till Monsieur V returned with the Rabbi | which I was anxious to procure a translation, and Michaël. I do not think I ever saw a more pleas- Monsieur V-found, after many inquiries, that ant looking person. He wore a high black cap, there was but a single person in Smyrna to whom with a loose robe and inner garment of striped silk; I could apply for one with any chance of success. his hair, unlike the gencrality of Jews, was quite This was a venerable dervish, famed for his sancfair, and combed back from a broad open forehead, tity and learning, who was universally resorted to and his long beard did not at all detract from his for advice, and whose wisdom and knowledge youthful appearance. His manner was full of were supposed never to be at fault. There is a quiet dignity, though perfectly unassuming, and very attractive degree of mystery connected with his voice was peculiarly sweet and low-toned. the sect of dervishes: their origin, and the exact He conducted us up the stairs, and, unlocking the nature of their peculiar tenets, are not, as far as I door, admitted us into the synagogue, with which, could learn, precisely known; but they are every. to say the truth, I was much disappointed, though where held in high estimation. The dancing and it was totally unlike any other place of worship I howling dervishes live together in monasteries, had ever seen. It was a large square room, which are in many points similar to those in Rolighted by narrow windows, and surrounded by man Catholic countries; but the sage we were seats made of plain new wood; for it had only going to visit did not belong to either of those been recently built, the former building having orders, and therefore lived quite alone. Monsieur been destroyed in a late conflagration. In the V- thought it highly improbable that he would centre was a small platform, raised a few steps, consent to receive the visit of a lady—an event and enclosed by a high close railing, hung with which certainly never could have occurred in his thick curtains of crimson silk. These the rabbin life before; but as my anxiety was principally to drew back, and we saw a small table, with a cov- obtain a translation of my letter, I was quite wilering also of silk, embroidered with gold, on which ling to wait till this should be accomplished. We were laid the books of the Pentateuch, and various soon reached the place, a small solitary house on parchments inscribed with Hebrew characters. At the outskirts of the town, and my companion went the upper end of the room an ample curtain con- up the narrow stair, and disappeared, leaving me, cealed some object, apparently too sacred to be ex- too happy to escape from the burning sun, under the posed to view; and the rabbin looked so uneasy cool matting that sheltered the terrace. In a few when we approached it, that we could not venture minutes he came back, laughing heartily, and told even to inquire what it was. He showed us the me that the old dervish was in the highest state of garments of the high priest, which were kept in a excitement at the idea of being visited by a Eurolarge iron chest, and which were both magnificent pean lady, and that he would willingly translate my and curious. There was the linen ephod, the letter, if I would only come in and let him see me. embroidered robe, the breast-plate, and the girdle Two negro slaves held up the curtain which hung -the two latter were engraved with the sacred before the door, and I entered the "sanctum" of words. We had not time to examine many minor the wise man. It was a room of moderate size, details in the arrangement of the synagogue, but with a large recess at one end, three sides of it was altogether less interesting than I expected. which were of glass. Several steps, covered with The rabbin invited us most earnestly to go and a splendid Persian carpet, raised this part of the rest a few minutes in his abode; and Monsieur room above the rest, and it was almost filled by a V persuaded us to agree to his request, as he high divan, on which the dervish was seated in said his house was one of the most beautiful in great state. He wore the conical cap and flowing Smyrna, and well worth seeing. We had merely robes of his sect; and really his long beard, to cross the street to reach the door, and, after streaming down to his waist, and his solemn counascending a wide stone staircase, we entered into tenance, impressed me with a very sufficient idea a large hall paved with marble, and abundantly fur- of his vast wisdom. A large box stood beside nished with ottomans and carpets. The upper him, filled with curious old parchments; and the end of the room was entirely occupied by three divan, as well as the platform beneath, was strewed immense windows cut down to the ground, and with books of all kinds. In the lower part of the opening on a flight of white marble steps, which room there were a number of astronomical instruled down into one of the loveliest little gardens ments, and various extraordinary looking machines, imaginable; the light was almost obscured by the of which I could not even divine the use. The clustering vines and thick rose-bushes; and the only other inhabitant of the room was a younger fragrance of these and other plants, the cool shade dervish, who, though seated on the same ottoman, which they produced, and, above all, the refresh-evidently felt much awed in the presence of his suing murmur of the fountains, certainly rendered perior, and sat stroking his beard in silence. The this a most charming abode. The rabbin's wife, sage decidedly thought it beneath his dignity to who came in with refreshments, was a most suita- exhibit any astonishment at my appearance, and ble inhabitant for such a dwelling, for she was he returned my salutations in a most majestic manreally a beautiful woman, with all the distinguish-ner; though I was much amused at the sly glance ing features of the Jewish race. Though less dignified than her husband, she seemed gentle and amiable, and her dress was particularly becoming -the bright green handkerchief which bound her forehead showing off to great advantage her clear black eyes and dark complexion. We remained with them for some time, and after seeing the interior of this family, we no longer wondered at the high respect in which the Jews are held in SmyrWe left them at last, to pay a visit which, for me at least, had no small attractions.

na.

