 Volume 1, Chapter 2 of Rob Roy. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott. Volume 1, Chapter 2. I begin shrewdly to suspect the young man of a terrible taint, poetry, with which idle disease, if he be infected, there's no hope of him in a state course. Act a mest of him for a common world's man if he go to it in rhyme once. Ben Johnson's Bartholomew Fair. My father had, generally speaking, his temper under complete self-command, and his anger rarely indicated itself by words, except in a sort of dry, testy manner to those who had displeased him. He never used threats or expressions of loud resentment. All was arranged with him on system, and it was his practice to do the needful on every occasion, without wasting words about it. It was therefore with a bitter smile that he listened to my imperfect answers concerning the state of commerce in France, and unmercifully permitted me to involve myself deeper and deeper in the mysteries of argeo, terrace, tear, and tread. Nor can I charge my memory with his having looked positively angry, until he found me unable to explain the exact effect which the depreciation of the Louis-Door had produced on the negotiation of bills of exchange. The most remarkable national occurrence in my time, said my father, who nevertheless had seen the revolution, and he knows no more of it than a post on the key. Mr. Francis, suggested Owen, in his timid and conciliatory manner, cannot have forgotten that by an array of the King of France, dated the 1st of May 1700, it was provided that the porter, within ten days after due, must make demand, Mr. Francis, said my father interrupting him, will, I daresay, recollect for the moment anything you are so kind as hinted to him, but body of me, how Duborg could permit him. Hark ye, Owen, what sort of a youth is Clamom Duborg, his nephew there in the office, the black-haired lad. One of the cleverest clerks there in the house, a prodigious young man for his time, answered Owen, for the gaiety and civility of the young Frenchman had won his heart. I, I, I suppose he knows something of the nature of exchange. Duborg was a determined I should have one youngster at least about my hand who understood business, but I see his drift, and he shall find that I do so when he looks at the balance sheet. Owen, let Clamom's salary be paid up to next quarter day, and let him ship himself back to Bordeaux in his father's ship which is clearing out Yonder. Dismiss Clamom Duborg, sir, said Owen with a faltering voice. Yes, sir, dismiss him instantly. It is enough to have a stupid Englishman in the counting house to make blunders without keeping a sharp Frenchman there to profit by them. I had lived long enough in the territories of the Grand Monarch to contract a hearty aversion to arbitrary exertion of authority, even if it had not been instilled into me with my earliest breeding, and I could not refrain from interposing to prevent an innocent and meritorious young man from paying the penalty of having acquired that proficiency which my father had desired for me. I beg pardon, sir, when Mr Oswaldo Stone had done speaking, but I think it but just that if I have been negligent of my studies I should pay the forfeit myself. I have no reason to charge Monsieur Duborg with having neglected to give me opportunities of improvement, however little I may have profited by them, and with respect to Monsieur Clamom Duborg, with respect to him and to you, I shall take the measures which I see needful, replied my father. But it is fair in you, Frank, to take your own blame on your own shoulders. Very fair, that cannot be denied. I cannot acquit old Duborg, he said, looking to Owen, for having merely afforded Frank the means of useful knowledge, without seeing that he took advantage of them, or reporting to me if he did not. You see, Owen, he has natural notions of equity becoming a British merchant. Mr Francis said the head clerk with his usual formal inclination of the head, and a slight elevation of his right hand, which he had acquired by a habit of sticking his pen behind his ear as he spoke, Mr Francis seems to understand the fundamental principle of all moral accounting, the great ethic rule of three, let A do to be as he would have B do to him. The product will give the rule of conduct required. My father smiled at this reduction of the golden rule through arithmetical form, but instantly proceeded. All this signifies nothing, Frank, you have been throwing away your time like a boy, and in future you must learn to live like a man. I shall put you under Owen's care for a few months to recover the lost ground. I was about to reply, but Owen looked at me with such a supplicatory and warning gesture that I was involuntarily silent. We will then, continued my father, resume the subject of mine of the first Ultimo, to which you sent me an answer which was unadvised and unsatisfactory. So now, fill your glass and push the bottle to Owen. Bont of courage, of audacity, if you will, was never my failing. I answered firmly. I was sorry that my letter was unsatisfactory. Unadvised it was not, for I had given the proposal his goodness had made me my instant and anxious attention, and it was with no small pain that I found myself obliged to decline it. My father bent his keen eye for a moment on me, and instantly withdrew it. As he made no answer, I thought myself obliged to proceed, though with some hesitation, for he only interrupted me by a monosyllables. It is impossible, sir, for me to have higher respect for any character than I have for the commercial, even were it not yours. Indeed. It connects nation with nation, relieves the wants, and contributes to the wealth of all, and is to the general common wealth of the civilized world what the daily intercourse of ordinary life is to private society, or rather what air and food are to our bodies. Well, sir. And yet, sir, I find myself compelled to persist in declining to adopt a character which I am so ill-qualified to support. I will take care that you acquire the qualifications necessary. You are no longer the guest in people of Duborg. But, my dear sir, it is no defect of teaching which I plead but my own inability to profit by instruction. Nonsense! Have you kept your journal in the terms I desire? Yes, sir. Be pleased to bring it here. The volume thus required was a sort of common place-book kept by my father's recommendation, in which I had been directed to enter notes of the miscellaneous information which I had acquired in the course of my studies. For, seeing that he would demand inspection of this record, I had been attentive to transcribe such particulars of information as he would most likely be pleased with. But, too often, the pen had discharged the task without much correspondence with the head. And, it had also happened that, the book being the receptacle closest to my hand, I had occasionally jotted down memoranda which had little regard to traffic. I now put it into my father's hand, devoutly hoping he might light on nothing that would increase his displeasure against me. Owen's face, which had looked something blank when the question was put, cleared up at my ready answer, and wore a smile of hope, when I brought from my apartment and placed before my father a commercial-looking volume, rather broader than it was long, having brazen clasps and a binding of rough calf, this looked businesslike, and was encouraging to my benevolent well-wisher, but he actually smiled with pleasure as he heard my father run over some part of the contents, muttering his critical remarks as he went. Brandy's barrels and barricades, also tonneau, at Nantes, 29, Bell's to the barric at Cognac, and Rochelle, 27, at Bordeaux, 32, very right frank, duties on tonnage and custom house, see Saxby's tables. That's not well, you should have transcribed the passage it fixes the thing in the memory. Reports outward and inward, corned of inches, overseas cockets, linens, Icingham, Gentish, Stockfish, Titling, Croppling, Lubfish, you should have noted that they are all, nevertheless, to be entered as Titlings. How many inches long is a Titling? Owen, seeing me at fault, hazarded a whisper of which I fortunately caught the import. Eighteen inches, sir, and a Lubfish is twenty-four, very right. It is important to remember this on account of the Portuguese trade. But what have we here? Bordeaux founded in the year Castle of the Trompet, Palace of Gallienus. Well, well, that's very right too. This is a kind of waste book, Owen, in which all the transactions of the day, amptions, orders, payments, receipts, acceptances, drafts, commissions, and advices, are entered miscellaneously. That they may be regularly transferred to the day book and ledger, answered Owen. I am glad Mr. Francis is so methodical. I perceived myself getting so fast into favour, that I began to fear the consequence would be my father's more obstinate perseverance in his resolution that I must become a merchant, and as I was determined to the contrary, I began to wish I had not, to use my friend Mr. Owen's phrase, been so methodical. But I had no reason for apprehension on that score. For a blotted piece of paper dropped out of the book, and, being taken up by my father, he interrupted a hint from Owen on the propriety of securing loose memoranda with a little paste by exclaiming, to the memory of Edward the Black Prince, what's all this? Versus. By heaven, Frank, you are a greater blocky than I supposed you. My father, you must recollect, as a man of business, looked upon the labour of poets with contempt, and as a religious man, and of the dissenting persuasion, he considered all such pursuits as equally trivial and profane. Before you condemn him, you must recall to remembrance how too many of the poets in the end of the 17th century had led their lives and employed their talents. The sect also to which my father belonged, felt, or