UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAKiN BOOKSTACKS L O CIIAXDHL" A TALE OF THE KfGKTEEXTH CEXTTRY. ci.vr De nos JOTTTS cetrx: cfva. accuses de'tre TOin.aiLe^q^trjD ', ,"* ' ' Ciiamf ort . IX THREE VO LIMES VOL. I EDI>s BTJRCVH; rRIXTEII FOR ARCHIBALD COXSTAHLE AXI) C •i EDIXBrR&H; AXI> HCRST, ROB IX SOX AXD C9 I,OXUOX. 1^26. £. I V ?. V. %^ 13-9 " LocH-AN-EiLAN. — This lake is much embellished by an ancient castle standing on an island within it, and even yet entire, though roofless. As a Highland castle, it is of considerable di- mensions, and the island being scarcely larger than its founda- tions, it appears to rise immediately out of the water. It would not be easy to imagine a wilder position than this, for a den of thieves and robbers, nor one more thoroughly romantic. It is more like the things of which we read in the novels of the Otran- to School, than a scene of real life. If ever you should propose to rival the Author of Waverley in that line of art, I recommend you to choose part of your scene here. As I lay on its topmost tower, amid the universal silence, while the bright sun exalted the perfume from the woods around, and all the old world visions and romances seemed to flit about its grey and solitary ruins, I, too, felt as if I would have written a chapter that might hereafter be worthy the protection of Minerva — the Minerva of Leadenhall Street." MacCulloch's Letters on the Highlands of Scotland. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. Courteous Reader! I AM an elderly man of easy fortune, that is to say, I have enough for all the wants of an individual of my retired and moderate habits. Retired I may well enough call them; for, though I move in the sun-beam of human existence, I so rarely impinge upon any of my fellow atoms, that I am almost as little known as if I had no corporeal entity. " Whatten a dumpy-looking body's that wi' the brown wig?" said a barber's ap- prentice to the servant girl, as I one day passed up stairs to my lodgings. " Troth, I dinna ken," answered the girl; 11 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. " he's an odd being they ca' Mongomery, that leeves in our house." I stopped at the turn of the stair to hear the rest. " He's had our best rooms for mair nor five or six years. He keeps them winter an' simmer, though he aye bangs aff with the first eomin' o' the gouk, and ne'er comes back till driven in wi' the bad wather, like a wudcock, in the hinder end o' autumn. He seldom taks mair nor twa sarks an' a change o' stockins wi' him. Whan he's at hame he never sees a mortal, or speaks to a soul — an' he's aye vrite vriting. But he's a harmless creatur' — pays weel, — and gi'es luico little trouble." I was amused with this sketch of my own portrait. The fact is, that being fitted ra- ther for a spectator of life's comedy than to be an actor in it, I haunt the public places of resort, during the bad weather INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. Ill half of the year, greedily devouring man and his affairs ; and then, during the more genial months, I roam about the country, mixing up the same substantial food, with the refreshing sallad of romantic scenery. Thus I find materials to occupy my pen in newspapers and magazines ; and to make amends for the silence my tongue visually maintains to those around me, I enlighten the pubHc in general with the fruits of my lucubrations. When the first good weather appears, I fit myself with a new jacket, breeches, and gaiters, and a stout pair of shoes ; and with a tough oak sapling in my hand, away I go to follow my nose, whitherso- ever it may lead. As I never can deter- mine whither my steps are to turn, till I find myself fairly on the way, the curiosi- ty of my worthy landlady, about the di- rection of these my summer jaunts, re- lY INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. mains unsatisfied. So utterly ignorant is she, indeed, of my motions, that if death should chance to arrest me in the midst of my wanderings, I shall probably be buried by strangers, unknown and un- wept, in the spot where I am stricken down ; and then Mrs Gladstanes will be left to wonder and guess at the fate that prevents my periodical return. But here I am, safe for this season at least, installed in the full comfort of my old morocco chair, with my mind so full of interesting matter, that I must have a book of my own to put it into. — But before I give it you. Sir, I will tell you how I came by it. I happened to be wandering on foot through the grand pass of the Grampians, when I overtook a respectable looking old man with a grey head, and a hale, though weather-beaten face, who had seated him- self on the parapet of a bridge, a few INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. V miles from the inn of Dalwhinnie. Though averse to anything like general intercourse with mankind, my heart warms to a soli- tary mortal like myself, especially when I meet him, as I thus did Johnny Fimister, as he called himself, in one of nature's wild and lonely mountain scenes, where man feels himself but as a speck amidst the gran- deur of her works. I sat down by him, and after we had made acquaintance by a friendly pinch of snufF, and some remarks upon the weather, we set out on our tra- vel together. I was not inquisitive, but Johnny showed every desire to be com- municative, and made the road so short, as the saying is, by his stories, that we reached the place of rest and refreshment, ere we had, as I thought, gone half way. As we entered the court-yard of the inn, we observed a tall, and very bulky old man, in enormous jack-boots, with a great VI INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. queue hanging over the capes of a bhie surtout, who was in the act of mounting a powerful horse. The pedlar made two or three hasty steps forwards, and looked up in the rider's face, as he was adjusting himself on the saddle, and then returned, as if he had been mistaken in his man, and the horseman rode slowly away, with- out noticing him. 1 had already made up my mind to ask the old pedlar to sup with me ; and as he heard me order a nice dish of Loch Ericht trouts to be fried, and a couple of fowls to be split open and broiled, he very readily accepted my invitation. Little was said during the meal, both of us being too much occupied to talk. After it was over, with- out speaking, I gently pushed the punch- ladle, and the whisky and materials, over to his side of the table, with a nod and a sign. He comprehended me at once, and. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. Vll without losing a moment, mixed a bowl with most scientific precision. It was nec- tar; and lighting my segar, I spent the evening in luxurious ease and silence, lis- tening to the ceaseless chat of my new ac- quaintance, who read all my shrugs and nods of reply with admirable tact, rarely putting me to the necessity of using my unwilling organs of speech, even in a mo- nosyllable. " I saw you looked strange at me. Sir," said he, " when I glower'd yon gate, at yon auld carle on the brown naig. Troth I thought, for a gliff, that he was a man I aince see'd here about fifeteen or aughteen years syne. He was vera like him, and he was mounted upon just sic a like beast ; and as I cam lampin into the yaird that day, for I'm no athegither sae sou pie noo as I was than, he was just ridin' away after the same fashion yon yane did. But VIU INTEODUCTOPvY ADDKES8. yon canna be him, after a', for he maun be dead mony a day syne." A long draught of smoke, treasured up within my cheeks, and accompanied by a look of inquiry, told him I wished him to explain to whom he alluded. " Aye Sir, ye want to ken wha it was I saw at that time I'm speakin' o'. Troth it was nae less than the Laird o' Loch- andhu that was. Every body believed it to be him. And wha else could it be ? — for he was nae stranger, and kent a' the nooks and corners o' baith Badenoch and Strathspey. He gaed about a'where, an' mony a question he put about the auld fouk o' his ain day. But maist o' them ware dead. — He was seen to shed mony a tear. At length he rode awa' again, and naebody kent whare he gaed." " And who was Lochandhu ?" said I, INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. XI my curiosity overcoming my habitual taci- turnity, " Lochandhu !" exclaimed the pedlar, " an' did ye never hear o' Lochandhu ? — my troth, he made some steer in his time in thay pairts. Lochandhu was -But I hae gotten a deal about him in an auld warld history in my pack, though its no just a' about him neither, for there's a hantel else about ither fouk, that I ken nae- thing o'. But I'll let ye see't gin ye like," continued he, unstrapping and unlocking his box, and drawing forth a large bundle of papers. " It was a' written by a gude honest man o' a minister in this country — a great scholar, they tell me. When the worthy auld man died, his hellicate, ne'er- do-weel, havrel, o' a haflins son, couped it wi' me for a new snuff-mull, — ane o' yere horn mulls, wi' a wee bit silver, and a Scots peeble on the tap o't. Troth I X INTEODUCTORY ADDRESS. thought I had a gude bargain o't ; and gif it had been in prent, I might may be hae sauld it again for a profit. But nae- body can be fashed wi' vrite, ye ken ; and sae I hae carried a' this weight for nae- thing, ever sinsyne. I wuss I ware weel quite o't." Without a word, I opened my purse, and laying a couple of sovereigns on the p^lm of my hand, I nodded significantly at the MS., and then looked in Johnny Fimister's face. — There I read surprise and joy. " Troth ye's hae it wi' a' my heart, Sir," quoth Johnny ; " my back '11 be glad to be free o't, an' I'll walk a' the lighter M^i' thae yellow boys i' my pouch. Mony thanks t'ye, Sir — mony thanks ; I wuss ye muckle gude o't." With all the eagerness of a book collec- tor who has had the good fortune to j)op upon some rare volume at a book- stall, I INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. Xl pounced upon my precious purchase, pack- ed it up with attention, and sent it off next morning for Edinburgh by the Highland coach, addressed for myself, at Mrs Glad- stanes', with a large " Care, and to he kept dry^' on the back. On my arrival in town the other day, I was pleased to find that my worthy landlady had taken particular care of it, and as I was employed in opening the parcel, the good woman remained in the room to tell me she had done so. The strings took some time to imdo, and her curiosity made her loiter about the apartment, under pretence of dust- ing the chairs and tables with her apron, but always keeping her eyes thrown over her shoulder, as if eagerly watching for a sight of the contents. I was rejoiced to find all right. But mine hostess, on seeing no- thing but a number of quires of dirty, close- written, coarse sheets of foolscap, much Xll INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. browned, and highly perfumed with peat- reek, left the room in evident chagrin, with a half audible " hoof ! is that a' ? naething but a parcel o' auld paper to sing fowls wi' !" I had no sooner dined than I sat down with a bottle of prime fifteen, a box of se- gars, and the MS. before me; and lighting a weed, I read straight on, sipping and puff- ing alternately, until I had gone complete- ly through it. I leave you, courteous read- er, to whom I now resign it, to judge whe- ther my night was well or ill employed. Charles Montague Montgomery. Gladstones' Lodgings, James' Court, lOth November 1824. LOCHANDHU. CHAPTER I. Prythee, see there ! behold ! look ! lo ! how say you ?"* Macleth, Dentro la porta ando, ch' adito dava Ne la seconda assai piu larga cava. La stanza quadra, e spaziosa pare. E quelb di splendeute, e chiaro foco Rendea gran lurae a I'uno, e a I'altro loco. Ariosto. About fifty years ago, on a delightful evening in June, when the soft summer sky was reflected from the bosom of a calm sea, a gay pleasure yacht, of about sixty tons burden, was sailing along the bold coast defending the entrance of one of those numerous friths, indenting the north-east of Scotland. Whilst several ships, in the distance, lay almost motionless, like specks VOL. I. A S iOCHANDHU. amidst -the clear' grey shaddtr, that, deepening into an intense bkie, >^as gradually settling over the face of the ocean, a gentle breeze filled her white canvas, and kept her gaudy streamers on the stretch. She seemed, indeed, to have wooed and won the favouring zephyr exclusive- ly to herself; for, as is often the case with such light winds, it blew partially over a narrow stripe of the water in her course, producing a slight rippling line along the surface, and lifting, as it passed onwards, a thousand wavelets to be gild- ed by the declining beams of a glorious sunset. Having kept a little off shore to clear a bold headland, she tacked, stood in for the lovely little bay it protected, and then dropped her anchor within its sheltered amphitheatre, where the lofty and precipitous wall of surrounding rock promised perfect safety from every blast. A small boat, fancifully painted, was now lowered from her side, and pushed off for the beach, that formed a broad shelving pebbly mar- gin between the sea and the base of the cliffs. It was rowed by six seamen, uniformly dressed in blue jackets and white trowsers, and having leathern caps on their heads, with the word LOCHANDHU. O •^^ Dasher"" emblazoned in large letters of gold on their fronts. It was steered by a bulky, and rather elderly man, wearing something resem- bling the undress costume of a naval captain of the day, and whose hardy countenance, rusted by the action of various climates, displayed a cer- tain air of habitual command. In the bow sat a young man wrapped up in a large boat-cloak, who, as soon as the prow touched the land, jumped actively ashore, and throwing his cum- brous covering to a servant, exhibited a tall handsome person, clad in a green hunting dress, peculiarly calculated to display his finely-pro- portioned figure. On his head he wore an up- right cap of dark brown fur, decorated by a broad and rich gold band, and his luxuriantly curled black hair and whiskers gave shade to his fair, untarnished, yet manly face ; as the perfect arch of his ample eyebrows added to the beauty and nobleness of his forehead, and gave fire to his large, full, and intelligent eyes. In his hand he held a Spanish gun, of rare and curious workmanship, and his shoulders were belted with the apparatus of a sportsman. A light couteau-de-chasse hung by his side from a 4 LOCHANDHU. belt of green velvet, ornamented with gold, and his companion, who landed with somewhat less agility, was armed with a large cutlass, depend- ing from a broad belt of black leather. *' Well, Amherst Oakenwold, my boy !'' said the elder stranger to his friend, slapping him famiharly on the shoulder as he spoke, " here we are in canny Scotland ! Have I not been as good as my word ? Have I not whistled you from the Downs hither in first-rate style, and hasn't the little Dasher done her duty ? — What a thing for lying near the wind ! — never was there a better put together parcel of planks ! — I'll be bound to steer her all round the world and back again, without starting a single tim- ber." " I must admit, Cleaver,'' replied the other, stretching himself, and moving his limbs, as if delighted to escape from the confinement to which he had for some days been subjected, '' that your little yacht is the perfection of plea- sure vessels, and yourself the most expert, the steadiest, and the boldest of captains; nor will I now deny that you have a perfect right to ex- ercise all that despotic control you are wont LOCHANDHU. 5 to insist upon as your prerogative when on board." " Despotic control! Aye, what the devil would you expect from me ? — AVould you have a crew without a head, or with no harder a head than a boiled turnip ? — or, what is worse, would you have as many heads as a boatswain's cat has tails ? — No, no, that would never do ; lubber or landsman, order and obey is the word with me when I walk my quarter-deck, be it ever so small. But vvhen I put my foot on shore, I be- come as quiet and gentle as a Iamb, unless, in- deed, when I happen to be combed against the hair." '' My dear fellow," said Amherst, shaking him heartily by the hand, " nobody knows your good-nature better than I do. The kind act you have just done me, by aiding my escape from the vexation I was exposed to at home, is sufficient proof of your readiness to serve a friend." " Don^ mention it, my dear boy," cried the captain, " pray don't mention it ; I would cross the Atlantic to serve the son of my old ship- mate, not to speak of the sneaking kindness I 6 LOCHANDHU. have felt for you ever since you jumped into my arms, and kissed me, when your father in- sisted that you wouldn't remember old Cleaver in his tarred jacket — I mean that time when the Admiral brought you aboard of us at the Nore. Splice my mainsail ! what a little urchin you were then ! Why, zounds, I can hardly believe you to be the same creature ! But, belay ! — why do we stand jawing here ? Night is about to close, and we have yet to look for some place of refreshment and repose, thof I can't say these here parts aiford much prospect of our being well accommodated. I wish we had run in for one of those somewhat Christian-like towns we saw glittering along shore ; for, you know, that when I am not afloat, I like to have my com- fort in mine inn as well as e'er an alderman in the city." " I am glad we did not," said Amherst, " for I am so delighted with the romantic scenery of this lovely bay, that I should have been loath to have left it unexamined. May not yonder path lead to some human habitation ?— -Come, let us explore it." <' With all my heart," said Cleaver ; " I say, LOCHANDHU. 7 my lads, keep watch in the boat till we return ; and, O'Gollochar, do you follow your master and me." The footway-track Amherst had alluded to led them up a steep and very rugged ravine, the bed of which was encumbered by large fragments torn by time and weather from its rocky sides. A clear little rill, gushing from a copious spring to- wards its upper extremity, ran tinkling over the stony masses, and poured itself into a narrow chasm under one of the largest of them, where it was entirely lost. The fountain-head was en- closed within a circle of ancient ruined masonry, exhibiting marks of having been once polished, laid, and jointed with great nicety ; but many of the stones having been shaken from their beds, were now tufted with moss, and partially cover- ed by the broad-leaved wild plants growing in profusion around them, and the pure water, once confined to a single jet, now rushed out through various fissures. At the distance of a yard or two above the well stood the remains of the shaft of an ancient cross, and near it on the ground lay the upper part of it, half buried by 8 LOCHANDHU. the herbage, to which the humidity of the place gave peculiar luxuriance. " What a lovely, wild, and interesting spot !" exclaimed Amherst. " What a noble watering place,*" cried Cleaver; " here is water enough to supply a whole navy ; but what the deuce are these copper coins laid here for ?*" " Judging from these fragments of a cross," said his companion, " this must be some holy well. I have heard that such offerings are still made by the superstitious vulgar to springs once blessed by saints of former days, and ever since supposed to be peculiarly gifted, even although popery has ceased to protect them."*' Having reached the brow of the crags, a very cheerless prospect presented itself to their eyes. The downs, extending for several miles along the summit of the rocks, and rising in elevation as they retreated inland, displayed a barren sur- face of irregularly-blown sand heaps, covered with patches of wiry bent grass. Beyond all this a bold promontory arose to the westward, its green head exhibiting traces of ancient forti- fications ; and, farther still, the eye was carried LOCHANDHU. 9 over an extensive low and sterile plain, yet more unprofitable than the ground around them. Not a house, nor even hovel, was to be descried. What appearance the country, lying beyond the ridge about a mile to the south, might wear, they had no opportunity of knowing; but, as Cleaver expressed it, what they did see looked sufficiently " glum," and damped all hopes of a snug supper. They hesitated for some time what to do. At length, as the sun had already sunk behind the huge bulk of the distant western mountains, and the sea and its coasts were be- ginning to melt into obscurity, — after wandering from knoll to knoll, without gaining any addi- tional information, they finally resolved to post- pone all further attempts to explore till to-mor- row, and to return to spend the night on board. As they were slowly preparing to descend in- to the ravine, O'Gollochar, who was immediately behind them, suddenly exclaimed, in accents of astonishment, " Sweet Vargin Mary, Master dear ! what sort of a cratur is that down yonder below ?" They threw their eyes hastily in the direction a2 10 LOCHANDHC. he pointed, and perceived, in the indistinctness of twilight, a Httle human figure, apparently a female, seated upon the shaft of the fallen cross, then about fifty yards below them. The stories they had heard of the popular superstitions of Scotland instantly crossed their minds; but whatever influence these might have had upon their attendant, whose native soil is sufficiently prolific in such belief to have given him an early tincture of it, the gentlemen laughed at such weaknesses. " Holloa you there !"*" shouted Cleaver, " can you guide us to any hostel, where we may be victualled and moored for the night ? You shall be well paid for your pilotage." The creature was sitting as if occupied in rais- ing water from the spring. It started up at the sound, stretched its tiny arms abroad, as if in alarm, and running with the rapidity of thought three times round the circle of the well, sudden- ly disappeared. Amherst, roused by curiosity from the mo- mentary surprise this singular apparition had thrown him into, rushed impetuously down the hollow to discover where it had concealed itself. LOCHANDHtr. 11 He carefully examined every nook — he looked into every crevice vrhere a human being might have been secreted, all the way from the spring down to the very bottom of the ravine, where it opened upon the strand, but he could not per- ceive the least vestige of the object of his search. Surprised and disappointed, he stood for some minutes wrapt in silent astonishment, until he was joined by Cleaver, whose obesity of person, ill calculated for such rapid movements, had permitted him to follow but slowly. " Why, Amherst, my boy," cried the captain, puffing and blowing as he spoke, *' why, Am- herst, you must surely have the legs of a goat, or a roebuck, to enable you to bound over slip- pery stones and rugged rocks in this sort of way. I, for my part, who did not run quite so fast, shook my carcase to pieces, and had two or three times nearly broken my legs in my attempt to overtake you. But who the devil was that per- son we saw .?■*' " The devil, indeed !" cried O'Gollochar, with a face as pale as death. " Strange !" said Amherst, after recovering 12 LOCHANDHU. himself, " very strange indeed ! where can she have hid herself?*' "She certainly did not pass out this way,'' said Cleaver ; " for before I started to follow )^ou in this same break-neck, mad-cap chace, I kept my eye so fixed upon the bottom of the ra- vine here, that I must have seen a rat or a wea- sel, if it had escaped in this direction." " She could not have scaled these walls of rock," said Amherst. " Not unless she can walk like a fly with her head down," replied Cleaver. *' By the hill of Howth, she's a fairy or a witch," cried O'Gollochar; " Fll take my oath, I saw her vanish in a flash of fire." " Nay, Cornelius," said his master, " your eyes have added to the mysterious circumstances of this extraordinary personage, who is certainly mysterious enough in herself, without any such flaming addition. But if we may judge of her by the seat she had chosen, she could not very well be a slave of the Devil, whose servants are supposed to flee at the very sign of the cross." " Och, don't talk about that ould jontleman, dear master," cried O'Gollochar, crossing himself LOCHANDHU. 13 in good earnest ; " sure it was my crossing my- self afore, when I first seen the cratur, that got us rid of her so aisily ; and now, if I might make so bould, I would advise you and the cap- tain to get all three of us on board again, as fast as our trotters can carry us, for fear she might maybe come back again." After puzzling themselves with unavailing conjectures, the gentlemen returned slowly to their boat. On questioning the sailors left in charge of it, who had observed nothing, they were satisfied of the impossibility of the figure having escaped along the beach from the bottom of the ravine, the boat having been moored op- posite to the very entrance of it. Their curio- sity was sufficiently awakened, and they would have willingly renewed their search, but it was now so dark, that even the adjacent precipices began to be invisible, and all attempts to unra- vel the mystery were vain. They were about to get into the boat, w^hen their eyes were attracted by the sudden twinkle of a light on the shore, as if in the bend of the bay, about five or six hundred yards off: At first it seemed to glimmer like a candle or t<. ri .% 14 LOCHANDHU. appearing and disappearing alternately. But suddenly it flamed up with a broad blaze to a great height, illuminating the ample .mouth of a large cavern in the cliff, and throwing a red glare on its interior, whilst all around was ren- dered doubly obscure by its very splendour. The gleam shot across the water, and the tide, as it broke gently on the shore, flashed and sparkled under the influence of its reflection. Several figures were seen, like black shadows, occasionally crossing the light, and apparently em- ployed in feeding the fire. A fervid imagination might have fancied them the daemons who guard the damned spirits flitting across the threshold of the infernal regions. " Yonder at least are some human beings," said Amherst ; "let us approach, and learn from them whether there is any house in the vicinity. I confess I have no fancy to be rocked for an- other night by the waves, if I can possibly pro- cure a bed for love or money on terra firman " Why, Master Amherst," said Cleaver, " I fear you are still a land-lubber for all I have done to tar you. So you haV/t got your sea legs yet, man ? If you had been as long tossed LOCHA>JDHU. 15 upon brine as me, you would think less of its agitation. But to tell you the truth, the fresh smell of land has given me my landsman'^s ap- petite for something cooked under a roof, and I should have no objections at this moment to ex- change our cold meat basket for a hot beef- steak, or pork sausage, or grilled fowl, or some- thing else warm and savoury. Besides, I o^vn I feel curious to know what those same cocks yonder are about. They look by that light as black as negers, and remind me of the canni- bals in Robin Crusoe, dancing round the fire that roasted their prisoners. But come, let's go and have a nearer peep at them,'' The two gentlemen now proceeded along the beach in the direction of the fire, followed by O'Gollochar, who, though far from being proof against fear when any thing wearing the sem- blance of the supernatural came across him, was a perfect lion when he knew that he had to deal with mere men. Before they had proceed- ed many steps, the bending of the shore, and the occasional projections of the cliffs, excluded the view of the fire for some time, until the shifting of the intervening objects again per- 16 LOCHANDHU. mitted them to see the mouth of the cavern. They then perceived that the figures had dis- appeared, and that the blaze had fallen consi- derably lower, rising only by fits as portions of the inflamed mass, falling in from time to time towards the centre, roused its dormant energy. As they advanced, the huge vault rose before them from the smooth pebbly shore, at the distance of a few feet from the water''s edge, in all the magnificence of Nature's own architecture. The fire, composed of large pieces of broken drift wood, now burned with a subdued, but glowing glare. A heap of dry furze, lying in a corner, showed to what it had owed its former short-lived splendour. The natural walls of red sandstone were rendered still redder by the light that faded away as it rose upwards, and lost it- self amidst the clouds of smoke, rolling along under the dome of the roof towards the open air. The spacious cavern, extending about for- ty or fifty yards inwards, appeared to be of ir- regular shape, and terminated in a solid face of rock, where the gleam discovered some fallen masses of stone, of many tons in weight, heaped LOCHANDHU. 17 up one above the other, nearly to the roof. The floor was composed of a natural Mosaic of beautiful sea-polished pebbles, laid, by some high spring tide of former days, in a firm dry sand of a dazzling whiteness. There was not a vestige of that loathsome humidity and dank- ness, so generally disfiguring natural chambers of this description. All was dry as the artificial habitation of civilized man, save where a foun- tain, as pure as rock crystal, poured from an aperture at the further extremity, and after falling several feet with lulling music into a smooth oval basin it had worn for itself in the stone, ran with a rapid current that freshened the air of the place, in a channel of its own for- mation, towards the mouth of the cave and the sea. This fairy fountain, sparkling with the rays of light, gave to the whole the air of en- chantment. The enthusiastic Amherst was in raptures. ** How romantic !" he exclaimed to his com- panion; " let us dispatch O'Gollochar to the boat for our provision basket, and let us eat our evening meal, and spend the night in this won- derful cavern. Those oblong blocks lying along 18 LOCHANDHU. the wall of that inner recess, branching off to the right, will serve us for tables, seats, and beds, where we may sleep wrapped up in our cloaks, more comfortably than if we were on down. My heart bounds with delight at the wildness of the scene, and the novelty of our situation/' " Have a care, my young Don Quixote,'" re- plied Cleaver; " such adventures as these are more likely to end in bloody noses than in beef- steaks. By the bye, talking of beef-steaks, I wish we had some nice juicy rumps to dress on that same fire, for now that the smoke begins to dissipate, it is in such right good case for cook- ing 'em, that one cannot look at it without think- ing of a gridiron. But who knows whether we may not have a visit from the cocks who made this fire, and who knows what sort of gentry they may turn out to be ?^^ " Oh ! they are fishermen doubtless," said Amherst. " I would not have you be too sure of that," gaid Cleaver ; " but be they who they may, I am not the man to baulk you of your frolic, and as we have your fowling-piece there, and good LOCHANDHU. 19 trusty cutlasses — weapons, which I do the more esteem, as they more rarely miss fire than your pop-guns — we may bid defiance to an enemy." CGollochar was accordingly forthwith dis- patched for the cold provisions, with orders to the boat's crew to return on board for the night. On his return, the contents of the basket were spread on one of the stone-tables, and Amherst soon finished a hasty supper upon a cold sirloin of beef, washing it down with a glass or two of wine. Cleaver's appetite was not so easily satis- fied. He eat, and cut, and came again, ever and anon surveying the fire, and grumbling in unavailing regret, that it should be suffered to burn in smokeless glow, and that its beautiful cherry-red should be expended, without his hav- ing a beef-steak to dress upon it. '' If I had only had even a frying-pan, and an onion, and a little butter, what a glorious hash I might have made ! But,'** added he, with a sigh, as he put his last morsel, a thin slice coiled upon the fork, into his mouth, " there is no help for it, we must e'en go to roost as we are." They accordingly now retired into the inner- so LOCITAXDHU. most part of the recess, forming a sort of dark chamber to the right, about a third of the way from the entrance of the grand cavern, where each occupying one of the stone-blocks, which, from their shape and position, seemed to have been placed there by human hands, they wrap- ped themselves up in the ample folds of their cloaks, and consigned themselves to repose. O'Gollochar, after satisfying the cravings of hunger with the fragments of the feast, disposed of himself on the ground near his master. LOCHANDHU. 21 CHAPTER II. Pallido, crespo, e macilente avea ' il viso, il crin — canuto. Sua statura a sei palmi non giungea. Ariosto. What kind should this cock come of? As you Like il. Amherst had not slept long, when he was awakened by the gripe of a hand seizing upon his wrist, with a strength that effectually shack- led him. He was about to make a desperate ef- fort to deliver himself from what, in his half- waking state, he believed to be the grasp of some unknown enemy, when he perceived his terrified servant hanging over him in breathless apprehension, his knees knocking together, his eyes fixed in his head, and his teeth chattering in his jaws. He was in the act of opening his 22 LOCHANDHU. mouth, to demand the cause of alarm, when, happening to throw a glance towards the greater chamber of the cavern, he perceived the very fi- gure that had so strangely appeared and vanish- ed near the fountain. The creature, for human being it could hard- ly be denominated, though its dress was that of a woman, was, as far as he could judge, about three feet and a half high. Its form, indeed, appearing perhaps still more diminutive, from the vastness of the subterranean void, in the midst of which it was now seen, might have been mistaken for that of a child, had not the disproportionate size of the head, the prominence and coarseness of the features, the hollow eyes, the high cheek-bones, the thin and hooked nose, the skinny lips of its wide mouth, and the deep furrows marking its lean and leathery chops, given it a ghastly look of deformed age. The effect of this was much increased, by the griz- zled hair hanging in long and numerous matted locks from under a fillet of red cloth encircling its head, and by the corpse-like paleness of its hue, rendered more fearful by the glare of the blazing wood. A garment of coarse green stuff, LOCHANDHU. 2» having a tight boddice rising no higher than the shoulders, and leaving bare the scraggy neck, and the thin but sinewy arms, and descending loosely from the waist to about the middle of the leg, formed the whole of its drapery. As the head and countenance indicated age, so, on the other hand, the shape of the body and the bare limbs betokened extreme agility and strength of action. Amherst at first gazed on the figure with sur- prise. It was busily employed in heaping up fuel on the fire, which, in consequence of its ex- ertions, had already begun to give forth fresh volumes of flame and smoke, and whilst engag- ed in this occupation, he saw it lift up logs of wood, bigger than itself, with an ease that per- fectly confounded him. As he looked, it went on, placing them endwise, one leaning against the other, so as to form a high pile, filling the intervals every now and then with dry brush- wood, and fanning the flame energetically with a large branch of furze. All these actions were performed with inconceivable expedition, the figure wheeling round and round the pile with a rapidity almost supernatural, yet emitting no 24 LOCHAXDHU. sound, save that of a low muttered chaunting, the words of which were lost. Amherst gazed on this singular being for a few moments. The deep sleep he had just been roused from left him for some time in doubt whether it was not a dream. At length he re- covered his recollection, and being seized with an irresistible desire to satisfy his curiosity, by arresting the flight of a creature so uncouth and mysterious, he extricated himself, by one sudden exertion of all his strength, from the iron grasp of his servant^s fear, and rushed forward into the main cavern. But the apparition was gone ! The noise he had made in his momentary struggle with O'Gollochar had alarmed it, and although only a few yards intervened between the spot where he had slept, and the fire where it had been busied, yet so swift were its mo- tions, that it ran three times round the blazing pile, darted off like the bolt of death, and he only reached the centre of the cavern in time to see it vanish in the thick smoke rolling along the roof, immediately over the heaped up frag- ments resting against the further extremity of the vault. u LOCHANDHtJ. 25 Amherst stood thunder-struck for a moment. But recollecting himself, he seized upon a light- ed brand from the fire, and running towards the end of the cavern where the figure had disap- peared, he climbed, with some diflficulty, from one immense mass of fallen rock to another, to the height of thirty or forty feet, until he had nearly reached the roof, examining every part with the greatest attention, in the hope of being enabled to account upon rational principles for its escape. But all his endeavours were fruitless. Again his wonder was renewed and redoubled, and the more he reflected on the almost inaccessible ascent the creature had scaled, as it were, with wings, the more he was perplexed. Baffled and vexed, he sat him down on one of the stones, and was musing on the unaccountable occurrences of the evening, when his thoughts were interrupted by the noise of a desperate struggle in the sleeping place, and the half-chok- ed voice of Cleaver. His first idea was, that his friend had been attacked, perhaps by banditti, and he rushed headlong to the recess. There all his apprehensions were not only immediately VOL. I. B 26 LOCHANDHU. removed, but were irresistibly converted into im- moderate peals of laughter. The Irishman had no sooner been shaken from his master, than the overwhelming dread he laboured under made him fly to the cap- tain, who lay on his back like a great turtle, on the bed of stone he had selected, in that disturb- ed, though deep sort of sleep, resulting from repletion of stomach. Not contented with mere proximity, O'Gollochar griped him round the neck, and afterwards laid himself at length upon him, with all his weight, like a night- mare. But Cleaver''s sleep was so profound, that although his breathing was affected almost to suffocation, he did not immediately awaken. When he Avas thus grappled by the terrified Cornelius, he was dreaming that his ship was sailing bravely before a gallant breeze, with every sail set, and going more knots than had ever been marked by log-line. Suddenly he felt a shock, as if the prow had struck upon some sunken sand-bank, and then she gradually went down under him. A wide ocean surround- ed him, and death stared him in the face. He hastily attempted to prepare himself for swim- LOCHANDHU. 27 ming, but he could not move a hand nor a limb, and the water rose rapidly over the sinking ves- sel. A huge hairy monster, half man, half fish, of tremendous strength, and with eyes like brazen censers, emerged from the sea, and grasping him about the neck, was dragging him downwards with a weight like that of ten first-rate anchors. He already felt the stifling of the waves, with all the horrors of drowning, and in utter despair of life, he struggled so desperately with the foul fiend, that he rolled CGollochar and himself off the bench ; when being awakened from his sleep, by the fall, but not from his dreadful dream, he began bellowing out, as well as the pressure upon his wind-pipe would permit, in notes resembling those of a half-stopped postman's horn, and at the same time buffetting with might and main the unfortunate Irishman, whose fear made him keep his hold like a bull-dog, notwithstanding the numerous thumps that rained upon him ; so that, when Amherst reached the scene of action, they were tumbling one over the other on the ground in most ludicrous conflict, the eyes of both starting from their sockets, partly from the different terrors that possessed them, and 28 LOCHANDHU. partly from the actual strangulation they were mutually inflicting and enduring. Amherst suc- ceeded with some difficulty in relieving them from each other's grasp, and an explanation en- sued. The sailor was astonished with his friend's story, and could hardly be persuaded that it was not an illusion, and that he had not been dreaming as well as himself. " Believe me, Amherst," said he, with all that gravity the subject demanded, " never doubt me lad, but these night-hags which have been riding us, have .all been engendered by the quan- tity of cold food we so lately devoured, that could not choose but chill our stomachs, and cause a stagnation of the very blood in our veins. For my part, I never dream of Davy Jones but after a cold supper. Had we only had that beef-steak now I spoke of — had we, I say, had it juicy and hot, our stomachs would have been thereby cherished, and no such mor- bid affection, as our Doctor used to say, could have supervened. But I swear I shall make up for it at breakfast to-morrow, if there is a LOCHAilDHU. 29 decent inn to be found within the circuit of a morning's cruize.