Guy Mannering.

GUY MANNERING. 245
The first object which caught his eye in the kitchen,
was a tall, stout, country-looking man, in a large jockey
qnean, who used all the influence in her power to induce him to stop
all night. The landlord was from home, she said, and it was ill passing the Waste, as twilight must needs descend on him before lie gained
the Scottish side, which was reckoned the safest. But Fighting Charlie, though he suffered himself to be detained later than was prudent,
did not account Mump's Ha' a safe place to quarter in during the
night. He tore himself away, therefore, from Aleg's good fare and
kind words, and mounted his nag, having first examined his pistols,
and tried by the ramrod whether the charge remained in them.
He proceeded a mile or two, at a round trot, when, as the Waste
stretched black before him, apprehensions began to awaken in his
mind, partly arising out of Meg's unusual kindness, which he could
not help thinking had rather a suspicious appearance. He therefore
resolved to reload his pistols, lest the powder had become damp; but
what was his surprise, when he drew the charge, to find neither powder
nor ball, while each barrel had been carefully filled with tow, up to the
space which the loading had occupied! and, the priming of the weapons being left untouched, nothing but actually drawing and examining
the charge could have discovered the inefficiency of his arms till the
fatal minute arrived when their services were required. Charlie bestowed a hearty Liddesdale curse on his landlady, cand reloaded his
pistols with care and accuracy, having now no doubt that he was to be
waylaid and assaulted. He was not far engaged in the Waste, which
was then, and is now, traversed only by such routes as are diescribed
in the text, when two or three fellows, disguised and variously armed,
started from a moss-hag, while, by a glance behind him, (for, marching, as the Spaniard says, with his beard on his shoulder, he reconnoitred in every direction,) Charlie instantly saw retreat was impossible,
as other two stout men appeared behind him at some distance. The
Borderer lost not a moment in taking his resolution, and boldly trotted
against his enemies in front, who called loudly on him to stand and
deliver. Charlie spurred on, and presented his pistol. " D-n your
pistol! " said the foremost robber, whom Charlie to his dying day protested he believed to have been the landlord of Mump's Ha'-" D —
your pistol! I care not a curse for it."-" Ay, lad," " said the deep
voice of Fighting Charlie, " but the tow's oat now." He had no occasion to utter another word: the rogues, surprised at finding a man of
redoubted courage well armed, instead of being defenceless, took to
the moss in every direction, and he passed on his way without farther
molestation.