proud to paint, and enlivened by the fine salmonstream, whirling and foaming like quicksilver along the mountain side. It was said once by an ancient king of Spain, that "cities, like children, cry when they are washed;" yet the white-washing of Clanmarina, and all the other judicious benefits conferred on it by Sir Evan, caused nothing but open-mouthed gratitude and pleasure to all who witnessed or shared in the embellishment and improvement of the place and its inhabitants. The beggarly contrast of crowded popish hovels in rags and tatters, arm in arm with the more prosperous protestant dwellings, reminded Lady Edith of the tyranny now exercised at Naples, where persons of the most distinguished family are not only imprisoned, but each person of refined feelings and education is chained to the most degraded malefactor that can be found; and this loathsome companionship has been continued under popish tyranny night and day, for long hopeless years of anguish and disgust.

It was a chivalrous sight to see Sir Evan, who kept up all the feudal magnificence of his ancestors, setting forth day after day for the moors or the salmon-fishing, equipped in his graceful plaid, and followed by his gallant "tail" of clansmen, and by all the numerous visitors who enjoyed his splendid hospitalities at Cairngorum Castle. He

was a princely Chief. Sir Evan kept the best pointers, greyhounds, and horses, as well as the best grooms and gamekeepers throughout the highlands, and his hardy tenants honoured their Chief the more enthusiastically, because he could have carried off the prize himself at all their competitions of strength and agility. The clansmen triumphantly hailed him as the best deer-stalker, the best shot, and the best salmon-fisher in the district, as well as the best of men.

Thus loved and respected by all classes, with sentiments of respect and attachment which never diminished, Sir Evan at the end of twelve superlatively happy years, gave his usual birthday dinner, which had taken place every successive October since he succeeded to his clan, with all the feudal grandeur of ancient times. What heart might not have felt a noble envy of the good Sir Evan, at this gay village festival, which was a model of rural felicity and innocent enjoyment, when beholding the beneficent change which his own labour, his own liberality, his own prayers, his own practical, vigorous, and well-considered benevolence had at last accomplished: and when in a wild burst of enthusiastic cheering it was eagerly acknowledged by many a warm heart around, the flashing eye of Sir Evan became yet brighter with pleasurable excitement, and a flush of

deep emotion was on his cheek. The Chief, happier himself than usually falls to the lot of man, considered it a great deformity in country life, when there is too wide a gulf of separation between landlord and tenant: as he in his own sphere laboured for the indigent, they in their sphere laboured with their whole hearts for him, while the poorest, the weakest, the most helpless and suffering, found their own beloved Chief ready always with a word of sociable kindness to each, when cordially associating his feelings with theirs. It produced a humanizing influence on the most abject or uncultivated, in rousing them to energetic efforts for themselves, when they saw so cheerful and unaffected an interest for their welfare testified by the honoured Chief, who was chief in every virtue, and chief too in being the benefactor of every McAlpine whom it was possible for him to

serve.

Such highland chiefs there are yet, such there have been, and may such long abound:

"For he has left

Deposited upon the silent shore

Of memory, images and precious thoughts,
That shall not die, and cannot be destroy'd."

WORDSWORTH.

THE life of Allan and of Beatrice, who were both now nearly grown up, had been one of ceaseless enjoyment, and having reached to the ages of nineteen and sixteen, they felt that year after year as it vanished away had been one of unbroken felicity as well as uninterrupted companionship. Their long walks with Sir Evan, and yet longer rides, their sea-side strolls with Lady Edith, and their long fire-side conversations with both, their extensive course of reading, and the wide circle of agreeable society which they met every successive season, had matured their young minds with an early knowledge of life in all its mysteries of thought and of feeling,-perhaps also of romance. Already many a visitor had admired

Beatrice flitting like a young fairy in the hoary old towers of her highland home. Already one boisterous old boy of a hunting squire had actually proposed to her, and already Allan had discovered that among all Sir Evan's stranger guests there was an eclipsing beauty and an irresistible fascination in the companion of his daily life which none could rival. Already the poetry and romance of existence were begun to Allan and Beatrice.

Few ever had a more exquisite enjoyment of life than Sir Evan, whose feelings were high and pure as the sun-light glittering on his native mountains. The good Chief, now in the glorious zenith of his manhood, seemed literally fenced about with prosperity, and laughingly said in a serio-comic voice one morning to Lady Edith, "How very soon the growth of children and of trees has made me feel old. This is my fortieth birthday, and already I am overshadowed by forests of my own planting, as well as over-topped by my own young nephew. I really feel," he added, in a tone of oddly mingled distress and delight," as if our cup were so full that in this stormy world it cannot last."

Sir Evan stepped gaily forth into the dazzling brightness of a sunny morning, buoyant with the energy and vigour of his high-souled intellect and elastic spirits. With his own peculiar whistle he summoned a very willing companion in Allan, to