thoughts. But if I have done wrong, you will pardon me, I hope, because I am so anxious about very dismal things."

"I assure you," I answered, with a flourish of my hat, which I had been practising upon the road, "that it is of the very best English society. If we dared, we should insist upon it upon every occasion, Mademoiselle."

"You must not call me that, sir. I am not of the French. I prefer the English nation very greatly. There has only been one name given to me by my father, and that is Dariel.”

"It is the sweetest name in all the world. Oh, Dariel, am I to call you Dariel?”

"If it is agreeable to you, Mr Cran-lee, it will be also agreeable to me; for why should you not pronounce me the same as Stepan does, and Allai?"-oh that was a cruel fall for me "although I have passed most of my life in England, and some of it even in London, I have not departed from the customs of my country, which are simple, very simple. See here is Kuban and Orla too! Will you not make reply to them?"

How could I make reply to dogs, with Dariel's eyes upon me? Many fellows would have been glad to kick Kuban and his son Orla, to teach them better than to jump around emotions so far above them. But not I; or at any rate not for more than half a moment; so sweetly was my spirit raised, that I never lifted either foot. Some of Dariel's gentle nature came to strike the balance; for I may have been a little short of that.

"Good dogs, noble dogs, what a pattern to us!" I had a very choice pair of trousers on, worthy of Tom Erricker,-if his had been ever bashful-and in another min

VOL. CLXI.-NO. DCCCCLXXV.

ute there scarcely would have been enough of them left to plough in.

But the joy of my heart-as I was beginning already to myself to call her perceived at a glance the right thing to do; and her smile and blush played into one another, as the rising sun colours the veil he weaves.

"If Mr Cran-lee will follow me, a step or two, I will show him a place where the dogs dare not to come."

"Follow thee ! Follow thee ! Wha wud na follow thee?" came into my head, with a worthier sequence than ever was vouchsafed to Highlanders.

"Where the dogs dare not come -I kept saying to myself, instead of looking to the right or left. The music of her voice seemed to linger in those words, though they have not even a fine English sound, let alone Italian. But my mind was so far out of call that it went with them into a goodly parable. "All men are dogs in comparison with her. Let none of them come near, wherever it may be, except the one dog, that is blest beyond all others."

The

"Are you a Christian?" The question came so suddenly, that it sounded like a mild rebuke-but no, it was not meant so. maiden turned towards me at a little wicket-gate, and her face expressed some doubt about letting me come in.

"Yes, I am a Christian," I answered pretty firmly, and then began to trim a little-"not a very hot one I should say. Not at all bigoted, I mean; not one of those who think that every other person

is a heathen."

I had made a mull of it. For the first time I beheld a smile of some contempt upon the gentle face. And I resolved to be of the strictest Orthodoxy evermore,

E

66

Feeble religious views did not suit

her.

"Christian! I should think so." I proceeded with high courage. "There is scarcely a Church-tower for ten miles round, that has not been built by my ancestors." Possibly this assertion needed not only a grain but a block of salt. But Dariel was of good strong faith; without which a woman deserves only to be a man. She opened the gate, and let me in, so beautifully that I was quite afraid. "You must not be frightened," she said, with a very fine rally of herself, to encourage mine, "it is the House of the Lord, and you have come into it with your hat on. But you did not know, because

there is no roof."

66

"Dariel, you may be quite sure of this," I replied, after taking my seat upon a stone, over against the one she had chosen, but lower, so that I could look up at her; place of holy memories like this is the very spot especially fitted for— for consideration of your dear father. Some of my ancesters no doubt were the founders of this ancient chapel, so that I speak with some authority, upon a point of that

stones.

sort."

All content has a murmur in it, according to the laws of earth; and within a few yards of my joy, the brook with perpetual change of tone, and rise and fall of liquid tune, was making as sweet a melody as a man can stop to hearken. But the brook might have ceased its noise for shame, at the music of my Dariel's voice. She gave me a timid glance at first, not for any care of me, but doubt of unlocking of her heart; and then the power of a higher love swept away all sense of self.

