The Bride of Lammermoor

n hall was b

s dight in

bowl nor w

heer," quoth th

Ba

. Perhaps this melancholy yet consolatory reflection crossed the mind of the unfortunate young nobleman with a breathing of comfort. Favourable to calm reflection, as well as to the Muses, the morning, while it dispelled the shades of night, had a composing and sedative effect upon the stormy passions by which the Master of Ravenswood had been agitated on the preceding day. He now felt himself able to analyse the different feelings by which he was agitated, and much resolved to combat and to subdue them. The morning, which had arisen calm and bright, gave a pleasant effect even to the waste moorland view which was seen from the castle on looking to the landward; and the glorious ocean, cris

the hardest, the vault somewhat damp, the rats rather more mutinous than I would have expected from the state of Caleb's larder; and if ther

the small vault; "but if you will rise and leave it, Caleb will end

ou mean me to preserve in my proposed reformation. The very recollection of Caleb's beverage has done more to suppress my longing to open the day with a morning draught than

, adn I have had a fair vision of an angel who

it would be the substance of her heritage rather than the appearance of her phantom that I should consider as the support of my

buttery of the castle. Here the old man was employed busily in the doubtful task of burnishing a pewter flagon until it should take the hue and semblance of silver-plate. "I think it may do-I think it might pass, if t

the family." And with these words he gave to the old butler the purse which

of the most heartfelt anguish at his master as he weighed in his hand the sl

ess than perhaps he really felt, "is just the green purse and the wee pi

hat gate to your honour, adn you looking sae pale. Tak back the purse, and keep it to be making a show before company; for if your honour would just t

try very soon, and desire to do so with the reputation of an hone

of whatever is taen on for the house, and then it will be a' just ae man's burden; and I will live

wn person would rather add to than remove the objections which he had to their being contracted. He spoke to a premier too

gets her claret by a runlet at a time; but I'll work a wee drap out o' her by fair means or foul. For doos, there's the doocot; there will be poultry amang the tenants, though Luckie Chirnside

dily be believed it was set before no critical guests; and even the distresses, excuses, evasions, and shifts of Caleb afforded amusement to the young men, and added a sort of interest to th

palfrey with brush, curry comb, and hair-cloth; when he had seen him eat his provender, and gently lie down in his stall, he could hardly help envying the animal's apparent acquiescence in a life so monotonous. "The stupid brute," he said, "thinks neither of the race-ground or the hunting-field, or his green paddock at Bu

o watch what objects might appear on the distant moor, or to pelt, with pebbles and pieces of lime, the

te by degrees, he looked back on his conduct towards the daughter as harsh and unworthy towards a female of rank and beauty. Her looks of grateful acknowledgment, her words of affectionate courtesy, had been repelled with something which approached to disdain; and if the Master of Ravenswood had sustained wrongs at the hand of Sir William Ashton, his conscience told him they had been unhandsomely resented towards his daughter. When his thoughts took this turn of self-reproach

subdue, if possible, the predominating vice in his character, he admitted with willingness-nay, he summoned up in his imagination-the ideas by which it could be most powerfully counteracted; and, while he d

of his father's ruin and death, he might at first have repelled the charge as a foul calumny; yet, upon serious self-examination, he would have been compelled to admit th

he did not suspect its existence. That this was actually the case was chiefly evinced by his resuming his resolution to leave Scotland. Yet, though such was his purpose, he remained day after day at Wolf's Crag, without taking measures for carrying it into execution. It is true, that he had written to o

wer. The consulting with a personage of such importance was a plausible excise, which Ravenswood used to Bucklaw, and probably to himself, for continuing his residence at Wolf's Crag; and it was rendered yet more so by a general report which began to be current of a probable change of ministers and measures in the Scottish administration. The rumours, strongly asserted by some, and as re

e less suffer with impatience the state of inaction to which it confined him; and it was only the ascendency which his n

ifling difference, that the wiser vermin chooses a hermitage where he can find food at least; but as for us, Caleb's excuses become longer as his diet turns more spare, and I fear we

for us, and we too have a stake in the revolution that is

d his companion. "We have had one re

ed him by putting in

ning pressing some unfortunate fellow to a drink of cold water, and assur

which I believe ended in sour beer and herrings. Read, and you will see the news he has brought us." "I will a

lantyne's types, what took Bucklaw a good half hour in perusal, tho

NOURABLE

e desired, we request that you will impute it to lack of opportunity to show our good-liking, not to any coldness of our will Touching your resolution to travel in foreign parts, as at this time we hold the same little advisable, in respect that your ill-willers may, according to the custom of such per

ll with our own hand, and are well assured of the fidelity of our messenger, as him that is many ways bounden to us, yet so it is, that sliddery ways crave wary walking, and that we may not peril upon paper matters which we would gladly impart to you by word of mouth. Wherefore, it was our purpose to have prayed you heartily to come to this our barren Highland country to kill a stag, and to treat of the matters which we are now more painfully inditing to you anent

Honou

loving

om our poor hou

d kinsman, the Master of Ravenswood-These, with haste,

Master, when his companion had hammered out all the

He writes you very kindly to remain wasting your time and your money in this vile, stupid, oppressed country, without so much as offering you the countenance and shelter of his house. In my opinion, he has som

e it is a treasonable busi

w; "the Marquis has been long suspect

lect the times of the first and second Charles, and of the last James, truly I see li

rself down to mourn over the crop-eared dogs w

y when justice shall be open to Whig and Tory, and when these nicknames shall only be used among coffee

ster: the iron has entered too de

nicknames as at a trumpet-sound. As social life is better protected, its comforts will

nswered Bucklaw; "but m

o

d corn upo

built to ha

stored where the

e thing that w

ve the Marquis is too wise, at least too wary, to join you in such a burden. I suspect he

and battle for my earnest! And you, Master, so dep and considerate as you would seem, you have that within you makes the blood boil faster than suits your present humour of moralising on political truths. You are one of those wise men who see everything with great composure till their bloo

provided," said Bucklaw; "as if that infernal clang and jangle, which will one day bring the belfry down th

e, Bucklaw, from the extreme solemnity and ceremony with which

hy, it stands well enough, man," he continued, addressing impatiently the ancient butler, who, without reply, ke

e, Caleb?" inquired t

is so impatient," answered Caleb, still holding the dish with one hand and

a pair of clean spurs, I hope, i

g St. Magdalen's [Margaret's] Eve, who was a worthy queen of Scotland in her day, your honours might judge it decorous, if not altogether to fast, yet only to sustain nature with some slight refection, as ane saulted herring or the like." And, uncovering the

t I begin to think with you, Bucklaw, that we are consuming the last green leaf, and that, in spite of the Marqu