' him now. I'll wait for you at the other side of the linn; he canna
bide to see twa folk at ance.«
    Slowly and cautiously, and keeping constantly upon his guard, Morton
presented himself to the view of his old associate in command.
    »What! comest thou again when thine hour is over?« was his first
exclamation; and flourishing his sword aloft, his countenance assumed an
expression in which ghastly terror seemed mingled with the rage of a demoniac.
    »I am come, Mr. Balfour,« said Morton, in a steady and composed tone, »to
renew an acquaintance which has been broken off since the fight of Bothwell
Bridge.«
    As soon as Burley became aware that Morton was before him in person - an
idea which he caught with marvellous celerity - he at once exerted that
mastership over his heated and enthusiastic imagination, the power of enforcing
which was a most striking part of his extraordinary character. He sunk his
sword-point at once, and as he stole it composedly into the scabbard, he
muttered something of the damp and cold which sent an old soldier to his fencing
exercise, to prevent his blood from chilling. This done, he proceeded in the
cold determined manner which was peculiar to his ordinary discourse.
    »Thou hast tarried long, Henry Morton, and hast not come to the vintage
before the twelfth hour has struck. Art thou yet willing to take the right hand
of fellowship, and be one with those who look not to thrones or dynasties, but
to the rule of Scripture, for their directions?«
    »I am surprised,« said Morton, evading the direct answer to his question,
»that you should have known me after so many years.«
    »The features of those who ought to act with me are engraved on my heart,«
answered Burley; »and few but Silas Morton's son durst have followed me into
this my castle of retreat. Seest thou that drawbridge of nature's own
construction?« he added, pointing to the prostrate oak-tree - »one spurn of my
foot, and it is overwhelmed in the abyss below, bidding foeman on the farther
side stand at defiance, and leaving enemies on this, at the mercy of one who
never yet met his equal in single fight.«
    »Of such defences,« said Morton, »I should have thought you would now have
had little need.«
    »Little need?« said Burley impatiently - »What little need, when incarnate
fiends are combined against me on earth, and Sathan himself - But