ew extremely pale, and had nearly
fallen from his chair.--The alarmed Antiquary ran hither and thither
looking for remedies; but his museum, though sufficiently well filled
with a vast variety of useless matters, contained nothing that could be
serviceable on the present or any other occasion. As he posted out
of the room to borrow his sister's salts, he could not help giving a
constitutional growl of chagrin and wonder at the various incidents
which had converted his mansion, first into an hospital for a wounded
duellist, and now into the sick chamber of a dying nobleman. "And yet,"
said he, "I have always kept aloof from the soldiery and the peerage.
My coenobitium has only next to be made a lying-in hospital, and then, I
trow, the transformation will be complete."

When he returned with the remedy, Lord Glenallan was much better.
The new and unexpected light which Mr. Oldbuck had thrown upon the
melancholy history of his family had almost overpowered him. "You think,
then, Mr. Oldbuck--for you are capable of thinking, which I am not--you
think, then, that it is possible--that is, not impossible--my child may
yet live?"

"I think," said the Antiquary, "it is impossible that it could come to
any violent harm through your brother's means. He was known to be a gay
and dissipated man, but not cruel nor dishonourable; nor is it possible,
that, if he had intended any foul play, he would have placed himself so
forward in the charge of the infant, as I will prove to your lordship he
did."

So saying, Mr. Oldbuck opened a drawer of the cabinet of his ancestor
Aldobrand, and produced a bundle of papers tied with a black ribband,
and labelled,--Examinations, etc., taken by Jonathan Oldbuck, J. P., upon
the 18th of February, 17--; a little under was written, in a small
hand, Eheu Evelina! The tears dropped fast from the Earl's eyes, as
he endeavoured, in vain, to unfasten the knot which secured these
documents.

"Your lordship," said Mr. Oldbuck, "had better not read these at
present. Agitated as you are, and having much business before you, you
must not exhaust your strength. Your brother's succession is now, I
presume, your own, and it will be easy for you to make inquiry among
his servants and retainers, so as to hear where the child is, if,
fortunately, it shall be still alive."

"I dare hardly hope it," said the Earl, with a deep sigh. "Why should my
brother have been silent to me?"

"Nay, my lord, why should he have