'I know it,' replied his master: ' And now, madam, if you will have the goodness to allow me to occupy the parlour you mentioned, as you are disappointed of your guests.'

'Certainly, sir,' said Mrs. Mac-Candlish, and lighted the way with all the imperative bustle which an active landlady loves to display upon such occasions.

( Young man,' said the Deacon to the servant, filling a glass, 'ye'll no be the warse of this after your ride.'

'Not a feather, sir-your very good health.' ' And wha may your master be, friend?'

What, the gentleman that was here? that's the famous Colonel Mannering, from the East Indies. What, him we read of in the newspapers?'

Ay, ay, just the same. It was he relieved Cuddieburn, and defended Chingalore, and defeated the great Mahratta chief, Ram Jollia Bundleman-I was with him in most of his campaigns.'

'Lord save us,' said the landlady, 'I must go see what he would have for supper-that I should set him down here!'

'O, he likes that all the better, mother; you never saw a plainer creature in your life than the Colonel; and yet he has a spice of the devil in him too.'

The rest of the evening conversation below stairs, tending little to edification, we shall, with the reader's leave, step up to the parlour.

CHATER XII.

-Reputation!--that's man's idol

Set up against God, the Maker of all laws,
Who hath commanded us we should not kill,
And yet we say we must, for reputation!
What honest man can either fear his own,
Or else will hurt another's reputation?
Fear to do base and unworthy things is valour;
If they be done to us, to suffer them

Is valour too

Ben Jonson.

THE Colonel was walking pensively up and down the parlour, when the officious landlady re-entered to take his commands. Having given them in the manner he thought would be most acceptable' for the good of the house,' he begged to detain her a

moment.

'I think,' he said 'madam, if I understood the good people right, Mr. Bertram lost his son in his fifth year?'

'O ay, sir, there's nae doubt of that, though there are mony idle clashes about the way and manner; for it's an auld story now, and every body tells it, as we were doing, their ain way by the ingleside. But the lost bairn was in his fifth year, as your honour says, colonel; and the news being rashly told to the lady, then great with child, cost her her life that samyn night—and the Laird never throve after that day, but was just careless of every thing-though, when his daughter, Miss Lucy, grew up, she tried to keep order within doors-but what could she do, poor thing? so now they're out of house and hauld.'

'Can you recollect, madam, about what time of the year the child was lost?' The landlady, after a pause, and some recollection, answered, 'she was positive it was about this season;' and added some local recollections that fixed the date in her memory, as occurring about the beginning of November, 17

The stranger took two or three turns round the room in silence, but signed to Mrs. Mac-Candlish not to leave it.

'Did I rightly apprehend,' he said, 'that the estate of Ellangowan is in the market?'

'In the market?-it will be sold the morn to the highest bidder-that's no the morn, Lord help me! which is the Sabbath, but on Monday, the first free day; and the furniture and stocking is to be roupit at the same time on the ground-it's the opinion of the haill country, that the sale has been shamefully forced on at this time, when there's sae little money stirring in Scotland wi' this weary American war, that somebody may get the land a bargain -Deil be in them that I should say sae!'-the good lady's wrath rising at the supposed injustice.

'And where will the sale take place?'

'On the premises, as the advertisement saysthat's at the house of Ellangowan, as I understand it.'

And who exhibits the title-deeds, rent-roll, and

plan?'

'A very decent man, sir; the sheriff substitute of the county, who has authority from the court of session. He's in the town just now, if your honour would like to see him; and he can tell ye mair about the loss of the bairn than ony body, for the sheriff

depute (that's his principal like,) took much pains to come at the truth o' that matter, as I have heard.' 'And this gentleman's name is-?'

• Mac-Morlan, sir-he's a man of character, and weel spoken of.'

'Send my compliments-Colonel Mannering's compliments to him, and I would be glad he would do me the pleasure of supping with me, and bring these papers with him—and I beg, good madam, you will say nothing of this to any one else.'

'Me sir? ne'er a word shall I say-I wish your honour, (a curtsey) or ony honourable gentleman that's fought for his country, (another curtsey) had the land, since the auld family maun quit, (a sigh) rather than that wily scoundrel, Glossin, that's risen on the ruin of the best friend he ever had-and now I think on't, I'll slip on my hood and pattens, and gang to Mr. Mac-Morlan mysell-he's at hame e'en now-its hardly a step.'

'Do so, my good landlady, and many thanksand bid my servant step here with my portfolio in the mean time.'

In a minute or two, colonel Mannering was quietly seated with his writing materials before him. We have the privilege of looking over his shoulder a she writes, and we willingly communicate its substance to our readers. The letter was addressed to Arthur Mervyn, Esq. of Mervyn Hall, Llanbraithwaite, Westmoreland. It contained some account of the writer's previous journey since parting with him, and then proceeded as follows:

'And now, why will you still upbraid me with my melancholy, Mervyn? Do you think, after the lapse of twenty-five years, battles, wounds, impri

sonment, misfortunes of every description, I can be still the same lively unbroken Guy Mannering, who climbed Skiddaw with you, or shot grouse upon Crossfell? That you, who have remained in the bosom of domestic happiness, experience little change; that your step is as light, and your fancy as full of sunshine, is a blessed effect of health and temperament, co-operating with content and a smooth current down the course of life. But my career has been one of' difficulties, and doubts, and errors. From my infancy I have been the sport of accident; and though the wind has often borne me into harbour, it has seldom been into that which the pilot destined. Let me recall to you-but the task must be brief-the odd and way-ward fates of my youth, and the misfortunes of my manhood.

"The former, you will say, had nothing very appalling. All was not for the best; but all was tolerable. My father, the eldest son of an ancient but reduced family, left me with little, save the name of the head of the house, to the protection of his more fortunate brothers. They were so fond of me that they almost quarrelled about me. My uncle, the bishop, would have had me in orders, and offered me a living-my uncle, the merchant, would have put me into a counting house, and proposed to give me a share in the thriving concern of Mannering and Marshall, in Lombard street— so, between these two stools, or rather these two soft, easy, well-stuffed chairs of divinity and commerce, my unfortunate person slipped down and pitched upon a dragoon saddle. Again, the bishop wished me to marry the niece and heiress of the Dean of Lincoln; and my uncle, the alderman,