defiled?--aye mind that. Nae doubt, the best and wisest may err--once,
twice, and thrice, have I backslidden, man, and dune three things this
night--my father wadna hae believed his een if he could hae looked up
and seen me do them."

He was by this time arrived at the door of his own dwelling. He
paused, however, on the threshold, and went on in a solemn tone of
deep contrition, "Firstly, I hae thought my ain thought on the
Sabbath. Secondly, I hae gien security for an Englishman--and, in the
third and last place, well a-day! I hae let an ill-doer escape from
the place of imprisonment. But there's balm in Gilead, Mr.
Osbaldistone--Mattie, I can let mysell in--see Mr. Osbaldistone to
Luckie Flyter's, at the corner o' the wynd. Mr. Osbaldistone"--in a
whisper--"ye'll offer nae incivility to Mattie--she's an honest man's
daughter, and a near cousin o' the Laird o' Limmerfield's."

IV

QUEEN ELIZABETH AND AMY ROBSART AT KENILWORTH[10]

It chanced upon that memorable morning, that one of the earliest of
the huntress train who appeared from her chamber in full array for the
chase was the princess for whom all these pleasures were instituted,
England's Maiden Queen. I know not if it were by chance, or out of the
befitting courtesy due to a mistress by whom he was so much honored,
that she had scarcely made one step beyond the threshold of her
chamber ere Leicester was by her side; and proposed to her, until the
preparations for the chase had been completed, to view the pleasance,
and the gardens which, it connected with the castle-yard....

Horses in the meanwhile neighed, and champed the bits with impatience
in the base-court; hounds yelled in their couples, and yeomen,
rangers, and prickers lamented the exhaling of the dew, which would
prevent the scent from lying. But Leicester had another chase in view:
or, to speak more justly toward him, had become engaged in it without
premeditation, as the high-spirited hunter which follows the cry of
the hounds that hath crost his path by accident. The Queen--an
accomplished and handsome woman, the pride of England, the hope of
France and Holland, and the dread of Spain--had probably listened with
more than usual favor to that mixture of romantic gallantry with which
she always loved to be addrest, and the earl had, in vanity, in
ambition, or in both, thrown in more and more of that delicious
ingredient, until his importunity became the language of love itself.

"No, D