ngly, is seldom that at which there is much prospect of
its being brought to a happy issue. The state of artificial society
opposes many complicated obstructions to early marriages; and the
chance is very great, that such obstacles prove insurmountable. In
fine, there are few men who do not look back in secret to some period
of their {p.226} youth, at which a sincere and early affection was
repulsed or betrayed, or became abortive from opposing circumstances.
It is these little passages of secret history, which leave a tinge of
romance in every bosom, scarce permitting us, even in the most busy or
the most advanced period of life, to listen with total indifference to
a tale of true love."

CHAPTER VIII. {p.227}

Publication of Ballads After Buerger. -- Scott Quartermaster
of the Edinburgh Light Horse. -- Excursion to Cumberland. --
Gilsland Wells. -- Miss Carpenter. -- Marriage.

1796-1797.

Rebelling, as usual, against circumstances, Scott seems to have turned
with renewed ardor to his literary pursuits; and in that same October,
1796, he was "prevailed on," as he playfully expresses it, "by the
_request of friends_, to indulge his own vanity, by publishing the
translation of Lenore, with that of The Wild Huntsman, also from
Buerger, in a thin quarto." The little volume, which has no author's
name on the title-page, was printed for Manners and Miller of
Edinburgh. The first named of these respectable publishers had been a
fellow-student in the German class of Dr. Willich; and this
circumstance probably suggested the negotiation. It was conducted by
William Erskine, as appears from his postscript to a letter addressed
to Scott by his sister, who, before it reached its destination, had
become the wife of Mr. Campbell Colquhoun of Clathick and
Killermont--in after-days Lord Advocate of Scotland. This was another
of Scott's dearest female friends. The humble home which she shared
with her brother during his early struggles at the Bar had been the
scene of many of his happiest hours; and her letter affords such a
pleasing idea of the warm affectionateness of the little circle that I
cannot forbear inserting it:--

TO {p.228} WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., ROSEBANK, KELSO.

Monday evening.

If it were not that etiquette and I were constantly at war, I
should think myself very blamable in thus trespassing against one
of its laws; but as it is lon