From amongst the shattered and sable walls the smoke continued to rise.

The turf-stack, the barn-yard, the offices stocked with cattle, all the wealth of an upland cultivator of the period, of which poor Elliot possessed no common share, had been laid waste or carried off in a single night.

He stood a moment motionless, and then exclaimed, "I am ruined--ruined to the ground!--But curse on the warld's gear--Had it not been the week before the bridal--But I am nae babe, to sit down and greet about it.

If I can but find Grace, and my grandmother, and my sisters weel, I can go to the wars in Flanders, as my gude-sire did, under the Bellenden banner, wi' auld Buccleuch.

At ony rate, I will keep up a heart, or they will lose theirs a'thegither." Manfully strode Hobbie down the hill, resolved to suppress his own despair, and administer consolation which he did not feel.