o the loan; and the farmer was sundry times remarking by the way that "day-light had mony een!" The truth was, tha

moon-light, or the evening tale round the fading embers; but Walter at this time, perhaps, regarded the visions of last night as

there, he sat down on his elbow chair, and began to look about him. In a few seconds his daughter entered-flung herself on her father's knee and bosom-clasped her arms about his neck-kissed him, and shed a flood of tears on his breast. At first he felt somewhat startled at her embrace, and his arms made a feeble and involuntary effort to press her away from him; but she grew to him the closer, and welcomed him home with such a burst of filial affection and tenderness, that nature in a short time regained her empire over the father's heart; and there was t

haud ye hae o' this heart, Keatie. Ye're my ain bai

and helping to make the time of bondage and suspense pass over more lightsomely; but grievous circumstances have prevented me. I have had sad doings here since you went away, my dear father-there i

aid he-"I was here last night, an' saw a sight th

, while her eyes were fixed on the ground-"You we

a' your bike o' hell round about ye. I watna what your confession and explanation may do; but without these I hae sworn to myself, and I'll keep my aith, that you and I sha

. There is danger and jeopardy in the business, and it is connected with the lives and souls of men; therefore, befo

said Walter, "gin it war bu

ial, and the conditions on which he was discharged; and ended b

l," said she, "and liable to be

," was t

wring it from me; therefore, my dear father, let me beg of you to urge your reques

e no?-Things can never appear waur to my mind than they are just now-If hell itself had been opened to my e'e, an' I had seen you ane o' the inmates, I coudna hae been mair astoundit than I was yestreen. I'll send ye to Edinburgh, an' get ye safely put up th

ible. Was ever a poor creature so hard bestead! Will not

. Ye see this is a situation o' thin

bbed nor wept. "You are only out on bail," said she, "and

isk me to the vote of a jury; an' that the bit security they sought was naething but a mere sham to get honourably quit of me. I was likewise tauld by ane that kens unco weel, that the king has gotten ither to

f hopeless apathy; but as he advanced, their orbs enlarged, and beamed with a radiance as if she had been some superior intelligence. Sh

estion-"What the deil was i' your lugs, that ye didna hear what I s

ou said over again," said she, "and tel

etic language than he had done before, mentioning at the sam

r word about it. I will lay open all my errors to my fath

o lead him away; but Walter looked about him with a

no time so fit; and whatever you may see or hear,

rift weel eneugh, but ye'll find yoursel disappointit. I hae la

ainst what, my

esolution there, an' a' the temptations o' Satan sanna shake it. Nah! Gudefaith, auld Wat

re high and majestic, and the lights on the valley mellowed into beauty. Her smile was like a fairy blink of the sun shed through these clouds, than which, there is nothing in nature that I know of so enlivening and beautiful. It was irresis

, who had the power of raising those spirits by which his dwelling had been so grievously haunted, for he had heard wonderful things of them. Still there was no coindication of circumstances in any of the calculations that he was able to make, for his house had been haunted by Brownie and his tribe long ere he fell in with the fugitive Covenanters. None o

little way before, began to scramble across the face of the rock by a path that was hardly perceptible. Walter

s perhaps not so bad as it looks-F

and precipices. They soon reached a little dass in the middle of the linn, or what an Englishman would call a small landing-place. Here she paused till her fath

ntic and tremendo

n' I believe you and I are th

she; and, turning about, she began to pull at

ave a care o' me, gin ever I saw the like o' this!" Then losing all patience, he opened the door, set in his head, and bellowed out,-"Hollo, lassie!-What's com'd o' ye? Keatie Laidlaw-Holloa!" He soon heard footsteps approaching, and took shelter behind the door, with his back leaning to the rock, in case of any sudden surprise, but it was only his daughter, who chided him gently for his timidity and want of confidence in her, and asked how he could be frightened to go where a silly girl, his own child, led the way? adding, that if he desired the mystery that had so long involved her fate and behaviour to be cleared up, he behoved to enter and follow her, or to remain in the dark for ever. Thus admonished, Walter again screwed his courage to the sticking-place, and entered in order to explore this mysterious cave, following close to his daughter, who led him all the way by the collar of the coat as he crept. The entrance was long and irregular, and in one place very narrow, the roof being supported here and there by logs of birch and alder. They came at length into the body of the cave, but it was so dimly lighted from above, the vent being purposely made among rough heath, which in part overhung and hid it from view without, that Walter was almost in the middle of it ere ever he was aware, and still creeping on his hands and knees. His daughter at last stopped short, on which he li

