s should
blow over. He answered with great composure that he had no mind to have
his landlord's house and his own property at Woodbourne destroyed; that,
with our good leave, he had usually been esteemed competent to taking
measures for the safety or protection of his family; that, if he remained
quiet at home, he conceived the welcome the villains had received was not
of a nature to invite a second visit, but should he show any signs of
alarm, it would be the sure way to incur the very risk which we were
afraid of. Heartened by his arguments, and by the extreme indifference
with which he treated the supposed danger, we began to grow a little
bolder, and to walk about as usual. Only the gentlemen were sometimes
invited to take their guns when they attended us, and I observed that my
father for several nights paid particular attention to having the house
properly secured, and required his domestics to keep their arms in
readiness in case of necessity.

'But three days ago chanced an occurrence of a nature which alarmed me
more by far than the attack of the smugglers.

'I told you there was a small lake at some distance from Woodbourne,
where the gentlemen sometimes go to shoot wild-fowl. I happened at
breakfast to say I should like to see this place in its present frozen
state, occupied by skaters and curlers, as they call those who play a
particular sort of game upon the ice. There is snow on the ground, but
frozen so hard that I thought Lucy and I might venture to that distance,
as the footpath leading there was well beaten by the repair of those who
frequented it for pastime. Hazlewood instantly offered to attend us, and
we stipulated that he should take his fowling-piece. He laughed a good
deal at the idea of going a-shooting in the snow; but, to relieve our
tremors, desired that a groom, who acts as gamekeeper occasionally,
should follow us with his gun. As for Colonel Mannering, he does not like
crowds or sights of any kind where human figures make up the show, unless
indeed it were a military review, so he declined the party.

'We set out unusually early, on a fine, frosty, exhilarating morning, and
we felt our minds, as well as our nerves, braced by the elasticity of the
pure air. Our walk to the lake was delightful, or at least the
difficulties were only such as diverted us,--a slippery descent, for
instance, or a frozen ditch to cross, which made Hazlewood's assistance
absolutely necessary. I don't think Lucy