286 Mark Macrabin, the Cameronian. had found in possession of it before. She sat completely shrouded from head to foot in her sable drapery, and her sighings and sobbings were again renewed. Thrice were words of condolence and cheer on my tongue, and as often was I stayed from addressing her by the altering looks of Janet Morison, who broke out at last with a voice that made me shudder. Mark Macrabin, yere ane of a fearless race; but if ye want to be ane auld man and ane honoured, speak in this house to nothing but me.' It might have been the beaming of the sun through two small panes of coarse green glass which dazzled my sight, and made me see imperfectly, but I really imagined I saw the form of the maiden melting into something like a pillar of impure and mottled light, such as the sun throws through the unwashen window of a sepulchre. This fearful thing lingered against the wall in shadowy outline, and gradually waxed dimmer and dimmer, like sunshine over which an increasing cloud is passing, till it vanished entirely away, and neither shadow or substance were left in the room save Janet Morison and me. "What all this might be or bode I had little time to examine; the old woman arose, and I arose also; I had a kind of dread of being alone in this sable chamber with its shadowy guest, though, as I had never heard that spectres were visible in sunshine, I thought all appearances might be accounted for without supernatural aid. She came, and taking me by the hand, said, 'Come wi' me, my bonny lad, yere come in pleasant time for me; for muckle need have I to be cheered with the presence of some kindly flesh and blood being-and it may be pleasant for thee too-it will sober down the flightiness of youth to have a last lang look of a dying creature.' I looked acquiescence, and she led me out of the smoky and sooty spence into a lesser chamber, furnished and kept in a much more comfortable plight. A clear peat fire sparkled on the hearth; a cat sat purring in concert with innumerable crickets, and a clean copper pan glanced on the fire, full of new-milked milk, to make porridge the common and delicious breakfast of the farmers of Scotland. A bed, netted and roofed, of long and beautifully plaited straw, and hung in the front [June with curtains bleached among the daisies, as white as driven snow, occupied a kind of recess, and formed a oak chest stood full of meal-a broad comfortable place of repose; a large chimney front hung full of dried hams and kipper'd salmon, and a cupboard showed besides cheese, the heads of sundry bottles, a noble ewe-milk the imported contents of which were thought worthy of wearing a seal. Besides all these infallible tokens of substantial comfort, I observed the ends of webs of fine linen-part of maidens of Scotland-and webs of the patriarchal portions of the thrifty barley-pickle napery-equal almost in beauty to the unrivalled labours of the Cameronian loom of James Macgee-long may he move the foot light of the maidens and matrons of and the hand to the comfort and dethe Vale of Nith! light on all these rustic treasures, look"The window, which threw its eastern ed on a scene of limited extent, but of neath, and perpendicular as a plumunequalled and particular beauty. Beceded; its seams and crevices had met would drop, the natural rock reof primroses, and at the bottom of the been garnished in spring with knots rock rushed the river, so swift and so strong to take its second leap, that a surface, would not have sunk to the common sized pebble, thrown on its bottom. On the other side of the stream, nature had amused herself in elbowing out a deep recess on the freewith pieces of stone, over which the stone rock, and had seated it round moss, and the ivy, and the honeysuckle, had each, in their turn, thrown their verdure and their blossom. the crest of the crag above, the remains of an ancient stronghold were visible, and beneath, the mouth of a ivy, while a slender spring ran, or cavern appeared, half hid among the its entrance. rather trickled, through the pebbles at witch-tree and holly, both red with A circular screen of their glowing bunches of berries, was wound about the top of this fiery root; and between the eye and this river, having lost its way in the cresweet scene, a slender branch of the vices of the rock above, found a passage to the pinnacle of a projecting crag, and finally, leaped from this join its fellow stream below-formvantage ground past the window to On ing, in its descent, a long rainbow line of light, pure as a star-beam. Beautiful as the scene was, it spoke more of past than of present grandeur, and nature, in all this remarkable place, seemed fast hastening to resume her dominion from the power of man. I connected, as I gazed forth, the song of Janet Morison with the landscape, and my heart began fast to sympathize with the bitter feelings in which she sung the former glory and present wretchedness of her doomed name. 