ception, places my flippers before the fire, and draws my elbow-chair to its usual stand; I confefs I fit down in it with a self-complacency which I am vain enough to think a bad man were incapable of feeling.

It appears to me a very pernicious mistake, which I have fometimes feen parents guilty of in the education of their children, to encourage and incite in them a haughty and defpotic behaviour to their fervants; to teach them an early conceit of the difference of their conditions; to accustom them to confider the fervices of their attendants as perfectly compenfated by the wages they receive, and as unworthy of any return of kindness, attention, or complacency. Something of this kind muft indeed neceffarily happen in the great and fluctuating eftablishments of fathionable life; but I am forry to fee it of late gaining ground in the country of Scotland, where, from particular circumstances, the virtues and fidelity of a great man's household were wont to be confpicuous, and exertions of friendship and magnanimity in the cause of a master used to be cited among the traditional memorabilia of moft old families.

When I was, laft autumn, at my friend Colonel Cauftic's in the country, I faw there, on a vifit to Mifs Cauftic, a young gentleman and his fifter, children of a neighbour of the Colonel's, with

-56

whofe appearance and manner I was peculiarly pleased. The hiftory of their parents," faid my friend," is fomewhat particular, and I love to tell it, as I do every thing that is to the honour of our nature. Man is fo poor a thing taken in the grofs, that when I meet with an inftance of noblenefs in detail, I am fain to reft upon it long, and to recall it often; as, in coming hither over our barren hills, you would look with double.delight on a spot of cultivation or of beauty.

"The father of thofe young folks, whofe looks you were ftruck with, was a gentleman of confiderable domains and extenfive influence on the northern frontier of our county. In his youth he lived, as it was then more the fashion than it is now, at the feat of his ancestors, furrounded with Gothic grandeur, and compaffed with feudal followers, and dependents, all of whom could trace their connection, at a period more or less remote, with the family of their chief. Every domeftic in his house bore the family-name, and looked on himself as in a certain degree partaking its dignity, and fharing its fortunes. Of these, one was in a particular manner the favourite of his master. Albert Bane (the firname, you know, is generally loft in a name defcriptive of the individual) had been his companion from his infancy. Of an age fo much more advanced as to enable him to be a

fort

fort of tutor to his youthful Lord, Albert had early taught him the rural exercises and rural amusements, in which himself was eminently skilful; he had attended him in the courfe of his education at home, of his travels abroad, and was ftill the conftant companion of his excurfions, and the affociate of his sports.

"On one of thofe latter occafions, a favouritedog of Albert's, whom he had trained himself, and of whofe qualities he was proud, happened to mar the sport which his mafter expected, who, irritated at the difappointment, and having his gun ready cocked in his hand, fired at the animal, which, however, in the hurry of his refentment, he miffed. Albert, to whom Ofcar was as a child, remonftrated against the rafhnefs of the deed, in a manner rather too warm for his mafter, ruffled as he was with the accident, and conscious of being in the wrong, to bear. In his paffion he ftruck his faithful attendant; who fuffered the indignity in filence, and retiring, rather in grief than in anger, left his native country that very night; and when he reached the nearest town, enlifted with a recruiting party of a regiment then on foreign fervice. It was in the beginning of the war with France which broke out in 1744, rendered remarkable for the rebellion which the policy of the French court excited, in which

fome

fome of the first families of the Highlands were unfortunately engaged. Among those who joined the standard of Charles, was the master of Albert.

"After the battle of Culloden, fo fatal to that party, this gentleman, along with others who had escaped the flaughter of the field, fheltered themselves from the rage of the unsparing foldiery, among the diftant receffes of their country. To him his native mountains offered an afylum; and thither he naturally fled for protection. Acquainted, in the pursuits of the chace, with every fecret path and unworn track, he lived for a confiderable time, like the deer of his foreft, close hid all day, and only venturing down at the fall of evening, to obtain from fome of his cottagers, whofe fidelity he could trust, a scanty and precarious fupport. I have often heard him, for he is one of my oldest acquaintances, defcribe the fcene of his hiding-place, at a later period, when he could recollect it in its fublimity, without its horror."-" At times," faid he, "when "At I ventured to the edge of the wood, among fome of thofe inacceffible crags which you remember a few miles from my houfe, I have heard, in the pauses of the breeze which rolled folemn through the pines beneath me, the distant voices of the foldiers, fhouting in answer to ane another

ther amidst their inhuman fearch. I have heard their fhots re-echoed from cliff to cliff, and seen reflected from the deep ftill lake below, the gleam of thofe fires which confumed the cottages of my people. Sometimes fhame and indignation well nigh overcame my fear, and I have prepared to ruth down the fteep, unarmed as I was, and to die at once by the fwords of my enemies; but the instinctive love of life prevailed, and starting as the roe bounded by me, I have again fhrunk back to the fhelter I had left."

"One day," continued he, " the noife was nearer than ufual; and at last, from the cave in which I lay, I heard the parties immediately below so close upon me, that I could diftinguish the words they fpoke. After fome time of horrible fufpenfe, the voices grew weaker and more diftant; and at last I heard them die away at the further end of the wood. I rofe and stole to the mouth of the cave; when fuddenly a dog met me, and gave that fhort quick bark by which they indicate their prey. Amidst the terror of the circumftance, I was yet mafter enough of myself to discover that the dog was Ofcar; and I own to you I felt his appearance like the retribution of juftice and of Heaven.-Stand! cried a threatening voice, and a foldier preffed through the thicket, with his bayonet charged.-It was Albert!