time, not very successfully, I allow; for the whirring of the birds made me somewhat nervous, and I did not kill as usual. However, I wounded a considerable number, as Welsh can testify."

"Yes-he is an excellent keeper, and understands his business," muttered Stanley.

"Well, sirs, the day was confoundedly hot, and Cager began to lag behind. I almost suspect he was drinking, for I rather imprudently gave him the flask to carry ;-but that does not matter now. However, in order to bring him on, I was obliged sometimes to call out his name, which Welsh objected to, though he could not assign any intelligible reason. We were then at a wild part of the moor,-broken into pieces, like nothing else I ever saw in my life. Welsh told me that he saw a cockgrouse sitting on the ground; but he could not make me see it; however, he desired me to aim at a tuft of heather, fire both barrels, and I would be sure to kill it. I did so, and killed the bird."

"Did you pick it up?"

"No, sir. I thought it might be wounded, and in order to make sure of it, I rushed forward without loading my gun. All at once I heard a terrible halloo, and two prodigious Highlanders-one of whom I am certain I have seen before, if not bothrose up from a hollow in the moss, and rushed upon us. What they said, I cannot distinctly specify; but they vociferated something. One of them seized upon Cager, while the other overpowered the gamekeeper, and tied him hand and foot with his own shotbelts. What followed afterwards, I really do not know. I fled as fast as my legs could carry me; and very glad I was when I heard you answering my call."

"How long ago was it since this happened, Mr Hawkins?" asked Stanley.

"Not much above a quarter of an hour, I should think; though I certainly must have run a couple of miles."

"Then we surely are in time to intercept the villains. We are four in all, and two of us with loaded weapons. Do you think, Mr Hawkins, you could lead us to the spot ?"

"If you wish to go, gentlemen, don't waste time in waiting for me. I am as useless as a ripped-up pair of bellows. I will follow you as fast as I can."

66 Nay, but, Mr Hawkins," said Stanley, “your presence as a magistrate is indispensable; besides, we never should be able to find the place without you. Lean on me, my dear sir, and pray endeavour to make the exertion."

With the groan of a stranded grampus, Hawkins gathered himself upon his legs; and, availing himself of our assistance, went on. We were so much excited by the adventure, that we did not perceive that the "lad" tarried behind-an instance of sloth and indifference which, for the credit of human nature, I attribute rather to the attraction of sundry ribs of cold roast lamb, which were contained in his wallets, than to any abstract deficiency in animal courage.

In a short time we reached the place where the assault had been committed. It was a wild tract of broken peat-hags, capable of giving. covert to a whole army-or, in wet weather, of engulphing it—as was said to be the case with the Serbonian bog, of which honourable mention is made in Milton's Paradise Lost. Here, indeed, we found Welsh-not bound hand and foot, as Mr Hawkins had asserted-though his shot-belts were ingeniously twisted and buckled across his ankles-but seated upon his rump, and fostering with affectionate care the infant existence of his pipe. He did not appear to have suffered greatly either in mind or body.

His account of the transaction tallied precisely with that of Mr Hawkins. One of the ruffians, whom he described as endowed with preternatural strength, tripped up his heels, and laid him prostrate on the heather; whilst the other detained Cager, whom terror had paralysed, by the throat. Welsh being bound, they lifted the unhappy Cager on a horse; and, after making sundry demonstrations with their dirks, expressive of instant death to the gamekeeper should he attempt to follow them, or free himself from his bonds, they set off at a round gallop across the moor, and disappeared

over an adjoining hill. Such was the sum-total of Welsh's evidence. "Can you form no idea of their object in carrying off the man?" asked Stanley.

"Weel I wat, I can do that!" replied Welsh; "it's no ill to ken what put up the dander o' thae Hieland deevils."

"Explain yourself."

"Arnaboll, there, aye keepit crying out for his man-who, puir body, was sooking at the flask; and, for a' I could say, he wadna leave aff. It was aye Cager!' here, and Cager!' there; and ye ken weel eneuch what cager means to the north o' the Hieland line."

Why, what does it mean?" cried Hawkins in amazement.

