ank you,"
and half kneeling, the stranger kissed the hand of the Major.

"_You!_" exclaimed the latter; "by Jove I am right glad to see you. Here
at Crail, too, in the East Neuk o' Fife--'tis a strange chance; and what
in heaven's name seek ye here? 'Tis a perilous time for a
foreigner--still more a Frenchman, to tread on Scottish ground. The war,
the intrigues with St. Germains, the Popish plots, and the devil only
knows what more, make travelling here more than a little dangerous."

"Monsieur, I know all that; the days are changed since the Scot was at
home in France, and the Frenchman at home in Scotland, for so the old
laws of Stuart and Bourbon made them. A few words will tell who I am and
what I seek here. Excuse my reluctance to reveal myself before, for now
you have a claim upon me. Oh! believe me, I knew not that I addressed
the generous chevalier who, in that hour of despair, redeemed my life
(and more than life), my honor, from the scourge, and enabled me to lay
the head of my poor brother with reverence in the grave. You have heard
of M. Henri Lemercier?"

"What! the great swordsman and fencer--that noble master of the science
of self-defence, with the fame of whose skill and valor all Europe is
ringing?"

"I am he of whom Monsieur is pleased to speak so highly."

"Your hand again, sir; sounds, but I dearly love this gallant science
myself, and have even won me a little name as a handler of the rapier.
There is but one man whom Europe calls your equal, Monsieur Lemercier."

"My superior, you mean, for I have many equals," replied the Frenchman,
very modestly. "You doubtless mean--"

"Sir William Hope, of Hopetoun."

"Ah! Mon Dieu, yes, he has, indeed, a great name in Europe as a fencer
and master of arms, either with double or single falchion, case of
falchions, backsword and dagger, pistol or quarter staff; and it is the
fame of his skill and prowess in these weapons, and the reputation he
has earned by his books on fencing, that hath brought me to-day to this
remote part of Scotland."

"Zounds!" said the Major, shaking back the long powdered curls of his
Ramillie wig, and looking remarkably grave; "you cannot mean to have a
bout with Sir William? He hath a sure hand and a steady eye. I would
rather stand a platoon than be once covered with his pistol."

"Monsieur, I have no enmity to this Sir William Hope, nor am I envious
of his great name as a fencer. Ma foi! the world is quite wide enough
fo