young woman in a' the house, and I am surprised to hear you mention sic a thing." "Call the police, Will, and we'll soon see wha's here and wha's no here," said the Laird. Old Luckie knocked with her crutch on the floor, and a couple of bullies entered, with large bludgeons in their hands- "turn these men out," said she. Will Waddell, pushing old Luckie down, got hold of her crutch, the Laird seized a large poker, which was red hot, from the fire, and grasping it in both his hands as if it had been a boardingpike, they made a charge on her bravadoes, who scampered out of the room a little quicker than they had entered it. "We soon cow'd the caddies, Will," said the Laird; "but we cannot get out, for they have locked the door on us." "I will break it a' to blads," said Will, who began to batter the door to pieces with Luckie's crutch, while Bauldy, frightened almost out of his wits at the affray, had crept under a table. "Come out, Bauldy, and find the young woman that ye hae played the loon wi', or I will stick the het poker through you as a speet through a roasted turkey-cock," said the Laird, taking him by the neck, while Will Waddell gave him a kick with his foot, which threw him half-way across the room. "Let me dee the death o' the righteous, and let my latter end be like his," said Bauldy; "if ye'll no just kill me a' thegither, I will find your dochter, Will, this minute! this precious minute! but oh, dinna spill my bluid!" "We will no hurt a hair o' your head," said the Laird, lifting him up and setting him on his feet. "Let me just lend him ae lunner with Luckie's crutch," said Will, lifting it up over his head. VOL. II. 20 "Keep up'hands, Will," said the Laird; "by a means keep up hands." Peace being restored, old Luckie entered the room, bringing Will Waddell's daughter along with her. "You limmer!" said Will, "what made you rin awa and leave me? But daft or no daft, ye hinna a mind to dee the death o' Jenkins' hen!"? The simple girl, at seeing Bauldy, threw her arms around his neck, and sung "I can dee, but canna part, My bonnie dearie." "Bauldy has a wife o' his ain," said the Laird to her, "and you must go home with us imme diately." "Must I leave her my soul loveth?" said Bauldy, who began to get a little more sober. "Ye maun leave her," said the Laird, "and ye maun mount the repentin' stool too, ye hoary auld sinner." "Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice," said Bauldy. "Ye may tell it to auld Nick, if ye like, for ye'll ne'er be an elder in the Stonehouse again, as lang as ye leeve," replied the Laird; and with Will Waddell and the frail delinquent, weeping as she went, he left Bauldy and Luckie Dibble to their own cogitations. When the Laird returned home, he found our youth seated by Mrs. Shadow's bedside, who had been interrogating him respecting this mysterious dereglement. "Wifie, ye hae keepet a braw house, it appears, with your praying and psalm singing, whan I was frae hame," said the Laird, “to have auld Bauldy coming o'er and debauching a poor, silly, gomerel lassock, that did na ken her right hand frae her left hardly !" "My dear Matthew! you little know what uneasiness it has caused me since I heard of it!" said Mrs. Shadow. 66 'My mother is a good deal worse this afternoon," said our youth, "and I am fearful of the consequences, from the weak state which she has so long been in, and the unhappiness which this circumstance has given her." "My love," replied the Laird, "I am glad to tell you that our son has not disgraced himself, but "I have no doubt of that," said Mrs. Shadow, "but, my dear, sit down beside me for a few minutes." The Laird sat down beside her, for some time unable to speak, the tears ran down his cheeks, and as he gazed on her countenance, he saw approaching dissolution portrayed in her features. "Are you worse, Tibby, love," said he, and hid his face on the bed-clothes. "O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory!" said she, and these were the last words which she uttered. Before Peggy, and Lady Rosa, and Jonathan, who were in an adjoining room, could enter her bed-chamber, her immortal spirit had forsaken her friends and their affairs for ever, in this lower world. CHAPTER XX. THE EMIGRANTS. I'll over the water, I'll over the sea, OLD SONG. THE Laird was now a widower, and for some time, the world was a blank to him, every thing at home reminded him of his former happiness and present inconsolable grief. He thought of the happy hours he and Mrs. Shadow had spent together, ere fortune had smiled upon them, and he would gladly have resigned all his riches in exchange for the return of that truly happy period, but it was gone for ever. An air of melancholy. seemed to have overspread the landscape; his flocks and cattle, the very grass and the flowery meadows, all inspired him with grief; the murmuring of the little river had a melancholy sound. He foresaw that he must, in a short period, be left solitary, or his daughter Peggy must sacrifice her own happiness; because Mr. Rifleman was about to return to America, having finished his studies at the university, and the very utmost that he could hope for was, that he would remain a few months, or perhaps another season, on account of the death of Mrs. Shadow. His son, he indeed expected, would, in due time, form a happy union with Lady Rosa Stuart, and so far as this most desirable match could be the means of drawing his attention from his own situation to that of the young loving couple, he looked forward to it with a wish that the period should not be long protracted. For some time, he made Mr. Rifleman recount to him the history of his family, since their emigration into America; and the part which his father had taken in the revolutionary war with England, in which he had distinguished himself, as well as several others of his kinsmen, for he was sprung of a large family, and during the war, they had made themselves the very terror of the British. The Laird and Jonathan seemed, by tacit consent, to have selected this subject-which, from the hardships and sufferings endured by the Americans during their bloody struggle for liberty and independence against the gigantic power of England-had a powerful effect in arresting the attention and causing the mind to participate in the affairs of this brave and determined people, making it to forget its own private sorrow. He likewise began to listen with attention to Mr. Rifleman's descriptions of the scenery around New-York and the magnificent Hudson. Jonathan inadvertently offended the Laird respecting the late contest between Great Britain and the United States, by telling him that America triumphed when the former had an army of two hundred thousand men, flushed with victory, and a navy of a thousand ships of war, which had hitherto been thought invincible. In the capture and defeat of the Guerriere, the Macedonian, the Java, the Peacock, and a number of other vessels, Laird Shadow had been taught to believe that it was owing to the superior number of the American crews, and the heavier metal of their |