had done amiss till the sexton asked him next Sunday, "why he grat like ony lassie." It was one of those scenes our nature can support for a moment, as by the effect it produces, she fits us for the sterner trials of life, and leaves herself at liberty, at any future time, to be prepared to take a part in the joys or sorrows of those we esteem and love.

There was also present a stranger, whom the duties of his profession had sent thither, and who, for any other than St. Clyde's sake, would be loaded with the curses of seventeen mothers; not that he had broken any of the laws of the land, but he had torn from their embraces their seventeen sons. He was St. Clyde's sergeant from the 42d regiment, and he had been pretty successful in enlisting these seventeen fine young men, not three

of whom, as Sandy Glass was wont to

say,

"Durst any ten some French them take,
But down to endless nicht they'd fa',
Weel noyted o' their pows."

And sergeant Macbean came unbidden to the church to see the wedding; but he was a discreet man, and though "he wed awa the flowers o' the forest," even the sorrowing mothers were pleased to see him there. The sergeant also went regularly to hear Mr. Thornhill of a Sunday, and the minister himself would, at times, listen to Angus Macbean's tales of battles and marches; and as many idle spectators came to the church, the dutiful, soldier was anxious to try his fortune, even there, among the young lads from a distance. He was going to his regiment in a week, and he wanted just twenty recruits with

him: if he got twenty, young St. Clyde would be made an ensign; of his own promotion Macbean had little more to hope.

CHAPTER XII.

And issuing from the Gothic arch,
The bridal now resumed their inarch.
In rude, but glad procession, came
Bonnetted sire, and coif-clad dame ;
And plaided youth, with jest and jeer,
Which snooded maiden would not hear;
And children, that, unwitting why,
Lent the shout their shrilly cry;
gay

And minstrels that in measures wild
Before the young and bonny bride,
Whose downcast eye and cheek disclose
The tear and blush of morning rose.

SCOTT'S LADY OF THE LAKE.

As soon as the ceremony was performed by the Rev. Mr.Thornhill, the young

men who were selected to ride home with the news to Mr. Gillies' house set off at full gallop, striving who should be first there. The road was none of the best; and to take a shorter cut, they rode round a projecting rock, at

the base of which there was a fine sand bank, which, at high water, was covered three feet deep by the neap tides; but though the tide was rising, and their horses were up to their knees, these mad-caps, spurring them on, got on terra firma once more, but splashed over head and ears.

The procession and cavalcade began to descend the lawn before the churchyard; by and bye came out Peggy, and now was the scramble among the young farmers to get the first buss of the bride; it was not permitted, by 'immemorial custom, for the bridegroom to turn a voluptuous meacock already. Now they are advancing to Mr. Gillies' house, Sandy Glass in the van even of the pipers and fiddlers: Robin Glenderoy was the chief piper, and Jamie Little was master of the violin; but both were famed for vocal as well as instrumental music.