CHAPTER VIII.

For it was annoyed greatly with robbers and outlaws, which troubled the whole state of the realm, every corner having a Robin Hood in it, that kept the woods, that spoiled all passengers and inhabitants.

SPENCER.

WE now return to Amherst, who, during the night, pregnant with so many busy adventures to his friends, had slept so profoundly on his bed of ferns, that he stirred not until the sun looked over the woods of the eastern hill, and glittered with broken rays through the foliage covering the mouth of the grotto. He started up, and found that the other sleepers, with the exception of O'Gollochar, were already on foot. Lochandhu was walking about under the trees with Macrory, occupied in the examination of the herd of cattle, whilst the rest of the party were busied in preparing a breakfast, from ingredients resembling those of the supper of the preceding evening.

"We must be expeditious to-day, Mr Oakenwold," said Lochandhu, after the first salutations of the morning; "we have a long tedious ride of it before us."

"I hope our poor horses have had something substantial then," said Amherst.

"I'll warrant they have not been starved," said Lochandhu; "but let us step this way, and we shall see how they are doing."

A few paces brought them to a projecting shelf of the rock, within the enclosure, where their horses, and six or seven ponies of humbler stature, rough as goats, and with long shaggy tails and manes, were tied to strong pegs driven firmly into the ground. As Lochandhu had hinted, there was no fear of their starving, for they were littered up to their noses in sheaves of corn, twothirds of which had been destroyed by their feet in eating the other. O'Gollochar, who now appeared, proceeded to give them such grooming as the place afforded, whilst the gentlemen hastened to breakfast, which, like the supper, was begun and terminated by the potation of a queach full of brandy.

"You will be travelling soon, Macrory ?" said

Lochandhu, as he and Amherst were taking leave of him.

"Och aye," replied he; "I'll be aff just af ter yoursell. But we'se tak it at laishur-we needna hurry the puir beasts noo—we're a' safe eneugh. If I'm at hame by the morn's mornin', it's the maist ye can expect o' me."

The horses being now saddled, they were led after the gentlemen up a steep path, from the stable, to the level ground on the top of the cliff, where they found themselves among the tall pines, on the very point of it. Though they now stood immediately over the grotto, not a vestige of any thing appeared that could indicate any such concealment below; nor would Amherst have believed, had he not known the fact, that there were so many armed men, and so large a herd of horned cattle so near him. The smoke rising from the fire, broken by its ascent through the foliage, presented more the appearance of one of those morning mists, so often seen hanging over woods, in low situations, than any thing originating from an artificial cause. Even the lowing of the cattle underwent so many reverberations, that it was difficult to fix on the place whence it originated.

The spot where they stood was very commanding, and nothing in nature could be more enchanting than the surrounding scenery; the morning sun was now hailing it with a smiling face, as if he rejoiced to revisit it; his beams lighted up the woods hanging on the surrounding heights with the richest hues. The horsemen staid not long to admire, but rode away at a smart trot, Hamish preceding them as before. Amherst availed himself of the first opportunity to question Lochandhu about the persons and place they had just left.

Macrory is a sort of a cattle-dealer,” replied he," a great attender of markets; and besides, as you might have gathered from his conversation, as well as from the liquor he entertained us with, he merchandizes a little in the smuggling way. He and his men have no objections to take a deer when he comes across them, or even to go in search of him when he does not choose to be so mannerly. As for the place, it is an old halting corner of his, where he often stops. I had some reason to guess he would be there last night, and thought it better to beat up his quarters,

than that we should travel all night to reach the public-house we are now going to."

There was something not quite satisfactory, and a good deal rather at variance with appearances, in this explanation, but Amherst was forced to content himself with it such as it was.

Their course lay for many miles up the banks of the larger river, sometimes running close to its margin through little dells of rich pasture, and at others along steep wooded precipices, or under the base of overhanging crags, or along their brow, where the smallest slip of a foot might have been fatal to both horse and rider. The grandeur, the beauty, and the endless diversity of the scenery of this wild stream, so bewitched Amherst's romantic imagination, that he almost forgot for a time the theme of his sorrows.

In this, however, he had soon sufficient leisure to indulge. For, winding away from the river, they climbed through woods of oak and birch, up the banks of a small tributary stream, in its rocks, its waterfalls, and its rapids, appearing like a miniature picture of the larger. As they continued to ascend, the birches grew thinner, until at last they entirely disappeared; and Amherst, in look