sexton John Mortsheugh. Ch. 11 (25): The Marquis expresses doubts about the wisdom of Edgar's relationship with Lucy and offers him a political commission involving a period on the Continent. Caleb announces that Wolfscrag, to which Edgar and the Marquis are bound, is on fire. He is made welcome at the house of John Girder, now promoted. Ch. 12 (26): Caleb explains to Edgar that the fire was in reality not in Wolfscrag, but a device to avoid the necessity to entertain the Marquis and his entourage. Ch. 13 (27): In Edinburgh Edgar writes to Lady Ashton, Ashton, and Lucy and receives replies, uncompromising, non-committal, and distressed respectively. Volume Three Ch. 1 (28): Twelve months have passed, and Bucklaw and Craigengelt discuss Bucklaw's impending marriage to Lucy. Ch. 2 (29): Bucklaw and Lady Ashton agree with Lucy that the marriage documents will be signed if no word has been received from Edgar by St Jude's day. Ch. 3 (30): (This and the following chapter fill in developments retrospectively.) Lady Ashton exercised strict control on Lucy's movements and correspondence. Ch. 4 (31): The 'wise woman' Aislie Gourlay was brought in to act as Lucy's nurse and told her dark stories about the Ravenswoods. A strict minister was also summoned, but he agreed to forward a letter from Lucy to Edgar, reproducing one dictated by her mother but which Lady Ashton had decided not to send: this was phrased so as to appear to be a request for Edgar to renounce their engagement. Ch. 5 (32): On St Jude's day Edgar arrives just as the marriage contract has been signed. Ch. 6 (33): Edgar renounces the engagement in conformity with what he takes to be Lucy's wish, though she is almost entirely silent. Ch. 7 (34): Lucy stabs Bucklaw on their wedding night and dies the following day. Ch. 8 (35): At Lucy's funeral Colonel Ashton arranges a duel with Edgar at sunrise the following morning. On his way to the arranged meeting-place Edgar and his horse disappear in a quicksand. Reception Among contemporary reviewers only the writer in The Scotsman found The Bride of Lammermoor uniformly excellent. There was a general tendency to lament Walter Scott's familiar stylistic carelessness and weak plotting, and some reviewers saw a distinct decline from the preceding novels, with signs of exhaustion and less-interesting subject-matter. Repetition of characters was mentioned more than once, though sometimes with