"For wha," said he, "would have thought of the secret chaumer being
needed? It has not been used since the time of the Gowrie Conspiracy,
and I durst never let a woman ken of the entrance to it, or your honour
will allow that it wad not hae been a secret chaumer lang."
CHAPTER VIII.
The hearth in hall was black and dead,
No board was dight in bower within,
Nor merry bowl nor welcome bed;
"Here's sorry cheer," quoth the Heir of Linne.
Old Ballad
THE feelings of the prodigal Heir of Linne, as expressed in that
excellent old song, when, after dissipating his whole fortune, he found
himself the deserted inhabitant of "the lonely lodge," might perhaps
have some resemblance to those of the Master of Ravenswood in his
deserted mansion of Wolf's Crag. The Master, however, had this advantage
over the spendthrift in the legend, that, if he was in similar distress,
he could not impute it to his own imprudence. His misery had been
bequeathed to him by his father, and, joined to his high blood, and to
a title which the courteous might give or the churlish withhold at their
pleasure, it was the whole inheritance he had derived from his ancestry.
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