frustrate Gaveston's designs, and appears in the village disguised as
the White Lady. She also writes to Dickson, a farmer, who is indebted
to her, to meet her at midnight in the castle of Avenel. He is too
superstitious to go, and George Brown, a young lieutenant who is
sharing his hospitality, volunteers in his stead. He encounters the
White Lady, and learns from her he will shortly meet a young lady who
has saved his life by her careful nursing after a battle,--Anna
meanwhile recognizing George as the person she had saved. When the day
of sale comes, Dickson is empowered by the farmers to purchase the
castle, so that it may not fall into Gaveston's hands. George and Anna
are there; and the former, though he has not a shilling, buys it under
instructions from Anna. When the time comes for payment, Anna produces
the treasure which had been concealed in the statue, and, still in the
disguise of the White Lady, discovers to him the secret of his birth
during the exile of his parents. Gaveston approaches the spectre and
tears off her veil, revealing Anna, his ward. Moved by the zeal and
fidelity of his father's protégée, George offers her his hand, which,
after some maidenly scruples, she accepts.

The opera is full of beautiful songs, many of them Scotch in
character. In the first act the opening song of George ("Ah, what
Pleasure a Soldier to be!") is very poetical in its sentiment. It also
contains the characteristic ballad of the White Lady, with choral
responses ("Where yon Trees your Eye discovers"), and an exquisitely
graceful trio in the finale ("Heavens! what do I hear?"). The second
act opens with a very plaintive romanza ("Poor Margaret, spin away!"),
sung by Margaret, Anna's old nurse, at her spinning-wheel, as she
thinks of the absent Laird, followed in the fifth scene by a beautiful
cavatina for tenor ("Come, O Gentle Lady"). In the seventh scene is a
charming duet ("From these Halls"), and the act closes with an