vanced to the grate, from which, unseen, he could see what passed in the interior of the vault. As he approached with timid and uncertain steps, the chant, after one or two wild and prolonged cadences, died away into profound silence. The grate, when he reached it, presented a singular spectacle in the interior of the sacristy. An open grave, with four tall flambeaus, each about six feet high, placed at the four corners-a bier, having a corpse in its shroud, the arms folded upon the breast, rested upon tressels at one side of the grave, as if ready to be interred-a priest, dressed in his cope and stole, held open the service book-another churchman in his vestments bore a holy-water sprinkler, and two boys in white surplices held censers with incense-a man, of a figure once tall and commanding, but now bent with age or infirmity, stood alone and nearest to the coffin, attired in deep mourning -Such were the most prominent figures of the group. At a little distance were two or three persons of both sexes, attired in long mourning hoods and cloaks; and five or six others in the same lugubrious dress, still farther removed from the body, around the walls of the vault, stood ranged in motionless order, each bearing in his hand a huge torch of black wax. The smoky light from so many flambeaus, by the red and indistinct atmosphere which it spread around, gave a hazy, dubious, and as it were phantom-like appearance, to the outlines of this singular apparition. The voice of the priest -loud, clear, and sonorous-now recited, from the breviary which he held in his hand, those solemn words which the ritual of the Catholic church has consecrated to the rendering of dust to dust. Meanwhile, Dousterswivel, the place, the hour, and the surprise considered, still remained uncertain whether what he saw was substantial, or an unearthly representation of the rites to which in former times these walls were familiar, but which are now rarely practised in Protestant countries, and almost never in Scotland. He was uncertain whether to abide the conclusion of the ceremony, or to endeavour to regain the chancel, when a change in his position made him visible through the grate to one of the attendant mourners. The person who first espied him indicated his discovery to the individual who stood apart and nearest to the coffin, by a sign, and upon his making a sign in reply, two of the group detached themselves, and, gliding along with noiseless steps, as if fearing to disturb the service, unlocked and opened the grate which separated them from the adept. Each took him by an arm, and exerting a degree of force, which he would have been incapable of resisting had his fear permitted him to attempt opposition, they placed him on the ground in the chancel, and sat down, one on each side of him, as if to detain him. Satisfied he was in the power of mortals like himself, the adept would have put some questions to them; but while one pointed to the vault, from which the sound of the priest's voice was distinctly heard, the other placed his finger upon his lips in token of silence, a hint which the German thought it most prudent to obey. And thus they detained him until a loud Alleluia, pealing through the deserted arches of St Ruth, closed the singular ceremony which it had been his fortune to witness. When the hymn had died away with all its ochoes, the voice of one of the sable personages under whose guard the adept had remained, said, ih| a familiar tone and dialect, "Dear sirs, Mr Dousterswivel, is this you? could not ye have let us ken an ye had wussed till hae been present at the ceremony?- My lord couldna tak it weel your coming blinking and jinking in, in that fashion." "In de naine of all dat is gootness, tell me what you are?" interrupted the German in his turn. "What I am? why, wha should I be but Ringan Aikwood, the Knockwinnock poinder?—and what are ye doing here at this time o' night, unless ye were come to attend the leddy's burial?" "I do declare to you, mine goot Poinder Aikwood," said the German, raising himself up," that I have been this vary nights murdered, robbed, and put in fears of my life." "Robbed! wha wad do sic a deed here?