when my kinsman came to the village wi' the new factor, Mr. James Howie, to lift the rents, some wan-chancy person-I suspect John Heatherblutter, the auld game-keeper, that was out wi' me in the year fifteen-fired a shot at him in the gloaming, whereby he was so affrighted, that I may say with Tullius in Catilinam, Abiit, evasit, erupit, effugit. He fled, sir, as one may say, incontinent to Stirling. And now he hath advertised the estate for sale, being himself the last institute in this entail.-And if I were to grieve about sic matters, this would grieve me mair than its passing from my immediate possession, whilk, by the course of nature, must have happened in a few years. Whereas now it passes from the lineage that should have possessed it in sæcula sæculorum. But God's will be done, humana perpessi sumus. Sir John of Bradwardine-Black sir John, as he is called-who was the common ancestor of our house and the Inch-Grabbits, little thought such a person would have sprung from his loins. Meantime, he has accused me to some of the primates, the rulers for the time, as if I were a cut-throat, and an abettor of bravoes and assassinates, and coupe-jarrets. And they have sent soldiers here to abide on the estate, and hunt me like a partridge upon the mountains, as scripture says of good King David, or like our valiant Sir William Wallace-not that I bring myself into comparison with either. I thought when I heard you at the door, they had driven the auld deer to his den at last; and so I e'en proposed to die at bay, like a buck of the first head. But now, Janet, canna ye gie us something for supper?"

"Ou, ay, sir, I'll brander the moor fowl that John Heatherblutter brought in this morning; and ye see puir Davie's roasting the black hen's eggs. I dare say, Mr. Wauverley, ye never kend that a' the eggs that were sae weel roasted at supper in the Ha'-house were aye turned by our Davie; there's no like o' him ony gate for powtering wi' his fingers amang the

het peat-ashes, and roasting eggs." Davie all this while lay with his nose almost in the fire, nuzzling among the ashes, kicking his heels, mumbling to himself, and turning the eggs as they lay in the hot embers, as if to confute the proverb, that," there goes reason to roasting of eggs," and justify the eulogium which poor Janet poured out upon

"Him whom she loved, her ideot boy."

"Davie's no sae silly as folks tak him for, Mr. Wauverley; he wadna hae brought you here unless he had kend ye was a friend to his honour-indeed the very dogs kend ye, Mr. Wauverley, for ye was aye kind to beast and body.-I can tell you a story o' Davie, wi' his honour's leave: His honour, ye see, being under hiding in thae sair times-the mair's the pity-he lies a' day, and whiles a' night, in the cove in the dern hag; but though it's a bieldy enough bit,. and the auld gudeman o' Corse Cleugh has panged it wi' a kemple o' strae amaist, yet when the country's quiet, and the night very cauld, his honour whiles creeps down here to get a warm at the ingle, and a sleep amang the blankets, and gangs awa' in the morning. And so ae morning siccan a fright as I got! twa unlucky red-coats were up for black-fishing, or some siccan ploy, for the neb o' them 's never out of mischief; and they just got a glisk o' his honour as he gaed into the wood, and banged off a gun at him. I out like a jer-falcon, and cried-Wad they shute an honest woman's poor innocent bairn?' and I fleyt at them, and threepit it was my son; and they damned and swuir at me that it was the auld rebel, as the villains ca'd his honour; and Davie was in the wood, and heard the tuilzie, and he, just out of his ain head, got up the auld gray mantle that his honour had flung off him to gang the faster, and he cam out o' the very same bit o' the wood, majoring, and looking about sae like his honour, that they were

clean beguiled, and thought they had letten aff their gun at crack brained Sawney, as they ca' him, and they gae me sixpence, and twa saumon fish, to say naething about it. Na, na, Davie's no just like other folk, puir fellow; but he's no sae silly as folk tak him for. But, to be sure, how can we do enough for his honour, when we and ours have lived on his ground this twa hundred years; and when he keeped my puir Jamie at school and college, and even at the Ha’house, till he gaed to a better place; and when he saved me frae being ta'en to Perth as a witch-Lord forgie them that would touch such a puir silly auld body-and has maintained puir Davie at neck and manger maist feck o' his life?" Waverley at length found an opportunity to interrupt Janet's narrative, by an inquiry after Miss Bradwardine.

