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.

THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN. 611
follow her example, although there was now no one to hold the ladder fast.
When she saw him safe she looked round, and could not help shuddering at
the place and company in which she found herself. They were on a sort
of platform of rock, surrounded on every side by precipices, or overhanging
cliffs, and which it would have been scarce possible for any research to have
discovered, as it did not seem to be commanded by any accessible position.
It was partly covered by a huge fragment of stone, which, having fallen
from the cliffs above, had been intercepted by others in its descent, and
jammed so as to serve for a sloopingl roof to the farther part of the broad
shelf or platform on which they stood. A quantity of withered moss and
leaves, strewed beneath this rude and wretched shelter, showed the lairs,they could not-be termed the beds, —of those who dwelt in this eyry, for it
deserved no other name. Of these, two were before Lady Staunton. One,
the same who had afforded such timely assistance, stood upright before
them, a tall, lathy, young savage; his dress a tattered plaid and philabeg,
no shoes, no stockings, no hat or bonnet, the place of the last being supplied
by his hair, twisted and matted like the glibbe of the ancient wild Irish,
and like theirs, forming a natural thick-set, stout enough to bear off the cut
of a sword. Yet the eyes of the lad were keen and sparkling; his gesture
free and noble, like that of all savages. He took little notice of David
Butler, but gazed with wonder on Lady Staunton, as a being different
probably in dress, and superior in beauty, to any thing he had ever beheld.
The old man, whose face they had first seen, remained recumbent in the
same posture as when he had first looked down on them, only his face was
turned towards them as he lay and looked up with a lazy and listless
apathy, which belied the general expression of his dark and rugged features.
He seemed a very tall man, but was scarce better clad than the younger.
He had on a loose Lowland great-coat, and ragged tartan trews or pantaloons.
All around looked singularly wild and unpropitious. Beneath the brow
of the incumbent rock was a charcoal fire, on which there was a still working, with bellows, pincers, hammers, a moveable anvil, and other smith's
tools; three guns, with two or three sacks and barrels, were disposed against
the wall of rock, under shelter of the superincumbent crag; a dirk and two
swords, and a Lochaber axe, lay scattered around the fire, of which the red
glare cast a ruddy tinge on the precipitous foam and mist of the cascade.
The lad, when he had satisfied his curiosity with staring at Lady Staunton,
fetched an earthen jar and a horn cup, into which he poured some spirits,
apparently hot from the still, and offered them successively to the lady and
to the boy. Both declined, and the young savage quaffed off the draught,
which could not amount to less than three ordinary glasses. He then
fetched another ladder from the corner of the cavern, if it could be termed
so, adjusted it against the transverse rock, which served as a roof, and made
signs for the lady to ascend it, while he held it fast below. She did so, and
found herself on the top of a broad rock, near the brink of the chasm into
which the brook precipitates itself. She could see the crest of the torrent
flung loose down the rock, like the mane of a wild horse, but without having any view of the lower platform from which she had ascended.
David was not suffered to mount so easily; the lad, from sport or love of
mischief, shook the ladder a good deal as he ascended, and seemed to enjoy
the terror of young Butler, so that, when they had both come up, they
looked on each other with no friendly eyes. Neither, however, spoke. The
young caird, or tinker, or gipsy, with a good deal of attention, assisted Lady
Staunton up a very perilous ascent which she had still to encounter, and
they were followed by David Butler, until all three stood clear of the ravine
on the side of a mountain, whose sides were covered with heather and sheets
of loose shingle. So narrow was the chasm out of which they ascended,
that, unless when they were on the very verge, the eye passed to the other