ers will stare not a little when they perceive how completely, in spite of all this, their sympathies are made to grow upon the unlovely Matthew. The passages in which he, returning hastily from St Andrews, after a three years' absence, beholds his cousin sprung from childhood to womanhood, gazes upon her bloom of unimagined loveliness, and almost in the same breath is heartsickened by the discovery of what has been done while he was away, are among the most striking and characteristic parts of the work. As such, we shall extract a small specimen of them, though we are well aware that the effect of such things is sorely marred by mutilation.

"Katharine happened to go out of the room soon after breakfast, and I slunk up stairs to my own old garret in a mood of considerable sulkiness. I flung myself down in a chair, and my eyes rested upon an oldfashioned hanging mirror, which, by a great crack through the middle, recalled to my recollection an unfortunate game at Blindman's Buff that took place several years before, when my beautiful cousin was a match for myself in every species of romping. From the old days my attention wandered back to the present, and I began to study, with some feelings not of the most delightful description, the appearance of the image now before me. The triumphs of the Fife friseur had been quite obliterated during my journey, and a huge mass of raven black hair was hanging about my ears in all the native shagginess of the picturesque. I perceived at one glance, that my whole dress was in the extreme of barbarous bad taste, that my coat was clumsily cut, and would have taken in two of me,that my waistcoat was an atrocity, and that my linen was not only coarse but soiled. I had it in my power to remedy this last defect; so I stripped off my clothes, and began to scrub myself by way of preparation. But, clean shirt and all, the thing would not do. Fool!' said I to myself, do you not see how it is? What nonsense for you to dream of figging yourself out, as if anything could make that look well! Do you not see that your complexion is as black as a gipsy's--your growth stunted, everything about you as destitute of grace as if you were hewn out of a whinstone? What a pair of shoulders that bull's neck is buried in! The sturdiness of these legs is mere deformity! Shapeless, uncouth, awkward, savage-looking ragamuffin that you are, seeing your own reflection as you do, how could you dream that anything in the form of a woman could ever fancy these grotesque proportions ?'

"I heard voices under my window at

this moment, and, peeping out, saw Mr Lascelyne and my cousin standing together in conversation beside the dial-stone. He had laid aside his robe-de-chambre, and was dressed for riding. A short green frock, and tight buckskin breeches, descending, exhibited the perfect symmetry of his tall without a crease, to the middle of the leg, and graceful person. His profile was purely Greek, nothing could surpass the bright bloom of his complexion. But it was the easy, degagee air of the coxcomb-the faultless grace of every attitude and action, that cut me deepest. I saw it all-Fain would I have not seen it ;-I tried to deceive myself;-but I could not be blind. I saw Katharine's eye beaming upon him as he chattered to her. I watched his airy glances-I devoured their smiles. He took her gaily by the hand, and they disappeared round the corner of the house.

"I sat down again, half naked as I was, in my chair, and spurned the slipper from my foot against the mirror. It hit the line of the old crack; and the spot where it lighted became the centre of a thousand straggling radii, that made it impossible I should be henceforth offended otherwise than with sorely broken fractions of my sweet form."

As yet, however, it is only suspicion. Conviction follows a few days afterwards, in the course of an excursion to some fine scenery in the neighbourhood of the paternal mansion. The party has been scattered in riding through the forest, and Matthew finds himself for some time alone. He is endeavouring to recover the trace of his companions

"I had got a little off the river, to avoid some apparently impassable thickets, and was walking my little Highlander quietly along the top of the knoll, when I heard what seemed to be a woman's voice down below. I halted for a moment, heard that sound again, and, advancing a few paces, saw distinctly Katharine Wald and Mr Lascelyne seated together at the root of a tree, fast by the brink of the water. Tall trees were growing all down the bank, but the underwood consisted of bushes and thorns, and I had a perfect view of the pair, though they were perhaps fifty paces under the spot where I stood. A thousand tumultuous feelings throbbed upon my brain; and yet a mortal coldness shook me as I gazed. Her right hand covered her eyes as she wept, not aloud, but audibly, beside him. He held the left grasped in his fingers on her knee. I saw him kissing the drops off it as they fell. She withdrew that hand also, clasped them both fervently upon her face, and groaned and sobbed again, as if her heart would break.

