themselves want it to-morrow. Magdalen Græme, therefore, came and departed like a shadow from the neighbourhood of Avenel Castle.

The boy whom Providence, as she thought, had thus strangely placed under her care, was at once established a favourite with the Lady of the Castle. How could it be otherwise? He became the object of those affectionate feelings, which, finding formerly no object on which to expand themselves, had increased the gloom of the Castle, and embittered the solitude of its mistress. To teach him as far her skill went, to attend to his childish comforts, to watch his boyish sports, became the lady's favourite amusement. In her circumstances, where the ear only heard the lowing of the cattle from the distant hills, or the heavy step of the warder as he walked upon his post, or the half envied laugh of her maiden as she turned her wheel, the appearance of the blooming and beautiful boy gave an interest which can hardly be conceived by those who live amid gayer or busier scenes. Young Roland was to the Lady of Avenel what the flower, which occupies the window of some solitary captive, is to the poor wight by whom it is nursed and cultivated, something which at once excited and repaid her care; and in giving the boy her affection, she felt, as it were, grateful to him for releasing her from the state of dull apathy in which she had usually found herself during the absence of Sir Halbert Glendinning.

But even the charms of this blooming favourite were unable to chase the recurring apprehensions which arose from her husband's delayed return. Soon after Roland Græme became a resident at the Castle, a groom, dispatched by Sir Halbert, brought tidings that business of importance still delayed the knight at the Court of Holyrood. The more distant period which the messenger had assigned for his master's arrival at length glided away, summer melted into autumn, and autumn was about to give place to winter, and yet he came not.

CHAPTER III.

The waning harvest-moon shone broad and bright,
The warder's horn was heard at dead of night,
And while the folding portals wide were flung,
With trampling hoofs the rocky pavement rung.

LEYDEN.

AND you too would be a soldier, Roland ?' said the Lady of Avenel to her young charge, while, seated on a stone chair at one end of the battlements, she saw the boy attempt, with a long stick, to mimic the motions of the warder, as he alternately shouldered, or ported, or sloped pike.

"Yes, lady,' said the boy, for he was now familiar, and replied to her questions with readiness and alacrity, a soldier will I be ; for there ne'er was a gentleman but who belted him with the brand.'

Thou a gentleman!' said Lilias, who, as usual, was in attendance; 'such a gentleman as I would make of a bean-cod with a rusty knife.'

Nay, chide him not, Lilias,' said the Lady of Avenel, for, beshrew me, but I think he comes of gentle blood-see how it musters in his face at your injurious reproof.'

6

Had I my will, madam,' answered Lilias, a good birchen wand should make his colour muster to better purpose still.'

On my word, Lilias,' said the lady, one would think you had received harm from the poor boy-or is he so far on the frosty side of your fayour because he enjoys the sunny side of mine?'

'Over heavens forbode, my lady,' answered Lilias; I have lived too long with gentles, I praise my stars for it, to fight with either follies or fantasies, whether they relate to beast, bird, or boy.'

Lilias was a favourite in her own class, a spoiled domestic, who was often accustomed to take more license than her mistress was at all times willing to encourage. But what did not please the Lady of Avenel, she did not choose to hear, and thus it was on the present occasion. She resolved to look more close and sharply after the boy, who had hitherto been committed chiefly to the management of Lilias. He must, she thought, be born of gentle blood; it were shame to think otherwise of a form so noble, and features so fair. The very wildness in which he occasionally indulged, his contempt of danger, and impatience of restraint, had in them something noble. Assuredly the child was born of high rank; such was her conclusion; and she acted upon it accordingly. The domestics around her, less jealous, or less scrupulous than Lilias, acted as servants usually do, following the bias, and flattering, for their own purposes, the humour of the lady; and the boy soon took on him those airs of superiority, which the sight of habitual deference seldom fails to inspire. It seemed, in truth, as if to command were his natural sphere, so easily did he use himself to exact and receive compliance with his humours. The chaplain, indeed, might have interposed to check the air of superiority which Roland Græme so readily indulged, and most probably would have willingly rendered him that favour; but the necessity of adjusting with his brethren some disputed points of church discipline had withdrawn him for some time from the Castle, and detained him in a distant part of the kingdom.