I had received a letter written in Arabic, of

he fixed on me when he thought I did not observe him. A chair was placed for me in the outer part of the room, as he could not allow the infidel to approach nearer to him, or even to ascend the steps which led to his seat. After the usual complimentary speeches, coffee was brought, which I was fou to swallow, much against my will, as it was without sugar, and excessively thick. He then took out his writing materials, which he wore, according to the eastern custom, in his belt, and received my letter from the younger dervish, to whom it had been transmitted by Monsieur V

with all due formality. He read it, then solemnly | larity he would lead us to believe that he admires, bowed to me, as an indication that he understood exposes in every page the most tortuous system it; he next proceeded to take a small sheet of pa- and in every chapter plays the most eccentric per, which he laid on the palm of his hand, and tricks. Having taken some trouble to understand began to write, using a pen made of a reed. It the peculiarities of this work-full of right and seemed to me impossible to form a single letter in wrong-truth and error-correct reasoning and this position; but in the course of a few minutes false deductions-knowledge and ignorance-corhe presented me with a translation of the manu- rect feeling and false sympathies-industrious rescript in Persian, Syriac, and Turkish, and the search and the most hasty and unwarranted asserwriting of each separate character was a perfect tions-we think we have got a glimpse of somemodel. This was all I required, as it was easy to thing like the condition of its author's mind. We obtain a translation from the Turkish. But the good have no desire to be in the slightest degree undervish seemed to think I ought now to make my-charitable; but there are really so many intelligent self agreeable to him, and he commenced a conversa--and, in some respects, estimable-persons doing tion through the medium of Monsieur V―, who mischief to themselves, and injury to the world of acted as interpreter. First he asked me questions science and literature, by means similar to those innumerable about myself, my family, and my employed by the author of the "Dial of the Seawhole history past and present. Having then as-sons," that we feel ourselves called upon to cut certained that I belonged to that very distant and deep-that we may cure. barbarous island of Great Britain, he composedly Gifted naturally with minds above the common begged that I would give him a distinct account of order, with quick perceptions and good memory, the government, laws, religion, and institutions of the laborious routine necessary to subdue those that country, with which, he assured me, he was minds to thought, is intolerable to such men; and, wholly unacquainted. My companion laughed out- having heard or read of the wonders of genius, right at my look of despair at this exorbitant de-self, flattering self, looking at his own image, mand; and as we could distinguish from the win-sees there all the phenomena which are supposed dows the steamer which was to carry me away to mark this spontaneous development of intelliwith its chimney already smoking, he pointed it out to the dervish as a reason for terminating our visit immediately. He seemed very reluctant to let me go; but I at last arose, and having made him a flowery speech, which he heard most graciously, I prepared to go out. He then turned with considerable energy to Monsieur V— and asked him to bid me stop one moment. I complied, and extending one hand towards me, while he raised the other to heaven, he uttered, in the most impressive manner, what seemed to me to be a short prayer, as it commenced with the words, "Allah il Allah!" The younger dervish and Monsieur V-listened to it with the greatest In the book before us, we have the sciences of reverence; and when he had concluded, my friend meteorology, astronomy and optics, united with translated it word for word to me. It was a bless-natural history and all its allied sciences, mixed ing, solemn and fervent, which he had called down into an olla_podrida, with poems on the Creation upon me; beginning with saying that, infidel as I of Light-The Prairie-The Song of the Sea and was, he prayed of Allah to hear him in my behalf, Isles-and The Retreat of the Berinsina; the whole and, with the beautifully figurative language of flavored with the high spice of moral reflections on the East, asking that my voyage through life to external order-whilst all within is in the most adthe eternal shore might be brightened with sun-mirable confusion. If the author, and others of his shine as gay as that which now smiled on my class, could be induced to bend their minds to humble journey to my native land; and, above all, that the themes, and carefully and minutely examine into most secret wish of my soul might be gratified. the truths which lie at their feet, they might The solemn manner in which this prayer was achieve for themselves a triumph-they would attered by the good old man made no small impres-certainly derive a pleasure-unknown to them as sion on me, and I was not sorry to carry such a blessing away with me, when, a few hours after, we left Smyrna with a calm sea and a fair wind on our way to the Dardanelles.

