lion's den," thought the terrified girl, pressing her cold wet palms more closely together.

"Curse you! Give us some light, I say! I hate being in the dark," grumbled the sullen ruffian, as the other still delayed.

"Thou hast lived long enough in it to have grown accustomed to it, methinks," was the answer, in the unmistakeable speech of a Cameronian preacher; and, with these words, a slender stream of light shone through the opening of the door of communication, ran along the floor, and rose half way to the ceiling; so that Alice now saw from where she knelt the two figures it rendered visible in the room beyond.

"He is not come, after all!" exclaimed Drummond, throwing himself into a chair, with his back to the frightened watcher.

"It seemeth not. He made no positive tryst, remember."

"No? What are we doing here, then?"

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'Nay; did I not tell thee that the promise was on this wise-that if his errand prospered he would meet us here, but that if he were unseasonably delayed we must proceed to the very spot?"

"I forgot. And is he to be trusted-this new David who is to slay the champion of the persecuting Philistines?" asked the quondam Guardsman, with an ill-concealed sneer.

"Even as myself."

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Humph!" was the insolent articulation of Drummond. Then came a pause.

"Hark!" exclaimed the Cameronian-"what stirred?"

"Nothing-absurd!" said Drummond, glancing "What should there be?"

over his shoulder.

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Nothing, like enough. But when thou hast lived long years an outlawed wanderer in dens and caves of the earth, in spots where each bank and scaur might shelter a foe, each tree a man of blood hungering and thirsting for the life of the Lord's chosen ones, as thou hast done thyself, thou wouldst be apt to use more prudence, I ween, even between four bare walls, which could scarce conceal a lurking enemy."

Thereupon the Cameronian took up the lamp, and advanced into the room where Alice was. The girl closed her lips to retain her gasping breath; she expected no less than that he should walk straight to her hiding-place and drag her from it; she counted every infinitesimal point of time which delayed the discovery, and each seemed to be the last. But he stopped in the middle of the apartment, and, lifting the lamp, turned gradually round to cast its light in all directions-went a step or two towards the bed-closet already mentioned-opened it and looked in-paused, again listened acutely with his head peering forwards and his hand behind his ear, in the attitude of a man accustomed to the dangers and suspicions of his habitual existence then, apparently satisfied, locked and double-locked the door which Alice had been unable to unfasten, and went back to his associate.

"All is well," he said, sitting down, and placing the lamp upon the table, none can now enter in upon us

unobserved.

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Alice, who had sunk down from sheer nervous

VOL. III.

с

weakness easy to conceive, with infinite precaution raised herself again, and found that she could see a good deal of what was going on, and hear every syllable as plainly as if she had been beside the actors, except when, as sometimes happened, a noise in the street deadened the sounds within.

For a considerable time-she had no means of judging how long-there was nothing to see or to hear. The Cameronian had applied himself to the study of a small book which he produced from his pocket-Drummond, whom Alice now recognised by sight as well as by ear, was as noisy and restless as his companion was quiet, walking round and round the room like a bear in its cell, his long sword and iron-heeled boots resounding loudly in the half-empty space-flinging himself down every five minutes on his seat, and grating it roughly backwards as he did so--muttering to himself curses which very often he repeated aloud, and beating the devil's tattoo with hand and foot, partly it would seem from inability to compose himself, partly to attract the attention of the reader, who did not however allow himself to be thus disturbed.

"Heatherfield!" he began at last, "what do you think of my manoeuvre for obtaining the best and latest intelligence respecting my lord viscount's movements,--his outgoings and incomings, his plans and route for the evening? Did I not tell you I would have it all out of Muir, like the cork from a flask of Burgundy? It is not in vain that I know the peccadilloes of my old comrades, and can worm out what I want from under a drunken man's belt as

keenly as e'er a lawyer in auld Reekie. I plied him so generously that he will snore like a pig in his sty until this time to-morrow, and hang me if I don't take some credit to myself for keeping the body in subjection, as you call it, so far as to have one or two of my senses clear. I thought it was all up with me, half a stoup more would have finished me, when my camarado rolled over, and I gave him a kick to celebrate my victory--ha, ha! it was more than you could have carried, old lantern-jaws!"

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Thy triumph well becomes thee," replied the harsh but clear and sonorous tones of the Cameronian; “to pander to a fellow-creature's vices for thine own ends is worthy of the school in which thou wert reared, and the sins in which thou hast wallowed, and lovest still to enjoy, albeit thou hast joined thyself for a time to children of the Covenant."

"Hold your cursed cant, with a murrain on you!" cried Drummond, who was as usual in that particular stage of intoxication which inflames all the evil passions while leaving the faculties tolerably alert. "You lying old gallows-snipe! that I could have hanged fifty times over in the good times when we rode booted and spurred over your craven necks, do you come with your sanctified snuffle to brand me as a child of the devil, an apostate bound for perdition, when we are both here with the same hope and for the same godly purpose? You want to kill him because he has injured you-I intend to have his life because he insulted me-do you understand plain English, most elect brother? which of us is the better man, eh?"

In his exasperation, the half-drunken bravo shook his clenched fist in the face of the Whig, with an oath which made poor Alice feel as if the earth must open to engulf him.

"Why do the heathen so furiously rage?" was the unmoved answer of Heatherfield. "Behold, they are in the hand of the Lord to do as seemeth him good, ordained as instruments of vengeance against the persecutors, and sharp arrows in the side of the ungodly— as it is written so shall it come to pass. Thou, George Drummond, who hast thy portion with the uncircumcised in heart and lips, art become as Jehu the son of Nimshi, and as the man Hazael, King of Syria, to execute wrath upon the chief enemy of God-when thy task is done, and the cup of thine iniquities full, shall he not break thee in pieces like a potter's vessel?"

His worthy coadjutor in the scheme of violence to which all this excited recrimination evidently alluded, uttered a loud brutal laugh and a jest more brutal still.

"I fight for no lord or master, earthly or heavenly,' he sneered, "but for mine own hand; and, by—! if this chance fail me through any fault of yours or yonder whey-faced loon, I will turn my weapon-yea brother, even this carnal weapon of which thou didst once taste the virtue and efficacy upon thine own skull-against the lambs of the Covenant, who for their own edifying purposes have let a wolf like myself into the true fold, without even the sheep's clothing."

“Miserable man! are thine eyes so blinded that thou can'st behold nothing but thine own fleshly ven