things is not only fair, but eminently fortunate: But all this while the original passion has been smouldered, not extinguished. The love of his cousin had been doomed to be the passion and the fate of his life. Of this, by unobtrusive and highly skilful touches, the reader has been all along kept to a certain extent aware, and surprise is not the feeling with which we at last find this apparently happy and successful man plunged into the abyss of misery -not by any stain of sinful indulgence -for of this the total impossibility is felt from the beginning of Katharine Wald's story to the end-but by the natural consequences of one single interview, in which Matthew's wife is made, for the first time, to suspect that she has never possessed the true love of her husband. The effect of this upon a feeble constitution, and a highly sensitive, and not strong mind, is fatal; and the calamity recoils in fearful force upon Wald himself, and all that are dear to him. Katharine having been deserted and betrayed by her husband, Lord Lascelyne, is by mere accident discovered to her cousin. That discovery plunges her cousin into the misery of bereavement and remorse. Lascelyne, meantime, suspecting that his wife is Wald's paramour, forces himself upon the agonies of this stern and comfortless mourner. He dies by the hand of Mr Wald; and everything is gloom, total gloom. Matthew becomes, for a time, altogether insane; and his own narrative closes with some terrible reminiscences of the worst of all human miseries.

How, left altogether alone in the world, his mind gradually inures itself to his fate, in so far, at least, as to admit of his wearing, to common eyes, the appearance of a serene, occasionally even a joyous old man; and how, when nature was at last sensible of approaching dissolution, he was drawn back, after an absence of thirty or forty years, to die among the scenes which had witnessed the only perfectly happy portion of his career of all this we are informed in a postscript, written as by another hand.

With the final catastrophe of Matthew's own tale, or rather with the circumstances by which that catastrophe is hurried on, (for as to expecting any but a woful issue to such a man's story, this was quite out of the question,) we are by no means

pleased. The incident at the garden wall, at p. 336, is to our taste altogether extravagant and absurd—and we think the same thing might easily have been brought about by means quite simple and natural. Laying this defect out of view, we venture to say, that this narrative will be universally a favourite with all who are capable of appreciating strength and originality of conception-as to incident, and still more as to character— and a very extraordinary command of language. This volume is written throughout with a commanding vigour and energy, and whenever the subject demands it, the author rises into the most genuine eloquence of passionand yet, with but a few trifling exceptions, nothing, it appears to us, can be more simple, easy, and graceful, than the whole tone of expression. The work is, moreover, rich in shrewd, sagacious, home-thrusting remarks upon human life and manners; and altogether Matthew Wald affords indubitable evidence of the rapid progress which its author has made in the knowledge of mankind, since he first appeared in the field of romance, and also in the art of composition. No one who ever read any one of his books, could deny to him the possession of intense energy, both of thought and expression. The style of Matthew Wald exhibits prodigious improvement as to harmony of tone: it is quite free from the faults of prolixity and turgidity, and bears the impress not merely of great but of uniform power.

We must extract one or two passages-the first shall be from that part of the history in which Mr Wald discovers, from the inspection of an old casket of letters, that his wife's mother had really been married to Sir Claud Barr. The sketch of the old Scotch Judge is eminently graphic, and we believe there is little doubt who sat for the portrait.

"The larger casket, when I forced its lid, presented to my view a packet sealed with three seals in black wax, but nothing written on its envelope. I broke the seals, and found that the contents were letters; the letters, in short, which had passed be. tween Sir Claud Barr and his lovely Fleming previous to their elopement. My first thought was to destroy them immediately; but, glancing my eye over one, I was so much struck with the natural and touching

elegance of the language, that I could not resist the inclination which rose within me, and fairly sat down to peruse the whole at my leisure.

