CHAPTER VIII.

I lent my back unto an aik,
I thought it was a trusty tree;
But first it bowed, and syne it brak,

Sae my fause luve 's forsaken me.
OLD BALLAD.

"Do any of you wish to see my friend, Corrie Lovel?" said General Montgomery, as he half-opened the library-door, and perceived the family party assembled there; "he is in the court-yard in his carriage, and I am going to speak to him."

"Oh! yes, I will go," said Lady Emily: and every body prepared to follow the General, except Lady Frances.

"In his carriage, indeed! My uncle really humours those people too much; at least, if

there is any thing worth seeing, we can see it from the window :" and Lady Frances placed herself in a fauteuil by the open casement. The room, however, was soon deserted by all but herself; and as she sat with her head languidly resting on her beautifully turned arm, she perceived the party, Lord Mowbray among the rest, supporting Lady Emily, as they stood on the steps of the entrance. She saw them wait with impatience and interest, while General Montgomery beckoned Corrie Lovel to draw nearer to them.

The appearance of the old man was calculated to arrest attention. Seated in a sort of cart drawn by donkeys, and conducted by his grandchild Lushee, he looked the chieftain of his wandering tribe: a silvery beard reached almost to his waist; his head was bald, and of a shining whiteness, contrasted with the olive tint of his face: his small piercing eyes, overhung by full shaggy eyebrows, glanced brightly; and the keenness of their expression would have indicated an absence of all truth and integrity in the character, had not a redeeming expression

of open frankness played about the mouth and forehead. His dress, in its way, was as remarkable as his physiognomy :-a shallow-crowned hat was lowered in his hand as he approached the company; it had been black, but was become brown with time and weather; its shape, originally triangular, was now beyond definition, and the golden honours which had formerly graced its border, preserved no relic of their former lustre. The button-loop, which had been wont to shine so brilliantly in front, now scarcely restrained the five black cock feathers, placed crosswise, in mock distinction of the wearer's authority. His neck, the noble column on which Nature's great Architect has placed the head of man, exalting his physical as well as moral vision by the gifts: bestowed upon him, was bare and open, save that a ribbon loosely confined the collar of his snow-white shirt. He wore no waistcoat, or none was visible; but a stripe of some dingy scarlet vestment marked the line in front, down the breast of a coarse covering of brown sheepskin, that served him for a coat, and appeared to have undergone

little transformation from the original fashion which it had worn on the back of its first bleating owner, for it loosely enveloped the body only down to the waist; was without sleeves, and was confined by a strong girdle of leather, and a large silver buckle of antique form. His arms were clad in the undressed skins of some animal, apparently the deer, and fitted nearly to the shape, reaching, however, but little below the elbow, where the linen was seen again in its brilliant whiteness, and opposed itself to his darktoned skin, like a picture of the Italian school, where white is rejected in the carnation, and employed only where the object really is white. Lord Mowbray was struck with it; for it brought back to his mind, scenes, where every common beggar in the streets looks like a figure stepped out from one of the impressive and deep-coloured works of Sebastian del Piombo or Guercino.

Corrie Lovel, besides this body covering, wore a large wrapping cloak, somewhat resembling the Spanish in its fashion, hanging from his shoulders, apparently to be closed or thrown

back, as occasion required; its texture showed the service it had done; and, as he threw it from him when descending from his vehicle to make obeisance to the party, the large clasp that attached it caught General Montgomery's eye, and he exclaimed-" Well, Corrie, I see that the token of times past is still in existence, and I hope you need never be driven to seek its value by its weight."

"It must go hard with Corrie Lovel, honoured General, before he parts with what he values next to life itself."

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Why man, you won it, and may wear it proudly; but had you followed the career it opened to you at the time, you had been better off now."

The facts connected with the clasp in question were associated with a circumstance already alluded to by General Montgomery, after the eventful escape of Corrie from a halter. He had devoted himself for some time to the service of his benefactor, under an impression that, in that scene of danger, opportunity might be