boldest was the best policy, he watched the moment of their leaving the boxes, and joined them in the street. The result of this interview must be given hereafter, for we have only too long delayed inquiring into the consequence of David Armstrong's playing the devil. CHAPTER VII. ON the morning after David Armstrong's exhibition at the theatre, the first faint glimmering of the dawn disclosed him and his three comrades lying, as usual in one room, buried in sleep. Their beds were four heaps of straw, covered with a ragged woollen cloth, and for a pillow each had under his head a bundle of straw bound with thongs, which the students of the University were in the habit of carrying with them to the class to sit upon. The apartment was large but dreary and desolate; the floor was covered with litter; and every here and there the large stones of the wall were seen bare and rough, denuded of the plaster which had adorned them in the days of yore. Three of the four sleepers seemed to have but one character among them. They had fair hair, clear skins, and a ruddy complexion. Their foreheads were broad and massive; their noses firmly set; and their mouths, though pencilled in the rounded lines of youth, exhibited a certain rigidity, expressive of firmness and determination. Two of them were tall rather than otherwise, and strongly built; but Nigel was almost a giant. They all three slept as if soul and body had been alike unconsious. David, who was the handsomest of the four, was also the palest, owing no doubt to his midnight vigils; his brow was loftier than the others, and the whole head more intellectual. His sleep was troubled; his breath came thick and unequal; and his lips moved uneasily. At length, starting as a stronger beam of light touched his eyelids, he awoke and sat up in his bed. "And am I here after all?" said he, "and was it nothing ́ more than a trick of the enchanter Morpheus, the 'figuræ formator,' as Ovid truly describeth him? Here!—and for the last time! No more shall the tiptoe visits of Aurora find me on this straw, a too reluctant Cephalus! No more shall I tread these venerable walks of Cadmus-'In sylvis Academi quærere verum! And ye, my comrades, or rather my children-my babes as I may call them, for whom my heart yearns even like the heart of a mother what will become of you? Well may you groan, Bauldy, a sure sign hitch up your that you are nigh the waking; well may you leg, Andrew, like a demoniac in the spasms; well may you shrink, my huge Nigel, like Tityus from his vultures, when he lay in hell, covering with his body nine acres of the burnt ground! What had I to do with Hashmodai? What was it to me if he had repeated the forty thousand verses of the Destruction of Troyes, and had been wrong in every verse? But yet it was indeed a torment to hear the dunce; and to do the citizens justice, they proved that they could appreciate talent as well as condemn stupidity. Oh, it was a grand moment!-Hem! 'Devils of hell, horned and horrible!'" "The Lord save us!" cried Bauldy, and Nigel, and Andrew, with one voice, as they started from their sleep at this invocation, and sat up in their beds. "Is it clubs, David?" cried Nigel, swinging round his arm, so as to grasp conveniently a huge weapon of the kind, which lay within reach. "Who named the name of the Evil One?" demanded Bauldy in dismay. 66 And at this blessed time of the morning," added Andrew. 66 It was I,-Hashmodai the damned!" and David sprung from his couch, threw himself into a true demoniac attitude, and went on with the quotation: 66 66 66 "Devils of hell, horned and horrible! Great and small, with eyes of basilisks! Excellent! excellent!" cried the awakened audience: Bis! Bis! Hashmodai!" "It is enough, my sons," said the master student; Hashmodai has played his part, and so let him rest. Now up with ye, sirs, one and all, and shake yourselves well; and dash your heads into the water-pail; and put your fingers through your hair; and draw your cloaks evenly upon your shoulders; and so look seemly and respectable. And now, countrymen and friends, lend me your ears!" As David went on gravely and methodically with an account of the circumstances of the preceding evening, the three young men testified the amusement they received by shouts of mirth; and more especially, when he repeated 66 the bitter jokes he had taken the liberty of introducing on the subject of the University, they laughed till the tears ran down their cheeks. But when all was concluded, they became suddenly silent, and looked inquiringly into one another's faces; while a kind of dismay seemed to creep over their minds, as the reflection forced itself upon them, of what must be the consequence of their friend's exploit. And now, comrades," continued David, "you are aware that in our days the scholastic discipline has suffered at least a partial relaxation. We no longer, for instance, stand at our tasks naked from the waist upwards, that we may receive more feelingly the regent's stripes. But what of that? These were honourable inflictions, and left no shame behind. The penal laws, however, of the University are the same to-day as formerly; and, as the statutes prescribe for acting immodest pieces, or impugning on the stage the character of the Light of the Faith, the offending scholar must suffer publicly, supra dorsum nudum, pulsante campana.' Think of that. -on his bare back, to the tolling of their infernal bell!” The audience groaned. 66 "And now, sirs," he went on, as for such a degradation befalling me, who am an Armstrong, as you well know, and a near cousin of the name of Douglas by the mother's side, it is of course out of the question: but being so, it behoves me to take the wings of this blessed morning and flee away." "Whither?" cried the three in one breath. "Whither the Lord willeth," answered David, looking upwards, "for I am even as a straw let loose upon the wind, to go wheresoever the wind shall carry it." "Let there be four straws of us then," cried Bauldy, "and let us all go where the Lord willeth." "By no means," said Nigel. "Let us thrash the witnesses till we turn their tongues inside out." "Nay, nay," suggested Andrew, "we know not what even an hour may bring forth. Let us wait till the last moment, and then either fight or flee, as occasion may require." 