ページの画像
PDF
ePub

on the palm of his hand; and taking a small piece of a broken mirror from another pocket, he applied his chalked hand to his face, till he saw his visage of the tint he wished. Then putting the rope round his neck, and taking up the sand-glass in his hand, he stepped into the middle of the room, and standing perfectly upright, said,

"This is the way I stood before Lerwick at Lady Maisry's burn i' Woodmore, and sae frightened the chapman that he took the fever, an gif he were as free o' bluid as Sauney Glass, he wad na' hae been ill at the sight; and gif he ware na' art an part in the bluidy work, he wad hae told us a' how he was frightet into a sick-bed for mair than twa weeks an a half; but he got the better o' his illness: gif he throtled the laird and sine cast him into the loch, the finger o' the Lord will point to Lerwick; and this is the vera way I gaed out that

night after my mither gaed to bed, a wee bittie ahint the gloamin; for I ken'd Lerwick and twa men oure the muir, ware gaen to gang by the loch end that night, and I thought, gif the packman cam that way, I wad gi' him an' them an unco fright, an aiblins mak out something anent the murdered laird: and though poor Sawney Glass was ne'er at school, but just now and then gat a lesson frae the young laird that's now dead an awa; (he did na ken how he cam to speak as he did, for he didna think o' mincing ae word till it a' cam out, he didna ken how ;) and though my mither ken'd how I gat some o'the laird's auld clais, she didna ken, na, na, she didna ken how I kippit ane o'the suits i'the mickle kist i'the spence; an' she ne'er gaes but at times to that kist i'the spence; an sae ye ́see I didna tell her aught about it at a'; and the hour-glass I hidet in the

VOL. II.

E

[ocr errors]

peat stack, at the end o' the house; an' this night I'se put it whare I tuke it frae; an gif ye think there is aught ill in a' I hae done, I'm unco wae for't; an' I did nae tak the hour-glass to steal it, but just for the gaistly wark ye

-seen."

hae

The minister assured Sandy he had committed no sin for which he would be punished, since he took the glass for the purpose he had mentioned; but Mr. Thornhill would not let Sandy undress nor leave the room, till the dominie, and Levingstone, and Villejuive should arrive, and he sent for them instantly; and nobody was allowed to enter the room till they came, and saw the spectre, and heard his tale at even greater length, but, if possible, more circumstantially, than when he delivered it to the minister alone.

Minutes of this disclosure were taken

by the dominie and the minister, in the

presence of Levingstone and Villejuive, acting as a magistrate sui generis; and Sandy was sent home, with strict injunctions not to tell any one what he had done, or what he had told at the manse; or what the minister and Mon. Villejuive had done. The men whom

Glass left in council now deliberated what was best to be done, and having resolved on a plan of future action in this business, they went home, leaving the minister the task of finishing his

sermon.

CHAPTER VI.

I'll not the secret pathway tell,
That leads to thy sequestered scene;
Where virtue loves with thee to dwell,
Remote, unseeing and unseen:
Where resignation takes her stand,
Prompt to perform her friendly part:
And gathers with a trembling hand
The fragments of a broken heart.

FLOWERS OF ENGLISH POETRY.

WHEN Levingstone found that Ellen had become a little resigned to the loss of her father, though we have not yet touched upon it, weightier matter then propelling us along with the inquisitive, the mourner, and the parentless; he wrote Mr. Stuart an account of what had happened in Bute to the family of St. Clyde, and he requested him to communicate to Eliza the par

« 前へ次へ »