— Murdered! od, ye speak pretty blithe for a murdered man- - Put in fear! what put you in fear, Mr Dousterswivel?" "I will tell you, Maister Poinder Aikwood Ringan, just dat old miscreant dog villain blue-gown, as you call Edie Ochiltrees." "I'll ne'er believe that," answered Ringan;— "Edie was ken'd to me, and my father before me, for a true, loyal, and soothfast man; and, mair by token, he's sleeping up yonder in our barn, and has been since ten at e'en-Sae touch ye wha liket, Mr Dousterswivel, and whether onybody touched ye or no, I'm sure Edie's sackless." "Maister Ringan Aikwood Poinders, I do not know what you call sackless,—but let alone all de oils and de soot dat you say he has, and I will tell you I was dis night robbed of fifty pounds by your oil and sooty friend, Edies Ochiltree; and he is no more in your barn even now dan I ever shall be in de kingdom of heafen." "Weel, sir, if ye will gae up wi' me, as the burial company has dispersed, we'se mak ye down a bed at the lodge, and we'se see if Edie's at the barn. There were twa wild-looking chaps left the auld kirk when we were coming up wi' the corpse, that's certain; and the priest, wha likes ill that ony heretics should look on at our church ceremonies, sent twa o' the riding saulies after them; sae we'll hear a' about it frae them." Thus speaking, the kindly apparition, with the assistance of the mute personage, who was his son, disencumbered himself of his cloak, and prepared to escort Dousterswivel to the place of that rest which the adept so much needed. "I will apply to the magistrates to-morrow," said the adept;" oder, I will have de law put in force against all the peoples." While he thus muttered vengeance against the cause of his injury, he tottered from among the ruins, supporting himself on Ringan and his son, whose assistance his state of weakness rendered very necessary. When they were clear of the priory, and had gained the little meadow in which it stands, Dousterswivel could perceive the torches which had caused him so much alarm issuing in irregular procession from the ruins, and glancing their light, like that of the ignis fatuus, on the banks of the lake. After moving along the path for some short space with a fluctuating and irregular motion, the lights were at once extinguished. "We aye put out the torches at the Halie-cross Well on sic occasions," said the forester to his guest. And accordingly no farther visible sign of the pro cession offered itself to Dousterswivel, although his ear could catch the distant and decreasing echo of horses' hoofs in the direction towards which the mourners had bent their course. CHAPTER XXVI. O weel may the boatie row, That earns the bairnies' bread! The boatie rows, the boatie rows, And lightsome be their life that bear While they were thus employed, a slight tap at the door, accompanied with the question, " Are ye up yet, sirs?" announced a visitor. The answer, Ay, ay-come your ways ben, hinny," occasioned the lifting of the latch, and Jenny Rintherout, the female domestic of our Antiquary, made her appearance. "Ay, ay," exclaimed the mistress of the family"Hegh, sirs! can this be you, Jenny?—a sight o' you's gude for sair een, lass." "O woman, we've been sae ta'en up wi' Captain Hector's wound up by, that I havena had my fit out ower the door this fortnight; but he's better now, and auld Caxon sleeps in his room in case he wanted onything. Sae, as soon as our auld folk gaed to bed, I e'en snooded my head up a bit, and left the house-door on the latch, in case onybody should be wanting in or out while I was awa, and just cam down the gate to see an there was ony cracks amang ye." "Ay, ay," answered Luckie Mucklebackit," I see ye hae gotten a' your braws on; ye're looking about for Steenie now-but he's no at hame the night; and ye'll no do for Steenie, lass-a feckless thing like you's no fit to mainteen a man.' "Steenie will no do for me," retorted Jenny, with a toss of her head that might have become a higher-born damsel; " I maun hae a man that can mainteen his wife." "Ou ay, hinny-thae's your landward and burrows-town notions. My certie!-fisher-wives ken better-they keep the man, and keep the house, and keep the siller too, lass." to tak the fish ashore. And then the man casts aff the wat and puts on the dry, and sits down wi' his pipe and his gill-stoup ahint the ingle, like ony auld houdie, and ne'er a turn will he do till the coble's afloat again! And the wife, she maun get the scull on her back, and awa wi' the fish to the next burrows-town, and scauld and ban wi' ilka wife that will scauld and ban wi' her till it's sauld—and that's the gait fisher-wives live, puir slaving bodies." We must now introduce our reader to the interior of the fisher's cottage mentioned in chapter eleventh of this edifying history. I wish I could say that its inside was well arranged, decently furnished, or