person should be cognisant of his presence, disappeared as the young man
emerged from the dell to join his comrade.

It was the universal opinion of those most experienced in such
matters, that if the shooter had accompanied the spirit, he would,
notwithstanding the dwarf's fair pretences, have been either torn to
pieces, or immured for years in the recesses of some fairy hill.

Such is the last and most authentic account of the apparition of the
Black Dwarf.]



CHAPTER II.

Will none but Hearne the Hunter serve your turn?
--MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

In one of the most remote districts of the south of Scotland, where an
ideal line, drawn along the tops of lofty and bleak mountains, separates
that land from her sister kingdom, a young man, called Halbert, or
Hobbie Elliot, a substantial farmer, who boasted his descent from old
Martin Elliot of the Preakin-tower, noted in Border story and song, was
on his return from deer-stalking. The deer, once so numerous among these
solitary wastes, were now reduced to a very few herds, which, sheltering
themselves in the most remote and inaccessible recesses, rendered the
task of pursuing them equally toilsome and precarious. There were,
however, found many youth of the country ardently attached to this
sport, with all its dangers and fatigues. The sword had been sheathed
upon the Borders for more than a hundred years, by the peaceful union of