of a January day when we rode at last into the town of
Dunkirk. We left our horses at the post, and found a guide to Bazin's
Inn, which lay beyond the walls. Night was quite fallen, so that we were
the last to leave that fortress, and heard the doors of it close behind
us as we passed the bridge. On the other side there lay a lighted
suburb, which we thridded for a while, then turned into a dark lane, and
presently found ourselves wading in the night among deep sand where we
could hear a bullering of the sea. We travelled in this fashion for some
while, following our conductor mostly by the sound of his voice; and I
had begun to think he was perhaps misleading us, when we came to the top
of a small brae, and there appeared out of the darkness a dim light in a
window.

"_Voila l'auberge a, Bazin_," says the guide.

Alan smacked his lips. "An unco lonely bit," said he, and I thought by
his tone he was not wholly pleased.

A little after, and we stood in the lower storey of the house, which was
all in the one apartment, with a stair leading to the chambers at the
side, benches and tables by the wall, the cooking fire at the one end of
it, and shelves of bottles and the cellar-trap at the other. Here Bazin,
who was an ill-looking, big man, told us the Scottish gentleman was gone
abroad he knew not where, but the young lady was above, and he would
call her down to us.

I took from my breast the kerchief wanting the corner, and knotted it
about my throat. I could hear my heart go; and Alan patting me on the
shoulder with some of his laughable expressions, I could scarce refrain
from a sharp word. But the time was not long to wait. I heard her step
pass overhead, and saw her on the stair. This she descended very
quietly, and greeted me with a pale face and certain seeming of
earnestness, or uneasiness, in her manner that extremely dashed me.

"My father, James More, will be here soon. He will be very pleased to
see you," she said. And then of a sudden her face flamed, her eyes
lightened, the speech stopped upon her lips; and I made sure she had
observed the kerchief. It was only for a breath that she was
discomposed; but methought it was with a new animation that she turned
to welcome Alan. "And you will be his friend Alan Breck?" she cried.
"Many is the dozen times I will have heard him tell of you; and I love
you already for all your bravery and goodness."

"Well, well," says Alan, holding her hand in his and viewing