their hands, behind some whin bushes at the foot o' the battlements.
There was running, clanking, and shouting through the castle for a time;
but, as naething like the presence o' an enemy was either seen or heard,
the sentry that had raised the alarm was laughed at, and some gaed back
to their beds, and others to their wine. But, after about two hours, and
when a'thing was again quiet, my kinsman and his followers climbed the
walls, and, rushing frae sentinel to sentinel, they owrecam ane after
anither before they could gie the alarm to the garrison in the castle;
and, bursting into it, shouted--'Hurra!--Scotland and Home for ever!'
Panic seized the garrison; some started frae their sleep--others reeled
frae their cups--some grasped their arms--others ran, they knew not
where--but terror struck the hearts o' ane and a'; and still, as the
cry, 'Scotland and Home for ever!' rang frae room to room, and was
echoed through the lang high galleries, it seemed like the shouting o'
a thousand men; and, within ten minutes, every man in the garrison was
made prisoner or put to the sword! And noo, neebors, what my kinsman
and a handfu' o' countrymen did for the deliverance o' the Castle o'
Home, can ye not do for Fast Castle, or will ye not--and so drive every
invader oot o' Berwickshire?"

"I dinna mean to say, Madge," answered one, who appeared to be the
most influential personage amongst her auditors--"I dinna mean to say
but that your relation and his comrades hae performed a most noble
and gallant exploit--one that renders them worthy o' being held in
everlasting remembrance by their countrymen--and glad would I be if we
could this night do the same for Fast Castle. But, woman, the thing is
impossible; the cases are not parallel. It mightna be a difficult matter
to scale the highest part o' the walls o' Home Castle, and ladders could
easily be got for that purpose; but, at Fast Castle, wi' the draw-brig
up, and the dark, deep, terrible chasm between you and the walls, like
the bottomless gulf between time and eternity!--I say, again, for my
part, the thing is impossible. Wha has strength o' head, even for a
moment, to look doun frae the dark and dizzy height o' the Wolf's
Crag?--and wha could think o' scaling it? Even if it had been possible,
the stoutest heart that ever beat in a bosom would, wi' the sickening
horror o' its owner's situation, before he was half-way up, be dead as
the rocks that would dash him to pieces as he