and overlooking the total want of premises which such a theory must ever
possess, through its want of a primary agent, had become sceptical; leaving a
vague opinion concerning the origin of things, that, with high pretentions to
philosophy, failed in the first of all philosophical principles, a cause. To him
religious dependence appeared a weakness, but when he found one gentle and young
like Hetty, with a mind beneath the level of her race, sustained at such a
moment by these pious sentiments, and that, too, in a way that many a sturdy
warrior, and reputed hero might have looked upon with envy, he found himself
affected by the sight, to a degree that he would have been ashamed to confess.
Edinburgh and Aberdeen, then as now, supplied no small portion of the medical
men of the British service, and Dr. Graham, as indeed his name and countenance
equally indicated, was by birth, a North Briton.
    »Here is an extraordinary exhibition for a forest, and one but half-gifted
with reason,« he observed with a decided Scotch accent, as Warley and the ensign
entered; »I just hope, gentlemen, that when we three shall be called on to quit
the twenty -th, we may be found as resigned to go on the half pay of another
existence, as this poor demented chiel!«
    »Is there no hope that she can survive the hurt?« demanded Warley, turning
his eyes towards the pallid Judith, on whose cheeks, however, two large spots of
red had settled, as soon as he came into the cabin.
    »No more than there is for Chairlie Stuart! Approach and judge for
yourselves, gentlemen; ye'll see faith exemplified in an exceeding and wonderful
manner. There is a sort of arbitrium between life and death, in actual conflict
in the poor girl's mind, that renders her an interesting study to a philosopher.
Mr. Thornton, I'm at your service, now; we can just look at the arm, in the next
room, while we speculate as much as we please on the operations and sinuosities
of the human mind.«
    The surgeon and ensign retired, and Warley had an opportunity of looking
about him, more at leisure, and with a better understanding of the nature and
feelings of the group collected in the cabin. Poor Hetty had been placed on her
own simple bed, and was reclining in a half seated attitude, with the approaches
of death on her countenance, though they were singularly dimmed by the lustre of
an expression, in which all