of humanity, but he could discover none; indeed, when he turned round his head from the shelter which the little building he was standing under the cover of afforded him, no object was discernible through the thick darkness of night; nor did he find it scarcely possible to open his eyes at all, on account of the driving rain and sleet, which were borne through the air on the wings of a keen northerly wind.

"Laird Archibald did not quit his station, for even the outside of the cottage was a defence to him against the weather, which he knew not where else to seek; and at intervals he continued to repeat his petition for admittance: after he had passed nearly half an hour in this disagreeable situation, a female voice within the house replied-' We come.'

"Of the most delightful nature was the sound; he placed his foot upon the thres hold, and the door was opened by a person whose appearance filled him equally with surprise, as did the delay with which the humane action had been performed;

it was a lady, habited in the deepest mourning; and behind her stood another female, dressed exactly the same as herself, and whose appearance denoted her to be of equal rank as the first: the latter held in her hand a lamp; the former, the moment she had opened the door, thus addressed Laird Archibald Enter, my

Laird; as we know you to be a knight of Scotland, we trust that you will not sully the name, by forgetting the respect due to two unprotected females; we therefore admit you beneath our roof,'

'Good heaven! exclaimed Glenross, fixing his eyes upon them, I cannot be mistaken; surely I behold the niece, and daughter, of the Laird of Lednoch ?"

The same, the same!' they both replied: Here, in this seclusion, have we lived, while the world has thought us both long dead. We are at present the sole inhabitants of this cottage; when you hear this, you will not be surprised that we were scrupulous about admitting you into it at this hour of the night."

And may I lose every claim to the honour of manhood,' ejaculated Laird, Archibald, if I forget the reverence due to my benevolent entertainers."

Enter, enter freely,' said the daughter of Lednoch; we have heard much spoken in your praise, and doubt not to find you equal in honour to the report you bear in the world.'

They immediately placed a chair for their guest opposite to the fire; and as they had no change of garments to offer him, they heaped additional logs upon the hearth, and produced a cup of wine, which he drank at their invitation.

"When some time had been passed in necessary attentions to the comfort of the weather-beaten Laird Archibald, he besought his fair entertainers to inform him by what miracle he saw them alive and in health, when they had for some months past been supposed to have fallen victims to the pestilence which had at that time raged in Scotland.

"He had once visited, with his father,

at

at the Castle of Lednoch, in Aberdeenshire; its Laird was then a widower, with one son, Sir Alexander, a daughter, the Lady Margaret, and an orphan niece of the name of Monteith, whose beauty had acquired her the title of the Bonny Mabel.

"Since that time, the pestilence had carried off the Laird of Lednoch and his son; his daughter and niece had been reported in the world to have fled from Aberdeen, where the disorder had raged with the greatest violence, but, nevertheless, to have sunk under its power: he now rejoiced that common fame had been a false intelligencer in the instance of their fate, and received from their lips an account of their preservation.

"Lady Margaret satisfied his curiosity in these words:

A very short time after the breaking out of that pestilence, to which there is scarcely a Scottish family who does not owe the privation of some loved relative, my dear father and brother having both B 4 fallen

fallen victims to its fury, my cousin Mabel and myself, at their death, having no one left us in the world to whom we were bound by the ties of affinity-no one but each other to look up to for the mutual kind offices of friendship and consanguinity, bethought us alone of what steps we might pursue that seemed to promise us the preservation of both our lives, which we wished to ensure, more, I believe, for the sake of each other's happiness, than our own love of existence,

'We heard of many who fled from the cities towards uninhabited spots, and died in their way to what they had regarded as places of security; but this did not discourage us-we hoped that all might not be alike unfortunate; and esteeming the chance of prolonging our existence to depend alone on our quitting. Aberdeenshire, where the plague 'raged in its hottest fury, we resolved on setting out for the mountains of Athol, where we knew our old nurse, Mause, to reside in a lonely