tolerably clean. On the contrary, I am compelled to admit, there was confusion,-there was dilapidation,—there was dirt good store. Yet, with all this, there was about the inmates, Luckie Mucklebackit and her family, an appearance of ease, plenty, and comfort, that seemed to warrant their old sluttish proverb, "The clartier the cosier." A huge fire, though the season was summer, occupied the hearth, and served at once for affording light, heat, and the means of preparing food. The fishing had been successful, and the family, with customary improvidence, had, since unlading the cargo, continued an unremitting operation of broiling and frying that part of the produce reserved for home consumption, and the bones and fragments lay on "A wheen poor drudges ye are," answered the the wooden trenchers, mingled with morsels of nymph of the land to the nymph of the sea. broken bannocks and shattered mugs of half-drunk sune as the keel o' the coble touches the sand, deil beer. The stout and athletic form of Maggie hera bit mair will the lazy fisher loons work, but the self, bustling here and there among a pack of half-wives maun kilt their coats, and wade into the surf grown girls and younger children, of whom she chucked one now here and another now there, with an exclamation of "Get out o' the gate, ye little sorrow!" was strongly contrasted with the passive and half stupified look and manner of her husband's mother, a woman advanced to the last stage of human life, who was seated in her wonted chair close by the fire, the warmth of which she coveted, yet hardly seemed to be sensible of-now muttering to herself, now smiling vacantly to the children as they pulled the strings of her toy or close cap, or twitched her blue checked apron. With her distaff in her bosom, and her spindle in her hand, she plied lazily and mechanically the old-fashioned Scottish thrift, according to the old-fashioned Scottish manner. The younger children, crawling among the feet of the elder, watched the progress of grannie's spindle as it twisted, and now and then ventured to interrupt its progress as it danced upon the floor in those vagaries which the more regulated spinning-wheel has now so universally superseded, that even the fated Princess of the fairy tale might roam through all Scotland without the risk of piercing her hand with a spindle, and dying of the wound. Late as the hour was (and it was long past midnight), the whole family were still on foot, and far from proposing to go to bed; the dame was still busy broiling car-cakes on the girdle, and the elder girl, the half-naked mermaid elsewhere commemorated, was preparing a pile of Findhorn haddocks (that is, haddocks smoked with green wood), to be eaten along with these relishing provisions. "Slaves?-gae wa', lass!-ca' the head o' the house slaves? little ye ken about it, lass. Show me a word my Saunders daur speak, or a turn he daur do about the house, without it be just to tak his meat, and his drink, and his diversion, like ony o' the weans. He has mair sense than to ca' onything about the bigging his ain, frae the rooftree down to a crackit trencher on the bink. He kens weel eneugh wha feeds him, and cleeds him, and keeps a' tight, thack and rape, when his coble is jowing awa in the Firth, puir fallow. Na, na, lass!—them that sell the goods guide the purse-them that guide the purse rule the house. Show me ane o' your bits o' farmer-bodies that wad let their wife drive the stock to the market, and ca' in the debts. Na, na."1 "Aweel, aweel, Maggie, ilka land has its ain lauch-But where's Steenie the night, when a's come and gane? And where's the gudeman?" "I hae puttin' the gudeman to his bed, for he was e'en sair forfairn; and Steenie's awa out about some barns-breaking wi' the auld gaberlunzie, Edie Ochiltree: they'll be in sune, and ye can sit doun.” 1 See Note D.- Fisher-women. folks that had fa'en fighting against Donald of the Isles. But the Great Earl's mither was livingthey were a doughty and a dour race the women o' the house o' Glenallan-and she wad hae nae co Troth, gudewife" (taking a seat), "I haena that muckle time to stop-but I maun tell ye about the news. Ye'll hae heard o' the muckle kist o' gowd that Sir Arthur has fund down by at St Ruth ?