We forbear to pursue their colloquy further; which ended at last in Breadalbane's informing him that Lady Hunlocke's letter contained a strong recommendation of M'cMuckleman himself to his favour and patronage (at which the poor man was so overpowered with amazement and gratitude, that he could not articulate a word in reply.)

Breadalbane assured him that the zeal he had shewn in the service of these ladies, and their recommendation, was the most powerful claim he could possess to his own good offices-and promised, in general terms, to befriend him as far as was in his power; but he did not chuse even to make a remote conditional promise respecting giving him a kirk, lest his qualifications, on inquiry, should not be found to merit it. The poor man's hopes never soared the tenth part so high as the dazzling prospect of getting a settlement.' Even for this vague assurance, gratitude struck him speechless--or rather he assayed to speak unutterable things' -for to look them was not in poor M'cMuckleman's power.

But his stammering thanks, too big for words, were cut short by Breadalbane inquiring, 'whether there was any thing he could do at present for Mr. M'cMuckleman?'

"There is ae thing,' ejaculated M'cMuckleman; and forthwith he confided to Breadalbane, with his usual happy perspicuity—how the weight of Lady Hunlocke's siller hung heavy on his soul-and how he wished that Maister Breadalbane wad take charge of this bit of a check, and give it to her leddyship

again, with his humble duty, and assure her leddyship he was mair thankfu' than if he had keepit it aw' ;-but he could na' beer to tak the siller for the beukes till they were a' preented.' And his oration and flow of gratitude might never have concluded, had not Breadalbane interrupted him by declaring, he would have nothing to do with this commission. But he was touched by the simple generous expression of the poor creature's feelings, his noble, sense of independence, and his disinterested gratitude; and he determined in his own mind, that if he bore a good character, a kirk he should have.

By day and by night was the night-cap Breadalbane's cherished consolation- but day and night rolled away, and still the fair head which it had enveloped, appeared not. He sent off an express to Lucerne, but the express chose to go to one inn only, the wrong one-probably expressly that he might have the profit of going on to Altorf-which his orders directed him to do in case he got no tidings of the fair travellers at the former place. At Altorf the express did hear that two ladies had been there-(so indeed had two and forty)-but the names of these two, who seemed to answer the nearest to the description of the lost fair ones, stood in the Inn Book thus:

An entry by no means unlike Lady Hunlocke's genius-who, Breadalbane supposed, would write any thing sooner than her real

name;-but no intelligence could be gained, of whither this hopeful pair-Mrs. Serena Simplesoul and Miss Punctilia Proteus--had gone next; so, after waiting four days for this highly satisfactory information, Breadalbane resolved to set off immediately to Lausanne, to hear if Colonel and Mrs. Cleveland had received any tidings of them.

During those few days which Saunders M'c Muckleman had spent in waiting for Lady Hunlocke, and seeing the lions-or rather bears— at Berne ;—his extreme simplicity and goodness of heart, his extraordinary knowledge upon some subjects, and his incredible ignorance about others; his ludicrous wonderments' at the most common events, and the still more ludicrous adventures into which his simple rusticity continually involved him ;-perhaps too his inordinate breadth of Scottish dialect, in its utmost quintessence of perfection, which in Breadalbane's ears awakened all the joyful associations of his childhood;-but above all, the sincere interest this good creature felt for the safety and arrival of the Leddies,' and the unwearied patience with which he listened to the inexhaustible theme of Mademoiselle Carline,'

-so strongly recommended him to Breadalbane, that partly from the good natured wish to indulge his insatiable passion for travelling -partly from the dislike to part with such an invaluable listener and sympathiser--he stuck this strange original animal into his carriage, and carried him off along with him-to M'c Muckleman's irrecoverable amazement. To find himself actually in the interior of a splen

did travelling carriage and four, with its lounging cushions, its plate glass windows and host of uncomprehended luxuries-travelling alone with the Laird himsel,' excited his own amazement-as much as the figure he cut in it excited that of others. To see the profound respect with which he eyed the convenienceswhich he regarded only as pieces of magnificence—the care with which he avoided making use of them the awkwardness with which he painfully stuck upon the utmost verge of the seat, with his ungainly bones in a hundred sharp angles bobbing forwards at every jerk--and the uncomfortable position which he contrived to maintain in this commodious vehicle one would have thought he was undergoing a painful penance, instead of going upon a tour of pleasure.

On their arrival at Lausanne, Breadalbane found, to his unspeakable mortification, that Colonel and Mrs. Cleveland had set off for Italy, and Lady Hunlocke for Germany, nearly a week before. Not doubting that Mademoiselle Carline' was with Lady Hunlocke-and hearing that she was accompanied by her maid, by whom he supposed was meant Carline—to Germany Breadalbane set off also, without further inquiry, still taking with him the transported M'cMuckleman.

As Lady Hunlocke, after leaving Lausanne, had changed her mind-no very uncommon circumstance-and gone to the Baths of Aix, in Savoy, instead of proceeding direct into Germany, Breadalbane's rapidity and impatience overshot the mark, and he soon lost all traces of her-though he still continued his chase, be

wildered with false hopes, fretted with disappointments, and fuming with vain conjectures -while he ought to have been in Scotland, where business of importance, consequent upon his coming of age, urgently demanded his pre

sence.

CHAPTER XXXI.

FIRST LOVE.

"Tis but thy name that is my enemy.

My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.

SHAKSPEARK.

We must for the present, turn our attention to Horace Lindsay, and look back upon the events of his earlier life. He was the only child of Lord Montfort; the heir of his title, estates, and honours; and therefore it is not perhaps surprising, that Horace Lindsay's early and decided wish to enter into the army, which was then serving in the Peninsula, should have been strongly opposed by his father, although himself a distinguished General Officer, and holding a high command under the Duke of Wellington. Perhaps more than any other man in the world,