"My father, as you must have learned already, is one of the greatest men that have ever lived. There are many great men in this country also, in their way, which is very good; but they do not appear to cast away all regard for their own interests, in such a degree as my father does; and although they are very high Christians, they stop, or at least they appear to stop short of their doctrines, when the fear arises of not providing for themselves. They call it a question of the public good, and they are afraid of losing commerce.

here?"

"But my father is not of that character. The thing that is recommended to him by religion is the thing he does, and trade is not superior to God's will. Please to take notice of this, Mr Cran-lee, because it makes him difficult to be persuaded. And now he has told me quite lately a thing, which, if he adheres to it as he always does, will take him away, will extinguish, and altogether terminate him."

She turned her head aside, that I might not see the tears that were springing upon either cheek, and a cloud of very filmy lace from the strange octagonal cap she wore, mingled with the dark shower of her hair.

"Oh no, oh no! that shall never be," I answered as if I were master of the world; "oh Dariel, don't let your beautiful eyes

"It is of my father and not of myself we are speaking, Mr Cranlee. And you are surprised what reason I can have for-for inviting you to give opinion. But it is not your opinion for which I make petition, or not the opinion only, but the assistance of kind action from you, if you can indeed be persuaded. And before that can be accomplished, I must expand to you things that you may not have been informed, concerning my father, you know, do you not?"

'Nothing, or very little except what you yourself have told me. I know all about Daghestan of course"- so I did by this time, or at least all that was in the Cyclopædia-"and that your father has been a very great man there; and I can see that he has been accustomed to authority and probably to wars, and that he is worshipped by his retainers, and that he has some especial purpose here and prefers private life, but is kind enough to give me admission because of my accident; and after that, let me

a

It

"Never!" cried Dariel, with great delight, "but I expected not that you would already be captured with that demonstrance. shows how good he was to be pleased with you, for he is not taken in with every one. But now please to listen, while I tell you, so far as my acquaintance of your language goes with me, what the condition is of circumstances tending about my father. Only I know not the half of it myself, for he fears to make me so solicitous; and it would not be just for me to ask questions of people of the lower rank, in whom he has placed confidence; though Stepan could tell me many things if he thought proper, and I have proved to him that it is his duty.

"My father is the Prince, as they call it in most countries, though he never takes it to himself, of the highest and noblest and most ancient of the tribes belonging to the Lesghian race. The great warrior Shamyl, who contended so long against all the armies of Russia, was of the lower, the Moslem division of the ancient Lesghian race, which is of the first origin of mankind, and has kept itself lofty as the mountains.

"But when all the other tribes fell away, with treachery and jealousy, and bribery, and cowardice, and Shamyl himself was betrayed in his stronghold, my father, who had been called to take the place of his father who died in battle, at the head of the Christian and higher division of the race, could not prolong the war. Not that he was vanquished, that could never happen to him; but because all the Mohammedans, who had made what they call a holy war of it, would not go on under the command of a Christian, and they showed themselves so treacherous that they betrayed him, for money no doubt, of which they were too loving, into the hands of the Russian General. Everyone expected that he would be destroyed on account of the bitterness between them, and the many times when he had been victorious. But the Russian Commander was much pleased with him, from the nobility of his manners, and treated him very gently, and finding that he was a Christian and descended from English Crusaders, according to the red cross which we always wear, as the badge of our lineage against the Moslem tribes, he obtained permission from Moscow to release him upon very generous conditions. His great extent of property was not taken from him, as was done to most of the other chiefs, who had fought so long against Russia, but was placed in the hands of a kinsman as his steward, and he was only banished for fourteen years, until there should be no chance of any further

war.

