's like a desperate man, and just catches at this chance
as a' he has left, to escape utter perdition; so what signifies plaguing
the puir lassie about what canna be helped? And besides, to say
the truth, I wadna like to tell the secret o' this place. It's unco
convenient, ye see yoursell, to hae a hiding-hole o' ane's ain; and
though I be out o' the line o' needing ane e'en now, and trust in the
power o' grace that I'll neer do onything to need ane again, yet naebody
kens what temptation ane may be gien ower to--and, to be brief, I downa
bide the thought of anybody kennin about the place;--they say, keep a
thing seven year, an' yell aye find a use for't--and maybe I may need the
cove, either for mysell, or for some ither body."

This argument, in which Edie Ochiltree, notwithstanding his scraps of
morality and of divinity, seemed to take, perhaps from old habit, a
personal interest, could not be handsomely controverted by Lovel, who
was at that moment reaping the benefit of the secret of which the old
man appeared to be so jealous.

This incident, however, was of great service to Lovel, as diverting
his mind from the unhappy occurrence of the evening, and considerably
rousing the energies which had been stupefied by the first view of his
calamity. He reflected that it by no means necessarily followed that a
dangerous wound must be a fatal one--that he had been hurried from
the spot even before the surgeon had expressed any opinion of Captain
M'Intyre's situation--and that he had duties on earth to perform, even
should the very worst be true, which, if they could not restore his
peace of mind or sense of innocence, would furnish a motive for
enduring existence, and at the same time render it a course of active
benevolence.--Such were Lovel's feelings, when the hour arrived when,
according to Edie's calculation--who, by some train or process of his own
in observing the heavenly bodies, stood independent of the assistance
of a watch or time-keeper--it was fitting they should leave their
hiding-place, and betake themselves to the seashore, in order to meet
Lieutenant Taffril's boat according to appointment.

They retreated by the same passage which had admitted them to the
prior's secret seat of observation, and when they issued from the
grotto into the wood, the birds which began to chirp, and even to sing,
announced that the dawn was advanced. This was confirmed by the light
and amber clouds that appeared over the sea,