ted by
some, and as resolutely denied by others, as their wishes or interest
dictated, found their way even to the ruinous Tower of Wolf's Crag,
chiefly through the medium of Caleb, the butler, who, among his other
excellences, was an ardent politician, and seldom made an excursion
from the old fortress to the neighbouring village of Wolf's Hope without
bringing back what tidings were current in the vicinity.

But if Bucklaw could not offer any satisfactory objections to the delay
of the Master in leaving Scotland, he did not the less suffer with
impatience the state of inaction to which it confined him; and it was
only the ascendency which his new companion had acquired over him that
induced him to submit to a course of life so alien to his habits and
inclinations.

"You were wont to be thought a stirring active young fellow, Master,"
was his frequent remonstrance; "yet here you seem determined to live
on and on like a rat in a hole, with this trifling difference, that the
wiser vermin chooses a hermitage where he can find food at least; but as
for us, Caleb's excuses become longer as his diet turns more spare, and
I fear we shall realise the stories they tell of the slother: we have
almost eat up the last green leaf on the plant, and have nothing left
for it but to drop from the tree and break our necks."

"Do not fear it," said Ravenswood; "there is a fate watches for us, and
we too have a stake in the revolution that is now impending, and which
already has alarmed many a bosom."

"What fate--what revolution?" inquired his companion. "We have had one
revolution too much already, I think."

Ravenswood interrupted him by putting into his hands a letter.

"Oh," answered Bucklaw, "my dream's out. I thought I heard Caleb this
morning pressing some unfortunate fellow to a drink of cold water, and
assuring him it was better for his stomach in the morning than ale or
brandy."

"It was my Lord of A----'s courier," said Ravenswood, "who was doomed to
experience his ostentatious hospitality, which I believe ended in sour
beer and herrings. Read, and you will see the news he has brought us."
"I will as fast as I can," said Bucklaw; "but I am no great clerk, nor
does his lordship seem to be the first of scribes."

The reader will peruse in, a few seconds, by the aid our friend
Ballantyne's types, what took Bucklaw a good half hour in perusal,
though assisted by the Master of Ravenswood. The tenor was as follows:

"RI