ose leap had disturbed the dry and rotten branches
that lay upon the ground; and Mary smiled with faint-heartedness at the
illusions of her own mind. She arrived at last beneath the brow of a
crag that jutted over the stream, and in the shade of one of the angles
of the rock, she discerned the figure of a man seated upon the grass.
She paused with a distrustful caution, as she challenged the silent and
half-concealed person.

"Hist, John! is it you? For mercy, speak! Why would you frighten
me?--Me, Mary. Don't you know me?" said the maiden, as she took heart of
grace and advanced near enough to put her hand upon John Ramsay's
shoulder. "Powers above! the man's asleep," she added with a laugh.
"Who would have thought I should have caught you napping, John, at such
a time as this!"

"Why, in truth, Mary," said John Ramsay, waking up under the touch of
his mistress, and rising to his feet, "I deserve to be shot for sleeping
on my watch; but I have been so driven from post to pillar for this last
fortnight, that it is as much as I can do to keep my eyes open when
night comes on. So Mary, you will forgive me, and more particularly when
I tell you I was dreaming of you; and thought this war was at an end,
and that you and I were happy in a house of our own. I have been waiting
for you for upwards of an hour."

"Ah, John, I don't think I could sleep if it had been my turn to watch
for you."

"There's the difference," replied John, "betwixt you women and us men;
you are so full of frights and fidgetings and fancyings, that I do
verily believe all the sleeping doses in the world could never make you
shut your eyes when anything is going on that requires watching, whether
it be for a sick friend or for a piece of scheming. Now, with us, we
take a nap on a hard-trotting horse, and fall to snoring up to the very
minute that the trumpet wakes us to make a charge. What news from
Butler?"

"It is all fixed," answered Mary, "to our hearts' content. Lieutenant
Macdonald, ever since Cornwallis's letter, allows Major Butler greater
privileges; and the sentinels are not half so strict as they used to be;
so that I think we may give them the slip. By the gable window that
looks out from the garret room, the Major will be able to get upon the
roof, and that, he thinks, is near enough to the tree for him to risk a
leap into its branches; though I am almost afraid he is mistaken, for it
looks awfully wide for a spring. He says if you wil