Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 1 - 1819.djvu/250

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TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

ward, with the manner of one who has taken leave of his company. But the stranger was not so to be shaken off. He turned his horse at the same time, and rode in the same direction so near to the Master, that, without out-riding him, which the formal civility of the time, and the respect due to the stranger's age and recent civility, would have rendered improper, he could not easily escape from his company.

The stranger did not long remain silent. "This then," he said, "is the ancient Castle of Wolf's Crag, often mentioned in the Scottish records," looking to the old tower then darkening under the influence of a stormy cloud, that formed its back ground; for at the distance of a short mile, the chace having been circuitous had brought the hunters back nearly to the point which they had attained when Ravenswood and Bucklaw set forth to join them.

Ravenswood answered this observation with a cold and distant assent.