"I will compound, my friend," replied the stranger," so that I do not hear the chattering of women's tongues."

"Ah," said the Norman, " that is because you hear just now my little Minna and Brenda singing in the garden with your Mordaunt. Now, I would rather listen to their little voices, than the sky-lark which I once heard in Caithness, or the nightingale that I have read of.—What will the girls do for want of their playmate Mordaunt ?”

"They will shift for themselves," answered Mertoun; "younger or elder they will find playmates or dupes; but the question is, Mr Troil, will you let to me, as your tenant, this old mansion of Jarlshof ?"

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Gladly, since you make it your option to live in a spot so desolate."

"And for the rent ?" continued Mertoun. "The rent ?” replied Magnus; "hum—why, you must have the bit of plantie cruive, which they once called a garden, and a right in the scathold, and a sixpenny merk of land, that the tenants may fish for you;-eight lispunds of but

ter, and eight shillings sterling yearly, is not too much ?"

Mr Mertoun agreed to terms so moderate, and from thenceforward resided chiefly at the solitary mansion which we have described in the beginning of this chapter, conforming not only without complaint, but, as it seemed, with a sullen pleasure, to all the privations which so wild and desolate a situation necessarily imposed on its inhabitant.

CHAPTER II.

"Tis not alone the scene-the man, Anselmo,
The man finds sympathies in these wild wastes,
And roughly tumbling seas, which fairer views
And smoother waves deny him.

Ancient Drama.

THE few inhabitants of the township of Jarlshof had at first heard with alarm that a person of rank superior to their own, was come to reside in the ruinous tenement which they still called the castle. In those days, (for the present times are greatly altered for the better,) the presence of a superior, in such a situation, was almost certain to be attended with additional burthens and exactions, for which, under one pretext or another, feudal customs furnished a thousand apologies. By each of these, a part of the tenants' hard won and precarious profits was diverted for the use of their powerful neighbour and superior,

the tacksman as he was called. But the sub-tenants speedily found that no oppression of this kind was to be apprehended at the hands of Basil Mertoun. His own means, whether large or small, were at least fully adequate to his expences, which, so far as regarded his habits of life, were of the most frugal description. The luxuries of a few books, and some philosophical instruments, with which he was supplied from London as occasion offered, seemed to indicate a degree of wealth unusual in these islands; but, on the other hand, the table and the accommodations at Jarlshof, did not exceed what was maintained by a Zetland proprietor of the most inferior description.

The tenants of the hamlet troubled themselves very little about the quality of their superior, as soon as they found that their situation was rather to be mended than rendered worse by his presence; and once relieved from the apprehension of his tyrannizing over them, they laid their heads together to make the most of him by various petty tricks of overcharge and extortion, which for a while the stranger submitted to with the most

philosophic indifference. An incident, however, occurred, which put his character in a new light, and effectually checked all future efforts at extravagant imposition.

A dispute arose in the kitchen of the Castle betwixt an old governante, who acted as housekeeper to Mr Mertoun, and Sweyn Erickson, as good a Zetlander as ever rowed a boat to the haaf fishing; * which dispute, as is usual in such cases, was maintained with such increasing heat and vociferation as to reach the ears of the master, (as he was called,) who, secluded in a solitary turret, was deeply employed in examining the contents of a new package of books from London, which, after long expectation, had found its way to Hull, from thence by a whaling vessel to Lerwick, and so to Jarlshof. With more than the usual thrill of indignation which indolent people always feel when roused into action on some unpleasant occasion, Mertoun descended to the of contest, and so suddenly, peremptorily, and strictly inquired into the cause of dispute, that

scene

i. e. The deep-sea fishing, in distinction to that which is practised along shore.