gence, and so perpetrates the eccentricities believed to constitute some of its attributes. The knowledge obtained by desultory reading—which, as in the case of our author, is often mistaken for research-is put forward in a garb which is offered as the easy robings of a finished thought, but which is too often the braided blouse of ignorance and conceit. This pernicious habit ruins everything within its influence:-and, on both sides of the Atlantic, the efforts of human thought are at present suffering from the disease in which the resemblance is substituted for the reality-the shadow mistaken for the substance.

yet; and escape the disappointments to which they doom themselves. "All noble growths are slow," was a truth uttered by an American philosopher. The excellent in anything can only be attained by honest zeal and careful and untiring labor. To attempt to reach at one stride the top of the hill on which rest the giants of the earth after efforts the its own punishment. Let us then recommend the most toilsome, is a folly which certainly involves

author of the "Dial of the Seasons" to bow himself to labor; and, connecting with his most humble tasks, the highest thoughts, to train his wandering mind into truth. If this be done ere he next attempts a "Portraiture of Nature," he will not then produce a mere caricature-mistaking it for a true copy-as in the present volume he has done. |—Athenæum.

From Chambers' Journal.

FATHER BLACKHALL'S SERVICES.

could found on the dangers and hardships they were perpetually liable to; and as they were execrated and hunted beyond their own community, they seem to have obtained the greater privileges, immunities, and benisons within it. In his new appointment, the reverend father loses none of that spirit of inquiry and interference regarding small matters for which he has already appeared so conspicuous. We find him thus describing his position in the household, and the order he thought fit to take concerning it. "I did eat in my chamber as they who were before me used to do: four dishes of meat was the least that was sent to me at every meal, with ale and wine conforming; which I thought superfluous; but knowing the

"A BRIEF Narrative of the Services Performed to Three Noble Ladies, by Gilbert Blackhall," is one of the books printed by the Spalding Club in Aberdeen. It affords some curious peeps into the state of society in the north of Scotland in the first half of the seventeenth century, especially those families by whom the Catholic faith was still adhered to. The reverend father is an arrant gossip. He is curious in the every-day pursuits, the tempers, the occupations, nay, the clothing and feeding, of those with whom he was concerned. Moreover, he was an ill-requited man. He had the highest possible opinion of his own merits and ex-noble disposition of the lady, who gave the order ertions but he did not find other people ready to acknowledge his claims; hence he set them forth, with all due precision and minuteness, in a narrative which fills a considerable quarto volume. Had he not been a weak-minded man, occupying himself in trifles, he probably had gained a great reputation by some folio volume, written in Latin, against Luther and John Knox, but we would not have had the curious pictures of national customs and grotesque incidents with which his garrulous narrative supplies us. The first person to whom we find Father Blackhall performing his services is the Lady Isabel Hay, daughter of the Earl of Errol. This lady, after her mother's death, went to France in 1630. A certain Mr. James Forbes was her father's friend and correspondent in France, and she was, as merchants say, "consigned to him." He appointed Blackhall her confessor; "which he did repent thereafter," as Blackhall says; and indeed the chief purport of the narrative is to describe the efforts which her spiritual adviser made to protect her from the unseasonable addresses of Mr. Forbes. There is much curious matter in this part of the father's narrative; but we must pass from it to another portion of his adventures, in which we think the reader will probably be more interested.

herself for all the tables, as well of her servants as her own, I would not so soon utter my mind, until I should know better how my admonitions would be received. I asked my man what was done with the relics of my table. He answered me boldly that he sold them, and said the relics of priests were due unto their men. When I did hire you, said I, did I promise you such casualties? No, sir, said he; but it is the custom of this house, as all the servants will bear witness. They are fools, said I, and not capable to bear witness who give testimony to their own prejudice. What prejudice is that to thee? said he. My lady doth bestow the meat upon you, and asketh no count of it back again; so what you leave, I think should be for me rather than for any other body. If I did buy the meat myself, said I, was I bound to give you all that rested over my own suffisance, so that I could not bestow it in any other way after you had got your suffisance of it? No, said he; you might dispose of it at your own pleasure, and so doth my lady, who wills your man [to] get what you leave. No, said I; my lady wills, and I likewise, that thou carry to the kitchen all that I leave, both meat, bread, and drink, that all may serve the common table; and go thou to it, and there take your part of all, as the others do. And if thou determine anything another way, thou shalt not serve me one hour longer. I told my lady afterwards this dialogue which passed between my man and me, whereat she did laugh well; and this did acquire me the affections of the servants, who grudged, but could not mend it; for they knew that my lady would not take notice of such base things, much less correct them."

