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LAST FUNEREAL RITES

to the stable to regale on hay and oats, and the worthies of the inferior hall were again seated to do the honours of convivial hospitality to their very welcome visitant. Each was desirous to be entertaining; and after a few glasses of brandy, all were abundantly communicative. The brandy-ambassador gleaned information, that the lady Dulsibella was the youngest, and now the only child of the Baron. His deceased lady had brought him many sons and daughters; but the small-pox, with many other maladies and casualties, sent them to early graves, except the young lady, their charge, and the eldest son, a brave warrior in early youth, who, at Solway Moss, adhered to his sovereign, and defended the royal banner, when men grown grey under arms preferred party-spirit to loyalty and patriotism. The Baron was severely wounded in the first onset; but his gallant son covered his body, until some followers removed him to a place of safety. The young hero was slain, and his father never after held up his head, until the Baroness gave another child to his affections. No sublunary blessing comes without its alloy. The Baron discovered that his lady was a convert to the tenets of Luther, and, instigated by a bigoted confessor, treated her with a severity that shortened her life: she survived the birth of her daughter only a few months. The Baron's mother, a high-descended