annot for my life see for what other
purpose it can be," thought he. "He never offers to attempt my life;
nor dares he, if he had the inclination; therefore, although his manner
is peculiarly repulsive to me, I shall not have my mind burdened with
the reflection that my own mother's son yearned for a reconciliation
with me and was repulsed by my haughty and insolent behaviour. The next
time he comes to my hand, I am resolved that I will accost him as one
brother ought to address another, whatever it may cost me; and, if I am
still flouted with disdain, then shall the blame rest with him."

After this generous resolution, it was a good while before his
gratuitous attendant appeared at his side again; and George began to
think that his visits were discontinued. The hope was a relief that
could not be calculated; but still George had a feeling that it was too
supreme to last. His enemy had been too pertinacious to abandon his
design, whatever it was. He, however, began to indulge in a little more
liberty, and for several days he enjoyed it with impunity.

George was, from infancy, of a stirring active disposition and could
not endure confinement; and, having been of late much restrained in his
youthful exercises by this singular persecutor, he grew uneasy under
such restraint, and, one morning, chancing to awaken very early, he
arose to make an excursion to the top of Arthur's Seat, to breathe the
breeze of the dawning, and see the sun arise out of the eastern ocean.
The morning was calm and serene; and as he walked down the south back
of the Canongate, towards the Palace, the haze was so close around him
that he could not see the houses on the opposite side of the way. As he
passed the Lord-Commissioner's house, the guards were in attendance,
who cautioned him not to go by the Palace, as all the gates would be
shut and guarded for an hour to come, on which he went by the back of
St. Anthony's gardens, and found his way into that little romantic
glade adjoining to the saint's chapel and well. He was still involved
in a blue haze, like a dense smoke, but yet in the midst of it the
respiration was the most refreshing and delicious. The grass and the
flowers were loaden with dew; and, on taking off his hat to wipe his
forehead, he perceived that the black glossy fur of which his chaperon
was wrought was all covered with a tissue of the most delicate
silver--a fairy web, composed of little spheres, so minute that no eye
could