At the conclusion of his engagement with Lady Isabel, he received an application from the Lady Frendraught, celebrated for the suspicion under which she fell, a few years before, of having set fire to her house, in order to burn Lord Aboyne in it. The horror of this event appears to have deterred the reverend father from such a connexion. He says "My Lady of Frendraught did send to me, praying me to come to her, for the frère she The people in the neighborhood seem not to had before was lately departed from this life. I have been in general Roman Catholics; for the refused absolutely to see her, because she was sus- father complains much of their importunate curipected to be guilty of the death of my lord of osity, saying that "if he but opened the window, Aboyne, who, seven years before, was burned in they ran to see him as some monstrous thing;" the castle of Frendraught: whether she be guilty and one woman declared she hoped to wash her or not, God knoweth, for that hath not been yet hands in his heart's blood. Aboyne castle stands discovered." Fate determined that, instead of the near the village of Charlestown of Aboyne, close to suspected murderess, he should ally himself with the river Dee, and thirty miles from its mouth at the Dowager Lady Aboyne, the widow of the vic- Aberdeen. Eastward, descend fine sweeps of aratim; and he entered the service of "this truly no-ble land towards the coast, while to the west beble and religious lady" about the middle of July, 1638. Though the Roman Catholics were a proscribed body through Scotland generally, the Marquis of Huntly, and some other Catholic lords in the north, possessed a considerable extent of feudal power for the protection of themselves and their adherents; and such a person as Blackhall, if not absolutely secure, would be removed from many causes of apprehension by such an alliance. In addition to their claims on the respect of the people as their spiritual advisers, these priests

gins the great Highland range of the Grampians, There, in the close vicinity of their strongholds, the lands of Aboyne were subject to perpetual depredations by the Highland reivers of the day. The lonely widow appears to have had but a scanty retinue for so wild a neighborhood, and we find her obliged to add to the accomplished Blackhall's titles of priest and chamberlain, that of captain of her castle. He describes the manner in which he repelled one of these invasions; and it is clear that his own prowess on the occasion has not been neg

lected by the historian. When a visitation by friends was of the following character, the nature of an inroad from neutrals or enemies may be anticipated :

"The very first that obliged us to make use of our arms were the Marquis of Huntly's own men | of Badenoch. They had been at Aberdeen getting arms, some forty or thereabout, with their officer, Thomas Gordon, a proud and saucy rascal. They, coming up the north side of the water of Dee, came to Aboyne, and presented themselves upon the Peat Hill; and Thomas Gordon, leaving the rest there, did come with three others to the gate, which I made to be kept fast. I sent Thomas Cordoner, the porter, to the gate to ask what they desired. Thomas, the officer, answered boldly that they would lodge in the house, because they were my lord's men, and the house was also his; and that the night before they had lodged in the place of Drum; which I knew to be false, for the laird of Drum was not a man to lodge such rascals in his house. When the porter told me this so insolent answer, I did go to the gate; for I had the key in my pocket, and did not give it to the porter, fearing that he might be so simple as to let them in, and we should have had more pain to put them out than to hold them out. I did take with me six good fellows, every one with his sword at his side and a light gun in his hand, and placed them all on one side of the alley that goes from the outer gate, betwixt two walls to the court, every one three or four spaces from another, and made them turn their faces and the mouths of their guns a slanting way, not right to the port, nor to the wall over against them, but a middle way betwixt them both, that they might see both at once.

other money here than that which shall come out of these guns, nor lodging, unless it be graves to bury you; and therefore retire yourself, that I may shut the gate. He retired malcontented; and my lady did send meat and drink at the foot of the Peat Hill, forbidding them to live upon her teuants, but bade them lodge in taverns, paying what they should take; otherwise, they should not go far unpunished. They did so, and went away the next day peaceably."

The next visit was from a party of the clan Cameron, who were at first perplexed by the diplomatic skill of Blackhall, but had subsequently to yield to his warlike prowess. The marauders commenced operations by plundering a tenant's house.

