of the company. The Marquis expanded with pleasure on the power
which probably incidents were likely to assign to him, and on the
use which eh hoped to make of it in serving his kinsman Ravenswood.
Ravenswood could but repeat the gratitude which he really felt, even
when he considered the topic as too long dwelt upon. The wine was
excellent, notwithstanding its having been brought in a runlet from
Edinburgh; and the habits of the Marquis, when engaged with such good
cheer, were somewhat sedentary. And so it fell out that they delayed
their journey two hours later than was their original purpose.

"But what of that, my good young friend?" said the Marquis. "Your Castle
of Wolf's Crag is at but five or six miles' distance, and will afford
the same hospitality to your kinsman of A----that it gave to this same
Sir William Ashton."

"Sir William took the castle by storm," said Ravenswood, "and, like many
a victor, had little reason to congratulate himself on his conquest."
"Well--well!" said Lord A----, whose dignity was something relaxed by
the wine he had drunk, "I see I must bribe you to harbour me. Come,
pledge me in a bumper health to the last young lady that slept at Wolf's
Crag, and liked her quarters. My bones are not so tender as hers, and I
am resolved to occupy her apartment to-night, that I may judge how hard
the couch is that love can soften."

"Your lordship may choose what penance you please," said Ravenswood;
"but I assure you, I should expect my old servant to hang himself, or
throw himself from the battlements, should your lordship visit him so
unexpectedly. I do assure you, we are totally and literally unprovided."

But his declaration only brought from his noble patron an assurance of
his own total indifference as to every species of accommodation, and his
determination to see the Tower of Wolf's Crag. His ancestor, he
said, had been feasted there, when he went forward with the then Lord
Ravenswood to the fatal battle of Flodden, in which they both fell. Thus
hard pressed, the Master offered to ride forward to get matters put in
such preparation as time and circumstances admitted; but the Marquis
protested his kinsman must afford him his company, and would only
consent that an avant-courier should carry to the desinted seneschal,
Caleb Balderstone, the unexpected news of this invasion.

The Master of Ravenswood soon after accompanied the Marquis in his
carriage, as the latter had proposed; and when t