Matters stood thus in the Castle of Avenel, when a winded bugle sent its shrill and prolonged notes from the shore of the lake, and was replied to cheerily by the signal of the warder. The Lady of Avenel knew the sounds of her husband, and rushed to the window of the apartment in which she was sitting. A band of about thirty spearmen, with a pennon displayed before them, winded along the indented shores of the lake, and approached the causeway. A single horseman rode at the head of the party, his bright arms catching a glance of the October sun as he moved steadily along. Even at that distance, the lady recognized the lofty plume, bearing the mingled colours of her own liveries, blended with the holly-branch; and the firm seat and dignified demeanour of the rider, joined to the stately motion of the dark-brown steed, sufficiently announced Halbert Glendinning. The lady's first thought was that of rapturous joy at her husband's return -her second was connected with a fear which had sometimes intruded itself, that he might not altogether approve the peculiar distinction with which she had treated her orphan ward. In this fear there was implied a consciousness, that the favour she had shewn him was excessive; for Halbert Glendinning was at least as gentle and indulgent, as he was firm and rational in the intercourse of his household; and to her, in particular, his conduct had ever been most affectionately tender.

Yet she did fear, that, on the present occasion, her conduct might incur Sir Halbert's censure; and, hastily resolving that she would not mention the anecdote of the boy until the next day, she ordered him to be withdrawn from the apartment by Lilias.

I will not go with Lilias, madam,' answered the spoiled child, who had more than once carried his point by perseverance, and who, like his

betters delighted in the exercise of such authority, I will not go to Lilias's gousty room-I will stay and see that brave warrior who comes riding so gallantly along the drawbridge.'

You must not stay, Roland,' said the lady, more positively than she usually spoke to her little favourite.

'I will,' reiterated the boy, who had already felt his consequence, and the probable chance of success.

You will? Roland!' answered the lady, what manner of word is that? I tell you, you must go.'

'Will,' answered the forward boy, is a word for a man, and must is no word for a lady.'

'You are saucy, sirrah,' said the lady stantly.'

Lilias, take him with you in

I always thought,' said Lilias, smiling, as she seized the reluctant boy by the arm, that my young master must give place to my old one.'

And you, too, are malapert, mistress,' said the lady; hath the moon changed, that ye all of you thus forget yourselves ?'

Lilias made no reply, but led off the boy, who, too proud to offer unavailing resistance, darted at his benefactress a glance, which intimated plainly, how willingly he would have defied her authority had he possessed the power to make good his point.

The Lady of Avenel was vexed to find how much this trifling circumstance had discomposed her, at the moment when she ought naturally to have been entirely engrossed by her husband's return. But we do not recover composure by the mere feeling that agitation is mistimed. The glow of displeasure had not left the lady's cheek, her ruffled deportment was not yet entirely composed, when her husband, unhelmeted, but still wearing the rest of his arms, entered the apartment. His appearance banished the thoughts of every thing else she rushed to him, clasped his iron-sheathed frame in her arms, and kissed his martial and manly face with an affection which was at once evident and sincere. The warrior returned her embrace and her caress with the same fondness; for the time which had passed since their union had diminished its romantic ardour, perhaps, but had rather increased its rational tenderness, and Sir Halbert Glendinning's long and frequent absences from his castle had prevented affection from degenerating into indifference.

When the first eager greetings were paid and received, the lady gazed fondly on her husband's face as she remarked,

You are altered, Halbert-you have ridden hard and far to-day, or you have been ill.'

I have been well, Mary,' answered the knight, passing well have I been; and a long ride is to me, thou well knowest, but a thing of constant custom. Those who are born noble may slumber out their lives within the walls of their castles and manor-houses; but he who hath achieved nobility by his own deeds must ever be in the saddle, to shew that he merits his advancement.'

While he spoke thus the lady gazed fondly on him, as if endeavouring to read his inmost soul; for the tone in which he spoke was that of melancholy depression.

Sir Halbert Glendinning was the same, yet a different person from what he had appeared in his early years. The fiery freedom of the aspiring youth had given place to the steady and stern composure of the approved soldier and skilful politician. There were deep traces of care on those noble features, over which each emotion used formerly to pass, like light clouds

across a summer sky. That sky was now, not perhaps clouded, but still and grave like that of the sober autumn evening. The forehead was higher and more bare than in early youth, and the locks which still clustered thick and dark on the warrior's head, were worn away at the temples, not by age, but by the constant pressure of the steel cap, or the helmet. His beard, according to the fashion of the times, grew short and thick, and was turned into mustachios on the upper lip, and peaked at the extremity. The cheek, weather-beaten and embrowned, had lost the glow of youth, but shewed the vigorous complexion of active and confirmed manhood. Halbert Glendinning was, in a word, a knight to ride at a king's right hand, to bear his banner in war, and to be his counsellor in time of peace; for his looks expressed the considerate firmness which can resolve wisely and dare boldly. Still, over these noble features, there now spread an air of dejection, of which, perhaps, the owner was not conscious, but which did not escape the observation of his anxious and affectionate partner.

Something has happened, or is about to happen,' said the Lady of Avenel; this sadness sits not on your brow without cause-misfortune, national or particular, must needs be at hand.'

