d as the fictions
of maternal affection. I will forbear all reproach. She is no more--and,
as her wretched associate said, she knew not how the dart was poisoned,
or how deep it must sink, when she threw it from her hand. But, Mr.
Oldbuck, if ever, during these twenty years, there crawled upon earth a
living being deserving of your pity, I have been that man. My food has
not nourished me--my sleep has not refreshed me--my devotions have not
comforted me--all that is cheering and necessary to man has been to me
converted into poison. The rare and limited intercourse which I have
held with others has been most odious to me. I felt as if I were
bringing the contamination of unnatural and inexpressible guilt among
the gay and the innocent. There have been moments when I had thoughts
of another description--to plunge into the adventures of war, or to brave
the dangers of the traveller in foreign and barbarous climates--to
mingle in political intrigue, or to retire to the stern seclusion of
the anchorites of our religion;--all these are thoughts which have
alternately passed through my mind, but each required an energy,
which was mine no longer, after the withering stroke I had received. I
vegetated on as I could in the same spot--fancy, feeling, judgment,
and health, gradually decaying, like a tree whose bark has been
destroyed,--when first the blossoms fade, then the boughs, until its
state resembles the decayed and dying trunk that is now before you. Do
you now pity and forgive me?"

"My lord," answered the Antiquary, much affected, "my pity--my
forgiveness, you have not to ask, for your dismal story is of itself not
only an ample excuse for whatever appeared mysterious in your conduct,
but a narrative that might move your worst enemies (and I, my lord, was
never of the number) to tears and to sympathy. But permit me to ask what
you now mean to do, and why you have honoured me, whose opinion can be
of little consequence, with your confidence on this occasion?"

"Mr. Oldbuck," answered the Earl, "as I could never have foreseen the
nature of that confession which I have heard this day, I need not say
that I had no formed plan of consulting you, or any one, upon affairs
the tendency of which I could not even have suspected. But I am without
friends, unused to business, and, by long retirement, unacquainted alike
with the laws of the land and the habits of the living generation; and
when, most unexpectedly, I find myself imme