WALTER AND LILIAN.
She's here! yet O! my tongue is at a loss;
Teach me, some power, that happy art of speech,
To dress my purpose up in gracious words,
Such as may softly steal upon her soul.
The whole of the next day passed ere Walter Fenton found time to
visit the fugitives; he was anxious to be the first bearer of the
good tidings confided to him by the Earl, and luckily intelligence
did not travel very fast in those days. In Edinburgh there was but
one occasional broadsheet or newspaper, "The Kingdoms Intelligencer,"
and a house situated a mile or two from the city wall, was deemed a
day's journey, distant among wood, rocks, and water. Thus the rural
residences of the Napiers, Lord Clermistonlee, Sir John Toweris of
Inverleith, Sir Patrick Walker, of Coates, and others, were situated
in places over which the busy streets and crowded squares of the
extended city have spread like the work of magic.
Walter had some difficulty in discovering the exact locality of
Elsie's cottage, which was situated among a labyrinth of haw and
privet hedges, and consequently the evening was far advanced before
he presented himself at her humble abode, and caused the
consternation described in a preceding chapter.
"I must speak instantly with those who are concealed here," said he;
"I am a friend of the Lady Bruntisfield--the bearer of most happy
tidings."
"I think I should know your voice," said Hab, still deliberating, and
puffing at his match.
"And I thine, Halbert Elshender; I am one of Lord Dunbarton's men."
"Welcome, Mr. Fenton!" exclaimed Hab, undoing the door briskly; "I
wish you much joy of being out of yonder devilish scrape."
"How are you back so soon, Hab? By my faith, I thought you were
browbeating the westland Whigs, and roystering at free quarters among
the stiffnecked carles of Clydesdale."
"And so we were, sir, for three blessed weeks. Cocks' nails! ilka
man was lord and master, and mair of the billet he had, loundering
the gudeman, kissing the gudewife, and eating the best in cellar and
ambrie, and then settling the lawing with a flash of a bare blade or
a roll on the drum, as Finland and yourself have dune too. But hech!
things are likely to be otherwise; it's a bad sign when the
nonconformist bodies begin to cock their bonnets in face of the
king's soldiers, as they are doing now."
"Ay, 'tis thought there will be the devil to pay between King James
and the English, who were ever jealous of the Stuart rule. The
Ladies of Bruntisfield are here, are they not?"
"Maybe sae, and maybe nae," replied Hab cunningly, still keeping his
match cocked.
"How!" asked Walter, frowning, upon which Elsie cried in great alarm,
"Eh, sirs,--Hab, Hab, ye gomeral, speak the gentleman fair."
"To be plain, Mr. Fenton," asked Halbert bluntly, "came ye here as
friend or foe?"
"A late question, when I am within arm's length of you. Halbert
Elshender, I pledge my honour I am here in honest friendship."
"And quite alone, sir?'
"The deuce! Sirrah, I am as you see," responded Walter impatiently.
"Mistress Lilian is here, and her noble kinswoman too, I doubt not."
Hab winked knowingly, and knocked on the panels of the vast girnel,
the front of which he opened, and the two fugitives forth stepped,
pale and agitated. The first sight of Walter's military garb
startled them; but bowing profoundly, he said, in the formal fashion
of the time,
"Lady Bruntisfield, your most obedient humble servant--Mistress
Lilian, yours."
"Your servant, sir," muttered the ladies, and they all bowed to each
other three several times. Lilian blushed deeply.
"Ah," said Walter, "I have then the happiness to be remembered."
Lady Grisel, on adjusting her spectacles, immediately recognized him,
and held out her hand with a smile, in which hauteur, kindness, and
timidity were curiously blended.
"Welcome, young gentleman; though our fortunes are somewhat clouded
now, I rejoice their shadow has not long blighted yours, and I
congratulate you on your restoration to liberty."
"And I, in turn, wish you every joy at a sudden change of fortune.