There is nothing new that I wot of,' said Halbert Glendinning; but there is little of evil which can befal a kingdom which may not be apprehended in this unhappy and divided realm.'

"Nay, then,' said the lady, 'I see there hath really been some fatal work on foot. My Lord of Murray has not so long detained you at Holyrood, save that he wanted your help in some weighty purpose.'

'I have not been at Holyrood, Mary,' answered the knight; I have been several weeks abroad.'.

Abroad! and sent me no word?' replied the lady.

'What would the knowledge have availed, but to have rendered you unhappy, my love,' replied the knight; your thoughts would have converted the slightest breeze that curled your own lake, into a tempest raging in the German ocean.'

And have you then really crossed the sea ?' said the lady, to whom that idea conveyed notions of terror and of wonder; really left your own native land, and trodden distant shores, where the Scottish tongue is unheard and unknown ?'

Really, and really,' said the knight, taking her hand in affectionate playfnlness, I have done this marvellous deed-have rolled on the ocean for three days and three nights, with the deep green waves dashing by the side of my pillow, and but a thin plank to divide me from it.'

Indeed, my Halbert,' said the lady, that was a tempting of Divine Providence. I never bade you unbuckle the sword from your side, or lay the lance from your hand—Ï never bade you sit when your honour called to rise; but are not blade and spear dangerous enough to one man's life, and why would you trust rough waves and raging seas?'

We have in Germany, and in the Low Countries, as they are called,' answered Glendinning, men who are united with us in faith, and with whom it is fitting we should unite in alliance. To some of these I was despatched on business as important as it was secret. I went in safety, and I returned in security; there is more danger to a man's life betwixt this and Holyrood, than are in all the seas that wash the low-lands of Holland.'

And the country, my Halbert, and the people,' said the lady,' are they fike our kindly Scots, or what bearing have they to strangers?"

They are a people, Mary, strong in their wealth, which renders all other nations weak, and weak in those arts of war by which other nations are strong.'

'I do not understand you,' said the lady.

The Hollander and the Fleming, Mary, pour forth their spirit in trade, and not in war; their wealth purchases them the arms of foreign soldiers, by whose aid they defend it. They erect dykes on the sea-shore to protect the land which they have won, and they levy regiments of the stubborn Switzers and hardy Germans to protect the treasures which they have amassed. And thus they are strong in their weakness; for the very wealth which tempts their masters to despoil them, arms strangers in their behalf.'

"The slothful hinds!' exclaimed Mary, thinking and feeling like a Scotswoman of the period; 'have they hands, and fight not for the land which bore them? They should be notched off at the elbow.'

Nay, that were but hard justice,' answered her husband; for their hands serve their country, though not in battle, like ours. Look at these barren hills, Mary, and at that deep winding vale by which the cattle are even now returning from their scanty browse. The hand of the industrious Fleming would cover these mountains with wood, and raise corn where we now see a starved and scanty sward of heath and ling. It grieves me, Mary, when I look on that land, and think what benefit it might receive from such men as I have lately seen-men who seek not the idle fame derived from dead ancestors, or the bloody renown won in modern broils, but tread along the land as preservers and improvers, not as tyrants and destroyers.'

"These amendments would be but a vain fancy, my Halbert,' answered the Lady of Avenel; the trees would be burned by the English foemen, ere they ceased to be shrubs, and the grain that you raised would be gathered in by the first neighbour that possessed more riders than follow your train. Why should you repine at this? The fate that made you Scotsman by birth, gave you head, and heart, and hand, to uphold the name as it must needs be upheld.'

"It gave me no name to uphold,' said Halbert, pacing the floor slowly; 'my arm has been foremost in every strife-my voice has been heard in every council, nor have the wisest rebuked me. The crafty Lethington, the deep and dark Morton, have held secret council with me, and Grange and Lindsay have owned, that in the field I did the devoir of a gallant knightbut let the emergence be passed when they need my head and hand, and they only know me as son of the obscure portioner of Glendearg.'

This was a theme which the lady always dreaded; for the rank conferred on her husband, the favour in which he was held by the powerful Earl of Murray, and the high talents by which he vindicated his right to that rank and that favour, were qualities which rather increased than diminished the envy which was harboured against Sir Halbert Glendinning, as a person originally of inferior and obscure birth, who had risen to his present eminence solely by his personal merit. The natural firmness of his mind did not enable him to despise the ideal advantages of a high pedigree, which were held in such universal esteem by all with whom he conversed; and so open are the noblest minds to jealous inconsistencies, that there were moments in which he felt mortified that his lady should possess these advantages of birth and high descent which he himself did not enjoy, and regretted that his importance as the proprietor of Avenel was qualified by his possessing it only as the husband of the heiress. He was not so unjust as to