asted."

Naughty, roistering fellows! I thought I could perceive how this poor
Father Francis had worn his life out exhorting them to repentance, and
given up the ghost at last in despair, and so been made at once into a
saint and a corbel.

There were fragments of tracery, of mouldings and cornices, and
grotesque bits of architecture there, which I would have given a good
deal to be the possessor of. Stepping into a little cottage hard by to
speak to the guide about unlocking the gates, when we went out on our
moonlight excursion at midnight, I caught a glimpse, in an inner
apartment, of a splendid, large, black dog. I gave one exclamation and
jump, and was into the room after him.

"Ah," said the old man, "that was just like Sir Walter; he always had an
eye for a dog."

It gave me a kind of pain to think of him and his dogs, all lying in the
dust together; and yet it was pleasant to hear this little remark of
him, as if it were made by those who had often seen, and were fond of
thinking of him. The dog's name was Coal, and he was black enough, and
remarkable enough, to make a figure in a story--a genuine Melrose Abbey
dog. I should not wonder if he were a descendant, in a remote degree, of
the "mauthe doog," that supernatural beast, which Scott commemorates in
his notes. The least touch in the world of such blood in his veins would
be, of course, an appropriate circumstance in a dog belonging to an old
ruined abbey.

Well, I got home, and narrated my adventures to my friends, and showed
them my reliquary purchases, and declared my strengthening intention to
make my ghostly visit by moonlight, if there was any moon to be had that
night, which was a doubtful possibility.

In the course of the evening came in Mr. ----, who had volunteered his
services as guide and attendant during the interesting operation.

"When does the moon rise?" said one.

"O, a little after eleven o'clock, I believe," said Mr. ----.

Some of the party gaped portentously.

"You know," said I, "Scott says we must see it by moonlight; it is one
of the proprieties of the place, as I understand."

"How exquisite that description is, of the effect of moonlight!" says
another.

"I think it probable," says Mr. ----, dryly, "that Scott never saw it by
moonlight himself. He was a man of very regular habits, and seldom went
out evenings."

The blank amazement with which this communication was received set S----
into an inextinguishable fit o