I had determined not to be beat at that sport, on any consideration, I went from Edinburgh, fully provided with fishing apparatus; and lest the trouts of the Devon should despise the Edinburgh flies, I went to M'Isaac of Alloa, and picked all his. The Colonel had nothing-he had not so much as a fishing-rod, which I thought very shabby, but Mr Bald supplied him with everything, and away we set.

When we went to begin, he could not so much as put on his flies, for his father the Colonel's servant, who always went with him, was so completely master of these things, that neither he, nor his father the Colonel, ever paid the least attention to them. This was very well. So accordingly he put on magnifying glasses, which he kept for the purpose of angling, that he might trepan the trouts the moment they were so imprudent as to snap at his fly, or even to toy with it. I never saw a gentleman go forth to the water side with such an important look; it was so knowing, and at the same time so confident and so profound, that I did not know whether to quake or laugh. "I shall be beat at the fishing for once, though I had a thousand guineas on it," thought I, with a sigh, as I followed this champion down the bank.

But an experienced angler knows another the moment he first sees him throw the line. The mason word is a humbug; but the very first wave of a rod is sufficient between anglers. Colonel Cloud, younger of Coalpepper, and, in reversion, deputy adjutant-general to the Emperor of Austria, began that finest and healthiest of rural sports. Good and gracious! Madam! if you had seen how he began it ! With what an air! What a look of might and majesty through the magnifying glasses! I never was so petrified in all the days of my life. I cannot describe to you the utter absurdity of his address in the art, as I am afraid you have never regarded it; but, in the first place, he fixed upon a smooth, shallow part of the river, where no fish in his right judgment would ever take a fly; and then he held the rod with both his hands; set out his lips, as also an immense protuberance behind, and thrashed on the smooth stream with such violence, as if he intended to strike the trouts on the head, in the majesty of his power.

I was like to burst with laughter, and wist not what to do, yet still I contained myself. But at length a par rose at his fly, a small insignificant fish, not thicker than a lady's little finger-the Colonel perceived this through the magnifying glasses, (magnifiers they were with a vengeance,) and he pulled the line with such force, that his rod sounded through the atmosphere like a whirlwind. Yea, with such violence did he pull it, that his feet slid in a reverse direction, and he fell. "By the L-, I had on one a stone weight," cried he. "Nay, he was more. I'm sure he was more.'

This was altogether beyond my capacity of bearing any longer. I crept in beyond an alder bush, laid me down on my face, and laughed till I was weak. The tears ran from my eyes till the very grass was steeped; but it was in vain that I held my sides, and tried to refrain laughing. I had some fears I should never do more good. I waded across the river, and no more durst I come near the Colonel that day, but I despised him in my heart. He lost in my good opinion that day more than he has ever since regained. He caught not one fish, either great or small. I filled my basket. I overtook him at the village of Cambus about two o'clock. Mr Alexander Bald had come up to meet us; the two were sitting on a rock conversing, when I came immediately opposite, and I heard him informing Mr Bald that he had not caught any, but that he had hooked one which was fully a stone weight. The whole scene again presented itself to my imagination in vivid and more vivid colours, my knees lost their power, and I had no shift but to turn about, lie down on the bank, and fall again into a convulsion of laughter. Mr Bald called again and again, what ailed me, but I was unable to make him any answer, and never knew till he had waded the river, and was lifting up my head. "What ails you ?" said he, "I think you have been crying?"

"Yes," said I, "I suppose I was crying."

The Colonel was a great favourite with the good folks of Alloa, for he was eminently intelligent, and well versed in both ancient and modern literature; argumentative, civil, and courteous. But at length we left them with regret, as I had often done be

fore, and that night we arrived at your hospitable mansion.

This was precisely the bearing of our acquaintance before we visited at your house; and you yourself acknowledged to me that you thought me lucky in my travelling companion. There is no dispute with regard to his capabilities and general intelligence, yet I know now that there had been something about him, of which, or with which you were not perfectly satisfied; and as I have learned a good deal more of him since that period, I shall, as in duty bound, proceed to communicate that knowledge very shortly to you.