perhaps affected, a puritanical aversion to the lighter exertions of literature, so that many causes contributed to augment the unpleasant surprise, occasioned by the ill-timed discovery of this unfortunate copy of Versus. As for poor Owen, could the bob wig which he then wore have uncurled itself and stood on end with horror? I am convinced the morning's labour of the Fusir would have been undone, merely by the excess of his astonishment at this enormity. An inroad on the strongbox, or an erasure in the ledger, or amissimation in a fitted account could hardly have surprised him more disagreeably. My father read the lines, sometimes with an affectation of not being able to understand the sense, sometimes in a mouthing tone of mock heroic, always with an emphasis of the most bitter irony, most irritating to the nerves of an author. Oh, for the voice of that wild horn, on fontorabian echoes borne, the dying heroes call that told imperial Charlemagne how panum sons of swarthy Spain had wrought his champions fall. Fontorabian echoes continued my father interrupting himself. The fontorabian fear would have been more to the purpose, panum. What's panum? Could you not say Pagan as well, and write English at least, if you must need to write nonsense? Sad over earth and ocean sounding, and England's distant cliffs astounding, such other notes should say how Britain's hope and France's fear victor of Cressy and Poitiers in Bordeaux dying lay. Poitiers, by the way, is always spelt with an S, and I know no reason why orthography should give place to rhyme. Raise my faint head, my squires, he said, and let the casement be displayed, that I may see once more the splendour of the setting sun gleam on thy mirrored wave, Garonne, and blaze in purple shore. Garonne and sun is a bad rhyme, why, Frank, you do not even understand the beggarly trade you have chosen. Like me, he sinks to glory's sleep, his fall, the dues of evening's steep, as if in sorrow shed so soft shall fall the trickling tear, when England's maids and matrons hear of their black Edward dead. And though my son of glory set, nor France nor England shall forget the terror of my name, and oft shall Britain's heroes rise, new planets in these southern skies, through clouds of blood and flame. A cloud of flame is something new. Good tomorrow, my master's all, and a merry Christmas to you, why, the Bellman writes better lines. He then tossed the paper from him with an air of superlative contempt, and concluded, upon my credit, Frank, you are a greater blocker than I took you for. What could I say, my dear Tresham? There I stood, swelling with indignant mortification, while my father regarded me with a calm but stern look of scorn and pity. And poor Owen, with uplifted hands and eyes, looked as striking a picture of horror, as if he had just read his patron's name in the Gazette. At length I took courage to speak, endeavouring that my tone of voice should betray my feelings as little as possible. I am quite aware, sir, how ill-qualified I am to play the conspicuous part in society you have destined for me, and, luckily, I am not ambitious of the wealth I might acquire. Mr. Owen would be a much more effective assistant. I said this in some malice, for I considered Owen as having deserted my cause a little too soon. Owen, said my father, the boy is mad, actually insane. And, pray, sir, if I may presume to inquire, having coolly turned me over to Mr. Owen, although I may expect more attention from anyone than from my son, what may your own sage projects be? I should wish, sir, I said, summoning up my courage, to travel for two or three years, sure to that consist with your pleasure, otherwise, although late, I would willingly spend the same time at Oxford or Cambridge. In the name of common sense was the like ever heard, to put yourself to school among pedants and Jacobites, when you might be pushing your fortune in the world, why not go to Westminster or Eaton at once, man, and take to Lily's grammar and accidents, and to the birch, too, if you like it. Then, sir, if you think my plan of improvement too late, I would willingly return to the continent. You have already spent too much time there, to little purpose, Mr. Francis. Then I would choose the army, sir, in preference to any other act of line of life. Choose the devil, answered my father hastily, and then, checking himself, I profess you make me as great a fool as you are yourself. Is he not enough to drive one mad Owen? Poor Owen shook his head and looked down. Hark ye, Frank! continued my father. I will cut all this matter very short. I was at your age when my father turned me out of doors, and settled my legal inheritance on my younger brother. I left Os balderstone hall on the back of a broken-down hunter, with ten guineas in my purse. I have never crossed the threshold again, and I never will. I know not, and I care not, if my fox-hunting brother is alive or has broken his neck. But he has children, Frank, and one of them shall be my son, if you cross me farther in this matter. You will do your pleasure, I answered, rather I fear, with more sullen indifference than respect, with what is your own. Yes, Frank, what I have is my own, if labour in getting and care in augmenting can make a right of property, and no drone shall feed on my honeycomb. Think on it well. What I have said is not without reflection, and what I resolve upon, I will execute. Honour, sir, dear sir, exclaimed Owen, tears rushing into his eyes. You are not going to be in such a hurry in transacting business of importance. Let Mr. Francis run up the balance before you shut the account. He loves you, I am sure, and when he puts down his filial obedience to the per contra, I am sure his objections will disappear. Do you think I will ask him twice, said my father sternly, to be my friend, my assistant and my confidante, to be a partner of my cares and of my fortune? Owen, I thought you had known me better. He looked at me as if he meant to add something more, but turned instantly away and left the room abruptly. I was, I own, affected by this view of the case, which had not occurred to me, and my father would probably have had little reason to complain of me had he commenced the discussion with this argument. But it was too late. I had much of his own obduracy of resolution, and heaven had decreed that my sin should be my punishment, though not to the extent which my transgression merited. Owen, when we were left alone, continued to look at me with eyes which tears from time to time moistened, as if to discover, before attempting the task of intercessor, upon what point my obstinacy was most assailable. At length he began with broken and disconcerted accents. Oh Lord, Mr. Francis, good heaven, sir, my stars, Mr. Osbalderstone, that I should ever have seen this day, and used so young a gentleman, sir. For the love of heaven, look at both sides of the account. Think what you're going to lose. A noble fortune, sir, one of the finest houses in the city. Even under the old firm of Tresham and Trent, and in our Osbalderstone and Tresham, you might roll in gold, Mr. Francis, and my dear young Mr. Frank, if there was any particular thing in the business of the house which you disliked, I would, sinking his voice to a whisper, put it in order for you, family, or weekly, or daily, if you will. Do, my dear Mr. Francis, think of the honor, due to your father, that your days may be long in the land. I am much obliged to you, Mr. Owen, said I, very much obliged indeed. But my father is best judge how to bestow his money. He talks of one of my cousins. Let him dispose of his wealth as he pleases. I will never sell my liberty for gold. Gold, sir? I wish you saw the balance sheet of profits at last term. It was in five figures. Five figures to each partner's sum total, Mr. Frank. And all this is to go to a Papist and a North Country booby, and a disaffected person besides. It will break my heart, Mr. Francis, that have been toiling more like a dog than a man, and all for the love of the firm. Think how it will sound, Oswaldo Stone, Treshen and Oswaldo Stone, or perhaps who knows, again lowering his voice, Oswaldo Stone, Oswaldo Stone and Treshen, for our Mr. Oswaldo Stone can buy them all out. But, Mr. Owen, my cousin's name, being also Oswaldo Stone, the name of the company will sound every bit as well in your ears. Oh, fire upon you, Mr. Francis, when you know how well I love you, your cousin indeed, a Papist no doubt like his father, and a disaffected person to the Protestant succession. That's another item, doubtless. There are many very good men, Catholics, Mr. Owen, rejoined I. As Owen was about to answer with unusual animation, my father re-entered the apartment. You were right, he said, Owen, and I was wrong. We will take more time to think over this matter. Young man, you will prepare to give me an answer on this important subject this day month. I bowed in silence, sufficiently glad of a reprieve, and trusting it might indicate some relaxation in my father's determination. The time of probation passed slowly, unmarked by any accident whatever. I went and came, and disposed of my time as I pleased, without question or criticism on the part of my father. Indeed, I rarely saw him save at mealtimes when he studiously avoided a discussion which you may well suppose I was in no hurry to press on with. Our conversation was of the news of the day, or on such general topics as strangers discourse upon to each other. Nor could anyone have guessed, from its tenor, that there remained undecided betwixt us a dispute of such importance. It haunted me, however, more than once, like the nightmare. Was it possible he would keep his word, and disinherit his only son, in favour of a nephew whose very existence he was not perhaps quite certain of? My grandfather's conduct, in similar circumstances, voted me no good, had I considered the matter