312 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE.

 

the iron box and the gold image of Fortune,
and the kettle full of coins, had belonged to
some regiment of the Roman army: the kettle
and the coins, they must have taken from
the Britons; the box and all the plate were
their own, and brought from Italy. Then they,
in their turn, must have been defeated by some
of the fierce tribes beyond the Roman wall,
and must have lost all their treasure. That
must have been buried by the victorious enemy ;
and they, again, must have been driven from
their strong camp at Rink, either by some foes
from the north, or by a new Roman army from
the south. So all the gold lay at Fairnilee for
many hundred years, never quite forgotten, as
the old rhyme showed, but never found till it
was discovered, in their sore need, by the old
nurse and Randal and Jean.

As for Randal and Jean, they figed to be old,
and died on one day, and they are buried at
Dryburgh in one tomb, and a green tree grows
over them; and the Tweed goes murmuring
past their grave, and past the grave of Sir
Walter Scott.

THE END.

 

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