Ravenswood was too well accustomed to his seneschal’s mode of acting and speaking to hope much from this confident assurance.  He knew that Caleb acted upon the principle of the Spanish genrals, in the campaign of ——­, who, much to the perplexity of the Prince of Orange, their commander-in-chief, used to report their troops as full in number, and possessed of all necessary points of equipment, not considering it consistent with their dignity, or the honour of Spain, to confess any deficiency either in men or munition, until the want of both was unavoidably discovered in the day of battle.  Accordingly, Ravenswood thought it necessary to give the Marquis some hint that the fair assurance which they had just received from Caleb did not by any means ensure them against a very indifferent reception.

“You do yourself injustice, Master,” said the Marquis, “or you wish to surprise me agreeably.  From this window I see a great light in the direction where, if I remember aright, Wolf’s Crag lies; and, to judge from the splendour which the old Tower sheds around it, the preparations for our reception must be of no ordinary description.  I remember your father putting the same deception on me, when we went to the Tower for a few days’ hawking, about twenty years since, and yet we spent our time as jollily at Wolf’s Crag as we could have done at my own hunting seat at B——.”

“Your lordship, I fear, will experience that the faculty of the present proprietor to entertain his friends is greatly abridged,” said Ravenswood; “the will, I need hardly say, remains the same.  But I am as much at a loss as your lordship to account for so strong and brilliant a light as is now above Wolf’s Crag; the windows of the Tower are few and narrow, and those of the lower story are hidden from us by the walls of the court.  I cannot conceive that any illumination of an ordinary nature could afford such a blaze of light.”

The mystery was soon explained; for the cavalcade almost instantly halted, and the voice of Caleb Balderstone was heard at the coach window, exclaiming, in accents broken by grief and fear, “Och, gentlemen!  Och, my gude lords!  Och, haud to the right!  Wolf’s Crag is burning, bower and ha’—­a’ the rich plenishing outside and inside—­a’ the fine graith, pictures, tapestries, needle-wark, hangings, and other decorements—­a’ in a bleeze, as if they were nae mair than sae mony peats, or as muckle pease-strae!  Haud to the right, gentlemen, I implore ye; there is some sma’ provision making at Luckie Sma’trash’s; but oh, wae for this night, and wae for me that lives to see it!”

Ravenswood was first stunned by this new and unexpected calamity; but after a moment’s recollection he sprang from the carriage, and hastily bidding his noble kinsman goodnight, was about to ascend the hill towards the castle, the broad and full conflagration of which now flung forth a high column of red light, that flickered far to seaward upon the dashing waves of the ocean.