The decrees of Council are reversed; your lands, your liberty, your
coat armorial, are restored, and you are free to return to the
ancestral dwelling of your family whenever it pleases you; to cast
aside for ever that humble attire, though, believe me, fair Lilian,
it never appeared to me so graceful or charming as at this moment."
Again Lilian blushed deeply; her bright eyes were full of inquiry and
expression; her cherry mouth, half open, displayed the whiteness of
her firm little teeth, and she never appeared so fascinating to
Walter as, when laying her hand gently on his arm, she said,
"Ah, Mr. Fenton, is this indeed true?"
Of its truth the old lady appeared to have some doubts. She remained
for a few moments silent and motionless. Her first thought was one
of rapture; her second of surprise and distrust, for might not this
be a wile of Clermistonlee? might not the price of the young man's
liberty be their betrayal to the Council? But no! she suppressed the
ungenerous thought, when, bending her keen eyes on Walter, she read
the openness and candour expressed in his handsome face.
"This is indeed a reverse! O what joy!" she exclaimed; "and yet 'tis
strange," she added, striking her cane with great energy on the clay
floor; "very strange withal, that no macer, usher, herald, or
deputation of Council hath come to me with intimation hereof. This
is marvellous discourtesy in the Earl of Perth, to a dame of honour,
who hath had the privilege of the tabouret before the Queens of
France and Britain. Young man, were you specially commissioned to
tell me this happy intelligence?"
"Not exactly," said Walter, colouring in turn; "but it is so pleasant
to be the herald of joy, that I am glad another has not anticipated
me. Indeed, as the reversal of your sentence was publicly proclaimed
at the cross this forenoon, by the Albany Herald and Unicorn
pursuivant, with tabard and trumpet, I am astonished you have not
heard of it. But honest Hab's reluctance to admit me--"
"O teach me to be thankful," exclaimed Lady Grisel, raising her
bright grey eyes and clasped hands to Heaven; "to be grateful for
this great and singular mercy! Then all our persecution is over?"
"My dear madam, it is so, and for ever."
Another burst of acclamation from Hab shook the cottage, and he
kissed Meinie again in the excess of his exultation.
"O nurse Elsie, my dream is read," said Lady Grisel. "Last night I
thought I saw Sir Archibald's favourite horse--ye mind his auld
trooper, spotless Snawdrift. A white steed, ye know, Elsie, betokens
intelligence; and his being spurgalled shewed it would be speedy.
His saddle was girth uppermost--"
"Whilk boded luck, and never mair may it leave the house o'
Bruntisfield, thanks to the battling Lord!" said Elsie, piously.
"I am unused to receive boons," said the stately dame; "but would be
glad to know to what or to whom the house of Napier is indebted for
this signal favour of fortune."
"To my generous Lord and Colonel, the princely Dunbarton, whom God
long preserve! Here are the pardon and reversed decree of
forfeiture; I received them from his countess, who desired me to bear
them to you with her best regards."
"O, Mr. Fenton!" exclaimed Lady Grisel, whose artificial pride now
quite gave way before the natural warmth and gratitude of her heart.
And her broad silver barnacles became dim with tears as she received
the documents which bore the well-flourished signature, "Perth,
Cancellarius," and the seal of Council. "God knows, good youth," she
continued, pressing Walter's hand in her's, "that if I repined much
at the sad occurrences of the last few weeks, it was for the sake of
this fair child alone. Alake! at her age to be thrown into poverty
and obscurity were to die a living death--but now--" Lilian, in a
transport of tears and joy, threw her arms around her aged relative
and kissed her.
"Poverty and obscurity!" thought poor Walter; "How can I dare to love
a being so far above me, when these are all I have to share with her?"