*" These words were hardly spoken, when they were alarmed by the voices of men entering the outer cavern. " These are, no doubt, the fishermen," said Amherst. " It may be so," said Cleaver ; " but look to your arms, and be on your guard, as we know not what sort of cocks the fishermen on these coasts may be." They listened, for the speakers had not yet advanced so far as to be visible, but their con- versation was carried on in a language intelli- gible to neither of the gentlemen. O'Gollochar, however, declared, at the first sound of it, that it was Irish, but with all that, he could make nothing out of it. " Sure," whispered he, " isn't it mighty strange now, that it should be Irish that they are spak- ing, and I not comprehend a word at all that they are saying, when it is myself that not only talks it, but understands it too like a blackbird, ever sin' I was the size of a bane codx" As the fire threw light into every nook of the 30 LOCHANDHU. cavern, so that they could not long remain con- cealed, they thought it best to show themselves boldly at once. Amherst advanced with his gun in his hand, followed by his companion and O'Gollochar ; and entering the grand cavern, they perceived four men, who seemed to be not a little surprised at finding the place preoccu- pied. The first of these, tall, bony, and athletic, ap- peared to be of middle age. His air was of itself sufficient to mark him as master, even if his dress had not told the tale for him. He wore a small gold-laced cocked hat, from beneath which an enormous queue of black hair dangled between his broad shoulders. His single-breast- ed coat was green, and made with a low neck, large skirts, and ample sleeves, and the button- holes and pocket-covers were garnished with broad gold lace, as was also a red waistcoat, with large flaps hanging over, and half hiding his breeches. These were of doe skin, made to fit very tight, and a pair of high jack-boots, armed with silver chained spurs, with immense rowels, rose above his knees. A long cut-and- thrust sword, with a Spanish hilt and guard. LOCHANDHU. 31 hung at his side, from a broad buff belt, passing diagonally across his breast, and under his coat; and in his hand he flourished a gold-headed cane. His neckcloth and his breast and wrist ruffles were of rich foreign lace, and his whole pre- sence had something in it that bespoke the gen- tleman. Amherst's attention was so much occupied in scanning him, that he had only leisure to remark, that his followers were dressed in the Highland garb, and that they were armed with the clay- more, and with pistols stuck in their girdles. On the sudden appearance of Amherst and his party from the recess, the leader started, and the Highlanders laid their hands on their pis- tols ; but after surveying the two gentlemen with one comprehensive glance, he waved his hand to his followers, and gave some order in Gaelic that immediately stayed their hasty vio- lence. He then advanced towards Amherst, with a manner partaking equally of dignity and of complaisance, seasoned with all the ease of a finished man of the world, though, at the same time, not without a tincture of suspicion. " Your servant, gentlemen," said he with a SQ LOCHANDHU. bow ; " who are you, may I make so bold as to ask ? and what do you here, in this lonely place, at such an hour ?"" " Perhaps," replied Amherst, " I ought to demand of you. Sir, by what authority I am thus questioned ; but as I have no cause for conceal- ment of any kind, I shall not hesitate to satisfy one, who has so much the manner and outward appearance of a gentleman." He then told him his name, and briefly added, that he and his com- panion were on a voyage of pleasure, and hav- ing landed in the neighbourhood, had been guided to the cavern by the light of the fire. The stranger started involuntarily at the name of Oakenwold. He eyed Amherst keenly, and then, as if recollecting himself, he went up to him, and shaking him cordially by the hand, — " Sir," said he, '' I consider our poor coun- try of Scotland as much beholden to you and your friend, for thus deigning to visit her bleak shores ; for, dear as they are to those who have drawn their first breath of life upon them, I must admit, (Scotchman though I be,) that to a son of fertile Kent, they must appear bleak when contrasted with his native fields ; though LOCHANDHU. 33 we, too, have our plains, and to-morrow's sun will show you one almost vying with them in richness. But in return for the politeness with which you have just condescended to an- swer my perhaps rather impertinent, though, when your arms are considered, somewhat ex- cusable interrogatory, I must tell you that my name is Macgillivray ; that I am proprietor of a small estate in the Highlands, some fifty miles from hence ; that I am at present on a visit in this neighbourhood ; and being engaged to-night in company at a public-house hard by, I walked forth to take a little of the air of this fine even- ing on the shore, and was, like you, led by the light to enter this cavern. I have now reason to rejoice at my good fortune for thus accident- ally bringing me to form so agreeable an ac- quaintance." " Public-house, did you say. Sir !" exclaimed Cleaver, whose attention having been rivetted by the word, had followed the speaker no far- ther, — " I think you mentioned a public-house? By Heavens, I am glad there is an inn so near. Methinks I already, by anticipation, smell some veal-cutlets done in a nice brown sauce, seasoned B 2 S4 LOCHANDHU. with a clove of garlic, and a little mace. Pray, my dear Sir, have the goodness to order one of your people to guide us to this same hostel ; and if you will do us the favour to bestow upon us your company at supper, you will add to the ob- ligation." " I will do myself the honour of showhig you the way thither myself, gentlemen, with the greatest pleasure,'' said the stranger ; " and my friends will, I am sure, thank me for present- ing them with such an addition to their merry party." So saying, he gave some orders in Gaelic to his men, who, much to the surprise of Amherst and his friend, remained in the cavern, and leading the way, he was followed by the two gentlemen and O'Gollochar. The stranger first conducted them for a con- siderable way along the shore, by the foot of the cliffs, in a direction opposite to that leading to the landing-place, and then they wound up by one of those steep and narrow paths frequently found on such bold coasts, where the fishermen are compelled to avail themselves of every prac- ticable breach in the rocky wall to make a pas- LOCHANDHU. 35 sage to and from the sea-beach, in pursuit of their daily occupation. They then crossed the high barren downs already described, by an indistinct track, leading among the sand heaps, and they ultimately began to descend towards the more inland country, through a series of wild furzy pastures, to which some irregular patches of cultivation succeeded. After nearly an hour''s walk, their eyes were gladdened by the sight of an illuminated win- dow at some distance, which, though consisting of four small panes of glass only, emitted blaze of light enough to have served for a beacon. Amherst was surprised to find their walk so much longer than Mr Macgillivray had led him to expect it to be. It was too great for a mere saunter of pleasure. He could not help think- ing there was something very mysterious in the whole behaviour of their new acquaintance ; for although he continued to converse with fluency, and with all the urbanity he displayed when they first met him, Amherst frequently observed his keen eyes turned on him in the imperfect light of the moon, as if to scan his face and person. Nothing, however, like an apprehension of S6 LOCHANDHU. treachery had ever crossed his mind, and, in- deed, if any such had arisen there, it must have been soon dispelled by the cheering though con- fused sounds of merriment proceeding from the black mass before them, which, but for the flick- ering blaze from its little window, would never have been taken by Amherst for a human dwell- ing. As they approached the hut, they began to distinguish, what might much more properly have been called the noise than the air of a rude song, supported by an occasional chorus of many voices, and as they drew nearer, their cars caught the words of the conclusion, Then whilst we have claret. Come, boys, do not spare it. For wit is its produce, then drink to have fire ! See, mirth sits on ilka brow, Who cares for care now ? For drovvn'd in deep goblets the fiend must expire. Then, hey ! come ! jolly boys, join in the carrol. And ilka ane fill his point stoup to the nail. Let's fill, drink and fill, till we empty the barrel. For though it held oceans our thirst would prevail ! A Bacchanalian cheer arose as this chorus ter- minated, and it had just died away as Mr Mac- LOCHANDHIT. 37 gillivray ushered his new acquaintances into the public-house. But before I permit him to in- troduce them to the party within, I must first give the reader some idea of the interior of the place. The house was chiefly composed of two large chambers, known in Scotland by the appellation of the hut and the hen. The first of these, en- tering from the doorway, was used as the kit- chen and hall. It had a large fire-place, with a chimney so much projected into the middle of the apartment, that a company of a dozen might have easily sat under it ; and a couple of forms, placed one on each side, showed that it was fre- quently so occupied. The black smoky rafters were only here and there covered with bits of old boat sails, stretched across, and bent down- wards between the beams, as if laden with nu- merous articles of lumber thrown up there to be out of the way. In other places the eye was permitted to penetrate upwards through a net- work of cobwebs and dust, till arrested by the interior of the thatched roof. Two or three fa- vourite hens, at roost in the sooty regions above, seemed to sleep perfectly unconscious of the 38 LOCHANDHU. noise below. The walls of the apartment were lined with divers cupboards, and plate-racks of different altitudes, shapes, and patterns, contain- ing a motley assemblage of pewter and stone- ware, mingled with kitchen utensils, many of them broken, and all of them dirty. Amongst other things there were a number of truncated bottles, stalkless glasses, and many pieces of cracked tea-ware of very fine foreign china, and these were intermixed with horn spoons, iron skewers, and dirty pot-lids. Long strings of fish hung drying over the fire-place, and a num- ber of mutton hams dangled from hooks fixed in the beams, some of them so low as to make it difficult for a tall person to steer his head through them. Several large antique-looking chests, having curious dark recesses between them, where the light could hardly penetrate, a dresser, a frail table, and half a dozen wooden chairs, in the same state, formed the major part of the furniture of this chamber. They had no sooner entered, than their ears were saluted with the sounds of discord. " Set ye up, ye dirty baggage, to be gawin glaikin out with the fallov/s at this time o"* night, 11 LOCHANDHU. 39 an' leavin"* me to be slavin' here my lane, an' sae muckle company in the house !" Such was the exclamation of mine hostess, Mrs M'Claver, a tall, stout, good-looking, but extremely dirty woman, in a white mutch, with long black locks curling over her face and shoul- ders, a string of large amber beads round her neck, and clothed in a printed short-gown, cover- ing a petticoat of red flannel, and having a pair of large well filled pockets, and a pin-cushion and pair of shears hanging by a long string at her side. In one hand she brandished an old gridiron, and in the other a dried haddock, as she stood threatening a very handsome spirited- looking wench, with trigly snooded up hair, to whom her reproof had been addressed, and who seemed just in the act of returning the first broadside of the wordy war, when its further progress was arrested by the appearance of the strangers and Macgillivray. *' Mrs M'Claver," said the latter, " you seem to be moved ; pray what has bonny Peggy Galravage been doing to displease you ?" " Ou no that muckle after a'," said MrsM'Cla- ver, smoothing her brow with a smile, as she 40 LOCHANDHU. eyed Amherst and his friend. — " I was only gi'en her a wee bit o^ an advice, an' ye ken ifs weel my pairt, for as she's under my roof, I maun see that she behaves hersel, poor thing ! — An' she's a decent lassie eneugh, after a's said. — Waes me ! I hae nae dochter noo to gi'e mo- therly advices till ! and when I had ane, gude kens, my words were but o' little profit — wha kens whare poor Eppy's wandering? or wha kens " But here Macgillivray, who perceived she had got hold of the thread of her endless theme, in- terrupted her, by introducing the two English gentlemen. " Proud am I, Maister Macgillivray," said she, crossing her arms, gridiron and all, and drop- ping a low curtsey, " to see siccan braw gal- lant gentlemen in my house. I've ay been unco fond o' the Inglishers ever sin' Captain Clutterbuck lodged wi' me. He was a braw paymaster ; an' mony was the braw bonny die he gied to poor Eppy. But she's awa' noo. Heaven kens whare. — I never sail forget the night " Here, again, Macgillivray broke in upon her LOCHANDHU. 41 favourite topic, by asking if Sir Alisander San- derson was still with the party ? " Ou, ay, troth is he, worthy man; he's ower gude natured to gang awa"* and leave the honest folk. But stap this way, gentlemen, stap this way, stap yere ways ben." So saying, she proceeded to open the door of the inner chamber, into which Macgillivray led the way. This apartment was of the same size as that through which they had just passed, and its fire-place, though somewhat less than the other, was of similar construction, and was filled with a blazing fire of bog-fir and peats. The walls though of sod, had been plastered inside with clay, and covered with white wash, still adher- ing in most places, though it had peeled off in many large patches. The rafters were partly covered with split planks, and partly, as in the other, with old sails. The whole of this patched ceiling was festooned with a perfect drapery of cobwebs and sooty filaments, drooping from every part of it. The ornaments were the sad remains of a cracked mirror, in a tarnished old carved-and-gilt frame, and a few prints, long 4» LOCHANDHU. ago rendered unintelligible by the effects of damp. A long table formed of boards, sup- ported upon trestles, extended down the length of the room, its surface being thickly set with stoups, or wooden drinking vessels, of a tall form, constructed of staves and hoops. Oppo- site to that end of it, farthest from the fire, stood an elevated gantrees, or wooden support for a cask, on which was poised a huge hogs- head of claret, reared higher than the level of the table, and having a cock and pail, that is to say, a wooden tube and plug inserted into it. The vicinity of the cask bore all the appearance of frequent applications having been made to its spiggot, and that, too, by no very steady hands, for the clay floor was moistened by fre- quent libations, and some of the hollows, in the inequality of its surface, stood in pools of the generous fluid. In an old carved oak chair, ornamented with huge knobs, at the head of the table, near the cask, sat Sir Alisander Sanderson, of whom Macgillivray had spoken, a fat, ruddy, good-hu- moured gentleman-like person about forty, with a benevolent expression of countenance. Being LOCHANDHU. 43 naturally indolent, and, moreover, a confirmed hypochondriac, he hardly ever left his own fire- side from one year's end to the other. To ac- commodate his valetudinarian whims about cold, the company subjected themselves to the risk of being melted by a tremendous fire, in addition to the naturally oppressive heat of so crowded a place. But the good gentleman was so univer- sal a favourite, that every inconvenience was cheerfully submitted to, rather than lose the gra- tification of having Sir Alisander to preside over their revels. Such was the Baronet's ap- prehension of cold, and sifting airs, that, notwith- standing the quantum of culinary heat he was now exposed to, he sat with his great-coat on, a large flannel roller round his neck, and a red night-cap on his head, surmounted by his small gold laced cocked hat. Next to Sir Alisander sat his shadow, JuHus Caesar Macflae, a spare figure in black velvet breeches, whose tout ensemble bore a strong re- semblance to those memento moris who walk be- fore funeral processions, known in Scotland by the name of saulies. His long thin neck, bound tight by a narrow white stock and buckle, show- 44 LOCHANDHU. ed over his collarless coat like the shank of a mushroom. His head was thinly sprinkled with stragghng hairs, with great difficulty collected from different quarters into a tiny pig-tail be- hind^so as to leave two chevaux Je/ri,y^ of bristles, rising on each side over his ears, which were so large as to resemble the orifices of two vast conchs. A toupee in front had once existed, but had long since disappeared, leaving his brow to exhibit all the effects of a West Indian sun, shaded gradually off into the polished yellow of his bald pate. His mouth was of size corre- sponding to that of his ears, but the smelling organ was so little developed, that it was hardly more prominent than the nose of an old-fashion- ed barber's block, its site being only ascertained by the appearance of two black perforations re- sembling nostrils. His eyebrows projected re- markably, and were so very bushy, that they seemed to have monopolized all the hair that should have adorned his head. They almost covered his eyes, which, when narrowly inspect- ed, were of that greenish, watery, mis-shapen appearance, presented by a bursten gooseberry after rain. Notwithstanding the sounding names LOCHANDHU. 45 of this person, he was the son of a parish school- master, who, being very desirous that his hoy should become a hero and a scholar, thought it prudent, on the Shandean principle, to bestow upon him praenomina suitable to the deeds he should one day achieve, as well as correspond- ing to his future Hterary eminence. Nor did Julius altogether baulk these fond paternal hopes, for, after having acted as tutor to Sir Alis- ander, he procured a situation in the West In- dies, where he actually held a commission in the Kingston Volunteers, and where he, moreover, made some figure in a debating club. Having realized a little fortune, he returned to repose under his laurels, and having built a snug, up- right-gabled house in his native village, he be- came the humble, but inseparable companion of his former pupil. The seats in the neighbourhood of the chair were occupied by the Lairds of Blutterbog, Whinnyshaw, Blawweary, Crazletap, Windle- strawlee, and Windygoul, individuals having so little particularly striking or characteristic about them, as to require no minute dehneation. After them came Bailie Sparrowpipe the mer- 46 LOCHANDHU. cer from the neighbouring borough, a tall, thin, spindle shanked man about forty-five or fifty ; a sort of dandy of the day, with white thread stockings, large brass buckles, short-knee'd black serge breeches, yellow waiscoat, and cinnamon- coloured coat, of the old cut, pale face, and small pinking eyes, which had enough ado to see be- yond a long sharp-pointed nose, and his hair peaked up in a toupee before, and tied in a silk bag behind. His body was bent forward at a- bout half its altitude, in an angle so acute, that his nose and toes always entered a room several seconds before the rear-guard of his person. This conformation, in the opinion of many, was bestowed originally upon them by nature ; but it was more generally believed, that he owed it partly, if not wholly, to the obsequious bows he made over the counter to the ladies who fre- quented his shop. Next to Sparrowpipe sat Deacon M' Candy the grocer, a thick- set round- bellied vulgar little man, with a bluish red face and fiery eyes, betokening a lurking violence of temper, capable of occasion- ally rousing him from that natural apathy indicat- ed by the stupidity of his countenance. LOCHANDHU 47 On the opposite side of the table to him sat l)r Partenclaw, who prided himself upon his vo- cal powers, and who had been leader of the catch. He was a little man with a large jowl, pig's eyes, red hooked nose, sack belly, spindle thighs, cased in dirty leather breeches, and limbs bound in a sort of black leather greaves, fastened with iron clasps. Besides these, there were some inferior persons, who, as they seated themselves there for no other purpose than to assist in emptying the hogshead, to fill up the chorus of the songs, or to join in the roar or laugh, are hardly worth particulariz- 48 LOCHANDIIU. CHAPTER III. Benedetto Quel claretto Che si spilla in Avignone Questo vasto Bellicone lo ne verso entro '1 mio petto. Baccho in Toscaua. Since my Phyllis has falVn to my share. In a bumper I'll drink to the fair, And the man here who envies me most, Let him bid me say more to the toast, For a larger I'll soon change my cup, To the brim fill the Constable up. Calch, Edinburgh Catch Club. Whkn Macgillivray entered with the gentle- men, the tumultuous Bacchanalian roar that fol- lowed the termination of the catch was hushed, and the strangers were surveyed from all quar- ters, with half-closed eyes, and twisted-up mouths, betokening the serious scrutiny of men in a state of wise intoxication. To judge of the LOCHANDHU. 49. plight of the party, it is only necessary to be in- formed, that this was the second night of their orgies. Macgillivray having introduced Amherst and Cleaver to Sir Alisander, the good Knight rose to receive them, and the maudlin company got up in imitation of their President, like an ill drill- ed squad, tardily following the motions of the fugal, — " Chairs,— chairs for the gentlemen !" — cried the Baronet. But besides that on which he sat himself, there was but one rickety chair in the place. That was instantly ceded by the polite Fustlecraig of Windlestraw, who placed it for Amherst near Sir Alisander, and went to seat himself on the end of a form lower down the table. Cleaver, whose jovial heart was expanded by the sight of so jolly a party, was so eager to join the revellers, that he im- mediately placed himself on an empty brandy anker set on end, and proceeded, without loss of time, to attack two huge high-flavoured dish- es, one containing hot, broiled, smoked had- docks, and the other, red herrings of most in- viting savour, which, with some oaten cakes, and a few pewter platters, were at this moment VOL. I. c 50 LOCHANDHF. put on the board by the bustling Mrs M*Claver. and the bonny Peggy Galravage. " I see," said the good-natured Baronet, who could not resist a pun, — " I see, Mr Oakenwold, that your friend Captain Cleaver has already brought himself to an anchor, like a good seaman, chee ! he ! — he !" — The joke, though it produc- ed the usual spasm of approval in the face of Macflae, and a laugh from such of the rest as were within earshot, was lost upon the subject of it, who was too much occupied with his haddock to hear it. " My friend,'' said Amherst, " though long a man-of-war's-man by profession, is now only a navigator for pleasure." '* Your present voyage is of that nature ?*" said Sir Alisander. '^ It is so," said Amherst, " and is occasion- ed chiefly by our wish to see a little of Scot- land." " A very laudable desire," replied Sir Alisand- er, " and I hope our Land of Cakes will not disappoint you. — Since pleasure then, and not business, is your object, you cannot do better than make my house of Sanderson-Mains your LOCHANDHU. 51 head-quarters for some weeks. I shall be happy to do my best to entertain you, or rather, to see that you are entertained, — for I am but a weak vessel myself, and not much able now to leave the house. I will take you thither as soon as I can get away from these honest people, who must always have me for their preses on such oc- casions as this — much against my will, I assure you, for such bouts do not by any means agree with my stomach, which has been very ticklish for some years. But they will not have me ex- cused, so I must e"en sacrifice a little to the wish- es of my good neighbours, by yielding to their importunity, though it should even be to the cur- tailing of my life." Amherst, whilst he expressed his thanks for so kind an invitation, given to strangers, and assur- ed the worthy Baronet, that his friend and he would be happy to avail themselves of his hos- pitality, stared with astonishment at the person who gave it, and wondered where the secret sap- ping disease could lurk, that rendered him a frail vessel, who had so much the outward appearance of good health and a robust constitution, and whose trappings, consisting of all the parapher- 52 LOCKANDHTJ. nalia of the sick man, had so whimsical an ef- fect when contrasted with the embonpoint of his figure, and the rustic healthfulness of his face. The prepossessing, and even noble appearance of Amherst, followed by the Baronefs invitation, that sufficiently spoke his good opinion of the strangers, like oil upon the stormy seas, produc- ed a certain lull upon the obstreperous mirth of the company, and it was some time before it a- gain began to swell itself into a roar. — A deep pledge was passed round by the chairman to the health of the new guests, and rephed to, of course, by one from each of them, and the claret again began to mount into the brains of the vo- taries of Bacchus, and again to loosen the shac- kles of their tongues. " Maister Oakenwold," said Bailie Sparrow- pipe, rising and addressing Amherst in a tone of voice, thin, shrill, and sharp, resembhng the cut- ting notes of a fife, — " I drink to you, and to your country. Sir — I rejoice for to see ane Ing- lishman amang us. — I have a high respeck for Ingland Sir, and troth, gif I shou'd say otherwise, my verra speech itsell wad betray me, for ye may observe that my dialeck is somewhat polished. LOCHANDHU. 53 And nae wonder nor it shou'd be sae, for I was nae less than sax weeks in Lunnon itsell about aughteen years syne, whare I gathered the tongue, as hkewise thae manners which hae acquired for ine the appellation of the feenished man." — A sim- per of great self-approbation followed this speech. ^' I am glad, Bailie," said Macgillivray with an air of gravity, evidently intended to bring him out — " I am very glad that you are here, were it only to show our English guests, that we are not all barbarians in this country." " Hout fye, hout fye, Maister Macgillivray ! — barbarians ! — na truly, though we do leeve in the North, we're no just that neither ;^there's mony a ane o"* us has traivelled, — there's you hae been in Italy — and Maister Macflae in the Wast Indi- ans — and Dr Partenclaw there, forbye mony ither voyages, was aince at the Greenland fishing — ^no to crack o"* my sell being in Lunnon." " Upon few people, however, are the advanta- ges of travel so apparent as upon the elegant Mr Sparrowpipe," said Macgillivray. ** But then nature, Sir, — nature is everything." *' Troth that's true eneugh," replied Sparrow- pipe—" I had aye a sort o' genty cast about me 54 LOCHANDHU. — I mind verra well that Sally Hopkins, the danc- in' master's dochter in Threadneedle Street, used aye to say that o"* me ; and her father, wha was a verra gude judge o' siccan matters, used to de- clare, that I could mak as bonny a boo as ony Lord o' the bed-chammer."" ^' I have no doubt of that, Bailie," said Mac- gillivray — " you are still remarkable for your ta- lent that way, which indeed has rather improved than otherwise, and is perhaps one of the causes of your being such a terrible fellow among the ladies.'^ " Hout fye, hout fye, Maister Macgillivray,'' said the Bailie, stretching his long neck and nose across the table like a goose, with a simper of ineffable delight upon his face ; " ye are pleas- ed for to flatter me, Sir, — that is to say — I mean —ye wrang me sair. Sir — I dinna deserve nae sic- can character. — But an I do,'* added he, looking down, or rather inwards upon his yellow waist- coat, with manifest satisfaction, — " ane canna help ane's attraction, ye ken." *^ Aye, aye," said the Baronet — " very true, Mr Sparrowpipe, — the rose cannot be blamed for its fragrance." LOCHANDHU. 55 " Nor good claret for its seducing flavour,"*' said Cleaver, who now for the first time had found leisure to speak, and putting a brimming flagon to his head, he tossed it off to wash down the immense mass of dried fish he had swallow- ed. " Come now, Bailie,"" cried Sir Alisander — *' give us a toast, — give us one of the many beau- ties on your list !'** *' I'll give ye — 111 give,'' said the Bailie, with some hesitation, and looking upwards to the raf- ters, as if appealing to them for aid in making his selection — " I'll give ye — Miss Louisa Matilda Mactavish, a young leddy that raaist o' ye ken verra weil ; she's a lovely lassie, and Til drink a mutchkin stoup till her." " Say more, Bailie !" roared out young Bark- lay o' Blutterbog; " I can't consent to yield her to ye so easily, — she's a particular favourite of mine." Blutterbog's speech was received with a ge- neral cheer, resembling that species of applause which runs round an English ring when a brace of bruisers have agreed to pit themselves for a match at milling. The Bailie, however, seemed 56 LOCHANDHC. now like a snail that draws in its horns on the approach of something from which it apprehends danger ; he felt that he was in a scrape, and he wished to recede if possible. The rule on such occasions of Bacchanalian challenge was, that as the party who proposed the toast drank a bum- per, so he who advanced an equal claim to the lady, by the words *' say more !" — was obliged to drink a double bumper, — after which the first drank double that, and the other that again doubled, and so on alternately, doubling the quantity of the draught every time, until one or other of the parties gave in, or was fairly floor- ed. To Blutterbog, Avho had already swallowed gallons, and whose capacious throat was gaping for gallons more, this contest was mere sport. But the bilious Bailie of the Borough, though he had no objections to a long tipple where he was permitted to do as he liked, and where he had listeners to his long love stories, felt that such a deluge of drink as now threatened him would be death to him — He grew doubly pale at the very thought. " I'm no just preceesely inclined to gang a' that length for the lass, Maister Barklay o' Blutter- LOCHANDHU. 57 bog," said the Bailie, screwed up by vexation to the highest pitch of his soprano. — " She's a bon- ny lass eneugh I maun confess till ye, — but she's no just ane that taks my fancy naither." " Fire and fury. Sir, why did you toast her then ?" cried the impetuous bullyboy of a laird. *' Troth, Blutterbog," said the Baihe, now a- larmed for something more than his stomach, '^ I kenna preceesely how it was I happened on her — I'm sure I had fifty mair i' my head to pick and chuse amang — and I'm far frae wishing to come in your way. But I hae siccan a com- passionate heart ! — an' the lassie, puir thing, is aye glowrin frae her windows at me, as I gae by in state till the kirk on Sabbath days, wi' the town- offishers an' their red coats and muckle halberts afore me — and she aye giggles for to see me — she canna help fa'in' in fancy wi' me ye ken, an' " Fancy with you, ye damn'd sneaking coil of list !" interrupted Blutterbog, to whom the lady in question was privately affianced at the time — " Tis false, ye yard of staytape !" The Bailie glided lengthways under the table c2 58 LOCHANDHU. like an eel under a stone, just as his antagonist had sprung on it to get at him. The furious laird's weight and violence together were too much for its frail supports, — and crash,— down went the whole, stoups, claret, haddocks, her- rings, boards, and Blutterbog upon the unfortu- nate Sparrowpipe, who lay sprawling beneath. All was now confusion. Macgillivray and some of those nearest to him laid hold of Blutterbog as he was scrambling over the wrecks of the broken table, to glut his vengeance upon the unlucky magistrate, and dragging him apart, endeavour- ed to pacify him, whilst others drew Sparrowpipe from under the ruins like a boiled welck from its shell. His body, indeed, seemed as pliant as if it had had no more bones in it than that marine species of snail, and the paleness of death was upon him : his eyes were fixed, and he uttered not a word. " By Jupiter, gentlemen,"" cried Dr Parten- claw, as he bent over him, " this is a serious matter ! — the man's gone ! — poor Sparrowpipe has piped his last — what will our concert do now for a counter alto .^ — There wasn't such an one in any opera in Europe ! — it was like a piccolo flute, 11 LOCHANDHU. 59 or a bird organ : his cranium is fractured — a blood-vessel is ruptured — and two or three spoonfuls of the cerebral mass are protruded." — A dead silence prevailed for some moments. ** I shall be Bailie myself at the neist election o' magistrates," said Deacon M'Candy with the most stupid indifference. " I confess," continued the Doctor, " I did think his skull was thick enough to have borne worse shocks than this, bad as it was. Nor, in- deed, should I have expected the subject to ex- hibit even so much brain as we now behold. But bring a light here, and I will soon ascertain the true state of the case, and if, as I suspect, he is fairly gone, then we may open his skull, and have a peep into its interior." — All this the Doc- tor pronounced with as much coolness and un- conceru; as if he had been talking of opening his snuff-box. Whilst the rational and less intoxicated part of the company were occupied in endeavouring to pacify the rage of Blutterbog, Partenclaw, who happened to be surrounded by those who had most deeply drenched their senses in the juice of the barrel, now gave various directions 60 LOCHANDHU. which were hastily and implicitly obeyed. The body was laid at length on a form, and the Doctor's dissecting tools were out in an instant, whilst a group of eight or ten individuals of the party, stimulated by curiosity, hung over him to see what he was going to do. The saw was actually applied to the unfortunate man's head, when, at the very first touch of it, Spar- rowpipe suddenly screamed out, with a yell that might almost have been heard a mile off; and at the same time drew his head and feet together with a jerk so violent, as to render the recoil something like that of a twisted up piece of In- dian rubber. The effect of it was like the ex- plosion of a bomb, the circle was dispersed, and the persons forming it tumbled in all directions, and Partenclaw was laid on his back like a lob- ster, with his saw held up in the air. The Doc- tor, however, though with some difficulty, yet with undiminished sangfroid^ rose again to the charge. " There is some fife in the man yet," quoth he ; " give me a spoon that I may remove his brains, and examine the fracture in his skull.'' Sparrowpipe, with whom the application of LOCHANDHU. 61 the saw had in some degree served the purpose of the lancet, had begun to regain his senses, as the Doctor uttered these words. They acted upon him hke the touching of the spring of an automaton. He started up to the sitting pos- ture, and having clapped both his hands to his head, he exclaimed, in the most doleful voice, " Oh, I'm a dead man ! — I'm a dead man ! — sure eneugh my skull is crackit, and my brains are a' out, and some o' them are scattered on the very floor." The sudden relief the spectators experienced from all dread of the Bailie being killed out- right upon the spot, coupled with the ludicrous effect produced by his dolorous accents, and highly ridiculous appearance, instantaneously changed their silent breathless anxiety into a burst of unextinguishable laughter, in the midst of which he sat in all the horrors and anguish of mind, inspired by a firm belief of immediate death. '' You may laugh, gentlemen," cried he, in yet more woeful strains, as soon as he could be heard — " ye may laugh, unchristian-like sinners as ye are ! — but," said he, holding out a handful 62 LOCHANDHU. af the pulpy matter taken from his head, *' an ye winna believe me, there''s a pickle o' my brains in my ain hand, and there's the rest o' them lying on the floor." The roar of laughter was renewed. " Bailie,"" said the Baronet, at the first pause that occurred, " if you are resolved to insist upon being scatter-brained, it is not for any of us to gainsay you," The renewed shout that followed this obser- vation made Sparrowpipe angry. " I have lost my brains, I tell ye," exclaimed he, in a pet, " and gif ye winna believe me, there they are in your face," so saying, he threw the soft mass slap into Partenclaw's eyes, and almost blinded him. The real state of the case was now discovered, much to the satisfaction of every body. A mass of herring milts, tinged with the streams of cla- ret, had fallen into his hair, and this, added to his temporary stupor, had led to the Doctor's mistake. The drunken company had now lei- sure to note the figure of Sparrowpipe in detail. Never was mortal in such a pickle. His gar- ments, and above all his yellow waistcoat, the LOCHANDHU. 63 pride of his very heart, were covered with fish entrails, brine, and claret, and he stank so, that he would have made an excellent drag for a pack of hounds, to which purpose, indeed, any one who beheld him, without doing violence to probability, might have easily imagined that he had been actually applied. All this minor part of his misfortune had been overlooked by him in the dreadful idea of immediate death. But now that all his fears on that score had subsided, he began, in sad strains, to deplore the damage his drapery had sustained. <* Waes me ! waes me ! siccan a fusome sight as I am. My new kassimer vest is a'thegither ruined ! — Fich, fich ! it stinks like a fishwife's creel — it's an ill-fared tradin' voyage to me this. I may buy a bargain o' lace and silken hose, but my nev/ stand o' claes, my gude coat and breeks, and aboon a' my vest, can never gang on again. — Ugh ! I wish I had them aff ! — my verra stamick scunners at my verra sell !" " Then, Bailie," said the Baronet quietly, " I fancy it's the first time you were ever sick- ened with your own person, whatever effect it may have had upon others. But come, cheer 6^ LOCHANDHU. up, man !— let Mrs M'Claver do the best she can to cleanse you from the pickle you have been soused in, and then let us endeavour to get things into some sort of order again." LOCH AX DHT. 65 CHAPTER IV. A. rude and boisterous captain of the sea. Douglas. Under his eye-brows looking still askance, He lower'd with dangerous eye-glance ; His rolling eyes did never rest in place, But walk'd each way for fear of hid mischance. Holding a lattice still before his eyes, Through which he still did peep. Spencer. The Bailie had been wisped down with straw, washed with soap and water, and dried with a towel by the hostess and Peggy Galravage, — the boards had been replaced as a table, and the ranks of the company restored after their late discomfiture, — and the stoups had begun to cir- culate with renewed energy, when the door opened, and their attention was attracted by the entrance of a new personage. 66 LOCHANDHD. This was a tall, swaggering, sea-faring man, dressed in a tawdry anomalous sort of sea uni- form, of blue, faced with orange, ornamented with large brass buttons, and broad gold lace. On his head he wore an enormous cocked hat, a huge cutlass was suspended at his side by a broad buff belt, whilst the butt ends of two brace of brass-mounted pistols were seen appearing from his girdle. His black curly hair, and his large whiskers and eyebrows, gave uncommon fierceness to features, naturally handsome, had they not been disfigured by an expression of li- bertinism, mingled with certain touches of depra- vity, appearing to argue a ready inclination to crime, and a fitness for executing it, but partially disguised by that look of careless freedom cha- racterizing the hearty sailor on shore. " Ah ! Captain Brandywyn," exclaimed se- veral voices at once. " What ? are you come at last ? how goes it with you ? and what has be- come of you ?" "Ha, ha! my boys, all assembled I seel" cried he, as he leered around him. " What cheer, my hearty fellows ? So I see you have broke bulk already — is't not prime Bourdcaux, eh ? — LOCHANDHU. CPl I have thirty casks on board as good — ^never shipped better since I have been in the trade. I sent that sample ashore, when I was off the head at hap-hazard, just to let you know that I was on the coast, to give you a notion what sort of tipple I carried, and to wet your whistles a- bit. I would ha' been here at the broaching of the barrel too, an I had not been afeard of the hawks to the eastward. But, sink them, they were on the look-out, and I was forced to push away and keep a decent offing ; so, taking ad- vantage of the wind, I ran over for the north coast, did a little business there in the meanwhile, and then came walloping back with the breeze that sprung up at sun-set. But just as I was about to take up my anchorage, I saw a sus- picious-looking little vessel lying in my very birth, so I hauled my wind and stood off a bit, and though I did see your blaze, I thought it as well to come ashore in my boat, to know how the land might lay before I '* Here he suddenly paused, for having by this time thrown his eyes all round the company, they rested upon Cleaver, when, starting invo- 68 LOCHANDHU. luntarily, and earnestly gazing at him, he ex- claimed, « What ! Clea "" His presence of mind seemed to return to him in time to prevent his finishing the word, and correcting himself with uncommon readiness, he added, " What ! Cleghorn among you ? no, no, no — I see, I am mistaken ; — this damned hovel is so smoky, that I swear I took that good humour- ed-looking gentleman for the Custom-house Cap- tain himself, and so thought I had thrown my- self into the very jaws of the lion." " How could you suppose, Captain," said Macgillivray, " that we could have such a guest to welcome you ? These are two English gen- tlemen on a pleasure trip in that same little ves- sel which so alarmed you. Pray let me make you acquainted with one another," continued he, as he led the seemingly unwilling Captain up to the strangers. " Mr Oakenwold, this is our worthy friend. Captain Brandywyn, formerly of the navy, and now commanding a merchantman. He is a rough diamond. Sir, but not the less valuable on that account. And this, Captain Brandywyn, is Captain Cleaver, to whom you LOCHANDHU. 