"Just gauger-that is, exciseman. Ye cried loud eneuch to be heard three mile aff, and ye wadna stop, though I telled ye to be quiet, for I kenned there were a hantle of sma' stills up hereawa'; and I thought, mair nor ance, that I got a glisk of the tartan. Weel, it's my persuasion that the worm was at wark no far from this; and when the folks heard ye crying oot on the gauger, what else could they think but that ye had come up wi' a search warrant? Nae wonder they gruppit him. I wad ha'e done the same mysel'; and it will be a mercy and a special providence if he is not by this time at the bottom of a loch!"

"Dear, dear! what shall we do?" cried Hawkins in utter perplexity. "What can they possibly have done with the poor fellow? It is very remarkable, though, that I can see no marks of a horse's hoofs."

"Fient a trace will ye find," replied Welsh. "They aye put brogues on their beasts, as they did on the Border langsyne."

"Do you think you could recognise either of the fellows?" asked Stanley.

"I ken ane of them weel, and sae does your honour. It was Angus M'Craw of Dalnavardoch."

"M'Roe! Impossible!" said Hawkins.

"'Deed was it. I kenned him brawly afore, and I seed him at Arnaboll yestreen."

แ

"At Arnaboll?" cried Stanley. Ay. He came there wi' the laird," said Welsh.

"Mr Hawkins, can it be possible that this is true?" said Stanley gravely. "Have you actually been guilty of contravention of an express Act of Sederunt, by giving shelter to a person so notorious as this M Craw, who has defrauded the Government to an enormous extent, and is well known as the head and director of all the illicit distillers in the county?"

"Captain Stanley," said Hawkins, looking as though he would willingly have exchanged places with Cager, "it is no use denying that this person slept for one night in my house; but I knew no more of his character than the child unborn. We met him by the merest accident at Portnacreesli, as Mr Cameron can testify; and as he saved us from an attack on the part of the robber Doo, who met us on the road, and further claimed relationship with me, I could not, as you must sec, do less than invite him to Arnaboll."

"This makes the case even more perplexing," said Stanley gravely. "Are you not aware, Mr Hawkins, that, by an act of the Scottish Parliament, as yet unrepealed, the clan of M'Craw, as well as that of M'Gregor, is proscribed, and that the penalties extend to those who are connected with them, however distantly, by intermarriage?"

"You don't say so?"

"It is not more than two months since, in pursuance of that act, the house of Dalnavardoch was burned to the ground. Observe, Mr Hawkins, how the case stands. You admit having trafficked with the notorious outlaw Ian Dhu of Achufufurigal for your personal protection-a serious offence in a country where the payment of black-mail is punished as severely as its exaction. Then you are found at Portnacreesh, the well-known rendezvous of the illicit distillers, in communication with the marked head of that formidable gang, who is, moreover, a hereditary outlaw. You admit relationship with him, which brings you at once within the scope of the same penalties; and you give him shelter, which of itself is an indictable crime. These things, or some of them, might perhaps be explained or extenuated; but it is a remarkable circumstance, that, on the very day

after this occurs, Angus M'Craw should be found evidently engaged in illicit distillation upon your property a coincidence upon which it does not become me, as an officer, to comment. Mr Hawkins, it gives me the deepest pain to find you in this predicament." Had the earth yawned beneath the feet of the unfortunate Hawkins, I do not think he could have been more horrified than at finding himself transformed at once into an outlaw, a rebel, and a malefactor. He looked from one to other of us in sore dismay.

"It's a' true what the Captain says about the wild M'Craws," asseverated Jamie Welsh; "and oh, it is beautiful to hear the law sae preceesely expounded!"

"And what am I to do?" said the luckless chief of Arnaboll. "What is to become of me?"

"I am neither your judge, your accuser, nor your legal adviser, Mr Hawkins," said Stanley mildly. "You cannot but be aware of the interest which I feel for you and your family; indeed, I may safely say, that I would rather my commission was forfeited than be personally instrumental in surrendering you to the severities of the law. But you must be aware I have no option."

"Will you really inform against me, Captain Stanley, and I as innocent of evil as a factory child?"

"My heart bleeds for you, Mr Hawkins, and for your lovely daughter; but the demands of duty are paramount. Welsh! you must prepare to go home with me immediately, in order that your precognition may be reduced to writing."

