The tone of his
conversation was still grave, moral, and instructive. He had travelled
much, and knew both the language and manners of other countries,
concerning which Halbert Glendinning, already anticipating the
possibility of being obliged to leave Scotland for the deed he had
done, was naturally and anxiously desirous of information. By degrees
he was more attracted by the charms of the stranger's conversation
than repelled by the dread of his dangerous character as a heretic,
and Halbert had called him father more than once, ere the turrets of
Avenel Castle came in view.
The situation of this ancient fortress was remarkable. It occupied a
small rocky islet in a mountain lake, or _tarn,_ as such a piece
of water is called in Westmoreland. The lake might be about a mile in
circumference, surrounded by hills of considerable height, which,
except where old trees and brushwood occupied the ravines that divided
them from each other, were bare and heathy. The surprise of the
spectator was chiefly excited by finding a piece of water situated in
that high and mountainous region, and the landscape around had
features which might rather be termed wild, than either romantic or
sublime; yet the scene was not without its charms. Under the burning
sun of summer, the clear azure of the deep unruffled lake refreshed
the eye, and impressed the mind with a pleasing feeling of deep
solitude.
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