69 will the rather more naturally draw, as being sons of the same element ; for sailors, you know, stick together like pitch." But never was proposition less borne out by ap- pearances, for Brandy wyn seemed to be repelled rather than attracted by the sight of his brother tar, and Cleaver had been too busily employed with some deviled herring roes, done by Peggy Galravage according to his own directions, to notice the entrance of any one. He was never- theless too polite not to rise when Macgillivray introduced Brandy wyn to him. He got up, his fork in his hand, with a large piece of the rich food impaled on it, made his bow, his eye being all the time directed do vvn wards on the morsel about to relish his mouth, and was in the act of saying something civil, without thinking much to whom it was addressed, when Brandy wyn drew hastily back, and muttered, in a sulky tone, " Pshaw ! Macgillivray — curse your Italian politeness ! you are enough to sicken a dog with your palaver." And so saying, he hastened to seat himself beyond Partenclaw, half way down the table 70 LOCHANDHU. where, in defiance of the numerous questions and remarks addressed to him from all quarters, he seemed to fall into a reverie, during which he stole frequent and long looks at Cleaver, when he thought himself unobserved, as if he wished to scrutinize every feature of his countenance. Cleaver, whose politeness amounted to no more than what a sailor commonly serves out to every one he meets on shore, as matter of course, pretty much in the same way as he does his guineas, eagerly returned to his deviled roes, without perceiving the strangely mysterious con- duct of Brandy wyn. But it did not escape Am- herst, whose eyes had been rivetted upon the ruffian-looking seaman from the first moment of his entrance. '* Captain Cleaver," said Sir Alisander, " you and Captain Brandywyn may have met before. Sailors are often jostled together by the jumble of accidents. It is not unlikely you may have seen one another on the shores of Italy for in- stance, or may be '''' No sooner had Brandywyn heard the name of Italy, than he started, and hastily interrupt- ing the Baronet, stammered out, in a flurried. LOCHANDHU. 71 but very earnest manner, " Italy ! I never was in Italy in my life — at least I mean — that is — I should have said — I never was at Naples." " Why," replied the Baronet, with his usual good-natured laugh, " nobody talked of Naples; yet, if I mistake not, since you have named it, I think I have heard you talk of the place."" '' In troth, and so have I," said Deacon M'Candy, hiccupping as he spoke, for he was nowbeginning to get very drunk. "I swear — that is to say, in my faith, I'm sure, IVe often heard ye crack o' that city, and mair by token, IVe heard ye brag o' the braw maccaroni and the sugar confecks they manufactur' there ; and I canna be mistaken, seeing these are articles mair especially in my line, ye ken, Captain, so that I canna but mind it." *' Aye, indeed," said Macflae, " and I remem- ber hearing you tell of the eruption and eructa- tions of that famous hill called Mount Vesuvius —and moreover, of that popish miracle of the liquifaction, or deliquation of the blood of their patron saint, whose name is like unto that of one of our months, but whether it be January or February, I cannot just remember at the pre- 72 LOCHANDHU. sent period or epocha. But surely, and of a truth, much .more do I recollect to have heard you narrate of the curiosities and extraord'nars of that famous town, city, or metropolis.'' Brandywyn seemed to fret inwardly at these remarks, vague and unmeaning as they were. But, like some wolf attacked by ignorant rustics and vulgar yelping sheep dogs, he roused him- self ; and with a loud, but apparently forced laugh, which increased the savage expression of the passion he could but ill conceal, he exclaim- ed, *' Belay ! belay ! — what ! will ye not allow a sailor to use the privilege of a traveller, and to cram a little ? I tell ye, I may have been off the mouth of the bay of Naples, or perhaps in its mouth ; but if ever I was ashore in the city, blast me, I say ! — so let's have no more on't." And so lifting a large stoup of claret to his head, he quaffed it off at one draught, and then muffling himself up in a cloak, the Neapolitan fashion of which particularly struck Amherst, and saying — " Well, I must go and see what the Charming Sally is about ; I shall have her in be- fore many hours are over, so those who may want LOCHANJ)HU. 7S to be customers will keep a look-out at the old place," — he precipitately left the house. Cleaver, who had at first paid Httle or no re- gard to Brandywyn, had his attention somewhat excited by the earnest and suspicious manner in which he denied having been at Naples. He had looked at him, and liis face instantly struck him as not entirely strange to him, though he could not immediately remember where he had met with it. But he had now little time allow- ed him for cogitation ; for the empty stoups be- gan to rattle more frequently against the sides of the already half-hollow cask, and the discharge from the spiggot-hole nearly amounted to a con- stant stream. The tongues of the revellers, too, began to ring such an incessant larum of non- sense, that nothing was to be distinguished in the general Babel of voices, except an occasional howl from some Bacchanal, raising a note louder than the rest, or the screeching verse of some ribald song, to which nobody listened, because every one wished to be the person listened to. Sir Alisander himself, being naturally of a less buoyant and more even temperament than the rest, maintained a state of tolerable sobriety, but VOL. I. J) 74 LOCHAigDHU. could no longer preserve even the semblance of control over his troops, although he frequently thundered on the crazy boards with the end of his gold-headed cane. " I wish to Heaven we could slip away from this boisterous scene,'' said he to Amherst ; " but I dare not desert my post without giving dire of- fence — I shall have a headache for a month af- ter all this noise." And truly it was indeed overpowering enough ; every one striving to bring his own indivi- dual supposed talent into notice, and no one being disposed to yield the arena to his neigh- bour. Some half dozen to be sure there were, who, wiser than the rest, or perhaps more deep- ly overloaded with drink, lay snoring in different attitudes, with their arms and heads resting on the table. Now it was that Partenclaw, being very desirous to get up a glee, had ranged him- self with Blutterbog and Windlestraw, like cho- risters upon a form, where they began to strain their throats in ineffectual endeavours to tune their voices, producing a jarring discord, very much improved by the drunken attempts of Dea- con M'Candy, who was trying to roar out, LOCHANDHC. 75 " Hey, Johnny Cope^ are ye waukin yet, Or are ye sleeping, I would wit ?" — Now it was that Bailie Sparrowpipe insisted upon exhibiting to the company the very mi- nuet he had danced with Miss Sally Hopkins, at a grand farewell ball given by him at the Hog and Pitcher in Wapping, on the occasion of his leaving London. — Now it was that Julius Caesar Macflae was in vain attempting to procure listen- ers to a speech he had composed, and spoken with great applause, in the Rum Club of Kingston, on some subject then under discussion in the House of Assembly ; but Demosthenes himself, when rehearsing to the raging elements, spoke not more unprofitably. He jumped upon a stool, slapped his breast, shut his eyes, forced down his eye-brows, clenched his fist, and hammered the air ; but all to no purpose. At last the barrel at the upper end of the room catching his eye, a faint hope seized him that he might have some chance of making a stronger impres- sion from so elevated a rostrum. The idea no sooner struck him, .than staggering towards it, he mounted with considerable difficulty, and poising 76 LOCHAIJDHU. himself erect, he began to spout forth his oration in interrupted jets and spurts, something resemb- ling those issuing from the spiggot of the barrel itself when it lacked air. He screamed, — he vo- ciferated, — but attracted no attention, save from the Deacon, whose animal spirits, generally slug- gish when in their wonted state of quiescence, but now spurred into furious gallop by the liberal potations he had imbibed, knew no bounds. No sooner did he perceive Macflae perched on the hogshead, than, rushing towards it, he as- cended it with an activity no one could have ex- pected from his round bulky figure, and short thick legs, and getting astride on it, like a Bac- chus, he began roaring out his favourite song of " Johnny Cope*" with the lungs of a Stentor. Caesar might have fancied that he was partial- ly heard before, but now his speech was annihi- lated. If he had possessed the eloquence of Marc Antony himself, it would have availed him nothing, when opposed to a voice that resembled the noise of a blast-furnace in an iron-foundery. The irritated Julius turned round upon him with bitter rage, and with a heat which nothing but Cayenne pepper and a West Indian sun could LOCHANDHU. 77 have generated, he grappled the Deacon by the throat, whilst M 'Candy in his turn seized the orator by the legs, so that Macflae would have been certainly thrown down by the suddenness and violence of his gripe, had he not supported himself by twisting the assailant's neckcloth with both hands, until the purple face of poor M' Can- dy actually became as black as one of his own plums. The struggle now grew desperate. It was too much for the rotten gantrees, — it cracked and gave way, and down came the hogshead with a noise like thunder. All was hushed in an in- stant, and on rolled the barrel down the inclined plane of the uneven floor, like the stone of Sisy- phus, leaving Caesar and M'Candy struggling in a sea of claret that poured from the bung-hole opened by the shock. The Baronet and Am- herst had hardly time to get out of its way, when bang it went against the end of the crazy form on which the three choristers were standing in all the ecstasy and self-imagined harmony of their first stave, and the legs giving way before it, the whole orchestra was precipitated on the table, which failing in its turn, was involved in a second 78 LOCHANDHU. ruin, and the chorus of snorers having their sup- port thus suddenly removed, were thrown head foremost into the centre, where nothing was to be seen among the broken lumber but a moving heap of arms, heads, and legs, kicking and sprawl- ing in so confused a manner, as to make it ut- terly impossible to say to whom the various mem- bers belonged. Those who had been so sudden- ly and rudely awakened, finding themselves, they knew not how, on the floor in the midst of such a melee, and supposing they had had foul play, and that some vile trick had been played them, began to fight, every man against him who was nearest to him, until in a very few minutes, no- thing was to be seen but bloody faces, broken noses, and bunged up eyes, whilst the glee of the musical Partenclaw and his harmonious associ- ates was changed into a medley of groans, screams, and execrations. Sir Alisander, Cleaver, Amherst, Macgillivray, and one or two of the soberest, who had escaped from the general over- throw, endeavoured for some time to separate the combatants; but this they found not only impos- sible to execute, but dangerous to attempt ; for so numerous were the arms and legs that were LOCHANDHU. 79 striking and kicking in all directions, that one might as well have expected to come in contact with the complicated machinery of a hackling- mill without risk, as within reach of these ani- mated flails. Sir Alisander seeing, to his great satisfaction, that the claret had all run out, and that his offi- cial duties were consequently terminated, thought it the part of a prudent general to sound a retreat whilst he coijld draw off his forces without obser- vation, and communicating his intentions to Am- herst and his friend, they grasped their arms and cloaks, and called O'GoUochar. The Baronet, in his hurry to escape, forgot to send for his old coach, and notwithstanding night air, and rheu- matism, he sallied forth with them, leaving Mac- gillivray and the two females, whose shrill voices were now pitched like trumpets far above the deep roar of the battle, to restore peace and or- der as they best might. The approach of dawn was just visible in the eastern horizon, when the party left the public- house. The country, as far as they could see, ex- hibited a variety of soil and surface, cultivated fields being intermixed with furzy pastures, and 80 LOCHANDHU. occasionally, though more rarely, with patches of hazle-copse, and other brushwood. They had, as Sir Alisander told them, not much more than a mile to go ; Amherst, who was stewed by the heat and closeness of the apartment they had just left, enjoyed the fresh and balmy breath of Heaven. He walked on in conversation with the Baronet, whilst Cleaver followed at some distance, steadying his rather treacherous limbs by leaning on the brawny arm of O'Gollochar. Sir Alisander's kind, unaffected, and gentle- manlike manner, seasoned as it was by an occa- sional display of dry, inoffensive humour, had already won the heart of the young Englishman, who begged of him to give him some account of the origin of the singular merry-making he had just witnessed. " It must, indeed, have appeared to you a very strange, and, perhaps, even a very barbarous assemblage, Mr Oakenwold ; and maybe you think it a little odd that one of my apparent cha- racter and situation in life should have presided as chief priest in such a sacrifice to Bacchus, sur- rounded as I was by so many Satyrs and Sileni. I can assure you I have no particular pleasure in LOCHANDHU. 81 such scenes ; but I am of a facile temper, Sir, and do not like to refuse any thing to these wor- thy people, who, somehow or other, have a very general regard for me, though, Heaven knows, my frail state of health forbids my seeking popu- larity, by being actively useful as a country gen- tleman. The truth is, I should probably lose more than I would gain with them, were I to pretend to be so. But I cannot refuse to join in their revels, without setting up as a censor, an office certain to render me very odious, an alter- native I cannot make up my mind to. There is some apology for them in the half-civilized state of this part of the country; the hostile parties in- to which society has been lately divided by poli- tical convulsions, having hardly yet allowed us time to borrow the improvement and polish of our more southern neighbours. It is as unwise as it is hopeless, to attempt to alter the nature of man at once ; and it is often the best and speedi- est way to effect a lasting change, to seem to yield to the current for a time, in order the better af- terwards to stem it. Having said thus much, I may now tell you, that the wine you were drink- ing was smuggled, and that the greater part of d2 82 LOCHANDHU. the persons you sat with were assembled there to wait for the arrival of Captain Brandywyn and his vessel, the Charming Sally, in order to pur- chase the various foreign articles her cargo is composed of The Captain, like an expert ang- ler, knows how to strew his ground baits. He sends on shore a hogshead of claret to Mrs M^Claver's, and it is her business to distribute immediate information of its arrival. This draws the customers together, and after such a deep ca- rouse as you witnessed, it is not unlikely that his goods will be quickly and well disposed of All this is very bad ; but I cannot think of making myself hated by becoming a custom-house officer, and if I did attempt such a thing, I should only succeed in gathering an ample harvest of odium, without adding one shilling to the King's reve- nue. Besides, a peaceable life is essential to my existence, so I must e'en continue to ride the ford as I find it, and leave it to more active men to bustle and fight themselves out of the good will of those by whom they are surrounded.*' By this time they had arrived at the gate of Sanderson Mains, to which a straight avenue of young trees led up through the centre of the LOCHANDHU. 83 square grass field it stood in. It was a large, plain, barn-like building of three stories, with a great length of front facing directly south, or to ■what is called, in the language of the country, the twall o'clock line. It exhibited numerous windows of small size, and was flanked by two pigeon-house-looking wings. Behind it, and at about forty yards distance, was a low stone wall fencing off the field from the church-yard. There a very antique church, hav- ing divers uncouth projections, a low Gothic tower, or rather belfry of stone, a grey slate roof tinted with a thousand weather-stained hues, se- veral very curious old monuments rising from amidst those of modern date and more vulgar taste, and two or three weather-beaten ash trees, afforded almost the only features of interest, to a scene otherwise completely agricultural, and de- void of variety. Behind the church-yard, and at the foot of those elevated downs rising between it and the sea, were the miserable hovels of a straggling ham- let, seated amidst all the rich filth which, at that period, (we do not say now,) distinguished such places in Scotland; and above these the grey 84 LOCHANDHU. roof of the manse appeared rising in that modest dignity befitting its inhabitant. Such were the objects the morning was beginning partially to il- luminate, and its sombre light seemed particular- ly suited to their simplicity. On entering the house, the gentlemen were ushered into a low-roofed paved hall, and ser- vants having appeared, bed-rooms were speedily prepared for the strangers, to which they retired, to endeavour to get rid of their fatigue by a few hours repose. LOCHANDHU. 85 CHAPTER V. For marriage is a matter of more worth Than to be dealt in by attorneyship. Shakspeark. Of wiles More inexpert, I boast not. — Then let those Contrive who need, unworthy of our might. MlLTON". Amherst had arrived at Oakenwold Manor from Oxford only a short time previous to the marine trip that carried him, as we have just seen, to Scotland. His father, Sir Cable Oakenwold, was the re- presentative of an ancient and highly respectable family in Kent. Having been born a second son, and in a maritime county, he went early into the navy, and rose, by his bravery and good conduct, to the rank of Admiral of the Blue. Just before 86 LOCHANDHU. he got his flag he married Amherst's mother, the daughter and heiress of a gentleman of fortune, whose estate lay in the vicinity of the New Fo- rest in Hampshire. Warm in his affections, he was devotedly attached to his wife, and her death, which happened a few years after their marriage, preyed upon his mind, and soured his temper. This event was soon followed by the death of his elder brother. Sir Theophilus, for whom he had the strongest fraternal love and veneration, and for whose loss the succession to his title and im- mense estates but ill repaid him. These circum- stances, added to long habits of uncontrolled and undisputed command, combined to make him testy, impatient of contradiction, and extremely liable to fits of violence, of no long duration to be sure, and of which he was always afterwards ashamed, and ever ready to make treble repara- tion for what they might have led him to say or do while under their influence. His strong at- tachment to his wife was naturally transferred with tenfold interest to her only child, and in- deed, he doted so on Amherst, that he must have been inevitably ruined from over indulgence, had not the Admiral's eminence in his profession LOCHANDHU. 87 kept him so constantly employed at sea, that he was compelled to place his boy at a public school, where he remained till he went to Ox- ford. Until the period of the Admiral taking up his residence at his paternal seat, that is, a few years previous to the time we are now speaking of, the father and son had rarely met for more than a few days at a time, and that at considerable in- tervals. But the old veteran's warm heart so dissolved itself upon these occasions, as to make Amherst fully aware of the intrinsic value of its metal, and the young man consequently returned his father's fondness with all the strength of filial love. As Amherst was the sole hope of the Oaken- wolds, and was now almost of age, and the heir of a very large fortune, it was very natural that his father should look anxiously to his making a speedy and respectable marriage; and as the time was hardly past, when fathers used to think that they had a right to be the chief negotiators in such treaties. Sir Cable began to cast about in his mind to discover what fair one would be most worthy of the hand of his son, without such 88 LOCHANDHU. a notion ever entering into his head, as that there was a chance of his choice being disputed by him for whom it was made. After some little con- sideration, his thoughts rested on the niece of Lady Deborah Delassaux, a young lady some- what younger than his son, and whose history had something peculiar in it. She was the only child of Sir Marmaduke De- lassaux. Her father died at Rome, and grief for his loss occasioned her mother's untimely disso- lution in bringing her prematurely into the world. She was therefore an orphan as soon as she saw the light, and that too in a foreign land. The charge of the child naturally devolved on her uncle, Sir Godmansbury, who succeeded to his brother's title, whilst his large property descend- ed upon the infant Olivia. It so happened that Sir Godmansbury was travelling in Greece at the time of his brother's death, so that his wife, Lady Deborah, daughter of the Earl of Llanstephan, whom he had left at Naples, took immediate charge of the child in her husband's absence. But the infant was fated to lose her second fa- ther, for soon after his return to Italy, and be- fore he could join his lady, Sir Godmansbury LOCHANDHU. 89 fell by the hand of assassins, or banditti, in a manner the particulars of which were never very- well known. Lady Deborah having given way to all those professions of grief becoming a widow, continued to reside abroad for some years, and then returned to England with her niece. They took up their residence at the young ladies' seat of Brokenhurst-Hall, within a few miles of Oaken- wold Manor, and it was immediately converted into a magnificent abode by all that wealth could effect. The Admiral, and his maiden sister who kept house for him, were the only people with whom Lady Deborah and her niece were in the habit of holding much intercourse at the time we are now speaking of The proud and haughty bearing of both the ladies made them by no means favourites with the neighbouring families, with whom they only associated when formally called on to do so ; and the very marked attention they invariably paid to Sir Cable and Miss Margery Oakenwold, was naturally enough interpreted by busy talkers, into a desire to secure so eligible a match as Am- herst for Miss Delassaux. But to the good people who were the objects of these observation Sj 90 LOCHANDHU. no such political notion ever occurred. In our endeavours to account for the civilities of others towards us, we are seldom at the trouble of look- ing further than to those merits we are always very ready to give ourselves credit for possess- ing. It was after returning from one of his visits to Brokenhurst-Hall, during which more than ordi- nary attention had been shown him, that the Ad- miral first conceived the idea of uniting his son to Miss Delassaux. As he was accustomed to carry every scheme into immediate execution as soon as it was engendered, he lost no time in as- certaining the sentiments of Lady Deborah. This he had a very early opportunity of doing ; for the ladies of Brokenhurst came to spend a day at Oakenwold Manor. Sir Cable was on the fret until he could detach Lady Deborah from her niece and his sister, that he might open his mind to her in private on the subject of his thoughts. Miss Margery, all alive to entertain her guests, arrayed in her fawn-coloured satin gown of long and slender waist, and her black silk hood and scarf, and supported by a tall thin cane with an LOCHANDHU. 91 ivory head, trotted about on her high-heeled shoes, dragging the young lady and her aunt from one object of curiosity to another,— -from pas- ture to shrubbery walk, — from canal to flower plot, — ^from gold fish bason to tulip bed, — and from Chinese bridge to aviary ; — the Admi- ral panting after them all the while big with his secret, and moist with perspiration, until his small stock of patience began to be exhausted. " Margery,"" cried he at last, " you will over- fatigue yourself; — go in, my good old girl, and take Miss Delassaux with you, to show her your piping bullfinches, and your cabinet of shells. I will lead Lady Deborah on to the extremity of the dark walk, to show her the view of the sea from the seat."' " Very true, brother,*" replied Miss Margery, " very true, — that's well remembered; it would be a pity, indeed, not to show her ladyship the moss- house. It is all new since you were last here, Lady Deborah, and I may say it was all my own doing, and I am sure it will be a great pleasure to me to show it to you." " No, no, Madge," cried the Admiral hastily, " go in, go in, I tell you, — you know you have 92 LOCHANDHU. had rheumatism lately, and you are overheating yourself." At any other time the contraction of her name, that invariably argued a coming storm, would have instantly silenced Miss Oakenwold into im- plicit obedience. But she was now so fairly mounted on her hobby, that she did not even perceive it. " I have had no rheumatism these six weeks, brother !" said she. " I tell you, Madge, I know better, you have rheumatism, and are damned lame at this mo- ment, — and you are as hot as a furnace, — so don't make a fool of yourself and put me in a pas- sion," — raising his voice, — " don't put me in a passion, I say !" " I believe, Miss Oakenwold," said Lady De- borah, who was probably as desirous as Sir Cable could be, to have a conference with him in pri- vate, " I believe my niece had better return to the house; — she is somewhat delicate, and the sea air, even though coming from a distance, is not always beneficial. I will just walk to the point of view the Admiral so kindly proposes to LOCHANDHU. 98 lead me to, and then return to look at your shells, of which I am passionately fond." Miss Oakenwold stammered, — looked disap- pointed, — and dropping a curtsey of the old school, said in a submissive tone, " As your lady- ship pleases." And Miss Delassaux, who was not usually remarkable for yielding to the dictation even of her aunt, followed her, on this occasion, with alacrity, from which it might almost have been supposed, that she had actually guessed at the nature of the conversation about to ensue be- tween her and the Admiral. / Sir Cable, to use his own language, was not a man to stand shilly-shally, or to keep firing round bowls at a distance from the enemy. He boldly ran alongside and poured a broadside into her at once. He expatiated on the merits of his son, — on the extent and value of the estates to which he would succeed at his death, — on the antiquity of his family, — and lastly, on the advantages that must accrue to both parties from the contiguity of their respective territories, and the union of both. Nor did he " haul his wind," until he had exhausted all his oratorical ammunition. Lady Deborah heard him with the greatest 94 LOCHANDHU. inward delight ; but, like an experienced politi- cian, she did not choose to lower the value of her accession to the treaty, by appearing to embrace it too eagerly, or with all the keenness she really felt. She drew up her tall and dignified figure, rendered yet more majestic by the high and rich head-dress she was crowned with, and then seat- ing herself with all the magnificence of a conde- scending queen, on the mossy seat they had by this time reached, she turned her full piercing black eyes on the Admiral. " Sir Cable," said she, " I am not unacquaint- ed with the merits of Mr Oakenwold — public report has done much for him ; neither am I ig- norant of the respectability of your family. The value or extent of your estates I have never thought of, nor in any union of the kind to which you allude, would such paltry considera- tions be permitted to enter either into my own or my niece's mind. Her fortune is, thank Hea- ven, on a scale of grandeur equal to the high blood from which she is descended by both sides of the house, which might command the proud- est aUiance. By my good troth,'' said she, roll- ing her large eyes loftily around, " I see not 11 LOCHANDHU. 95 any reason that she should snatch at the first party that may offer, as if she were an humble spinster !" Lady Deborah's refined politics had rather carried her too far here. The hasty Admiral, always taking it for granted that the stream of other people's ideas must run in the same direc- tion as his own, was not prepared for any such rhodomontade. Not quite understanding what she would be at, he was taken altogether aback for some minutes, until finally interpreting her ladyship's high tone into a decided rejection of his overtures, the discovery produced a commo- tion in his mind like the meeting of a swollen river with a furious spring-tide. " Oh, very well, — very well, Lady Deborah Delassaux," exclaimed he, starting abruptly from the mossy seat to which his fatigue had very willingly brought him ; " as you please — as your ladyship pleases, and as your niece pleases ; my boy is no beggar's brat to go knocking at all the doors in the parish for a wife. Though I say it, who am his father, he has metal in his composition, and piurity in his blood, that will en- title him to cock his beaver at e'er a she in Old 96 LOCHANDHU. England. — But come, come,*" continued he, mo- derating himself a little — '* come, come — no of- fence on either side ; and since my proposal is not agreeable, let us e''en shake hands, and part friends, and say no more, or think no more, about it." '' Admiral Oakenwold,'' replied Lady Debo- rah, keeping her seat, yet relaxing somewhat of her overwhelming importance, whilst a smile dis- armed her eyes of much of their haughtiness, " Sir Cable Oakenwold, you mistake me ; what I have said was by no means intended to convey any objection on my part to the highly respectable, and highly advisable party you have offered my niece in the person of Mr Oaken- wold, your only son. My expressions were rather elicited, naturally enough, by the surprise of an unexpected proposal, and dictated by the parti- ality of an affection for my niece, which I may well call parental, since she has now no other parent than myself. Be assured, however, that my surprise is not unmingled with pleasure. But Miss Delassaux can have no thoughts of marriage as yet, and consequently none of Mr Oakenwold, whom she has hardly seen, though I LOCHANDHU. 97 think it by no means impossible, that a little in- tercourse may produce a mutual attachment be- tween the young persons ; and if my influence can at all weigh with her, I have little hesitation in giving you my promise, that it shall not be wanting to direct and foster those favourable first impressions Olivia may receive from an acquaint- ance with your son.*" The Admiral's countenance gradually bright- ened up during Lady Deborah's speech. He apologized awkwardly for his hasty interpretation of her first reply to his advances, and after a long and confidential conversation, it was ulti- mately agreed, very much to the satisfaction of both the negotiating powers, that Amherst should be introduced as a visitor at Brokenhurst- Hall, immediately on his arrival in the country. Lady Deborah and her niece had no sooner left Oakenwold Manor, than the Admiral became impatient to break the secret to his sister. " Margery," said he abruptly, as they sat tete- a-tete after dinner, " I am going to marry Am- herst as soon as he comes home." Miss Oakenwold stared with surprise, — " Dear VOL. I. E 98 LOCHANDHU. me, brother Cable! — what, marry the boy al- ready ? why, he is but a child—'" " Child ! you old goose, the lad is nearly of age. " Aye, dear me ! — married !" said Miss Mar- gery ; " what will become of all the jellies and preserved fruits I and Mrs Glass have been making, early and late, all this season, and all for Ammy ?" " Jellies and preserved fruits, indeed r cried the Admiral ; " is the woman a fool ? Why, what a plague, do you take Amherst for a nur- sery baby, to be fond of such trash ? — I'll tell you what it is, Madge, don't provoke me with your damned nonsensical old maid's store-room balderdash. I will marry Ammy, and that di- rectly." " Well, brother," said Miss Margery, recol- lecting herself, " to be sure you know best ; but may I ask who is to be the happy bride ?" " Miss Delassaux, to be sure," gruffly replied the Admiral. " Miss Delassaux ! — well, dear me, that is surprising ;" and then, in a somewhat lower LOCHANDHU. 99 tone, she added, " well, after all, they won^'t be lost." ^^ What wotft be lost, you old carraway com- fit ?" cried Sir Cable impatiently. " My preserves, brother," said Miss Oaken- wold ; " I was just thinking, that as Miss De- lassaux knows nothing of such matters, she can- not have prepared a supply of sweets, and I know Ammy likes them; and as the marriage will most likely be at Brokenhurst-Hall, I was just thinking, that, with care, my preserves would carry that distance very nicely, and make a pret- ty show at the wedding-feast.*" " What a damned old fool you are, Madge ; you are enough to make a parson swear. But, come, stir your stumps, old girl, and see that Mrs Glass puts every thing in order for the boy's reception, for, you know, from his letter, he will be here to-morrow, or next day, without fail." Miss Oakenwold hurried off on this most agreeable of all errands, leaving the Admiral to enjoy the repose of his easy chair, and Morpheus never steeped his eyelids in a sweeter balm, than now descended upon them. 100 LOCHANDHU, He had not dozed above half an hour, when his slumbers were broken by the sound of horses approaching the house ; a voice was heard in the hall — it was his son. But I shall leave my reader to imagine the delight that glistened in the old man's eyes, as he rushed to the landing- place of the oaken staircase to meet him ; how he strained him to his bosom ; how he held him off at arm's length with his left hand, whilst, with his right, he cleared his eyes of their gather- ing mists, that he might get a more satisfactory view of him. Nor shall I attempt to describe the joy of Aunt Margery, — nor the bustle of the thrifty Mrs Glass, — nor the honest half familiar, half respectful greetings of Tom Cuddy, who had been the Admiral's body-servant and ship- mate for forty years, and who had dandled Am- herst in his arms. The million of questions, generally crowded together without arrangement, by paternal affec- tion, on a first meeting with a darhng child, after a long absence, occupied Sir Cable too much, to allow him to broach the subject of the embryo marriage that evening. He thought of nothing else all night, however, and the result of 11 LOCHANDHtr. 101 his reflection was, that it would be as well, per- haps, after all, to let Amherst see the young lady, before he made him aware of the proposed match. He accordingly ordered the coach after breakfast, and drove with his son to Brokenhurst- Hall. Amherst was received by Lady Deborah and her beautiful niece with a kindness, that, with its usual effect upon young minds, soon won his good opinion of both, and his visit was in every respect so agreeable, that, before leaving the house, the old Admiral was delighted, by hearing him give a very ready acceptance to the warm invitation he received to be a frequent guest there. Seeing matters in so favourable a train, and doubting not, in compliance with the san- guine wishes of his heart, that the match was al- most as good as concluded, he resolved to leave his son to make his own approaches, and carry on the siege in his own way, contenting himself with watching the consequences. By thus keep- ing his schemes in petto, he promised himself the pleasure of giving Amherst a most agreeable surprise, when he came to communicate them. Every succeeding day added to the Admiral's 102 LOCHANDHU. satisfaction. His son's expeditions to Broken- hurst-Hall became more and more frequent, and in the course of a week or two, the old man be- gan to chuckle with a delight, almost enough to have betrayed him, when, in answer to his inqui- ries, as to where Amherst had rambled with his gun, he found that his day had been entirely spent there ; and as he rallied him on the circum- stance of his returning so often with an empty game-bag, he secretly congratulated himself that the youth was fast entangling his heart in the gold and silken meshes he had so ingeniously spread to catch him. LOOHANDHU. 103 CHAPTER VI. The Prince is in that mood, The offspring of a young and teeming fancy, That boys call love ; but no more like to love. Than the weak lightning of a summer night, That plays upon the horizon's edge, is like To that which issues from the loaded cloud, And rives the oak asunder. Lord John Russel. Gardez-vous d'ecouter les paroles douces et flateuses de Calyp- so, qui se glisseront comme un serpent sous les fleurs : craignez ce poison cache ; defiez-vous de vous-meme. Feneldn. Nearly a month passed away in uninterrupt- ed enjoyment, and in what might have been call- ed a new, delicious, and more highly excited state of existence for Amherst. Every day he sallied forth with his gun, as soon as the family breakfast was over. But it was not to shoot, for, let the breeze blow as it would, or the noses of his pointers incline to lead him which way they 104 LOCHANDHU. might, still he naturally and instinctively took his course in a straight line, as the crow would fly, over the enclosed country towards Broken- hurst-Hall. There he loitered off his day hang- ing over the guitar, or the drawing-table, or the embroidery frame of the beautiful Miss Delas- saux ; or reading verses to her as she lay stretch- ed on a sofa ; or lounging on a shaven bank, as she angled for the tiny brood of a little stream, that smoothly meandered, in many a maze, with- in a channel of a regularly defined breadth, through rich and highly perfumed shrubberies. Calypso's island was not more enchanting to the fascinated Ulysses, than were to Amherst the level lawns, the embowering evergreens, the ter- race walks, the temples, and the unruffled liquid mirrors, which reflected these and all the other artificial beauties of Brokenhurst-Hall. Nor had the divine Calypso herself more powerful spells for detaining the Grecian chief, than the insidi- ous nymph of these charming scenes employed, to induce Amherst to linger among them. Thus glided away the happy hours of the lovers, for so they might well be called, although their tongues had yet been silent on the tender LOCHANDHU. 