If you at all regarded the thing, you might remember, that before we took leave of you, everything was amicably arranged between my honoured friend and me regarding our tour; we were to fish up to Crief that day, and so on by Glen-Almond and Ambleree to Kinnaird. But before we had proceeded two miles, he informed me, with apparent regret, that he was compelled to abandon his northern tour, as he had received an express from his father the Colonel, ordering him home. I was greatly astounded at this, being perfectly convinced in my own mind that he had never received a letter since he left Edinburgh. He had no possible chance, save at Alloa, and on sounding him a little, I found he did not so much as know where the postoffice of that town was situated. It was vain, however, for me to expostulate, after he informed me that there were some foreign dispatches arrived at the castle of Coalpepper, which required both dispatch and decision; that his father required his immediate assistance; and the carriage was to meet him at Dunira that day. I was compelled to submit to the emergency, and we parted; but before doing so, he again exacted my solemn promise, that I was to spend a month with him at his father's mansion. I repeated such promise for the thirtieth time, and with a bow so profound that my bonnet, which I held in my left hand, touched the ground, I parted from my illustrious friend.

I spent the month of May in StrathTay and Glen-Lyon, the month of June in Appin and Lorn, and though the weather was eminently ungenial, I never enjoyed any excursion with greater zest. Often in my heart did

I pity Colonel Cloud, younger of Coalpepper, and ASSISTANT DEPUTY ADJUTANT-GENERAL to the EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA !

With a heavy heart I was at last obliged to turn my back on the romantic lands of Ossian and of Fingal ; and, descending on the populous valleys of the west, on the 9th of July I arrived at the environs of the far-famed village of Coalpepper; but instead of going straight to the house of the Austrian staff-officer, I went to Millburgh, Mr M'Millan being my oldest acquaintance. I had not been many hours in the house ere I began to ask for my friend the Colonel. No one of the family understood who I meant, and I found it impossible to explain myself.

"It cannot be Mr Jacob Cloud whom Mr H. means ?" said one of the young ladies.

"The very same man," said M‘Millan," and that will be some title given him in a banter among his associates at Edinburgh. Do you style Jacob the Colonel now ?"

66

Yes, I understand he gets that title for the most part," said I. But hearing them call him Mr Cloud, or simply Jacob, I recollected the honour and integrity of my friend, who had previously informed me that he was only a colonel, and adjutant-general in reversion; and, admiring his modesty about his own native place, I mentioned his name no more. But the next day Mr M'Millan says to me, "Were you not saying that Jacob Cloud was an acquaintance of yours?" I answered in the affirmative, when he added, "Very well, I will invite him to dinner to-day. I have always been wishing to have him here since he came home."

The dinner party was very numerous, and among the last who came into the drawing-room was my friend the Colonel, with the very identical magnifying glasses across his nose that had exaggerated the par of the Devon to such on enormous bulk. I felt some very tickling sensations, but behaved myself middling well. He came up to me, shook hands with great frankness, and far more affability than I had any right to expect, welcoming me to that district, in which he hoped I should never be so great a stranger again, &c. &c.

It so happened, that the Colonel

and I were placed at different ends of the table, and during the whole evening I never had an opportunity of exchanging another word with him save one. I called on him at dinner to drink a glass of wine, and asked him if he had reached home in time to get the dispatches written out?

"O, yes, thank you; quite in good time," was the answer.

I then heard Mr M'Millan inquiring what papers they were to which I alluded, and he said they were "some of those ridiculous formal affairs. A great botheration, certainly, and quite FOREIGN to all useful pur

poses.

I noted that he pronounced the term foreign very loud and sonorously, while the magnifying glasses gleamed in the light of our candles. As I am never among the first risers from a social board, I saw no more of my friend that night, nor did I hear aught of the invitation to a month's diversion; and, in spite of many appearances rather equivocal, I that evening believed everything to exist precisely as he had so often described them to me at the Castle of Coalpepper. It was not till next day that my eyes were opened to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; and never in my life shall I again be as much astonished at anything I shall hear or see.

We were to have a fox-chase the following day in Glen-Sheagy, and there were sportsmen laws laid out for us, which we were not to transgress. We were to be allowed to shoot a roebuck or a brocket, but neither a doe nor a fawn on any account. The description of that day's sport would take a long paper by itself: I must stick by my text for the present. I never doubted that my friend the Colonel would be the leading man in the sport. How could I, after the descriptions he had given me of his unequalled prowess in that line? I thought it would be a day amongst a thousand with him, and a party in which I should see him then appear in all his glory. I thought of the Transylvanian bitch Penelope-of the Russian pointers, and the terriers from the sources of the Wolga, that would tear either a fox or an otter to pieces -of the Hungarian dog Eugene, that had once belonged to the Archduke John-and Hector and Cressida—and,

though last not least, of Sobieski, the great blood-hound from the forests of Poland; and I thought what a day there would be in the woods of Sheagy More !

