RODERICK, THE FAIR-HATRED. 513 



cuffs, and, like Alexander, havir.g nothing more to conquer, was de- 

 clared by universal clamour as " a terror to the country," lor which 

 he had found it expedient to wander in search of a more hospitable 

 clime. Having intended no personal harm, his only object having 

 been to secure a steed, to bear him to some inhabited spot, .where his 

 miseries might at least be pitied if not relieved, little obstacle was 

 presented to the renewal of their ancient friendship. Having thus 

 met under circumstances as extraordinary in their character as for- 

 tunate for their mutual convenience, they agreed that during the re- 

 mainder of their journey? Tom having consented to return with his 

 old acquaintance, the well-known accommodation of " ride and tie" 

 should be enjoyed. A bumper of genuine Glenlivet (from whose 

 locality the two fast friends were now at no great distance) tended to 

 make their hearts as cheerful and unfettered as ever scorned demon 

 or danger in the pass of Glendhu. A native of Yorkshire, Tom had 

 been known on the turf as an unsuccessful, rash, and respected spe- 

 culator, who had run through an ample fortune in his ruinous perti- 

 nacity in betting on the long odds. He had afterwards found it ex- 

 pedient to seek an asylum in the Highland capital, in the hopes of 

 one day being enabled to repair his broken fortunes that asylum 1 e 

 too bitterly discovered, " which vultures give to lambs," where the 

 denizens of the North would sooner view the basilisk, armed with all 

 its terrors, than look upon the face of a stranger, and that stranger's 

 name uncertified with some eternal " Mae." Having traversed the 

 moorlands without encountering any other adventures than such j;s 

 are to be expected in a mountain region, peopled only with the heath- 

 fowl and deer, the country gradually threw off its sombre aspect, 

 opening into a pisgah-view, which presented Starvitout in the dis- 

 tance, with its casements gleaming in the morning sun. At a short 

 distance from the town the travellers reclined on the gentle slope of 

 a green hillock, luxuriating in the prospect spread before them, of hill 

 and dale, the water-fall, the Druid temple, the mountain in mist, with 

 the blue waves, and expanse of the shipless sea ; and last, though 'not 

 unworthiest in Roderick's estimation, because his love, and life, and 

 soul were centered there, Mac Sillergrip's abode, where bonny Mary 

 was expected still to tarry. 



The feathery clouds had flung their variegated shapes athwart the 

 lines of heaven in resplendent variety, contrasting their tints with the 

 deeper dye of the pure cerulean blue, the aspect betokening a day 

 devoted to sunshine and showers. Here the travellers remained for 

 some time, calculating probabilities, and concerting measures for poor 

 Tom's safety, until the cloud of night should shelter him from sur- 

 prise. He was to be met at the Druid stone, near the house-gate of 

 Mr. Mac Diddleton, the legal " doer" or adviser of Saunders Mac Sil- 

 lergrip, Esq., "a great man amongst little men, and a little ^ man 

 amongst great." After parting with Tom, Roderick seemed perfectly 

 absorbed in abstraction, all external objects being entirely lost to his 

 perception, and his countenance betraying a melancholy and a mourn- 

 ing as though he had been attending the funeral of his own hopes. 

 His thoughts revolved on the object of his tenderest solicitude, a being 

 so exalted in his esteem, while the pangs of absence, and the fulness 



M.M.No,101. 3U l 