105 subject ; for their eyes had ah-eady spoken vo- lumes in a language not to be misunderstood. They were one day seated within the circle of a little Ionic temple; under the dome of which stood a finely-executed copy in marble of the Medicean Venus. The building arose from a piece of shaven turf of the richest green, sur- rounded by tall evergreens of the most luxuriant foliage, and sloping gently towards a considerable sheet of water, into which the rill that stole through the grounds was taught by human art to expand itself On all sides of this little lake, the eye sank amidst the deep and softened sha- dows of thickly-tufted chesnuts, planes, and lime trees, closing it in at some distance behind ; whilst here and there from the velvet margin, the spiral cypress, or tall poplar, contrasted their upright forms with those of the graceful weeping willows, and other pendulous trees, seeming to unite their long tendrils to their images reflected in the water. A thousand perfumes here ming- led their fragrance. It was a spot of sweetness and of silence, the gentle sighing of the zephyr among the leaves, and the almost imperceptible ripple on the lake, being the only sound or mo- e2 106 LOCHANDHU. tion that could be distinguished. The goddess to whom the temple was dedicated might well have chosen it as her abode, for love was breath- ed in the very air. Amherst felt the full power of its influence. He was intoxicated with a combination of be- witching sensations. His pulse beat high ; his eyes swam with an ecstasy never before experi- enced ; and he was about to seize the hand of Miss Delassaux, to give vent to his feelings in a formal declaration of his passion, when they were interrupted by the appearance of a female, of pre- possessing mien and countenance, but clothed in the ragged weeds of poverty, and whose person exhibited all the external marks of famine and wretchedness. The miserable creature tottered, in very weakness, forth from the dark walk lead- ing into the retirement where they sat, and part- ly from respect, but more from the absolute fail- ure of her limbs, dropped on her knees before them. Miss Delassaux's large black eyes, melting with tenderness, were instantly kindled up with light- nings, such as Amherst had never before beheld in them. LOCHANDHU. . ^ 107 " Wretch !" exclaimed she, unwarily permit- ting herself to be betrayed into a haughty and vio- lent tone ; " how could you dare to intrude on these my private walks P'"* *' Alas, my lady," said the poor woman feebly, and holding up her emaciated hands in an atti- tude of supplication, whilst the tears poured in torrents over her wan cheeks, " I have made bold to come to you again. Husband was so crushed in trying to save poor Jem last races, when he was killed by the carriage going over him, that he has never been able to rise since. We have hardly had a morsel of food for some days, and my baby at the breast — and my poor man ^" *' But why do you come to me with these com- plaints ? why did you not go to Hawkins, my steward ?''"' said Miss Delassaux, impatiently in- terrupting the supplicant ; " I leave all such mat- ters to Mr Hawkins — Did not I tell you so be- fore r " You did indeed, my lady, and I went ; but Mr Hawkins -'' " Well, begone, I say,"" exclaimed Miss De- lassaux, in the same unfeeling tone ; " I have nothing to do with such a — a " But here 108 LOCHANDHU. she hesitated ; for her eyes chancing at this mo- ment to fall on Amherst, she observed that a cloud had taken possession of his sunny brow. She coughed, to give herself time to recover a little ; and then, immediately changing her voice to a milder accent, she continued, " I was say- ing, unfortunate woman, that I do not in general allow myself to interfere in such cases ; for the extreme sensibility of my heart will not permit me to witness human misery, without subjecting me to indescribable pain ; and I have suffered so much in this way, that I have been induced for some time to employ an agent in aU such mat- ters. But, since you have thus forced your case upon me in person, I must give way to my feel- ings; and— here! — take this, and be happy." And so saying, she drew from her pocket a green silk net purse, embroidered with gold, and heavy with guineas, and tossed it towards the poor woman ; then, shrowding her eyes in her white handker- chief, she seemed to give way to the emotions so suddenly and deeply excited, by a tale of woe she had refused to listen to. The wretched woman threw herself forward upon the glittering prize, and grasped it with eagerness. LOCHANDHU. , 109 " Heaven bless you !" she exclaimed, with energy ; " my husband and my child may yet be saved." Then, starting up, with a look of almost frenzied anxiety, she darted off with a rapidity her weakness was but ill calculated for. She was no sooner gone than Miss Delassaux removed the handkerchief from her face, and looked round for the approbation of Amherst, with eyes re-illumed with the lambent fires of love. But in his they found no corresponding flames to mingle with. The rays which so lately shone upon her, like those of the morning sun, when his beams pour from the brow of an eastern moun- tain in one cheering flood of light over the gay flower garden, were now extinguished, and he seemed absorbed in a dream of gloomy thought. On him her acting had been thrown away, and even the moving tones she now assumed utterly failed to awaken his attention. At last, he seem- ed suddenly to recollect himself, and stammering out something about the hour, and bowing to Miss Delassaux with more formality than he had been lately wont to do, he hastily left her. The magnificent gate of the park had closed 110 LOCHANDHU. behind him, before his senses had altogether re- covered from the shock they received. His eyes wandered almost unconsciously over the prospect now spread before him. It was one of those wide and extended vales, where a lazy stream glided along like a silvery serpent amongst the gay greens and yellows of the richest cultivation ; where groves, and bean-fields, and gardens, and fra- grant meadows, and hop-grounds, mingled their varied beauties ; and where the curling smoke of many a vine-clad cottage, and snug farm-house, seemed to speak the existence of a thick-sown and happy population. Alas, how often does such a flattering picture, when more narrowly ex- amined, prove but the deceitful gilding of mi- sery ! A warm, misty -looking vapour, like a summer exhalation, arose from the middle of the scene, and melted into the blue sky ; and immediately under it, a pointed spire or two, and a tall Gothic tower, together with some red-tiled roofs, and brick gables, peeping here and there in clusters from the trees they were interspersed with, show- ed that it proceeded from a little country town. A considerable extent of turf near it, having a LOCHANDHU. Ill smooth swarded sweeping line traced over its sur- face, partly enclosed with a barrier of painted posts and rails, marked the race-ground. Am- herst's eyes fell upon it. He retraced his steps to the gate, and, calling out the park-keeper's wife, he described the appearance of the female whom he had so lately seen, soon ascertained where she lived, and, impatient to follow the im- pulse of his heart, entered a narrow lane, leading, between hedges, towards the village. The path he followed soon opened upon the race-ground ; but it was some little time before he could discover the habitation he was in search of. At last he found it, under a great oak tree. It seemed to be one of those temporary edifices of turf, usually erected on the margin of the com- mon by those low hucksters who frequent races and fairs, and generally left untenanted, except during the few days when the sports are going forward. The entrance was closed by a door of wattle. He stooped to go in ; but as the open- ing, originally serving as a window, had been re- cently blocked up with sods, the inside was so dark, that objects were not at first discernible. As he stood for a moment in the aperture, a boy 112 LOCHANDHU. of between three and four years old, with no other covering than a ragged shirt, and worn to a ske- leton by famine, came creeping, like an appari- tion, into the stream of light that broke into the hut, crying, with a faint voice, " Mammy ! mammy !'*" Amherst spoke kindly to the poor child, and asked him where his mammy was ; but, " Don't know — Mammy ! Oh, my mammy ! Where's my mammy ?" was all the answer he could give. As his eyes became accustomed to the twilight of the place, he was enabled to see better around him ; and nothing could equal the miserable in- terior. A broken table, propped by two large stones, two wooden stools, an old hamper, a cou- ple of cracked vessels of brown earthenware, one of which seemed to contain water, and a great heap of straw and rushes in the obscurity at one end of the hovel, composed its whole furniture. Whilst Amherst was surveying these objects, and looking in vain for the inhabitants of this wretched abode, his attention was attracted by the attitude of the little boy, who was hanging over the hamper, and gazing earnestly into it. He put in his little hands, to touch something, LOCHANDHU. US and then clasping them together, he burst into tears, exclaiming, " Oh ! Sally's cold, cold ! Oh, mammy, mammy ! Oh, come back, mammy !" Amherst approached the hamper, when he per- ceived that it contained an infant of three or four months old. The head appeared from amidst a heap of rags and straw ; and an old torn jacket, that seemed to have belonged to the little boy, was laid over the body of the child. The boy looked anxiously in Amherst's face, as he lifted up the little coat. " Don't ye take it off," said he ; "I put it on to make poor Sally warm." But, alas ! no heat could now be imparted to the little innocent. Death's icy hand had al- ready extinguished her feeble spark of life. What was Amherst's horror when he discovered this ? And how was it augmented, when, by moving the hamper a little towards the light, he survey- ed the havock made on features naturally very lovely ? Disease, terminating in extreme ex- haustion from lack of the warm life-draught the parched bosom of the mother could no longer supply, had finally brought on spasms ; and her eyes and mouth, open and contorted, were horri- 114 LOCHANDHU. bly fixed by the last terrible convulsion, that had liberated her guiltless spirit from its earthly pri- son. A faint, but lengthened groan, issuing from the heap of mingled straw and rushes in the obscurity at the farther end of the hovel, now informed him that something yet unseen remained of life within its walls. He hastened to ascertain from whom it proceeded. A ghastly eye, that seemed to have the settled glaze of death upon it, stared upon him from amongst the heaped up litter. He lift- ed a portion of it, and there, beneath a canvas sheet, he beheld the extenuated and livid body of a man, apparently of middle age, lying on an old horse-rug. Gaunt famine seemed to have nearly completed its work upon him. The vital spark was still lin- gering there, however ; though all consciousness of existence seemed to be gone. Amherst's very soul was harrowed up with the sad spectacle he beheld, and he was so agitated and perplexed, that he knew not well what to do. He could not leave the miserable object before him to die with- out help ; and yet, if he staid, what help could he afford, without the means ? Life ebbed fast LOCHANDHU. 115 with the unfortunate man ; his moans were now lower and less frequent, and occasionally inter- rupted by an involuntary effort to draw a deeper inspiration, which, when it took place, shook the whole frame. Amherst ran to the entrance, to see if any help was at hand ; but no human being was near. He then walked about the hut with hurried strides, perfectly bewildered, and unable to think of any thing that could afford even tem- porary rehef. Meantime, the paleness of the countenance became more intense, the skin tight- ened over the nose and cheekbones, the slight spasm of a moment convulsed the features, and the death-rattle in the throat announced that all was over. Footsteps were now heard approaching the hut ; — they came slow and heavily. Amherst again hastened to the door, to call for assistance, for- getting, in his agitation, that aid, alas, now arrived too late ! Two men appeared bearing the body of a female. It was the very woman he had so lately seen in the grounds of Broken- hurst. " This way — this way ;— this is all the home the poor soul has now," said one of the men. 116 LOCHANDHU. whose appearance and accent bespoke him an Irish labourer. " Softly — softly with her ; let us lay her down on this bank, with her head up — so — And, do you hear, little boy ?" addressing a lad, who had carried a small basket behind them ; " do ye run and fetch a drop of water — or stay, maybe there's something better there." So say- ing, he rummaged hastily amongst the contents of the basket, and drew forth a pint bottle of wine, and after ineffectually trying to extract the cork with his teeth, he adroitly knocked off part of the neck of it with a smart blow on the edge of a great stone. He then put it to the woman's mouth, and poured in a few drops of the liquid ; and as he observed her to revive a little, he in- creased the quantity. He then busied himself in rubbing the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet, whilst Amherst and the other man gave him all the assistance in their power. Life was soon restored ; and, as recollection re- turned with it, she started up with an alacrity that in her weak state seemed miraculous. " Where am I .?" she exclaimed, looking wild- ly around her. " Oh, I see ! Now I remember LOCHANDHU. 117 all." Then, seizing the basket from the ground, she rushed into the hut. Amherst and the men followed. Ignorant of what had taken place during her absence, she had hastened to her husband's straw bed, and had al- ready lifted up his head, and was trying to pour some of the wine into his mouth. The teeth were locked together by the last spasm. " Oh, he will die !" she exclaimed in anguish ; " Oh, help me with him towards the light." The two men did so. Amherst was too much overpowered by his feelings to be able to prevent them. They rested the body on their knees and on the floor. Again she in vain tried to in- sert the bottle. A deeper alarm seized her. Al- most breathless, she ran her hand rapidly over his breast, and put her lips to his, and then her ear to his mouth — and then she earnestly gazed for some minutes on his ghastly eyes, till the sad truth burst upon her at once — and then she threw herself on the body in a paroxysm of grief. Her little boy, whose cries of " Mammy ! mammy !" had been hitherto disregarded, now came and pulled her by the sleeve. Still, over- whelmed in her present woe, she minded him not. 118 LOCHANDHU. " Mammy, mammy !'^ said she at last, " little Sally's cold, cold !" A new cord of feeling was touched — was in- stantly touched, and hope mingled with the sound. She left the body at once, and ran to the ham- per. But there the image of death was stamp- ed in too horrible a form to be mistaken. She gazed on the infant with eyes stretching from their sockets ; and, uttering a piercing shriek, she snatched the body up from the straw where it was cradled. One wild look showed that reason had instantaneously forsaken her. She raised the in- fant corpse on high with both her hands, and burst into a loud laugh, that chilled the very blood of those around her. The laugh gradually subsided, and the expression of her countenance changed. She seated herself slowly on one of the settles ; a smile came over her features, far more heartbreaking than the laugh that preceded it; and she began to fondle and nurse the baby, as if it had been still alive. The scene was more than human nature could stand. Even the poor Irishman, whose rough outside covered as much heart as ever warmed a Christian bosom, cried like an infant. •LOCHANDHU. 119 It was some time before Amherst could com- mand himself so far as to be actively useful. At last he called one of the men aside, and putting a purse into his hand, begged of him, in words as intelligible as his choked utterance would ad- mit of, to hasten to procure immediate female assistance. He gave him directions to find a conveyance for the unfortunate woman and her boy, and to see them taken to some comfortable lodging in the neighbouring village, to send for medical advice, and to administer every thing necessary. All which he readily undertook, and proceeded directly to execute. The first part of his commission was very speedily performed, for not far from the hovel, he met with two women, whom he knew, and the afilicted widow and bereaved mother was com- mitted to their care. She still sat fondling her baby with the fixed eyes and vacant stare of madness, and every now and then she burst into a heart-rending convulsion of maniac laughter. Amherst having done all for her that present circumstances demanded, now called the Irish- man to the door, believing, from something he had said, that he could give him the history of 120 LOCHANDHU. the unfortunate female, on whom it had thua pleased Heaven to pour out the very dregs of the phial of human wretchedness. He was not mistaken, and the tale was told with so much feeling, and in a manner so ingenuous, as to impress Amherst with the most favourable opi- nion of the narrator. This is no time, however, to perplex the reader with his curious phrase- ology, and numerous circumlocutions. The story shall therefore be given in as concise a form as its nature will admit. John Morley was an industrious man, who rented a small garden in the suburbs of the neighbouring village. By hard labour he main- tained his wife and family on the produce of it. He had had several children, but he lost them all except one boy of eight or ten years old, and the younger one, with whom we have already been made acquainted. It was now about eight or nine months since Miss Delassaux was proceeding to the race- ground in? a sort of open phaeton, driven by a Neapolitan coachman, and followed by two out- riders, one of whom was Cornelius O'Gollochar, the narrator of the story we are now telling. As LOCHANDHU. 121 the equipage was driving down the lane, where Morley's cottage presented its smiling front, co- vered with vines and creepers, and where a broad gilded sign, with " Fruits in their season,'' invited passengers into the neatly dressed walks, and trim arbours of his garden, his eldest boy was crossing the way with a sackful of young cauliflower plants on his back. His head was so completely buried in his burden, that his ear's were deafened by it, and the vehicle was upon him before he was aware of its approach. O'Gol- lochar, though he was riding behind, saw the whole transaction perfectly, and some minutes before it took place, shouted both to the coach- man and the boy ; but to no purpose, for the ruf- fian, who must have seen the lad as soon as he appeared, drove on with as much indifference as if the way had been perfectly clear. A shocking scene ensued. The boy was knock- ed down. His distracted father sprang from the cottage to his rescue. But his attempt was vain. The villain swept onwards like a whirl- wind, and crushed the lad to death under the wheels. The miserable father was struck by the pole, thrown down, and his body so dreadfully VOL. I. F 122 LOCHANDHU. bruised, that he was carried senseless to his bed, and never afterwards arose from the horizontal position. On moved the gay vehicle as if no- thing had happened. Its mistress, arrayed in all the splendour and magnificence of unbounded wealth, her thoughts filled with dreams of con- quest, scarcely seemed to notice the accident, as it was called. But when the carriage came to the stand, poor O'Gollochar was missing. He had re- mained behind to give all the assistance he could to the unfortunate sufferers, and compassion kept him so well employed, that he did not rejoin the lady all that day, and, consequently, incurred her severe displeasure. On the Coroner's inquest there were no witnes- ses who could throw a proper light on the matter except O'Gollochar. The other groom was not present, having been sent on to select a good place for the carriage to draw up in. Morley him- self was incapable of speaking, far less of attend- ing. Miss Delassaux denied having seen the oc- currence so as to form any judgment of the cir- cumstances. Antonio the Neapolitan protested, and was ready to swear, that the whole was acci- dental, and that he did not even know till after- LOCHANDHU. 123 wards that any such thing had happened. But the sturdy Irishman strenuously insisted on giv- ing a very different complexion to the case; he even went so far as to declare, that there was something very like design in the manner in which the boy**s death had been produced, and hinted something of a quarrel that had taken place between the Italian and Morley a few days before, arising from some insolence of the former to the latter on the occasion of a little entertain- ment given by the Italian to some of his female acquaintances in Morley's garden. But the Nea- politan was Lady Deborah Delassaux's favourite servant, and had accompanied her and her niece from Naples to England. Very great exertions were used therefore to have him cleared of all blame. 0'Gollochar"*s evidence was done away by the circumstance of his having had a trifling dis- pute with Antonio, though, in fact, there was hardly a single individual, either amongst his fel- low-servants, or in the neighbourhood, who had not quarrelled with him. In short, the result was a verdict of " accidental death,'' and honest O'Gollochar was punished for his resolute conduct, 124 LOCHANDHU. by being turned off, and threatened with a pro- secution for perjury. The ruin of the Morleys was complete. The garden the unfortunate man had rented, which, until that fatal day, had been his pride and his support, was the property of a wealthy hop-mer- chant who resided in London, and who had no feeling but for his own pocket. Unable to do any thing for its culture, he was not only obliged to give it up, but to quit his cottage, whence he was carried to a more humble dwelling. There he continued to waste away in body, and to suffer the most excruciating torments, too plainly proving that he had received some desperate and incurable internal injury. It is unnecessary to detail how his slender stock was consumed. Where there were apothe- caries' bills to pay, mouths to feed, and no hands to labour, it soon vanished away. Even his furni- ture was sold piecemeal, and when his wife was confined of her infant, she could hardly be said to have a bed to lie on. In fine, he and his fa- mily were compelled to quit their house, and were reduced to the necessity of creeping into the wretched habitation we have described on the LOCHANDHU. 125 edge of the common, where, still too proud to apply for parochial relief, they endeavoured to struggle against famine, upon the miserable pit- tance the poor woman could earn. In this their final distress, Mrs Morley made various attempts to see Miss Delassaux, whom she viewed only as the innocent cause of all her misfortunes and misery. But she was always unsuccessful, until one day she met her in the grounds, and was repulsed by an imperious order to go to Mr Hawkins, without being allowed time to tell her sad tale. Hawkins had a heart of flint, too hard for the reception of any kind- ly impression. The honest Irishman, however, was still their friend ; but he was now miserably poor, for his character having been blasted by the unjust imputations thrown on it at the in- quest, he could not get a place, and was therefore compelled to work at any kind of country labour he could obtain. Pressed by famine, and stimulated by the cruel spectacle of her husband sinking daily from want of proper nourishment and assistance, and of the child she was nursing drooping from her own weak state, Mrs Morley determined to make an- 126 LOCHANDHU. Other effort to procure aid from Miss Delassaux. With the result of this last attempt we are al- ready acquainted. No sooner had she obtained the purse, than she ran with the utmost speed to a shop in the village, hastily purchased provi- sions and restoratives, and hurried breathless away. There was something so wild and un- settled in her manner, and she appeared so ex- hausted, that the shopkeeper was induced to fol- low her from motives of humanity. She flew at first with such incredible rapidity, that he had some difficulty in keeping sight of her. But at length he observed her steps to falter. She reeled — put her hands to her forehead, and stag- gering towards a wall leaned against it for a moment — then sinking down beside it, faint- ed away. The shopkeeper hastened to her as- sistance ; and O'Gollochar happening to come up at the instant, they lifted her by their united ef- forts, and giving her basket to a boy to carry, they bore her between them, as we have already seen, to the hut. LOCHANDHU. 127 CHAPTER VII. Hark to the hurried accents of despair, Where is my child ! Bride of Abydos. Go, Syren, go — thy charms on others try ; My beaten bark at length has reached the shore, Yet on the rock my dripping garments lie ; And let me perish, if I trust thee more. Langhorne. O'GoLLOCHAR had hardly finished his melan- choly narrative, when the sound of wheels, and the glancing of the sun on its glittering windows, announced the approach of a chariot. It was Miss Delassaux's. Before Amherst could come to any determination how to avoid her, the vehicle was at the door. The lady's manner betrayed her expectation of finding him there. Yet she affected surprise at what she pretended to call an accidental ren- 128 LOCHANDHU. contre. On seeing O'Gollochar standing behind Amherst, her countenance underwent a consider- able change, and she betrayed a genuine vexation not to be mistaken. It flashed, however, only for a moment from her eyes, and was immediate- ly subdued, and veiled beneath a borrowed air of extreme sensibility. " Ah ! Mr Oakenwold !" said she, " I see your feeling heart has been beating in unison with mine. You will perhaps be surprised to see me here, but I was really so touched by the tale of woe we both heard so lately, that I could not rest until I should visit the poor woman, to endeavour to alleviate her affliction, and to ad- minister in person to the wants of her and her family. I am resolved to have them put beyond the reach of misery. Her husband and child shall soon be restored to health ; I mean to order my own physician to attend them." Amherst wanted words to frame a reply to so gross and unblushing an affectation of feelings which he knew were strangers to the bosom of her who uttered them. He hesitated — but he was spared the necessity of attempting it. Mrs Mor- ley's little boy had come to the door to gaze with LOCHANDHU. 129 childish curiosity at the gilded carriage. The mother's eye had caught a view of him, and of it from within. In the midst of her delirium, a confused recollection of her first day's affliction came suddenly upon her. She wildly threw the corpse of her baby into the lap of one of the wo- men near her, and just as Amherst was in the act of assisting the lady with formal politeness to descend, she rushed precipitately to the door. " Oh Jem ! Jem ! Jem !"" exclaimed she with frantic gestures, for in her madness she fancied it was her eldest son — " the carriage ! the carriage ! — oh my boy !" She snatched up the child in her arms, retreat- ed two or three steps inwards, and stood with her body bent, and her eyes rolling round on the ob- jects without, in a frenzy of terror. At last they rested on Miss Delassaux, and the sight of her seemed to give rise to a new train of ideas, for setting down the boy, and bursting into a maniac laugh, she went out to her curtsey- ing, and composedly smiling. " Is it you, my Lady ! — this is an honour in- deed ! — pray, walk in, my Lady. I dreamt a sad and frightful dream. I dreamt that poor Jem F 2 130 LOCHAKDHU. was crushed beneath your wheels. But it was all a dream. Pray, walk in, my Lady — you have been kind, kind to me ;*" — and taking Miss De- lassaux by the hand with a pleased and happy smile, " come in," said she, " pray, come in, my Lady ; our cottage is not so nice as it used to be — the vines and roses are all withered. But my husband and baby are quite well now ; your kind relief has saved them both. May Heaven, in its justice, reward you for it, and make you one day as happy as you have made me !" Miss Delassaux appeared astonished and per- plexed, but though young, she was an able actress. The part she was now playing was deep, and too important to be slighted. Turning half round, therefore, she said to Amherst with a look of ex- treme sentiment, " I am sure, Mr Oakenwold, you, wlio have doubtless often experienced such feelings, must envy me mine at this moment ;'" and then put- ting her white handkerchief to her eyes, as if perfectly overcome, she permitted herself to be led into the hovel by the wretched lunatic. Good Heaven ! what a scene ensued ! The corpse of Morley and the child were both lying LOCHANDHir. 131 exposed. Amherst, anticipating what must fol- low, could not bear to remain to witness it. As he darted towards the lane, he heard the pierc- ing shriek of Miss Delassaux, and the wild laugh of the maniac rang in his ears, as he hastily con- tinued his retreat. He instinctively put up his hands to shut out the sound, but in vain, for fancy made him hear and see the whole that passed, and he shuddered to think of it. On his way homeward, as he recovered him- self, in some degree, from the agitated state of mind the melancholy and distressing events of the day had thrown him into, his thoughts natu- rally reverted to that brilliant dream of happiness he was lulled into, by the fascination of the en- chanting Miss Delassaux, whilst he yet believed her to be an angel. How few hours had elapsed since that dream had fled ! — He was almost tempted to hesitate whether he was not now un- der some delusion. That a heart so unfeeling should exist in the bosom of so lovely a person, and that so much art should be possessed by one so young, seemed to render her, in his eyes, a monster he could not have believed to have ex- 132 LOCHANDHU. istence in nature. He trembled when he looked back to the precipice he had so recently stood on, and from which he had so narrowly escaped. He felt confounded, when he reflected how long, and how perfectly the mask had deceived him, and by what accident it had been at last torn off, so as to give him resolution and strength to burst the snares of her of whose hypocrisy he was now too surely convinced. There was something in O'Gollochar's account of Antonio the Neapolitan, that gave him an air of mystery. Why should such a ruffian, as he appeared, be retained in the service of Lady De- borah and her niece, and cherished and protect- ed, too, with all the care that might have been bestowed, with better justice, on the long tried worth of a faithful and respectable domestic ? There was something very unaccountable and perplexing in this, nor could all his speculation bring him to any thing like a probable interpre- tation of it. The result of Amherst's reflections was, that before he reached home, not only were all thoughts of connecting himself with Miss Delas- LOCHANDHU. 133 saux decidedly and for ever abandoned, but as youth, in its impetuosity, pushes every thing to extremity, he determined to avoid every chance of meeting her again. As he never had been aware of his father's intentions regarding his marriage, he, of course, never once contemplated the necessity of making a confidant of the Ad- miral, whom he had not suspected of entertaining any idea of his transient passion, nor had it en- tered his head to communicate to him the reso- lution he had now taken, never again to set his foot within the precincts of Brokenhurst-Hall. Amherst was sufficiently occupied for some days with the concerns of the unfortunate widow. He sent for Cornelius O'Gollochar, who became an active and willing agent in assisting the shop- keeper to provide for the decent interment of poor Morley and his infant. The widow herself had been removed to a comfortable house in the village, where the distress she had undergone pro- duced a violent fever, during which she struggled for life for about sixty hours. The best medical advice that could be procured was sent to her by Amherst, and although she was more than once despaired of, the disease finally yielded to the 134 LOCHANDHU. remedies employed. She was left in a very weak state for some days, during which she slept al- most without intermission. So much repose, no doubt, contributed to the reduction of her mental malady. As she began to recover strength of body, reason gradually re- sumed its full power over her. Her religion was of the purest and most rational description, and as the state of her mind began to permit the ex- ercise of its influence, it became as a healing balm to her wounded soul. Having been made aware of all that had been done for her, she gra- dually brought herself to bow with humble sub- mission to the will of Heaven, and breathed silent thanksgivings to that all-wise Being, who had raised her up a protector in the person of Amherst, to whom her gratitude was unbounded. The old Admiral was for some time in happy ignorance, that his plans regarding his son"'s mar- riage were not working themselves out to his en- tire satisfaction. One morning, however, a ser- vant arrived with an invitation to the family at Oakenwold Manor, to spend the next day, and to dine at Brokenhurst-Hall. " Amherst," said Sir Cable, " do you sit down, LOCHANDHU. 135 and answer Lady Deborah's note. I don't feel myself over and above well, but I don't like to disappoint her, so you may say that we shall all come with the greatest pleasure." " I think you had better not go, if you do not find yourself perfectly well, Sir," said Amherst. The Admiral looked at him askance, and be- lieving that his son dissuaded him from going, because he wished to enjoy Miss Delassaux's con- versation, without being subjected to his prying eye, he became the more determined to go, were it only to see how the land lay, and, therefore, with an arch significant nod and wink Amherst did not observe, nor, if he had, could he have understood them, he said, " No, no, Ammy, my boy, I am not quite so ill as to forego the pleasure of tlie society of a pretty girl ; write, therefore, as I bid you." Amherst accordingly sat down, and accepted the invitation in the name of his father and aunt, but apologized, in general terms, for himself, and the note was sealed and dispatched, without the Admiral's being aware that his son had refused to be of the party. About half an hour after the servant was gone, 136 LOCHANDHU. Sir Cable turned round to his son, who was read- ing? " Methinks,'' said he, " Lady Deborah is more than usually punctilious ; a verbal message by you, when you returned from Brokenhurst- Hall yesterday, would have been just as well as that formal card.'' " I was not at Brokenhurst-Hall yesterday," said Amherst. " Not at Brokenhurst-Hall ! where the devil were you then ?" " Some little business led me into the village," said Amherst. " And when did you see the Delassauxs last ?''"' inquired the Admiral. '' It is now, I think, about a fortnight," re- pHed Amherst. A prolonged whistle from the Admiral at once expressed his surprise and his vexation. — " Why, how the devil sits the wind now, young man ? Why, zounds, you used to spend every day, and all the day there ; what can be the meaning of this change .^" " I did, indeed, trifle off" a good deal of time there. Sir, for which you must, no doubt, have LOCHANDHU. 137 blamed me," said Amherst ; " but I must no\f make up for my idleness, by devoting myself more to my studies. I have hardly opened Locke since I have been down here/' " Phoo, Phoo ! damn Locke," said the Ad- miral peevishly ; " you must now think of be- ginning to read that queer book called Woman^ and to study the contradictions and riddles you wUl find in it." " I am not altogether ignorant of it," said Amherst, with something like a sigh, " and, in- deed, it does appear full of inexplicable riddles." " Why, younker," said the Admiral, heating a little, " you seem to be somewhat of a riddle ; but, perhaps, we shall have it all explained to- morrow, when you and Olivia meet. There has been some lovers' quarrel between you, I sup- pose." " I do not intend being of the party to Brokenhurst to-morrow," said Amherst, " and as to being Miss Delassaux's lover, that is an ho- nour to which I do not pretend." The Admiral was astonished. His passion was at once blown up gunpowder height. For- getting that he had never yet made his son ac- 138 LOCHANDHU. quainted with the matrimonial plans which had so long occupied his own thoughts, he jumped up from his seat, shouldered his cane, and, as was usual with him on such occasions, walked vio- lently backwards and forwards, on what he, in happier moments, called his quarter-deck, that is to say, on a breadth of the carpet, stretching in a straight line from his easy-chair to an Indian screen near the door, giving vent to a perfect whirlwind of rage. " What the devil, Sir ! after all I have done for you — after I had arranged and prepared, and, as I may say, as good as settled your mar- riage ! But it's a lie — all a damn'd lie. Have I not seen you turning up your eyes, and languish- ing like a dying whiting, when the young wo- man was singing it, and harping it to you ? I tell ye it can't be — after Lady Deborah and I had agreed between us that it should go on, even be- fore you came home, ye ungrateful puppy ! Sir, I'll have ye hanged — I'll have ye disinherited. No, damn me, that I can't do unfortunately ; but I'll certainly have ye hanged, drawn, and quartered, you disobedient jackanapes — I will !" Rage choked his farther utterance, and he LOCHANDHU. 139 threw himself into a chair, overcome by a severe fit of coughing. " My dear father,"" said Amherst, who had risen in absolute wonder, " wherein can I pos- sibly have offended you ?" " Offended me !" vociferated the Admiral, after recovering his breath, and resuming his quarter-deck movement — " Is it not an offence, think ye, to run right down on my plans, to strike them a-midships, and to sink them at once in this manner, when they are in full sail with a fair wind, eh ?"*^ " My dear father," said Amherst calmly, " I beseech you to recollect that this is the first time I ever heard of your having any plans, and I have yet to learn to what they refer."*** " Why, aye,'"* said the Admiral, a little soft- ened, " there is something in that, Ammy ; perhaps, I have been a little hasty or so; not that I was in any passion neither, but I am some- times apt to speak a little high and fast when I am keen about any thing. The truth is, I thought I saw matters going on so swimmingly between you and Miss Delassaux, that I judged 140 LOCHANDHU. it as well to keep my plans to myself for a while ; but now you shall have 'em all." He then pro- ceeded to let his son into his schemes, and gave him a full account of his negotiations with Lady Deborah, concluding thus, " And now, my boy, you know what I mean, and all that I intend regarding you, so I expect that we shall henceforth sail with the same wind, and to the same point of the compass, and not be running foul of each other again, by steering in the dark, as we have been doing hitherto." Amherst had full time to recover himself dur- ing his father's long explanation. It opened to him a new view of the conduct of Lady Deborah and her niece, and accounted for all that winning attention he formerly believed to proceed from a natural kindness of disposition. But it now ap- peared to be merely a train of self-interested ma- noeuvring, and it lowered both of them still more in his estimation, and very much increased the dislike he had lately taken to them. He there- fore replied to the Admiral, in language the most respectful he could command, that his heart told him an union with Miss Delassaux was perfectly incompatible with his future happiness, for which LOCHANDHU. 141 he hoped his father had too great a regard, to wish him to sacrifice it wantonly for the purpose of effecting a marriage of mere convenience. There was, no doubt, a great deal of reason in all that the young man said. But Sir Cable was not much accustomed to listen to reason. Implicit obedience was what he had been used to, and his determinations, instead of being shaken, were al- ways strengthened by opposition. He had thought his own arguments irresistible, and had been pre- paring himself, during his long harangue, to ex- pect that his son would give an immediate com- pliance to his wishes, now they were fairly under- stood. He bit his lip during Amhersf s short re- ply, and then giving way again to his rage, he jumped up to his quarter-deck again. " What the devil — do ye mean to mutiny, younker ? — I say. Sir, you are a silly jackanapes, and don^t know what is good for you — Your heart tells you indeed ! — I'll be hanged if you don't de- serve a good round dozen at the gangway — Hap- piness truly ! — just as if I don't know better than you what should make you happy — Why, what the deuce will make you happy if a fine girl and a good independent estate won't ? Mayhap you 142 LOCHANDHU. think that you won't be long of succeeding to mine, and that, when I am six feet under ground, you may do as ye like; but I tell ye. Sir, I'll live fifty years yet, were it only to torment you. But you are a silly boy — I won't allow you to make a fool of yourself and a fool of me — I say, you shall marry Miss Delassaux; do what you please, or think what you please, but marry "iVIiss Delas- saux you shall !" Amherst was shocked at his father's expres- sions. He assured him that his only desire was to obey him in all things, but that in a matter on which the happiness or misery of his whole life depended, he must be permitted to exercise his judgment, and to make his own choice. The calm resolution his son displayed served only to blow up the Admiral into a new and more boisterous whirlwind of wrath. Every reply on the part of the young man, however respectful in manner, or moderate in terms, was only throwing fresh oil on the highly excited flame of Sir Cable's ire. At last, the violence of his rage rendered his language so very offensive, that Anjierst felt he had no alternative but to leave the room. Taking up his cap as he passed outwards, he 11 LOCHANDHU. 143 walked down to the stables, and, ordering his ser- vant to saddle his horse, he galloped briskly to- wards the coast, to dissipate the chagrin occa- sioned by his father's tyrannical behaviour, by the rapidity of the pace of his steed, and by in- haling the pure air of the ocean. 144 LOCHANDHU. CHAPTER VIII. Wonder not to see his soul extend The bounds, and seek some other self — a friend. Dryden. The wretched sire beheld aghait, With Wilfrid all his projects past. All turned and centered on his son, On Wilfrid all — and he was gone. ROKEBY. Amherst rode on insensibly, ruminating on past events, until finding himself not far from Dover, he thought of taking that opportunity of visiting his old friend Cleaver, who resided un- der the cliffs, in a cottage roofed with the hulls of small craft, turned upside down, covering a variety of odd-looking little apartments, branch- ing out, and germinating uncouthly in divers directions. Finding that the captain had gone down to the harbour, to superintend some little LOCHANDHD. 145 alterations in his pleasure yacht, he desired his horse to be put up in the stable, and sallied forth in search of him. Having made his way on board, he found Cleaver with his coat off, an apron on, and his arms bare, busily employed in assisting a black- smith, who was fitting up a new cooking appara- tus in the forecastle. There seemed to be a dif- ference of opinion between him and the black- faced artist. " I tell you, Vulcan, you know nothing about it; this here should be fastened with a screw and nut, and that there should have a hook and eye, and a chain — 'twill never do else ; but you are all so damn'd obstinate and self-opinionated, that " Here he was interrupted by Amherst, who gave him a friendly tap on the shoulder. " Ah ! Amherst, my boy ! where the deuce have you dropped from ? Fm rejoiced to see you f ' and the honest sailor shook him heartily by the hand. " I'm making such an alteration here— an invention of my own too ; but I can't get these lubbers to work to my mind. This fel- low has been a week at this job already, and I'll VOL. I. Gr 146 LOCHA^!DIITJ. be bound he won't finish it in a fortnight more. But, come, I'll leave the rascal to himself for the present, so just let me wash my hands, and we'll go to my shop, and have something to eat, for there's nothing here — the jolly Dasher is not vic- tualled.'"