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.

850 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
often rebelled, and sometimes successfully, against the deputed a uthority
of Ellesmere, privately resolved that it was about to rain, and that the
gilded chamber was a more suitable place for the children's exercise than
the wet grass of the park on a raw morning.
But a woman's brain is sometimes as inconstant as a popular assembly;
and presently after she had. voted the morning was like to be rainy, and
that the gilded chamber was the fittest play-room for the children, Mistress
Deborah came to the somewhat inconsistent resolution, that the park was
the fittest place for her own morning walk. It is certain, that during the
unrestrained joviality of the preceding evening, she had danced till midnight with Lance Outram, the park-keeper; but how far the seeing him just
pass the window in his woodland trim, with a feather in his hat, and a crossbow under his arm, influenced the discrepancy of the opinions Mirs. Deborah
formed concerning the weather, we are far from presuming to guess. It is
enough for us, that, so soon as Mistress Ellesmere's back was turned, Mistress Deborah carried the children into the gilded chamber, not without a
strict charge (for we must do her justice) to Master Julian to take care of
his little wife, Mistress Alice; and then, having taken so satisfactory a precaution, she herself glided into the park by the glass-door of the still-room,
which was nearly opposite to the great breach.
The gilded chamber in which the children were, by this arrangement,
left to amuse themselves, without better guardianship than what Julian's
manhood afforded, was a large apartment, hung with stamped Spanish
leather, curiously gilded, representing, in a manner now obsolete, but far
from unpleasing, a series of tilts and combats betwixt the Saracens of
Grenada, and the Spaniards under the command of King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella, during that memorable siege, which was terminated by the
overthrow of the last fragments of the Moorish empire in Spain.
The little Julian was careering about the room for the amusement of his
infant friend, as well as his own, mimicking with a reed the menacing attitude of the Abencerrages and Zegris engaged in the Eastern sport of hurling
the JEnID, or javelin; and at times sitting down beside her, and caressing
her into silence and good-humour, when the petulant or timid child chose
to become tired of remaining an inactive spectator of his boisterous sport;
when, on a sudden, he observed one of the paneled compartments of the
leather hangings slide apart, so as to show a fair hand, with its fingers
resting upon its edge, prepared, it would seem, to push it still farther back.
Julian was much surprised, and somewhat frightened, at what he witnessed,
for the tales of the nursery had strongly impressed on his mind the terrors
of the invisible world. Yet, naturally bold and high-spirited, the little
champion placed himself beside his defenceless sister, continuing to brandish
his weapon in her defence, as boldly'as he had himself been an Abeneerrage
of Grenada.
The panel, on which his eye was fixed, gradually continued to slide back,
and display more and more the form to which the hand appertained, until,
in the dark aperture which was disclosed, the children saw the figure of a
lady in a mourning dress, past the meridian of life, but whose countenance
still retained traces of great beauty, although the predominant character
both of her features and person was an air of almost royal dignity. After
pausing a moment on the threshold of the portal which she had thus unexpectedly disclosed, and looking with some surprise at the children, whom
she had not probably observed while engaged with the management of the
panel, the stranger stepped into the apartment, and the panel, upon a touch
of a spring, closed behind her so suddenly, that Julian almost doubted it
had ever been open, and began to apprehend that the whole apparition had
been a delusion.*
* The concealment and discovery of the Countess of Derby, is taken from a picturesque.account of a similar
event, described to me by the person by whom it was witnessed in childhood. This lady, by name Mrs. Mar