a single glass of spirits, which Bertram drank diluted, and his companion plain.

<«< Will ye taste something yoursell, Luckie?» said Dinmont.

« I will not need it,» replied their mysterious hostess. And now," said she, "ye must hae arms—ye maunna gang on dry-handed--but use them not rashly-take captive, but save life— let the law hae its ain-he maun speak or he die."

<<<Who is to be taken?-who is to speak?" said Bertam in astonishment, receiving a pair of pistols which she offered him, and which, upon examining, he found were loaded and locked.

« The flints are gude," she said, «and the powder dry-I ken that wark weel.»

Then without answering his questions, she armed Dinmont also with a large pistol, and desired them to chuse sticks for themselves out of a parcel of very suspicious-looking bludgeons, which she brought from a corner. They then left the hut together, and in doing so, Bertram took an opportunity to whisper Dinmont, «' << There's something inexplicable in all this-But we need not use these arms unless we see necessity and lawful occasion--take care to do as you see me do:"

Dinmont gave a sagacious nod; and they continued to follow over wet and dry, through bog and fallow, the footsteps of their conductress. She guided them to the wood of Warroch by the same track which the late Ellangowan had

used when riding to Derncleugh in quest of his child, on the miserable evening of Kennedy's murder.

When Meg Merrilies had attained those groves, through which the wintry sea-wind was now whistling hoarse and shrill, she seemed to pause a moment as if to recollect the way. « We maun go the precise track," she said, and continued to go forwards, but rather in a zigzag and involved course than according to her former steady and direct line of motion. At length she guided them through the mazes of the wood to a little open glade of about a quarter of an acre, surrounded by trees and bushes, which made a wild and irregular boundary. Even in winter it was a sheltered and snugly sequestered spot; but when arrayed in the verdure of spring, the earth sending forth all its wild flowers, the shrubs spreading their waste of blossom around it, and the weeping birches which towered over the underwood, drooping their long and leafy fibres to intercept the sun, it must have seemed a place for a youthful poet to study his earliest sonnet, or a pair of lovers to exchange their first mutual avowal of affection. Apparently it now awakened very different recollections. Bertram's brow, when he had looked round the spot, became gloomy and embarrassed. Meg, after uttering to herself, « This is the very spot,» looked at him with a ghastly side-glance,—« D'ye mind it?» «Yes!» answered Bertram, « imperfectly I do." « Aye!» pursued his guide, « on this very spot

the man fell from his horse-I was behind that bour-tree bush at the very moment. Sair, sair he strove, and sair he cried for mercy-but he was in the hands of them that never kenn'd the word! Now will I shew you the further trackthe last time ye travelled it was in these arms. >>

She led them accordingly by a long and winding passage almost overgrown with brushwood, until, without any very perceptible descent, they suddenly found themselves by the sea-side. Meg then walked very fast on between the surf and the rocks, until she came to a remarkable fragment of rock detached from the rest. « Here," she said in a low, and scarcely audible whisper, « here the corpse was found.»>

« And the cave,» said Bertram in the same tone, «< is close beside it—are you guiding us

there?»

"

up

your

Yes. Bend both hearts-follow me as I creep in-I have placed the fire-wood so as to screen you-Bide behind it for a gliff till I say, The hour and the man are baith come; then rin in on him, take his arms, and bind him till the blood burst frae his finger-nails. >>

« I will-if he is the man I suppose-Jansen!» « Aye, Jansen, Hatteraick, and twenty mair names are his.»

"

Dinmont, you must stand by me now,» said Bertram.

«Ye need na doubt that-but I wish I could mind a bit prayer or I creep after the witch into that hole that she's opening-It wad be a sair

thing to leave the blessed sun, and the free air, and gang and be killed, like a tod that's run to earth, in a dungeon like that. But, as I said, deil hae me if I baulk you." This was uttered in the lowest tone of voice possible. The entrance was now open. Meg crept in upon her hands and knees, Bertram followed, and Dinmont, after giving a rueful glance toward the daylight, whose blessings he was abandoning, brought up the

rear.

CHAPTER XV.

Die, prophet! in thy speech;

For this, among the rest, was I ordained.

Henry VI. Part. III.

THE progress of the Borderer, who, as we have said, was the last of the party, was fearfully arrested by a hand which caught hold of his leg as he dragged his long limbs after him in silence and perturbation through the low and narrow entrance of the subterranean passage. The steel heart of the bold yeoman had well nigh given way, and he suppressed with difficulty a shout, which, in the defenceless posture and situation which they then occupied, might have cost all their lives. He contented himself, however, with extricating his foot from the grasp of this unexpected follower. « Be still," said a voice behind him, releasing him; « I am a friend - Charles Hazlewood.»

These words were uttered in a very low voice, but they produced sound enough to startle Meg Merrilies, who led the van, and who, having already gained the place where the cavern expanded, had risen upon her feet. She began, as if to