— He'll be grander than ever now-he'll no can haudronach cried for her son, but had him laid in the down his head to sneeze, for fear o' seeing his shoon." "Ou aya' the country's heard o' that; but auld Edie says they ca' it ten times mair than ever was o't, and he saw them howk it up. Od, it would be lang or a puir body that needed it got sic a windfa"." "Na, that's sure eneugh. And ye'll hae heard o' the Countess o' Glenallan being dead and lying in state, and how she's to be buried at St Ruth's as this night fa's, wi' torch-light; and a' the papist servants, and Ringan Aikwood, that's a papist too, are to be there, and it will be the grandest show ever was seen." "Troth, hinny," answered the Nereid, "if they let naebody but papists come there, it'll no be muckle o' a show in this country; for the auld harlot, as honest Mr Blattergowl ca's her, has few that drink o' her cup of enchantments in this corner of our chosen lands.-But what can ail them to bury the auld carlin (a rudas wife she was) in the night time?--I dare say our gudemither will ken." Here she exalted her voice, and exclaimed twice or thrice," Gudemither! gudemither!" but, lost in the apathy of age and deafness, the aged sibyl she addressed continued plying her spindle without understanding the appeal made to her. "Speak to your grandmither, Jenny-Od, I wad rather hail the coble half a mile aff, and the norwast wind whistling again in my teeth." "Grannie," said the little mermaid, in a voice to which the old woman was better accustomed, "minnie wants to ken what for the Glenallan folk aye bury by candle-light in the ruins of St Ruth?" The old woman paused in the act of twirling the spindle, turned round to the rest of the party, lifted her withered, trembling, and clay-coloured hand, raised up her ashen-hue'd and wrinkled face, which the quick motion of two light-blue eyes chiefly distinguished from the visage of a corpse, and, as if catching at any touch of association with the living world, answered, "What gars the Glenallan family inter their dead by torch-light, said the lassie?Is there a Glenallan dead e'en now?" "We might be a' dead and buried too," said Maggie," for onything ye wad ken about it;"and then, raising her voice to the stretch of her mother-in-law's comprehension, she added, "It's the auld Countess, gudemither." "And is she ca'd hame then at last?" said the old woman, in a voice that seemed to be agitated with much more feeling than belonged to her extreme old age, and the general indifference and apathy of her manner-" is she then called to her last account after her lang race o' pride and power? -O God forgie her!" "But minnie was asking ye,” resumed the lesser querist, "what for the Glenallan family aye bury their dead by torch-light?" "They hae aye dune sae," said the grandmother, "since the time the Great Earl fell in the sair battle o' the Harlaw, when they say the coronach was cried in ae day from the mouth o' the Tay to the Buck of the Cabrach, that ye wad hae heard nae other sound but that of lamentation for the great silence o'midnight in his place o' rest, without either drinking the dirge, or crying the lament. She said he had killed enow that day he died, for the widows and daughters o' the Highlanders he had slain to cry the coronach for them they had lost, and for her son too; and sae she laid him in his grave wi' dry eyes, and without a groan or a wail. And it was thought a proud word o' the family, and they aye stickit by it-and the mair in the latter times, because in the night-time they had mair freedom to perform their popish ceremonies by darkness and in secrecy than in the daylight-at least that was the case in my time; they wad hae been disturbed in the day-time baith by the law and the commons of Fairport-they may be owerlooked now, as I have heard: the warld's changed- I whiles hardly ken whether I am standing or sitting, or dead or living." And looking round the fire, as if in the state of unconscious uncertainty of which she complained, old Elspeth relapsed into her habitual and mechanical occupation of twirling the spindle. "Eh, sirs!" said Jenny Rintherout, under her breath to her gossip, "it's awsome to hear your gudemither break out in that gait-it's like the dead speaking to the living." "Ye're no that far wrang, lass; she minds naething o' what passes the day-but set her on auld tales, and she can speak like a prent buke. She kens mair about the Glenallan family than maist folk-the gudeman's father was their fisher mony a day. Ye maun ken the papists make a great point o' eating fish-it's nae bad part o' their religion that, whatever the rest is- I could aye sell the best o' fish at the best o' prices for the Countess's ain table, grace be wi' her! especially on a Friday -But see as our gudemither's hands and lips are ganging-now