THE MYSTERIOUS FREE BOOTER; OR, THE DAYS OF QUEEN BESS. A Romance. IN FOUR VOLUMES. BY FRANCIS LATHOM, AUTHOR OF MEN AND MANNERS; MYSTERY; ASTONISHMENT; THE THE MYSTERIOUS FREE BOOTER. CHAP. I. They bigged a bower on yon burn-brae, And thick'd it o'er with rashes. ANCIENT BALLAD. It was one evening in the early part of spring, that Laird Archibald Glenross, having been separated from his companions in the chace, found himself alone, and at the distance ef several miles from his own castle, in the northern and mountainous part of the county of Perthshire. VOL. IV. B As As no trodden path pointed out to him a ready way for gaining the high road, the more he strove to extricate himself from the intricacies of the chain of mountains he was riding amongst, the more entangled he became; and the dusky clouds of departing day beginning to descend to the earth, he despaired of reaching home that night, and thought only of finding some humble cottage to repose at. "As the evening closed in, a heavy rain began to fall, and Laird Archibald was wet through all his clothes, before a friendly, though distant, light gave him the comfortable assurance of his being within sight of some habitation. With all speed he made up to it, and alighting from his horse, knocked with his fist upon the door, and implored admittance. could distinguish the whispering of voices within, but still he heard not the fall of steps, nor any promise of his request being complied with. He Again and again he hit his hand upon the the door, and between the intervals of the roaring gust, he explained his hopeless situation, and entreated shelter from the inclement weather, and the biting air. "The Laird of Glenross had at that time just completed his twenty-fourth year; his person was handsome, his figure good, his manners universally allowed to be of the most generous and persuasive kind; and by the late death of his father, he was just become the representative of his house; and the benevolent actions which had, attended his accession to the dignities of his station, he believed to have rendered his name not alone known, but respected, in the neighbourhood where he resided; accordingly, he failed not, in his petition for admission into the cottage, at the door of which he was now standing, to inform its inhabitants who was their petitioner. "Laird Archibald looked around him, in the hope of espying a second light in some other cottage, whose inhabitants might prove more impressive to the calls |