flung open that accursed postern gate, and forth pricked old Hunsdon, and Henry Carey, and as many fellows at their heels as turned the chace northward again. So I e'en pricked Bayard with the spur and went off with the rest; for a man should ride when he may not wrestle, as they say in Tynedale."

"Trust me," said the knight, again turning to Mary Avenel," if I do not pity you, lady, who, being of noble blood, are thus in a manner compelled to abide in the cottage of the ignorant, like the precious stone in the head of a toad, or like a precious garland on the head of an ass-But soft, what gallant have we here, whose garb savoureth more of the rustic than doth his demeanour, and whose looks seem more lofty than his habit? even

"I I pray you, Sir Knight," said Mary, "to spare your courtly similitudes for refined ears, and give mẹ leave to name unto you my foster-brother, Halbert Glendinning."

"The son of the good dame of the cottage, as I opine," answered the English knight; " for by some such name did my guide discriminate the mistress of this mansion, which you, madam, enrich with your presence.-And yet, touching this juvenal, he hath that about him which belongeth to higher birth, for all are not black who dig coals

"Nor all white who are millers," said honest Hob, glad to get in a word, as they say, edgeways.

my

Halbert, who had sustained the glance of the Englishman with some impatience, and knew not what to make of his manner and language, replied with some asperity," Sir Knight, we have in this land of Scotland an ancient saying, 'Scorn not the bush that bields you'-you are a guest in father's house to shelter you from danger, if I am rightly informed by the domestics. Scoff not its homeliness or that of its inmates-ye might long have abidden at the court of England, ere we had sought your favour or cumbered you with our sofate has sent you ciety. Since hither amongst your us, be contented with such fare and such converse as we can afford you, and scorn us not for our kindness; for the Scots wear short patience and long swords."

All eyes were turned on Halbert while he was thus speaking, and there was a general feeling that his countenance had an expression of intelligence, and his person an air of dignity, which they had never before observed. Whether it were that the wonderful Being with whom he had so lately held and communication, had bestowed on him a grace dignity of look and bearing which he had not before, or whether the being conversant in high matters, and called to a destiny beyond that of other men, had a natural effect in giving becoming con

fidence to his language and manner, we pretend not to determine. But it was evident to all, that, from this day, young Halbert was an altered man; that he acted with the steadiness, promptitude, and determination which belonged to riper years, and bore himself with a manner which appertained to higher rank.

66

The knight took the rebuke with good humour. By mine honour," he said, "thou hast reason on thy side, good juvenal-nevertheless, I spoke not as in ridicule of the roof which relieves me, but rather in your own praise, to whom, if this roof be native, thou mayst nevertheless rise from its lowliness; even as the lark, which maketh its humble nest in the furrow, ascendeth towards the sun, as well as the eagle which buildeth her eyry in the cliff."

66

This high-flown discourse was interrupted by Dame Glendinning, who, with all the busy anxiety of a mother, was loading her son's trencher with food, and dinning in his ear her reproaches on account of his prolonged absence. And see," she said, "that you do not one day get such a sight while you are walking about among the haunts of them that are not of our flesh and bone, as befell Mungo Murray when he slept on the greenswardring of the Auld Kirkhill at sun-set, and wakened at day-break in the wild hills of Breadalbane. And see that when you are looking for deer, the red

stag does not gaul you as it did Diccon Thorburn, who never cast the wound that he took from a buck's-horn. And see, when you go swaggering about with a long broad-sword by your side, whilk it becomes no peaceful man to do, that you dinna meet with them that have broad-sword and lance both-there are enow of rank riders in this land that neither fear God nor regard man."

Here her eye," in a fine frenzy rolling," fell full upon that of Christie of the Clint-hill, and at once her fears for having given offence interrupted the current of maternal rebuke, which, like rebuke matrimonial, may be often better meant than timed. There was something of sly and watchful significance in Christie's eye, an eye grey, keen, fierce, yet wily, formed to express at once cunning and malice, which made the dame instantly conjecture she had said too much, while she saw in imagination her twelve goodly cows go lowing down the glen in a moonlight night, with half a score of Border spearmen at their heels.

Her voice, therefore, sunk from the elevated tone of maternal authority into a whimpering apologetic sort of strain, and she proceeded to say, "It is no that I have any ill thoughts of the Border riders, for Tibb Tacket there has often heard me say that I thought spear and bridle as natural to a Border-man as a pen to a priest, or a feather

fan to a lady-and have you not heard me say it, Tibb ?"

Tibb shewed something less than her expected alacrity in attesting her mistress's deep respect for the freebooters of the southland hills; but, thus conjured, did at length reply, "Hout ay, mistress, I'se warrant I have heard you say something like that."

"Mother!" said Halbert, in a firm and commanding tone of voice, "what or whom is it that you fear under my father's roof?-I well hope that it harbours not a guest in whose presence you are afraid to say your pleasure to me or my brother? I am sorry I have been detained so late, being ig norant of the fair company which I should encounter on my return.-I pray you let this excuse suf fice and what satisfies you, will, I trust, be nothing less than acceptable to your guests."

An answer calculated so justly betwixt the submission due to his parent, and the natural feeling of dignity in one who was by birth master of the mansion, excited universal satisfaction. And as Elspeth herself confessed to Tibb on the same evening, "She did not think it had been in the callant. Till that night, he took pets and passions if he was spoke to, and lap through the house like a four-year-auld at the least word of advice that was minted at him, but now he spoke as grave and as douce as the Lord Abbot himself. She kenn'd