rightly. But I had formed an erroneous idea of my father's character, from the importance which I recollected I maintained with him and his whole family before I went to France. I was not aware that there are men who indulge their children at an early age, because to do so interests and amuses them, and who can yet be sufficiently severe when the same children cross their expectations at a more advanced period. On the contrary, I persuaded myself that all I had to apprehend was some temporary alienation of affection, perhaps a rustication of a few weeks, which I thought would rather please me than otherwise, since it would give me an opportunity of setting about my unfinished version of Orlando Furioso, a poem which I longed to render into English verse. I suffered this belief to get such absolute possession of my mind that I had resumed my blotted papers, and was busy in meditation on the oft-recurring rhymes of the Spenserian stanza, when I heard a low and cautious tap at the door of my apartment. Come in, I said, and Mr Owen entered. So regular were the motions and habits of this worthy man, that in all probability this was the first time he had ever been in the second story of his patron's house, however conversant with the first, and I am still at a loss to know in what manner he discovered my apartment. Mr Francis, he said, interrupting my expression of surprise and pleasure at seeing him, I do not know if I am doing well in what I am about to say. It is not right to speak of what passes in the comping house out of doors, one should not tell, as they say, to the post in the warehouse how many lines there are in the ledger. But young Twineall has been absent from the house for a fortnight and more, until two days since. Very well, my dear sir, and how does that concern us? Stay, Mr Francis, your father gave him a private commission, and I am sure he did not go down to Falmouth about the Piltred Affair, and the exeter business with Blackwell and Company has been settled, and the mining people in Cornwall, Trevanian and Trigillium have paid all they are likely to pay, and any other matter of business must have been put through my books. In short, it is my faithful belief that Twineall has been down in the North. Do you really suppose, so said I, somewhat startled. He has spoken about nothing, sir, since he returned, but his new boots, and his reborn spurs, and a cock fight at York. It is as true as the multiplication table. Do heaven bless you, my dear child, make up your mind to please your father, and to be a man, and a merchant at once. I felt at that instant a strong inclination to submit, and to make Owen happy by requesting him to tell my father that I resigned myself to his disposal. But pride, pride, the source of so much that is good, and so much that is evil in our course of life, prevented me. My acquiescence stuck in my throat, and while I was coughing to get it up, my father's voice summoned Owen. He hastily left the room, and the opportunity was lost. My father was methodical in everything. At the very same time of the day, in the same apartment, and with the same tone and manner which he had employed an exact month before, he recapitulated the proposal he had made for taking me into partnership, and assigning me a department in the counting house, and requested to have my final decision. I thought at the time there was something unkind in this, and I still think that my father's conduct was injudicious. A more conciliatory treatment would, in all probability, have gained his purpose. As it was, I stood fast, and, as respectfully as I could, declined the proposal he made to me. Perhaps for who can judge of their own heart, I felt it unmanly to yield on the first summons, and expected father's solicitation, as at least a pretext for changing my mind. If so, I was disappointed. For my father turned coolly to Owen and only said, You see, it is as I told you. Well, Frank, addressing me, you are nearly of age, and is well qualified to judge of what will constitute your own happiness as you are ever like to be. Therefore I say no more. But, as I am not bound to give in to your plans any more than you are compelled to submit to mine, may I ask to know if you have formed any which depend on my assistance. I answered, not a little abashed, that being bred to no profession, and having no funds of my own, it was obviously impossible for me to subsist without some allowance for my father, that my wishes were very moderate, and that I hoped my aversion for the profession to which he had designed me would not occasion his altogether withdrawing his paternal support and protection. That is to say, you wish to lean on my arm and yet to walk your own way. That can hardly be, Frank. However, I suppose you mean to obey my direction so far as they do not cross your own humour. I was about to speak. Silence, if you please, he continued. Supposing this to be the case, you will instantly set out for the north of England to pay your uncle a visit and see the state of his family. I have chosen from among his sons, he has six I believe, one who, I understand, is most worthy to film the place I intended for you in the counting house, but some father arrangements may be necessary, and for these your presence may be requisite. You shall have father instructions at his balder stone hall, where you will please to remain until you hear from me. Everything will be ready for your departure tomorrow morning. With these words my father left the apartment. What does all this mean, Mr Owen? said I, to my sympathetic friend, whose countenance wore a cast of the deepest ejection. You have ruined yourself, Mr Frank, that's all. When your father talks in that quiet, determined manner, there will be no more change in him than in a fitted account. And so it proved, for the next morning at five o'clock I found myself on the road to York, mounted on a reasonably good horse, and with fifty guineas in my pocket, travelling as it would seem, for the purpose of assisting in the adoption of a successor to myself in my father's house in favour, and, for ought I knew, eventually in his fortune also. End of Volume 1, Chapter 2. Recording by Felicity Campbell, Whanganui, New Zealand. Volume 1, Chapter 3 of Rob Roy. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott. Volume 1, Chapter 3. The slack sail shifts from side to side. The boat untrimmed admits the tide. Born down, adrift, at random tossed. The oil breaks short. The rudder's lost. From gays fables. I have tagged with rhyme and blank verse the subdivisions of this important narrative, in order to seduce your continued attention by powers of composition of stronger attraction than my known. The preceding lines refer to an unfortunate navigator who, daringly unloosed from its moorings a boat, which he was unable to manage, and thrust it off into the full tide of a navigable river. No schoolboy, who betwixt relic and defiance, has executed a similar rash attempt, could feel himself, when adrift in a strong current, in a situation more awkward than mine, when I found myself driving, without a compass, on the ocean of human life. There had been such unexpected ease in the manner in which my father slipped a knot, usually esteemed to the strongest which bind society together, and suffered me to depart as a sort of outcast from his family, that it strangely lessened the confidence in my own personal accomplishments, which had hitherto sustained me. Prince Prettyman, now a prince, and now a vicious son, had not a more awkward sense of his degradation. We are so apt in our engrossing egotism to consider all those accessories which are drawn around us by prosperity, as pertaining and belonging to our own persons, that the discovery of our unimportance, when left to our own proper resources, becomes inexpressibly mortifying. As the hum of London died away on my ear, the distant peel of the steeples, more than what sounded to my ears the admonitory turn again, first heard by her future Lord Mayor, and when I looked back from Highgate on her dusky magnificence, I felt as if I were leaving behind me comfort, opulence, the charms of society, and all the pleasures of cultivated life. But the die was cast. It was, indeed, by no means probable, that late and ungracious compliance with my father's wishes would have reinstated me in the situation which I had lost. On the contrary, firm and strong of purpose as he himself was, he might rather have been disgusted than conciliated by my tardy and compulsory acquiescence in his desire that I should engage in commerce. My constitutional obstinacy came also to my aid, and pride whispered how poor a figure I should make, when an airing of four miles from London had blown away resolutions formed during a month's serious deliberation. Hope, too, that never forsakes the young and hardy, lent her lust to my future prospects. My father could not be serious in the sentence of forest familiarization, which he had so unhesitatingly pronounced. It must be but a trial of my disposition, which, endured with patience and steadiness on my part, would raise me in his estimation and lead to an amicable accommodation of the point in dispute between us. I even settled in my own mind how far I would concede to him, and on what articles of our supposed treaty I would make a firm stand, and the result was, according to my computation, that I was to be reinstated in my full rights affiliation, paying the easy penalty of some ostensible compliances to atone for my past rebellion. In the meanwhile, I was lord of my person, and experienced that feeling of independence which the youthful bosom receives with a thrilling mixture of pleasure and apprehension. My purse, though by no means amply replenished, was in a situation to supply all the wants and wishes of a traveller. I had been accustomed, while at Bordeaux, to act as my own valet, my horse was