"My father made the best of all these things. He collected all the relics of his patrimony, and travelled to many other lands and then settled in England, having learned while a boy in the City

of languages,' where he was educated, to speak the English language as well as many others, German, French, Italian, Russian, Arabic, almost every tongue, for which he has a talent not granted to his daughter. But above all, he loves his own Lesghian words; and the rest of his life, if he ever goes home, will be spent for the education of the Lesghian people. He will never conspire against Russia any more. He says that the tribes of the Caucasus are made up of every race under the sun, are always in conflict with one another, and speak, I forget how many languages, and have I forget how many forms of religion, whenever they have any religion at all. But though he sees all these things, and is of the largest mind ever vouchsafed to a man, he is filled in his heart with perpetual longing to be among the mountains of his early days, and to finish all his wanderings in his first home. The fourteen years of his exile will expire very soon; and then what a joy there would be for him! I also long more than it is possible to explain, to see the most noble land the Lord has ever made, though I only behold it in dreams sometimes, according to his description. For although I was born in the noblest part under the shadow of Kazbek and in the most magnificent Pass of the earth, from which my name is taken, I was but a babe, when my father took me with him."

"If it must be so, if you must leave England," I asked with a very grim smile, for what on earth would become of me without her, and I did not even belong to the Alpine Club; "why should you be so unhappy about it. I fear there is no one in this country, whom it would pain you much to leave. fear that you find all English people

I

rather dull, and cold, and uninteresting, and you will be too glad to be quit of them."

"I hear that they are cold, but I do not perceive it." Her glance as she said this was beyond interpretation; could it mean any cruel check to me? "They are the first nation of all mankind, my father has declared to me, many times; but of such matters I have not yet arrived to think. The thing that makes me full of fear about going from this safe land is, that though the people may be dull and cold, as you do describe them, among them there is law and justice, and the wicked men are hanged whenever they require it. But alas my father says that among his noble people, no one can be sure of that."

"Dariel," I exclaimed with amazement, having made up my mind that her nature was all softness and all sweetness, "surely you would never wish to be sure of anybody being hanged."

"I would never go to see it, as the people do in England, and I am not at all convinced that it ought to be done here. But in lands where the law of men's lives is revenge, even upon those of their own family, what else is there to prevent them from committing murder? And that which terrifies me from all pleasure of seeing the land of my birth consists of that. Our family, the highest of the Lesghian race, have not that most wicked rule of blood-revenge; but all the other tribes around them have; and I am in the most dreadful alarm that my father has done something to make him subject to that barbarous, abominable, horrible-oh what shall I do? what shall I do?"

Once more, I made offer to administer to her the kindest and softest consolation; but she turned

away sobbing, yet concealing it, as if it could be no concern of mine. And this made me feel-I should be sorry to say how.

I believe that there is a bit of sulkiness in love, even with a man; and perhaps a large lump in a woman; because they are obliged to let it grow. At any rate I held my tongue.

If her ladyship did

not think me worthy of her confidence after all I felt, perhaps there was somebody else who deserved it. I knocked my stick against my trousers; and it almost seemed to me as if I should like to whistle, if I mattered so little to the wind and sky.

"You are offended! You are angry with me!" cried Dariel, turning round, as if she were the larger part of me recoiling upon all the littleness. "But I cannot tell you what I do not know. Everything is so dark to me."

Now whether it was mean of me, or noble, depends upon the right view of the case; but before she could repent of being kind, I got hold of her hand, and kissed it so as to assure her of my forgiveness. Then the loveliest colour ever seen on earth arose in her face, and in her eyes there was the sweetest light just for a moment, and then she trembled, and I was afraid of myself.

By mutual accord we dropped that point. But I knew that she felt for the first time in her heart that the whole of mine belonged to it. Crafty love and maiden fear combined to let that bide a while.

"I fear that it is too selfish of me, and too great trespass upon your good-will," she said, without looking at me again, "if I ask you to help me in this matter. But you do admire my father, I think. Nobody can meet him without that."

"He is the noblest and the grandest man I have ever had the honour