The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

TIIE ANT IQUARY. 169
pallid cheek, and tottering form of the nobleman with whom he was' confronted, showed how little wealth, power, and even the advantages of youth,
have to do with that which gives repose to the mind, and firmness to the
frame.
The Earl met the old man in the middle of the room, and having commanded his attendant to withdraw into the gallery, and suffer no one to
enter the antechamber till he rung the bell, awaited, with hurried yet fearful impatience, until he heard first the door of his apartment, and then that
of the antechamber, shut and fastened by the spring-bolt. When he was
satisfied with this security against being overheard, Lord Glenallan came
close up to the mendicant, whom he probably mistook for some person of a
religious order in disguise, and said, in a hasty yet faltering tone, " In the
name of all our religion holds most holy, tell me, reverend father, what am
I to expect from a communication opened by a token connected with such
horrible recollections?"
The old man, appalled by a mariner so different from what he had expected from the proud and powerful nobleman, was at a loss how to answer,
and in what manner to undeceive hinm. "Tell me," continued the Earl, in
a tone of increasing trepidation and agony -" tell me, do you come to say
that all that has been done to expiate guilt so horrible, has been too little
and too trivial for the offence, and to point out new and more efficacious
modes of severe penance? - I will not blench from it, father — let me
suffer the pains of my crime here in the body, rather than hereafter in the
spirit!"
Edie had now recollection enough to perceive, that if he did not interrupt
the frankness of Lord Glenallan's admissions, he was likely to become the
confidant of more than might be safe for him to know. He therefore uttered
with a hasty and trembling voice - "Your lordship's honour is mistaken -
I am not of your persuasion, nor a clergyman, but, with all reverence, only
puir Edie Ochiltree, the king's bedesman and your honour's."
This'explanation he accompanied by a profound bow after his manner,
and then drawing himself up erect, rested his arm on his staff, threw back
his long white hair, and fixed his eyes upon the Earl, as he waited for- an
answer.
" And you are not, then," said Lord Glenallan, after a pause of surprise
- "you are not then a Catholic priest?"
" God forbid 1" said Edie, forgetting in his confusion to whom he was
speaking; " I am only the king's bedesman and your honour's, as I said
before."
The Earl turned hastily away, and paced the room twice or thrice, as if
to recover the effects of his mistake, and then, coming close up to the mendicant, he demanded, in a stern and commanding tone, what he meant by
intruding himself on his privacy, and from whence he had got the ring
which he had thought proper to send-him. Edie, a man of much spirit,
was less daunted at this mode of interrogation than he had been confused
by the tone of confidence in which the Earl had opened their conversation.
To the reiterated question from whom he had obtained the ring, he answered composedly, " From one who was better known to the Earl than to
him."
"Better known to me, fellow?" said Lord Glenallan: "what is your
meaning? -explain yourself instantly, or you shall experience the consequence of breaking in upon the hours of family distress."
" It was auld Elspeth Mucklebackit that sent me here," said the beggar,
"in order to say""You dote, old man!" said the Earl; "I never heard the name -but
this dreadful token reminds me""I mind now, my lord," said Ochiltree, "she tauld me your lordship
would be mair familiar wi' her, if I ca'd her Elspeth o' the Craigburnfoot
P