as it is laid in. Hence it is that a charm dwells
undefinable among these slovenly verses, as the unseen cuckoo fills the
mountains with his note; hence, even after we have flung the book aside,
the scenery and adventures remain present to the mind, a new and green
possession, not unworthy of that beautiful name, "The Lady of the Lake,"
or that direct, romantic opening--one of the most spirited and poetical
in literature--"The stag at eve had drunk his fill." The same strength
and the same weaknesses adorn and disfigure the novels. In that
ill-written, ragged book, "The Pirate," the figure of Cleveland--cast up
by the sea on the resounding foreland of Dunrossness--moving, with the
blood on his hands and the Spanish words on his tongue, among the simple
islanders--singing a serenade under the window of his Shetland
mistress--is conceived in the very highest manner of romantic invention.
The words of his song, "Through groves of palm," sung in such a scene
and by such a lover, clinch, as in a nutshell, the emphatic contrast
upon which the tale is built. In "Guy Mannering," again, every incident
is delightful to the imagination; and the scene when Harry Bertram lands
at Ellangowan is a model instance of romantic method.

"'I remember the tune well,' he says,'though I cannot guess what should
at present so strongly recall it to my memory.' He took his flageolet
from his pocket and played a simple melody. Apparently the tune awoke
the corresponding associations of a damsel.... She immediately took up
the song--

"'Are these the links of Forth, she said;
Or are they the crooks of Dee,
Or the bonny woods of Warroch Head
That I so fain would see?'

"'By heaven!' said Bertram, 'it is the very ballad.'"

On this quotation two remarks fall to be made. First, as an instance of
modern feeling for romance, this famous touch of the flageolet and the
old song is selected by Miss Braddon for omission. Miss Braddon's idea
of a story, like Mrs. Todgers's idea of a wooden leg, were something
strange to have expounded. As a matter of personal experience, Meg's
appearance to old Mr. Bertram on the road, the ruins of Derncleugh, the
scene of the flageolet, and the Dominie's recognition of Harry, are the
four strong notes that continue to ring in the mind after the book is
laid aside. The second point is still more curious. The reader will
observe a mark of excision in the passage as quoted by me. Well, here is
how it ru