with his pen, where outlines of caricatures, sketches of turrets,
mills, old gables, and dovecots, disputed the ground with his written
memoranda.

I proceeded, however, to decipher the substance of the manuscript
as well as I could, and move it into the following Tale, in which,
following in part, though not entirely, my friend Tinto's advice, I
endeavoured to render my narrative rather descriptive than dramatic. My
favourite propensity, however, has at times overcome me, and my persons,
like many others in this talking world, speak now what then a great deal
more than they act.



CHAPTER II.

Well, lord, we have not got that which we have;
'Tis not enough our foes are this time fled,
Being opposites of such repairing nature.

Henry VI. Part II.

IN the gorge of a pass or mountain glen, ascending from the fertile
plains of East Lothian, there stood in former times an extensive castle,
of which only the ruins are now visible. Its ancient proprietors were
a race of powerful and warlike carons, who bore the same name with the
castle itself, which was Ravenswood. Their line extended to a remote
period of antiquity, and they had intermarried with the Douglasses,
Humes, Swintons, Hays, and other families of power and distinction
in the same country. Their history was frequently involved in that of