66 Hold your tongues, sirs, I desire you!" said David, "How dare you speak of such a thing to me? Is it likely, think you, that I should consent to take you from under the maternal wings of the University, when, as God shall judge me, I know not where this night to lay my own head? The days of knight-errantry are past and gone, or we might even sally forth, and take our share with the rest, of any you thing that was going, blows or pudding; but for decent men's sons, and students of polite learning to boot, to turn themselves into ruffians, who fight for an hire, it is a thing I would neither permit nor countenance. And, in what other way would ye propose to get your living? Do know the mysteries by heart, like me, so that you might enter into some strolling brotherhood of the Passion? Ŏr, are ye qualified to enlist under the banner of the King of the Minstrels? Or would ye sing litanies in the streets of Paris, for your miserable bread, and lie at night, higgledy piggledy, under the bridges, with the thieves and ill women of the profane side of the river-the Transtiberian bank, as I may stigmatize it, seeing that it is there such offensive trades are carried on? No, no, Bauldy-no, Nigel-no, Andrew, ye must still continue, lads, to live decently, and cultivate humane learning; and, if it should be the fate of David Armstrong to sink in the whirl of that world on which his fate or follies have cast him, he will sink alone, and so his moan will be the sooner made." A deep silence followed this oration; during which, David arranged his cloak upon his shoulders, looked at the window, which was now brightening in the early sun, and turned ever and anon a furtive glance at his companions. As the moment of his exodus drew near, the four friendless lads felt the ties that had bound them together in a foreign land drawn tighter and tighter over their hearts. At last a sudden sob was heard, though manfully smothered in a clearing of the throat; and the youthful giant Nigel strode forward with an unsteady step, and looking down upon the castaway, addressed him in these words: It is of no use, daddy David: you have more sense than us all three put together, and if you withdraw your counsel, we shall only get brained some night by the other students, or hanged some morning by the University. Besides, if any of us have a chance of getting on in this kind of priestcraft, it is you; and to lose the labour of years for a joke, is not to be thought of. Touching the matter of the public flogging, it is no doubt a sore thing both for soul and body, but what of that? My father, honest man, though a kinsman of yours, was little better than a reiver himself; and it may be, that I am some whit thicker in the mind as well as skin, than you. My shoulders, too, are broad enough to bear the burden of a still greater transgression; and in short, sit you down at your ease, cousin, and do not throttle yourself in that fashion with your cloak. The whole three of us will make oath that you are as in nocent of Hashmodai as the babe unborn; and, for your sake, David, I will take all upon myself, devil, whip, and bell!" "Shame upon you!" said David, in strong agitation, 66 "and you a kinsman of the Armstrongs, and a kindly Scot! Away, I have done with you! begone!-And to think that I would let them tear your young flesh and crush your proud spirit to save my own, when you knew well I would lay down my life for yours! Fye, lad, fye! Come here, you overgrown whelp.-Nigel! May the Lord bless and preserve you for ever!" and David, unable to struggle longer with his feelings, hid his face on his friend's bosom, and lifted up his voice and wept. In the midst of the sobs of the whole party, there were heard at some distance, the ominous sounds of a bell. "It is enough," said David, disengaging himself from the Herculean clasp of his cousin, "You have betrayed me into a girl's weakness, Nigel: but since I see we are all pot and kettle in the business, it is the less matter. It was my purpose, lads, to have said a parting word for your benefit; but, as time presses, I can do little more than bid you remember, in all your outgoings and incomings in the world, that you are Scottish and Christian men. For yourselves, individually, take no thought; but bear constantly in mind, that you belong to your race and nation, and that your conduct may reflect either honour or discredit upon your fathers before you, and your children after you. Abstain from the cup, except in so far as decency and good manners permit. If you are offered a drink in moderation, take it without grudging, as one who is willing to make a due return when circumstances permit. But it is always a thriftless expenditure to buy wine for a man's own mouth; which is a subject, however, on the which I need not enlarge, seeing that you are not likely often to have the price of a bottle in your purse. Of that other and more fatal cup, drugged with the Circæan enchantments of beauty, I say unto you, beware! If you have left behind you a fair and innocent mistress, or, if you bear enshrined in your fancy some lovely Vision, of which you hope to fall in with the reality on earth, invoke that saving angel in the hour of temptation! Avoid evil company; or if that is impossible, look upon it even as mariners look upon a beacon on the shore-a sign to warn and deter, not to invite. Fail not, night and morning, to address yourselves to God and the Blessed Virgin, at your lying down and rising up; and, finally, my dear friends, at some odd moments now and |