With her snood unbound and her bright hair flying in beautiful
disorder, the lively girl rushed from Elsie to Meinie alternately
kissing and embracing them, till honest Hab began to rub his mouth
with his cuff in expectation of the favour going round; and in her
girlish delight, she seemed a thousand times more charming than when
clad in her long stomacher, and compelled to imitate Lady Grisel's
starched decorum and old-fashioned stateliness of demeanour.
"Ah, good Heavens," she suddenly exclaimed, "we are quite forgetting
poor cousin Quentin."
"The deuce take cousin Quentin!" thought Walter, and he hastened to
inform her that the Council had resolved to cut the Captain into
joints the moment they could lay hands on him.
Meinie, whose cakes had long since been scorched to a cinder, now
gave Hab a box on the ear, and retreating from him with a pout of
rustic coquetry, placed several three-legged stools near the fire,
around which they seated themselves by desire of Lady Grisel, herself
occupying the great elbow-chair, against which her tall walking-cane
was placed by Elsie with great formality. The venerable cottager was
very lavish in her praises of Walter, for whom, as the bearer of such
good tidings, she felt a cordial admiration; and, heedless of
Lilian's confusion, continued to whisper it in her ear.
"A handsome cavalier, hinny. Saw ye ever sic een?--they glint like a
gosshawk's. His hair is like the corbie's wing wi' the dew on it;
and his cheeks are like red rowan berries. He is indeed a winsome
young gallant, my doo Lilian!--no ane o' our law-breakers, who spend
the blessed Sabbath in ruffling through the streets in masks and
mantles, or dicing, drinking, or playing at shovel-board in a vile
change-house, or playing at pell-mell like the godless Charles; but a
gospel-fearing and discreet youth, as gude as he's bonnie, I doubtna."
"Oh, hush, Elsie!--he will hear you," said Lilian in a breathless
voice.
"What did you say his name is, hinny?" asked Elsie, who was rather
deaf.
"I never said," whispered Lilian; "but it is Walter Fenton--a pretty
one, is it not, nurse?"
"Fenton?--he'll be ane o' the auld Fentons owre the water; as gallant
and stalwart a race as ever Fifeshire saw."
"I hope so," sighed Lilian; "but, oh Elsie! there is some sad mystery
about this poor young man. When a very little child, he was found
nestled in his dead mother's bosom in the kirk-yard of the
Greyfriars, in that terrible time you will remember?"
"My bonnie bairn, it was indeed a fearfu' time; but, by his winsome
face, I warrant him come o' gentle kin."
"Dost think so, dear nursie?"
"Not Claver'se himsel has an eye that glints wi' mair pride, or a lip
that curls mair haughtily. True gentle blood can aye be kent by the
curl o' the lip. I warrant his blude's as gude as ony in braid
Scotland."
"Oh; 'tis for that I pity and love him so much," said Lilian
artlessly. As she spoke, Walter, who was conversing with Lady
Grisel, unexpectedly looked full towards her; he had removed his
steel cap, and the long black locks beneath it flowed in cavalier
profusion over his scarlet doublet. He never looked so
prepossessing; and, fearing that he had overheard her, the cheek of
the timid girl grew scarlet and then deadly pale; and to hide her
confusion, she bent her face towards the old nurse, requesting her to
bind up her hair.
"In ringlets and heart-breakers such as never Maister Pouncet
fashioned, shall I twine thy bonnie gowden hair to-morrow, hinny,"
said the old woman, kissing with fond respect the white forehead of
Lilian; for those were days when the highest and the lowest classes
in Scotland were bound together by such endearing ties as never will
exist again. "And nae mair shall your dainty arms and jimpy waist be
bound wi' aught but Naples silk and three-pile taffeta."
"Ah! nurse Elsie, if my heart is always as happy and light as
Meinie's, it will matter little what I wear."
