wise in their generation. I thank Heaven, that hath
taught me better thoughts than my own vanity suggested, through the
medium of so kind a monitress. Yes, Catharine, I must not hereafter
wonder or exclaim when I see those whom I have hitherto judged too
harshly struggling for temporal power, and holding all the while the
language of religious zeal. I thank thee, daughter, for thy salutary
admonition, and I thank Heaven that sent it by thy lips, rather than
those of a stern reprover."

Catharine had raised her head to reply, and bid the old man, whose
humiliation gave her pain, be comforted, when her eyes were arrested
by an object close at hand. Among the crags and cliffs which surrounded
this place of seclusion, there were two which stood in such close
contiguity, that they seemed to have been portions of the same rock,
which, rendered by lightning or by an earthquake, now exhibited a chasm
of about four feet in breadth, betwixt the masses of stone. Into this
chasm an oak tree had thrust itself, in one of the fantastic frolics
which vegetation often exhibits in such situations. The tree, stunted
and ill fed, had sent its roots along the face of the rock in all
directions to seek for supplies, and they lay like military lines of
communication, contorted, twisted, and knotted like the immense snakes
of the Indian archipelago. As Catharine's look fell upon the curious
complication of knotty branches and twisted roots, she was suddenly
sensible that two large eyes were visible among them, fixed and glaring
at her, like those of a wild animal in ambush. She started, and, without
speaking, pointed out the object to her companion, and looking herself
with more strict attention, could at length trace out the bushy red
hair and shaggy beard, which had hitherto been concealed by the drooping
branches and twisted roots of the tree.

When he saw himself discovered, the Highlander, for such he proved,
stepped forth from his lurking place, and, stalking forward, displayed
a colossal person, clothed in a purple, red, and green checked plaid,
under which he wore a jacket of bull's hide. His bow and arrows were at
his back, his head was bare, and a large quantity of tangled locks, like
the glibbs of the Irish, served to cover the head, and supplied all the
purposes of a bonnet. His belt bore a sword and dagger, and he had in
his hand a Danish pole axe, more recently called a Lochaber axe. Through
the same rude portal advanced, one by