Chapter 24

I'll walk on tiptoe; arm my eye with caution,
My heart with courage, and my hand with weapon,
Like him who ventures on a lion's den.
OLD PLAY.

When, issuing from the gorge of a pass which terminated upon the lake,
the travellers came in sight of the ancient castle of Avenel, the old
man looked with earnest attention upon the scene before him. The
castle was, as we have said, in many places ruinous, as was evident,
even at this distance, by the broken, rugged, and irregular outline of
the walls and of the towers. In others it seemed more entire, and a
pillar of dark smoke, which ascended from the chimneys of the donjon,
and spread its long dusky pennon through the clear ether, indicated
that it was inhabited. But no corn-fields or enclosed pasture-grounds
on the side of the lake showed that provident attention to comfort and
subsistence which usually appeared near the houses of the greater, and
even of the lesser barons. There were no cottages with their patches
of infield, and their crofts and gardens, surrounded by rows of
massive sycamores; no church with its simple tower in the valley; no
herds of sheep among the hills; no cattle on the lower ground; nothing
which intimated the occasional prosecution of the arts of peace and of
industry. It was plain that the inhabitants, whether few or numerous,
must be considered as the garrison of the castle, living within its
defended precincts, and subsisting by means which were other than
peaceful.

Probably it was with this conviction that the old man, gazing on the
castle, muttered to himself, "_Lapis offensionis et petra
scandali!_" and then, turning to Halbert Glendinning, he added, "We
may say of yonder fort as King James did of another fastness in this
province, that he who built it was a thief in his heart." [Footnote:
It was of Lochwood, the hereditary fortress of the Johnstones of
Aunandale, a strong castle situated in the centre of a quaking bog,
that James VI. made this remark.]

"But it was not so," answered Glendinning; "yonder castle was built by
the old lords of Avenel, men as much beloved in peace as they were
respected in war. They were the bulwark of the frontiers against
foreigners, and the protectors of the natives from domestic
oppression. The present usurper of their inheritance no more resembles
them, than the night-prowling owl resembles a falcon, because she
builds on the same rock."

"This Julian Avenel, then, holds no high place in the love and regard of
his neighbours?" said Warden.

"So little," answered Halbert, "that besides the jack-men and riders
with whom he has associated himself, and of whom he has many at his
disposal,