came my quarrel with
Captain M'Intyre, and my compelled departure from Fairport."

"Well, Major Neville, you must, I believe, exchange both of your aliases
for the style and title of the Honourable William Geraldin, commonly
called Lord Geraldin."

The Antiquary then went through the strange and melancholy circumstances
concerning his mother's death. "And now, my dear sir," said he, in
conclusion, "let me have the pleasure of introducing a son to a father."

We will not attempt to describe such a meeting. The proof on all sides
was found to be complete, for Mr. Neville had left a distinct account of
the whole transaction with his confidential steward in a small packet,
which was not to be opened until the death of the old countess.

In the evening of that day, the yeomanry and volunteers of Glenallan
drank prosperity to their young master; and a month afterwards, Lord
Glenallan was married to Miss Wardour.

Hector is rising rapidly in the army, and rises proportionally high in
his uncle's favour.

* * * * *

Guy Mannering

"Guy Mannering, or, the Astrologer," the second of the
Waverley series, represents the labour of six weeks. Although
the novel was completed in so short a period, neither
story--if one or two instances of evidences of haste is
ignored--nor characterisation has suffered. For the main theme
Scott was indebted to an old legend of the horoscope of a
new-born infant. In common with nearly all his tales, several
of the characters in "Guy Mannering" were founded on real
persons; Meg Merrilies was the prototype of a gipsy named
Jennie Gordon, and many of the personal features of Dominie
Sampson were obtained from a clergyman who once acted as tutor
at Abbotsford. The hero was at once recognised by Hogg, the
Ettrick shepherd, as a portrait of Scott himself.

_I.--The Astrologer_

It was in the month of November, 17--, when a young English gentleman,
who had just left the University of Oxford, being benighted while
sightseeing in Dumfriesshire, sought shelter at Ellangowan, on the very
night the heir was born. Our hero, Guy Mannering, entering into the
simple humour of Mr. Bertram, his host, agreed to calculate the infant's
horoscope by the stars, having in early youth studied with an old
clergyman who had a firm belief in astrology.

Mannering had once before tried a similar piece of fooler