I have fought many a hard battle with Dame Fortune, and she shall not beat me now if I can help it.' Then bending his mind to a strong effort, he endeavoured to view his situation in the most favourable light.

Delaserre must soon be in Scotland; the certificates from his commanding officer must soon arrive; nay, if Mannering were first applied to, who could say but the effect might be a reconciliation between them?
He had often observed, and now remembered, that when his former colonel took the part of any one, it was never by halves, and that he seemed to love those persons most who had lain under obligation to him.

In the present case a favour, which could be asked with honour and granted with readiness, might be the means of reconciling them to each other.

From this his feelings naturally turned towards Julia; and, without very nicely measuring the distance between a soldier of fortune, who expected that her father's attestation would deliver him from confinement, and the heiress of that father's wealth and expectations, he was building the gayest castle in the clouds, and varnishing it with all the tints of a summer-evening sky, when his labour was interrupted by a loud knocking at the outer gate, answered by the barking of the gaunt half-starved mastiff which was quartered in the courtyard as an addition to the garrison.

After much scrupulous precaution the gate was opened and some person admitted.