 ideas of filial awe and implicit
obedience which were inculcated upon the youth of that period, did not venture
to interrupt his meditations.
    »Why do you look so pale, Lucy?« said her father, turning suddenly round and
breaking silence.
    According to the ideas of the time, which did not permit a young woman to
offer her sentiments on any subject of importance unless especially required to
do so, Lucy was bound to appear ignorant of the meaning of all that had passed
betwixt Alice and her father, and imputed the emotion he had observed to the
fear of the wild cattle which grazed in that part of the extensive chase through
which they were now walking.
    Of these animals, the descendants of the savage herds which anciently roamed
free in the Caledonian forests, it was formerly a point of state to preserve a
few in the parks of the Scottish nobility. Specimens continued within the memory
of man to be kept at least at three houses of distinction, namely, Hamilton,
Drumlanrig, and Cumbernauld. They had degenerated from the ancient race in size
and strength, if we are to judge from the accounts of old chronicles, and from
the formidable remains frequently discovered in bogs and morasses when drained
and laid open. The bull had lost the shaggy honours of his mane, and the race
was small and light made, in colour a dingy white, or rather a pale yellow, with
black horn and hoofs. They retained, however, in some measure, the ferocity of
their ancestry, could not be domesticated on account of their antipathy to the
human race, and were often dangerous if approached unguardedly, or wantonly
disturbed.
    It was this last reason which has occasioned their being extirpated at the
places we have mentioned, where probably they would otherwise have been retained
as appropriate inhabitants of a Scottish woodland, and fit tenants for a
baronial forest. A few, if I mistake not, are still preserved at Chillingham
Castle, in Northumberland, the seat of the Earl of Tankerville.
    It was to her finding herself in the vicinity of a group of three or four of
these animals, that Lucy thought proper to impute those signs of fear which had
arisen in her countenance for a different reason. For she had been familiarised
with the appearance of the wild cattle, during her walks in the chase; and it
was not then, as it may be now, a necessary part of a young lady's demeanour to
indulge in causeless tremors of the nerves. On the present occasion, however,
she speedily found cause for real terror.
    Lucy had scarcely replied to her father in the words we have
