ry plain features that it seemed extremely unlikely that any gay
wooer would ever stop before the door of Elibank. Meg, the eldest, was
especially plain-looking. She was pale and thin, with colourless eyes,
and a long pointed nose, and, to make matters worse, she had such a very
wide mouth that she was known throughout the length and breadth of four
counties as "Muckle-Mou'ed Meg o' Elibank."

No wonder her father sighed as he thought of her, for, in spite of his
greed and his slyness, Sir Juden was an affectionate father, as fathers
went in those days, and the lot of unmarried ladies of the upper class,
at that time, was a hard one.

He was roused from his thoughts by someone shouting to him from the top
of the neighbouring hill. It was one of his men-at-arms, and the old man
stood for a moment with his hand at his ear, to listen to the fellow's
words. They came faintly down the wind.

"I fear evil betakes us, Sir Juden, for far in the distance I hear
bugles sounding at Oakwood Tower. I would have said that the Scotts of
Harden were riding, were it not for Buccleuch and his new laws."

Sir Juden shook his grizzled head. "Little cares Auld Wat o' Harden, or
any o' his kind, either for Warden or laws, notwithstanding that the
Warden is his own kith and kin. As like as not they have heard tell o'
my bonnie drove of cattle, and would fain have some of them. Run,
sirrah, and warn our friends; no one can find fault with us if we fight
in self-defence."

No sooner had the first man disappeared to do his master's bidding, than
another approached, running down the hillside as fast as he could. He
was quite out of breath when he came up to the Laird, and no wonder, for
he had run all the way from Philip-Cairn, one of the highest hills in
the neighbourhood.

"Oh, Sir Juden," he gasped, "lose no time, but arm well, and warn well,
if thou wouldst keep thine own. From the top of the hill I saw armed men
in the distance, and it was not long ere I knew the knaves. 'Tis a band
of reivers led by the young Knight of Harden, and, besides his own men,
he hath with him the Wild Boar of Fauldshope, and all the Hoggs and the
Brydons."

"By my troth, but thou bringest serious tidings," said Sir Juden,
thoroughly alarmed, for he knew what deadly fighters Willie o' Harden
and the Boar of Fauldshope were, and, without wasting words, he hurried
away to his tower to make the best preparations he could for the coming
fray.

He knew that ev