these, according to tradition, there was nightly drawn a huge
chain, secured by an immense padlock, for the protection of the
haven and the armada which it contained. A ledge of rock had, by
the assistance of the chisel and pickaxe, been formed into a sort
of quay. The rock was of extremely hard consistence, and the task
so difficult that, according to the fisherman, a labourer who
wrought at the work might in the evening have carried home in his
bonnet all the shivers which he had struck from the mass in the
course of the day. This little quay communicated with a rude
staircase, already repeatedly mentioned, which descended from the
old castle. There was also a communication between the beach and
the quay, by scrambling over the rocks.

'Ye had better land here,' said the lad, 'for the surf's running
high at the Shellicoat Stane, and there will no be a dry thread
amang us or we get the cargo out. Na! na! (in answer to an offer
of money) ye have wrought for your passage, and wrought far better
than ony o' us. Gude day to ye; I wuss ye weel.'

So saying, he pushed oil in order to land his cargo on the
opposite side of the bay; and Brown, with a small bundle in his
hand, containing the trifling stock of necessaries which he had
been obliged to purchase at Allonby, was left on the rocks beneath
the ruin.

And thus, unconscious as the most absolute stranger, and in
circumstances which, if not destitute, were for the present highly
embarrassing, without the countenance of a friend within the
circle of several hundred miles, accused of a heavy crime, and,
what was as bad as all the rest, being nearly penniless, did the