against a kiss of mine, that he carries swords made of good Ripon steel, and pistols of good Swedish iron, in yon horsepack of his-wilt thou pledge a kiss, my gentle cousin? And instead of a brain, stored with plans for passing an English yard for a Scottish ell, and making pieces of homespun plaiding seem costly works from the looms of Arras, or even Leeds, it is furnished with more perilous stuff, pretty Eleanor ; and no man can tell us better, how many of the Scottish cavaliers have their feet ready for the stirrup, and on what day they will call on the Selbys to mount and strike for their ancient lord and their lost inheritance." Something of Something of this colour had been passing in my own mind, but the temper of the Selbys ever more required to be repressed than encouraged and so I endeavoured to manage thee poor Walter Selby," she went on in a slow solemn tone-" I saw thee, thou last and thou bravest of all the Selbys with thy banner spread, thy sword bright, and thy long golden locks waving on thy shoulders, when the barriers of Preston were lost and won, and the gallant lairds of Ashiesteel fought like brothers by thy side— O, that this last bright picture were all I remember of thee. But can the heart of woman, though her head be gray, forget that she saw those long locks which made the dames sigh, waving, soiled and bloody, on the gates of Carlisle. There is much done in this world that must be answered for in the next, and this cruel and remorseless deed is one-." Old Eleanor, while she spoke, looked as though her agitated fancy had given semblance to the picture she had drawn, and her eyes be

came as fixed and frozen, as stars in a winter night. This passed away with a smothered groan and a passing of her hand over her bosom, and she again resumed her narrative,

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Truly," said I, my forward cousin, thou art the best soldier our poor prince could peril his cause with thou canst make a pedlar churl into a deep plodding politician, capable of overturning a throne. And his pack filled with shreds of lace and remnants of ribbon, into a maga zine of weapons fit for furnishing an army. What will thy wise head make of these dubious sybil verses, which this mysterious politician of thine has been doling out for thy especial instruc tion?""By the rood, my witty Eleanor," said Walter, "I shall win a battle, and wed thee in revenge for this. But thinkest thou not, that the box which has endowed that white neck of thine with a cross and rosary of gold, and wood still more precious, may not contain things equally curious and strange? Some golden information, this pedlar -since pedlar thou wilt have himcarries in his looks-I wish I could find the way to extract it." The stranger, as if guessing by our looks and our whispers what was passing between us, proceeded to instruct us in his own singular way he described the excellent temper of his Sheffield whittles-prais ed the curious qualities of his specta cles which might enable the wearer to see distant events, and after soothing over some lines of a psalm or hymn, common to the presbyterians, he proceeded to chant the following ballad, of which I regret the loss of several

verses.

"The whole household of Wiltonhall, including Walter Selby and myself, had gradually gathered around this merchant-minstrel, whose voice from an ordinary chant, had arisen, as we became interested, into a tone of deep martial melody. Nor was it the voice alone of the stranger that became changed, his face, which at the commencement of the ballad had a dubious and sinister expression, brightened up with enthusiasm, his frame grew erect, and his eyes gleamed with that fierce light which has been observed in the eyes of the English soldiers on the eve of battle. “What thinkest thou, fair Eleanor, of our merchant now," said Walter Selby; "I should like to have such a form on my right hand when I try to empty the saddles of the southern horse of some of the keenest whigs.""And I'll pledge thee, young gentleman," said the pedlar, raising his voice at once from the provincial drawl and obscurity of lowland Scotch into the purest English," any vow thou askest of me to ride on which hand thou wilt, and be to thee a friend and a brother, when the battle is at the hottest, and so I give thee hand on't." my "I touch no hand," said Walter Selby, " and I vow no vow either in truce or battle, till I know if thou art of the lineage of the gentle or the churl; I am a Selby, and the Selbys" "The Selbys," said the stranger, in a tone, slow and deliberate, 66 are an ancient and a noble race; but this is no time, young gentleman, to scruple precedence of blood. In the field where I have ridden, noble deeds have been achieved by common hands, while the gentle and the far descended have sat apart nor soiled their swords; I neither I am say of a race churlish or noble, but my sword is as sharp as other men's, and might do thee a friendly deed, were it nigh thee in danger."" Now God help us," said the dame of Wilton-hall, " what will old England becomehere's young Wat Selby debating lineage and blood with a packman churl-in good truth, if I had but one drop of