"Sae said your lady mother, that's dead and gane; yea, and your
great-aunt Grisel too (but silk and damask are grand braws, hinny!):
and, waes me! thae wrinkled auld hands hae braided the bonnie hair o'
baith. And now the head o' ane is turned frae the hue o' the raven's
wing to that o' the new-fa'n snaw; and the head o' the other, oh,
waly! waly! lies low in the kirk vaults o' St. Rocque. I mind a time
when the hair o' my lady there was as glossy as yours; yea, and her
brow as smooth, and her cheek glowing like the red rowan berry. It
is many a lang and weary year ago, and yet it seemeth but as
yesterday, when your kinsman, umquhile Sir Archibald, first cam
riding up the dykeside to Cowdenknowes, wi' my puir gudeman, John
Elshender, astride his cloak-bags on a high trotting mear; and weel I
mind the time when first he drew his chair in by the ingle, and
lookit awfu' things at Lady Grisel. Certes, but she was ill to
please at her toilet after that! Frae morning till e'enin' there was
nought but busking wi' braws, frizzling and puffing and perfuming;
tying and untying, and flaunting wi' breast-knots and fardingales,
and working wi' essence o' daffodils and gilliflower water. That was
mony a year before that vile limmer Cromwell led his ill-faured host
on this side o' the English bounds. He was a braw and a buirdly man
Sir Archibald, though when last he rode forth frae the aikwoods o'
the auld Place owre the muir, his pow was lyart enough. Methink I
see him yet, as I saw him first, our brave auld laird! His green
doublet o' taffeta, stiff wi' buckram, bombast, and gowden lace--his
lang buff boots and clanking spurs--his broadsword and
dudgeon-knife--and a bonnie ger-falcon on his nether wrist, wi' a
plume on its head and siller varvels on its legs. Mony a sair gloom
he gaed that braw chield, the Laird o' Caickmuir; but Lady Grisel
could never thole the Muirs, for they gained baith haugh and holm by
pinglin' wi' base merchandise in Nungate o' Haddintoun, when the
Humes were winning the broomy knowes o' Cowden by the sharp spur and
the long spear----"
"In fearfu' times, Elsie," said Lilian laughing.
"Ay, indeed, hinny," continued the garrulous old woman. "Fearfu'
times they were, when the Lord o' Crichton, wi' his fierce knights in
their bright armour, on barbed horses, ravaged a' the West-kirk
parochin to the castle-gate of Corstorphin, ruining lord, laird, and
tenant body alike,--giving the cottar's home, the baron's tower, and
the priest's kirk to torch and sack. Fearfu' times they ever are,
hinny, when Scottish braves and Scottish blades are bent on ilk ither
in the fell stoure o' battle."
"Elshender," said Lady Grisel--(interrupting these reminiscences, of
which the reader is perhaps as tired as Lilian was)--"you have left
the band on your wheel."
"Save us and sain us!" exclaimed the old woman, hobbling to her
wheel. "The last time I did sae, the gude neighbours span on't the
haill night, and ravelled a' my gude hawslock woo."
"Thou shouldst be more careful, Elshender," said Lady Grisel gravely.
"It bodes ill luck; and a red thread should be tied to the rock.
Red thread and Rowan tree,
Mak' warlock, witch, and fairy flee.
I marvel, Lilian, that your friend and gossip, Annie Laurie, came not
to visit us the moment she heard the proclamation of our innocence,
and the Council's injustice."
"Dear Annie was the first to fly hither when our fortune was at the
lowest ebb," said Lilian timidly. "Ah, Heaven, if she should be ill!
She knows how welcome are the bearers of happy tidings."
"And most welcome is Mr. Fenton!" said the old lady, pressing his
hand so kindly that Walter's heart leaped, and he scarcely dared to
glance at Lilian. "Dear child, I tremble to think of all you have
braved for our sake,--the torture, the bodkin, the dungeon! It was
noble and generous. The hero of the old romance, Sir Roland of
Roncesvalles, could not have done more."