"They were all in French; and most interesting as well as curious productions certainly they were. I have never read many genuine love-letters, and I doubt very much whether most of them would reward a third person for the trouble of reading them. But here I speak of the poor girl's epistles there was such an openness of heart, such a free, infantine simplicity of expression, such pride of passion, that I knew not whether my admiration and pity, or my scorn and indignation, were uppermost. One letter, written just before the elopement, was a thing the like of which I have never seen,-I had never even imagined. Such lamentation, such reproaches, mingled with such floods of tenderness, such intense yet remorseless lingering over an intoxication of terror, joy, pride, and tears! Men, after all, probably know but little of what passes in the secret heart of woman; and how little does woman dare to say, far less to write, that might illuminate them! But here was the heart of a woman, beating, and burning, and trembling, beneath the bosom of an artless child. No concealinent-none whatever; -the victim glorying in the sacrifice in the same breath with which she deplored herself!-How much the meanest and the basest of all selfishness is man's!

"The deceiver's letters were written in bad French, comparatively speaking, and altogether bore the impress of a totally inferior mind; yet some of them were not without their bursts of eloquence too. At the beginning, said I to myself, this man meant not to betray her. Í read a long letter through; and found, after a world of verbiage, one line that startled me,-Oui, mon ange, oui, je vous le jure; VOUS SEREZ, VOS ETES, MON EPOUSE.'

"I knew enough of the law of my country, to be aware of the extreme danger to which the use of expressions of this sort had often led; and I could not help passing a sleepless night, revolving a thousand fancies, the most remote shadow of which had never before suggested itself to me. Joanne observed how restless I was, but I resolved not to give her the annoyance of partaking in an agitation which might, I was sufficiently aware, terminate in absolutely nothing. So I kept my thoughts to myself for the present, but spent a great part of next day in conning over the section Marriage, in half a dozen different lawbooks, which I contrived to borrow among my neighbours. Still I found myself entirely in the dark. I could make no clear sense out of all the conflicting authorities I saw quoted and requoted, concerning consensus de futuro, consensus de præsenti, ́copulæ subsequentes, consent rebus ipsis et

factis, promises in æstu data, and I know not how much more similar jargon.

"I recollected that one of the Judges of the Court of Session, with whom I had met sometimes at the county club, had just come home to his seat in our neighbourhood, and resolved to communicate my scruples to him, rather than to any of the pettifoggers in the country. Accordingly, I mounted my horse, and arrived about noon, with all my papers in my pocket, at that beautiful villa from which the Lord Thirleton took his title of courtesy.

"I found his lordship sitting on the turfen fence of one of his belts of fir, in his usual rural costume of a scratch-wig, a green jacket, Shetland hose, and short black gaiters. A small instrument, ingeniously devised for serving at once as a walking cane, a hoe, and a weed-grubber, rested against his knee; and while reposing a little to recruit his wind, he was indulging himself with a quiet perusal of a condescendence and answers,' which he had brought with him in his pocket.

"I waited till, having finished a paragraph, he lifted his eyes from his paper; and then, with as little periphrasis as I could, introduced to him myself and my errand.

"Love-letters, lad?' said he, rubbing his hands; let's see them, let's see them. I like a love-letter from my heart, manwhat signifies speaking-semel insanivimus

omnes.

"I picked out the two letters which, I thought, contained the cream of the matter, and watched his face very diligently while he read them.

"Od, man,' says he, but that lassie writes weel. I cannot say that I make every word of the lingo out, but I see the drift. -Puir thing! she's been a bit awmorous young body."

"The point, my lord,' said I, is to know what the Court would think of that passage?'-(I pointed out the line of Sir Claud's penmanship, which I have already quoted) You are aware how they lived together afterwards. What, if I may ask, is the law of Scotland as to such matters ?'

"Hooly, hooly,' quoth the Judge; let me gang ower this again.-Troth, they're queer words these.'

"My dear lord,' said I, I want to know what the Court would be likely to say to them.'

"His Lordship took off his spectacles, and restoring them to their case, rose, hoe in hand, from his seat- My dear Doctor,' quoth he, laying his hand on my shoulder, it really surprises me to see how little the people of this country ken about the affairs that maist nearly concern them.'

"True, my lord,' said I; 'I am very sensible that I am no lawyer. But it is our greatest happiness that we have among us learned persons who are able to instruct us

in these matters when we have occasion. Your lordship can easily inform me what the law of Scotland

"The law of Scotland !' cried he, interrupting me: the law of Scotland, Doctor Waldie! Gude faith, my worthy friend, it's eneugh to gar a horse laugh to hear you The law of Scotland! I wonder ye're no speaking about the crown o' Scotland too; for I'm sure ye might as weel speir after the ane frae the Bullers o' Buchan, as the other frae their Woolsacks. They might hae gaen on lang enough for me, if they had been content wi' their auld impruvements o' ca'ing a flae a flea, and a puinding a poinding-but now, tapsalteerie's the word-but wheesht, wheesht,we maun e'en keep a calm sough, my lad.'