gentle blood in my veins, I would wrap him up in his own plaid and beat him to death with his own ell wand, which I'll warrant is a full thumb breadth short of measure." I stood looking on Walter Selby and the stranger, the former standing aloof, with a look of haughty determination, and the latter, with an aspect of calm and intrepid resolution, enduring the scoff of the hot-brained youth, and the scorn of the vulgar matrón. It might be now about nine o'clock, the air was balmy and mute, the sky blue and unclouded, and the moon, yet unrisen, had sent as much of her light before her as served, with the innumerable stars, to lighten the earth from the summit of the mountains to the deepest vales. I never looked upon a more lovely night, and gladly turned my face from the idle disputants to the green. mountain-side, upon which that forerunner gleam which precedes the moon had begun to scatter its light. While continued gazing, there appeared a sight on Soutra-fell side, strange, ominous, and obscure, at that time, but which was soon after explained in desolation and in blood. I saw all at once, a body of horsemen coming swiftly down the steep and impassible side of the mountain, where no earthly horse ever rode. They amounted to many hundreds, and trooped onwards in succession, their helmets gleaming, and their drawn swords shining amid the starlight. On beholding this vision, I uttered a faint scream, and Walter Selby, who was always less or more than other men, shouted till the mountain echoed. "Saw ever man so gallant a sight? A thousand steeds and riders on the perpendicular side of old Soutra-see where they gallop along a line, where I could hardly fly a hawk! O, for a horse with so sure and so swift a foot as these, that I might match me with this elfin chivalry. My wanton brown, which can bound across the Derwent like a bird with me on its back, is but a packhorse to one of these." Alarm was visible in every face around; for we all knew

4

obliged to go a sinuous course, like the meanderings of a brook, round rock and cairn and heathy hill, while the horn, continuing to sound, still seemed as far a-head as when we first heard it. It was about twelve o'clock; and the moon gleamed down from the summit of a mountain, and lightened us on our way through a narrow wooded valley, where a small stream glimmered and sparkled in the light, and ran so crooked a course, as compelled us to cross it every hundred yards. Walter now addressed me in his own singular way: "Fair Eleanor, mine own grave and staid cousin, knowest thou whither thou goest? Comest thou to counsel how fifty men may do the deeds of thousands, and how the crown of this land may be shifted like a 'prentice's cap? "Truly," said I, "I go with thee, like an afflicted damosel of yore, in the belief that thy wisdom and valour may reinstate me in my ancient domains, or else win for me some new and princely inheritance." Thou speakest," said the youth, "like one humble in hope, and puttest thy trust in one who would willingly work miracles to oblige thee. But ponder, fair damsel-my sword, though the best blade in Cumberland, cannot cut up into relics five or six regiments of dragoons; nor is this body, though devoted to thee, made of that knight-errant stuff that can resist sword and bullet. So I counsel thee, most discreet coz, to content thyself with hearing the sound of battle afar off, for we are going on a journey of no small peril." To these sensible and considerate words, I answered nothing, but rode on, looking, all the while, Walter Selby in the face, and endeavouring to say something witty or wise. He resumed his converse: "Nay, nay, mine own sweet and gentle cousin, my sweet Eleanor, I am too proud of that troubled glance of thine, to say one word more about separation," and our horses' heads and our cheeks came closer as he spoke." That ballad of the pedlar, for pedlar shall the knight be still, to

oblige thee, his ballad told more truth than I reckoned a minstrel might infuse into verse. All the border cavaliers of England and Scotland are near us, or with us, and now for the game of coronets and crowns,-a coffin, coz, or an earl's bauble, for we march upon Preston." Prepared as I was for these tidings, I could not hear them without emotion, and I looked with an eye on Walter Selby that was not calculated to inspire acts of heroism. I could not help connecting our present march on Preston with the shadowy procession I had so recently witnessed; and the resemblance which one of the phantoms bore to the youth beside me, pressed on my heart. "Now do not be afraid of our success, my fair coz," said he, "when to all the proud names of the border-names thou hast long since learned by heart, and rendered musical by repeating them—we add the names of two most wise and prudent persons, who shall hereafter be called the setters-up and pluckers down of kings-even thy cool and chivalrous cousin, and a certain staid and sedate errant damosel." This conversation obtained for us the attention of several stranger cavaliers who happened to join us as, emerging from the woody glen, we entered upon a green and wide moor or common. One of them, with a short cloak and slouched hat and heron's feather, rode up to my right hand, and glancing his eye on our faces, thus addressed himself to me in a kind-hearted, but antique style: "Fair lady, there be sights less to a warrior's liking than so sweet a face beside a wild mountain, about the full of the moon. The cause that soils one of these bright tresses in dew, must be a cause dear to man's heart; and, fair one, if thou wilt permit me to ride by thy bridle-rein, my presence may restrain sundry flouts and jests which young cavaliers, somewhat scant of grace and courtesy (and there be such in our company) may use, on seeing a lady so fair and so young, on such a dangerous and un