When we were making ready, I says to Mr M'Millan carelessly, "Mr Cloud will be of the party, of course ?"

"O, no! he cannot enjoy such a thing," said he; and "he is of no use either, that's worse."

I was petrified and speechless. "Do I hear with my ears, and understand with my heart?" thought I; "what was it the malicious, ill-willie man was saying? He cannot enjoy such a thing! and is for no use at it neither! that's worse!' Worse with a vengeance! The gentleman is raving, or speaking through his sleep. Mr Mac-Millan !" exclaimed I aloud, (for I had been exclaiming internally before, for the space of a minute or two,) "Mr Mac-Millan ! ye dinna mean, or pretend to say, that Cloud is not a good shot?"

"It is impossible for me, or any man living, to determine that point," said he, "for one very good reason, he never fired a shot in his life." My ears tingled, and I was struck dumb.

Not being able to bring my mind to think about anything else, however, in the course of our preparations, I was obliged once more to propose that the Colonel should still be of our party, for the sake of his dogs.

Dogs! What do you mean ?”

Why, hath not Jacob a variety of very superior dogs, bred from foreign countries?"

"He a breed of dogs? pooh! He never had a single dog in his life. His father had once a half-blind terrier that lay in below the loom, but it is dead, and has been for these three years and a half."

I grew dizzy, my head birled round like a mill-wheel, and I could not help repeating into myself an hundred times these words," Lord, what is man?"

We hunted a whole day-got no foxes; but I caught a beautiful young roe-buck alive, and Mr M'Millan shot a fine old one. We drank some whisky at the Strone of Sheavy, and on our walk home I took Mr M'Millan apart; and the blind terrier and the loom having been uppermost in my mind from the morning, the following dialogue passed between Mr

M'Millan and me. I give it verbatim, without colouring or addition. "What rank does old Mr Cloud hold in society?"

"He is a manufacturer; a very honest, worthy man."

"Has he not some foreign commission ?"

"No, no; he justs works for the people of the village.'

"He does not attend to the manufactory in person, surely?"

"That he does. He has no other to attend to it. In plain terms, he is a common weaver, and has just two looms in the house, one for himself, and one for an apprentice, or an occasional journeyman in a straight."

"Did he never serve in any army, either abroad or at home?"

"Never. He has lived in the village all his life, and his father before him.'

"What sort of character does my friend sustain in general ?"

"He has some strange peculiarities about him; there are, however, good points in his character. He is sober, industrious, and a most kind and affectionate son. His father has pinched himself to bring him out as a dominie, and he has requited his parent by a course of the hardest studies, as well as the utmost gratitude and attention."

"That is enough for me," said I in my heart; "Jacob and the shepherd shall be friends still. I hold these qualities in higher estimation than a reversion of a lucrative post at the court of Austria." I said not a word to Mr M'Millan how I had been hoaxed. He continued :

"The truth is, that if the young man had not too fertile an imagination-a fancy that has a scope beyond that of any other man's that ever existed he would have been a first-rate character."

Well might I assent mentally to

that remark, when I thought of the Castle of Coalpepper-the great staff officer-the square-rigged brigandine -the Empress-the Colonel's carriage with three outriders-the dogs -the rural sports-and a thousand things beside, all vanished in a breath. All the creation of a fancy, over which truth, reason, and ultimate disgrace, had no control. Mr M'Millan perceiving me thoughtful, went on. was once in our family teaching the children, and gave us much satisfaction by his attention."

He

Never was there a day so fertile of disclosures to me. I was sure, from the beginning, that I had beon intimately acquainted with this singular person. It was true, I had. But never, till that moment, did it strike me how, where, or when. "We had him teaching our children," said Mr M'Millan. I then recollected that I had, indeed, known him previously, but in circumstances so extremely degrading, that they cannot be mentioned to you along with the name of the Hon. Colonel Cloud of the staff of Austria.

Were some people to read this long epistle, they would regard it as an extravagant romance, so far does truth sometimes overreach fancy. You know that it is true, and to you it needs no confirmation, as I introduced him to you in all his borrowed plumage, for which, madam, I humbly ask your pardon: Not for introducing to you the son of a poor operative weaver; as such, he had as good a right to be there as the son of a poor shepherd, but it is for introducing to your kindness and hospitality an impostor. There's the rub! But I entreat that you will only laugh at it, and regard it as a harmless and unaccountable lunacy. I am, with the utmost respect, my honoured and esteemed friend, yours most faithfully,

JAMES HOGG.