ngth, though the subject may seem somewhat
deficient in interest. Let the grace of the narrative, therefore,
and the concern we take in each other's matters, make amends for its
tenuity. We fools of fancy who suffer ourselves, like Malvolio, to be
cheated with our own visions, have, nevertheless, this advantage over
the wise ones of the earth, that we have our whole stock of enjoyments
under our own command, and can dish for ourselves an intellectual
banquet with most moderate assistance from external objects. It is,
to be sure, something like the feast which the Barmecide served up to
Alnaschar; and we cannot expect to get fat upon such diet. But then,
neither is there repletion nor nausea, which often succeed the grosser
and more material revel. On the whole, I still pray, with the Ode to
Castle Building--

Give me thy hope which sickens not the heart;
Give me thy wealth which has no wings to fly;
Give me the bliss thy visions can impart:
Thy friendship give me, warm in poverty!

And so, despite thy solemn smile and sapient shake of the head, I will
go on picking such interest as I can out of my trivial adventures, even
though that interest should be the creation of my own fancy; nor will I
cease to indict on thy devoted eyes the labour of perusing the scrolls
in which I shall record my narrative.

My last broke off as we were on the point of descending into the glen
at Brokenburn, by the dangerous track which I had first travelled EN
CROUPE, behind a furious horseman, and was now again to brave under the
precarious guidance of a blind man.

It was now getting dark; but this was no inconvenience to my guide, who
moved on, as formerly, with instinctive security of step, so that we
soon reached the bottom, and I could see lights twinkling in the cottage
which had been my place of refuge on a former occasion. It was not
thither, however, that our course was directed. We left the habitation
of the laird to the left, and turning down the brook, soon approached
the small hamlet which had been erected at the mouth of the stream,
probably on account of the convenience which it afforded as a harbour
to the fishing-boats. A large, low cottage, full in our front, seemed
highly illuminated; for the light not only glanced from every window
and aperture in its frail walls, but was even visible from rents and
fractures in the roof, composed of tarred shingles, repaired in part by
thatch and divot.

While these app