fresh, young and active, and the buoyancy of my spirit soon submounted the melancholy reflections with which my journey commenced. I should have been glad to have journeyed upon a line of road better calculated to afford reasonable objects of curiosity, or a more interesting country to the traveller. But the north road was then, and perhaps still is, singularly deficient in these respects, nor do I believe you can travel so far through Britain in any other direction without meeting more of what is worthy to engage the attention. My mental ruminations, notwithstanding my assumed confidence, were not always of an uncheckered nature. The muse, too, the very coquette who had led me into this wilderness, like others of her sex, deserted me in my utmost need, and I should have been reduced to rather an uncomfortable state of dullness, had it not been for the occasional conversation of strangers who charged to pass the same way. But the characters whom I met with were of a uniform and uninteresting description. Country Parsons, jogging homewards after a visitation, farmers or graziers returning from a distant market, clerks of traders travelling to collect what was due to their masters in provincial towns, with now and then an officer going down into the country upon the recruiting service, were at this period the persons by whom the turnpikes and tapsters were kept in exercise. Our speech, therefore, was of tithes and creeds, of beaves and grain, of commodities wet and dry, and the solvency of the retail dealers, occasionally varied by the description of a siege or battle in Flanders, which, perhaps, the narrator only gave me at second hand. Robbers, a fertile and alarming theme, filled up every vacancy, and the names of the golden farmer, the flying highman, Jack Needham and other beggars opera heroes, were familiar in our mouths as household words. At such tales, like children closing their circle round the fire when the ghost story draws to its climax, the riders drew near to each other, looked before and behind them, examined the priming of their pistols, and vowed to stand by each other in case of danger, an engagement which, like other offensive and defensive alliances, sometimes glided out of remembrance when there was an appearance of actual peril. Of all the fellows whom I ever saw haunted by terrors of this nature, one poor man with whom I travelled a day and a half afforded me most amusement. He had upon his pillion a very small but apparently a very weighty portmanteau, about the safety of which he seemed particularly solicitous, never trusting it out of his own immediate care, and uniformly repressing the officious zeal of the waiters and oslars who offered their services to carry it into the house. With the same precaution he laboured to conceal not only the purpose of his journey, and his ultimate place of destination, but even the direction of each day's route. Nothing embarrassed him more than to be asked by anyone whether he was travelling upwards or downwards or at what stage he intended to debate. His place of rest for the night he scrutinised with the most anxious care, a like avoiding solitude and what he considered as bad neighbourhood, and at Grantham I believe, he sat up all night to avoid sleeping in the next room, to a thick set squinting fellow in a black wig and a tarnished gold laced waistcoat. With all these cares on his mind my fellow traveller, to judge by his views and sinews, was a man who might have set danger at defiance with as much impunity as most men. He was strong and well built, and, judging from his gold laced hat and cockade, seemed to have served in the army, or at least to belong to the military profession in one capacity or other. His conversation, also, though always sufficiently vulgar, was that of a man of sense when the terrible bugbears which haunted his imagination for a moment ceased to occupy his attention, but every accidental association recalled them, an open heath, a closed plantation, were alike subjects of apprehension, and the whistle of a shepherd lad was instantly converted into the signal of a depredator. Even the sight of a gibbet, if it assured him that one robber was safely disposed of by justice, never failed to remind him how many remained still unhanged. I should have when read of this fellow's company had I not been still more tired of my own thoughts. Some of the marvellous stories, however, which he related, had in themselves a cast of interest, and another whimsical point of his peculiarities afforded me the occasional opportunity of amusing myself at his expense. Among his tales, several of the unfortunate travellers who fell among thieves incurred that calamity from associating themselves on the road with a well-dressed and entertaining stranger, in whose company they trusted to find protection as well as amusement, who cheered their journey with tale and song, protected them against the evils of overcharges and false reckonings, until that length, under pretext of showing a near path over a desolate common, he seduced his unsuspicious victims from the public road into some dismal glen, where, suddenly blowing his whistle, he assembled his comrades from their locking place, and displayed himself in his true colours, the captain, namely of the band of robbers, to whom his unwary fellow travellers had forfeited their purses, and perhaps their lives. Towards the conclusion of such a tale, and when my companion had wrought himself into a fever of apprehension by the progress of his own narrative, I observed that he usually eyed me with a glance of doubt and suspicion, as if the possibility occurred to him that he might, at that very moment, be in the company with a character as dangerous as that which his tale describes, and ever and on, when such suggestions pressed themselves on the mind of this ingenious self-tormentum. He drew off from me to the opposite side of the high road, looked before, behind and around him, examined his arms, and seemed to prepare himself for flight-addict defence, as circumstances might require. The suspicion implied on such occasions seemed to me only momentary, and too ludicrous to be offensive. There was in fact no particular refraction on my dress or a dress, although I was thus mistaken for a robin. A man in those days might have all the external appearance of a gentleman, and yet turn out to be a high-women. For the division of labour in every department not having then taken place so fully as since that period, the profession of the polite and accomplished adventurer, who nicked you out of your money at whites, or bold you out of it at Marlborough, was often united with that of the professed Ruffian, who on bagshot teeth, or fincially common, commanded his brother Bo to stand and deliver. There was also a touch of coarseness and hardness about the manners of the times, which has since, in a great degree, been softened and shaded away. It seems to me, on recollection, as if desperate men had less reluctance then than now to embrace the most desperate means of retrieving their fortune. The times were in indeed past, when Antony Wood mourned over the execution of two men, goodly in person, and of undisputed courage and honour, who were hanged without mercy at Oxford, merely because their distress had driven them to raise contributions on the highway. We were still farther removed from the days of the mad prince and poins, and yet from the number of unenclosed and extensive heaths in the vicinity of the metropolis, and from the less popular state of remote districts, both were frequented by that species of mounted highwaymen that may possibly become one day unknown, who carried on their trade with something like courtesy, and like gibbit in the Boe strategy, peaked themselves on being the best behaved men on the road, and on conducting themselves with all appropriate civility in the exercise of their vocation. A younger man, therefore, in my circumstances, was not entitled to be highly indignant at the mistake which confounded him with this worshipful class of depredators. Neither was I offended. On the contrary, I found amusement in ultimately exciting and lulling to sleep the suspicions of my timorous companion, and in purposely so acting as still farther to puzzle the brain which nature and apprehension had combined to render none of the clearest. When my free conversation had lulled him into complete security, it required only a passing inquiry concerning the direction of his journey, or the nature of the business which occasioned it, to put his suspicions once more in arms. For example, a conversation on the comparative strength and activity of our horses took such a turn as follows. Oh, sir, said my companion, for the gun up I grant you, but allow me to say your horse, although he has a very handsome gelding, that must be owned, has too little bone to be a good road to. The trot, sir, striking his bucephalous with his spurs, the trot is the true pace for a hackney, and where we near a town, I should like to try that daisy cutter of yours upon a piece of level-road, bar and canter, for a quart of claret at the next inn. Contents, sir, replied I, and here is a stretch of ground very favourable. Hem, hem, hem, answered my friend with hesitation. I make it a rule of travelling never to blow my horse between stages, one never knows what occasion he may have to put him to his metal, and besides, sir, when I said I would match you, I meant with even weight. You ride four stone lighter than I. Very well, but I am content to carry weight. Pray, what may that portmanteau of yours weigh? My portmanteau? replied he, hesitating. Oh, very little, a feather, just a few shirts and stockings. I should think it heavier from its appearance. I'll hold you the quart of claret, it makes the odds betwixt our weight. You're mistaken, sir, I assure you, quite mistaken, replied my friend, hedging off