it's working in her head like barm -she'll speak eneugh the night. Whiles she'll no speak a word in a week, unless it be to the bits o' bairns." "Hegh, Mrs Mucklebackit, she's an awsome wife!" said Jenny in reply." D'ye think she's a'thegither right? Folk says she downa gang to the kirk, or speak to the minister, and that she was ance a papist; but since her gudeman's been dead, naebody kens what she is. D'ye think yoursell that she's no uncanny?" "Canny, ye silly tawpie! think ye ae auld wife's less canny than anither? unless it be Alison Breck -I really couldna in conscience swear for her; I I have kent the boxes she set fill'd wi' partans when" "Whisht, whisht, Maggie," whispered Jenny"your gudemither's gaun to speak again." "Wasna there some ane o' ye said,” asked the old sibyl, “or did I dream, or was it revealed to me, that Joscelind, Lady Glenallan, is dead, an’ buried this night?" "Yes, gudemither," screamed the daughter-inlaw, "it's e'en sae." "And e'en sae let it be," said old Elspeth; "she's made mony a sair heart in her day—ay, e'en her ain son's-is he living yet?" "Ay, he's living yet; but how lang he'll live however, dinna ye mind his coming and asking after you in the spring, and leaving siller?" "It may be sae, Maggie- I dinna mind it-but a handsome gentleman he was, and his father before him. Eh! if his father had lived, they might hae been happy folk! But he was gane, and the lady carried it in-ower and out-ower wi' her son, and garr'd him trow the thing he never suld hae trowed, and do the thing he has repented a' his life, and will repent still, were his life as lang as this lang and wearisome ane o' mine." "O what was it, grannie?" and "What was it, gudemither?" and "What was it, Luckie Elspeth?" asked the children, the mother, and the visitor, in one breath. "Never ask what it was," answered the old sibyl, "but pray to God that ye arena left to the pride and wilfu❜ness o' your ain hearts: they may be as powerful in a cabin as in a castle-I can bear a sad witness to that. O that weary and fearfu' night! will it never gang out o' my auld head?-Eh! to see her lying on the floor wi' her lang hair dreeping wi' the salt water!- Heaven will avenge on a' that had to do wi't. Sirs! is my son out wi' the coble this windy e'en?" 66 Na, na, mither-nae coble can keep the sea this wind; he's sleeping in his bed out-ower yonder ahint the hallan." "Is Steenie out at sea then?" "Na, grannie-Steenie's awa out wi' auld Edie Ochiltree, the gaberlunzie; maybe they'll be gaun to see the burial." That canna be," said the mother of the family; we kent naething o't till Jock Rand cam in, and tauld us the Aikwoods had warning to attendthey keep thae things unco private-and they were to bring the corpse a' the way frae the Castle, ten miles off, under cloud o' night. She has lain in state this ten days at Glenallan-House, in a grand chamLer, a' hung wi' black, and lighted wi' wax cannle." "God assoilzie her!" ejaculated old Elspeth, her head apparently still occupied by the event of the Countess's death; "she was a hard-hearted woman, but she's gaen to account for it a', and His mercy is infinite-God grant she may find it sae!" And she relapsed into silence, which she did not break again during the rest of the evening. "I wonder what that auld daft beggar carle and our son Steenie can be doing out in sic a night as this," said Maggie Mucklebackit; and her expression of surprise was echoed by her visitor. "Gang awa, ane o' ye, hinnies, up to the heugh head, and gie them a cry in case they're within hearing; the car-cakes will be burnt to a cinder." The little emissary departed, but in a few minutes came running back with the loud exclamation, "Eh, minnie! eh, grannie! there's a white bogle chasing twa black anes down the heugh." A noise of footsteps followed this singular annunciation, and young Steenie Mucklebackit, closely followed by Edie Ochiltree, bounced into the hut. They were panting and out of breath. The first thing Steenie did was to look for the bar of the door, which his mother reminded him had been broken up for fire-wood in the hard winter three years ago; "for what use," she said, "had the like o' them for bars?" "There's naebody chasing us," said the beggar, after he had taken his breath: "we're e'en like the wirked, that flee when no one pursueth." "Troth, but we were chased," said Steenic, "by a spirit, or something little better." "It was a man in white on horseback," said Edie, "for the saft grund, that wadna bear the beast, flung him about, I