* As they walked together towards the cabin, (for such was the name Cleaver had bestowed upon his cottage,) Amherst confided his dis- tresses to the warm-hearted seaman. " Why, he is a proper Turk, to be sure," said the Captain, after hearing him out, " to think of iViarrying you against your will, and to a girl, too, whom nobody in the country can bear. I don't like these Delassaux women no more than other people do; they are proud, overbearing, cold, and cunning. It is said, too, that their extrava- gance has thrown them into difficulties, of which, I have no doubt, they hope to rid themselves, by getting hold tf you. Depend upon it, they have been throwing their nets round the old porpoise, with the hope of catching his calf But, damn it, we'll disappoint them. I know the old boy well. Get out of his way for a while. He'll be in a passion enough to raise a hurricane in the LOCHANDHU. 14<7 channel ; but a week or two's absence will bring him round, and then he will give the world to get you back again, and will be all contrition.'" Amherst approved much of his friend's advice ; but he could not devise any mode of withdrawing himself, so as to make his father lose scent of him, and to ensure a perfect concealment. He expressed his difficulty to Cleaver. " If my new cooking stove,'' replied he, " had only been finished, I might have given you a trip in the Dasher. But to go to sea almost with- out the means of making a stew or a fry '" The idea immediately struck Amherst as ex- cellent. He pressed the Captain eagerly on the subject, and soon prevailed. " It's very well with you, young man," said Cleaver; " I dare say, you don't care a snap of a finger what you eat ; I was once so myself — salt junk and mag- gotty biscuits were a feast to me. But now that there is no necessity for subjecting myself to such fare, I am rather more delicate in my feeding. Besides, I should have been glad to have tried the effect of my new invention. But, come, we must e'en sail as we are. So, go home quietly., prepare every thing, and return here when all 148 LOCHANDHir. hands at Oakenwold have gone to roost. I'll just step into the town, and get Tom Phillips, my steward, to make some provision for the voy- age, and well be oiF for Scotland before day- light." Amherst shook Cleaver warmly by the hand, and thanking him cordially for this extreme proof of his friendship, he hastened to mount his horse. By hard riding he got back to Oakenwold Manor to dinner ; and, by good luck, he was saved from any unpleasant conversation with his father that evening, by the presence of one or two acci- dental guests. Whilst Amherst was hastily dressing for din- ner, he gave all necessary directions for his de- parture to Cornelius O'Gollochar, whom he had taken into his service, as a reward for his excel- lent conduct in the case of the poor Morleys He retired early to his apartment, and had the satisfaction to find every thing arranged in the most masterly manner. His trunks had been already dispatched, without observation, by a hired cart to Dover, and a pair of hack saddle horses were in waiting for master and man, at a small alehouse, about three miles distant. They LOCHANHKU. 149 remained until they fa^ajd tlie last servant creep sleepily to bed, and then; vithcut noisr, stepped down stairs, and left the^lious'e, CGoHoctiar has- tening on before to prepare, vhi'lsii ^ric master fol- lowed at leisure. The moon was up, and shone forth in great splendour, but was obscured, at intervals, by large opaque clouds floating heavily across the sky. The narrow path, through the fields and inclosures Amherst pursued, led him, for some part of the way, along the high wall inclosing the extensive grounds of Brokenhurst-Hall. The sight of it brought many recollections to his mind, and, as he passed a little door, he re- membered how often he had found it unlocked, purposely, as he now verily believed, to admit him, during his rambles, into a walk leading to a shrubbery, where he had so frequently met Miss Delassaux, by accident, as it then appeared to him. The path he pursued having led him to the summit of a gently elevated hillock, he was ena- jbled to have a view over the wall into the park. The moon, at the moment, happened to emerge from beneath a dark cloud, and by its light he 150 LdC^ANDHU. descried two figures walking slowly, and ap- parehtly • in deep conference. The moonlight was brightly reflfJcted' from the dewy gravel of the walk, and tlieir forms and long shadows were boldly relieved from it, whilst the high border- ing shrubbery threw occasional dark masses across their way. One of them, who seemed to be a woman, had much the figure and height of Lady Deborah Delassaux. He felt convinced it could be no one but her, and yet he could not conceive it possible that she should be walking in the park at so late an hour, and in a night that was rather too chilly and raw, to warrant the supposition of her doing so for mere pleasure. He was seized with an irresistible desire to satis- fy his doubts, as well as to discover who it was whom she thus made the companion of an almost midnight promenade, at so great a distance from the house. He retraced his steps to the little door, and finding it opportunely open, he yielded to a momentary impulse, and hastily entering, he concealed himself among the evergreens close to the walk along which the figures must pass. He had no sooner done so, than he became sensible that he had been guilty of an unwarrant- J^OCHANDHU. 151 able breach of propriety, but they were already too near for him to recede. From the tone of their voices and their ges- tures, he immediately discovered, as they advan- ced, that the female, who was indeed Lady De- borah, appeared to be expostulating with the man who accompanied her. The conversation, though here for the most part translated, was chiefly in Italian, and the first words that became intelli- gible were those of Lady Deborah concluding a sentence. " What I have advanced is perfectly true,'" said she ; " but, I trust, mio cam Antonio, I need not waste time in assuring you, that your services at Naples never can be forgotten by me. I think I have already proved, by what I have repeatedly done for you, that I am not ungrate- ful, and if you will only have patience " " Patience !'' exclaimed Antonio, rudely in- terrupting her in a fretful and passionate man- ner, " why do you always preach patience to me t I think I have had patience enough ; San Genaro himself could not have had more. You have, to be sure, given me some hundreds, per- haps some thousands ; but what is all that to 152 LOCHANDHU. th e mountain of debt you owe me ? I must hav^ money per Baccho ! or Lorenzo cannot go or>, and then all my schemes, and all my hopes, are at an end. — I must have money, ti dico, I must have money. Pazien%a ! — per Dio ! che non sono arsinaccio-io — il denaro vi dico ! il denaro r " Well, well,"' replied the lady in a subdued tone, " be quiet, I beseech you. You shall have money in abundance. But you are reasonable, Antonio, and you are yourself aware how difficult it is for me to command it. Expensive as she is in the indul- gence of every folly that strikes her, she has the heart of a miser towards the wants of others, and even I am refused what is in reality my own. She cannot understand how I have bestowed the large sums I have already received from her, and you know very well, my good Antonio, that I dare not tell her they have gone to you. Even those sums I gave you so lately, which you so well merited, and which I gave with so much satisfac- tion to myself, — even those sums, I say, I should not have had it in my power to bestow, had I not demanded them in advance, as the price of my assistance in forwarding her views upon that fickle foolj young Oakenwold, to whose paternal estates LOCHANDHU. 15S she looks for the payment of the large debts she has incurred by her silly buildings and absurd de- corations, and her love for trinkets and tinsel, and her fondness for show and glitter, not to mention her insatiable passion for play. But she will pro- bably soon want my assistance again, and then you know, mio caro Antonio " Here the words began to be lost by the distance. Amherst stood for some moments in fixed as- tonishment. The deep plot laid against him, or rather against his father's wide domains, was now sufficiently apparent. The estates of Miss De- lassaux were insufficient to supply her unbound- ed extravagance ; she had incurred large debts, and a marriage with him was to be the means of paying these off. The accidental circumstances of her unfeeling treatment of Mrs Morley in his presence had let in a ray of light that showed her character in a sufficiently unfavourable point of view ; but what was all he then learnt compared to that which he had just heard from the lips of her own aunt ? — and what a wretch did that aunt herself appear ! A chill tremour shook him, and he hastily quitted his concealment to regain the path. As G 2 154 LOCHANDHU. he again wound over the knoll, he threw his eyes back, and espied the figures still walking in deep conference. The subdued and earnest attitude of Lady Deborah, and the boisterous and over- bearing action of the Italian, again struck him. What services could these be, or what those obli- gations, which gave a low-born foreign servant so perfect a control over a woman of Lady De- borah's rank, and of that lofty and unbending spirit she so uniformly displayed to the world ? And what were those debts which seemed, from the conversation he had just overheard, to be ab- solutely unextinguishable, however largely ad- ministered to ? By the time he reached the little alehouse, he found O'GoUochar waiting for him with the horses. They mounted directly, and rode with so much expedition, that they reached Dover in time to embark on board the yacht, to sail, and be far out of sight before day-break. Before coming down stairs in the morning. Sir Cable had prepared himself for a tough and determined combat with his son on the sub- ject of their late dispute, and had especially resolved to insist on the young gentleman being LOCHANDHU. 155 of the party to Brokenhurst-Hall. He gene- rally found Amherst reading within the deep walls of the great window when he entered the breakfast-room. Before turning the handle of the door upon this occasion, he made up his mouth and eye, and as- sumed as invincible a look as he could, in order to be proof against those affectionate smiles with which Amherst usually met him. He hemmed and opened the door, and advanced boldly, but he was a good deal surprised, and somewhat chagrined, to find that there was no one in the room. " Pshaw !*" said he, " where the devil is he .^^' Miss Margery came in, breakfast was prepared, and the great bell rung as usual — but no Am- herst. Without saying a word to his sister, the Ad- miral pulled the bell with considerable violence, and dispatched a servant to see if his son was in his own apartment. He was not there, and the bed and bedclothes were undisturbed. Cornelius O'GoUochar had not been seen that morning, and, upon further examination, several articles of Am- herst's baggage were also missing. The Admi- 156 LOCHANDHU. raFs rage was excessive, and showed itself in a thousand extravagancies. " The rascal has gone off to college again; but I'll have him back with a flea in his ear. Here, saddle two horses^and, do you hear, Tom Cuddy ? get my long boots, and prepare yourself for a journey — I'll ride after the scoundrel to the end of the world !"" " Why, to tell your Honour the truth," said Tom, coolly turning the quid in his mouth, " I am no great hand at piloting a horse, and no more is your Honour, if I may make bold to say so. Besides, your last fit of the gout has ra^- ther waterlogged ye a bit, so, d'ye see, I think we'd better send some lighter vessels after the chace." Tom was the Admiral's oracle, and although he did not always listen to him, yet he was the only person to whom he ever listened. During the argument that ensued between them, a brace of horses, ready saddled, were brought to the door. Sir Cable, who was quar- ter-decking it, happened to throw a glance out of the window at the two pampered steeds, champ- ing their bits, and capering and caracolling so fu- LOCHANDHir. ISt riously, that the grooms who led them out could hardly hold them, and the fellows were chuckling and winking to each other at the very idea of the rare horsemanship they expected to see im- mediately exhibited. The very sight of the ani- mals staggered him ; the justice of what Tom had said came powerfully home ; and he finally determined to take his advice, and send one of his grooms to Oxford, who was forthwith dispatched accordingly. Several days were thus lost by the messenger having gone on a wrong scent. But when he return- ed without having learned any intelligence of Am- herst, a hot search and inquiry round the coun try was immediately set on foot; but all to no purpose. At length, it was accidentally disco vered that the young gentleman had been last seen at Dover ; and, upon further inquiry, it was found that Captain Cleaver had sailed in his yacht about that time, and that Amherst had been seen in his company the day before he sailed. The old Admiral would have pursued them upon his own element with all his heart and soul, had he only known which way to steer. But no 158 LOCHANDHU. one knew positively whither they had directed their course, although it was supposed that they had gone towards the coast of France. Pursuit under such circumstances was perfectly hopeless, though it required a considerable portion of Tom Cuddy's cool phlegmatic rhetoric to convince Sir Cable that it was so. It is almost needless to say that the Admiral was so discomposed by Amherst's flight, that he was not equal to the party at Brokenhurst-Hall. A violent fit of the gout, probably brought on by the fever he had thrown himself into, nailed him to his chair. The pain of his malady did not im- prove his humour, and his time was spent, for a week or two, in a perpetual turmoil of temper, vented sometimes against his afflicted foot, and sometimes against those who were about him. But Amherst was the person against whom the full flood of his wrath was poured out. Tom Cuddy's marine philosophy was put to as severe a trial as it had ever suffered. But it continued in- vincible, though it was remarked that he expended nearly double his usual allowance of pigtail on the occasion. As for poor Miss Margery, who was inwardly LOCHANDHU. 159 much afflicted at the sudden and very unaccount- able disappearance of her nephew, the Admiral's violence did not allow her to get out a single word but " Dear me, brother Cable !'' which she utter- ed an hundred times a day for above a fortnight. 160 LOCHANDHU. CHAPTER IX. Soavo per lo scoglio sconcio e erto Che sarebbe alle capre duro varco : Indi un altro vallon mi fa scoverto. Dantk. Deep in the bosom of the wood, Where art had formed the moated isle, An antique castle towering stood, In Gothic grandeur rose the pile. Cart w HI GUT. We must now return to Scotland, where we left Amherst and his friend enjoying their repose at Sanderson Mains. The morning was pretty far spent, when a re- spectable, hoary-headed domestic, whose comfort- able corporeal conformation seemed like an earnest of the hospitality of his master's mansion, cau- tiously entered Amherst's bed-chamber, and, as if half afraid to disturb him, gently opened his window-shutters. He hastily arose, and under- LOCHANDHU. 161 standing that Sir Alisander had not yet left his room, he walked forth to breathe the air. Accident led him to a square garden of consi- derable size near the house, fenced with a high stone wall, and offering a very inviting appearance of fruit. Little seemed to be sacrificed to decora- tion, and the dulce gave place to the utile in every part of it. On one side, indeed, a door led into a small flower-garden, connected with a shrubbery surrounding two sides of the church-yard, where there was a private passage by a little gate, gene- rally used when the family went to church. The view from a summer-house on the top of a small artificial hillock was extensive ; but although the wide country the eye rambled over was, for the most part, highly cultivated, it was flat and unin- teresting, having few or no trees, except two or three mathematically shaped plantations of young Scotch firs, no hedges or hedge-rows, and, indeed, little inclosure of any kind but dry stone walls, here called dikes, and occasional ditches, the soil being naturally wet, from the vicinity of a large lake, liable at certain seasons to flood the greater part of the plain. In the midst of the marshy ground, near the lake, appeared a green mound. 162 LOCHANDHU, surrounded by a double moat, and having on it the remains of a square tower, and the other less important ruins of an ancient fortress. The in- land view was every where bounded by low ridges of uninteresting moorland, and the sea was shut out by those high sandy downs that terminated in the abrupt cliffs forming the coast. Whilst Amherst was returning to the house, he met a servant coming to aimounce breakfast ; and as he entered the lobby, he was saluted by Sir Alisander, who had risen earlier than usual in compliment to him, though the good man com- plained of the effects of his riotous party, and his unseasonable walk. He talked of a swimming in his head, a shivering chill, and a general rheu- matic feeling ; but though he declared himself very much out of sorts, his good-humour did not abandon him. On entering the breakfast-room, they found Lady Sanderson, an unaffected sensi- ble woman, of prepossessing countenance, to whom Amherst was immediately introduced. Cleaver, who had appeared before they enter- ed, had already introduced himself. He had found Lady Sanderson easy and lady-like, and he ws^s in the best possible spirits, — a happy state of LOCHANDHU, 163 mind, to which the liberal preparations for a Scotch breakfast no doubt largely contributed. He and Lady Sanderson already appeared to have been friends for many years. Cleaver's eyes opened wider and wider, as he observed fresh and smoked haddocks, most in- vitingly broiled, kipper salmon, hot cockles, and delicately dressed mutton cutlets, placed smoking on the breakfast table, and still more when he saw the array of the rear-guard pa- raded on the side-board, consisting of plates of hung beef, cold bacon, and mutton hams, sliced tongue, cold round of beef, cold turkey, and cold pigeon pye. Then there appeared honey-comb, fruit jelhes, and jams of various kinds, delicious butter with toast, and barley and oaten cakes, BXidJlour scones, with the richest cream, and tea and coffee in abundance. " I have never been in Scotland before, Lady Sanderson,'' said Cleaver, after he had seen the arrangement completed : " but, if this be your style of living, I have only to say, that I think those who call it a poor country ought to be keel- hauled." /* You are pleased to flatter us, Captain 164 LOCHANDHU. Cleaver," said her Ladyship ; " I wish your po- liteness may not be subjected to some trials be- fore you leave Scotland." The breakfast passed off much to the satisfac- tion of all parties. The Baronet, seated in his arm-chair by the fire, with two or three night- caps on, and wrapped up in several ponderous robes-de-chambre, that swelled him to an enor- mous bulk, and protected by a large screen of green baize from the sifting airs of the door, sip- ped his coffee and eat his broiled fish at a little table placed for himself. His jokes were inter- mixed with occasional complaints about his health it is true, but still his jokes predominated, and they were always followed by his own good na- tured laugh. Amherst was delighted with his host, and no less so with the good sense and un- obtrusive manners of Lady Sanderson, who, though she did not shun conversation, showed rather a desire to follow than to lead in it. Cleaver's epi- curean propensities were pampered to the fullest extent ; and, much to the gratification of his host- ess, he tasted, and was lavish in his praises, . of every thing at table. The even tenor of the life of this worthy, couple LOCHANDHU. 165 was undisturbed by any of those cares of matri- mony appearing in the shape of children. Lady Sanderson was equanimity personified, and the Baronet was reduced to the necessity of creating fanciful miseries for himself, in the shape of ail- ments, to relieve him from the ennui that must otherwise have devoured him ; as a physician can only banish one disease by inducing some other of a less serious description. The goodness of both the Baronet and his Lady having nothing to intercept its course, flowed out interruptedly upon all mankind. It is no wonder, then, that their English guests should have very soon felt per-^ fectly at home under so hospitable a roof Being supplied with all the means of amus- ing themselves, they were left to spend the day according to their own fancy, and they generally devoted it to the sports of the field. Meanwhile Sir Alisander resumed his old habits, and rarely, if ever, left his bedchamber before the hour of dinner. This, however, must not be supposed to imply the hours of eight or nine o'clock, at pre- sent fashionable, but rather those of one or two, then in vogue. His conversation in the evening was so agreeable, that it made ample amends for 166 LOCHANDHU. his non-appearance during the morning, and Am- herst seldom permitted himself to lose any of it. Mr Macflae was almost a constant guest at the dinner table, which was often filled up by curious country characters, who dropped in almost daily, and were always heartily welcomed, and so ad- mirably brought out by the Baronet, that an un- ceasing fund of rich amusement was thus pro- vided for the strangers, so that Amherst never stirred from the house in the evening. As for Cleaver, repletion, and an excellent bottle of Bour- deaux, made moving after dinner quite out of the question with him, The two friends had not been inmates of San- derson Mains above a week, when it happened that an incessant rain confined them to the house during a whole morning. After accurate- ly cleaning and oiling the lock of his gun. Clea- ver had no resource but that of turning over the two huge folio volumes of Harris'*s Voyages, lying on one of the window seats. Amherst having retired to the library, buried himself amid the ample cushions of a large arm-chair, and was soon deep in the pages of a favourite author, which so occupied him, that he never moved un- 4 LOCHANDHU. 167 til the bell warned him to prepare for the family meal. Somewhat stupified by confinement, he observed, with satisfaction, that the rain had ceased, and that the clouds were dispersing, and, contrary to custom, he resolved to avail himself of the beauty of the evening, to make up for the want of his usual exercise during the day, by a walk after dinner. He left the table as soon as he felt that he could do so with propriety, and sprang off to- wards the downs, which he climbed with all that uncontrollable elasticity of limb experienced by youth, after being cramped by a long seat, when, like a pressed up spring suddenly relieved, every muscle seems to do its office from a parti- cular volition of its own. Having gained the ridge, he rambled along in a direction he had never taken before, until he reached the extre- mity of these high barren grounds, from whence he was surprised and delighted by a new prospect opening under his eyes, and exhibiting a con- siderable contrast to any thing he had yet seen since his arrival in the neighbourhood. The point he stood on was opposite to that end of the lake farthest from Sanderson Mains, 168 LOCHANDHU. and its waters, embracing the extremity of the rising ground, here retired behind it into a beau- tiful bay, where the banks gently sloping towards it were richly diversified with noble woods. A sprightly stream here escaped from the lake, and throwing itself soon afterwards over several led- ges of rock, hastened to make its way towards the sea through a sequestered glen. On a broad swelling promontory jutting into the lake, stood a Gothic castle of great extent, and bearing all the appearance of having been calculated for powerful resistance, when artillery had as yet no share in the havoc of war. It consisted of a large internal court-yard, formed by surrounding masses of irregular buildings, strangely combined with swelling round towers of different magnitudes, some of them rising boldly from the ground, and having their tall thin necks surmounted by curiously projected square tops of various architecture, and covered with high pitched roofs of grey slate. This inner court was entered through the deep sha- dow of a heavy Gothic gateway, and was again protected by an outer circumvallation of lower vaulted buildings, forming a strong wall of ex- LOCHANDHU. 169 ternal defence. The entrance through this was by a gateway similar to that already men- tioned, but strongly flanked by low loop-holed towers, and wherever the outer wall presented an angle, it was strengthened by a similar tower. A moat drawn across the neck of land cut off the peninsula transversely, and, when in a state of perfect repair, must have admitted the waters of the lake from either end of it, so as en- tirely to insulate the castle, and the point of the promontory it stood on. Over this an antique drawbridge gave access to the outer gateway. Some magnificent oaks and beeches, and a few gigantic and grotesquely-twisted fir-trees, almost coeval with the castle itself, rose in groups on that part of the peninsula connecting the castle with the land, and gave roost to a colony of rooks and daws that soared around the airy battle- ments, keeping up an incessant cawing. The broad head jutting into the lake beyond the castle was laid out in old-fashioned terrace- gardens and walks, with huge hedges of yew and holly, fruit-trees, fountains, and trimmed ever- greens, and the centre was occupied by an ample bowling-green. These gardens were defended VOL. I. H 170 LOCHANDHU. all round by a terrace wall, and seemed to be kept in order with scrupulous nicety, but the ex- tensive grounds sloping to the margin of the bay, and sweeping downwards into the glen, and up- wards over the brow of the surrounding eleva- tions, bore all the appearance of an ancient and neglected park. Amherst stretched himself on the ground, that he might look down at leisure upon a scene at once so interesting and unexpected, wondering that accident had not before disclosed it to him. As he lay absorbed in contemplation, and watched the various lights shooting across the lake from the declining sun, his rays glowing through the ruddy clouds partially veiling him, and tinging the grey battlements of the castle with golden and purjDle hues, he observed a figure on one of the terrace walks behind the castle. The distance was such, that he could only be certain it was a woman ; but the spright- liness of all her motions convinced him she was young, and the place where she walked argued that she must be at least above the rank of a domestic. She seemed to be busied about the plants bordering the walk, and fre- LOCHANDHU. I7I quently stooped down as if to pluck the flowers, or to arrange those stems which had been weighed down by the rain. His youthful fancy was unmediately employed in painting her love- ly, and he watched every motion with lively attention. She loitered not long however, for, after taking two or three turns through the laby- rinth of terrace-walks, she disappeared into the castle. Amherst's curiosity would have probably led him to endeavour to explore the beauties of the park and the glen, and the hope of catching a nearer glimpse of the fair unknown of the castle, would have had no small share in tempting him to intrude into the grounds ; but the same cause which had warned her to retire, induced him also to give up the thoughts of proceeding farther that evening. The sun was now hasten- ing to sink below the western horizon, and the clouds which had accumulated towards that part of the sky, began to pile themselves up into heaps of a dark and lurid hue, portending an approaching storm. He hastily started from his seat, and turned his steps slowly homewards, 172 LOCHANDHU. musing on the charming scene he had just left, its picture still fresh upon his imagination. As he sauntered carelessly along, he was rous- ed from the reverie he had fallen into, by a sud- den whirlwind, that came sweeping along the ridge with such violence, as almost to throw him down, and carrying with it a volume of loose sand, coming so sharply against his face, that he was compelled to turn his back towards it, to save his eyes. In a very little time it had pass- ed by. But the sun was now down, and the black opaque clouds, which had by this time spread themselves over the vault of Heaven, had completely annihilated that autumnal twihght, usually enduring, in the northern part of the island, for several hours after the departure of the orb of day. Amherst looked in vain for the track he had formerly pursued. All was dark- ness around him, and he was compelled to wan- der on in perfect uncertainty, totally ignorant where he was going, groping his way with the assistance of his couteatc~de-chasse, and fre- quently stumbling over the sand heaps. After exerting his strength in vain efforts for nearly an hour, he became so bewildered, that LOCHAXDHU. J 73 lie was compelled to sit down, in the conviction that he lost more than he gained by his attempts. Meanwhile, the gusts of wind were renewed at intervals, with tremendous, though temporary fury. The black canopy over his head now burst asunder in one particular part, and a broad glare of forked lightning darted from the edges of the rent clouds, transiently illuminating every part of the surrounding waste. It was followed by a roll of thunder that seemed to shake the earth. To Amherst's dismay, the glimpse he thus obtained led him to suspect that he had wandered within a few yards of the brink of the crags overhanging the sea, and the succeeding flashes showed him the wide stretched ocean heaved up into mountains, their foaming crests tinged of a murky red, borrowed from the gleam. Rain now fell in torrents, and drenched the thirsty ground, so that, although the fitful blasts still came at intervals, reciprocating with the peals of thunder, and flashes of lightning, they came without bearing along with them those volumes of sand which had so nearly overwhelm- ed him at first. Again Amherst endeavoured to set forward, 174 LOCHANDHU. and to gain ground by starts, after taking a ra- pid glance around him during the momentary ilhimination of each flash. But it is easy to imagine, that in this way he could make but little progress, being obliged to move with the greatest care, lest the smallest deviation might have precipitated him over the cliff. Having gained one of the sand heaps, rather larger than any he had met with, where a few tall furze bushes grew, he was overjoyed to find amongst them a little shelter-house of sods, the work of some shepherd boy, into which he found he was just able to creep, and where he resolved to lie until the fury of the tempest should abate, and the dispersion of the clouds, by permitting the moon to shine out, should enable him to find his way to Sanderson Mains without danger. His situation was now a very strange one : housed in a little frail building about three feet by four, and of height in the roof barely suffi- cient to enable him to sit upright, perched with- in fifteen or twenty yards of the brink of a cliff three or four hundred feet in perpendicular height above the raging ocean : the blast howling through the furze bushes, the rain lashing on LOCHAXDKU. 175 the sandy downs, the thunder rattlmg over his head, and even overpowermg for a time the roar of the waves, and every now and then the light- ning blazing forth with splendour so dazzling, as to show the smallest bush that quivered on the wild waste. His thoughts first recurred to the smiling scene that had so lately gladdened his eyes ; then to the comfortable fireside of the hospitable Sir Alisander ; and, lastly, he ran back in imagina- tion to the time he had spent before his depart- ure from England : and when he recalled the lux- ury of those hours he had loitered away, lolling on the voluptuous sofas, and in the midst of all the glitter of the gilded drawing-rooms of Broken- hurst-Hall, or listening to the soft music of the syren, and contrasted these with the whimsical lair accident had now driven him into, and for which he even felt grateful, he laughed within himself at the odd freaks fortune indulges in, and of which man is the sport. Whilst thus employed, he looked out occasion- ally from the door of the sod-house, as each suc- cessive flash came, hoping it might be the last. But the storm continued unabated. 1^6 LOCHANDHU. Finding his position somewhat irksome from having sat in it too long, he changed it in such a manner, that his head was placed nearer the door, and just as he had adapted himself to the angles of the place, a more than ordinarily vivid flash of lightning blazed forth. What was Am- herst's astonishment, when it distinctly, though but for the fraction of an instant, displayed to him the figure of the very mysterious being he had twice before seen ! The lightning itself passed not more swiftly than did her form. She seemed to have been borne by on the wings of the whirlwind, crossing his field of view, and coming and departing with the duration of the blaze. Yet he could not possibly have been de- ceived. The red fillet was on her head ; and he had seen her ghastly features illumined by the blue gleam, and her long grey locks streaming behind her as she flew. Amherst instinctively scrambled out, and as another flash succeeded to the last, he looked in the direction she had taken — but no creature was visible on the long stretch of waste. He remained confounded. A loud thunder-clap rolled over his head, and the tor- rents of rain increasing, reminded him of the ne^ LOCHAXDHIT. 177 cessity of creeping back into his shelter. There he lay perplexed by the strange sight he had seen, almost doubting the evidence of his senses, yet convinced that he could not have been de- ceived by them, and half expecting that he would be again visited by this inexplicable phan- tom. h2 178 LOCHANDHU. CHAPTER X. Ya los vierades juntos, ya apartados Ora tienden el cuerpo, ora Ja embeben : For un lado y por otro recatados Se inquietan, cercan, buscan, y remuevan, , Tientan, vuelven, revuelven, y se apuntan, Y al cabo con gran impetu se juntan. Ercilla. Lady Ran — How fares my Lord ? Loid Ran — That it fares well, thanks to this gallant youth. Douglas. This last peal of thunder seemed to be the final effort of convulsed nature, and, soon after- wards, the violence of the storm began to abate. The pitchy clouds broke up, and although some of them, as they divided themselves off in rolling detachments, like the flying squadrons of a routed army, still gave forth occasional flashes, followed by peals of more distant thunder, the rain ceased, and the moon burst forth in short fits of splendour. LOCHANDHU. 179 Amherst, tired of his confined abode, was glad- ly preparing to leave it, when he was alarmed by the distant report of three pistols following one another at intervals of some seconds. The heavy sound of rapid steps advancing made him creep quickly from the sod-hut, but he hastily conceal- ed himself among the furze, until he should judge from the event of the propriety of showing him- self. He had little time to consider, for, by the partial light of the moon, he observed a tall man, wrapped up in a foreign cloak, running along the brink of the cliff towards the spot where he lay. He was pursued by two others, whose plaids be- spoke them to be Highlanders. The foremost of the pursuers, as he ran, discharged a pistol after the fugitive without effect. The tall man seemed now to be satisfied that he had no longer cause to fear the fire-arms of his enemies ; for having already nearly reached the hillock, he halted, drew a long rapier from his side, and, twining the skirts of his cloak round his left arm, placed himself in a firm posture of defence, as if to await their onset. He judged rightly, for he had no sooner done this, than the broad claymores of the two Highlanders were seen 180 LOCHANDHU. glittering over their heads in the moonhght, and they rushed on to the attack. Amherst hesitated no longer. He sprang from his concealment, arm- ed with his couteau-de-chasse, and his unexpected appearance put a momentary stop to the battle. The assailants halted, as if they had seen an ap- parition, and the tall man in the cloak was stag- gered for an instant, from a doubt whether the new combatant was about to range himself on his side, or on that of his enemies. But seeing that Amherst proceeded instantly to attack one of the Highlanders, he rushed on against the other, and a desperate conflict ensued. The weapons of the parties whom accident had thus brought into alliance were but ill adapted for encountering the weight of the tranchant clay- more. Amherst's couteau-de-chasse, in particu- lar, was but as a flimsy foil before it, and, not- withstanding his bravery and address, he was compelled to act very circumspectly, and very much on the defensive, to wait his opportunity, and to trust to his adversary exhausting his strength a little. The tall man in the cloak made a better fight of it. He seemed to be a most ex- pert and practised swordsman, and by keeping his LOCHANDHU. 18l point always opposed to his enemy, and using his guards with great adroitness, he not only perfectly protected himself, but, by repeated thrusts, wounded his opponent, and compelled him to give ground. Amherst, meanwhile, was too much occupied with his man to notice what the other combatants were doing. Though he fought with great determination, and with a per- fect coolness, that enabled him frequently to v/ound his adversary with the edge of his weapon, yet he only exasperated him, without doing him any very material injury. He found it necessary to hus- band his strength and his skill, and to do so ef- fectually, he was compelled to give way. But he retreated step by step, and readily seizing every advantage, he was enabled every now and then to inflict sudden and severe cuts upon the Highland- er, when he was least prepared for them. The fury of the Celt grew into madness ; he rained down his blows without judgment, and without effect, and Amherst, watching a favourable occa- sion, laid such a slash over his sword-arm, that he dashed the claymore from his adversary's hand, though his own weapon was shivered in the rude- 182 LOCHANDHU. ness of the shock, by striking against the basket- hilt. Like some furious beast of prey, who, when brought to bay by the hunter, puts forth all his fierceness and his strength, the Highlander gnash- ing his teeth, rushed upon Amherst, who was now unarmed, except that he still held the hilt, and a few inches of the blade, of his couteau-de- chasse. With one hand he seized Amherst by the throat, and with the other, drawing his dirk, he made an attempt to plunge it into the side of the young Englishman, who, grasping his enemy in his turn, warded the blow with the remains of his broken weapon, and then, fastening his fingers round the Highlander's wrist, endeavoured to prevent him from repeating it. The Highlander was a powerful man, and the struggle was des- perate. They tugged, and toiled, and twisted their bodies, without either of them gaining any advan- tage. By this time they had got to some distance from the other combatants. All was silent around them ; for the very demons of the elements ap- peared to have ceased their warfare, as if to watch the event of that which these mortals were waging. They uttered not a word, and the quick panting LOCHANDHU. 18S of their breath, the stamping of their feet as they shifted their ground, and the grinding of their set teeth, were the only sounds to be heard. At length, as they wrestled, a furze-bush, or some such impediment, tripped up Amherst's feet; but both were so locked together, that they fell as one man to the earth. Still they were twined together, still they held each other fast as with the gripe of death, and the murderous strife was continued on the ground with renewed strength. They heaved, they arch- ed their backs, they rolled over and over, some- times the one, and sometimes the other being up- permost, without either ever losing his vice-like grasp. The very brink of the precipice was with- in a yard of them, and one turn more must hurl both into eternity. Amherst, engaged as he was in this mortal combat, saw the fearful void yawning below him. Their faces were almost in contact, — the eyes of the Highlander glared on his like those of a tiger, — and, reckless of him- self, he seemed bent on working the destruction of both, rather than not insure that of him with whom he was contending. Amherst already felt as if both were precipitated. 184 LOCHANDHU. He was summoning all his strength into one last desperate effort, when, feeling the grasp of his opponent suddenly slacken, he instantly shook himself free from his lifeless arm. Looking up- wards, he perceived the tall man in the cloak standing over him. His ready rapier had buried itself in the heart of the ruffian. With one blow of his foot, the stranger hurled the semi-inani- mate wretch over the cliff. Amherst instinctively thrust his nails into the soil ; he felt as if still linked to the body. A hollow plunge, heard faintly from the vast depth below, told that it had found a watery bier, and every fibre shrank at the sullen sound. Faint and breathless, he raised himself in a sitting posture, and his unknown ally, who seem- ed scarcely less toil-spent, seated himself opposite to him. They gazed at each other for some time before either could find breath to speak ; and, as the stranger opened his cloak to take out a richly embroidered handkerchief to wipe his forehead, some precious jewels on his neck and breast sparkled in the moon-beams, their lustre being increased by the black dress he wore. A broad Spanish hat, looped up with diamonds, and LOCHANDHU. 