after a courteous good-night, broke up and went off in different directions, some keeping them company for about a mile, until they dropped off one by one, and the travellers were left alone. The company had not long left the Houffe, as Blane's public-house was called, when the trumpets and kettle-drums. sounded. The troopers got under arms in the market-place at this unexpected summons, while, with faces of anxiety and earnestness, Cornet Grahame, and the Provost of the borough, followed by half a dozen soldiers, and town-officers with halberts, entered the apartment of Niel Blane. "Guard the doors," were the first words which the cornet spoke; " let no man leave the house.-So, Bothwell, how comes this? Did you not hear them sound boot. and saddle?" "He was just going to quarters, sir," said his comrade; "he has had a bad fall." "In a fray, I suppose ?" said Grahame. "If you neglect duty in this way, your royal blood will hardly protect you. "How have I neglected duty ?" said Bothwell, sulkily. "You should have been at quarters, Serjeant Bothwell; you have lost a golden. opportunity. Here are news come that the Archbishop of St Andrews has been strangely and foully assassinated by a body of the rebel whigs, who pursued and stopped his carriage on Magus-Muir, near the town of St Andrews, dragged him out, and dispatched him with their swords and daggers." All stood aghast at the intelligence. "Here are their descriptions," continued the cornet, pulling out a proclamation, "the reward of a thousand merks is on each of their heads." "The test, the test, and the qualification!" said Bothwell to Halliday; "I know the meaning now-Zounds that we should not have stopt him! Go saddle our horses, Halliday. Was there one of the men, cor net, very stout and square-made, doublechested, thin in the flanks, hawk-nosed ?" "Stay, stay," said Cornet Grahame, "let me look at the paper.-Haxtoun of Rathillet, tall, thin, black-haired." "That is not my man," said Bothwell. "John Balfour, called Burley, aquiline nose, red-haired, five feet eight inches in height" "It is he-it is the very man," said Bothwell," skellies fearfully with one eye?" "Right," continued Grahame, "rode a strong black horse taken from the primate at the time of the murder." "The very man," exclaimed Bothwell, "and the very horse! he was in this room not a quarter of an hour since." A few hasty enquiries tended still more to confirm the opinion, that the reserved. and stern stranger was Balfour of Burley, the actual commander of the band of assassins, who, in the fury of misguided zeal, had murdered the primate, whom they ac cidentally met, as they were searching for another person against whom they bore enmity. In their excited imagination the casual rencounter had the appearance of a providential interference, and they put to death the archbishop, with circumstances. of great and cool-blooded cruelty, under the belief, that the Lord, as they expressed it, had delivered him into their hand. Horse, horse, and pursue, my lads," exclaimed Cornet Grahame; "the murdering dog's head is worth its weight in gold." CHAPTER V. Arouse thee, youth!-it is no human call- JAMES DUFF. MORTON and his companions had attained some distance from the town before either of them addressed the other. There was something, as we have observed, repulsive in the manner of the stranger, which prevented Morton from opening the conversation, and he himself seemed to have no desire to talk, until, on a sudden, he abruptly demanded, "What has your father's son to do with such profane mummeries as I find you engaged in ?” "I do my duty as a subject, and pursue my harmless recreations according to my |