to the side of the road, as was his want on these alarming occasions. Well, I am willing to venture the wine, or I will bet you ten pieces to five, but I carry your portmanteau on my croup, and out trot you into the bargain. This proposal raised my friend's alarm to the uttermost, his nose changed from the natural copper hue which it acquired from many a comfortable cup of claret, or sack, into a palish, brassy tint, and his teeth chattered with apprehension at the unveiled audacity of my proposal, which seemed to place their bare-faced plunderer before him in full atrocity. As he faltered for an answer, I relieved him in some degree by a question concerning a steeple which now became visible, and an observation that we were now so near the village as to run no risk from interruption on the road. At this his countenance cleared up, but I easily perceived that it was long air he forgot a proposal which seemed to him so fraught with suspicion as that which I now hazarded. I trouble you with this detail of the man's disposition and the manner in which I practised upon it, because however trivial in themselves, these particulars were attended by an important influence on future incidents which will occur in this narrative. At the time, this person's conduct only inspired me with contempt, and confirmed me in an opinion which I already entertained, that of all the propensities which teach mankind to torment themselves, that of course this fear is the most irritating, busy, painful, and pitiable. Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott Volume 1 Chapter 4 The Scots are poor cries surly English pride. True is the charge, nor by themselves denied. Are they not, then, in strictest reason clear, who wisely come to mend their fortunes here? Church Hill. There was in the days of which I write an old-fashioned custom on the English road, which I suspect is now obsolete or practised only by the vulgar. Journeys of length being made on horseback, and, of course, by brief stages, it was usual always to make a halt on the Sunday in some town where the traveller might attend divine service, and his horse have the benefit of the day of rest. The institution of which is as humane to our brute labourers as profitable to ourselves. A counterpart to this decent practice, and a remnant of old English hospitality, was that the landlord of a principal inn laid aside his character of a publican on the seventh day, and invited the guests who chanced to be within his walls to take a part of his family beef and pudding. This invitation was usually complied with by all whose distinguished rank did not induce them to think compliance and derogation, and the proposal of a bottle of wine after dinner to drink the landlord's health was the only recompense ever offered or accepted. It was on such a day, and such an occasion, that my timorous acquaintance and I were about to grace the board of the ruddy-faced host of the black bear in the town of Darlington and Bishopric of Durham, when our landlord informed us, with a sort of apologetic tone, that there was a scotch gentleman to dine with us. A gentleman? What sort of a gentleman? said my companion somewhat hastily, his mind, I suppose, running on gentlemen of the pad, as they were then termed. Why, a scotch sort of a gentleman, as I said before, returned my host, they are all gentle among noor, though they are nearer shut to back, but this is a decentish Allian, a canny North Britain, his aircross bear with bridge, a troveys, a dealer, and cattle, let us have his company by all means. answered my companion, and then, turning to me, he gave vent to the tenor of his own reflections. I respect the scotch, sir, I love and honour the nation for their sense of morality, men talk of their filth and their poverty, but commend me to sterling honesty, though clad in rags as the poet saith. I have been credibly assured, sir, by men on whom I can depend, that there was never known such a thing in Scotland as a highway robbery. That's because they have nothing to lose, said my host, with a chuckle of self-applauding wit. No, no, landlord, answered a strong deep voice behind him. It's in because your English gougers and supervisors, that I have sent down ben North the tweed, have taken up the draid of thievery over the heads of the native professors. Well said, Mr Campbell, answered the landlord, I did not think thou hadst been scenerous, but thou kind time and outspoken Yorkshire tyke, and how go marketing the south. Even in the ordinary, replied Mr Campbell, wise folks buy and sell, and fools are bought and sold. But wise men and fools both eat their dinner, answered our jolly entertainer, and ere comes his prime abutek of beef as their hungry men shut fork in. So saying, he eagerly wetted his knife, assumed his seat of empire at the head of the board, and loaded the plates of his sentry guests with his good cheer. This was the first time I had heard the Scottish accent, or indeed, that I had familiarly met with an individual of the ancient nation by whom it was spoken. Yet from an early period they had occupied and interested my imagination. My father, as is well known to you, was of an ancient family in Northumberland, from whose seat I was, while eating the aforesaid dinner, not very many miles distant. The quarrel betwixt him and his relatives was such that he scarcely ever mentioned the race from which he sprung, and held as the most contemptible species of vanity the weakness which is commonly termed family pride. His ambition was only to be distinguished as William Asbaldestone, the first, at least one of the first, merchants on change, and to have proved him the linear representative of William the Conqueror would have far less flattered his vanity than the hum and bustle which his approach was want to produce among the bulls, bears, and brokers of stock alley. He wished, no doubt, that I should remain in such ignorance of my relatives and dissent as might insure a correspondence between my feelings and his own on the subject. But his designs, as will happen occasionally to the wisest, were in some degree at least counteracted by a being whom his pride would never have supposed of importance adequate to influence them in any way. His nurse, an old Northumbrian woman, attached to him from his infancy, was the only person connected with his native province, for whom he retained any regard, and when fortune dawned upon him, one of the first uses which he made of her favours was to give Mabel Ricketts a place of residence within his household. After the death of my mother, the care of nursing me during my childish illnesses, and of rendering all those tender attentions which infancy extracts from female affection, devolved on old Mabel, interdicted by her master from speaking to him on the subject of the heaths, glades, and dails of her beloved Northumberland, she poured herself forth to my infant ear in descriptions of the scenes of her youth, and long narratives of the event which tradition declared to have passed amongst them. To these I inclined my ear much more seriously than to grave her but less animated instructors. Even yet, me thinks I see old Mabel, her head slightly agitated by the palsy of age, and shaded by a close cap, as white as the driven snow, her face wrinkled, but still retaining the healthy tinge which had acquired in rural labour. I think I see her look around on the brick walls and narrow streets which presented themselves before our windows, as she concluded with a sigh the favourite old ditty which I then preferred, and why should I not tell the truth, which I still prefer to all the opera airs ever minted by the capricious brain of an Italian muss di. Oh, the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree, they flourished best at home in the North country. Now, in the legends of Mabel, the Scottish nation was ever freshly remembered, with all the embittered declamation of which the narrator was capable. The inhabitants of the opposite frontier served in her narratives to fill up the parts which ogres and giants with seven legged boots occupy in the ordinary nursery tales. And how could it be otherwise? Was it not the black Douglas who slew with his own hand the air of the Asbalda stone family the day after he took possession of his estate, surprising him, and his vassals while solemnizing a feast suited to the occasion? Was it not what the devil, who drove all the year old hogs off the braze of lathorn side, in the very recent days of my grandfather's father, and had we not many a trophy but according to old Mabel's version of history, far more honorably gained to mark our revenge of these wrongs? Did not Sir Henry Asbalda stone, fifth baron of the name, carry off the fair maid of Farnington, as Achilles did his crises and brisies of old, and detain her in his fortress against all the power of her friends, supported by the most mighty Scottish chiefs of warlike fame? And had not our sword shown foremost and most of those fields in which England was victorious over her rival? All our family renown was acquired, all our family misfortunes were occasioned by the Northern Wars. Warmed by such tales I looked upon the Scottish people during my childhood as a race hostile by nature to the more southern inhabitants of this realm, and this view of the matter was not much corrected by the language which my father sometimes held with respect to them. He had engaged in some large speculations concerning Oakwood's the property of Highland proprietors, and alleged that he found them much more ready to make bargains and extort earnest of the purchase money than punctual in complying on their side with the terms of the engagements. The Scottish mercantile men, whom he was under the necessity of employing as a sort of middlemen on these occasions, were also suspected by my father of having secured, by one means or other, more than their