'Mark Macrabin, my good lad,' said Janet, laying her hand on my shoulder, that's a bonny, bonny field; and mony a bonny chield of Morison blood has laid aside his plumed helmet to give his brow the dewy air of that sweet nook, and mony a lovely dame of the Morison's name has dandled her baby on her knee, and loot its feckless hands play with the long strings of blossomed honeysuckle that hang sae greenly down from the upper sward. Even I, withered, and worn, and frail as I am now-fed by the ravens, as I may say, and the bountith of honest shepherds -the last of the bauld and the manly Morisons,-have dandled my ain sweet boy on my knee in that sweet nook, and anither creature, sweeter and dearer still, wha has dreed and fulfilled the ancient cause that clung to our name, and sae to the mools we maun gang.'-Even as she spoke, I observed something beginning to darken in the scene before me, and in the glancing of an eye, the beautiful maiden, dressed from head to foot in her sable mantle, occupied, as a statue does a pedestal, one of the seats. The old woman's glance grew dark as he looked, and, in a half sigh and whisper, she said, Sweet, sweet, and hapless being! I shall soon be with thee: sad was the sentence that decreed thy lovely face and youthfu' blood to bear shame and ruin for sins of auld date.' -Here Janet Morison looked on me with an eye moist in tears, and seeing that I strove to prevent the ready tears from escaping to my cheek, said, in a tone of composure, It's a cauld dowie den to look upon after a', and I'm e'en thinking ye might slip something less welcome atween your teeth than a good horn spoon recking with rich milk parritch; and with ready Scottish hospitality, that asks one to have, and presents the viands at the same time, she placed me at a kind of sideboard, set a goan of porridge before me, laying an ample spoon in the vicinity of this tempting dish, and motioning me to the undisturbed enjoyment of a rural breakfast in her chamber. I had scarcely finished my meal, and resumed my bonnet, when I heard a footstep, heavy and slow, approach the door. Presently a genthe rap was given, and the latch was lifted, while a voice, naturally rough, but softened down for the occasion to something between a whisper and a hallo, said, Peace be here! douce and cannie cummer! Peace be here!" and having paved the way by this preparatory introduction, in floundered a moorland rustic, bearing an enormous cheese in the nook of his shepherd maud. On seeing, instead of an old, and, to use his own words, a douce and cannie cummer, a sapling youth, somewhere between a boy and a man, the man of the mountains stepped back, protruding his hand behind him to grope for the door, and exclaiming, in the broad dialect of Annandale, Eh! lord, I'se rad!— I'se rad!'- Rad! for what, Sandie Macbirn?" said Janet Morison, entering and laying her hand on the retrograding person of the rustic. At this unexpected intrusion behind, he leaped perpendicularly from the floor the height of an ellwand, and then attempted to run three separate ways, none of which presented an outlet for escape. The old woman gave a grim smile, and said, Here's the door, man; dinna ding down bigget wa's.' Eh! praise be blest, auld cannie cummer, and this is you?' said the man of Annandale; and what should I be rad for? Conscience, cummer! I thought this Cameronian chip was wark o' thine! and I wad rather grip by the neck the boordliest child e'er a Cameronian gat, than face a creature o' thy raising!-else may I be hounded up Dryfsedale and down Ae, by a' the hungry town tykes of Loughmaben-dom me if I wadna!' And what brings thee here?' said the dame, in a tone harsh and forbidding; for she evidently wished to repel the intrusive familiarity of her assistant. Brings me here!' said Sandie Macbirn, in a tone sufficiently humble; ye may weel spier that,' unwinding, as he spoke, a large cheese from the corner of his plaid. "Conscience! ye see, cummer, I shall e'en tell ye, and syne crave your helping hand. I hae sax kye-Hawk, Pawk, Paddie Whawk, Cherry, and Brown Mag, and ane that answers when ye cry Hurleydodie-a' as famous milkers as e'er striddled a goan, but now as yell as my pikestaff. Now I needna tell ye, cummer, what I want wi' them. Gie me back my rich milk and my gowden butter. Aweel -I hae forbye a hirsel of sheep, hairy hippet limmers, black-faced and broket-nae mair to be compared to the auld stock o' Tinwald, or the gimmers of the Cheviot, than a sow's left lug to a lappet of velvet. Now, cummer, gin ye wad make thae creatures, that are no worth twal shillings the day, worth thirty white shillings by the Rood-Fair o' Dumfries, ye wad be a dainty ane !-it's little to thee, but a great deal to me.' -The remainder of the sentence, which should have expressed the extent of the bribe for this singular good service, was neither speech or action-but both-he made a full pause, looked in her face, which grew exceeding dubious and dark, turning the large cheese round and round, and having thus displayed the merits of the alluring sample, he said, "I hae twa mae at Hirselcleugh that lang to keep this ane company-and shall too, gin cummer be kindly-dom me if they denna!' Hast thou ony maer to ask,' said the dame, in a tone from which no one could either augur promise or denial. Mair!' echoed Sandie, 'ony mair! muckle mair-for sairly I want the helping hand o' some cannie body like thysell. I hae e'en put the plough to the swaird-but there's either a great internal machine turning up the stanes in the bosom of the earth, or else Hirselcleugh's the very riddlings o' the creation!