"Spare me the shame of these thanks, madam. The honour of serving
your ancient house is sufficient requital to one so--so nameless as I
am. But, pray remember it is to my very good lord, the noble
Dunbarton, you alone owe this happy change in fortune."
"And to-morrow, so early as decorum will permit, and when our
servitors can attend in such state as befits our quality, shall he
and his gentle Countess (English though she be) receive our best
thanks. The Lady Lætitia is the first of her nation," she added, and
down went the cane on the floor; "yea, the first that Grisel Hume
could ever thole. Lilian, we will immediately set forth on our
return to the Place of Bruntisfield."
"You will permit me to have the honour of escorting you, madam?"
"Thanks, Mr. Fenton. There is a troop of horse at free quarters on
the barony; and if----"
"They belonged to Dalyel's Grey dragoons. They were withdrawn by the
decree of Council; and I heard their kettledrums beating through the
city this evening."
"'Tis well. Then we will return by coach, as it would be unseemly to
do so on foot. We have long incommoded you, my poor Elshender."
"Gude, your ladyship, think not of it," replied Elsie; "all I hae is
yours, and mair would be if I had it. I and mine ate of your bread
and drank of your cup in prosperity, and may shame and dishonour fall
on our grey hairs if in adversity we fail in our duty to the Napiers
o' Bruntisfield!" Elsie wept: "and you especially, Hab, ye mickle
gomeral, wi' the king's cockade in your bonnet!"
"Burganet, ye mean, Lucky; we soldiers of the king wear braw
burganets of bright steel."
"But these are fearfu' times, my lady, when the superior is beholden
to the vassal for a roof to cover them, and a mouthfu' o' meat; but
think o't, madam; the auld house is dark and empty, and the auld
survitors are scattered owre the barony among the tenantry, and the
keys o' the barbican gate are owre the muir wi' the ground baillie,
auld Sym o' the Greenhill."
"That loitering runnion should have been the first to present himself
before us!" exclaimed Lady Grizel; "but I care not; let Hab and
Meinie accompany us now, for our attire is too unseemly for
appearance in daylight. I am impatient to return; for O, Elsie, thou
knowest well this night is the old returning anniversary of my
marriage and the laird's death, and dost think I will spend it under
another roof than that of Bruntisfield, if I can avoid it?"
"Of course not, my lady--but ewhow! I'll be alone in this auld cot,
to be scared by spunkies or gyre earlins, for there is no' a place in
a' the Lowdens for deid-lichts, bodochs, and unco' things, like the
auld massemongers' kirk doun the loan there."
"Peace, Elsie! and remember that there lie the bones of the Napiers
for ten generations. Lay the bible on the table when we go," said
Lady Grizel, with solemnity, "and place a four-leaved clover and
rowan-tree sprig over the fireplace, and, dost hear me, Elshender,
lay the poker and shovel crosswise above the gathering peat--"
"Crosswise?" muttered Elsie; "doth not that pertain to the auld
papistical leaven o' idolatry?"
"It doth, I own, but the sign of the cross is a right good charm
against the machinations of the evil one. You must have found that
one made with red chalk on the bed-head, keepeth away both cramp and
nightmare. My honoured mother used these marks, and by advice of
Quentin, the abbot of Crossregal. O, Elshender, that is a long, long
time ago, yet I mind it as yesterday."
"Cocksnails!" muttered Hab; "a jovial stoup of Barbadoes kill-devil
were a far better charm, and I douot not the abbot would have thought
so too, eh, Master Fenton?"
"Dear nurse," said Lilian, "surely one so harmless and so pious as
thee need fear nothing."
"Had ye heard the bummel o' the fairy boy's drum amang the lang grass
in the loan and the stocks o' the hairst fields, brave though your
bluid be, Lilian, it would turn, even as water. But if Lady Grizel
requireth service of Hab and Meinie, it beseems no' the wife o' auld
John Elshender to grudge it. Mony a year I have dwelt here, lang
before the mirk Monanday, and ne'er saw aught that was unco, but I
canna get owre my fears, though there is a horseshoe on the door
where my puir gudeman nailed it forty years ago; there is a sprig o'
rowan-tree owre the lintel, and the heart o' an elfshotten nowte,
birselled wi' wax, and stuck fu' o' pins under the door step."