"Stay a moment, Captain Stanley," said I; "an idea has occurred to me. Mr Hawkins," said I, drawing him aside, "this is, no doubt, a very ugly scrape; and although everything must be satisfactorily explained at last, I presume you would not wish to run the risk of incarceration?" "Not if ten thousand pounds would suffice to hush the matter up." "Well, I am sure that Stanley would rather undergo any reasonable sacrifice than appear in this business. You see he has a chivalrous sense of duty, and it would be hopeless to persuade him to conceal what has taken

place so long as he continues in the service; but if you could advance such reasons as might induce him to resign his commission at once"

"Say no more, my dear friend!” cried Hawkins. "Daniel could not have counselled more wisely. Captain Stanley-" and the two drew apart in deep conference.

"Welsh," said I, "it strikes me that you and I are rather in the way just now; so, if you have no objection, and are not afraid of encountering any more Highlanders, we shall take a beat round the hill, and see if we cannot fall in with another covey."

Jamie agreed without scruple; and after we had gone a little way, he drew my attention to a thin spiral column of smoke arising from the bank of a burn.

"The fule body they ca' Cager is there down by," said he, in a mysterious whisper; and I wad like no that ill to be there mysel'. The speerits they make hereabout is just prime."

"And I suppose he is in very good company?" said I.

"It will be his ain fault if he's no happy. There's Dugald and Sandie, and twa mair, and they've gotten the pipes, and walth o' salted mutton; and if that disna gar him drink, I dinna ken what will. 'Od, there's waur places for fun than a sma' still!"

"Then I suppose he will be forthcoming when he is wanted?"

"In twal hours after notice, at ony rate," replied Welsh. "It's just astonishing how the bees get into ane's head amang the heather."

Very good. But there is Sweep drawing on game; let us see what it is."

When I rejoined the party, I found that Hawkins and Stanley had come to a distinct and amicable understanding, upon terms proposed by the latter. I did not inquire into the secret ramifications of the treaty, though I could form a shrewd guess as to their nature, from the evident satisfaction which beamed on the countenance of my friend the Captain. It was now only necessary to bind over Welsh to secresy; and as he expressed his entire readiness to take an oath, upon powder and shot, never to reveal any circumstance

which might identify his master with the doings of the clan M'Craw, and, moreover, accepted a douceur of ten pounds by way of rivetting the bargain, we considered that matter satisfactorily arranged. As for the "lad," it was not thought requisite to take any steps to insure his silence, as we found him, on our return, fast asleep by the Fairy's Well, surrounded by a pile of bones from which every morsel of animal fibre had disappeared.

For the few remaining days that I tarried at Arnaboll, I had the shooting entirely to myself. Mr Hawkins would not venture out again; and Stanley was too much engaged in rowing Lucy about the lake, sketching cataracts, and making verses, to take any interest in field sports. I should not omit to mention, that, two days after our adventure on the moor, Cager was discovered, by an exploring party headed by Welsh, fast asleep upon the heather. As there were no traces of any human habitation in the neighbourhood, and no marks of any other footsteps except his own, the Highlanders arrived at the conclusion that he had been carried off by the Queen of Faerie, and detained for a space of time within her subterranean bowers. Much support was given in this theory by the account of Čager himself, who remembered nothing distinctly beyond being hurried into what seemed to him to be a hillock, where he was supplied with a strange but delicious liquor, by a crew of beings whom he described as peculiarly hairy. Here he saw neither the rays of the sun nor the glimmering of the moon; his food was a curious viand, such as he never tasted before; and at times a wild and ravishing music rang in his ears. At length he became unconscious, and only awoke to his senses when roused by Jamie Welsh. Possibly he might have received a contusion on his way from the lower to the upper world, for he complained

several days afterwards of a racking pain in his head. It was also remarkable that, about this time, Ian Dhu of Achufufurigal and Angus M'Craw of Dalnavardoch vanished from this district of country, and the people thereof saw them no

more.

In the month of October following, I was summoned to Bolton to attend the celebration of the nuptials of my friend Stanley and Miss Lucy Hawkins. After the happy pair had driven off, and the rest of the company retired, Mr Hawkins took me into his study.

