d ran for it; but there was one of their number who did not
run far--a few yards, when he fell down and expired. His hurts had been
mortal.

"Oich, oich, lad!" said Donald, peering into the face of the dead man,
"you'll no pe shust that very weel, I'm thinkin. The heelan claymore 'll
not acree with your Spanish stomach. But it's goot medicine for rogues,
for all that." Having thus apostrophized the slain man, Donald sheathed
his weapon, muttering as he did so: "Ta cowartly togs can fight no
more's a turkey hens."

And, cocking his bonnet proudly, he commenced the task of finding his
way back to the city; a task which, after a good many unnecessary, but,
from his ignorance of the localities, unavoidable deviations, he at
length accomplished.

Donald's most anxious desire now was to find a "public" in which to
quarter for the night; but, the hour being late, this was no easy
matter. Every door was shut, and the streets lonely and deserted. At
length, however, our hero stumbled on what appeared to him to be
something of the kind he wanted, although he could have wished it to
have been on a fully smaller and humbler scale. This was a large hotel,
in which every window was blazing with light, and the rooms were filled
with mirthful music. Donald's first impression was that it was a penny
wedding upon a great scale. It was, in truth, a masquerade; and as the
brandy which he had drunk in the earlier part of the evening was still
in his head, he proposed to himself taking a very active part in the
proceedings. On entering the hotel, however, which he did boldly, he was
rather surprised at the splendours of various kinds which greeted his
eyes--marble stairs, gorgeous lamps, gilt cornices, &c., &c., and sundry
other indications of grandeur which he had never seen equalled even in
Tain or Dingwall, to say nothing of his native parish of Macharuarich,
and he had been in his time in every public-house of any repute in all
of them. These circumstances did not disabuse Donald of his original
idea of its being a penny-wedding. He only thought that they conducted
these things in greater style in Spain than in Scotland, and with this
solution of the difficulty, suggested by the said splendours, Donald
mounted the broad marble staircase, and stalked into the midst of a
large apartment filled with dancers. The variety and elegance of the
dresses of these last again staggered Donald's belief in the nature of
the merry-making, and made h