"A grand charm, Elsie," said Lady Grizel gravely; "no evil thing can
enter or prevail against it."
"And so with these notable allies, gudewife, you think you will face
out the terrors of one night alone?" said Walter impatiently, for
soldiering had rubbed off much of that superstition which still
exists in Scotland.
"I have courage to do whatever my lady requires o' me as her bounden
vassal," replied Elsie sharply; "courage! my certie! young sir, mony
a lang year before you saw the light, I learned to look without
blenching on steel flashing in my ain kailyard, and battle-smoke
rowing owre holm and hollow. A Scottish wife, maun, needs hae
courage in thae fearfu' times, when never a day passes without a son,
a gudeman, or a brother having to buckle on steel cap and corslet
whenever the laird cries, 'Mount and ride!' How mony a time and oft
has the bale fire at Libberton-peel, and the cry o' 'Horse and
spear!' made my douce gudeman crawl out frae his cosy nest in that
bein boxbed, wi' a heavy curse on the English, the nonconformists, or
malignants (or whaever kept the countryside astir for the time), then
donning morion, jack and spear, he rode awa, de'il kens where, at Sir
Archibald's bidding, for they were aye together in drumming and
dirdum, trooping and travelling, hunting and hosting, sic as may we
never see again! But alake! there is a whisper gaing owre the land,
that waur is yet to come than the wildest persecutor could think o'."
"Beard o' Mahoun!" said Hab impatiently, "you are at your weary
auld-world stories again. Let all bygones be forgotten, mother, and
as for the trooping and tramping of those days, when my faither rode
by laird's bridle, God send we may soon have the same again! But if
our Lady means to return to the old place to-night, the sooner she
sets out the better."
"True, Halbert," said Lady Grizel, "for the hour waxes late; but,"
she added, striking her cane on the floor, "we will require a coach,
for, late or early, we must return in such state as befits us."
"Hab," said Walter, "hurry to the Portsburgh, and desire the master
of the inn there immediately to send his hackney coach (I know he
keeps one), with horses to drag it, and link-boys conform."
"He is a dour auld carl, I ken," replied Hab, throwing off his
bandoleers, and preparing to start. "Our inquartering there a month
ago, has neither improved his temper or gudewill. It will be the
dead hour of night when I tirl his pin, and he may refuse to obey me."
"How, if you say the coach is for a lady of quality."
"For _me_, Halbert?" added Lady Grizel with dignity.
"Ay, madam, and ask my authority."
"Then show him the blade of your sword," said Walter: "'tis the best
badge of authority to an insolent boor."
"But the auld buckie, though round as a puncheon, of Rhenish, can
handle backsword and dagger, double and single falchions like any
French sword-player; and look ye, Mr. Fenton, though a bare blade
passed well enough in the Low Countries under Condé, or in the west
under Claver'se, it will not do at all within sound of the Iron Kirk
bell."
"Right, Halbert; we have neither law nor reason for browbeating the
poor vintner; but faith, our living so long at free quarters has
imparted to us a somewhat imperious mode of requiring service at all
hands. Get the coach as you may, Hab, but be speedy."
"And Hab, my son," cried Elsie with anxiety, "keep the middle o' the
gate till ye come to the place o' the Highrigs; and gif ye hear aught
like the bummel o' a wee drum amang the lang grass or fauld-dykes by
the wayside, neither quicken nor slacken your pace."
"For remember," added Lady Grizel, "it is equally unlucky either to
meet or to avoid fairies or evil spirits."
