the moment, and breath the mean and peevish complaints of faithlessness and despondency. Let it not therefore be imputed as an unworthy weakness, that a delicate and lowly widow, whose constant experience had been an unbroken succession of disappointments and humiliations, should in such an hour, and shrinking with the sensibilities of a mother, wonder almost to sinning, why she had been made to suffer such a constancy of griefs. But the midnight of her fate was now past, and the dawn was soon to open upon her with all its festal attributes of a bright and joyous morning—though our friend the leddy was not so brisk in communicating the change as we could have wished.

She was sitting alone in the parlour when the carriage returned; and as the trembling mother was shown into the room, she received her with the most lugubrious face that her features could assume.

"Come awa', Bell Fatherlans," said she, "come awa', and sit down. O, this is a most uncertain world!—nothing in it has stability;—the winds blow-the waters run-the grass grows— the snow falls—the day flieth away unto the uttermost parts of the sea, and the night hideth her head in the morning cloud, and perisheth for evermore. Many a lesson we get—many a warning to set our thoughts on things above; but we're aye sinking, sinking, sinking, as the sparks fly upward-Bell, Bell, we're a' like thorns crackling under a kail-pot."

"What has occurred?" exclaimed Mrs Charles; "I beg you'll tell me at once."

"So I will, when I hae solaced you into a religious frame o' mind to hear me wi' a Christian composity o' temper; for what I maun tell is, though I say't mysel', a something."

"For goodness and mercy, I entreat you to proceed-Where is Mr Milrookit? where is Robina ?

"Ye needna hope to see muckle o' them the night," replied the leddy. "Poor folk, they hae gotten their hands filled wi’ cares! O Bell, Bell-when I think o't-it's a judgment-it's a judgment, Bell Fatherlans, aboon the capacity o' man! Really, when I consider how I hae been directed-and a' by my own skill, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding-it's past a' com

prehension. What would my worthy father hae said had he lived to see the day that his dochter won sic a braw estate by her ain interlocutors ?-and what would your gudefather hae said, when he was aye brag bragging o' the conquest he had made o' the Kittlestonheugh o' his ancestors—the whilk took him a lifetime to do-had he seen me, just wi' a single whisk o' dexterity, a bit touch of the law, make the vera same conquest for your son Jamie Walkinshaw in less than twa hours ?"

"You astonish me! to what do you allude? I am amazed, and beginning to be confounded," said Mrs Charles.

"Indeed it is no wonder," replied the leddy; "for wha would hae thought it, that I, an aged literate grandmother, would hae bamboozlet an Embrough writer to the signet on a nice point, and found out the ground of an action for damages against that tod o' a bodie Pitwinnoch, for intromitting wi' ane of the four pleas o' the crown? Had I kent what I ken now, uncle Watty might still hae been to the fore, and in the full possession of his seven lawful senses-for, woman as I am, I would hae been my own man o' business, counsel, and executioner, in the concos mentos sederunt, whereby I was so 'frauded o' my rightful hope and expectation. But Pitwinnoch will soon fin' the weight o' the lion's paw that his doobileecity has roused in me."

Mrs Charles, who was much amused by the exultation with which the leddy had recounted her exploits in the bed and board plea, perceiving that some new triumph equally improbable had incurred, felt her anxieties subside into curiosity; and being now tolerably mistress of her feelings, she again enquired what had happened.

"I'll tell you," said the leddy; "and surely it's right and proper you his mother should know, that through my implementing it has been discovered that your son is an heir-male according to law!"

"No possible!" exclaimed the delighted mother, the whole truth flashing at once on her mind.

"Ay, that's just as I might hae expectit a prophet ne'er got honour in his own country; and so a' the thank I'm to get for my pains is a no possible!" said the leddy offended, mistaking the meaning of the interjection. "But it is a true

possible; and Milrookit has consentit to adjudicate the estateso ye see how ye're raised to pride and affluence by my instrumentality. Firstly, by the bed and board plea, I found a mean to revisidend your 'nuity; and secondly, I hae found the libel proven, that Beenie, being a dochter, is an heir-female, and is, by course of law, obligated to renounce the estate."

"This is most extraordinary news indeed," rejoined Mrs Charles, "after for so many years believing my poor children so destitute;" and a flood of tears happily came to her relief.

"But, Bell Fatherlans," resumed the leddy, "I'll tak' you wi' the tear in your e'e, as both you and Jamie maun be sensible, that, but for my discerning, this great thing never could hae been brought to a come-to-pass. I hope ye'll confabble thegither anent the loss I sustained by what happened to uncle Watty, and mak' me a reasonable compensation out o' the rents; the whilk are noo, as I am creditably informed, better than fifteen hundred pounds per anno Domini, that's the legality for the year o' our Lord;—a sma' matter will be a great satisfaction."

