ch it could be most powerfully counteracted; and, while he
did so, a sense of his own harsh conduct towards the daughter of his
enemy naturally induced him, as if by way of recompense, to invest her
with more of grace and beauty than perhaps she could actually claim.

Had any one at this period told the Master of Ravenswood that he had
so lately vowed vengeance against the whole lineage of him whom he
considered, not unjustly, as author of his father's ruin and death, he
might at first have repelled the charge as a foul calumny; yet, upon
serious self-examination, he would have been compelled to admit that it
had, at one period, some foundation in truth, though, according to the
present tone of his sentiments, it was difficult to believe that this
had really been the case.

There already existed in his bosom two contradictory passions--a desire
to revenge the death of his father, strangely qualified by admiration of
his enemy's daughter. Against the former feeling he had struggled, until
it seemed to him upon the wane; against the latter he used no means of
resistance, for he did not suspect its existence. That this was actually
the case was chiefly evinced by his resuming his resolution to leave
Scotland. Yet, though such was his purpose, he remained day after day at
Wolf's Crag, without taking measures for carrying it into execution.
It is true, that he had written to one or two kinsmen who resided in a
distant quarter of Scotland, and particularly to the Marquis of A----,
intimating his purpose; and when pressed upon the subject by Bucklaw, he
was wont to allege the necessity of waiting for their reply, especially
that of the Marquis, before taking so decisive a measure.

The Marquis was rich and powerful; and although he was suspected to
entertain sentiments unfavourable to the government established at the
Revolution, he had nevertheless address enough to head a party in
the Scottish privy council, connected with the High Church faction in
England, and powerful enough to menace those to whom the Lord Keeper
adhered with a probable subversion of their power. The consulting with
a personage of such importance was a plausible excise, which Ravenswood
used to Bucklaw, and probably to himself, for continuing his residence
at Wolf's Crag; and it was rendered yet more so by a general report
which began to be current of a probable change of ministers and measures
in the Scottish administration. The rumours, strongly asser