shone forth. Every offer of aid was promptly rejected. He made it a point of honor to pay every penny. To do this he redoubled his energy, turning out novels with unprecedented rapidity, aud rarely did his spirits lag. But so intense a strain could not long be endured. His health, which had been none too good for many years, rapidly declined. A six months' residence in Italy failed to do him any good. His great task all but accomplished, he died at Abbotsford, September 21, 1832. His body rests amid the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, not many miles down the Tweed from his famous home.

The characteristics of Scott, the man and the author, are apparent. We have seen that he was a hard worker and an equally hard player; that he had a fearless, open, winning nature; that he loved the past that rings with tilt and tourney; and that very dear to him was his native Scotland. The careful reader will have no difficulty in adding to this list of characteristics. A parting word of caution, however, may not be amiss: Scott was a great and good man, an author whom we may safely make a life companion; but he was not perfect. The spirit of his entire life tells us that the great man would prefer that we do not put him on a cold pedestal for blind worship, but rather treat him as a fellow-creature, human like ourselves.

The standard biography of Scott is by his son-in-law, Mr. Lockhart. A good short biography is that by Richard H. Hutton.

A GROUP OF WAVERLEY NOVELS

The Talisman. This is a story of the Third Crusade, the scene being laid in the East. The time is that of Ivanhoe.

The Heart of Midlothian. The heroine is Jeanie Deans, most lovable of all Scott's woman characters.

Old Mortality. This is called, by some, the best of Scott's historical novels. It deals with the encounters of 1679 between the Cavaliers and the Covenanters.

Rob Roy. Rob Roy is "the Robin Hood of Scotland," a clever outlaw of the early eighteenth century.

Kenilworth. Contains the sad story of Amy Robsart. Queen Elizabeth is one of the principal characters. The Monastery and The Abbott. Queen of Scots.

These have for heroine Mary,

IVANHOE

A ROMANCE

Now fitted the halter, now traversed the cart,
And often took leave, but seem'd loath to depart!

PRIOR.

IVANHOE

CHAPTER I

Thus communed these; while to their lowly dome,
The full-fed swine return'd with evening home;
Compell'd, reluctant, to the several sties,
With din obstreperous, and ungrateful cries.

POPE's Odyssey.

IN that pleasant district of merry England which is watered by the river Don, there extended in ancient times a large forest, covering the greater part of the beautiful hills and valleys which lie between Sheffield and the pleasant town of Doncaster.

The remains of this extensive wood are still to be seen at the noble seats of Wentworth, of Warncliffe Park, and around Rotherham. Here haunted of yore the fabulous Dragon of Wantley; here were fought many of the most desperate battles during the Civil Wars of the Roses; and here also flourished in ancient times those bands of gallant outlaws, whose deeds have been rendered so popular in English song.

Such being our chief scene, the date of our sto refers to a period towards the end of the reign of Richard I., when his return from his long captivity had become an event rather wished than hoped for by his despairing subjects, who were in the meantime subjected to every species of subordinate oppression. The nobles, whose power had become exorbitant during the reign of Stephen, and whom the prudence of Henry the Second had scarce reduced into some degree of subjection to the crown, had now resumed their ancient license in its utmost extent; despising the feeble interference of the English Council of State, fortifying their castles, increasing the number of their dependants, reducing all around them to a state of

vassalage, and striving by every means in their power, to place themselves each at the head of such forces as might enable him to make a figure in the national convulsions which appeared to be impending.

The situation of the inferior gentry, or Franklins, as they were called, who, by the law and spirit of the English constitution, were entitled to hold themselves independent of feudal tyranny, became now unusually precarious. If, as was most generally the case, they placed themselves under the protection of any of the petty kings in their vicinity, accepted of feudal offices in his household, or bound themselves, by mutual treaties of alliance and protection, to support him in his enterprises, they might indeed purchase temporary repose; but it must be with the sacrifice of that independence which was so dear to every English bosom, and at the certain hazard of being involved as a party in whatever rash expedition the ambition of their protector might lead him to undertake. On the other hand, such and so multiplied were the means of vexation and oppression possessed by the great Barons, that they never wanted the pretext, and seldom the will, to harass and pursue, even to the very edge of destruction, any of their less powerful neighbours, who attempted to separate themselves from their authority, and to trust for their protection, during the dangers of the times, to their own inoffensive conduct, and to the laws of the land.

A circumstance which greatly tended to enhance the tyranny of the nobility, and the sufferings of the inferior classes, arose from the consequences of the Conquest by Duke William of Normandy. Four generations had not sufficed to blend the hostile blood of the Normans and Anglo-Saxons, or to unite, by common language and mutual interests, two hostile races, one of which still felt the elation of triumph, while the other groaned under all the consequences of defeat. The power had been completely placed in the hands of the Norman nobility, by the event of the battle of Hastings, and it had been used, as our histories assure us, with no moderate hand. The whole race of Saxon princes and nobles had been extirpated or disinherited, with few or no exceptions; nor were the numbers great who possessed land in the country of their fathers, even