Indeed," said Mrs Charles, "James owes you much; and your kindness in giving him the bill so generously, I know, has made a very deep impression on his heart.”

"He was aye a blithe and kindly creature," exclaimed the leddy, wiping her eye as if a tear had actually shot into it— "and may be it winna fare the waur wi' him when I'm dead and gone. For I'll let you into a secret—it's my purpose to mak' a last will and testament, and cut off Milrookit wi' à shilling, for his horridable niggerality about the bed and board concern. Na, for that matter, as ye'll can 'fen noo without ony 'nuity but your ain son's affection, I hae a great mind, and I'll do't too-that's what I will-for fear I should be wheedled into

a

an adversary by my dochter Meg for the Milrookits-I'll gie the thousand pound heritable bond to your Mary for a tocher; is not that most genteel of me? I doot few families hae had a grandmother for their ancestor like yours."

Some further conversation to the same effect was continued, and the injustice which Milrookit had attempted, seemed to Mrs Charles considerably extenuated by the readiness with which

he had acknowledged the rights of her son. For, notwithstanding all the leddy's triumphant oratory and legal phraseology, she had no difficulty in perceiving the true circumstances of the

case.

CHAPTER XCIX.

In the opinion of all the most judicious critics, the Iliad terminated with the death of Hector; but as Homer has entertained us with the mourning of the Trojans, and the funeral of the hero, we cannot, in our present circumstances, do better than adopt the rule of that great example. For although it must be evident to all our readers that the success of the leddy in her second lawsuit, by placing the heir, in despite of all the devices and stratagem of parchments and Pitwinnoch, in possession of the patrimony of his ancestors, naturally closes the Entail-a work that will, no doubt, outlive the Iliad-still there were so many things immediately consequent on that event, that our story would be imperfect without some account of them.

In the first place, then, Walkinshaw, immediately after the receipt of Frazer's letter, acquainting him with the discovery of the provisions of the deed, returned to Edinburgh, where he arrived on the third day after his friend had heard from Whitteret, the Glasgow writer, that Milrookit, without objection, agreed to surrender the estate. The result of which communication was an immediate and formal declaration from Walkinshaw of his attachment to Ellen, and a cheerful consent from her father, that their marriage, as soon as the necessary preparations could be made, should be celebrated at Glengael.

Upon French Frazer the good fortune of his brother officer was no less decisive, for any scruple that he might have felt in his attachment to Mary, on account of his own circumstances, was removed by an assurance from Walkinshaw that he would, as soon as possible, make a liberal provision both for her and his mother; and in the same letter which Walkinshaw wrote home

on his return to Edinburgh, and in which he spoke of his own marriage, he entreated his mother's consent that Mary should accept the hand of Frazer.

On Mrs Eadie, the fulfilment, as she called it, of her visions and predictions, had the most lamentable effect. Her whole spirit became engrossed with the most vague and mystical conceptions; and it was soon evident that an irreparable ruin had fallen upon one of the noblest of minds. Over her latter days we shall, therefore, draw a veil, and conclude her little part in our eventful history with simply mentioning that she never returned to Camrachle; but sunk into rest in the visionary beatitude of her parental solitudes.

Her husband, now a venerable old man, still resides as contentedly as ever in his parish; and when we last visited him, in his modest mansion, he informed us that he had acquiesced in the wishes of his elders, by consenting to receive a helper and successor in the ministry. So far, therefore, as the best, the most constant, and the kindest friends of the disinherited family are concerned, our task is finished: but we have a world of things to tell of the leddy and the Milrookits, many of which we must reserve till we shall have leisure to write a certain story of incomparable humour and pathos.

In the mean time, we must proceed to mention, that the leddy, finding it was quite unnecessary to institute any further proceedings to eject the Milrookits from Kittlestonheugh, as they of their own accord removed as soon as they found a suitable house, returned to her residence in the royal city, where she resumed her domestic thrift at the spinning-wheel, having resolved not to go on with her action of damages against Pitwinnoch till she had seen her grandson, who, prior to his marriage, was daily expected.

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For," as she said to his mother, after consulting with Mr Whitteret, and stating her grounds of action, "it is not so clear a case as my great bed and board plea-and Mr Whitteret is in some doubt whether Pitwinnoch should be sent to trial by my instrumentality or that of Jamie-very sensibly observing-for he's really a man o' the heighth o' discretion yon-that it would be hard for an aged gentlewoman like me, with a straitened