"So we marched with a dozen of guns, eight pistols, and my big carabine. Before we went out at the gate, I told them what order I desired to be kept, which was this: we must seek by all means to surprise them in the house plundering; and to do it, we must march as the Highlanders do. every one after another, without any words among us.

Blackhall then gives all the necessary orders to his men as to where they were to place themselves, so as to guard both door and windows; and says, "How soon we were in the court, I said with a loud voice, Every one to his post; which was done in the twinkling of an eye. Then I went to the door, thinking to break it up with my foot; but it was a thick double door, and the lock very strong. Whilst I was at the door, one of them did come to bolt it; and I, hearing him at it, did shoot a pistol at him. He said afterwards that the ball did pass through the hair of his head : whether he said true or not, I know not. I did go from the door to the windows, and back again, still encouraging them, and praying them at the windows to hold their eyes still upon our enemies, and to kill such as would lay their hands to a weapon; and to those at the door to have their guns ever ready to discharge at such as would mean to come forth without my leave; and still I threatened to burn the house and them all in it, if they would not render themselves at my discretion; which they were loath to do, until they saw the light bundles of straw that I had kindled to throw upon the thatch of the house; although I did not intend to do it, nor burn our friends with our foes. But if Malcolm Dorward, and his wife and servants, and his son John Dorward, and John Cordoner, all of whom the Highlanders had lying in bonds by them, had been out, I would not have made any scruple to have burnt the house and all the Highlanders within it, to give a terror to others who would be so brutal as to oppress ladies who never wronged them.

"When I had placed them thus, and encouraged them, I did go to the gate with a bended pistol in my hand; and before I did open the wicket, I told them to retire themselves, all but one, to speak to me: they did so. Thomas Gordon only stayed; the rest were retired only the matter of ten paces, ready to rush in if he could have thrusted up the wicket fully. Then I did open it a little, so that he might see my soldiers in the alley. Before he did see them, I asked them what they did come here to seek? He very confidently said, We will see my lady, who we know will give us money, and lodge us; and with that was pressing in his shoulder; and I, seeing his impudence, said, As you love your life, stir not to win in, otherwise I will discharge my pistol in your heart; and you shall not see my lady, nor get anything from her, unless it be meat and drink without the gate; but none of you shall come within it, and go out again living. Sir, said he, we are my lord's men, and this house is his, and why may we not lodge in it? Have you an order from my lord, says I, to lodge here? Let me see his order. Sir, it is my lord's "They, seeing the light of the burning straw will that we lodge in his land. Then go seek his coming in at the windows, and the keepers of the land, and lodge in it; for he hath no land nor windows bidding them surrender themselves before house here so long as my lady liveth; but if my they be burnt, called for quarter. I told their lord were dwelling here himself, durst you present they should not get other quarter but my discreyourselves to this gate to lodge with him? No, tion; unto which, if they would submit themselves said he, we must respect my lord. You base fel- faithfully, they would find the better quarter; if low, said I, should not ladies be respected as much not, be at their hazard. Thereupon I bade their as lords, and more? But you have not so much captain come and speak with me all alone, with honesty as to respect anybody. But put in your his gun under his arm, and the stock foremost head, and see how we are prepared to receive but if any did press to follow him, they should kill you; and tell your neighbors that you shall get no

The deceased Lord Aboyne was son to this great noble, the chief of the clan Gordon.

both him and them who should press to follow him. He did come out as I ordained, and trembled as the leaf of a tree. I believe he thought we would kill him there. I did take his gun from

him, and discharged it, and laid it down upon the it may provide some further incidents worthy of earth by the side of the house. Then, after I had notice.