own share of the profit which ought to have accrued. In short, if Mabel complained of the Scottish arms in ancient times, Mr. Ulce Balderstone invade no less against the arts of these modern synons, and between them, though without any fixed purpose of doing so, they impressed my youthful mind with a sincere aversion to the northern inhabitants of Britain, as a people bloodthirsty in time of war, treacherous during truce, interested, selfish, avaricious, and tricky in the business of peaceful life, and having few good qualities unless there should be accounted such, a ferocity which resembled courage in martial affairs, and a sort of wily craft which supplied the place of wisdom in the ordinary commerce of mankind. In justification or apology for those who entertained such prejudices, I must remark that the scotch of that period were guilty of similar injustice to the English, whom they branded universally as a race of purse-proud, arrogant epicures. Such seeds of national dislike remained between the two countries the natural consequences of their existence as separate and rival states. We have seen recently the breath of a demagogue blow these sparks into a temporary flame, which I sincerely hope is now extinguished in its own ashes. It was then with an impression of dislike that I contemplated the first scotchman I had a chance to meet in society. There was much about him that coincided with my previous conceptions. He had the hard features and athletic form said to be peculiar to his country, together with the national intonation and slow pedantic mode of expression, arising from a desire to avoid peculiarities of idiom or dialect. I could also observe the caution and shrewdness of his country and many of the observations which he made, and the answers which he returned. But I was not prepared for the air of easy self-possession and superiority with which he seemed to predominate over the company into which he was thrown, as it were by accident. His dress was as coarse as it could be, being still decent, and, at a time when great expense was lavished upon the wardrobe, even of the lowest who pretended to the character of gentlemen, this indicated mediocrity of circumstances, if not poverty. His conversation intimated that he was engaged in the cattle trade, no very dignified professional pursuit, and yet, under these disadvantages, he seemed, as a matter of course, to treat the rest of the company with the cool and condescending politeness which implies a real or imagined superiority over those towards whom it is used. When he gave his opinion on any point, it was with that easy tone of confidence used by those superior to their society in rank or information, as if what he said could not be doubted, and what was not to be questioned. Mine host and his Sunday guests, after an effort or two to support their consequence by noise and bold avarement, sunk gradually under the authority of Mr. Campbell, who thus fairly possessed himself of the lead in the conversation. I was tempted, from curiosity, to dispute the ground with him myself, confiding in my knowledge of the world, extended as it was by my residence abroad, and in the stores with which a tolerable education had possessed my mind. In the latter respect, he offered no competition, and it was easy to see that his natural powers had never been cultivated by education. But I found him much better acquainted than I was myself with the present state of France, the character of the Duke of Orleans, who had just succeeded to the regency of that kingdom, and that of the statesmen by whom he was surrounded, and his shrewd, caustic, and somewhat satirical remarks were those of a man who had been a close observer of the affairs of that country. On the subject of politics, Campbell observed a silence and moderation which might arise from caution. The divisions of Whig and Tory then shook England to her very centre, and a powerful party, engaged in the Jacobite interest, menaced the dynasty of Hanover, which had been just established on the throne. Every alehouse resounded with the brawls of contending politicians, and as mine hosts' politics were of that liberal description which quarreled with no good customer, his hebdomital visitants were often divided in their opinion as irreconcilably as if he had feasted the common council. The curate and the apothecary, with a little man, who made no boast of his vocation, but who, from the flourish and snap of his fingers, I believe to have been the barber, strongly espoused the cause of high church and the steward line. The excise man, as in duty bound, and the attorney, who looked to some petty office under the crown, together with my fellow traveller, who seemed to enter keenly into the contest, staunchly supported the cause of King George and the Protestant succession. Dyer was the screaming deep the oaths, each partly appealed to Mr. Campbell, anxious it seemed, to elicit his approbation. You're a scotchman, sir. A gentleman of your country must stand up for hereditary right, cried one party. You're a Presbyterian, assumed the other class of dispetance. You cannot be a friend to arbitrary power. Gentlemen, said our scotch oracle, after having gained with some difficulty a moment's pause, I have in a much stubbutation that King George will deserves the predilection of his friends. And if he can all the great be has gotten, why doubtless, he may made the galger here a commissioner of the revenue, and confer on our friend Mr. Kytum the preferment of solicitor general. And he may also grant some good deed or reward to this honest gentleman who is sitting upon his portmanteau, which he prefers to a chair. And questionless, King James is also a grateful person. And when he gets his hand in play, he may, if he be so minded, make this reverent gentleman arch-prelate of Canterbury. And Dr. Mixit, chief physician to his household, and commit his royal beard to the care of my friend Latharum. But as I doubt, Mikkel, whether any of the competing sovereigns would give Rob Campbell a taste of aquavite, if he lacked it, I give my vote in interest to Jonathan Brown, our landlord, to be the king and prince of skinkers, conditionally, that he fetches us another bottle as good as the last. This sally was received with general applause, in which the landlord cordially joined, and when he had given orders for fulfilling the condition on which his preferment was to depend, he failed not to acquaint them, that for as pleasable a gentleman as Mr. Campbell was. He was, moreover, as bold as lion, seven highwomen had he defeated with his single arm, a besetting may see kind from wit's interest. Thou art deceived, friend Jonathan, said Campbell, interrupting him. They were but barely two, and two cowardly loons as man could wish to meet with all. And did you, sir, really? said my fellow traveller, edging his chair, I should have said his, Portman Toe, nearer to Mr. Campbell. Really, and actually beat two highway-mind, yourself alone? In truth did I, sir, replied Campbell, and I think it may great thing to make a saying about it. Upon my word, sir, replied my acquaintance, I should be happy to have the pleasure of your company on my journey. I go northward, sir. This piece of gratuitous information concerning the route he proposed to himself, the first I had heard my companion bestow upon anyone, failed to excite the corresponding confidence of the scotchmen. We can scarce travel together, he replied dryly. You, sir, doubtless are well-mounted, and I for the present travel on foot, or on a highland shelter that does not help me much faster forward. So saying, he called for a reckoning for the wine, and throwing down the price of the additional bottle which he had himself introduced, rose as if to take leave of us. My companion made up to him, and taking him by the button drew him aside into one of the windows. I could not help overhearing him pressing something I supposed his company upon the journey, which Mr. Campbell seemed to decline. I will pay your charges, sir, said the traveller, in a tone as if he thought the argument should bear down all opposition. It is quite impossible, said Campbell, somewhat contemptuously. I have business at Earthbury. But I am in no great hurry. I can ride out of the way, and never miss a day or so of a good company. Upon my faith, sir, said Campbell, I cannot render you the service you seem to deciderate. I am, he added, drawing himself up hotly. Traveling on my own private affairs, and if you will act upon my advisement, sir, you will neither unite yourself with an absolute stranger on the road, nor communicate your line of journey to those who are asking you no questions about it. He then extricated his button, not very ceremoniously, from the hold which detained him, and coming up to me as the company were dispersing, observed, your friend, sir, is too communicative, considering the nature of his thrust. That gentleman, I replied, looking towards the traveller, is no friend of mine, but an acquaintance whom I picked up on the road. I know neither his name nor business, and you seem to be deeper in his confidence than I am. I only mint, he replied hastily, how he seems a thought rash, in conferring the honour of his company on those who desire it not. The gentleman, replied I, knows his own affairs best, and I should be sorry to constitute myself a judge of them in any respect. Mr. Campbell made no further observation, but merely wished me a good journey, and the party dispersed for the evening. Next day I parted company with my timid companion, as I left the great northern road to turn more westerly in the direction of of his baldy stone manner, my uncle's seat. I cannot tell whether he felt relieved or embarrassed by my departure, considering the dubious light in which he seemed to regard me. For my own part, his tremors ceased to amuse me, and to say the truth, I was heartily