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.

286 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
elder clays. A wild woodland prospect led the eye at various points through
broad and seemingly interminable alleys, which, meeting at this point as at
a common centre, diverged from each other as they receded, and had, therefore, been selected by Lord Dalgarno as the rendezvous for the combat,
which, through the medium of Richie MIoniplies, he had offered to his
injured fiiend Lord Glenvarloch.
"ise will surely come," he said to himself; " cowardice was not wont to
be his fault - at least he was bold enough in the Park. - Perhaps yonder
churl may not have carried my message? But no-he is a sturdy knaveone of those would prize their master's honour above their life.-Look to the
palfrey, Lutin, and see thou let him not loose, and cast thy falcon glance
down every avenue to mark if any one comes.-Buckingham has undergone
my challenge, but the proud minion pleads the King's paltry commands for
refusing to answer me. If I can baffle this Glenvarloch, or slay him-if I
can spoil him of his honour or his life, I shall go down to Scotland with
credit sufficient to gild over past mischances. I know my dear countrymen
- they never quarrel with any one who brings them home either gold or
martial glory, much more if he has both gold and laurels."
As he thus reflected, and called to mind the disgrace which he had suffered, as well as the causes he imagined for hating Lord Glenvarloch, his
countenance altered under the influence of his contending emotions, to the
terror of Nelly, who, sitting unnoticed at his feet, and looking anxiously in
his face, beheld the cheek kindle, the mouth become compressed, the eye
dilated, and the whole countenance express the desperate and deadly resolution of one who awaits an instant and decisive encounter with a mortal
enemy. The loneliness of the place, the scenery so different from that to
which alone she had been accustomed, the dark and sombre air which crept
so suddenly over the countenance of her seducer, his command imposing
silence upon her, and the apparent strangeness of his conduct in idling
away so much time without any obvious cause, when a journey of such
length lay before them, brought strange thoughts into her wMeak brain. She
had read of women, seduced from their! matrimonial duties by sorcerers
allied to the hellish powers, nay, by the Father of Evil himself, who, after
conveying his victim into some desert remote froml human kind, exchanged
the pleasing shape in which he gained her affections, for all his natural
horrors. She chased this wild idea away as it crowded itself upon her
weak and bewildered imagination; yet she might have lived to see it
realized allegorically, if not literally, but for the accident which presently
followed.
The page, whose eyes were remarkably acute, at length called out to his
master, pointing with his finger at the same time down one of the alleys,
that horsemen were advancing in that direction. Lord Dalgarno started
up, and shading his eyes with his hand, gazed eagerly down the alley;
when, at the same instant, he received a shot, which, grazing his hand,
passed right through his brain, and laid him a lifeless corpse at the feet, or
rather across the lap, of the unfortunate victim of his profligacy. The
countenance, whose varied expression she had been watching for the last
five minutes, was convulsed for an instant,.and then stiffened into rigidity
for ever. Three ruffians rushed from the brake from which the shot had
been fired, ere the smoke was dispersed. One, with many imprecatons,
seized on the page; another on the female, upon whose cries he strove by
the most violent threats to impose silence; while the third began to undo
the burden from the page's horse. But an instant rescue prevented their
availing themselves of the advantage they had obtained.
It may easily be supposed that Richie Moniplies, having secured the
assistance of the two Templars, ready enough to join in any thing which
promised a fray, with Jin Vin to act as their guide; had set off, gallantly
mounted and well-armed, under the belief that they would reach Camlet