threatened him, and reproached their ingratitude, His former patroness, the widowed and lovely who durst trouble my lady or her tenants, who Lady Aboyne, on her deathbed earnestly recomwas, and yet is, the best friend that their chief Do-mended to Blackhall's protection her daughter, the nald Cameron hath; for, said I, he will tell you Lady Henrietta Gordon. It is in the form of a how I and another man of my lady's went to him letter to this lady that Blackhall describes his where he was hiding himself with his cousin Ewan efforts to accomplish her mother's dying exhortaCameron, in my lady's land, and brought them in tion. His main object was to secure an appointcroup to Aboyne, where they were kept secretly ment for the young lady in the household of the for three weeks, until their enemies the Covenant- queen of France, the French court being then an ers had left off the seeking of them; and you, un- asylum in which many of the decayed or oppressed thankful beasts as you are, have rendered a dis- aristocracy of Scotland found refuge. To pass pleasure to my lady for her goodness toward you. over from the north of Scotland to France was a He pretended ignorance of that courtesy done to journey accompanied by no small array of perils in his chief." Blackhall then made him swear that the early part of the seventeenth century; and it all that had been plundered from the tenants should was not the less so, that the country was now be restored, and what had been consumed should raging from end to end with the troubles arising be paid for and also "made him swear by the from the Covenant. The father had not proceeded soul of his father that neither he, nor none whom many miles, before he encountered a rather forhe could hinder, should ever hereafter trouble or midable adventure. Along the northwest border molest my lady or any of her tenants.' He then of Aberdeenshire, where it marches with Banffordered every man separately to come out and take shire, there is a wide, desolate moor, stretching the same oath. over many miles of country to the foot of the "They did all come out severally, and took the mountain mass called the Buck of the Cabrach. same oath as I had commanded them; and as they It is a wild, dreary district at the present day, did come to me, I discharged their guns, to the differing probably but slightly in its outward feanumber of six or eight-and-forty, which made the tures from its state in Blackhall's time, however tenants convene to us from the parts where the different may be the guests one would find in the shots were heard; so that, before they had all primitive inn of Rhynie, which, when we last parcome out, we were nearly as many as they, armed took of its hospitalities, had as venerable an air as with swords, and targets, and guns. When they if it had been the actual house in which the folhad all made their oaths to me, I ranked our peo-lowing scene occurred. The narrative is, by the ple like two hedges, five spaces distant from one way, remarkable as illustrating the antiquity of another's rank, and but one pace every man from Finnan haddies, which must have been a highly another in that same rank, and turned the mouths esteemed dish; otherwise they would not, as in of their guns and their faces one toward another, this instance, have been conveyed inland nearly forty so as the Highlanders might pass, two and two miles from the place where they were cured. together, betwixt their ranks: they passed so from the door of the hall in which they were, to the place where their guns were lying all empty. They trembled passing, as if they had been in a fever quartern." He and his men then saw the marauders fairly off Lady Aboyne's lands, and, returning to Aboyne, "told my lady the event of our siege, who was very joyful that there was no blood shed on either side."

66

Passing by the muir of Rhynie," says Blackhall," I intended to give my horse a measure of oats there, because I had eight miles to ride over the Cushnie Hills, as wild a piece of ground as is in all Britain." He then inquires of a man coming out of the inn if he would get good oats there; and "the unhappy rascal answering, said, Yes, sir; and good ale and beer also; but did not tell ine the house was full of men, as drunk as men could be.

"I entered in the court, suspecting nothing; and as I descended from my horse, a gentleman, called John Gordon, son to Leichesten, did embrace me very kindly. He was exceedingly drunk."

The state of letter-writing is fully disclosed by the fact, that, in the space of eleven and a half years, Lady Aboyne had only received two letters, and these were from two of her sisters. Indeed, she appears to have lived a most lonely, desolate life. At her death, all her care seems to have been that her daughter, her only child, might be Blackhall then enters into the hall with him, brought up in the Catholic religion. For this pur- which hall he describes as being "full of soldiers, pose she had previously charged Blackhall with as drunk as beasts, and their captain, William the care of her; and manfully did he redeem the Gordon of Tilliangus, was little better;" adding, pledge, as we find related in the chapter entitled" that Tilliangus had got a patent to list a com"The Good Offices done to Madame de Gordon, pany for the then holy, but now cursed, Covenant; now Dame D'Attour to Madame; by Gilbert and John Gordon of Leicheston was his lieutenBlackhall, priest❞—which we shall make the sub-ant; and hinting that every covenanting man was ject of a separate paper. then more loyal than the king himself.

Blackhall, when he went into the hall, kept his The leading features in Father Blackhall's his-valise in his own hand, because there was in it a tory, at least the sole ground on which his memory suit of mass clothes, which might have discovered has been resuscitated by the printing of a substan- him; and as he was about to salute the company, tial quarto volume, is the services he performed to "three noble ladies," as they are minutely set forth by himself. In the preceding article we have given whatever appeared curious or entertaining in his intercourse with the second of his noble employers. We now examine the third book of his circumstantial history, in the hope that

the captain, in a commanding way, said, Who are you, sir? which did presently heat my blood. And as I thought he spoke disdainfully to me, I answered in that same tone, saying, This is a question indeed, sir, to have been asked at my footman, if you had seen him coming in to you. He said it was a civil demand. I said it might pass for