"She's weel and safe, thank God! at the Duchran," answered the baron; the laird's distantly related to us, and more nearly to my chaplain, Mr. Rubrick; and, though he be of Whig principles, yet he's not forgetful of auld friendship at this time. The baillie's doing what he can to save something out of the wreck for puir Rose; but I doubt, I doubt, I shall never see her again, for I maun lay my banes in some far country.

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"Hout na, your honour; ye were just as ill aff in the feifteen, and got the bonnie baronie back, an' a'; and now the eggs is ready, and the muir-cock's brandered, and there's ilk ane a trencher and some saut, and the heel o' the white loaf that cam frae the baillie's; and there's plenty o' brandy in the graybeard that Luckie Maclearie sent down, and winna ye be supped like princes?"

"I wish one prince, at least, of our acquaintance may be no worse off," said the baron to Waverley, who joined him in cordial hopes for the safety of the unfortunate chevalier.

They then began to talk of their future prospects. The baron's plan was very simple. It was, to es

cape to France, where by the interest of his old friends, he hoped to get some military employment, of which he still conceived himself capable. He invited Waverley to go with him; a proposal in which he acquiesced, provided the interest of Colonel Talbot should tail in procuring his pardon. Tacitly he hoped the baron would sanction his addresses to Rose, and give him a right to assist him in his exile, but he forebore to speak on this subject until his own fate should be decided. They then talked of Glennaquoich, for whom the baron expressed great anxiety, although, he observed, he was "the very Achilles of Horatius Flaccus

Impiger, iracundis, inexorabilis, acer.

Which has been thus rendered vernacularly by Struan Robertson:

A fiery etter-cap, a fractious chiel,

As hot as ginger, and as stieve as steel."

Flora had a large and unqualified share of the good old man's sympathy.

It was now wearing late. Old Janet got into some kind of kennel behind the ballan; Davie had been long asleep and snoring between Ban and Buscar. These dogs had followed him to the hut after the mansion-house was deserted, and there constantly resided: and their ferocity, with the old woman's reputation of being a witch, contributed a good deal to keep people from the glen. With this view, Baillie Macwheeble supplied Janet underhand with meal for their maintenance, and also with little articles of luxury for his patron's use; in supplying which much precaution was necessarily used. After some compli ments, the baron occupied his usual couch, and Waverley reclined in an easy chair of tattered velvet, which had once garnished the state bed-room of Tully-Veolan, (for the furniture of this mansion was now scattered through all the cottages in the vicinity,) and went to sleep as comfortably as in a bed of down.

CHAPTER XXVII.

More Explanation.

WITH the first dawn of day, old Janet was scuttling about her house to wake the baron, who usually slept sound and heavily.

"I must go back," he said, to Waverley," to my cove; will you walk down the glen wi' me?" They went out together, and followed a narrow and entangled footpath, which the occasional passage of anglers, or wood-cutters, had traced by the side of the stream. On their way, the baron explained to Waverley, that he would be under no danger in remaining a day or two at Tully-Veolan, and even in being seen walking about, if he used the precaution of pretending that he was looking at the estate as agent, or surveyor, for an English gentleman, who designed to be purchaser. With this view, he recommended to him to visit the baillie, who still lived at the factor's house, called Little Veolan, about a mile from the village, though he was to remove at next term. Stanley's passport would be an answer to the officer who commanded the military; and as to any of the country people who might recognise Waverley, the baron assured him he was in no danger of being betrayed by them.

"I believe," said the old man, "half the people of the barony know that the auld laird is somewhere here-about, for I see they do not suffer a single bairn to come here a bird-nesting; a practice whilk, when I was in full possession of my power as baron, I was unable totally to interdict. Nay, I often find bits of things in my way, that the poor bodies, God help them! leave there, because they think they may be useful to me. I hope they will get a wiser master, and as kind a one as I was."