"This cowes the gowan!" exclaimed Hab with a laugh, which awe for the
old dame failed to restrain. "Lady Bruntisfield, a lad that hath
heard Dunbarton's drums beating the point of war in the face of the
Imperialists, need not care a brass bodle for all the fairies and
witches in braid Scotland, and Gude kens, but there is plenty o'
them--young anes, at least--eh, cousin Meinie?" and suddenly kissing
her red cheek, he made a sweeping salute to the others, and sprang
from the cottage.
Elsie now remembered that in her alternate joy and anxiety, the usual
hospitality had been quite forgotten. Her nappy stone jars of
usquebaugh and brown ale, with their attendant quaighs--crystal being
then a luxury for the great and wealthy alone--cheese and bannocks of
barley-meal were produced, and each person drank the health of all
the rest with an air of solemn formality. The strong waters were
tasted first for form-sake, and then their horns were replenished
with the dun beverage of October, while their stools were all drawn
close to the blazing fire, Lady Grizel, in the leathern chair,
occupying the centre. Every face beamed with the purest happiness,
and none more than that of Walter Fenton, and his handsome dark
features, shaded by his clustering hair, glowing in the light of the
fire and radiant with joy, formed an agreeable contrast to the paler
and more interesting Lilian, whose eyes beamed with vivacity and
drollery. Even old Elsie's face became dimpled with smiles, and she
whispered in Meinie's ear, that "her auld een had never seen a mair
winsome pair" than Walter and Lilian. Low as the whisper was, it
reached the ear of the latter, or she divined its meaning, and it
covered her with the most beautiful confusion, for to a young girl,
there is nothing so indescribably charming, as when first her name is
linked with that of a lover.
Though very happy, they were very silent. Lady Grizel was sunk in
reverie; Lilian was a little abashed, and Walter, who was turning
over his thoughts for a subject to converse on, was becoming more
perplexed, until relieved by Elsie's loquacity, which found an ample
theme in the terrors of the famous gnome or fairy boy, whose
appearance about that time had caused no small consternation in
Edinburgh. On the summit of the Calton--as all the gossips of the
city were at any time ready to aver on oath--he was heard at midnight
beating the role to the fairies, who came forth from under the long
dewy blades of glittering dog-grass or heavy docken-leaves, from
crannies in the rocks, and mole-tracks in the turf, to dance merrily
on the Martyr's rock, in the blaze of the silvery moon. And, worse
still, this same devilish gnome, by the clatter of his infernal drum,
summoned weekly from the four quarters of heaven, the gyre-carlins
and witches to Satan's periodical _levée_, and often the benighted
citizen as he wended up the long and dreary loan from Leith (to which
the ruins of a monastery, and a gibbet hung with skeletons, lent
additional terrors), paused in dismay, when the din of the enchanted
drum rang from the dark rocks on the gusts of the midnight wind, and
the troop of gathering hags astride broom-sticks and sprigs from a
gallows-tree, swept like a storm through the air, bending strong
trees to the earth, laying flat the ripening corn, and rumbling among
chimney-heads, making the nervous indwellers cower under the
bed-clothes, and tremble in the wooden recesses of their snug
box-beds, while they murmured old charms against sorcery and the
devil. Other witches of more aquatic propensities, were ferried
across Firth and Bay in eggshells, sieves, and milk-bowies, to that
damnable conclave, where plots were laid to blast their neighbours'
kail or cattle, and work all manner of mischief, as the Records of
Justiciary show. On all these appalling facts, Lady Grisel and Elsie
descanted with such earnest seriousness, that Walter felt half
inclined to shiver with the rest, when the wind rumbled in the
chimney as if a flock of gyre-carlins were sweeping past it, to their
_levée_ on the Calton, about the bluff black rocks of which Lady
Grisel averred emphatically, she had repeatedly seen them swarming in
the bright moonlight, like gnats in the summer sunshine; and after
evidence so conclusive, we hope nobody will doubt it.