s the utter obscurity of his life while in
existence, had been dead for many years, when it occurred to the author
that such a character might be made a powerful agent in fictitious
narrative. He, accordingly, sketched that of Elshie of the
Mucklestane-Moor. The story was intended to be longer, and the
catastrophe more artificially brought out; but a friendly critic, to
whose opinion I subjected the work in its progress, was of opinion, that
the idea of the Solitary was of a kind too revolting, and more likely to
disgust than to interest the reader. As I had good right to consider my
adviser as an excellent judge of public opinion, I got off my subject
by hastening the story to an end, as fast as it was possible; and, by
huddling into one volume, a tale which was designed to occupy two, have
perhaps produced a narrative as much disproportioned and distorted, as
the Black Dwarf who is its subject.

III. THE BLACK DWARF.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY.

Hast any philosophy in thee, Shepherd?--AS YOU LIKE IT.

It was a fine April morning (excepting that it had snowed hard the night
before, and the ground remained covered with a dazzling mantle of six
inches in depth) when two horsemen rode up to the Wallace Inn. The first
was a strong, tall, powerful man, in a grey riding-coat, having a hat
covered with waxcloth, a huge silver-mounted horsewhip, boots, and
dreadnought overalls. He was mounted on a large strong brown mare, rough
in coat, but well in condition, with a saddle of the yeomanry cut, and
a double-bitted military bridle. The man who accompanied him was
apparently his servant; he rode a shaggy little grey pony, had a blue
bonnet on his head, and a large check napkin folded about his neck, wore
a pair of long blue worsted hose instead of boots, had his gloveless
hands much stained with tar, and observed an air of deference and
respect towards his companion, but without any of those indications
of precedence and punctilio which are preserved between the gentry
and their domestics. On the contrary, the two travellers entered the
court-yard abreast, and the concluding sentence of the conversation
which had been carrying on betwixt them was a joint ejaculation, "Lord
guide us, an this weather last, what will come o' the lambs!" The hint
was sufficient for my Landlord, who, advancing to take the horse of the
principal person, and holding him by the reins as he dismounted, while
his ostler rendered the same