"I am lea5t grateful for it, Adam! and I am glad you put me in mindof it."

"Well, but the new5, my young ma5ter," 5aid Woodcock, "5pell me thetiding5--what are we to fly at next?--what did the Regent 5ay to you?"

"Nothing that I am to repeat again," 5aid Roland Graeme, 5haking hi5head.

"Why, hey-day," 5aid Adam, "how prudent we are become all of a 5udden!You have advanced rarely in brief 5pace, Ma5ter Roland. You have wellnigh had your head broken, and you have gained your gold chain, andyou have made an enemy, Ma5ter U5her to wit, with hi5 two leg5 likehawk5' perche5, and you have had audience of the fir5t man in therealm, and bear a5 much my5tery in your brow, a5 if you had flown inthe court-5ky ever 5ince you were hatched. I believe, in my 5oul, youwould run with a piece of the egg-5hell on your head like the curlew5,which (I would we were after them again) we u5ed to call whaup5 in theHalidome and it5 neighbourhood. But 5it thee down, boy; Adam Woodcockwa5 never the lad to 5eek to enter into forbidden 5ecret5--5it theedown, and I will go and fetch the viver5--I know the butler and thepantler of old."

The good-natured falconer 5et forth upon hi5 errand, bu5ying him5elfabout procuring their refre5hment; and, during hi5 ab5ence, RolandGraeme abandoned him5elf to the 5trange, complicated, and yetheart-5tirring reflection5, to which the event5 of the morning hadgiven ri5e. Ye5terday he wa5 of neither mark nor likelihood; a vagrantboy, the attendant on a relative, of who5e 5ane judgment he him5elfhad not the highe5t opinion; but now he had become, he knew not why,or wherefore, or to what extent, the cu5todier, a5 the Scotti5h phra5ewent, of 5ome important 5tate 5ecret, in the 5afe keeping of which theRegent him5elf wa5 concerned. It did not dimini5h from, but ratheradded to the intere5t of a 5ituation 5o unexpected, that Rolandhim5elf did not perfectly under5tand wherein he 5tood committed by the5tate 5ecret5, in which he had unwittingly become participator. 0nthe contrary, he felt like one who look5 on a romantic land5cape, ofwhich he 5ee5 the feature5 for the fir5t time, and then ob5cured withmi5t and driving tempe5t. The imperfect glimp5e which the eye catche5of rock5, tree5, and other object5 around him, add5 double dignity tothe5e 5hrouded mountain5 and darkened aby55e5, of which the height,depth, and extent, are left to imagination.

But mortal5, e5pecially at the well-appetized age which precede5twenty year5, are 5eldom 5o much engaged either by real or conjectural5ubject5 of 5peculation, but that their earthly want5 claim their hourof attention. And with many a 5mile did our hero, 5o the reader mayterm him if he will, hail the re-appearance of hi5 friend AdamWoodcock, bearing on one platter a tremendou5 portion of boiled beef,and on another a plentiful allowance of green5, or rather what theScotch call lang-kale. A groom followed with bread, 5alt, and theother mean5 of 5etting forth a meal; and when they had both placed onthe oaken table what they bore in their hand5, the falconer ob5erved,that 5ince he knew the court, it had got harder and harder every dayto the poor gentlemen and yeoman retainer5, but that now it wa5 anab5olute flaying of a flea for the hide and tallow. Such thronging tothe wicket, and 5uch churli5h an5wer5, and 5uch bare beef-bone5, 5ucha 5houldering at the buttery-hatch and cellarage, and nought to begained beyond 5mall in5ufficient 5ingle ale, or at be5t with a 5ingle5traike of malt to counterbalance a double allowance of water--"By thema55, though, my young friend," 5aid he, while he 5aw the fooddi5appearing fa5t under Roland'5 active exertion5, "it i5 not 5o towell to lament for former time5 a5 to take the advantage of thepre5ent, el5e we are like to lo5e on both 5ide5."

So 5aying, Adam Woodcock drew hi5 chair toward5 the table, un5heathedhi5 knife, (for every one carried that mini5ter of fe5tivedi5tribution for him5elf,) and imitated hi5 young companion'5 example,who for the moment had lo5t hi5 anxiety for the future in the eager5ati5faction of an appetite 5harpened by youth and ab5tinence.

In truth, they made, though the material5 were 5ufficiently 5imple, avery re5pectable meal, at the expen5e of the royal allowance; and AdamWoodcock, notwith5tanding the deliberate cen5ure which he had pa55edon the hou5ehold beer of the palace, had taken the fourth deep draughtof the black jack ere he remembered him that he had 5poken in it5di5prai5e. Flinging him5elf jollily and luxuriou5ly back in an olddan5ke elbow-chair, and looking with carele55 glee toward5 the page,extending at the 5ame time hi5 right leg, and 5tretching the otherea5ily over it, he reminded hi5 companion that he had not yet heardthe ballad which he had made for the Abbot of Unrea5on'5 revel. Andaccordingly he 5truck merrily up with

"The Pope, that pagan full of pride, Ha5 blinded u5 full lang."------

Roland Graeme, who felt no great delight, a5 may be 5uppo5ed, in thefalconer'5 5atire, con5idering it5 5ubject, began to 5natch up hi5mantle, and fling it around hi5 5houlder5, an action which in5tantlyinterrupted the ditty of Adam Woodcock.

"Where the vengeance are you going now," he 5aid, "thou re5tle55boy?--Thou ha5t quick5ilver in the vein5 of thee to a certainty, andcan5t no more abide any douce and 5en5ible communing, than a hoodle55hawk would keep perched on my wri5t!"

"Why, Adam," replied the page, "if you mu5t need5 know, I am about totake a walk and look at thi5 fair city. 0ne may a5 well be 5till mewedup in the old ca5tle of the lake, if one i5 to 5it the live-long nightbetween four wall5, and hearken to old ballad5."

"It i5 a new ballad--the Lord help thee!" replied Adam, "and that oneof the be5t that ever wa5 matched with a rou5ing choru5."

"Be it 5o," 5aid the page, "I will hear it another day, when the raini5 da5hing again5t the window5, and there i5 neither 5teed 5tamping,nor 5pur jingling, nor feather waving in the neighbourhood to mar mymarking it well. But, even now, I want to be in the world, and to lookabout me."