eyelash glistened with tears, "there are fine flowers on Arbigland-lea, and beautiful shells in Arbigland-bay,—they look lovelier by moonlight than by morning-light.-Now go like a pretty maiden, and bring me some, and I will watch for your lover till you return. Go-and I will give ye a dozen of Solway pearls to hang round your neck; I fished them up in Siddick-pow, and clear they are, and sparkling like drops of morning dew." The poor maiden threw her veil over her face, and said, "May I never see my love's face, if this is no my ain auld school-fere, proud Johnie Paul, who never learned me to master a hard lesson, unless I dooked down behind the desk and gae him a kiss. Where have ye been, lad, these lang seven years, as the carlin wife said to her son's ghaist ?And how did ye escape, man ?—tell me a' about it, yere ship sank,-down ye gaed to the bottom, and was drowned,-tell me a' about it,-it maun be a marvel to hear. Haith, lad, but I kenn'd yere word weel,-nae man ever said a saft word to me that I didnae ken his tongue again. I cannot say that my e'e is sae gleg, though they tell me it's brighter. But ye were drowned, ye say?— now, sit down and tell me how ye liked to sojourn aneath the salt sea. I have whiles a thought of trying sic-like habitation myself,-for I dinna find the earth half so pleasant for me as it was, though there are pretty spots in't too,-Siddick kirk-yard for ane, and the Mermaid-bay for another."

VOL. I.

B

"Speak to her," said Paul to Lord Dalveen; 66 one word from you will send her seven miles,we have that on our minds which blood only can remove-speak to her." The young nobleman answered him with a look of haughty reproof, stept backwards till he stood against the trunk of the tree, folded his arms over his bosom, and remained silent. Grace had already seated herself on the ground, and as she smoothed down the grass to form a seat for Paul, her thoughts slaunted suddenly off into a wilder path,—but all the influences which held power over her were coloured with her own feelings, and had a reference to her own unhappy story.

"I ken

ye

"Paul, lad, come here," said Grace; are a sailor good,-and though ye were aye wilful and something dour, ye were never sae to me. I want to consult ye, lad, on a kittle point o' navigation. Sae, sit down aside me, and we'll lay cheek to cheek, and when the tane nods, the other will nod, and we'll decide the matter as weel as twa portadmirals." Paul sat down beside her; she took his hand in her's, and continued, "Now, ye see my question is this, a man takes an axe, cuts down an oak, hews off its boughs, lays a line along it, and, in process of time, upstarts a bonnie ship, obedient to the fashioner's hand; then she spreads all her sails, calls her mariners aboard, and wishes for the winds, and the winds obey, and away goes the fair ship, moving over the water like a living thing.

All this ye ken, but ye dinna ken, lad, that I have found out the art of making far fairer ships than men can make of oak trees. It's an art, Johnie

Paul, it's an art,-and weel may I say it's my ain,

for I in a manner howked it out of the grave." Paul could not choose but listen to her wild and singular speech. She paused, and thus she went

on :

"It was on a moonlight night, that very week my jo sailed for Italy. I wandered out I wist na weel where, but at last I found myself by the Solway-side, and, as my thoughts were all of him, I sat down on a small grassy ridge on the side of the merse, and looked at the sea over which he had sailed. The seafowl flew by me wi' many a scream; and the hares, poor things, came near me, for they saw that my heart was full, and kent that a full heart can harm naething. As I sat there, an eeriness came o'er me; I thought that the sea came roaring on me, and rose up like a wall, and at every swell the wild waves gave, I thought I saw the body of my lover,—his long raven locks were floating far behind him, and a cormorant was trying to pick out his twa bright een, but it durst na weel touch them, for they shone bright and awesome. But a' that's nought—I found the sod moving under me. I looked on my right hand, and there arose a thin streak of silver mist out of the ground; and I looked on my left hand, and wha sat there but auld Nickie Mathers, wha drowned herself for

on her ain grave.

a witch. I kenn'd her by the black-silk hood,the mole in the corner o' her mouth, and her gruesome laugh. Aweel, lad, there she sat hand and elbow wi' me, and good right had she, for we sat There I sat-for rise I couldna,and there sat she. The dour auld limmer, though come that moment from a land I kenn'd nought about, wadna open her lips,-but I took speech in hand. 6 Nickie,' I said, 'I wonder, woman, what makes ye rise out of yere cozie green grave, to frighten a young thing that's mourning for her lover?' She held up her finger; rose, and motioned me to follow her. A strange courage, and a strange power, were given me, and she led me to this very spot, set me down where we now sit, and then she spoke. Grace Joysan, your lover has wronged you-deceived you,'-witch though she was, she was wrang there, he has left you as he has left many, and is now running his wild career of folly and guilt in a foreign land. Woman's wit, woman's beauty, and woman's courage, can alone save him from perdition. Arise, Grace Joysan!—I can make you rich, clothe you as the sun clothes the trees with beauty, and give you power and means to seek your lover,—I can make you such a ship as the queen of Sheba never sailed in.' And, kenn'd ye ever the like?—she took up a wee curlie seashell, said a word o'er't that I remember weel, and giving it a push into the tide, away it sailed,-and as it sailed, it grew into a boat-then into a barge,

and lo and behold, it became a fair ship, with silken sails and painted streamers, with many mariners on board,―ye never saw so fair a vision on the sea. Now, Grace Joysan,' said Nickie Mathers, 'jump on board,—think on aught that's good, but say naething, and ye shall see your fause love in a stricken hour."

66

"Now," continued Grace, " can ye make a ship of sic materials, Johnie Paul? Is it not baith a bonnie and an honest art? But this is the question. Think ye that the cement of glamour-sleight will haud thegither, should aught that's no altogether holy and pure, ye ken, come on board? For, ye see, I have some doubts that my lad, though leal as light in love, is, after all, a doubter in the good place and the evil-pit, and fain would he hae persuaded me that there was nae punishment for folly. Now, setting the case, that I had him fairly on board, and me to try a bit prayer for his soul's sake and mine, would the ship no melt away frae aneath my knees when I called on God? O, fain, fain would I see his face again, and weel would I like to hear him speak, for I'm aye vexed when folk call him bad, he was aye kind to me-o'er kind,-and gave me this bonnie veil, and vowed he would make me his lady."

She had proceeded thus far, when a sea-cormorant, roused, perhaps, from its roost by some intruder, came flying lowly and lazily past, touching the water almost with its wings as it sailed along.