service.

CHAPTER II.

Were ever two such loving friends!--
How could they disagree?
Oh, thus it was, he loved him dear,
And thought how to requite him,
And having no friend left but he,
He did resolve to fight him. DUKE UPON DUKE.

The pair of friends had traversed with their usual cordiality the
grassy wilds of Liddesdale, and crossed the opposite part of Cumberland,
emphatically called The Waste. In these solitary regions the cattle
under the charge of our drovers derived their subsistence chiefly by
picking their food as they went along the drove-road, or sometimes by
the tempting opportunity of a START AND OWERLOUP, or invasion of the
neighbouring pasture, where an occasion presented itself. But now the
scene changed before them. They were descending towards a fertile and
enclosed country, where no such liberties could be taken with impunity,
or without a previous arrangement and bargain with the possessors of the
ground. This was more especially the case, as a great northern fair was
upon the eve of taking place, where both the Scotch and English drover
expected to dispose of a part of their cattle, which it was desirable
to produce in the market rested and in good order. Fields were therefore
difficult to be obtained, and only upon high terms. This necessity
occasioned a temporary separation betwixt the two friends, who went to
bargain, each as he could, for the separate accommodation of his herd.
Unhappily it chanced that both of them, unknown to each other, thought
of bargaining for the ground they wanted on the property of a country
gentleman of some fortune, whose estate lay in the neighbourhood. The
English drover applied to the bailiff on the property, who was known
to him. It chanced that the Cumbrian Squire, who had entertained some
suspicions of his manager's honesty, was taking occasional measures
to ascertain how far they were well founded, and had desired that
any enquiries about his enclosures, with a view to occupy them for a
temporary purpose, should be referred to himself. As however, Mr. Ireby
had gone the day before upon a journey of some miles distance to the
northward, the bailiff chose to consider the check upon his full powers
as for the time removed, and concluded that he should best consult his
master's interest, and perhaps his own, in making an agreement with
Harry Wakefield. Meanwhile, ignorant of what his comrade was doing,
Robin Oig, on his side, chanc