lly," said one, in a s

s head, kept his features, grey locks and beard, wholly in the shade; and, as he approached Walter, he appeared a being without any definitive form or feature. The latter was now standing on his feet, with his bac

ched him, foll

l voice; "you see none here but fellow-creatures and Christians-none who wil

uch a rush, that it was actually like the snort of a horse that is frightened in the dark. The Brownie, however, laid hold of it, stiff as it was, and gave it a squeeze and a heart

rcumstance that proved the most effective of all, was perhaps the sensible assurance gained by the shaking of hands, that Brownie was really and truly a corporeal being. Walter now held out his hand to all the rest as they came forward one by one, and shook hands heartily with them all, while every one of them blessed him in the

so good as detail the circumstances of this party as shortly as you can

st hunted from our native mountains like wolves, for none of our friends durst shelter any of us on their grounds, on pain of death. Even the rest of the persecuted disowned us, and became our adversaries, because our tenets were more ste

ithenhall, from whence in a few days we were again compelled to fly; and at last came to this wild, the only place in the south that soldiers had never searched, nor could search with any degree of success. After much labour we completed this cave, throwing the stuff into the torrent below, so that the most mi

n. We were unable to carry them away with us, and if we had, we had no place to which we could have conveyed them. We durst not apply to you, for if you had taken pity on us, we knew it would cost you your life, and be the means of bereaving your family of all your well-earned wealth. In this great extremity, as a last resource, I watched an opportunity, and laid our deplorable case before that dear maid your daughter-Forgive these tears, sir; you see every eye around fills at mention of her name-She has been our guardian angel-She has, under Almighty Providence, saved the lives of the whole p

d by all but herself, she took him home to a bed in that house, where she attended him for the last seven days of his life with more than filial care. He expired last night at midnight, amid our prayers and supplications to heaven in his

elf no longer; he burst out a

might hae kend her better!" continued he, taking her in his arms, and kissing her cheek again and again. "But she sall hae ten silk gowns, an' te

for I could not forget that their principles, both civil and religious, were the opposite of yours

unexperienced thing to tak. It is better than to do like yon bits o' gillflirts about Edinburgh; poor shilly-shally milk-an'-water things! Gin ye but saw how they cock up their noses at a whig, an' thraw their bits o'

no care now save for these two poor fellows on tha

a dead corpse. But now, when my een are used to the light o' the place,

ok their wan bleached sinewy hands in his, a

e reply-"Better than we have been,

ble lodgings, and had more regular diet, and better attendance, their health might soon be re-es

m, an' nurse them late an' aire; an' I'll gar Maron Linton attend them too, an' she'll rhame o'er bladds o' scripture to them, an' they'll soon get aboon this bit

ck with admiration; and I am persuaded of this, that, let your past life have been as it may, the Almighty will bless and prosper you on account of that maid. The sedateness of her counsels, and the qualities of her heart, have utterly astonished me-She has all the strength of mind,

t!-I watna what's ta'en me the day!-She's weel eneugh, puir lassie. I daresay I never learned her ony ill, but I little wat where she has gotten a' the gude qualities ye brag sae muckle o', unless it hae been frae Heaven in gude earnest; for I wat weel, she has been brought up but in a ramstamphish hamely kind o' way wi' Maron an' me.-But come, come! let us hae done wi' this fuffing an' blawing o' noses, an' making

ankfulness, and the rays of hope once more enlightened the dejected cou

astonished me, an' I canna help speering. Where got ye

ap, while we were at evening worship, we pinioned him in the dark, and carried him in that chest to your door, thinking he had belonged to your family. That led to a bloody business, of which you shall hear anon. And in that coffin, too, we carried off your ungrateful curate so far on his journey, disgraced for ever, to come no more within twenty miles of Chapelhope, on pain of a dreadful deat