185 ornamented with a black plume, lay on the ground beside him. Amherst had now time to survey his person at leisure, and the moon shining bright, and full upon him, enabled him to subject it to the minutest scrutiny. It has been already said that his height was re- markable ; but it was not vulgar height, for his whole appearance had in it something peculi- arly dignified and commanding. Even as he sat thus lowly on the ground, his person betrayed a certain nobleness. He appeared to be past the prime of life ; but some secret sorrow seemed to have done more work upon him than age, and few grey locks had as yet mingled among the raven ringlets hanging amply over his neck and shoul- ders. His features were upon the great scale, but of the most perfect mould; and his black eyes were full and speaking. The paleness of thought was over his countenance, and a certain cloud that sat on his brow added to the lofty seriousness of his expression. The stranger, who had considered Amherst with as much attention as Amherst had consider- ed him, was the first to break silence. " Young gentleman,'' said he with a high but 186 LOCHANDHU. courteous air, " by what name must I know my preserver? By whatname am I to salute himjbutfor whose timely and almost miraculous assistance, I must have had my safety set at the hazard of such odds, and whose young scion of life was so nearly sacrificed, to save a worthless, if not a withered stump ? He that asks in gratitude is Lord Eaglesholme." " My Lord," said Amherst, " whatever aid I may have rendered you at the beginning of this combat, has been more than compensated by what you have just done for me. I still shudder to think that, but for your prompt rescue, I should have accompanied the savage ruffian in his fall from this frightful precipice. The danger I have escaped was so dreadful, and so imminent, that I hardly yet feel in safety. Amherst Oakenwold shall never cease to remember this awful night, whilst the life he owes to Lord Eaglesholme shall endure." " Oakenwold !" said his Lordship, as if endea- vouring to recollect. " Oakenwold ? I had a friend of that name. He was a gallant offi- cer of the British navy, and, I think, of a Kent- LOCHANDHU. 18T ish family ; — may I ask whether you bear any re- lation to such a person ?" " I do; my Lord," said Amherst; " my fa- ther, Sir Cable Oakenwold, is an admiral." " The same, the very same, I have no doubt," said Lord Eaglesholme ; " though he was too young for that rank when I knew him. I rejoice," said he, rising with eagerness to embrace Am- herst, who, in his turn, also sprang to his feet, — " I rejoice to find my deliverer identified with the son of my old friend. But say, how came you on this coast, — and, above all, how came you, stranger as you are, to be on these wilds in such a night, and at such an hour ?" Amherst did not choose to make his father's friend acquainted with the cause of his voyage to Scotland. He therefore gave his Lordship the same account of it he had given to Sir Alisander, namely, that he and his friend. Captain Cleaver, had come on an idle trip of pleasure. He then narrated shortly how they had become the inmates of Sanderson Mains, and hastily ran over the cir- cumstances of his evening walk, until the moment of his rising in Lord Eaglesholme's defence, sinking for the present, however, the strange ap- 188 LOCHANDHU. pearance of the mysterious being who rode past him as it were on the lightning's wing. His Lordship listened to him with attention, and when he had finished, " Mr Oakenwold," said he, " the castle you saw is that of Eagles- holme, where I hope you will put it in my power to prove to you, that I am not ungrateful for the signal assistance you have this night rendered me. I trust you will at all times consider it as your home, when you are pleased to make it so. At the same time, Sir, you must excuse me for being plain with you ; my habits are retired, and were it not that I consider myself as in a great measure indebted to you for my life, to save which you have ventured yours in so gallant a manner, even the circumstance of your being the son of my friend would not have been sufficient passport into my mansion. Do not suppose that I say this to heighten the value of your admission there; I merely wish to inform you that I can see no one else, not even the companion of your voyage hither. My gates however, shall always be open to you, and if you are not afraid of the dulness of an old castle, and the want of all society save that of its master, it would give me pleasure to see LOCHANDHU. 189 you make it your home. I dare say," said he, holding out his hand, and pressing that of Amherst with warmth, whilst something like a smile play- ed over a countenance that seemed rarely to be softened by such a light, — " I dare say you will have the good-nature to forgive me, should you sometimes be permitted to entertain yourself ; for I am not always master of my spirits, and I hope you will have charity enough to impute any strange behaviour of mine to any motives rather than ingratitude or unkindness. At present, I pre- sume, you return to Sanderson Mains to relieve the anxiety of its inhabitants, naturally excited by your unlooked-for absence in such a stormy night. To-morrow, or as soon afterwards as you may find it convenient, it will give me pleasure to see you." Amherst warmly thanked Lord Eaglesholme for his invitation, of which he assured him his own inclination would not permit him to delay availing himself He again repeated, that he should ever consider himself as indebted to his Lordship for his life, and many expressions of kindness and friendship passed between them. As they were thus loitering along together in 190 LOCHANDHU. conversation, the moon being now again obscured by a new veil of dense clouds, Amherst stumbled over something he immediately discovered to be a dead body. " 'Tis the corpse of the assassin who fell be- fore my sword,*" said Lord Eaglesholme ; " 'twere better that he should sink or swim with his com- panion in iniquity." So saying, he dragged the corpse to the edge of the cliff, and hurled it also over the precipice into the sea. " I must now see you safe," said his Lord- ship. " Follow me, I will be your guide ;" and with an alertness and decision of step that sur- prised Amherst, he moved across the pathless downs with as little hesitation as if it had been broad day, and with a speed that he had diffi- culty in keeping up with. They had crossed about three-fourths of these wastes, when they descried two lights dancing at some distance before them. They soon discover- ed that they proceeded from lanthorns, carried by two men, and as they drew nearer, Amherst recognised the voice of his trusty servant O'Gol- lochar. He communicated this circumstance to Lord Eaglesholme, who immediately halted, seiz- LOCHANDHU. 191 ed Amherst again by the hand, squeezed it with warmth, and hastily saying, " Remember, we part to meet soon again,'' he waited not for a re- ply, but darted off, and was lost amid the shades of night, before Amherst had time to recollect himself. The lights now approached, and Amherst per- ceived that it was the old butler, Mr Duncan Brouster, who accompanied his servant. They were in earnest and loud conversation, and poor O'GoUochar was blubbering like an overgrown school-boy. " Och ! to go for to lose such a kind-hearted master, aye, and before I had well found him, as a body may say. Och ! he was so good, and so kind to me ! Sure he was an angel of light, and what had he to do with walking in such a dark and rumbuncktious night as this, amongst fairies, and witches, and divils of all sorts and sizes, upon them wild and dreary downs. Och ! then if he should be drownded ! but no matter whe- ther he be or not, I'll sarch all the shore for him, an I should be crossed by all the witches and divils in Scotland." " For God's sake, dinna crack sae muckle 192 LOCHANDHU. aboot ihae kind o' cattle, Maister O'GoHochar,'' said Duncan Brouster, who seemed by his gait to have been doing the honours of the cellar to the Irishman, and afterwards to have taken an extra cup, to wind his courage up to the undertaking of assisting to search for Amherst. " Troth ifs a sad pity, a very sad pity, that he should ha'e been drooned, as drooned he nae doot is. It's a very sad pity,"" said he, forget- ting his own injunction to his companion, " that sic a noble gentleman should be food for the water-kelpies. I abhor and abominate a' sorts o' evil spirits ; and, aboon a' thing, I abhor them that take pleeshur in swatterin in water, and swallin their wames wi' sic unwholesome drink. Was I a kelpie, my certie ! my element should be brandy toddy ! But, believe me, it's a' nonsense to think o' seekin' for him the night, though, to be sure, they do say that a blue fire burns ower the place whare a drowned man's carcage is lyin' at the bottom." Duncan Brouster had scarcely said this, when the ray from his lanthorn chancing to glance on Amherst's face as he was advancing, threw a palid gleam across it. The butler being already satis- LOCHANDHU. 193 fied, in his own mind, that the Englishman had perished in the sea, had no doubt that what he saw was a spirit. He roared out, " Gude Hea- vens ! A ghaist ! a ghaist !"' and staggering back- wards in deadly fear upon O'Gollochar, he threw him down, and both rolled on the ground toge- ther. One of the lanthorns was extinguished, and the other on the eve of going out, had not Amherst immediately caught it up. O'Gollochar knew his master, and actually danced like a madman for joy to see him in safety, but it required some time and argument to convince the terrified butler that he was really flesh and blood. At length his fears were overcome, and they began to move homewards. Amherst gave his servant the general outline of his night's adventures, slightly touching on the reappearance of the mysterious female dwarf. The old butler started. The very name of Lord Eaglesholme, and the allusion to the dwarf, seemed instantly to drive the fumes of the liquor from his brain. He stood quaking for a minute before he spoke, and then shook his head with a most portentous look. " Lord, defend me frae siccan company in a VOL. 1. I 194 LOCHANDHU. mirk night !" said he — " Nae wonder than the storm raged, fan him and the dwarjie carline o" the cove ware abroad ! Ise warrant they had been haudin some bonny rig thegither, gude keep uh a' ! — wha kens but it was twa deevils the warlock lord was fightin' wi\ — Troth, Maister Aiken- walls, it wad ha'e been better to ha'e lettin' them tak their wull o' him. — My certie, ye maun ha'e a stout heart to crack wi' sic a billy as him in sic a night, on the tap o' a craig, wi' the sea ragin' below, and the thunder rattlin' owerhead. — Ugh ! I wuss we war weel hame ! Come awa", sirs, come awa'.*" Amherst was very desirous to learn from Dun- can, what he should have particularly appre- hended from his meeting with Lord Eaglesholme; and, above all, he wished to have his curiosity satisfied about the dwarjie carline fj the cove, of whose existence Duncan seemed to be already aware, but afraid to talk of either. " Ware I sittin' ower a bowl o' het toddy,"' said he, in an under tone of voice, and drawing nearer to Amherst, that he might be the better heard by him ; " ware I in a easy arm-chair by the fireside, wi' the candles lighted, an' a wee LOCHANDHir. 195 drap punch afore me, I might tell ye a' I keii'd, an' a' I ha''e heard ; but," continued he, looking fearfully around him, " this is nae place to crack about witches and warlocks/' On arriving at Sanderson Mains, Amherst found the whole house in a state of alarm, in con- sequence of his absence. Detachments of ser- vants had been dispatched with lights in all di- rections, some of whom having already returned without any tidings of him, the general anxiety had been increased. His appearance gave uni- versal joy. He found Cleaver and Sir Alisander occupying the arm-chairs on opposite sides of the fire, sipping their punch after supper, or, as Cleaver would have called it, putting on their night-caps. They had rung fifty times to make inquiry about him, and though it was late. Lady Sanderson was still sitting up with them, anxious to learn tidings of her young guest, before she should retire for the night. They listened to his strange adventures with wonder. Amherst now succeeded in procuring that information from Sir Alisander about Lord Eaglesholme, which he had failed to elicit fiora his servants He learned that his Lordship lived 196 LOCHA^IDHU. in so retired a manner, and was so addicted to study, and otherwise so particular in his habits, that he was universally believed by the country people to be a necromancer, and that a resi- dence for several years in foreign countries, and the circumstance of his having a number of fo- reign domestics, had contributed to augment this suspicion against him. For his part, he knew nothing of him, and from his having been him- self so much of an invalid since his Lordship settled on his paternal estate in this country, he had, in fact, never seen him. But from all he had heard, he believed him to be a very good man, on whose mind some early and secret grief sat brooding, and that his melancholy, his ab- straction, and his retirement, were to be attribut- ed to some such unknown cause. Amherst's curiosity was strongly excited by all he had seen and heard of this nobleman, and he resolved, if possible, to gratify it immediately, by going to Eaglesholme Castle the very next day. As to the dwarfie carline o' the cone, though Sir Alisander had frequently heard of her ap- pearance, he had hitherto believed that she was LOCHANDHU. 197 no reality, but the creature of superstitious imagi- nation. He therefore expressed very great sur- prise, when he heard Amherst mention that he had actually seen her that night on the downs, and still more when Cleaver and he joined in describ- ing the mysterious appearances she had made on the night of their landing in Scotland. The Ba- ronet could no longer doubt the truth of her ex- istence, but he felt himself altogether unable to conjecture who or what she might be. 198 LOCHANDHU. CHAPTER XL It is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle not in decay, or to see a fair timber tree sound and perfect ; how much more to behold an ancient noble family, which hath stood against the waves and weathers of time ? Lord Bacox. There are millions of truths that a man is not concerned to know ; as whether Roger Bacon was a mathematician or a ma- gician. Locke. Amherst was so full of his visit to Eaglesholme Castle, that, notwithstanding the harassing events of the preceding night, he was earlier astir than usual. He communicated his intentions to Clea- ver, and he took an opportunity, during breakfast, to inform Lady Sanderson of the invitation he had received from his father''s old friend ; and having strongly expressed the sense he entertain- ed of the hospitality of Sanderson Mains, and charged her with similar compliments to Sir Ali- LOCHANDHU. 199 Sander, and with assurances that he woujd take an early opportunity of returning to thank him in jx^Tson, he took his leave. After giving a few hasty orders to his servant, he set out with Cleaver, who, taking his gun, walked with him a little way, that they might ar- range their niture plans together. Amherst de- termined to regulate the length of his stay at Eaglesholme by circumstances. Cleaver resolv- ed to sojourn in the comfortable quarters he at present occupied, where he found himself very much at ease, and where he was a great favourite with both his host and hostess. In the event of Amherst's stay at Eaglesholme being longer than he at present anticipated, Cleaver said he might probably make a trip to a large neighbouring sea- port, to visit his old shipmate Maccauiey, station- ed there on the revenue service. But he promis- ed to return to Sanderson Mains to meet Am- herst, who, on his part, resolved to devote some days to the good Sir Alisander, before bidding a final adieu to the neighbourhood. The friends parted on reaching the shores of the lake, Cleaver returning along its reedy mar- gin, with the hope of shooting wild-ducks, whilst wo LOCHANDHU. Amherst followed a grassy road that ran skirting it in an opposite direction towards the woods of Eaglesholme. These he now saw, rising before him over the outline of that abrupt termination of the elevated downs, whence he had enjoyed so charm- ing a prospect the previous evening, and which now intervened between him, and the bay where the castle was situated. The road soon brought him to an old, and some- what dilapidated gateway, consisting of two gi- gantic square pillars, which, from their magni- tude, might have been those of Hercules. An enormous rusty iron gate stretched across the broad space between the pillars, over which were the fi'agments of an iron eagle, in a soaring atti- tude, with the motto, " Ad solem tejido.^'' The gate was locked ; but the remains of steps in the high wall enabled Amherst to scale it without dif- ficulty, when he found himself in a labyrinth of wood, where trees of all kinds, but chiefly oaks and pines, of immense growth, produced an im- pervious leafy canopy overhead, whilst the ground between their stems was filled with almost im- penetrable thick" 's of undergrowth. Even the avenue running from the old gate through this LOCHAXDHU. 201 wilderness was considerably overgrown ; but it was still sufficiently obvious to preclude the chance of his losing his way. The ground to the right sloped gently towards the lake, and, as he proceeded, he began to have occasional peeps of it through glades of rough old pasture, opening widely in the woods. To the left these openings showed considerable sweeps of the neglected lawn, stretching up the side of the hill between masses of embowering trees. The whole wore the appearance of having been given up to the uncontested dominion of the wild animals. Herds of fallow-deer were seen feeding in the more open grounds ; he disturbed hundreds of hares too ; and his path through the thickets was frequently crossed by the roebuck, that stood to gaze at him for a moment before it plunged into the brake. As he proceeded, the woods became thinner, and at length the trees began to straggle off into the park, forming fine foregrounds to the view of the interior of the bay, the peninsula, and the castle now appearing, backed by a grand amphi- theatre of elevated grounds, rising in sloping pas- tures, richly, though irregularly diversified with I 2 202 ^.ocHA^^D^L^ groups and masses of trees. Amherst, who was an enthusiast in his admiration of scenery, stood for a moment enraptured; and as he wandered on towards the neck of the peninsula, he was still more enchanted with all around him. Having passed under the old trees of the rook- ery, he approached the worm-eaten draw-bridge, which he crossed to the first gateway. Here he was met by an old gate, formed of strong upright and transverse bars of iron, of immense propor- tions. A small iron chain hung dangling from a little slender turret over the arch of the gateway, where it communicated with a large bell, suspend- ed under the open work of a surmounting coronet, very delicately carved in stone. Over the gate- way was sculptured the eagle in flight, with the motto, as before, of *' Ad solem tendo.'''' Amherst pulled the chain, and the deep sound of the bell broke upon the silence that reigned around the walls, and, vibrating for some time, died away without any one appearing. But, as he was about to repeat the summons, a man ad- vanced from within, habited in a blue cloak, and bearing in one hand a long cane, with a round head, and in the other a massive key. He stop- LOCHANDHU. 203 ped within a yard or two of the gate, and, eyeing Amherst through the bars with a heavy apathe- tical countenance, seemed by his looks to in- quire what the stranger wanted, before he thought it necessary to give him entrance. Amherst de- manded if his Lord was at home ; but as the mean did not give any reply, and appeared to be going away without answering, it occurred to him that he must be one of the foreigners of whom Sir Ali- sander had spoken. He, therefore, repeated his question in French, when the porter, who was in fact a Swiss, immediately turned round, and his leaden features relaxing into a grin, opened a mouth from ear to ear, and readily replied to him in a patois of the same language, that, if Monsieur would have the goodness to wait, he would go and ask Mr Robertson, the house stew- ard; and then, begging to have his name, he waddled away. Amherst had not waited long when the por-. ter again showed himself, accompanied by a tall, thin, old man, of very respectable appearance, clothed in black, his shrunk shanks covered with black silk stockings, and his shoes trimly brushed, and ornamented with huge silver buckles. Hi^. 204 LOCHANDHU. head was partially covered with a few straggling grey hairs, and he wore those which could be collected behind in a black silk bag. He walk- ed feebly, but erectly, assisting his steps with a long white rod. He ordered the porter in French to unlock the gate, and, bowing respect- fully to Amherst as he entered, ushered him on- wards in silence to the inner gateway. Amherst was struck with the great strength of the masonry around him. Ivy, of very old growth, had climbed the walls to a great height, and fes- tooned many of the loop-hole windows above. This seemed to have been planted by nature ; but art also had done something, for roses, and nu- merous creeping plants, had been introduced, and trained to intertwine their shoots with those na- turally growing there. Indeed every thing with- in showed an attention to order and neatness, very different from the neglect he had observed in his way through the park. Having entered the inner yard, the slow steps of his guide gave Amherst time to survey the architecture of its irregular quadrangle. The most prominent feature was a large square tower, that seemed to be the oldest part of the castle, LOCHANDHU. 205 and was probably the ancient keep, round which the other buildings had grown, as the family waxed in greatness and consequence. It was now built up in one angle of the court, and iden- tified in some measure with the masses to which it was linked. The windows in the various parts of the castle were ornamented with whimsical scrolls and carved work, and marked with coro- nets, crests, initials, cyphers, and dates, de- noting the persons who had built them, and the period of their erection. The great door was of thick oaken timbers, studded with large iron nails, and over it were cut the full arms, supporters, co- ronet, and crest, of the ancient and noble family of Eaglesholme. Robertson now showed the way up ten or twelve winding steps into a hall, the proportions of which astonished Amherst the more, from the meanness of the approach to it. It seemed to be eighty or ninety feet long, thirty or forty broad, and at least as much in height. A gloomy light streamed in upon it from three long narrow windows at the farther end. The roof was of black oaken beams, ingeniously jointed and arched, and their ends carved into rude and frowning heads. The floor 206 LOCHAXDHU. ■was paved with large flags. Half-way dow^n its length there was an immense fire-place, having its yawning chimney thrown forwards over se- veral feet of the pavement, so as to form a canopy capable of covering a large company. The voracious grate, calculated to swallow up a waggon-load of fuel at one meal, blazed and crackled with heaps of dried billets, throwing a gleam around, that was brilliantly reflected from a number of stars and martial trophies on the walls, of musquetoons, pistols, pikes, broad- swords, battle-axes, and all manner of wea- pons, many of them of great antiquity. Some of the rarer specimens of those warlike tools, as well as a number of coats and shirts of mail, with helmets, headpieces, targets, &c. were hung in the more conspicuous places. On the side of the hall, opposite to the fire-place, stood three figures of horses, backed by three efl^gies of knights in complete armour, with shields braced, and lances in the rest. Numerous tattered and moth-eaten banners hung from on high, quiver- ing with every undulation of air. At the farther end of the hall, about a fourth part of the length of the pavement was raised a few inches higher LOCHANDHU. 207 than the rest. On this platform, in the days of feudahsm, the table of the chief was laid trans- versely, where he and his heads of families were served with the best fare, whilst a long table, run- ning at right angles to it down the hall, was oc- cupied by the retainers, down to the lowest clans- man. Though many years had now passed away since this custom was practised by the noble fa- mily of Eaglesholme, yet the chief's table, and se- veral chairs of different forms, but all heavily carved in massive oak, and of such weight as al- most to deprive them of any title to the name of moveables, still remained. To add to the gene- ral effect, a gallery for musicians, the front of which was also of deeply-carved black oak, ran along over the entrance doorway, from one corner quite to the other, and in more modern times, a magnificent organ had been placed in the centre of it. Amherst was so struck with the grandeur of this hall, that he stopped to contemplate it with admiration, apologizing to the steward for doing so. Robertson bowed in silence ; but a smile of conscious pride mantling in his face, showed how much he was gratified by the stranger's astonish- 208 locha:ndhu. ment, and he waited patiently for him, with evi- dent satisfaction. He then ushered him through a side door into a gallery sixty or seventy feet in length. This was a library, where many thousand volumes filled the black oak book-shelves, and where the curious in bibliography might have re- velled for months together, amongst tall copies, princeps editions, unique Caxtons, and illumin- ated manuscripts, all in superb old bindings. A number of old-fashioned tables stood in this li- brary, and globes, maps, and various descrip- tions of mathematical and philosophical instru- ments, were carelessly disposed in different parts of it. The steward, having led Amherst through the whole length of this room, opened a door at the farther end of it, and showed him into an arched chamber of proportions considerably smaller than those of the preceding. There, in a red velvet cushioned arm-chair, at one end of a long table, covered with phials, jars, air-pumps, and electri- fying machines, was seated Lord Eaglesholme. He wore a large Neapolitan vesta di camera of flowered cinnamon-coloured silk, completely en- veloping his person, and on his head was a black LOCHANDHU. 20$ velvet cap, his hair appearing in profusion from underneath it. His right elbow was resting on the table, and the right hand half supported and half covered one side of his face, whilst his left was stretched over the margin of a folio lying open before him, and his intelligent eyes, piercing through the veil of his hair, were earnestly direct- ed towards its page. He was so much absorbed in what he was reading, that he neither heard the opening of the door, nor observed their entrance. Robertson hesitated before he ventured to an- nounce Amherst. " Mr Oakenwold, my Lord," said he at last. Lord Eaglesholme slowly lifted up his eyes without moving, as if he had not ex- actly comprehended the nature of the interrup- tion, and as if his mind were still pursuing the thread of the subject in which he was engaged. They rested at last upon Amherst ; a faint smile of recognition played for an instant over his coun- tenance, and, rising from his chair, he advanced towards him with all the grace of an accomplish- ed gentleman, shook him kindly by the hand, and welcomed him in the warmest manner to Eaglesholme, expressing his gratitude to him for having thus speedily performed his promise. 210 LOCHAXDHU. " My Lord," said Amherst, " I fear I have unwittingly broken in upon your hours of study ; if so, I hope you will be so free as to command me away. I think," continued he, pointing to- wards the library, " I have already seen friends and acquaintances enough in the room I have just passed through, to be security for my good behaviour whilst under your roof, and who will always be ready to relieve you from my company when it threatens to be troublesome. Perhaps I had better retire now ? I well know the torture of being interrupted when engaged with a favour- ite author.'" Lord Eaglesholme seemed pleased. " Though I confess myself much addicted to sedentary study," replied he, " I pique myself too much upon good breeding, to be guilty of so great a rudeness as to turn you out of my room, the in- stant you have stepped over my threshold. No, Mr Oakenwold^ I am desirous to improve the ac- quaintance we so strangely formed last night, and must therefore devote at least the first day of your visit to the enjoyment of your society. Hereafter, I conceive, I shall be doing you, as well as myself, a favour, by placing both at ease, LOCHANDHU. 211 and by permitting you to follow your own inclina- tions, whilst I indulge myself in my usual habits. Our pursuits are probably very different. You know I warned you of this unsociability of mine.*^ " Pardon me, my Lord," said Amherst, '' though a young student, I have hitherto been a very zealous one, and I should consider it a very fortunate circumstance in my life, were I to have an useful direction given to my studies by so able and agreeable a preceptor as your Lord- ship/' " And I," replied Lord Eaglesholme, who took what Amherst said as mere words of course, " I would have great pleasure in assisting you, were I not afraid that the pupil might be already too learned for the master/' This last speech of Lord Eaglesholme was en- tirely complimentary. He supposed, that how- ever far the young man might have gone in mere classical reading, he could possess nothing more than such a smattering of science as a college course was capable of bestowing. The conversa- tion, however, having naturally enough turned on such subjects, he was perfectly surprised with the depth of Amherst's knowledge in the higher 212 LOCHANDHU. departments of the philosophy both of matter and mind. The discovery delighted him. But, yes- terday morning, the very idea of a young man, and a stranger, becoming the inmate of his castle, even for a day, would have been most distressing to him, and he would have done all in his power to have averted so great an evil. Even after the strange occurrences of last night, he had felt that accident had brought him into a dilemma, and he could not help cherishing a secret hope, that Am- herst might hear a rumour of the recluse and stu- dious life he led, and that, afraid of being devour- ed by ennui at Eaglesholme, he might have been induced to satisfy himself with sacrificing a day or two there to politeness. He had, however, given Robertson the necessary orders for Mr Oakenwold's reception, should he find it conveni- ent to come. But when he actually saw him in his study, although his natural feelings, his gra- titude, and his good breeding, led him to receive him warmly, he yet experienced a secret twinge of disappointment, to find that he had been so eager to avail himself of the invitation, though' it was in some degree counterbalanced by an at- LOCHANDHU. 213 tendant hope that his visit was early, because it was to be of short duration. But now he viewed Amherst with different eyes. Intense study was the only resource he had against that melancholy which preyed upon his mind, and mental occupation the only means he could employ to banish those recollections that nourished it. Though his early education had been liberal, it was not until after he had retired to the castle of his ancestors, that he had begun to take to his present philosophical pursuits, with that ardour with which he now followed them. He, who alone, and in the country, attempts to find out the path through the intricate mazes of science, where he is perplexed at every turning by contrariety of opinion, can make but slow pro- gress, and must often be led astray by those false and dazzling meteors, which bewilder instead of illuminating the path. He becomes himself a discoverer ; nay, perhaps, the individual who dis- covered the way at first, had, in many particu- lars, a less embarrassing labour. Lord Eaglesholme had long been sensible of this. But his objections to quitting his retreat were too strong to allow him to go to drink at the 214 LOCHANDHU. general fountain of human knowledge, to mix again in society, to know how far science had proceeded in its march ; and his repugnance to admitting a stranger to his privacy prevented him from procuring a companion, whose fresh ac- quaintance with the facts and doctrines already considered as established, might supply his own deficiency, and afford him a stable foundation for building future theory and experiment. In the short conversation he had with Amherst, he saw that he was just such a person. He already felt warmly towards him, as being in a great measure the preserver of his life at the risk of his own. He liked his open countenance, his ingenu- ous and unaffected manners ; and if his mind was not already altogether made up to his being a guest at Eaglesholme for months to come, he was at least gratified to find, that his stay for a few weeks, if it should even last so long, might be suffered, and could give him little interrup- tion, nay, might even be the means of removing some of those difficulties, which had hitherto en- cumbered his progress in his favourite studies. It was therefore with much more cordiality, that, after a long conversation, and as he rang the bell LOCHANDHU. 215 for Robertson to show Amherst to his apartment, he again shook him by the hand, and expressed his hope that he would find it convenient and agreeable to make his stay as long as his other arrangements would admit of. The apartments Amherst was shown into look- ed into the great central court. They exhibited sufficient signs of ancient grandeur. The bed had a superb canopy attached to the ceiling, whence the rich, though tarnished crimson damask cur- tains descended over it. The walls of both rooms were hung with tapestry that had once been fine, but the figures were so darkened by age, as to make it now difficult to discover what had been the original design. The chairs, tables, mirrors, cabinets, and other pieces of furniture, were of a taste and age corresponding to that of the bed. Amherst found O'GoUochar in waiting, at- tended by another person habited as a footman, who immediately left the room along with Ro- bertson. O'GoUochar Hstened till he heard their foot- steps quit the gallery, before he ventured to ad- dress Amherst. ** Och, master dear !" said he, with a look of 216 LOCHANDHU. extreme misery ; " this is gi'appling with the very divil himself, to come into the very castle of the ould warlock, who can whistle Satan and all his invisible world upon us in the turning up of a potato-shaw. Sure your Honour doesn't mane in arnest to stay ; for, if you sleep here, the not an eye will you close all night for daemons and cacathumpions, 111 engage."' " Why should I fear sleeping ?" said Amherst. " If Lord Eaglesholme has all the power you suppose, I hope he will have the hospitality to exert it to insure our sleeping the sounder. I am now on a visit here for some days." O'Gollochar was silenced ; but his was the si- lence of deep disappointment and dismay. He groaned, threw up his eyes, shrugged his shoul- ders, and looked so forlorn whilst he assisted Am- herst to dress, that the latter could hardly keep his gravity. His compassion, however, induced him to pour a few words of consolatory reasoning upon the perturbed mind of his domestic, but evident- ly without effect. A loud bell rang within the castle, and imme- diately afterwards steps were heard coming along the gaUery. They were those of Robertson and LOCHANDHU. S17 the same man whom Amherst had found in his room. The former came to conduct him to Lord Eagleshohne, whilst the latter seemed to have re- turned for the purpose of waiting on O'Gollochar. Robertson, who still maintained his silence, diowed Amherst down into the great hall, where he was met by Lord Eagleshohne. His Lord- ship was now habited in a black Spanish dress, resembling that he wore the evening before, and admirably adapted to display his tall figure and noble port. He seemed, indeed, to be formed by nature to move beneath the majestic roof he was then walking under. " Mr Oakenwold,"' said his Lordship, " I have still a duty to perform ; I mean that of intro- ducing you to the ladies."' Amherst was surprised; but instantly recollect- ing the figure he had seen in the gardens the night before, he bowed, and waited in suspense for an explanation. " I must now," continued Lord Eaglesholme, '' introduce you to my niece, and a friend of hers, who has been for many years her preceptress. These form my whole family. My niece, Eliza VOL. I. K 218 LOCHAKDHU. Malcolm, is the orphan child of a beloved sister who died abroad. You will find that her educa- tion has not been neglected. Thanks to Madame Bossanville, she is neither ignorant of books, nor of those accomplishments which form the amuse- ment as well as the ornament of her sex. As she has lived from her infancy to the present moment in this solitude, she is little versed in what is the most useful of all knowledge, though the most dangerous in the acquirement ; I mean," added he with a sigh, " the practical knowledge of the world." Some melancholy reflections seemed here to cross his mind. He took out his handk^chief, and, turning hastily from Amherst, clapped his hand over his brow, and walked a few hurri- ed steps down the hall. He returned more com- posed. " This way, Mr Oakenwold," said he, motion- ing towards a door leading off into a suite of rooms opposite to [that containing the library ; " we shall find my niece in the drawing-room. I thought it necessary to prepare you for seeing a girl who has hitherto met with no one in her LOCHANDHU. 219 own rank of life but her uncle and Madame Bos- sanville." Amherst's curiosity was excited to the highest pitch by what had fallen from his noble host, and he hastened to follow him. 220 LOCHANDHir. CHAPTER XIT. She was a form of light and life, That, seen, became a part of sight; And rose where'er I turned my eye, The morning star of memory. Byeon. Ainsi, bin du monde et des hommes, croissait en beaute cette jeune vierge, semblable a la fleur du dessert, qui ne s'epanouit qu'en presence du soleil, et ne se pare pas moins de vives cou- leuTs, quoiqu'elle ne puisse etre vue que par I'astre a qui ellc doit la vie. Madame Cottik. The room into which Lord Eaglesholme ushered his guest was of ample dimensions. It was lighted by four large modern windows, reaching quite to the floor. They looked to- wards the gardens behind the castle, and one of them serving the purpose of a door, gave access to a broad terrace, running along the wall, and terminating at each end in a flight of steps leading into the walks. The whole LOCHANDHU. 221 interior and furniture of this apartment appeared to have been recently done up in the French taste. The walls were covered, and the windows hung with light blue silk ; and large pier glasses in all directions, produced the effect of infinitely multiplied space. But why should time be wasted in describing what was altogether unheeded by Amherst ? His eyes were only conscious of the presence of the fair inhabitant of this princely chamber. She and Madame Bossanville sat together on a sofa near one of the windows, busily employed in em- broidering from some natural flowers, tastefully disposed on a stand before them. Their heads were turned away from the door at which Lord Eaglesholme and Amherst were entering, so that they had reached the middle of the room before the ladies observed them. EUza saw her uncle, before she perceived that he was followed by a stranger, and springing up, she ran towards him with great liveliness, and seizing him by the hand, exclaimed, "Oh ! I am so glad you are come, my dear, dear uncle ; now you must kiss me twice to-day. 222 LOCHANDHU. because I shall show you such a beautiful piece of work as — — '' Here, seeing Amherst, she stopped in unspeak- able confusion ; her laughing eyes fell upon the ground, and she stood blushing beside her uncle, who still retained her hand. Amherst gazed upon them both, and he felt as if he looked upon beings of a superior race : He, tall, manly, dignified, with just enough of the traces of age to give powerful lines, and forcible expression to his finely-formed features, his dark mustachios, his raven locks hanging in graceful abundance over his shoulders, his body gently bent over his niece, and his full black eyes regarding her with the tenderest affection : She, all loveliness, gentleness, and grace, her figure rather above the middle size of woman, but soft and delicate in its mould, clothed in a long robe of rich rose-coloured silk, easily folded over the swell of her bosom, bound round her waist by a broad golden zone clasped with brilliants, and falling over her person in ample folds of drapery, covering an under garment of white embossed silk. Her hair, radiant as the sun, partly thrown aside from her alabaster forehead, and partly LOCHANDHU. 