their hair, and their coats kilted to show their wantonness, can we wyte a full-fed young fallow for looking at them. Flesh and blude's aye flesh and blude,―ye'll never preach me out o' that belief,there's nae thorough perfection in human nature,the wisest divines will say the same."

Lady Emeline, with the lady Phemie, had retired, and the young lord entering upon the superintendance of his household, caused the wine and the brandy to circulate, with a profusion and a rapidity which soon became visible among the heavier and graver of his guests. He moved everywhere with alacrity and grace,-with a kind word and a helping hand, till many were pleased, who, before, had regarded him with distrust and suspicion. Even frozen hate began to thaw and melt, and mothers praised his noble looks and handsome form, who, till now, had thought of him as a gilded snare as a hawk in a henroost, as a serpent among babes.

It was after wine-flagon had followed wine-flagon, and brandy-cup had held brandy-cup in chase, and the staid and the sedate had retired from the hall, that up rose Rob Kilroy, his face radiant with strong drink, staggering in his place with a silver pint-cup in his hand, filled from a cool and a secret binn at the very bottom of the wine cellar."Men and women," said honest Rob, "I am no maker of speeches,-I would rather kiss Jess Macgowan there where she stands-or break Andrew

Howatson's head for making mouths at me, than sermonize ony time.-Ye a' ken Rob Kilroy.Here's the health of Lord Dalveen, may his sword never fail him, and his purse be never toom, and may his fame grow till the world's no wide enough for❜t, like Pate Johnston's gooseberry-bush; and he that winna pledge me, may his worthless nievefou of a soul be sent to reest like a kippert minnin in the reek of purgatory." He swallowed the wine at a gulp, threw the silver-cup over the carved corbals which supported the roof, caught it as it fell, and cried, "There's a toast and a trick for ye,-wha can do that ?"

"Of a surety," said a slow and cautious Cameronian, “the woman's wine is good, and her viands plentiful; and the heir of Dalveen demeans himself like one who hath hearkened to the professor, Shadrach Huddlestane, rather than to the drowsy words of that man, Preacher Macmichan, whom the profane call Sleepy Samuel. I shall surely drink his health, and add the wish, that he may sup buttered-brose, and eat haggis and other savoury dishes, according to the word, and avoid the sin of bloody puddings and superstitious meats and drinks."

"I will not drink his health," said a true and fiery believer from the upland hills; "what is his wine, and his strong meat, and his sweet music to me? He is of an evil house,-comes the dove from the nest of the gier-eagle? He is of an unblessed

race,

-can ye have clear water from a foul fountain? Look at that fair broad banner hanging aboon us,

was it rent from the invading Dane, or the fiery English ?-no, it was torn in blood from the hands of God's own servants, at Bothwell's fatal bridge; and there is it hung as a trophy to tell us how we were stricken, smitten, and afflicted. Were we not compelled to turn the wild hill into a tabernacle, and hiding our faces from the blessed sun, to make the moon and the stars our lamps? But the day is nigh at hand, when he who wears a crown shall cast it from him like a bauble, and he that wears a mitre shall wish it exchanged for a shepherd's bonnet."

How long this sermon might have lasted few can say, it was cut short by a cup of brandy from the hand of Rob Kilroy, who exclaimed, as he dashed it in his face,-" Soughing sinner, wilt thou eat my Lord's meat, and drink of my Lord's cup, and yet revile him to his face? By a' that Dryfe has left of Dryfesdale-kirk—a lump large enough to swear by-I've a good mind to make ye drink his health out of the castle moat."

The portioner of Nethertodknowe, on whose grey head this libation descended, was a man forward and fiery in all matters, save those connected with the suffering kirk of Scotland, for so he termed the Cameronians; he therefore only wiped the moisture from his person, and said,-" We were born to endure, and the wicked to inflict, and I

would hold us unworthy of the high name we have on earth, were we moved to anger by the folly of the graceless, or the insults of the profane. But, Lord of Dalveen, thy race is nigh run, and thy castle rocks to its foundation-stone,-thy house shall become a landmark for a stranger's inheritance, and thy body shall be given to the wild birds of heaven, or to the ravenous fishes of the sea. Go, prostrate thyself in the dust,-wear the pavement-stones with thy knees,-believe in the immortal God,-do no wrong to his weakest creatures, even the daughters of man,-subdue lust,give alms, be modest and be meek, and I, Amos Macrabbin, will cast myself on my knees for thee, morning and night, and pray that the curse may be taken from thy name."

Lord Dalveen put on his hat and feather, and stood at the upper end of his hall, an image of meekness, humility, and resignation. The scorn and contempt which he entertained for all who presumed to counsel him, and his hatred for all who dared to censure him, were concealed from the common observer, by an external show of patience and tranquillity, which seemed the effect of contrition and repentance. His elegant form and graceful carriage added to the charms of his voice as he thus addressed them.

"I am sensible, my friends, of the sins of my ancestors, and of my own demerits: thought has my folly cost me, and

many a solemn

much have I

striven in secret to deserve the esteem of the wise and the good, whom Heaven, for the wisest of purposes, has preserved in the humble station of tillers of the ground, and hewers of wood and stone. But there is a destiny in all things,-the thing that must be, must. I have warred, I have striven with sinful nature, and am vanquished. Folly creeps in upon my purest thoughts; and, instead of holy visions rising before me as I pray or slumber, alas! I behold trains of fair maidens, with curling locks, lustrous loving eyes, and with alluring couches near them. Black nature prevails against me."-" O, hear till him, the sweet young man!" said one of his most serious auditors. “I myself—I have had visions such as his, instead of angels ascending and descending. Once upon a time,—even since the days of my youth, did a maiden's eyes sparkle between redemption and me." “ Peace, Benjamin,” said John Cargill, a shrewd and a witty Cameronian; "will ye befool yourself, and go a fooling of others? The young lord mocks us, scorns us, and despises us,-yea more than did his ancestor, when he galloped over the faces of the people of the covenant, when they lay like hay, cut by the scythe of the mower. The taint of his nature is beyond all cure, he makes sport of virtue, and turns heaven into laughter."

"Now, my friends," said Lord Dalveen," if you will but come to my hall to-morrow night, I shall win my way to the love of all men, by a re