wot that weel; but I didna think my auld legs could have brought me aff as fast; I ran amaist as fast as if I had been at Prestonpans." "Hout, ye daft gowks!" said Luckie Mucklebackit, "it will hae been some o' the riders at the Countess's burial." "What!" said Edie, "is the auld Countess buried the night at St Ruth's? Ou, that wad be the lights and the noise that scarr'd us awa; I wish I had ken'd—I wad hae stude them, and no left the man yonder- but they'll take care o' him. Ye strake ower hard, Steenie-I doubt ye foundered the chield." "Ne'er a bit," said Steenie, laughing; "he has braw broad shouthers, and I just took the measure o' them wi' the stang. Od, if I hadna been something short wi' him, he wad hae knockit your auld harns out, lad." "Weel, an I win clear o' this scrape," said Edie, "I'se tempt Providence nae mair. But I canna think it an unlawfu' thing to pit a bit trick on sic a land-louping scoundrel, that just lives by tricking honester folk." "But what are we to do with this?" said Steenie, producing a pocket-book. "Od guide us, man," said Edie, in great alarm, "what garr'd ye touch the gear? a very leaf o' that pocket-book wad be eneugh to hang us baith." 66 "I dinna ken," said Steenie; "the book had fa'en out o' his pocket, I fancy, for I fand it amang my feet when I was graping about to set him on his legs again, and I just pat it in my pouch to keep it safe; and then came the tramp of horse, and you cried Rin, rin,' and I had nae mair thought o' the book." "We maun get it back to the loon some gait or other; ye had better take it yoursell, I think, wi’ peep o' light, up to Ringan Aikwood's. I wadna for a hundred pounds it was fund in our hands." Steenie undertook to do as he was directed. "A bonny night ye hae made o't, Mr Steenie," said Jenny Rintherout, who, impatient of remaining so long unnoticed, now presented herself to the young fisherman-"A bonny night ye hae made o't, tramping about wi' gaberlunzies, and getting yoursell hunted wi' worricows, when ye suld be sleeping in your bed like your father, honest man." the This attack called forth a suitable response of rustic raillery from the young fisherman. An attack was now commenced upon the car-cakes and smoked fish, and sustained with great perseverance by assistance of a bicker or two of twopenny ale and a bottle of gin. The mendicant then retired to the straw of an out-house adjoining, the children had one by one crept into their nests, old grandmother was deposited in her flock-bed,— Steenie, notwithstanding his preceding fatigue, had the gallantry to accompany Miss Rintherout to her own mansion, and at what hour he returned the story saith not,-and the matron of the family, having laid the gathering-coal upon the fire, and put things in some sort of order, retired to rest the last of the family. CHAPTER XXVII. Many great ones Would part with half their states, to have the plan And credit to beg in the first styleBeggar's Bush. OLD EDIE was stirring with the lark, and his first inquiry was after Steenie and the pocket-book. The young fisherman had been under the necessity of attending his father before daybreak, to avail themselves of the tide, but he had promised that, immediately on his return, the pocket-book, with all its contents, carefully wrapped up in a piece of sail-cloth, should be delivered by him to Ringan Aikwood, for Dousterswivel the owner. The matron had prepared the morning meal for the family, and, shouldering her basket of fish, tramped sturdily away towards Fairport. The children were idling round the door, for the day was fair and sun-shiney. The ancient grandame, again seated on her wicker-chair by the fire, had resumed her eternal spindle, wholly unmoved by the yelling and screaming of the children, and the scolding of the mother, which had preceded the dispersion of the family. Edie had arranged his various bags, and was bound for the renewal of his wandering life, but first advanced with due courtesy to take his leave of the ancient crone. "Gude day to ye, cummer, and mony ane o' them. I will be back about the fore-end o' har'st, and I trust to find ye baith haill and fere." "Pray that ye may find me in my quiet grave," said the old woman, in a hollow and sepulchral voice, but without the agitation of a single feature. "Ye're auld, cummer, and sae am I mysell; but we maun abide His will-we'll no be forgotten in His good time." "Nor our deeds neither," said the crone: "what's dune in the body maun be answered in the spirit.' "I wot that's true; and I may weel