223 shading it with natural ringlets, was collected be- hind by a golden comb and pearl loop, whence it strayed in luxuriant curls over her back, and around her beautiful neck, purer than the string of pearls that encircled it. Her oval counte- nance, her Grecian nose, her large and melting blue eyes, the regular arch of her eyebrows, her delicate mouth, the extreme clearness and brilli- ancy of her complexion, heightened by the mo- dest confusion she now betrayed, and, above all, by that angelic expression of innocence naturally belonging to her, presented a contrast of the most interesting description, where the peculiar traits of each were relieved and brought out by those of the other. " Allow me, my love," said Lord Eagles- holme, " to introduce my friend, Mr Oaken- wold, to your notice." Miss Malcolm half raised her eyes towards Amherst, and then dropped them again on the floor, slightly curtseying as she did so. " Mr Oakenwold, my Eliza, has double claims upon our hospitality and friendship. He is the son of my old friend, Sir Cable Oakenwold ; and, last night, he saved your uncle's life." 224 LOCHANDHU. This last piece of information acted like elec- tricity on Miss Malcolm. " Your life, my dear- est uncle !'' said she, looking up with tender and breathless earnestness in his face. " Your life ! Good Heavens, how came it in peril .?"' " Last night,'' said Lord Eaglesholme calmly, '' last night, during my walk after dusk, I was s^t upon by two ruffians with the design of rob- Inng, and probably of murdering me. But as I was about to engage in an unequal combat with them, Mr Oakenwold, who, it seems, was sent by my good angel to my rescue, rushed to my as- sistance, and though but imperfectly armed, brave- ly attacked one of the villains, and had nearly lost his life in defending mine.'' " Thank Heaven you are safe !" exclaimed Miss Malcolm, looking upwards, and clasping her hands with energy ; then advancing quickly towards Amherst, and seizing his hand with the utmost fervour, " Oh ! thanks, a thousand thanks to the preserver of my uncle !" Amherst was enchanted. " Miss Malcolm," said he, " the pleasure I at this present moment feel in receiving your approbation, would have more than rewarded me, had your uncle's obliga- LOCHANDHir. 225 tion been even as great as he is pleased to repre- sent it. But he has forgotten to add, that in the conclusion of the combat, I should have been hurled over the cliiF into the sea, had I not been saved by his ready sword. Any. debt to me is thus more than balanced, and I shall ever bless the night, and the rencontre, which has been pro- ductive of sensations so delightful as those I now experience." Miss Malcolm shuddered and grew pale, and Amherst felt her taper fingers clench his, as he mentioned the cliffs. " Come, EHza,'' said Lord Eaglesholme, " do you show Mr Oakenwold the way to the dining- room." Then turning to Madame Bossanville, an elderly lady, and apparently a foreigner, he gave her his arm; and Miss Malcolm, timid and trembling, led the way with Amherst, who had not relinquished her hand. They crossed the hall, and entered a large and airy chamber running behind the library. It was pannelled with oak, and hung with historical and other pictures in old frames ; the ceiling was sub- divided into deep compartments, and strangely K 2 '■226 LOCIIAXDllU. decorated with rude figures of mermaids, tritons, satyrs, and other monsters, intermixed with wreaths of flowers, vine branches and grapes, and occasional coats of arms, all in high and heavily- relieved stucco. The side-board and other fur- niture, particularly the chairs, were all of massive carved oak, and the latter had high backs, and were fitted with red velvet cushions. The table was covered with old plate superbly embossed, and the viands and wines were rare and curious. Half a dozen servants in gorgeous liveries waited under Robertson, and Amherst observed, that w hen any of them was addressed, it was always in German, Spanish, Italian, or French, all of which seemed to be spoken with equal ease by Lord Eaglesholme and the ladies. The conver- sation at table was chiefly carried on in English, and Amherst was delighted to find, that Miss Malcolm soon began to view him with less re- straint. The circumstances alluded to in her uncle's introduction of him made her already con- sider him almost in the light of a newly-acquired brother. Madame Bossanville had evidently seen much LOOHANDHU. ^2^ of the world, in the most respectable sense of the word. Her manners and observations showed that she had lived in the best society, and Am- herst, thought he could perceive the influence they had upon her pupil, whose mind gave tokens of an expansion much beyond what he was pre- pared to expect. He was charmed with the in- nocence, the artlessness, the liveliness, and the feeling she displayed, and, above all, with the warm attachment she manifested towards her uncle and Madame Bossanville. She had never known any necessity for concealing it, and it openly displayed itself in a thousand ways. " How different,"" thought Amherst, " from the cold unfeeling Miss Delassaux ! how happy the man for whom such a heart may beat !" The more he conversed with her, the more en- raptured he became. She, too, seemed uncon- sciously to enjoy a new existence in his society. After the conclusion of the family meal. Lord Eaglesholme, Amherst, and the ladies, rose toge- ther, and adjourned to the drawing-room, where, queen of her fairy palace. Miss Malcolm over- came her timidity, and exerted herself to please and to delight ; but she seemed to have no self- U^ LOCHANDHU. vanity to gratify by what she did. She took her Spanish guitar, and accompanying her voice, sang a number of little Italian and Spanish airs, gay as well as plaintive, with the purest taste and feeling. Amherst's eyes betrayed that she held the key of his heart, for he smiled or wept alternately just as her voice directed. Lord Eaglesholme sat for a time absorbed in pleasing contemplation of her every action, and soothed as it were into a dream by her melody. By degrees his countenance became disturbed, an evident agitation of his whole frame succeed- ed, a flood of tears broke from his eyes, and strik- ing his brow with both hands, he rushed out of the room as if his heart were bursting. Miss Malcolm stopped suddenly in the middle of the song she was singing, which, both in words and air, was of a lively character. " Oh ! Madame Bossanville, my poor uncle ! He has not been so for some days. I had hoped that I had succeeded in diverting him to-night.'' Throwing down her guitar on the sofa, she motioned to run after him. But a door that was heard to clang announced that he had re- treated through the library to his apartments. LOCHANDHU. 229 Madame Bossanville hastily arose, and ringing the bell, ordered Robertson, who appeared, to show Mr Oakenwold to his chamber, and wished him good night. As Amherst was retiring by the door leading into the hall, he looked round towards the oppo- site one through which the ladies were retreating. Miss Malcolm also turned for a moment, and Amherst observed that she was bathed in tears. Her eyes met his. She smiled like the sun through a summer- shower, and running back to- wards him, held out her hand, and said, with the most bewitching artlessness, " Good night, Mr Oakenwold, we shall be happier I hope to-morrow." Amherst kissed her hand as she hastily with- drew it, and she tripped after her friend, leaving him to retire with food for a thousand mingled re- flections. In his apartment he found O'Gollochar, at- tended as before by his mute, (mute in reality as to him, since the man was a Spaniard,) who de- parted with Robertson as before. The Irishman seemed pregnant with something of which he was e^ger for an opportunity of being delivered ; and S30 LOCHANDHU. the restlessness of his motions, the paleness of his countenance, and his loitering after he was told he might go, all seemed to whisper that his fears were the cause. But Amherst's train of thought at present was of too agreeable a nature for him to permit it to be disturbed by the ab- surdities of his servant, and, therefore, after va- rious ineffectual attempts to begin a colloquy, he was obliged, though most unwillingly, to depart. Amherst certainly fulfilled his servant's pre- diction, though from a different cause. He slept little during the night, but neither devils nor ca- cathumpions had any share in disturbing his re- pose. It was the blue eye, the enchanting form, the angelic voice of the interesting Eliza, that still seemed to shoot its rays to his heart, that still danced before his imagination, that still swelled on his ears. The soft touch of her hand was still on his lips, and he felt as if it had conveyed an intoxicating fever into his veins, which, however, had more of pleasure than of pain in it. But the pleasure was of that gently stimulating kind that as effectually banishes sleep from the eyelids as pain can do. He lay awake till, fatigued with the various combinations of LOOHANDHU. 231 thought engendered in his brain, he fell into a pleasing doze towards morning, with his senses steeped in an ecstasy, arising from the most de- lightful train of ideas that can be imagined. But even his sleep was haunted ; and here, too, the angel of his waking dreams hovered around him. At one moment he was rambling with her among the thickets and wilds of the chace sur- rounding the castle ; at another, he was walking with her as a favoured lover on the sunny ter- races of the gardens ; and again, by one of those whimsical transitions so common in dreams, bid- ding defiance to every attempt to trace any thing like an association, he was sitting with her in the same spot, near the temple of Venus, in the grounds of Brokenhurst-Hall, where he sat with Miss Delassaux at the time they were interrupt- ed by the appearance of Mrs Morley. He thought he was assisting Miss Malcolm to string roses in- to wreaths, when suddenly Miss Delassaux ap- peared before them with the visage of a fury, her hair dishevelled, and intertwined with hissing adders : she sprang on them like a tigress from the thicket, and endeavoured to snatch and tear the roses : he, with some difficulty, succeeded 232 LOCHANDHU. in frustrating her purpose, and, furious with dis- appointment, she drew a dagger from her bosom, and rushed at Miss Malcolm, who fled before her with shrieks of terror. He strove with all his might to pursue, and to disarm the murderess ; but his limbs refused to move : in vain he toiled, in vain he essayed to shout for assistance ; not a step could he advance — not a sound could he utter ; the murderous weapon was about to descend upon her. The violence of his efforts seemed at once to have loosened both his limbs and his tongue. He leaped with one bound towards the wretch, and, screaming out " Fiend ! monster ! fiend !" he grasped her envenomed hair, and was dragging her back from her prey, when — he awaked, and found himself on the floor, hauling O'Gollochar forcibly by the throat. The poor fellow sank down on his knees, clasped his hands together, and, with a countenance betraying the extremity of fear that appeared to have bereft him of his senses, roared out — " Och sweet Vargin ! Och holy St Patrick ! where is it, sweet master ? — Sweet Patrick, sweet holy Master Patrick, where'^s the fiend.? where's LOCHANDHU. 233 the monster ? where's the cacathumpion ? where is it ? Och, for the love of salvatioHj spake. Master Patrick Oakenwold, or I shall die V Amherst's eyes happening to glance towards a mirror opposite to him, he had a full view of the ludicrous attitudes of himself and his servant. The horrors of his dream were instantly obli- terated by the absurdity of his present situation, and he could not resist smiling as he let go his hold of O'Gollochar, and began to put on his robe-de-chambre. " Och master dear," said the Irishman, who felt somewhat relieved by seeing him smile ; " tell me, tell me, is it gone ? — Och tell me, tell me, is it gone ?" " What do you mean ?" said Amherst. " Och, the fiend your honour saw to be sure, the monster, the cacathumpion your honour was spaking to."" " You fool, I saw nothing of the kind," said Amherst, somewhat ashamed of himself ; " I was only disturbed by a disagreeable dream." *' Faith and it doesn't matter at all at all whe- ther your sleep was prevented by divils in dreams or divils in waking arnest — Didn't I tould ye, 234 LOCHANDHU. that, sure as eggs is eggs, you would be bothered by some of Satan's legion in some soort o' way, if you ventured to stay all night in this here Castle Warlock ? But what is one divil, or twenty divils, to the badgeration I have suffered ever sin I put my nose into it ? First and foremost, I have been eternally followed by a fellow with a long face and a black muzzle — Pedro, I think they call him ; he must be something queer, for he never spakes a word ; he sets me down here, and he takes me up there, and he never laves me all day, till he brings me out beyond the in- ner-gate at night, to show me to my bed a top o' the western tower as they call it. Then, as we were passing under the archway, the wiz- ard Lord himself rushed by us from behind like a whirlwind, and where he went to. Heaven knows ; then, as we are crossing the inner-court, I sees a tall giant, all in white, standing up in the moonshine again the wall — he was a good six- teen feet high, plase your Honour — ' What in the name of goodness is that yonder, Pedro ?' says I — But, when I looked round, Pedro was gone, and I hear him shutting the gate behind me. So I looks at the apparition, and offers to LOCHANDHU. 235 go past him, houlding up the lantern in my hand, when stride — stride — stride — he crosses the court afore me in a couple of steps ; and, och ! would you believe it, dear master, he had an atomy's skull on his shoulders by way of a head, or may I never see Ireland again ! and he nodded at me, and grinned so, that I gave a groan, and sounded outright upon the flags. The outlandish man at the gate came out of his house, and lifted me up, and lit my lantern again, and helped me up to my chamber at the top of the narrow winding stair. " So I goes to bed, and lies quaking for a while, until I, somehow or other, falls asleep ; but I hadn't lain long when I was awakened by an earthquake that shook the whole tower, and a smoke and a sulphureous smell, enough to throttle me — So I looks out from under the bed-clothes, and I sees a light upon the wall opposite to me, then bounce comes a great open-mouthed croco- dile across my eyes, with a divil riding upon his back — then brush comes a witch riding upon a broom — then hiss comes a great big serpent — then pell-mell comes a crowd of divils and mon- sters of all sorts, cacathumpions and all — and 236 LOCHANDHU. there was such a flashing of lightning, and rolling of thunder, over my head, that I burst into a parfit parforation ; — then all at once the room was dark, and I hears them tittering and laughing, no doubt, as they soared away across the battle- ments of the castle. Och ! Master, sure ye won't stay here any longer, to have the very souls frighted out of our bodies at this rate." Amherst laughed heartily whilst his servant gave him this long detail of his miseries with the most rueful countenance. He at once saw that the domestics had been amusing themselves at his expence, their tricks having been probably suggested by the well known reports of the coun- try, with which they doubtless suspected his mind to be already crammed. He kept his suspicions to himself, however, as he thought it not unlikely that, if O'GoUochar were once brought to believe that the whole had been the effect of a conspiracy against him, he might per- haps take summary vengeance upon the actors the next time they should try it, and he did not relish the idea of his valet creating a squabble in the castle. He therefore tried to persuade him that he must have been deceived by fancy, or by LOCHANDHU. 237 a dream. But the Irishman still stoutly main- tained that he had seen a real spectre in the yard, and genuine hobgoblins in his sleeping apart- ment ; and he concluded by again earnestly en- treating his master to leave the castle and return to Sanderson Mains, " where every thing was so cozy." " Why, O^Gollochar,'' said Amherst, " I sus- pect Duncan Brouster's punch-bowl is at the bot- tom of all this ; you want to get back to the flesh- pots of Egypt." " Faith now and as to that, master," said Cor- nelius, " we are well enough off here ; we have mait and drink enough yonder below, in the ser- vants" hall, but the not a cratur can talk a mouth- ful of sense to saison it ; to be sure, there is Miss Malcolm's maid, Mamselle Spindle, or Pingle, or Pringle, or some such outlandish name, as pretty a girl as ever I see, an she had only been born in Ireland ; she tried to spake to me in English when all the rest were as dumb as King Wil- liam's statute in Dame Street, and what with our tongues and our eyes, and maybe our fingers too —for we had a hold of one another's hands two or three times — we managed to be very merry to- 238 LOCHANDHU. gether, till her young lady's bell called her, though that fellow Pedro seemed to be jealous of me, and was main glad to get her away. Faith she is the only little article I should be sorry to lave in this same enchanted castle." " Well, O'GoUochar, you must e'en try to amuse yourself with her the best way you can for some days, for I have already told you that the duration of my stay here will depend upon cir- cumstances, and I am not to be diverted from my intention by your foolish fancies." Poor O'Gollochar looked piteously in his face; but he said not a word more, for he saw his master was determined. LOCIIANDHU. CHAPTER XIII. Bid me discourse. I will delight thine ear, Or like a fairy trip upon the green ; Or like a nymph with bright and flowing hair Dance on the sands, and yet no footing seen. Shakespeare's Songs. Seule de la nature elle a su le langage EUe embellit son art, elle en changea les lois ; L'esprit, le sentiment, le gout fut son partage ; L'amour fut dans ses yeux, et parla par sa voix. Voltaire. Amherst descended as soon as he was dress- ed. When he had reached the hall, his feet somehow or other inclined to carry him towards the drawing-room. But, reflecting that the apart- ment was more particularly appropriated to Miss Malcolm and her friend, Madame Bossanville, delicacy forbade him to intrude upon them at so early an hour on so short an acquaintance, and he checked his steps. He looked at the door leading to it with a longing eye, however. It 240 LOCHAXDHU. was unfastened, and even an inch or two ajar, as if inviting him to enter. He thought of the de- lights of the previous evening, and why the recol- lection of them should have made him sigh it is not easy to conceive, but sigh he certainly did. He then thought of turning his steps towards the library ; but he felt as if there was a fascination in the spot, and he could not leave it. " Pshaw !" said he, " I have no head for read- ing this morning ; I'll walk here till somebody ap- pears to announce breakfast." He took a single turn in the hall — he tried to interest himself with its grandeur, and with the curiosities it contained ; but the hall and its or- naments had lost their relish for him. He now loitered up and down, altogether regardless of what had so powerfully arrested his attention but the day before. His whole soul was in the draw- ing-room. Again he stopped, almost unconscious- ly, to contemplate the door that led to it ; it moved — it was gently opened to its full width, and Miss Malcolm, dressed in a hat and mantle, as if prepared for a walk, came tripping forth in all the blushing loveliness of Aurora herself She seemed at first to hesitate for a moment, but it 10 LOCHANDHU. 241 was only for a moment, for immediately after- wards she came smiling towards Amherst, and ex- changed the compliments and inquiries of the morning with him, in a manner at once modest, easy, artless, and kind. Amherst's heart expanded at the sight of her, like the disk of the sun-flower when it opens its bosom to the first ray of the morning; the vapours which had chilled it fled at her approach, and his eyes sparkled with a joy he had no desire to conceal. He inquired for Lord Eaglesholme. " I am just going to see how my uncle is," said she with an air of seriousness. " He does not always sleep well, and when he happens to be agi- tated, as he was last night, he sometimes '"* Here she paused, as if she suspected that she might be saying too much about him to a stran- ger. " But,"' added she, " if I should find you here when I return, Mr Oakenwold, I hope I shall have it in my power to tell you that he is well.'' So saying, she curtsied and moved towards the door leading to the library, her affection for her uncle manifesting itself in her very steps, for, though so far from his apartment, she already VOL. I. L 242 LOCHANDHU. prepared herself, by moving on tiptoe, for ap- proaching his bed with the least possible noise, so as not to disturb him. Amherst looked after her with rapture, and her image continued to fill his soul, even when she had disappeared. " How amiable," thought he, " that anxiety for her uncle ! What a blessing is it for him to have a comforting angel like this to pour balm into his wounds !" He then thought of the sudden pause she had made when talking about him. He coupled her words with the cir- cumstance of Lord Eaglesholme having hurried out of the room the previous night, and with that of his servant having seen him crossing the court- yard; and recollecting his own rencontre with him on the cliffs, he could not doubt that she meant to have added, that he sometimes spent the night in the open air. His thoughts were deeply occupied with this mysterious conduct of his host, when he heard the fairy tread of Miss Malcolm, who again appeared advancing towards him on tiptoe. " He still sleeps, Mr Oakenwold,"" said she in a whisper ; " I kissed his brow, yet he stirred not ; I trust he will be quite well at breakfast.'"' LOCHANDHU. 243 Then assuming a gayer air, '' Will you walk this morning ?" said she. " Madame Bossanville and I are going into the garden, shall I show you my flowers P"' Amherst gladly accepted so agreeable an invi- tation ; and his heart bounding with pleasure, he glided after Miss Malcolm through the chamber which propriety had formerly made him consider as sacred. There he found Madame Bossanville, who laid down her book, and rose to receive him with kind greetings. Amherst opened the glass- door for the ladies, and Eliza giving her arm with great solicitude to her friend, whose steps were feeble and infirm, the trio issued upon the ter- race. The morning was fresh and beautiful. All na- ture was in unison with Amherst's feelings ; and all his thoughts and expressions partook of the stirring ecstasy of his heart. The fair Eliza lis- tened to him with delight, as he expatiated on the varied beauties of the scenery, on the calm sereni- ty of the lake, and the richness of the surround- ing woods and green lawns, diversifying the shores of the bay, as the views opened on them in suc- cession, through the evergreens of the gardens. 244 LOCHAKDHU. She seemed to enjoy something greatly beyond the mere satisfaction, arising from the praise be- stowed on the spot she loved so well ; much was perhaps owing to the person who approved, that his approval was so very sweet to her. She led him from one point to another, until Madame Bos-- sanville, perceiving that her youngfriend's motions were fettered Ijy care for her, proposed to sit down on a bench to rest for a while, until Miss Malcolm should make the tour of the gardens with Mr Oakenwold. Eager as Eliza wa^ to exhibit all their beauties to Amherst, her apprehension lest Madame Bos- sanville's proposal should have arisen from any sudden increase of suffering, instantly robbed her countenance of its smiles, and she hastily in- quired with serious earnestness if any thing was the matter. " Nothing, indeed, my love," said Madame Bossanville ; " at least nothing more than usual ; but I should wish Mr Oakenwold to see all these walks before breakfast, which he cannot possibly do if condemned to my crawling pace. Besides, you know, I am partial to this seat, and generally rest a while here." 8 LOCHA^'DHU. 245 " I know you are particularly fond of this seat," said Miss Malcolm with apparent relief. ^' Come, then, Mr Oaken wold, we shall soon be back/' And tripping off light as a zephyr, Am- herst bounded after her. Miss Malcolm stopped for a few moments at every spot and every object that had ever given pleasure to herself. She pointed out their several charms in animated language, and waited his re- ply, as if she wished to estimate the value of her own judgment by the test of that he should pro- nounce. Each particular scene, every sheltered nook, every favourite point of view, or plant, or flower, was shown to him in turn ; and as he was far from feeling any inclination to be fastidious at that instant, all Miss Malcolm's admiration was re-echoed with interest by the enthusiastic Am- herst. Every thing in succession yielded de- light to their happy and congenial minds. " I can't tell how it is, Mr Oaken wold," said the artless girl ; " but I feel as if every thing had new beauties for me this morning. The sun looks so smiling, and the lake is so peaceful ; the very water-fowl seem to have more than usual enjoy- ment in their pure element ; see how the light 246 LOCHAKDHU. glances from their white wings as they soar. How bright the reflection of their fair bosoms as they rest on the liquid mirror ! and how the water sparkles as they disturb its placid surface by gently dipping into it as they fly ! — How often have I rambled round these terrace-walks, yet never before have I seen nature under circum- stances so happy or effects so lovely !" " I feel all that you express, Miss Malcolm, and more than I can myself express,*" said Am- herst, gazing on her with rapture ; " my feelings are more poignantly exquisite at this moment than any I ever before experienced. But my heart tells me that it is your presence, and your enthusiastic love of nature, that augments my present ecstasy, by harmonizing with it, and by bestowing additional charms on everything around me." Miss Malcolm blushed and was silent ; she hastily walked on towards a mount near the end of the promontory, whence they enjoyed a view of the castle. " If you are an amateur in drawing, Mr Oak- en wold," said she, " here is a fine subject for your pencil." LOOHANDHU. 247 Amherst confessed that he was much attached to that amusement. " Is not this a noble composition?" continued she — " the towers and battlements of the old chateau, stretching across in broad masses, back- ed by those groupes of ancient trees, and those beautiful swelling distances and softly tinted woods. The blue waters of the lake, seen trem- bling on either side of it through the tall inter- vening evergreens, and, to complete the picture, these grand and singularly twisted pines shooting up from this mass of rich foliage, and these groupes of holly-hocks and other broad-leaved plants, wildly disposed among them, — is not the whole charming ?" " It is indeed magnificent," said Amherst ; " and you describe its features with so much ani- mation, that you cannot have neglected to trans- fer it to your portfolio. May I hope to be per- mitted to see it .^" " Oh, I am but a novice in the art, Mr Oaken- wold ; but you shall see all my attempts, if you will condescend to look at them. I shall benefit by your remarks, and perhaps you will be good- natured enough to give me some lessons. It 248 LOCHANDHU. will be quite delightful to sketch with a com- panion/"' Amherst admired her perfect innocence- " Though I shall prove but a wretched instruc- tor/' said he, " the pleasure of having such a pupil is too great a temptation for me not to make the attempt. What would I not attempt, indeed, that would procure me the enjoyment of Miss ]\Ialcolm's conversation ?'' " Well,'' said Eliza, blushing, " I shall keep you to your promise, and some time, when you are quite disengaged, I shall claim your escort into the chace, and benefit by your taste in selecting a subject for my first lesson. But we must hasten to join my dear Madame Bossanville ; I liave shamefully forgotten her in my own happi- ness, and have left her longer alone than I should have done." And saying so, she again tripped away towards that part of the gardens where they had left her aged friend. They had no sooner entered the castle, than Miss Malcolm again went on tiptoe to her uncle's apartment. She soon returned walking with him hand in hand. Her countenance glowed with smiles, that were but coldly reflected from the LOCHANDHU. 249 surface of his, like the sun-beam from a frozen lake, and deep melancholy was underneath. His Lordship's salutations and inquiries were kind, though his words were delivered with a pensive manner, and in a languid tone, as if with con- siderable effort. Miss Malcolm's conversation, as they sat down to breakfast, was playful, and evidently intended to amuse her uncle. Amherst saw her object, and joined his endeavours to hers. The young lady no sooner perceived that he was really successful in his attempts to engage him, than she became silent ; her looks were anxiously divided between Amherst and her uncle, and her eyes glistened with pleasure, as she observed Lord Eaglesholme's grief-worn expression gradu- ally yielding to the interest he felt in those topics Amherst already knew how to select, as most attractive to him. Such was the effect of his endeavours, that before the meal was at an end, his Lordship's gloom seemed to have been in a great measure dispelled. As the ladies rose from table, and as Amherst was opening the door for them, he reminded Miss Malcolm of their proposed drawing excvu'sion, L 2 250 LOCHANDHU. for which the day seemed to be peculiarly favour- able. " Oh ! Mr Oakenwold," replied she in a whis- per, but with the utmost energy of manner, " ano- ther time, if you please. Leave not my uncle whilst you see that he seems to enjoy your com- pany. You have done him more good than I can describe. Even I, much as he loves me, could not have made him forget his miseries, as you have done this morning. Indeed,"*"* added she, with a sigh, whilst the tears trembled in her eyes, " indeed, I sometimes think that the sight of me, somehow or other, augments his woe. Good-bye, till dinner. I feel I sacrifice much in resigning your society so long ; but what will I not sacrifice for so good an uncle ? Leave him not, I beseech you."" Amherst hastily took her hand, and sealed a promise upon it. She had acknowledged that she was making a sacrifice, and that confession was like the music of Heaven to his ears. " Yes, sweet angel !" said he in soliloquy, as he turned back into the room ; " yes, I will do thy bidding. To win thy favour I would tax LOCHANDHU. • 251 my talents, my ingenuity, and my patience to the utmost stretch. Were your uncle more stern than Pluto himself, I could bend myself to please him." 252 LOCHANDHL-, CHAPTER XIV. That which showeth them to be wise, is tlie gathering of prin- ciples out of their particular experiments. Hooker. What drugs, what charms, What conjuration, and wiuit mighty magic ? Shakespeare. The chief object of Lord Eaglesholme's pur- !;uits at this time was a developement of the wonders of electricity, in which he thought he liad made some important discoveries, but from the want of an inteUigent assistant, it had not been in his power to put them to the test of a well-regulated series of experiments. He com- municated his thoughts to Amherst, and after a long, and,* to Lord Eaglesholme, a very interest- ing discussion, they agreed to prosecute the sub- ject together. They proceeded, therefore, to the room within the library, where they arranged the LOCHAKDHU. 253 machines and the necessary implements, and be- gan seriously to work. They had been engaged in their operations with much keenness during the greater part of the day, and for some particular purpose con- nected with what they were about, they had car- ried a long, and almost invisible wire, from the prime conductor of the machine in the inner- room, through the whole length of the library into the anti-room, — when it so happened that Cornelius O'GoUochar, who had somehow escap- ed from the watchful Pedro, having thought of something he had to do in his master's room, came into the stair for the purpose of ascending to it ; and the door of the hall being accidentally open, he W2LS induced to enter it, perhaps from curio- sity, or, it may be more likely, with the hope of meeting Mademoiselle Epingle, Miss Mal- colm's French maid, who had succeeded in wound- ing his heart, as much as her mistress had that of his master. After walking about the hall for some time, gaping and wondering at the different rarities it contained, he was led to wander into the anti-room also, and peeping into the library, he, with utter astonishment, and no small horror. 254 LOOHANDHU. saw through the distant door, which was wide open, his master engaged with the necromantic Lord, in what he conceived to be some horrible incantation. He could hardly believe his eyes. Lord Eaglesholnie was in his black cap, and cinnamon- coloured silk robe. Amherst, for more ease to himself, had thrown off his own habiliments, and had arrayed himself in a large black silk robe-de- chambre, and a high fur-cap from his Lordship"*s wardrobe, and was employed in turning the winch of the machine with great industry. " Och ! sure enough he's in for it !" said O'Gollochar to himself " Och, ullalloo ! who could have thought that he would have so soon sould himself to the divil, as to be working his work at this rate already ? Derry, zounds, what can that be that they are doing ? Whirling the air in a glass-churn, as Fm a true born Irishman ! Faith, now, I'll engage some poor ould woman's cow will be well drawn afore they take butter out of that barrel-full of emptiness. I wonder, after all, what sort of stuff the butter-milk will be. By the towers of the seven churches, and St Paddy to boot, I never could have believed this LOCHANDHU. ^5 though I seen it. It is enough to make one's hair stand on end, though it were a wig itself !" Horrified as he was by what he conceived to be the helHsh operations he saw going on, his solicitude for his master led him to wish to ob- tain a more accurate view of them. He moved, therefore, a little nearer to the library-door. But just as he had mounted a chair, accident brought him into contact with part of the apparatus, where the electric fluid had been accumulating, and he received so tremendous a shock, that he was thrown down backwards on the floor, where he lay for some moments stunned. The noise of his fall brought the operators in a great hurry to the spot, where Amherst, to his no small surprise, found his servant lying on his back, with the chair above him. When his sen- ses had returned, and he saw them standing over him, he began vociferating for mercy, in the idea that he was to be put to instant death, or to be otherwise dreadfully punished, for having wit- nessed their magical labours. " Och ! good gentleman conjurors, dears ! let me go safe, and FU never spy your churning again • I'll take my Bible oath, backwards if 256 LOCHANDHTJ. you like, that FU never blab to a soul that I was in your dairy, or that I catched you mak- ing butter. Och ! mighty Lord, don't touch me with that magic wand, or may be you'll turn me into a mad-bull. Och, dear, dear Mas- ter Amherst Oakenwold, have mercy on me I"" " Why, O'Gollochar," said Amherst, " you seem to have changed yourself into a mad- bull, if we may judge by your roaring. Why do you bellow so ? And what is the cause of my finding you in this situation ?'' O'Gollochar explained, as well as his perturba- tion would permit, how he had been led by curio- sity into the apartment where they found him, and where his attention had been arrested by their operations. *' But, sure, your honour," added he, " Fve been handsomely punished. Ill never be prying any more after your conjurifi cations. I've had such a thunderboult as might have killed a horse, let alone an ass, as myself was, for coming here. Vm sure it went through my very heart, and de- molished all my ten toes into the bargain." So saying, he walked limping away, Amherst endeavouring to stifle his laughter until his man LOCHANDHU. 257 was sufficiently far out of hearing, when he was compelled to give full vent to it. Even the grave Lord Eaglesholme could not resist smiling at the ridiculous nature of the accident. " I know," said he, " I am supposed by the ignorant peasants to be a conjuror, but this is the first time I was ever told so to my face. Your servant seems to have been saturated with the popular prejudice." " He has been so, my Lord," said Amherst, ^' and your domestics seem to have very speedily discovered his weakness, for they have been al- ready amusing themselves at his expence ;" and he related all that O'Gollochar had told him in the morning. Lord Eaglesholme smiled again. " I see," .said he, " they have been taking liberties with my magic lanthorn. But I must order Robert- son to put an immediate stop to their amusement, otherwise the poor fellow may be frightened out of the house." The occupations of the day, and the success of their experiments, which, as far as they had gone, had all tended to establish his previous theories, conspired to put Lord Eaglesholme in 258 LOCHANDHU. better spirits at dinner than his niece had ever before observed him enjoy. He even gave the ladies an account of the conclusion of their day's labours, and the ludicrous downfall of Am- herst's servant. Miss Malcolm was perfectly overjoyed with the change his short acquaintance with Amherst had wrought upon her uncle. Numerous were the looks of approbation, and of thanks, she threw towards him, and he felt that his exertions were more than rewarded. As he handed her to the drawing-room, she whispered in his ear, " Thanks, thanks, a thousand thanks, Mr Oakenwold ! You saved my uncle's life, but now you are engaged in sav- ing his mind !" This evening was a most delightful one to Amherst. He felt himself more at ease in the apartment where reigned the queen of his heart. He was a welcome guest there, and the conviction that he was so, produced a flow of spirits, that made him doubly agreeable. He talked on general literature, and was amazed to discover the extent of Miss Malcolm's reading, and delighted to find that her critical taste so much resembled his own. He claimed her pro- LOCHANDHU. ^59 mise of showing him her drawings. In this art she was nearly self-taught, for Madame Bos- sanville's knowledge in it went no farther than its first principles. Yet her progress seemed wonderful in his eyes. She looked over his shoulder, and listened to his hints with an ear- nestness that delighted him ; and the portfolio was shut, with a renewal of the determination, on the part of Elizu, to put his instructions in practice under his own eye. Lord Eaglesholme sat down to chess with Madame Bossanville, and Miss Malcolm took up her Spanish guitar, and sang to Amherst, who occasionally supported her, and made her ac- quainted with a number of beautiful songs. Who has not felt the solace experienced by the lover, in uniting his voice with that of her he loves ? 'Tis like an union of souls. In this in- stance both felt the full rapture of it. To Miss Malcolm it was a newly-discovered Heaven. How delightfully have you made me spend this evening, Mr Oakenwold !" said this interest- ing child of nature to Amherst as they separated for the night. " I shall dream of some of the airs you have taught me, and shall long till the 260 LOCHAXDHU. arrival of to-morrow evening enables us to sing them again !'"* When Amherst got to his apartment, he found O'GoUochar in a mixed humour. His spirits had been kept up all the evening by the lively Mademoiselle Epingle, to whom a tall handsome Irishman was a powerful attraction, and whose gaiete de coour had banished every thought of necromancers and hobgoblins from his mind. But now the hour of his retirement to the lonely chamber at the top of the western tower ap- proached, and his heart was fast sinking within him. Amherst rallied him on his apprehensions, and assured him that his sleep would this night be undisturbed. And, at last, after a thousand pretences for loitering a few moments longer, he was compelled to wind up his courage to the des- perate effort. He shut the door, and Amherst heard his footsteps falling heavily and unwilling- ly along the passage, until the sound died upon his ear. Amherst's pillow was again haunted by the angel who hovered over it the night before, but her visits were unattended by the disagreeable fancies which then possessed him. He was en- LOCHANDHU. S6l joying delicious repose when O'GoUochar came to him in the morning, and he was glad to ob- serve, by his servant's face, that he also had been left unpersecuted. " Faith, and I was much obligated to your honour for keeping me quiet last night. The not a ghost or goblin trouble me at all, at all. I see,*" said he, with a knowing wink, " there is no harm in having a friend at court any way." And now Amherst's days glided on, one after the other, each more replete with happiness than the preceding. His mornings were delightfully spent in walking with Miss Malcolm, and in as- sisting her in the innocent amusement of trim- ming and arranging her plants and flowers. His forenoons were devoted to Lord Eaglesholme, to whom he had already made himself absolutely necessary ; and the evenings were given up to the enchantment of his niece's conversation and mu- sic, which last had lost all relish for her, when unaccompanied by the fine tones of his mellow and manly voice. The more he was known by Lord Eaglesholme and the ladies, the more plea- sure they seemed to take in his society. Even Madame Bossanville, to whose little comforts he 262 LOCHANDHU. was Studiously attentive, seemed always happy when she could engage him in conversation, and she frequently declared that he was not only a most agreeable young man, but that he was as well informed as he was agreeable, and as highly principled as well informed. In short, she pro- tested that she had never met with his equal. " My dear Madame Bossanville, I am so glad you think well of him," said Miss Malcolm to her after she had been loud in his commendations ; *' I, for my part, love him as I am sure I should have loved a brother if I had had one." *' A very proper kind of attachment," said Madame Bossanville gravely. " He seems, in- deed, to have a more than brotherly affection to- wards you." '' Do you think so .'