No, to say it's our best dwelling," he added, turning to Bucklaw, "but just a strength for the lord of Ravenswood to flee until,-that is, no to flee, but to retreat until in troublous times, like the present, when it was ill convenient for him to live farther in the country in ony of his better and mair principal manors; but, for its antiquity, maist folk think that the outside of Wolf's Crag is worthy of a large perusal."

"And you are determined we shall have time to make it," said Ravenswood, somewhat amused with the shifts the old man used to detain them without doors, until his confederate Mysie had made her preparations within.

"O, never mind the outside of the house, my good friend," said Bucklaw; "let's see the inside, and let our horses see the stable, that's all." “O yes, sir—ay, sir,—unquestionably, sir,— my lord and ony of his honourable companions"

"But our horses, my old friend-our horses; they will be dead-foundered by standing here in the cold after riding hard, and mine is too good to be spoiled; therefore, once more, our horses," exclaimed Bucklaw.

"True-ay-your horses-yes-I will call the grooms;" and sturdily did Caleb roar till the old tower rung again," John-William— Saunders! The lads are gane out, or sleeping," he observed, after pausing for an answer, which he knew that he had no human chance of receiving. "A' gaes wrang when the master's out bye; but I'll take care o' your cattle mysel."

"I think you had better," said Ravenswood;

"otherwise I see little chance of their being attended to at all."

66

"Whisht, my lord,-whisht, for God's sake," said Caleb, in an imploring tone, and apart to his master; if ye dinna regard your ain credit, think on mine; we'll hae hard aneugh wark to make a decent night o't, wi' a' the lies I can tell."

66

"Well, well, never mind," said his master; go to the stable. There is hay and corn, I trust?"

"Ou ay, plenty of hay and corn;" this was uttered boldly and aloud, and, in a lower tone, "there was some half fou's o' aits, and some taits o' meadow hay, left after the burial."

"Very well," said Ravenswood, taking the lamp from his domestic's unwilling hand, "I will show the stranger up stairs myself."

"I canna think o' that, my lord;-if ye wad but have five minutes, or ten minutes, or, at maist, a quarter of an hour's patience, and look at the fine moonlight prospect of the Bass and North Berwick Law till I sort the horses, I would marshal ye up, as reason is ye suld be marshalled, your lordship and your honourable visitor. And I hae lockit up the siller candlesticks, and the lamp is not fit"

"It will do very well in the mean time," said Ravenswood; "and you will have no difficulty for want of light in the stable; for, if I recollect, half the roof is off."

"Very true, my lord," replied the trusty adherent, and with ready wit instantly added, "and the lazy slater loons have never come to put it on a' this while, your lordship."

"If I were disposed to jest at the calamities of my house," said Ravenswood, as he led the way up stairs, " poor old Caleb would furnish me with ample means. His passion consists in representing things about our miserable menage, not as they are, but as, in his opinion, they ought to be; and, to say the truth, I have been often diverted with the poor wretch's expedient to supply what he thought was essential for the credit of the family, and his still more generous apologies for the want of those articles for which his ingenuity could discover no substitute. though the tower is none of the largest, I shall have some trouble without him to find the apartment in which there is a fire."

But

As he spoke thus, he opened the door of the hall. "Here, at least," he said, "there is neither hearth nor harbour."

It was indeed a scene of desolation. A large vaulted room, the beams of which, combined like those of Westminster Hall, were rudely carved at the extremities, remained nearly in the situation in which it had been left after the entertainment at Allan Lord Ravenswood's funeral. Overturned pitchers, and black jacks, and pewter stoups, and flagons, still cumbered the large oaken table; glasses, those more perishable implements of conviviality, many of which had been voluntarily sacrificed by the guests in their enthusiastic pledges to favourite toasts, strewed the stone floor with their fragments. As for the articles of plate, lent for the purpose by friends and kinsfolk, those had been carefully withdrawn so soon as the ostentatious display of festivity,

equally unnecessary and strangely timed, had been made and ended. Nothing, in short, remained that indicated wealth; all the signs were those of recent wastefulness and present desolation. The black cloth hangings, which, on the late mournful occasion, replaced the tattered moth-eaten tapestries, had been partly pulled down, and, dangling from the wall in irregular festoons, disclosed the rough stone work of the building, unsmoothed either by plaster or hewn stone. The seats thrown down, or left in disorder, intimated the careless confusion which had concluded the mournful revel. "This room,' said Ravenswood, holding up the lamp-" this room, Mr. Hayston, was riotous when it should have been sad; it is a just retribution that it should now be sad when it ought to be cheerful."

They left this disconsolate apartment, and went up stairs, where, after opening one or two doors in vain, Ravenswood led the way into a little matted anti-room, in which, to their great joy, they found a tolerably good fire, which Mysie, by some such expedient as Caleb had suggested, had supplied with a reasonable quantity of fuel. Glad at the heart to see more of comfort than the castle had yet seemed to offer, Bucklaw rubbed his hands heartily over the fire, and now listened with more complacency to the apologies which the master of Ravenswood offered. "Comfort," he says, "I cannot provide for you, for I have it not for myself; it is long since these walls have known it, if indeed they were ever acquainted with it. Shelter and safety, think, I can promise you."

"Excellent matters, master," replied Bucklaw," and, with a mouthful of food and wine, positively all I can require to-night."

"I fear," said the master, 66 your supper will be a poor one; I hear the matter in discussion betwixt Caleb and Mysie. Poor Balderston is something deaf, amongst his other accomplishments, so that much of what he means should be spoken aside is overheard by the whole audience, and especially by those from whom he is most anxious to conceal his private manoeuvresHark!"

They listened, and heard the old domestic's voice in conversation with Mysie to the following effect:-"Just mak the best o't, make the best o't, woman; it's easy to put a fair face on onything."

"But the auld brood-hen?-she'll be as teugh as bow-strings and bend-leather."

66 Say ye made a mistake-say ye made a mistake, Mysie," replied the faithful seneschal, in a soothing and undertoned voice; "tak it a' on yoursel; never let the credit o' the house suffer."

"But the brood-hen," remonstrated Mysie,

ou, she's sitting some gate aneath the clais in the hall, and I am feared to gae in the dark for the bogle; and if I didna see the bogle, I could as ill see the hen, for it's pit-mirk, and there's no another light in the house, save that very blessed lamp whilk the master has in his ain hand. And if I had the hen, she's to pu', and to draw, and to dress; how can I do that, and their sitting by the only fire we have?"

"Weel, weel, Mysie," said the butler, "bide

VOL. III.

E