who had spent his heirship and moveables, like a gentleman, at cock-matches, bull-baitings, horse-races, and the like. Now, Donald Bean Lean, being aware that the bridegroom was in request, and wanting to cleik the cunzie (that is, to hook the silver), he cannily carried off Gilliewhackit ae night when he was riding dovering hame (wi' the malt rather above the meal), and with the help of his gillies he gat him into the hills with the speed of light, and the first place he wakened in was the cove of Uaimh an Ri. So there was old to do about ransoming the bridegroom; for Donald would not lower a farthing of a thousand pounds.>>

<< The devil!»

<< Punds Scottish, ye shall understand. And the lady had not the silver if she had pawned her gown; and they applied to the governor o' Stirling castle, and to the major o' the Black Watch; and the governor said, it was ower far to the northward, and out of his district; and the major said, his men were gane hame to the shearing, and he would not call them out before the victual was got in for all the Cramfeezers in Christendom, let alone the Mearns, for that it would prejudice the country. And in the meanwhile ye'll no hinder Gilliewhackit to take the small-pox. There was not the doctor in Perth or Stirling would look near the poor lad, and I cannot blame them; for Donald

had been misguggled by ane of these doctors about Paris, and he swore he would fling the first into the loch that he catched beyond the Pass. However, some cailliachs (that is, old women), that were about Donald's hand, nursed Gilliewhackit sae weel, that between the free open air in the cove and the fresh whey, deil an' he did not recover may be as weel as if he had been closed in a glazed chamber and a bed with curtains, and fed with red wine and white meat. And Donald was so vexed about it, that when he was stout and weell, he even sent him free hame, and said he would be pleased with ony thing they would chuse to give him for the plague and trouble which he had about Gilliewhackit to an unkenn'd degree. And I cannot tell you precisely how they sorted; but they agreed sae weel, that Donald was invited to dance at the wedding in his Highland trews, and they said there was never sae meikle silver clinked in his purse either before or since. And to the boot of all that, Gilliewhackit said, that, be the evidence what it liked, if he had the luck to be on Donald's inquest, he would bring him in guilty of nothing whatever, unless it were wilful arson, or murder under trust.»

With such bald and disjointed chat Evan I went on illustrating the existing state of the Highlands, more perhaps to the amusement of Waverley than that of our readers. At

length, after having marched over bank and brae, moss and heather, Edward, though not unacquainted with the Scottish liberality in computing distance, began to think that Evan's five miles were nearly doubled. His observation on the large measure which the Scottish allowed of their land in comparison to the computation of their money, was readily answered by Evan, with the old jest, « The deil take them who have the least pint stoup."

And now the report of a gun was heard, and a sportsman was seen, with his dogs and attendant, at the upper end of the glen. Shogh," said Dugald Mahony, «tat's ta chief.»

ye

« It is not," said Evan, imperiously. « Do think he would come to meet a Sassenach duinhéwassel (English gentleman) in such a way as that?»

But as they approached a little nearer, he said, with an appearance of mortification, «< And it is even he sure enough, and he has not his tail on after all;-there is no living creature with him but Callum Beg.»

In fact, Fergus Mac-Ivor, of whom a Frenchman might have said, as truly as of any man in the Highlands, « Qu'il connoît bien ses gens,» had no idea of raising himself in the eyes of an English young man of fortune, by appearing with a retinue of idle Highlanders dispropor

tioned to the occasion. He was well aware that such an unnecessary attendance would seem to Edward rather ludicrous than respectable; and while few men were more attached to ideas of chieftainship and feudal power, he was, for that very reason, cautious of exhibiting external marks of dignity, unless at the time and in the manner when they were most likely to produce an imposing effect. Therefore, although, had he been to receive a brother chieftain, he would probably have been attended by all that retinue which Evan had described with so much unction, he judged it more respectable to advance to meet Waverley with a single attendant, a very handsome Highland boy, who carried his master's shooting-pouch and his broad-sword, without which he seldom went abroad.

When Fergus and Waverley met, the latter was struck with the peculiar grace and dignity of the chieftain's figure. Above the middle size, and finely proportioned, the Highland dress, which he wore in its simplest mode, set off his person to great advantage. He wore the trews, or close trowsers made of tartan, checqued scarlet and white; in other particulars, his dress strictly resembled Evan's, excepting that he had no weapon save a dirk, very richly mounted with silver. His page, as we have said, carried his claymore, and

the fowling-piece, which he held in his hand, seemed only designed for sport. He had shot in the course of his walk some young wildducks, as, though close-time was then unknown, the broods of grouse were yet too young for the sportsman. His countenance was decidedly Scotch, with all the peculiarities of the northern physiognomy, but had yet so little of its harshness and exaggeration, that it would have been pronounced in any country extremely handsome. The martial air of the bonnet, with a single eagle's feather as a distinction, added much to the manly appearance of his head, which was besides ornamented with a far more natural and graceful cluster of close black curls than ever were exposed to sale in Bond-Street.

An air of openness and affability increased the favourable impression derived from this handsome and dignified exterior. Yet a skilful physiognomist would have been less satisfied with the countenance on the second than on the first view. The eyebrow and upper lip bespoke something of the habit of peremptory command, and decisive superiority. Even his courtesy, though open, frank, and unconstrained, seemed to indicate a sense of personal importance; and upon any check or accidental excitation, a sudden, though transient lour of the eye, showed a hasty, haughty, and vin