About a mile to the eastward of the ancient town of Arbroath the
shore abruptly changes its character, from a flat beach to a range
of, perhaps, the wildest and most picturesque cliffs on the east
coast of Scotland. Inland the country is rather flat, but elevated
several hundred feet above the level of the sea, towards which it
slopes gently until it reaches the shore, where it terminates in
abrupt, perpendicular precipices, varying from a hundred to two
hundred feet in height. In many places the cliffs overhang the water,
and all along the coast they have been perforated and torn up by the
waves, so as to present singularly bold and picturesque outlines,
with caverns, inlets, and sequestered "coves" of every form and size.

To the top of these cliffs, in the afternoon of the day on which our
tale opens, a young girl wended her way,--slowly, as if she had no
other object in view than a stroll, and sadly, as if her mind were
more engaged with the thoughts within than with the magnificent
prospect of land and sea without.

The girl was

"Fair, fair, with golden hair,"

and apparently about twenty years of age. She sought out a quiet nook
among the rocks at the top of the cliffs, near to a circular chasm,
with the name of which (at that time) we are not acquainted, but
which was destined ere long to acquire a new name and celebrity from
an incident which shall be related in another part of this story.

Curiously enough, just about the same hour, a young man was seen to