cy, wad nae be nif-naffing wi' a puir lad."

Finding however that he could get nothing out of Levingstone, Glass went next day to the woman hinted at above: she was old, lived retired, and seldom mingled with the crowd; little of stature, distorted in features, and mishapen in limbs; Janet Dalyell was believed by more folks than Glass, to possess several charms and spells, and all the art of glamour, Merlin, Scott, and Digly knew.

Glass entreated her, by the gift of "three bawbees, to cast a cantrop, and gi' him some light anent the man that killed the laird." Janet strove to convince Sandy she could neither "overcast the night, nor becloud the moon, nor make the devil obedient to her will."

He knew she went every night to the church-yard; and though he would not charge personally dame Dalyell with

"howking unchristened weans out their graves, and boiling up their livers in a warlock's pou," he believed it almost as potently as, that Janet "prayed her prayers the backward way," and could" with lumps of Lapland clay mix the venom of black toads and snakes,” and of this "un-sonsy dough make pictures of any one she hated."

But Glass was prevented from prosecuting his scheme. with Janet, who was suddenly taken ill; and the arrival of St. Clyde at Bute altered Sandy's project still more, as he looked for much employment about the manse, because of the company "of lawyer Levingstone, and Captain Colin St. Clyde, and the proud and angry sergeant, Maister Macbean." The sergeant was not always in the humour to talk with Sandy, and hence the epithets "proud and angry" applied to this brave humble man.

CHAPTER XIII.

He is well paid that is well satisfied.

SHAKSPEARE.

AMONGST those who happened to be present at the time of St. Clyde's arrival from Mull, was the old man John Carr. This man St. Clyde could not possibly know; but Carr came up to him the following day, as he supported Ellen in a short excursion from the manse, and darting a look at Colin that seemed to indicate an agitated mind, he approached, and, taking off his hat, said, "Might I speak ae word wi' you, sir ?"

"Certainly, sir," said Colin." But I would speak to yourself."-" You need not make a secret of any thing

you

have to say before this young lady."-"I must speak to yourself, and not before any body."-"Then will you go to the manse with me?"-"I may not enter the manse. If Mr. Levingstone could have confidence in a stranger in the king's tower, in Rothsay castle, and at the Cove, ye need not be afraid to meet me in Woodmore; na, na, that place winna do,-meet me in an hour on the middle of the muir at the carne."

St. Clyde knew at once, from what he had heard from Levingstone, that this man was in alliance in some way or other with Whiggans; and he could not decline to meet the messenger or friend of so disinterested a man.

Walking home with his sister, she asked him by the way, "who that man was; if he knew him; she had often seen him; he was an inoffensive crea. ture; the minister and many others

had known him for some years; some people fancied he was crazy; others could not account for his frequent visits to the island, without any visible object to answer by those visits; but in all, for two years, he had not ceased to create a strong suspicion in the mind of the people that he was “nae canny."

It was in this train that Ellen, unacquainted with Carr's character, spoke of him; and as the common report ran that he was "nae canny," she insisted Colin should not go to meet him on the muir.

Colin was in the prime of life, stout, brave, virtuous, and universally beloved; he had nothing to fear; besides, the very mention of the king's tower and the Cove, were pass-words into the presence of any man who was the friend of Whiggans.

Leaving Ellen at the manse, and