tak the tale hame to mysell, that hae led a misruled and roving life. But ye were aye a canny wife. We're a' frail-but ye canna hae sae muckle to bow ye down." "Less than I might have had-but mair, O far mair, than wad sink the stoutest brig e'er sailed out o' Fairport harbour! Didna somebody say yestreen-at least sae it is borne in on my mind, but auld folk hae weak fancies-did not somebody say that Joscelind, Countess of Glenallan, was departed frae life?" ing been so, though bent with age and rheumatism, and stood before the beggar like a mummy animated by some wandering spirit into a temporary resurrection. Her light-blue eyes wandered to and fro, as if she occasionally forgot and again remembered the purpose for which her long and withered hand was searching among the miscellaneous contents of an ample old-fashioned pocket. At length she pulled out a small chip-box, and opening it, took out a handsome ring, in which was set a braid of hair, composed of two different colours, black and light brown, twined together, encircled with brilliants of considerable value. "Gudeman," she said to Ochiltree, "as ye wad e'er deserve mercy, ye maun gang my errand to the house of Glenallan, and ask for the Earl." "The Earl of Glenallan, cummer! ou, he winna see ony o' the gentles o' the country, and what likelihood is there that he wad see the like o' an auld gaberlunzie?" "Gang your ways and try ;-and tell him that Elspeth o' the Craigburnfoot-he'll mind me best by that name-maun see him or she be relieved frae her lang pilgrimage, and that she sends him that ring in token of the business she wad speak o'." Ochiltree looked on the ring with some admiration of its apparent value, and then carefully replacing it in the box, and wrapping it in an old ragged handkerchief, he deposited the token in his bosom. "Weel, gudewife," he said, "I'se do your bidding, or it's no be my fault. But surely there was never sic a braw propine as this sent to a yerl by an auld fish-wife, and through the hands of a ga berlunzie beggar." With this reflection, Edie took up his pike-staff, put on his broad-brimmed bonnet, and set forth upon his pilgrimage. The old woman remained for some time standing in a fixed posture, her eyes directed to the door through which her ambassador had departed. The appearance of excitation, which the conversation had occasioned, gradually left her features; she sunk down upon her accustomed seat. and resumed her mechanical labour of the distaff and spindle, with her wonted air of apathy. Edie Ochiltree meanwhile advanced on his jour ney. The distance to Glenallan was ten miles, a march which the old soldier accomplished in about four hours. With the curiosity belonging to his idle trade and animated character, he tortured himself "They said the truth whaever said it," answered the whole way to consider what could be the meanold Edie; "she was buried yestreen by torch-lighting of this mysterious errand with which he was at St Ruth's, and I, like a fule, gat a gliff wi' seeing intrusted, or what connexion the proud, wealthy, the lights and the riders." and powerful Earl of Glenallan could have with the crimes or penitence of an old doting woman, whose rank in life did not greatly exceed that of her messenger. He endeavoured to call to memory all that he had ever known or heard of the Glenallan family, yet, having done so, remained altogether unable to form a conjecture on the subject. He knew that the whole extensive estate of this ancient and powerful family had descended to the Coun tess lately deceased, who inherited, in a most remarkable degree, the stern, fierce, and unbending character, which had distinguished the house of Glenallan since they first figured in Scottish annals. Like the rest of her ancestors, she adhered zealously to the Roman Catholic faith, and was married to an English gentleman of the same communion, "It was their fashion since the days of the Great Earl that was killed at Harlaw;-they did it to show scorn that they should die and be buried like other mortals: the wives o' the house of Glenallan wailed nae wail for the husband, nor the sister for the brother. But is she e'en ca'd to the lang account!" "As sure," answered Edie, "as we maun a' abide it." "Then I'll unlade my mind, come o't what will." This she spoke with more alacrity than usually attended her expressions, and accompanied her words with an attitude of the hand, as if throwing something from her. She then raised up her form, once tall, and still retaining the appearance of hav |