after the impulse of the violent expulsion had
subsided, seemed to indicate that his career had some more certain goal
for its object than could have suggested itself to a person unexpectedly
turned out of good quarters when midnight was approaching, to seek a
new place of repose. He never even looked behind him, and consequently
Durward was enabled to follow him unobserved. At length, the Bohemian
having traversed the meadow and attained the side of a little stream,
the banks of which were clothed with alders and willows, Quentin
observed that he stood still, and blew a low note on his horn, which was
answered by a whistle at some little distance.

"This is a rendezvous," thought Quentin, "but how shall I come near
enough to overhear the import of what passes? The sound of my steps, and
the rustling of the boughs through which I must force my passage, will
betray me, unless I am cautious--I will stalk them, by Saint Andrew,
as if they were Glen Isla deer--they shall learn that I have not conned
woodcraft for naught. Yonder they meet, the two shadows--and two of them
there are--odds against me if I am discovered, and if their purpose be
unfriendly, as is much to be doubted. And then the Countess Isabelle
loses her poor friend--Well, and he were not worthy to be called such,
if he were not ready to meet a dozen in her behalf. Have I not crossed
swords with Dunois, the best knight in France, and shall I fear a tribe
of yonder vagabonds? Pshaw!--God and Saint Andrew to friend, they will
find me both stout and wary."

Thus resolving, and with a degree of caution taught him by his silvan
habits, our friend descended into the channel of the little stream,
which varied in depth, sometimes scarce covering his shoes, sometimes
coming up to his knees, and so crept along, his form concealed by the
boughs overhanging the bank, and his steps unheard amid the ripple of
the water. (We have ourselves, in the days of yore, thus approached
the nest of the wakeful raven.) In this manner the Scot drew near
unperceived, until he distinctly heard the voices of those who were the
subject of his observation, though he could not distinguish the words.
Being at this time under the drooping branches of a magnificent weeping
willow, which almost swept the surface of the water, he caught hold of
one of its boughs, by the assistance of which, exerting at once much
agility, dexterity, and strength, he raised himself up into the body of
the tree, and