carriage. . . . His tears gushed out in spite of himself,
and mingling with hers, poured those thanks, those
assurances, of animated approbation through her heart, which
made it even ache with excess of happiness." . . . And a
sentence or two further. "Kosciusko did bless him, and
embalmed the benediction with a shower of tears."

The glorious Scott cycle of romances came to me some four or five years
afterwards; and I think boys of our year were specially fortunate in
coming upon those delightful books at that special time when we
could best enjoy them. Oh, that sunshiny bench on half-holidays, with
Claverhouse or Ivanhoe for a companion! I have remarked of very late
days some little men in a great state of delectation over the romances
of Captain Mayne Reid, and Gustave Aimard's Prairie and Indian Stories,
and during occasional holiday visits, lurking off to bed with the volume
under their arms. But are those Indians and warriors so terrible as our
Indians and warriors were? (I say, are they? Young gentlemen, mind, I do
not say they are not.) But as an oldster I can be heartily thankful for
the novels of the 1-10 Geo. IV., let us say, and so downward to a period
not unremote. Let us see there is, first, our dear Scott. Whom do I love
in the works of that dear old master? Amo--

The Baron of Bradwardine and Fergus. (Captain Waverley is certainly very
mild.)

Amo Ivanhoe; LOCKSLEY; the Templar.

Amo Quentin Durward, and especially Quentin's uncle, who brought the
boar to bay. I forget the gentleman's name.

I have never cared for the Master of Ravenswood, or fetched his hat out
of the water since he dropped it there when I last met him (circa 1825).

Amo SALADIN and the Scotch knight in the "Talisman." The Sultan best.

Amo CLAVERHOUSE.

Amo MAJOR DALGETTY. Delightful Major. To think of him is to desire to
jump up, run to the book, and get the volume down from the shelf. About
all those heroes of Scott, what a manly bloom there is, and honorable
modesty! They are not at all heroic. They seem to blush somehow in their
position of hero, and as it were to say, "Since it must be done, here
goes!" They are handsome, modest, upright, simple, courageous, not
too clever. If I were a mother (which is absurd), I should like to be
mother-in-law to several young men of the Walter-Scott-hero sort.

Much as I like those most unassuming, manly, unpretending gentlemen, I
have to own that I think t