shortly follow him, and resentment canna reach beyond the grave, though mine, God forgive me, has followed him till his."

Here his voice was again choked, and he turned himself once more toward the wall and was silent. I too was agitated. There is a blind propensity in our nature, to participate in deep emotion of any kind, and I felt its influence at that moment. To a spirit so perturbed, I felt it would be impertinent in me to offer either condolence or consolation. I took the old man's hand, and pressed it in mine; and when, after a considerable interval, he again turned towards me, I saw that the veins of his forehead were turgid, and his eyes bloodshot. For some hours I sat by his bed-side, and he became gradually calmer, and the storm by which he had before been so powerfully stirred, at length subsided.

The task of making the necessary arrangements for the funeral devolved upon him, and I think he experienced relief from having it in his power to offer this, the last and only tribute to his departed brother.

By his dictation, I wrote to Bailie Cleland all suitable directions with regard to the conduct of the funeral; and letters of invitation having been prepared by one of the clerks, and signed by my uncle, were dispatched to all the friends of the family. It was likewise arranged, that on the Monday following, we should set out for Balmalloch in a mourning coach, in order to attend the obsequies of the Laird.

CHAPTER XI.

But when return'd the youth? The youth no more
Return'd exulting to his native shore ;

But fifty years elapsed, and then there came

A worn-out man.

CRABBE.

With easy roads he came to Leicester,
And lodged in the Abbey.

Henry VIII.

IN a few days, the shock occasioned to my uncle by his brother's death, in a great measure subsided. His sorrow, if it did not pass away, was at least calm and silent, and the tortures of self-reproach, under which he had at first suffered so deeply, gradually softened into feelings of melancholy regret. He did not again speak on the subject of his brother; little change was observable in his deportment, and his countenance gave no indication of internal suffering.

On the morning fixed for our departure, I breakfasted with Mr Spreull, and the meal was

scarcely concluded, when the arrival of the mourning coach, which was to convey us to our destination, was duly announced. The vehicle in question was one of preposterous dimensions, apparently crazy from age, and drawn by two long-tailed black horses, which would have done no discredit to the team of the Newcastle waggon. The driver was a red-faced and facetiouslooking person, suitably clad in sables, and mounted on a coach-box decorated by a hammer-cloth of black calico. The work of packing the baggage in the carriage now commenced, under the special superintendance of Girzy and myself. Mine consisted only of a small portmanteau, and was easily disposed of. This was not the case, however, with my uncle's. I could scarcely refrain from laughing, when my servant and Sanders MacAuslan appeared laboriously descending the narrow stairs, bearing with difficulty between them an enormous hairtrunk, about the size of a meal-girnel, fortified at every corner with iron plates, and the letters D. S. conspicuously traced in brass nails on the lid. Honest Jehu stood aghast at this unlooked-for addition to his load, and appeared

sorely puzzled as to the mode in which the transit of this ponderous appendage was to be effected.

While we were yet engaged in such meditations as may be supposed to have occupied Mr Belzoni when he first contemplated the removal of the Memnon, our cogitations were interrupted by the appearance of my uncle, who came to inspect the travelling arrangements.

"Deevil tak the woman," exclaimed he, exasperated at the heavy marching trim in which the faithful Girzy was about to dispatch him; 66 why, here's baggage enough for a regiment of heavy horse. Do ye think, born tawpy as ye are, that I'm gaun a voyage to the Indies? Why, that kist's about half freight for an American lumber-ship. Just tak it back, and pit me up a change o' linen in a napkin. I declare the woman's little better than a bedlamite !"

Against the execution of these orders Girzy strongly entered her protest. She declared she would on no account allow him to travel at this season of the year, so slenderly provided with necessaries as he desired. To do so, she said, would be a wilful tempting of Providence, Who