"What harm has the lad done you?"

"Harm! nae great harm; but I hear he says I staid away from the
Ba'spiel on Fastern's E'en, for fear of him; and it was only for

fear of the Country Keeper, for there was a warrant against me.
I'll stand Hobbie's feud, and a' his clan's. But it's not so

much for that, as to gie him a lesson not to let his tongue
gallop ower freely about his betters. I trow he will hae lost

the best pen-feather o' his wing before to-morrow morning.--
Farewell, Elshie; there's some canny boys waiting for me down

amang the shaws, owerby; I will see you as I come back, and bring
ye a blithe tale in return for your leech-craft."

Ere the Dwarf could collect himself to reply, the Reiver of
Westburnflat set spurs to his horse. The animal, starting at one

of the stones which lay scattered about, flew from the path. The
rider exercised his spurs without moderation or mercy. The horse

became furious, reared, kicked, plunged, and bolted like a deer,
with all his four feet off the ground at once. It was in vain;

the unrelenting rider sate as if he had been a part of the horse
which he bestrode; and, after a short but furious contest,

compelled the subdued animal to proceed upon the path at a rate
which soon carried him out of sight of the Solitary.

"That villain," exclaimed the Dwarf,--"that cool-blooded,
hardened, unrelenting ruffian,--that wretch, whose every thought

is infected with crimes,--has thewes and sinews, limbs, strength,
and activity enough, to compel a nobler animal than himself to

carry him to the place where he is to perpetrate his wickedness;
while I, had I the weakness to wish to put his wretched victim on

his guard, and to save the helpless family, would see my good
intentions frustrated by the decrepitude which chains me to the

spot.--Why should I wish it were otherwise? What have my
screech-owl voice, my hideous form, and my mis-shapen features,

to do with the fairer workmanship of nature? Do not men receive
even my benefits with shrinking horror and ill-suppressed

disgust? And why should I interest myself in a race which
accounts me a prodigy and an outcast, and which has treated me as

such? No; by all the gratitude" target="_blank" title="n.忘恩负义">ingratitude which I have reaped--by all the
wrongs which I have sustained--by my imprisonment, my stripes, my

chains, I will wrestle down my feelings of rebellious humanity!
I will not be the fool I have been, to swerve from my principles

whenever there was an appeal, forsooth, to my feelings; as if I,
towards whom none show sympathy, ought to have sympathy with any

one. Let Destiny drive forth her scythed car through the
overwhelmed and trembling mass of humanity! Shall I be the idiot

to throw this decrepit form, this mis-shapen lump of mortality,
under her wheels, that the Dwarf, the Wizard, the Hunchback, may

save from destruction some fair form or some active frame, and
all the world clap their hands at the exchange? No, never!--And

yet this Elliot--this Hobbie, so young and gallant, so frank, so
--I will think of it no longer. I cannot aid him if I would, and

I am resolved--firmly resolved, that I would not aid him, if a
wish were the pledge of his safety!"

Having thus ended his soliloquy, he retreated into his hut for
shelter from the storm which was fast approaching, and now began

to burst in large and heavy drops of rain. The last rays of the
sun now disappeared entirely, and two or three claps of distant

thunder followed each other at brief intervals, echoing and
re-echoing among the range of heathy fells like the sound of a

distant engagement.
CHAPTER VII.

Proud bird of the mountain, thy plume shall be torn!--
. . . .

Return to thy dwelling; all lonely, return;
For the blackness of ashes shall mark where it stood,

And a wild mother scream o'er her famishing brood. CAMPBELL.
The night continued sullen and stormy; but morning rose as if

refreshed by the rains. Even the Mucklestane-Moor, with its
broad bleak swells of barren grounds, interspersed with marshy

pools of water, seemed to smile under the serene influence of the
sky, just as good-humour can spread a certain inexpressible charm

over the plainest human countenance. The heath was in its
thickest and deepest bloom. The bees, which the Solitary had

added to his rural establishment, were abroad and on the wing,
and filled the air with the murmurs of their industry. As the

old man crept out of his little hut, his two she-goats came to
meet him, and licked his hands in gratitude for the vegetables

with which he supplied them from his garden. "You, at least," he
said--"you, at least, see no differences in form which can alter

your feelings to a benefactor--to you, the finest shape that ever
statuary moulded would be an object of indifference or of alarm,

should it present itself instead of the mis-shapen trunk to whose
services you are accustomed. While I was in the world, did I

ever meet with such a return of gratitude? No; the domestic whom
I had bred from infancy made mouths at me as he stood behind my

chair; the friend whom I had supported with my fortune, and for
whose sake I had even stained--(he stopped with a strong

convulsive shudder), even he thought me more fit for the society
of lunatics--for their disgraceful restraints--for their cruel

privations, than for communication with the rest of humanity.
Hubert alone--and Hubert too will one day abandon me. All are of

a piece, one mass of wickedness, selfishness, and gratitude" target="_blank" title="n.忘恩负义">ingratitude--
wretches, who sin even in their devotions; and of such hardness

of heart, that they do not, without hypocrisy, even thank the
Deity himself for his warm sun and pure air."

As he was plunged in these gloomy soliloquies, he heard the tramp
of a horse on the other side of his enclosure, and a strong clear

bass voice singing with the liveliness inspired by a light heart,
Canny Hobbie Elliot, canny Hobbie now,

Canny Hobbie Elliot, I'se gang alang wi' you.
At the same moment, a large deer greyhoundsprung over the

hermit's fence. It is well known to the sportsmen in these
wilds, that the appearance and scent of the goat so much resemble

those of their usual objects of chase, that the best-broke
greyhounds will sometimes fly upon them. The dog in question

instantly pulled down and throttled one of the hermit's she-
goats, while Hobbie Elliot, who came up, and jumped from his

horse for the purpose, was unable to extricate the harmless
animal from the fangs of his attendant until it was expiring.

The Dwarf eyed, for a few moments, the convulsive starts of his
dying favourite, until the poor goat stretched out her limbs with

the twitches and shivering fit of the last agony. He then
started into an access of frenzy, and unsheathing a long sharp

knife, or dagger, which he wore under his coat, he was about to
launch it at the dog, when Hobbie, perceiving his purpose,

interposed, and caught hold of his hand, exclaiming, "Let a be
the hound, man--let a be the hound!--Na, na, Killbuck maunna be

guided that gate, neither."
The Dwarf turned his rage on the young farmer; and, by a sudden

effort, far more powerful than Hobbie expected from such a
person, freed his wrist from his grasp, and offered the dagger at

his heart. All this was done in the twinkling of an eye, and the
incensed Recluse might have completed his vengeance by plunging

the weapon in Elliot's bosom, had he not been checked by an
internal impulse which made him hurl the knife to a distance.

"No," he exclaimed, as he thus voluntarily deprived himself of
the means of gratifying his rage; "not again--not again!"

Hobbie retreated a step or two in great surprise, discomposure,
and disdain, at having been placed in such danger by an object

apparently so contemptible.
"The deil's in the body for strength and bitterness!" were the

first words that escaped him, which he followed up with an
apology for the accident that had given rise to their

disagreement. "I am no justifying Killbuck a'thegither neither,
and I am sure it is as vexing to me as to you, Elshie, that the