glad to get rid of him. And a Volume 1, Chapter 4. I approached my native north, for such I esteemed it, with that enthusiasm which romantic and wild scenery inspires in the lovers of nature, no longer interrupted by the babble of my companion. I could now remark the difference which the country exhibited from that through which I had hitherto traveled. The streams now more properly deserved the name, for, instead of slumbering stagnant among reeds and willows, they brawled along beneath the shade of natural copswood, were now hurried down declivities, and now purled more leisurely, but still in active motion through little lonely valleys which, opening on the road from time to time, seemed to invite the traveler to explore their recesses. The cheviots rose before me in frowning majesty, not indeed with the sublime variety of rock and cliff which characterizes mountains of the primary class, but huge, round-headed and clothed with a dark robe of russet gaining by their extent and desolate appearance, an influence upon the imagination as a desert district possessing a character of its own. The abode of my fathers which I was now approaching was situated in a glen or narrow valley which ran up among those hills. Extensive estates which once belonged to the family of Us Baldestone had been long dissipated by the misfortunes or misconduct of my ancestors, but enough was still attached to the old mansion to give my uncle the title of a man of large property. This he employed, as I was given to understand by some inquiries which I made on the road, in maintaining the prodigal hospitality of a northern squire of the period which he deemed essential to his family dignity. From the summit of an eminence I had already had a distant view of Us Baldestone Hall, a large and antiquated edifice peeping out from a druidical grove of huge oaks, and I was directing my course towards it as straightly and as speedily as the windings of a very indifferent road would permit when my horse, tired as he was, pricked up his ears at the enlivening notes of a pack of hounds in full cry, cheered by the occasional bursts of a French horn, which in those days was a constant accompaniment to the chase. I made no doubt that the pack was my uncle's, and drew up my horse with the purpose of suffering the hunters to pass without notice, aware that a hunting field was not the proper scene to introduce myself to a keen sportsman, and determined when they had passed on to proceed to the mansion house at my own pace, and there to await the return of the proprietor from his sport. I paused, therefore, on a rising ground, and not unmoved by the sense of interest which that species of Sylvan sport is so much calculated to inspire, although my mind was not at the moment very accessible to impressions of this nature, I expected with some eagerness the appearance of the huntsman. The fox, hard run, and nearly spent, first made his appearance from the cops, which clothed the right hand side of the valley. His drooping brush, his soiled appearance, and jaded trot proclaimed his fate impending, and the carrion crow, which hovered over him, already considered poor Reynard as soon to be his prey. He crossed the stream which divides the little valley, and was dragging himself up a ravine on the other side of its wild banks, when the headmost hounds, followed by the rest of the pack in full cry, burst from the coppers, followed by the huntsman, and three or four riders. The dogs pursued the trace of Reynard with unerring instinct, and the hunters followed with reckless haste, regardless of the broken and difficult nature of the ground. They were tall, stout young men, well mounted, and dressed in green and red, the uniform of a sporting association, formed under the auspices of old Sir Hildebrand Osbaldestone. My cousins thought I, as they swept past me. The next reflection was, what is my reception likely to be among these worthy successors of Nimrod? And how improbable is it that I, knowing little or nothing of rural sports, shall find myself at ease or happy in my uncle's family? A vision that passed me interrupted these reflections. It was a young lady, the loveliness of whose very striking features was enhanced by the animation of the chase and the glow of the exercise. Mounted on a beautiful horse, jet black, unless where he was flecked by spots of the snow white foam which embossed his bridle. She wore, what was then somewhat unusual, a coat, vest, and hat, resembling those of a man which fashionists since called a riding habit. The mode had been introduced while I was in France, and was perfectly new to me. Her long black hair streamed on the breeze, having in the hurry of the chase escaped from the ribbon which bound it. Some very broken ground, through which she guided her horse with the most admirable address and presence of mind, retarded her course and brought her closer to me than any of the other riders had passed. I had, therefore, a full view of her uncommonly fine face and person, to which an inexpressible charm was added by the wild gaiety of the scene and the romance of her singular dress and unexpected appearance. As she passed me, her horse made, in his impetuosity, an irregular movement, just while, coming once more upon open ground, she was again putting him to his speed. It served as an apology for me to ride close up to her, as if to her assistance. There was, however, no cause for alarm. It was not a stumble nor a false step, and if it had, the fair Amazon had too much self-possession to have been deranged by it. She thanked my good intentions, however, by a smile, and I felt encouraged to put my horse to the same pace and to keep in her immediate neighborhood. The clamor of, whoop, dead, dead, and the corresponding flourish of the French horn soon announced to us that there was no more occasion for haste since the chase was at a close. One of the young men whom we had seen approached us, waving the brush of the fox in triumph, as if to upbraid my fair companion. I see, she replied, I see, but make no noise about it. If Phoebe, she said, patting the neck of the beautiful animal on which she rode, had not got among the cliffs, you would have had little cause for boasting. They met as she spoke, and I observed them both look at me and converse a moment in an undertone. The young lady apparently pressing the sportsman to do something which he declined shyly, and with a sort of sheepish sullenness. She instantly turned her horse's head towards me, saying, well, well, Thorny, if you won't, I must, that's all. Sir, she continued addressing me, I have been endeavoring to persuade this cultivated young gentleman to make inquire of you whether, in the course of your travels in these parts, you have heard anything of a friend of ours. One Mr. Francis Oswaldestone, who has been for some days expected at Oswaldestone Hall. I was too happy to acknowledge myself to be the party inquired after, and to express my thanks for the obliging inquiries of the young lady. In that case, sir, she rejoined, as my kinsman's politeness seems to be still slumbering. You'll permit me, though I suppose it is highly improper, to stand mistress of ceremonies and to present to you young squire Thorncliffe Oswaldestone, your cousin, and Di Vernon, who has also the honor to be your accomplished cousin's poor kinswoman. There was a mixture of boldness, satire, and simplicity in the manner in which Ms. Vernon pronounced these words. My knowledge of life was sufficient to enable me to take up a corresponding tone, as I expressed my gratitude to her for her condescension and my extreme pleasure at having met with them. To say the truth, the compliment was so expressed that the lady might easily appropriate the greater share of it, for Thorncliffe seemed an errant country bumpkin, awkward, shy, and somewhat sulky with all. He shook hands with me, however, and then intimated his intention of leaving me that he might help the huntsman and his brothers to couple up the hounds, a purpose which he rather communicated by way of information to Ms. Vernon than as apology to me. There he goes, said the young lady, following him with eyes in which disdain was admirably painted, the prince of grooms and cockfighters and blackguard horsecoursers. But there is not one of them to mend another. Have you read Markham? said Ms. Vernon. At whom, ma'am? I do not even remember the author's name. Oh, Ludd, on what astrand are you wrecked? replied the young lady, a poor forlorn and ignorant stranger, unacquainted with the very al-Quran of the savage tribe, whom you are come to reside among. Never to have heard of Markham, the most celebrated author on ferriery. Then I fear you are equally astrander to the more modern names of Gibson and Bartlett? I am indeed, Ms. Vernon. And do you not blush to own it? said Ms. Vernon. Why? we must forswear your reliance. Then, I suppose, you can neither give a ball, nor a mash, nor a horn. I confess I trust all these matters to an osler, or to my groom. Incredible carelessness! And you cannot chew a horse, or cut his mane and tail, or worm a dog, or crop his ears, or cut his dew claws, or reclaim a hawk, or give him his casting stones, or direct his diet when he is sealed, or to sum up my insignificance in one word, replied I, I am profoundly ignorant in all these rural accomplishments. Then, in the name of heaven, Mr. Francis Osbaldo Stone, what can you do? Very little to the purpose, Ms. Vernon, something, however, I can pretend to, when my groom has dressed my horse, I can ride him, and when my hawk is in the field, I can fly him. Can you do this? said the young lady, putting her horse to a canter. There was a sort of rude, overgrown fence crossed the path before us, with a gate composed of pieces of wood rough from the forest. I was about to move forward to open it, when Ms. Vernon cleared the obstruction of a flying leap. I