"I am afraid,' said I,' your lordship conceives the law to be very unsettled, then, as to these matters ?'

"The law was settled enough, Doc. tor Waldie,' he replied; but what signifies speaking? I suppose, ere long, we shall be Englified, shoulder and croupe. Isna that a grand law, my man, that lets folk blaw for forty years about the matter of forty merks, if they will, and yet tries a puir devil for his life, and hangs him within the three days, ay, and that without giving him leave to have onybody to speak a word for him, either to Judge or Jury? My word, they might learn to look nearer hame.'

"His lordship was thumping away at the turf with his hoe all this while, and seemed to be taking things in general so hotly, that I despaired of getting him to fix his attention on my particular concern; and said, the moment he paused, Well, my lord, I suppose the short and the long of it is, that you think there would be no use in my trying this question.'

Do you

"Hooly, hooly, there again,' quoth he, quite in his usual tone It's not aé stroke that fells the oak, and while there's life there's hope, young man. really think that I'm sic a ramstam gowk, as to bid you or ony man fling the cloak away ere you have tried how it will clout? Na, na, hooly and fairly, my dear Doctor.' "Then your lordship inclines to think favourably

"Me incline to think favourably, young man!-tak tent what you're say ing. Do you think that I'm gaun to incline to think either favourably or unfavourably here, on my ain dykeside, of a case that I may be called upon, in the course of nature, to decide on, saul and conscience, in the Parliament-house mony days hence? Ye should really tak better care what ye say-young calves are aye for being at the end of their tether.'

O, my lord; I'm sure your lordship can't imagine that I could have had the least intention of forming any opinion

derogatory to your lordship's well-known impartial character. Really, really, you have quite mistaken me. I only meant to ask you as a friend, if I may presume to use such a word with your lordship, whether you thought I should, or should not, encounter the risk of a lawsuit as to this matter.'

"That's no a thing for me to speak about, my good friend; it's my business to decide law-pleas when they're at their hinderend, not when they're at the off-setting. Ye must advise wi' counsel.'

"A sudden light flashed upon me at this moment; I bowed respectfully to his lordship, and, without informing him of my intention, went round by the other side of the firs to his mansion-house. Here I inquired whether the young laird was at home, and was told that he was out shooting partridges, in a turnip-field not far off. I desired that he might be sent for, and the young gentleman obeyed forthwith.

"By the time he joined me, I had sealed up five guineas, under a sheet of paper, and superscribed it For Michael Thirler, younger of Thirleton, Esq. advocate.' I placed this in his hand, and found that I had at least secured a most patient and attentive, if not a very intelligent listener. In a word, I saw plainly enough, that the young advocate, thus suddenly taken, was no more able to give me an opinion touching the law of marriage, than to cut a man for the stone but this did not discourage me. I left my papers with him, saying, that the chief favour he could confer on me, would be to weigh the matter with the utmost deliberation ere he said one word about it; and adding, that I should have the honour of calling on him next day about the same hour, if he had no objec tions. I saw how much this arrangement delighted him, and departed in full confidence that I should soon get value for my gold.

“Accordingly, when I returned next day, I received from the hands of my young counsellor, a long, formal, and masterly opinion, in which every disputable point of the case was gone into fully, and which concluded, with a clear and distinct recommendation of my projected action.

"The old lord came into the room, while I was conning it over, and stepping up to my ear, whispered, Ay, ay, ye ken there's an auld saying, Young lawyers and auld doctors and maybe half of it may be true." I nodded in answer to his friendly gesture, and received a cordial invitation to stay and try whether a puir paper-lord might not hae a drap of tolerable Bourdeaux in his aught.' This temptation, however, you may suppose I for once resisted. It was now high time that my wife should be informed of an affair that so nearly interested her.

"Poor soul! she heard me to an end