Claverhouse, with all due courtesy, tendered his thanks for their flattering opinion.

"If I deserve one of your commendations, that of a clear head,” he added smiling, "I do not scruple to confess that I owe it in great part to my custom of never drowning in the wine-cup whatever portion of motherwit it hath pleased dame Nature to bestow on me. However I will pledge you once, gentlemen, in acknowledgement of your politeness, before leaving you to your entertainment, which I request may not be prolonged beyond sober bounds."

He did so, after receiving an assurance that they would separate in reasonable time.

The three elder noblemen came out into the houseporch, near which a knot of servants were waiting their pleasure, and stood there for a few minutes' chat before separating. The rain which had been threatening all the evening still held up, although the veil of mist which had hitherto softened the light of the full moon to a silvery, all-pervading gleam-more like early morning than dead of night—had gathered now into thin black wreaths of cloud, which rolled rapidly along, now obscuring, now revealing, a few timid stars; the wind came free and strong across the open country beyond the ramparts; every thing was so fresh and quiet by contrast with the atmosphere of noise, of heat, and of agitation they had just quitted, that Lord Dundee bared his brow to the cool night-breeze, and looked up with positive pleasure to the bright, mild canopy above them.

"Fair weather enough for my young cousin's jour

ney," he said. "By-the-bye, Dunfermline, you have had some opportunity of judging him lately. What do you think of him?"

"Most highly," replied the old earl. "I believe that even you will one day be proud of your pupil. I knew his father well, but this lad has more in him by far. I never could understand, Claverhouse, how his mother came to prefer William Bethune to John Grahame."

Claverhouse only laughed, and said,

"This evening's combinations have rather changed my wishes with regard to his route, but it is too late now to repent."

"Not in the least, my lord; I am very much at your service for a forced march-you have but to say the word."

Lord Dundee almost started.

66

My trusty Crawford, good at need! I thought you safe at quarters, if not sound asleep, man!"

66

Very likely, my lord. But I too conjectured, having the use of my ears and my reason, that you might stand in want of a messenger, and, me voilà."

Away then, kill as many horses as you like, catch him before he leaves Perth, and bid him stay there. You will carry on his dispatches to. Dudhope and Forfar, but above all things-hark ye, hither."

He took Crawford apart, and entrusted to him some particular orders, impressing them upon him with great earnestness; and the soldier strode off at a lively pace, whistling "Dunbarton's drums."

The nobleman who bore that title had already turned

off towards his house near Bristo Port, Claverhouse and Seton taking a cross wynd into the Potter's Row, which they followed until they neared the precincts of the University.

"I will not allow you to accompany me one step further," said the viscount, who knew that his friend lodged in one of the houses which from the south of the Grass Market overlook the Grey Friars Church and Heriot's Hospital, "you have already come some distance out of your road."

"I am loth to leave you," replied the other. "Rumours are about of some project of these fanatics against our chief men, and especially yourself."

"The likelihood of injury attaches fully as much to you as to me," replied Lord Dundee.

"Your servants?" inquired Dunfermline.

"Oh, I have Pate Johnstone, and one of my troopers, Muir, a perfect daredevil, worth any two men when sober, and any four when drunk, which is his usual condition. I don't know whether I ought to say unfortunately, under the present circumstances. We are six good men, you see, upon that computation, and I know of no place between this and the Netherbow where a regiment could lie in ambush."

Dunfermline laughed, but rather seriously, and they parted; Seton turning westward towards home, Lord Dundee descending the College Wynd towards the Cowgate.

CHAPTER XLI.

THE NIGHT OF THE 16TH OF MARCH.

Have ye heard how the Ridleys and Thirlwalls a'
And Willimoteswick, and Hardriding Dick,
And Hughie o' Harden, and Will o' the Wa',
Have set upon Albany Featherstonhaugh,
And taken his life at the Deadmanshaw?

Lay him wi' his face doun, he's a sorrowfu' sight!

WE would not have it inferred from the fact of his name being as yet absent from our pages that Jock Maclean had proved false to his mission—quite the reverse. Nevertheless, it cannot be died that a certain somnolence (superinduced perhaps by the convivial temptations of Tam Leckie and Symmie Brand) had rather enervated the pristine vigour with which he had at first assumed his sentryship, and had even so far snatched him from himself as to confound the voices of the distinguished gentlemen in the porch near with those of the beguiling prodigals who had wiled him away that evening to share their precocious revelry; so that Lord Dundee and his friend were twenty yards or more from the tavern when Jock's faculties returning showed him two unpleasant things, first, that he had lost an excellent opportunity of executing his business, and, secondly, that he was on the point of becoming an unfaithful steward and mansworn traitor.

At least that was his horrified view of the negligence which had succumbed to sleep on an occasion which should have "murdered sleep." He sprang at one bound from his elevated station; but he had once neglected Chance, and that deity now took her revenge. His left foot slipped as it alighted on the round smooth stones of the pavement, and, on trying to use it, he found that his ancle was, if not sprained, so twisted as to be excessively painful.

Sensible however of the vital necessity for placing Alice's letter in Lord Dundee's hands, the poor boy tried to drag himself along in pursuit of the little group, which was not advancing at such a pace as to destroy all possibility of rejoining it; but, as the figures began to grow indistinct in the darkness, and the distance increased with alarming steadiness, Jock hailed them with a cautious call, in the hope of stopping them. The exclamation was heard by Pate Johnstone, who listened to catch the quarter whence it came, but, seeing nothing, shrugged his shoulders, and, not choosing to disturb his master's conversation, paid no attention to it.

Luckily the few sentences exchanged between Claverhouse and Lord Dunfermline gave the zealous pursuer some advantage, which he improved to the uttermost, the departure in a different direction of the earl and his armed servant increasing Jock's remorse for his previous carelessness by redoubling the danger which menaced the viscount. Claverhouse and his attendant had only gone a few steps down the steep College Wynd, when a louder shout, uttered by Jock in desperation, brought both to a standstill.