was bound in point of honor to follow, and was in a moment, again at her side. There are hopes of you yet, she said. I was afraid you had been a very degenerate Osbaldo Stone. But what on earth brings you to Cub Castle? For so the neighbors have christened this hunting hall of ours. You might have stayed away, I suppose, if you would. I felt I was by this time on a very intimate footing with my beautiful apparition, and therefore replied in a confidential undertone, indeed, my dear Ms. Vernon, I might have considered it as a sacrifice to be a temporary resident in Osbaldo Stone Hall, the inmates being such as you describe them. But I am convinced there is one exception that will make amends for all deficiencies. Oh, you mean rashly, said Ms. Vernon. Indeed I do not. I was thinking, forgive me, of some person much nearer me. I suppose it would be proper not to understand your civility, but that is not my way. I don't make a courtesy for it because I am sitting on horseback, but seriously, I deserve your exception, for I am the only conversable being about the hall, except the old priest and rashly. And who is rashly for heaven's sake? Rashly is one who would feign have everyone like him for his own sake. He is Sir Hildebrand's youngest son, about your own age, but not so, not well looking in short. But nature has given him a mouthful of common sense, and the priest has added a bushelful of learning. He is what we call a very clever man in this country, where clever men are scarce. Bred to the church, but in no hurry to take orders. To the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church? What church else? said the young lady. But I forgot. They told me you are a heretic. Is that true, Mr. Osbaldo Stone? I must not deny the charge. And yet you have been abroad, and in Catholic countries, for nearly four years. You have seen convents, often, but I have not seen much in them, which recommended the Catholic religion, are not the inhabitants happy. Some are unquestionably so, whom either a profound sense of devotion, or an experience of the persecutions and misfortunes of the world, or a natural apathy of temper has led into retirement. Those who have adopted a life of seclusion from sudden and overstrained enthusiasm, or an hasty resentment of some disappointment or mortification, are very miserable. The quickness of sensation soon returns, and like the wilder animals in a menagerie, they are restless under confinement, while others muse or fatten in cells of no larger dimensions than theirs. And what, continued Miss Vernon, becomes of those victims who are condemned to a convent by the will of others? What do they resemble, especially what do they resemble if they are born to enjoy life and feel its blessings? They are like imprisoned singing birds, replied I, condemned to wear out their lives in confinement, which they tried to beguile by the exercise of accomplishments which would have adorned society had they been left at large. I shall be, returned Miss Vernon, that is, said she, correcting herself, I should be rather like the wild hawk who, barred the free exercise of his sore through heaven, will dash himself to pieces against the bars of his cage. But to return to rashly, said she in a more lively tone, you will think him the pleasantest man you ever saw in your life, Mr. Osbaldo Stone, that is, for a week at least. If he could find out a blind mistress, never man would be so secure of conquest, but the eye breaks the spell that enchants the ear. But here we are, in the court of the old hall, which looks as wild and old-fashioned as any of its inmates. There is no great toilet kept at Osbaldo Stone Hall, you must know. But I must take off these things, they are so unpleasantly warm, and the hat hurts my forehead too, continued the lively girl, taking it off and shaking down a perfusion of sable ringlets, which, half-lapping, half-blushing, she separated with her white slender fingers in order to clear them away from her beautiful face and piercing hazel eyes. If there was any cockatree in the action, it was well disguised by the careless indifference of her manner. I could not help saying that, judging of the family from what I saw, I should suppose the toilet of very unnecessary care. That's very politely said, though perhaps I ought not to understand in what sense it was meant, replied Miss Vernon, but you will see a better apology for a little negligence when you meet the Orsons you are to live amongst, whose forms no toilet could improve. But as I said before, the old dinner bell will clang or rather clank in a few minutes. It cracked of its own accord on the day of the landing of King Willie and my uncle, respecting his prophetic talent, would never permit it to be mended. So do you hold my palfry, like a deutious knight, until I send some more humble squire to relieve you of the charge. She threw me the rain as if we had been acquainted from our childhood, jumped from her saddle, tripped across the courtyard, and entered at a side door, leaving me, in adoration of her beauty, and astonished with the over-frankness of her manners, which seemed the more extraordinary, at a time when the dictates of politeness, flowing from the court of the Grand Monarch Louis XIV, prescribed to the fair sex an unusual severity of decorum. I was left awkwardly enough stationed in the center of the court of the old hall, mounted on one horse, and holding another in my hand. The building afforded little to interest a stranger, had I been disposed to consider it attentively. The sides of the quadrangle were of various architecture, and with their stone-shafted, lattice windows projecting turrets and massive architraves resembled the inside of a convent, or of one of the older and less splendid colleges of Oxford. I called for a domestic, but was, for some time, totally unattended to, which was the more provoking, as I could perceive I was the object of curiosity to several servants, both male and female, from different parts of the building, who popped out their heads and withdrew them, like rabbits in a warren, before I could make a direct appeal to the attention of any individual. The return of the huntsmen and hounds relieved me from my embarrassment, and with some difficulty I got one down to relieve me of the charge of the horses, and another stupid boar to guide me to the presence of Sir Hildebrand. This service he performed with much such grace and goodwill, as a peasant whose compelled to act as guide to a hostile patrol, and in the same manner I was obliged to guard against his deserting me in the labyrinth of low-vaulted passage, which conducted to Stun Hall, as he called it, where I was to be introduced to the gracious presence of my uncle. We did, however, at length reach a long vaulted room, floored with stone, where a range of oaken tables of a weight and size too massive ever to be moved aside were already covered for dinner. This venerable apartment, which had witnessed the feasts of several generations of the Osbaldo Stone family bore also evidence of their success in field sports, huge antlers of deer, which might have been trophies of the hunting of Chevy Chase, were ranged around the walls, interspersed with the stuffed skins of badgers, otters, martins, and other animals of the chase. Amidst some remnants of old armor which had perhaps served against the Scotch hung the more valued weapons of Sylvan War, crossbows, guns of various device and construction, nets, fishing rods, otters' beers, hunting poles, with many other singular devices and engines for taking or killing game. A few old pictures, dimmed with smoke and stained with March beer, hung on the walls, representing knights and ladies honored, doubtless and renowned in their day, those frowning fearfully from huge bushes of wig and of beard, and these looking delightfully with all their might at the roses which they brandished in their hands. I had just time to give a glance at these matters, when about twelve blue-coated servants burst into the hall with much tumult and talk, each rather employed in directing his comrades than in discharging his own duty. Some brought blocks and billets to the fire, which roared, blazed, and ascended half in smoke, half in flame, up a huge tunnel, with an opening wide enough to accommodate a stone seat within its ample vault, and which was fronted by way of chimney piece, with a huge piece of heavy architecture, where the monsters of heraldry, embodied by the art of some North Umbrian chisel, grinned and ramped in red freestone, now japaned by the smoke of centuries. Others of these old-fashioned serving men bore huge smoking dishes, loaded with substantial fare, others brought in cups, flagans, bottles, ye barrels of liquor, all tramped, kicked, plunged, shouldered, and jostled, doing as little service with as much tumult as could well be imagined, at length while the dinner was, after various efforts. In the act of being arranged upon the board, the clamour much of men and dogs, the cracking of whips calculated for the intimidation of the latter, voices loud and high, steps which, impressed by the heavy-heeled boots of the period, clattered like those in the statue of the Festine de Pierre, announced the arrival of those for whose benefit the preparations were made. The hubbub among the servants rather increased than diminished as this crisis approached. Some called to make haste, others to take time, some exhorted to stand out of the way and make room for Sir Hildbrand and the young squires, some to close round the table and be in the way, some bawled to open, some to shut, a pair of folding doors which divided the hall from a sort of gallery, as I afterwards learned, or withdrawing room, fitted up with Black Wainscott, opened the door's were at length, and inrushed currs and men, eight dogs, the domestic chaplain, the village doctor, my six cousins, and my uncle.