aid me to make the blow fall as lightly upon her as may be."

The doctor took snuff, shrugged his shoulders, admitted that it was not in his nature to resist this earnest appeal for help; and then with a growl of discontent at his own weakness, yielded.

self;

"Is there onything particularly saft about my head or body?" he muttered, trying to survey him"because it seems to me as though you thought I was made for no other purpose than to be the trumpeter o' ill news, and it's a damned nasty job -saving your presence."

With that he marched out, frowning, but ready to discharge the task he had tried so hard to avoid.

Oliphant sat down to examine the despatches. He touched them with a feeling akin to disgust; for they were to him the bitter symbols of much domestic misery, and contained the summons to a strife against which his heart revolted.

He had employed every means that an honest man might employ to escape involvement in the pending struggle; but with that shrewd policy which secured so many waverers to the government, President Forbes had at once addressed him as a

loyal subject of King George, and by a show of confidence, rendered it impossible for a man of Oliphant's honourable nature to decline the active service he was called upon to perform. It would have been a species of treachery, according to his view. So, in all his doubts and regrets, he had no doubt as to what was the course he was called upon to follow, and he had neither fear nor hesitation about following it—but he was tortured by the knowledge of the misery it entailed upon his wife.

CHAPTER III.

LADY MARGARET.

OUTSIDE, the gathering crowd had settled into

groups, eating, drinking, laughing or weeping, according to the humour uppermost in the different minds-all waiting the appearance of the Laird to learn the best or worst that might be before them.

An anxious wife, silent and tearful, spasmodically clutched the arm of a stalwart husband, whose eyes were clouded with doubt belying the reassuring smile with which he regarded the woman, trying to comfort her, whilst his big brawny hands tenderly patted the two bairns that clung around his knees. A coquettish lass with a face like an April day, half smiles, half tears, half petulance and half confession, even at this eventful moment torturing the brave lad who loved her, when he might be called away never to see her again. Another, a quiet faithful lass who had been "cried" thrice in the kirk, and who would

have been a wife in a few days but for this fatal interruption to her happiness, lingering by the side of her betrothed and trying hard to look brave for his sake. And there was the mother, sad and reticent, hovering near the sons who were thinking less of home, and what they were to leave for ever, than of the exciting scenes of novelty and danger through which they expected to pass. The farmer looked gloomily towards the fields of ungathered grain and thought of the ruin that was impending over the results of careful years of toil; the ploughman and harvester dreamt of change and revelry.

These were the episodes of the meeting; the predominant tone was one of wild enthusiasm and excitement. The result was much noise and much bravado. Jokes were cracked by men whose hearts were trembling; and the laughter was loud and boisterous as if all wished to drown in the loudness of their mirth the thought of home, or the dread of the future which would force its way into the staunchest breast.

The din which the folk made, aided by an occasional strain from the Elvanlee band, so frightened the horses which were loosely tethered in one corner

of the court, that several of them broke from their fastenings and went plunging about, still more frightened by the shouts of warning or command uttered by the men, and the shrieks of terror which the women could not restrain.

The confusion was at its height when a woman screamed frantically:

"There's my laddie-there's my Geordie, in among the mad brutes, will naebody save my bairn?"

The crowd seemed to be for a moment paralyzed by the position of the child-a curly haired little fellow of about five years. In his bewilderment whilst trying to escape, the boy had got in amongst the horses, and was now rolling on the ground, the hoofs of the frightened animals threatening every instant to kill him.

The mother made a fierce effort to rescue him, but she was beaten back, and some shouted to her warningly, whilst others endeavoured to restrain her by friendly force.

Fortunately there was one witness of the scene with sufficient presence of mind to act quietly and promptly. A lady stepped out from the tower, and, dexterously avoiding the horses, ran to where the