentively-the Prince with a countenance, the grave, melancholy expression of which was blended with severity; while Buckingham's looks evinced some degree of scornful triumph. Lord Dalgarno did not seem to observe his friend, perhaps because the sunbeams fell from the side of the walk on which Nigel stood, obliging Malcolm to hold up his hat to screen his eyes.

As the Prince passed, Lord Glenvarloch and Sir Mungo bowed, as respect required; and the Prince, returning their obeisance with that grave ceremony which paid to every rank its due, but not a tittle be A low respectful murmur arose among the nume-yond it, signed to Sir Mungo to come forward. Comrous groups of persons which occupied the lower part mencing an apology for his lameness as he started, of the Park. They first clustered together, with their which he had just completed as his hobbling gait faces turned towards Whitehall, then fell back on brought him up to the Prince, Sir Mungo lent an ateither hand to give place to a splendid party of gal- tentive, and, as it seemed, an intelligent ear, to queslants, who, advancing from the Palace, came onward tions, asked in a tone so low, that the knight would through the Park; all the other company drawing off certainly have been deaf to them had they been put to the pathway, and standing uncovered as they passed. him by any one under the rank of Prince of Wales. Most of these courtly gallants were dressed in the After about a minute's conversation, the Prince begarb which the pencil of Vandyke has made fami- stowed on Nigel the embarrassing notice of another liar even at the distance of nearly two centuries; fixed look, touched his hat slightly to Sir Mungo, and and which was just at this period beginning to su- walked on. persede the more fluttering and frivolous dress which had been adopted from the French court of Henri Quatre.

"It is even as I suspected, my lord," said Sir Mungo, with an air which he designed to be melancholy and sympathetic, but which, in fact, resembled the grin of an ape when he has mouthed a scalding chestnut-"Ye have back-friends, my lord, that is, unfriends-or, to be plain, enemies-about the person of the Prince."

"I am sorry to hear it," said Nigel; "but I would I knew what they accuse me of."

The whole train were uncovered excepting the Prince of Wales, afterwards the most unfortunate of British monarchs, who came onward, having his long curled auburn tresses, and his countenance, which, even in early youth, bore a shade of anticipated melancholy, shaded by the Spanish hat and the single ostrich feather which drooped from it. On "Ye shall hear, my lord," said Sir Mungo, "the his right hand was Buckingham, whose command- Prince's vera words-Sir Mungo,' said he, I rejoice ing, and at the same time graceful, deportment, threw to see you, and am glad your rheumatic troubles peralmost into shade the personal demeanour and ma-mit you to come hither for exercise.'-I bowed, as jesty of the Prince on whom he attended. The eye, in duty bound-ye might remark, my lord, that I did movements, and gestures, of the great courtier, were so, whilk formed the first branch of our conversation. so composed, so regularly observant of all etiquette -His Highness then demanded of me, if he with belonging to his situation, as to form a marked and whom I stood, was the young Lord Glenvarloch.' I strong contrast with the forward gayety and frivolity answered, that you were such, for his Highness's by which he recommended himself to the favour of service;' whilk was the second branch.-Thirdly, his his "dear dad and gossip," King James. A singu- Highness, resuming the argument, said, that 'truly he