the fear of the Lord Keeper. The desperate and dark resource of private
assassination, so familiar to a Scottish baron in former times, had even
in the present age been too frequently resorted to under the pressure of
unusual temptation, or where the mind of the actor was prepared for
such a crime. Sir William Ashton was aware of this; as also that young
Ravenswood had received injuries sufficient to prompt him to that sort
of revenge, which becomes a frequent though fearful consequence of the
partial administration of justice. He endeavoured to disguise from
Alice the nature of the apprehensions which he entertained; but so
ineffectually, that a person even of less penetration than nature had
endowed her with must necessarily have been aware that the subject lay
near his bosom. His voice was changed in its accent as he replied to
her, "That the Master of Ravenswood was a man of honour; and, were it
otherwise, that the fate of Chiesley of Dalry was a sufficient warning
to any one who should dare to assume the office of avenger of his own
imaginary wrongs." And having hastily uttered these expressions, he rose
and left the place without waiting for a reply.

CHAPTER V.

Is she a Capulet?
O dear account! my life is my foe's debt.

SHAKESPEARE

THE Lord Keeper walked for nearly a quarter of a mile in profound
silence. His daughter, naturally timid, and bred up in those ideas of
filial awe and implicit obedience which were inculcated upon the youth
of that period, did not venture to interrupt his meditations.

"Why do you look so pale, Lucy?" said her father, turning suddenly round
and breaking silence.

According to the ideas of the time, which did not permit a young woman
to offer her sentiments on any subject of importance unless required to
do so, Lucy was bound to appear ignorant of the meaning of all that
had passed betwixt Alice and her father, and imputed the emotion he had
observed to the fear of the wild cattle which grazed in that part of the
extensive chase through which they were now walking.

Of these animals, the descendants of the savage herds which anciently
roamed free in the Caledonian forests, it was formerly a point of
state to preserve a few in the parks of the Scottish nobility. Specimens
continued within the memory of man to be kept at least at three houses
of distinction--Hamilton, namely, Drumlanrig, and Cumbernauld. They had
degenerated from the ancient race in size