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.

126 WAVEiRLEY NOVELS.
Isabella Wardour is a tower o' strength, ye ken"-(Lovel sighed)-" Aweel,
dlinna be cast down-bowls may a' row right yet-gie the lassie time to ken
her mind. She's the wale o' the country for beauty, and a gude friend o'
mine - I gang by the bridewell as safe as by the kirk on a Sabbath — deil
ony o' them daur hurt a hair o' auld Edie's head now; I keep the crown o'
the causey when I gae to the borough, and rub shouthers wi' a bailie wi' as
little concern- as an he were a brock."
While the mendicant spoke thus, he was busied in removing a few loose
stones in one angle of the cave, which obscured the entrance of the staircase
of which he had spoken, and led the way into it, followed by Leovel in passive
silence.
"The air's free eneugh," said the old man; "the monks took care o' that,
for they werena a lang-breathed generation, I reckon; they hae contrived
queer tirlie-wirlie holes, that gang out to the open air, and keep the stair as
caller as a kail-blade."
Level accordingly found the staircase well aired, and, though narrow, it
was neither ruinous nor long, but speedily admitted them into a narrow
gallery contrived to run within the side wall of the chancel, from which it
received air and light through apertures ingeniously hidden amid the florid
ornaments of the Gothic architecture.
"This secret passage ance gaed round great part o' the biggin," said the
beggar, " and through the wa' o' the place I've heard Monkbarns ca' the
Refractory," [meaning probably Refectory,] " and so awa to the Prior's ain
house. It's like he could use it to listen what the monks were saying at
meal-time,-and then he might come ben here and see that they were busy
skreighing awa wi' the psalms doun below there; —and then, when he saw
a' was right and tight, he might step awa and fetch in a bonnie lass at the
cove yonder-for they were queer hands the monks, unless mony lees is
made on them. But our folk were at great pains lang syne to big up the
passage in some parts, and pu' it down in others, for fear o' some uncanny
body getting into it, and finding their way down to the cove: it wad hae
been a fashious job that —by my certie, some o' our necks wad hae been
ewking."
They now came to a place where the gallery was enlarged into a small
circle, sufficient to contain a stone seat. A niche, constructed exactly before
it, projected forward into the chancel, and as its sides were latticed, as it
were, with perforated stone-work, it commanded a full view of the chancel
in every direction, and was probably constructed, as Edie intimated, to be a
convenient watch-tower, from which the superior priest, himself unseen,
might watch the behaviour of his monks, and ascertain, by personal inspection, their punctual attendance upon those rites of devotion which his rank
exempted him from sharing with them. As this niche made one of a regular
series which stretched along the wall of the chancel, and in no respect differed
from the rest when seen from below, the secret station, screened as it was
by the stone figure of St. Michael and the dragon, and the open tracery
around the niche, was completely hid from observation. The private passage, confined to its pristine breadth, had originally continued beyond this
seat; but the jealous precautions of the vagabonds who frequented the cave
of St. Ruth had caused them to build it carefully up with hewn stones from
the ruin.
"We shall be better here," said Edie, seating himself on the stone bench,
and stretching the lappet of his blue gown upon the spot, when he motioned
Lovel to sit down beside him-" we shall be better here than doun below;
the air's free and mild, and the savour of the wallflowers, and siccan shrubs
as grow on thae ruined wa's, is far mair refreshing than the damp smell
doun below yonder. They smell sweetest by night-time thae flowers, and
they're maist aye seen about ruined buildings. Now, Maister Lovel, can
ony o' you scholars gie a gude reason for that?"