^" replied EHza with energy; " do you really think so ? Well, I hope I may continue to deserve his love." The eagerness of Lord Eaglesholme's philoso- phical pursuits, assisted and fostered as his inves- tigations now were by Amherst, continued to have the happiest effect on his mind. His sorrows, of whatever nature they were, seemed to be perfect- ly excluded from his thoughts, at least during 11 LOCHAXDHU. ^63 the day. It was generally when evening ap- proached, and when his niece was doing all in her power to charm and to delight him, that some re- collections would apparently cross him, and over- cast the serenity of his countenance with a shade of melancholy, generally producing an agitation similar to that which took place on the first evening of Amherst's visit. On these occasions he left the room, and Amherst, whose anxiety about him led him occasionally to watch at his windows after he had retired to his apartment, saw him more than once rushing across the court-yard in his way out of the castle, and he had reason to believe that, in defiance of storms, he wandered at such times for the greater part of the night. AVhether he had any particular object that led him to follow this practice, or whether he flew from the painful thoughts of a restless pillow to lose them among the roaring elements, he could not comprehend. Could it be, that the high and honourable-minded noble, whose sentiments breathed nothing but purity, and whose heart seemed to be warmed by every human virtue, — could it be possible, that such a man had ever been guilty of crimes, that could now so load his 264 LOCHAKDHU. conscience as to drive him from his bed at mid- night, to roam under the canopy of heaven ? Mis- fortunes of the very worst description that flesh is heir to, could not account for a soul so ill at ease as his appeared to be. Yet Amherst could not bring his mind to give place for even the mo- mentary reception of the dreadful suspicion, sug- gested by the alternative. LOCHANDHU. 265 CHAPTER XV. Spesso amor sotto la forma D'amista ride, e s'asconde, Ma nel suo diverse aspetto, Sempre egli e I'istesso amor. BONDELMONTT. Seemed all on fire that chapel proud, Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffiued lie ; Each baron, for a sable shroud, Sheathed in his iron panoply. There are twenty of Hoslin's barons bold Lie buried within that proud chapelle ; Each one the holy vault doth hold. Lay of the Last Minstrel. Amherst was so much occupied in assisting Lord Eaglesholmewith his electrical experiments, that more than a week elapsed before he and Miss Malcolm could carry their projected sketching ex- cursion into effect. One morning, however, his Lordship told him, much to his satisfaction, that he was to be engaged ; and, arm in arm, they left the castle together. VOL. I. M ^66 LOCHANDHU. Having got beyond the drawbridge, they bound- ed over the lawn, the motion of their steps corre- sponding to the dance of their spirits, which ex- panded with the freedom they now enjoyed. Their tongues, too, gave a ready utterance to their thoughts. Where all was purity and inno- cence, there was little occasion for concealment. Ever since Amherst first saw Miss Malcolm, his love for her had been betraying itself in his every action and expression. Although she felt his attentions highly pleasing, her inexperience had never permitted her to impute them to the tender cause, from which they in reality proceeded. For her part, she, who had never known what it was to hide her affection from the only two per- sons who had claims on it, was equally open in manifesting that she now felt daily growing in her bosom for Amherst, what she believed to be friendship, or an attachment in no respect different from the affection she bore her uncle and Madame Bossanville. But Amherst, blest with all the quick-sightedness naturally belonging to an ardent passion, watched and recorded every artless expression that escaped the lips of the in- genuous girl. He saw with inward rapture that LOCHANDHU. 267 she loved him, though unconsciously, and he only waited the favourable moment, when he might de- clare the state of his heart to her, and open her eyes to a proper understanding of her own. They passed from the peninsula, and entered a thick wood, following a track rather worn by the deer than by human foot. It wound through the undergrowth of hazle, holly, and juniper, and here and there the lesser boughs of the bushes on each side appeared to have been twisted and peel- ed by the frolicksome bucks, and the more open and softer spots, occurring occasionally, bore deep traces of their wanton sports, or sylvan war, being trampled in many a ring. The path that at first descended gradually, became steeper as they advanced, until at length the declivity increased so much, that the adven- turous pair were obliged to avail themselves of the bushes, to assist them in clambering down. The rocks now appeared, and, protruding themselves from the soil, reared their bold angular masses over the glen. Their way lay down a cleft between two of these, and intrepid as Eliza showed herself, the exertion of all Amherst's skill and care became necessary to prevent accident. It is needless to 268 LOCHANDHU. say how very delightful he felt the precious charge, or to tell how his heart beat, when, for her better security, in some of the more hazardous parts of the descent, he planted himself iirmly, to receive her delicate form, as she slipped into his arms from above, or how his blood ran in riot from his hand to its fountainhead, every time she grasped it for greater security. It is enough to tell, that they at last reached the bottom in safety, and issued from among the tangled brushwood, into one of the most bewitching scenes ever fancied. They had dropped, as it were, from the clouds into what might be called the head of the glen, where it was closed by a barrier of rock of im- mense height, running entirely across it, and presenting an abrupt and broken wall towards the hollow valley, that wound from its base, for nearly a mile, until it opened out to the sea. The cliffs towered up on all sides, in detached castellated masses, from the luxuriant bushes, and tall timber trees, growing wherever they could find nourishment. Having expanded into two semi- circles, they again approached each other a little way farther down, where the glen was contracted LOCHAXDHU. 269 to a narrow pass, thus forming a superb natural enclosure, oT about two or three hundred yards in diameter. Bursting from the thick foliage of the woods, the river threw itself over the precipice in front, in one white sheet of foam, losing itself behind the trees of an interposing ledge ; there being broken in its fall, it again poured out in several contending columns, to be received in the clear pool at the bottom. From thence the stream ran wide and deep, towards the point of a ledge of rock, pushing itself forward from under the steeps they had descended, and rose, fringed with bushes and vegetation, about sixty feet above the level bottom ; and the river, being thus diverted from the straight course, swept round by the base of the precipices on the opposite side, and, after em- bracing a green semicircular level, it disappeared through the narrow pass behind them. Nothing could be more wild and solitary than this romantic and secluded spot. The thick short grass rendered it a favourite haunt of the deer. But Amherst might have fancied it fairy land, nay, he might have supposed, that he and his fair companion were the first happy mortals whose fa- 270 LOCHANDHU. voured feet had ever been permitted to penetrate into it, had not the illusion been disturbed by the presence of a small Gothic chapel, standing on the low platform of rock, between them and the water- fall. The little building was seen in perspective, and the gable that looked towards them present- ed a large Gothic window, where the mulhons and tracery still remained entire, intertwined with the tendrils of the ivy every where clothing the walls. Over this were the remains of a ruined belfry, where still hung the bell, though now silent, save when storms awakened its partial and unwilling tones. A burying-ground occupied the rest of the na- tural terrace, and amongst the broken grave-stones an antique cross, of large dimensions, appeared leaning to one side, partly shaken from the ruin- ed steps which propped its shaft. A stair, cut in the side of the rock, led up to the burying- ground, and to the chapel, that was entered by a door at the farther end. Their feet no sooner pressed the velvet sod, than Eliza, her bosom heaving, and her cheeks glowing with the exertion she had just under- gone, looked eagerly in Amherst's face, to watch LOCHANDHU. 271 the effect produced on him by a scene at once so lovely, so wild, and so sequestered. He gazed around him in silent admiration, his countenance eloquently expressing the emotions of dehght awakened by the contemplation of it. His silence, however, soon gave way to one of those ecstasies, usual with him on such occasions ; his admiration burst forth in the full and flowing poetry of lan- guage ; and he praised the good taste that had selected so exquisite a subject for the pencil. He hastened to choose a point of view, where the various objects formed the happiest composition. A groupe of grand trees rose from the level ground, near the base of the rocks forming the pass through which the river escaped ; from be- hind them, the whole amphitheatre was finely commanded. Here Amherst threw a shawl over some flat stones he had piled up, and formed a seat for his pupil. " But before we begin," said he, " I have a great curiosity to examine the chapel somewhat nearer."" " I shall be glad to go there with you,'" said Miss Malcolm ; " for my hands still tremble from the agitation of the descent hither, and re- quire a little time to render them steady enough 272 LOCHANDIIU. to begin my work. It has long ceased to be used for the purposes of religion,"' said she, as she bent her steps towards the rock on which it stood ; " but it has been prevented from falling into utter ruin, owing to its covering the vault, where lie the mortal remains of the Lords of Eagles- holme, the massive stone roof having been so far repaired from time to time, as to keep it from falling in, though its windows have long ceased to possess the stained glass that once, no doubt, decorated them. The tomb-stones, scattered over the burying-ground, are chiefly those of the follow- ers of the house, whose departed members sleep in the dark chamber within it." By this time they had climbed the steps cut in the side of the rock, and winding through shrubs and mantling ivy of the wildest growth, scramb- ling everywhere around it. They lingered for a time among the broken and moss-covered grave- stones, picturesquely intermingled with large plants of burdock and nightshade. But the at- tempts of friendship, or of affection, to rescue a beloved or revered name from that oblivion to which the mass of mankind are hastening, were here, alas ! already defeated, the faded hierogly- LOCH AND HU. ^^3 phics Still marking, but no longer distinguishing them. They then turned towards the door of the chapel, which they found locked; but by the help of a large stone, placed by Amherst close to the wall, they were enabled to raise themselves to a level with one of the narrow windows in the side of the building, through which they had a view into the interior. The walls, and groined roof, exhibited all the rich carving and tracery of Gothic architecture, and many a grotesque and uncouth figure seemed to groan under the weight of stone it supported. In various recesses round the sides, lay the rude effigies of the perhaps still ruder warriors of the house of Eaglesholme, stretched at length under arched canopies, orna- mented with finely executed foliage, and having the insignia of heraldry blended with many a pious text. At one end had stood that altar, at which masses had been sung for them, and at which, perhaps, had their bequests still remained in force, masses should have even now been chaunting for their guilty souls. There was something solemn and imposing in the sight. Four great iron-rings, in a large oblong flag- M 2 274? LOCHANDHU. Stone, in the centre of the pavement, indicated the mouth of the vault, through which the coffins of the members of the house of Eaglesholme had been lowered for many successive generations, and where those, who, once clad in silk, and furs, and cloth of gold, ran the gay round of unre- strained pleasure, or, cased in polished steel, and bearing proudly on their barbed steeds, had roused the din of arms, now mouldered into worthless dust, — themselves, and all their mighty deeds long since forgotten. No sound was heard, but the confused rush of the waterfall, coming mellowed on the ear, from the thick intervening foliasre. All would have been still and motionless within, had not a little robin appeared, hopping proudly over the recumbent effigies of the heroes, turning up his jealous little eye toward the win- dow occupied by the prying visitors, and rearing his tiny head, and tuning his feeble pipe of de- fiance, as if in mockery of the angry passions, the deadly feuds, and the warlike deeds of the mighty dead below. After Amherst had satisfied his curiosity, he and his fair companion hastened to return to their station under the trees, where they were LOCHANDHU. 275 soon busily employed in the work of the day. The industry of Eliza was indefatigable, and Amherst was as unwearied in his attention. How sweet were their respective tasks, and how sweet- ly were they seasoned by tender converse ! The result of his instruction, as well as of his soft whispers, was highly satisfactory to both ; but whether the successful sketch produced by the taper fingers of Eliza, or the ideas excited in both their bosoms by their mutual expressions, had the greater share in creating their pleasur- able sensations, the reader, who may have been similarly engaged, may determine. The day was now far spent, and Eliza was giving the last touches to her drawing, when she recollected, that at the time she last visited the glen with her uncle, she had observed a profusion of a favourite wild-flower, growing high up in one of the ravines, on the other side of the glen, by which she had at that time descended. Having expressed her regret, that the day was now too far spent, to admit of her clambering to the spot to gather some of it, " Describe the place to me," said he, " and I 276 LOCHANDHU. will climb thither, and fetch you some before you finish the work of that window."" " I shall, indeed, feel much obliged to you,'' replied she. " Then, since you are so good, you will find the remains of stepping-stones opposite to the chapel rock, on which you may cross the river to the farther bank, and just behind yonder thorn, you will find a cleft in the crag, that will lead you up to one of the loveliest haunts of Flo- ra you ever beheld." Eager to obey her wishes, Amherst darted off. She saw him springing actively from stone to stone, as he bounded across the river, and then, his figure dived amidst the brushwood, at the bottom of the ravine she had indicated to him. Eliza's pencil was busily employed in darken- ing the deep shades of the interior of the chapel, to give greater relief to the intervening mullions, the minuter parts requiring frequent examination, and occupying all her attention, when, as her eyes were carried backwards and forwards, be- tween the drawing and the object she was de- lineating, they were arrested midway by the ap- pearance of the long shadow of a human figure, advancing on the surface of the sunny lawn, LOCHANDHU. ^77 across the line they were traversing. She im- mediately glanced towards the side whence it proceeded, when she perceived a tall man steal- ing, as it were, upon her, from the thickets to the right. When her eye first caught him, he was moving on tiptoe, but he no sooner saw that he was observed, than he advanced towards her, as- suming a careless, strutting gait. Though sufficiently bold, it is easy to imagine that Miss Malcolm felt some uneasiness at the idea of being alone, on the approach of this stran- ger. Her thoughts passed with inconceivable rapidity. She inwardly regretted the unlucky absence of Amherst, and the recollection of the attempt on her uncle's life flashed across her mind. What was to be done.^ The appear- ance of alarm, might be the very means of beget- ting a real cause for it. She, therefore, con- tinued to employ her pencil, as busily as if totally devoid of apprehension, in the hope, that the stranger would pass by without disturbing her. But she was mistaken, for after striding slowly up to within three paces of the spot where she was seated, he abruptly halted, and with his head thrown impudently to one side, and with an air 278 LOCHANDHU. of the most consummate assurance, he began to address her. '' A pleasant evening, young Lady. You seem to be busy.'' Eliza appeared not to mind him. " What ! drawing plans, eh ?" continued he, moving a step nearer to her as he said so, that he might command a view of her paper. *' Methinks, you might find some better edifice to plan after, than that ricketty old mass box.'' Then, drooping his head a little, with the pretence of looking more narrowly at her draw- ing, he threw his eyes askance, and peered under her bonnet. At length, a heavy gold chain, of rare and de- licate workmanship, with a locket ornamented with precious stones, and letters in cypher, which she always wore round her neck, suddenly at- tracted his notice, and he rudely demanded, " Where had you that chain and locket, young woman ? I mistake if I have not had my head lanterns on it before now ; let's have a peep at it ;" and, saying so, he, without ceremony, mo- tioned as if to lay hold of the chain. It was perhaps the very trepidation she was in, that had hitherto kept Eliza to her seat, but now 11 LOCHANDHU. 279 she started up in real terror, and retreating a step or two, with a resolution that fear alone could have inspired, she drew herself up, and looking on him with a proud and determined air, she cried, " Dare not to touch or to approach me. Sir ! I am the niece of Lord Eaglesholme, and though apparently alone, I am not unprotected. Instant- ly be gone, or you will pay dearly for your inso- lence." The lofty and undaunted attitude she had as- sumed, her tone, and eye, seemed at first to stagger him ; but recovering himself, he looked cautiously around, and finding nobody within view to interfere with him, he bit his nether hp as if resolved on his purpose, and exclaimed, whilst his eyes flashed fire, " Hell and the Devil ! I must, and will look at it, be ye who you may, my pretty bird !" and saying so, he sprang towards her to grasp it. Eliza's factitious courage having been all sum- moned into one effort, now gave way. She shrieked, and fled across the turf in the direction of the chapel, making for the stones by which Amherst had crossed the river. The ruffian 280 LOCHANDHU. pursued her with all his might, and gained upon her fast. She had hardly reached the middle of the area, when he already seemed to be on the point of seizing her. She called for help in an agony of despair, for murder was in her thoughts. The villain was in the very act of laying his impure hands on her floating drapery, when the bell of the chapel sent forth a deep knell, and the air was cleft by a loud and unearthly yell, heard far above the continued din of the water- fall, and echoing with a prolonged and piercing sound around the circle of the wooded steeps. Amazement seized the wretch. He stopped, in confusion, and looked towards the chapel whence it proceeded. The dark shades of its vaulted interior were in an instant dispelled by a bright flame, rising in spiral columns to the roof, as if from the centre of the pavement. In the midst of the blaze of light appeared, through the tracery of the window, the hideous form of the dymrjie carline o' the cove ! She seemed supported on the thin element. She whirled her lean arms as if menacing the ruflian from his purpose, and shrieking, " Be- ware !" she uttered another yell more appalling LOCIIANDHU. than the first, that resounded from the vaulted roof like the blast of the last dread trumpet. The villain stood aghast, as if awed by a super- natural appearance, so instantaneous and transi- ent, and exclaiming with all the dismay of super- stitious terror, " Hell and its fiends indeed !'"* he ran off down the glen, and quickly disappear- ed beyond the pass. Eliza, who, though she had caught a glimpse of the apparition, was in too great fear of her pursuer to observe that he had left her, con- tinued her flight as if murder was pressing at her heels. She reached the stepping-stones, and sprang from one to another with astonishing ex- ertion. She had already gained the middle of the stream, when she saw Amherst on the oppo- site bank. He had heard the screams, and, impelled by the confused idea of some dread- ful calamity, hastened to her assistance, and arrived just at that moment, pale with appre- hension. The next interval was much wider than those she had already cleared, the floods having re- moved one of the stones from its place. She he- sitated for an instant, but believing her pursuer 282 ^ LOCHANDHU. still behind her, and seeing her protector so near, she made a violent attempt, and leaped to the opposite stone. Its surface was worn round and smooth by the action of many a winter's flood. She balanced herself with difficulty — her footing became unsteady — she quivered for an instant — and before her anxious lover could fly to her aid, she was precipitated into the stream. It was deep and powerful, and Amherst saw her borne off" before his eyes. With the utmost distraction he rushed into the water, and dash- ing the current aside with arms that nothing could oppose, reached her, before the buoyancy of her garments had been so far overcome as to allow of her being submerged, — caught hold of them, and bore her to the bank. He seated her gently on the green turf, but it was some time before she recovered, so as to be able to speak. He hung over her with the most tender solicitude, and in a state of anxiety not to be described. At length she started, and threw her eyes hastily around her, as if in mortal ap- prehension of seeing some object of terror, but being satisfied that there was no one near her but Amherst, she clasped her hands together, and LOCHANDHU. 283 looked up to Heaven, and then, in the anxious face of her lover, and murmuring some earnest though broken ejaculations of gratitude to both for her preservation, she sank down again ex- hausted by the fatigue and agitation she had un- dergone. Amherst's misery was inconceivable; but it was soon relieved by her returning consciousness. She slowly regained perfect possession of herself, and he eagerly inquired into the cause of the ac- cident. He was thunderstruck by her narration of the circumstances. Although Eliza's view of the apparition of the chapel had been transient, and all other dread had been absorbed at the moment in the over- whelming fear of murder, that came with- the ruffian who pursued her, yet it had made so strong an impression on her mind, that now, after all cause of alarm was removed, she could not think of the spectre without shuddering ; — yet a faint recollection, like that of a dream, re- mained with her, as if it was not entirely new to her. She was far above every superstitious dread, yet to account for so strange and so sudden an ap- pearance was impossible. 284f LOCHANDHU. Amherst guessed, from her description, that it must have been the same mysterious being, he had three several times seen, who had thus interposed to save Miss Malcolm. He has- t€ned to the chapel with the hope of unravelling the mystery, but he found it locked as before, and every thing in the inside remained as they had left it ; nor could he perceive the marks of fire on the pavement, or on the walls. On reaching the castle, Amherst hastened to find out Lord Eaglesholme, to whom he commu- nicated the disastrous adventures of the day. His Lordship heard the whole particulars, with an uneasiness, strongly manifesting the extreme af- fection he had for his niece. When Amherst told him, how he had had the good fortune to be the means of rescuing Miss Malcolm from the stream, he grasped his hand, with a sense of gratitude, that melted him to tears. *' My dear friend," said he, with a more than ordinary warmth of manner, " my dear Amherst, you seem to be fated to be the guardian angel of our family. Already have you saved me from being murdered, and now my niece has to thank LOCHANDHU. 285 you for her life. You have made me bankrupt, — I lack the means to repay you/' Amherst felt inwardly rejoiced at what fell from his Lordship, auguring as it did so well for his hopes. My Lord, thought he, you possess a treasure that will more than repay me for all I have done, without your being made one jot the poorer by the gift. But this was not the mo- ment to broach such a subject. It is true, he had been sufficiently convinced, by all that passed during the day, that he already possessed the heart of the lovely and artless Eliza ; and from the expressions which dropped from her as they returned homewards, he was satisfied, that grati- tude had now come into alHance with love, to strengthen and to give stability to it, and had thus conspired to make her all his own. He had yet to put that question, which has made so many tremble, but which to him was pregnant with no fears of the result, and he determined to seize the first favourable opportunity, to put his happiness beyond all doubt. Meanwhile he continued his conversation with Lord Eaglesholme, telling him what he had heard from Miss Malcolm about the extraordinary ap- 286 LOCHANDHU. parition, which had shown itself at the window of the chapel. Lord Eaglesholme looked grave, surveyed him in silence, and then threw down his eyes to the ground, where they remained fixed for a time in profound thought. '^ But this truly mysterious being is not a stranger to me, my Lord,"" continued Amherst ; " I have now seen her three several times, and always accompanied with circumstances perfect- ly inexplicable." He then detailed the particulars of her former appearances. — His Lordship still maintained his silence and gravity. — It was evidently a subject on which he did not wish to enter. LOCHANDHU. 287 CHAPTER XVI. Oh ! sacred fire, that burnest mightily In living breasts, ykindled first above Amongst th' eternal spheres and lamping sky. And thence poured into men, which men call love ; Not that same which doth base aflfections move In brutish mindes, and filthy lust inflame, But that sweet fit, that does true beauty love. And choseth virtue for his dearest dame. Spencer. They had not sat above an hour in conversa- tion, when they were gratified by a message from Miss Malcolm, inviting them to the drawing- room. Thither they immediately went, and had the happiness to find her already perfectly re- covered, fatigue being now the only remaining ef- fect of the accident. Her uncle's inquiries were earnest and affectionate, and he was not satisfied until he again heard the particulars from her own mouth. When she spoke of the apparition, and 288 LOCHANDHU. eagerly begged of him to explain it, he assumed the same serious and thoughtful aspect he had shown to Amherst, met her inquiries as he had done his, and at last adroitly got rid of the subject, by adverting to Amherst's share in the adventure. This, indeed, had the desired effect. Eliza immediately became eloquent ; she dwelt on the circumstances with minute detail, and gave many particulars which Amherst's modesty had induced him to keep back ; and, as if the tale had been endless, she again and again reverted to it. Amherst treasured up all she said, and all she looked, and he retired to bed in the delight- ful certainty, that his ardent, but as yet secret passion, was requited, though unconsciously, by the lovely object of it. Next morning he arose from a sleepless pillow. The events of the preceding day, and the antici- pation of future days of bliss, had kept his eyes unclosed. He hastily dressed himself, and made his way into the gardens, where he was now in the daily habit of enjoying the society of Miss Malcolm, during her morning walk. There he met her in all her glowing beauty, — her lovely face lighted up by the angelic smile of innocence. LOCHANDHU. S89 After he had eagerly satisfied himself, by ear- nest inquiries, that she had suffered nothing from the accident, he led her to a seat in a bower at the further end of the garden. There Amherst dared to tell his tender tale ; and there the soft confusion, and the blushing ponfessions of Eliza, made him the happiest of human beings. When their first raptures were over, and they began to talk with a little more rationality, than such a subject usually permits, they agreed upon the propriety of immediately acquainting Lord Eaglesholme with their mutual attachment ; and Amherst resolved to demand an audience of him that very day. But he was disappointed. Eliza had no sooner returned to her apartment, than her uncle enter- ed it in a riding-dress. After making the ten- derest inquiries about her health, he told her he was called to visit some upland estates, where a failure of the crops had brought distress upon the tenantry. " Extent of territory, my dear Eliza,'' said he, " has extensive duties attached to it. I have confidence in the heart, as well as in the head of Marshall, my worthy steward, who is al- VOL I. N 290 LOCHANDHU. ways alive to the interests of the poor, as well as to mine ; but in a case like the present, I should not feel justified in my own mind, if I did not examine into their miseries in person. I con- ceive they have a right to demand this of me, for whose ancestors theirs have often bled, and but for whose hardy deeds, I perhaps should not now have possessed the glens and mountains peo- pled by their descendants. The length of my stay at the hunting-lodge I cannot at present de- termine ; it will depend on the nature and ex- tent of the affairs I must look into ; but you, who know my habitual unwillingness to mingle in the vulgar business of men, will easily ima^ gine, that I shall not unnecessarily delay my re- turn. I need not tell you and Madame Bossan- ville, to endeavour to entertain Mr Oakenwold to the best of your power, that he may not find the castle dull in my absence, as the occu- pation he had with me must necessarily cease until my return, that we may both pursue it together. His society is delightful, and has be- come so essential to me, that I know not what I should do if he were to go away ; I hope, therefore, I shall find him here on my return." 10 LOCHAKDHU. 291 Eliza's face was overspread witli blushes, as her uncle delivered, what she felt to be so unneces- sary an injunction. She stammered out, that, with the assistance of Madame Bossanville, she would do the best she could to make up to Am- herst for her uncle's absence. Lord Eagles- holme, who naturally enough imputed her ap- parent confusion to regret at the suddenness of his departure, warmly embraced her. As they passed through the great hall, Amherst appear- ed, and Lord Eaglesholme shortly explained to him the necessity of his absence, and the nature of his journey; and after squeezing him kindly by the hand, and begging of him to consider himself as master of his house till his return, when he hoped to find him still his guest, he descended to the court. Marshall was already on horseback, and Lord Eaglesholme, mount- ing a very fine animal, with all the grace of an accomplished cavalier, rode out, followed by se- veral attendants. The sound of their horses' feet, echoing through the arched gateways, had hardly died away, when the eyes of Amherst and Eliza met each other, and they mutually read each other's 292 LOCHAXDHU. thoughts. All chance of an immediate explana- tion with Lord Eaglesholme was at an end. But neither of them felt disappointed, for, from the growing regard his Lordship had manifested to- wards Amherst, it was certain that there could be no objection on his part to their union. Much as Amherst valued and respected Lord Eagleshohne, he felt little ennui during his ab- sence, nor was he at all distressed to learn, after he had been gone about a fortnight, that circum- stances compelled him to prolong his stay for another week. Before her acquaintance with Amherst, Miss Malcolm could not have believed that she could have so easily supported her uncle's absence for so long a period. But she now knew the superior force of love. Madame Bossanville, though advanced in years, was not blind to what neither of them h^d the power to conceal. Ladies, particu- larly at her time of life, are generally pretty sharp-sighted in such matters. She spoke to her young friend on the subject, with all the tender affection of the fondest mother, and Miss Mal- colm had too much candour, not to lay open her heart to the dear guardian of her youth, nor did LOCHANDHU. 293 she hesitate to tell her of the explanation that had taken place between her and Amherst. Her disclosure was met by the fullest approbation of their mutual attachment. Madame Bossanville's whole happiness was now centered in her pupil. She was overjoyed to find, in the solitude to which her uncle's re- tired habits had condemned her, that a young man so well principled, so accomplished, so agree- able as Amherst, should have been sent, as it were, by Heaven, to discover so rare and sweet a flower, ip the lonely wilderness where it grew. She reflected that Lord Eaglesholme could not live for ever ; that he alone of all his family re- mained, like the venerable tower of some goodly edifice, once large and magnificent, but now ruin- ed and dilapidated ; and that, when time should have levelled his noble form with the dust, her dear Eliza must be left without a protector. She had often had many anxious thoughts on this sub- ject, and many a tear had glistened in her mild eye, and moistened her furrowed cheek, when at times she had gazed in silent contemplation on the innocent and beloved object of all her care, who, ignorant of the cause of her weeping, in- n2 294 LOCHANDHU. creased it by her fond efforts to soothe what she supposed to be some secret affliction. She firmly believed, that much of Lord Eaglesholme's melan- choly and internal suffering, arose from such re- flections. As she naturally enough imagined, that he was equally quick-sighted with herself, in perceiving the beginning and growth of the mu- tual passion between the young people, and as she knew that he entertained the highest opinion of Mr Oakenwold, she took it very naturally for granted, that much of that improvement she had observed in the ordinary state of his Lordship's spirits, since Amherst had been an inmate of the castle, was to be attributed, to his prospect of the future happiness of his beloved niece, being se- cured by so desirable a matrimonial connection. It cannot be matter of wonder then, that Ma- dame Bossanville inwardly rejoiced that things- were already matured ; nor is it surprising, that, far from throwing any obstacle in the way of the lovers, she should rather have given them all those opportunities of private conversation, which an attention to propriety permitted, and of which it was equally natural for the happy pair to avail LOCHAXDHU. 295 themselves, to the fullest extent of the licence she gave them. It was not therefore to be imagined, that a visit Amherst proposed to make to his friends at San- derson Mains, towards the conclusion of the third week of Lord Eaglesholme's absence, was owing to time hanging heavy with him in the old castle. The fact was, his conscience began to reproach him, that he had permitted so many days, nay, weeks to pass, without fulfilling his promise of go- ing so short a distance to see Cleaver. And he even thought the kind Sir Alisander, and Lady Sanderson, might have reason to complain of so cold a return for their hospitality. Yet it requir- ed some exertion before he could think of a separation, for even a few hours, from the idol of his heart ; and when he brought himself to mention the visit to her, her eyes told him that she suffered as much as he did in the sacrifice. But her uncle was expected at the castle on the evening of the ensuing day, when Amherst would find it still more difficult to get away. After much hesitation therefore, he at last resolved to go over to Sanderson Mains to dinner, and to re- turn in the evening. The first parting of these S96 LOCHANDHtr. fond lovers, though for so short a time, was not effected without a considerable effort to both. " Do not go yet, dear Amherst P*" said Eliza tenderly ; " it is but early. Come, make one circuit of the terrace garden with me ere you leave us. It were vain for me to go thither by myself, for, without you, my flowers would refuse to smile upon me, or to give forth their wonted fragrance." " My beloved Eliza !" cried the impassioned Amherst, eagerly kissing her hand, as he gave her his arm to comply with her wishes, " all nature would be a dull and dreary blank to me, were it not for the sunshine of your kind eyes, that throws a celestial light over every thing around them. Even the beauty of these gardens would be lost, were it not for your presence, which sheds the charms of paradise over their bowery terraces, and gay parterres. When I first beheld this spot, from yonder distant and elevated point, it was your figure, that, even then, gave the chief in- terest to it in my eyes. But little did I at that time guess, what powerful interest I should so soon feel, in the small white speck I then saw r " And do you not remember," said Eliza, LOCHAKDHU. ^97 smiling artlessly in Amherst's face, " do you not remember, how much the beauties of these ter- races, were enhanced to me by your presence, the very first morning we trod them together ? What a glad walk was that for me ! I had always con- sidered myself the happiest of mortals before then; yet how much more touching have been my emotions of pleasure since I have known you ! The small space of time, that has glided away since you first became my uncle's guest, now appears to me to have comprised my whole life ; for the very remembrance of my former years of tame existence, has been obliterated by the exquisite delight, which has filled up the short period of our intercourse." Having wandered round the garden, they sat down together on one of the seats, to listen to the song of a thrush. " How sweetly that innocent bird pours forth his stream of melody, from the topmost spray of that tall tree !'' cried Eliza, pointing to him ; " I can actually perceive his little breast, thrilling with the efibrts he makes, in modulating his me- lody." . ** His mate is doubtless nestled in some of those $9§. LOCHANDHir. evergreens near him," replied Amherst. " It is for her that all these stirring notes of passionate love have utterance." As the lovers sat observing him, a falcon came swooping down, neither of them could tell from whence, and striking his cruel talons, with in- conceivable rtipidity, into the unhappy warbler, bore him piteously off. Eliza shrieked, and Am- herst shouted, with the hope of making the hawk drop his prey, but all in vain. " Poor bird !" cried Eliza, bursting into tears at the spectacle. " How short lived was thy happiness !" A shade of melancholy overspread her lovely brow, and she sat musing with an air of sadness. " Be not so pensive, my love !" cried Am- herst. " Let not this trifling incident break in on the calm delight we were indulging in. It can have no influence on us. You surely can- not suffer any thing like superstitious dread from such an accident .f^"" " No," replied Eliza, " it was but the reflec- tions it awakened that disturbed me. I am al- most ashamed to tell you what they were, lest you should think me silly for giving way to them. LOCHANDHU. 299 ' — Yet why should I conceal even my weakness from you? — A transient thought flashed across me, that our present happiness might be more than Heaven can well permit to be enduring to mortals, and that it might be as short lived, as that of the poor bird we have this moment seen so cruelly destroyed. What will now become of his wretched mate ? And what would become of me were you to be torn from me ?" " Dry your tears, my dearest, dearest Eliza,*' exclaimed Amherst with great energy. " Let not any such gloomy forebodings disturb our pre- sent joy. Let not the heaven of your eyes be overcast, when the horizon of our fate is so bright and heart-cheering. Come my love, exert your- self to shake off such thoughts. Let me see you smile once more. Let us go in, and, ere I leave you, indulge me again with some of those sweet airs, I have so often importuned you to sing and play to me."" Eliza yielded to her lover's wish, and being led back into the castle by him, she took her guitar, and they wiled away the time in singing together, till the advanced hour called on Amherst to depart for Sanderson Mains. Even then they lingered. 300 LOCHANDHU. At length Eliza threw a shawl over her head, and went as far as the draw-bridge with him ; and when at last he tore himself from her, she stood gaz- ing after him, until his form was lost within the shade of the distant trees ; and she returned into the castle, to pass the first few dull and irksome hours she had experienced, since Amherst had become an inmate of it. She tried to fix herself down to a book, but the effort was vain. She took up the guitar, which had so lately given plea- sure to both her lover and herself; but she could not find one note that was in harmony with her present feelings. All her little works had lost their relish for her ; nay, even the good Ma- dame Bossanville's conversation was dry and un- interesting to her, and nothing could dispel the gloom of this wearisome evening. END OF VOLUME FIRST. EDINBURGH .* PllINTED BY JOHN STARK. 86 09/00 — mAA UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 3 0112 051102082