-its a ringing jingle; I clapped my yoke to the only kindly spot about it-the auld church-yard i' the Chapel-croft, an' at the first tug a cursed tombstane brake my coulter in twa, and what should this be but the grave o ane o' thae auld dour deevils the Morisons. I kenned it by the figure of a mailed man wi' a cross hilted brand, and a raven fluttering at his feet, and aneath was written, RoNALD MORISON, and the gear o' gude was a gear I never heard o' before sae I think the hale was nonsense, and sae I saired it, for I smashed it into seven pieces, and causeyed my_byre door wi't. Its better there than lying deep i' the cauld grund amang moudies and shank banes.' 'Lay the sculptured stane, broken and dishonoured as it is, on the brave man's dust again,' said Janet Morison, darkening down her brows as she spoke ;-and, at your peril, touch that burial-ground again with spade or with plough-it is dangerous to meddle with a Morison living-it is thrice as dangerous to disgrace their dust-limb and limb must meet again-and he that scatters man's dust wantonly, has much to answer for. Hast thou ought more to ask? The man of the Moorlands was humbled in his hopes by this unlucky adventure with the tombs of the Morisons; he looked at the old woman, and he looked at his cheese, with a look that said, 'I have offered thee in vain.' At last, mustering resolution, he said, Mair to ask! faith have I; but I need hardly ask for others, when I speed sae ill myself. There's Johnnie Macgorlin of Gowkstane, sent our cannie cummer a message as I came past; his yellow corn's shaking owre ripe on its legs-and deil a' ane will whet a sickle for't since he forsware Kirstin Smackagain's sweet armfu' of a lad wean, and broke the lassie's heart. I was sae vexed with Jock's disaster mysel', that I laid on our muckle pot wi' my pikestaff till it gade owre ringing. Now cummer gin ye wad oblige Jock, e'en ca' in the tempests, and sober down thae sair winds.' "Janet Morison's whole face, since she heard of the disturbed dust of her fathers, had waxed cloudier and cloudier; and now, on hearing this application for the perjured portioner of Gowkstane, her whole wrath came rushing to her countenance at once. The application, though made in a manner abundantly submissive, trode rudely on her wounded bosom-strings, and agitated those injured feelings, the nearest and dearest to the human heart. Sweet armful of a lad wean, and broke the maiden's heart!" echoed Janet, leaping from her seat, and striding up to simple Sandie Macrabin like a warrior hastening to do battle for his home and his kindred. She lifted her right hand like one who wishes to make a mortal thrust with a weapon-her large grey eyes shining with the fires of the fiercest anger --and her whole frame quivering like that of a falcon when it clutches its prey. Sir! Sir-said she, with a voice like a trumpet-if all the blood of your name flowed in your veinsand that of all the Morison's lineage in mine, I should spill it all on the earth for the dogs to lap, sooner than endure a shame like this-to ruin and break the heart of my bonnie Nannie, my only hope and stay.' 'Eh, lord, hear till her! hear till her! said the shepherd-I break the heart o' sweet Nannie Morison !-a' the warld kens it was our sweet young Lord-deil pyke his banes in the lowest heugh for't.' The poor bewildered woman heeded him not-her brain was roving -but reason returned in a moment, and she said in a voice suffocating with emotion, Alas! Alas! I am a poor old bewildered being, and know not to whom I speak, nor what I say -did not the young lord stand on that floor and mock me, and laugh at me even now?' Overpowered by the keen agony of spirit, she fell into strong and shuddering convulsions, and would have fallen full length on the floor, had I not timeously caught her in my arms. The man of the moorlands gazed on the scene before him with a face of the darkest dismay— considering it as a prelude to some master spell which would operate to his personal damage-and in nowise believing it to arise from the language of an old wounded mind- Eh! horrid be't, horrid be't,' ejaculated he, in the current tone of Annandale, rendered more provincial by terrorfearfu' woman! fearfu' woman! sad! sad! I wadnae bide anither glower o' thae cat-grey e'en for a the holms of Dryfe-She'll better it! she'll better it, and then whare am I—she'll shake her robe, and make me into a sooty sheldrake-to swoom to the day o' doom amang the lake dubs of Lochmaben! ye may bide there, mark my man-but as for me, Sandie Macbirn o' Hirselcleugh, I'se take the bentand out at the door darted the man of the heather top and ling, leaving his ewe milk cheese to atone for his breach of natural courtesy.” ELEGY III. SHOULD'ST thou detect a smother'd sigh, Or should my failing accents tell May thy experience never prove That face, that form, howe'er divine, Mistake me not ;-though in mine eyes "Tis but a light that gleams above Yes, though the canker'd hand of hate, And at the spell of witching eyes ELEGY IV. (Imitated from the Modern Latin.) WHEN I that form no longer view, "Tis sad to think our love should last Yet had our flame been truly hearted, Indulge thy tears-they now are sweet, |