"I wish to mention to you, Mr Cameron, a circumstance which strikes me as truly remarkable. You remember, of course, Doo of Ackuforgle, and that very mysterious personage, M'Roe?"

"I am not likely to forget them,” said I.

"Well, sir, about six weeks ago, as I was coming south, I entered the station of the Caledonian Railway at Edinburgh, and who do you think I saw there acting in the capacity of porters?"

"I have not the slightest conception."

"May I never make another bargain, sir, if there were not Doo and M'Roe with my luggage upon their shoulders! I was paralysed, sir-perfectly paralysed; but before I could recover myself they had put everything into the van, the bell rang for starting, and M Roe, putting his head into the window of the carriage where I was sitting, said in the gravest manner possible-You'll find all right, Arnaboll, when you get to Carlisle !' Sir, I have often heard strange things of your countrymen, but this seems to me the most extraordinary adventure that was ever recounted in history."

As such, I dedicate it to the excellent class of men who are entitled to the whole merit of the Raid.

THE result of the last two elections which have occurred towards the close of the Parliamentary Session is too significant to be passed over without notice. By the death of Mr Lascelles, the late Comptroller of her Majesty's Household, a vacancy occurred in the representation of Knaresborough. The Comptrollership was tendered to and accepted by the Earl of Mulgrave, eldest son of the Marquis of Normanby; and, in consequence, his lordship had again to offer himself for the acceptance of the electors of Scarborough. At Knaresborough the Protectionist candidate may be said almost to have walked the course. At Scarborough the Whig and Freetrading Earl has been defeated by a large majority, and Mr George Frederick Young, the able, zealous, and indefatigable chairman of the National Association, is now the sitting member.

No one who is conversant with the state of the public mind, not as represented in certain public journals, but as actually exhibited throughout the country, can feel any surprise at the result. The disastrous consequences of Free Trade have been felt and acknowledged, not only in agricultural districts, but in the towns. The total failure of every prophecy which was hazarded by its advocates, and, still more, the impudent but most senseless manner in which they have persisted, in defiance of experience and of facts, in vindicating their absurd policy, and to represent it as conducive to the national welfare, have, as was most natural, materially increased the strength and power of the reaction. Gullible as John Bull may be on matters of abstract sentiment, he is yet feelingly alive to any process which curtails the amount of his custom, or diminishes the weight of his purse. It may not be impossible to persuade him that Free Trade is an excellent thing in theory; but once reduce that theory to practice, and you will never get him to return a verdict contrary to his own experience. Hostile verdicts have of late become so frequent, that the Free-Traders are in the utmost consternation. We hear nothing now, as we did some time ago, of the total decease of Protection of

its obsequies, its mourners, and suchlike facetic, which the dismal jesters of the League-the clumsiest mountebanks that ever assumed the motley garb-were wont to repeat for the delectation of their gaping audiences. That Free Trade is now in great and imminent danger is allowed by all of them; and they are also well aware that the danger does not arise from any factious machinations of their adversaries, but from the general conviction of the people.

Let us take the case of Scarborough. Here is a town with a constituency of from seven to eight hundred-rather more, by the way, than are enrolled for the important county of Haddington, and about four times as many as stand on the register for Sutherlandshire. The Normanby estates are situated in the immediate vicinity, and, for upwards of a hundred years, the family influence has predominated in the borough. No personal objection could be taken to the Earl of Mulgrave, who is, by all accounts, a most amiable and estimable young man, not requiring to borrow any adventitious recommendation from his father's popularity. He was no stranger to the electors. He was not addressing them for the first time. On the contrary, he was simply asking a renewal of their confidence; and, as a high officer in the Royal Household, he was backed by the whole of the Ministerial influence. Mr Young was an entire stranger in the borough. He had nothing to recommend him but his principles and his well-earned reputation -a reputation not unassailed, indeed, but infinitely beyond the reach of such miserable missiles as were directed against him by those whose mean tergiversation made them the natural foes of honesty. address was not issued until the canvass of his opponent was nearly completed. With every apparent disadvantage he took the field, and won the victory-first carrying the show of hands at the nomination, and then establishing his majority on the poll.

His

To deny reaction in the face of these facts is obviously impossible. The only open question is, whether the reaction is general or merely par