pointing with
his forefinger upwards, in a manner which might imply either a threat
or a caution. He then disappeared in the moonlight.

Some words passed after his departure between the bailiff, who piqued
himself on being a little of a bully, and Harry Wakefield, who, with
generous inconsistency, was now not indisposed to begin a new combat in
defence of Robin Oig's reputation, "although he could not use his
daddies like an Englishman, as it did not come natural to him."

But Dame Heskett prevented this second quarrel from coming to a head by
her peremptory interference. "There should be no more fighting in her
house," she said; "there had been too much already. And you, Mr.
Wakefield, may live to learn," she added, "what it is to make a deadly
enemy out of a good friend."

"Pshaw, dame! Robin Oig is an honest fellow, and will never keep
malice."

"Do not trust to that: you do not know the dour temper of the Scots,
though you have dealt with them so often. I have a right to know them,
my mother being a Scot."

"And so is well seen on her daughter," said Ralph Heskett.

This nuptial sarcasm gave the discourse another turn; fresh customers
entered the taproom or kitchen, and others left it. The conversation
turned on the expected markets, and the reports of prices from
different parts both of Scotland and England; treaties were commenced,
and Harry Wakefield was lucky enough to find a chap for a part of his
drove, and at a very considerable profit--an event of consequence more
than sufficient to blot out all remembrances of the unpleasant scuffle
in the earlier part of the day.

But there remained one party from whose mind that recollection could
not have been wiped away by the possession of every head of cattle
betwixt Esk and Eden. This was Robin Oig M'Combich. "That I should
have had no weapon," he said, "and for the first time in my life!
Blighted be the tongue that bids the Highlander part with the dirk.
The dirk hae! the English blood! My muhme's word--when did her word
fall to the ground?"

The recollection of the fatal prophecy confirmed the deadly intention
which instantly sprang up in his mind.

"Ha! Morrison cannot be many miles behind; and if it were an hundred,
what then?"

His impetuous spirit had now a fixed purpose and motive of action, and
he turned the light foot of his country towards the wilds, through
which he knew, by Mr. Ireby's report, that Morrison was advancing. His
min