a bier, we have said, served the
mysterious twain for a seat. Between them stood a bottle and a glass,
evidences that whatever might be the ulterior object of their stealthy
communion, the immediate comfort of the creature had not been altogether
overlooked. At the feet of one of the personages were laid a mattock, a
horn lantern--from which the candle had been removed--, a crowbar, and a
bunch of keys. Near to these implements of a vocation which the reader
will readily surmise, rested a strange superannuated terrier with a wiry
back and frosted muzzle; a head minus an ear, and a leg wanting a paw.
His master, for such we shall suppose him, was an old man with a lofty
forehead, covered with a singularly shaped nightcap, and clothed, as to
his lower limbs, with tight, ribbed, gray worsted hose, ascending
externally, after a bygone fashion, considerably above the knee. The old
man's elbow rested upon the handle of his spade, his wrist supported his
chin, and his gray glassy eyes, glimmering like marsh-meteors in the
candle-light, were fixed upon his companion with a glance of searching
scrutiny.

The object of his investigation, a much more youthful and interesting
person, seemed lost in reverie, and alike insensible to time, place, and
the object of the meeting. With both hands grasped round the barrel of a
fowling-piece, and his face leaning upon the same support, the features
were entirely concealed from view; the light, too, being at the back,
and shedding its rays over, rather than upon his person, aided his
disguise. Yet, even thus imperfectly defined, the outline of the head,
and the proportions of the figure, were eminently striking and
symmetrical. Attired in a rough forester's costume, of the mode of 1737,
and of the roughest texture and rudest make, his wild garb would have
determined his rank as sufficiently humble in the scale of society, had
not a certain loftiness of manner, and bold, though reckless deportment,
argued pretensions on the part of the wearer to a more elevated station
in life, and contradicted, in a great measure, the impression produced
by the homely appearance of his habiliments. A cap of shaggy brown fur,
fancifully, but not ungracefully fashioned, covered his head, from
beneath which, dropping, in natural clusters over his neck and
shoulders, a cloud of raven hair escaped. Subsequently, when his face
was more fully revealed, it proved to be that of a young man, of dark
aspect, and grave,