dnight lamp, and enforced by the
tremulous tone, the quivering and livid lip, the uplifted skinny
forefinger, and the shaking head of the blue-eyed hag, might have
appalled a less credulous imagination in an age more hard of belief. The
old Sycorax saw her advantage, and gradually narrowed her magic circle
around the devoted victim on whose spirit she practised. Her legends
began to relate to the fortunes of the Ravenswood family, whose ancient
grandeur and portentous authority credulity had graced with so many
superstitious attributes. The story of the fatal fountain was narrated
at full length, and with formidable additions, by the ancient sibyl. The
prophecy, quoted by Caleb, concerning the dead bride who was to be won
by the last of the Ravenswoods, had its own mysterious commentary;
and the singular circumstance of the apparition seen by the Master of
Ravenswood in the forest, having partly transpired through his
hasty inquiries in the cottage of Old Alice, formed a theme for many
exaggerations.

Lucy might have despised these tales if they had been related concerning
another family, or if her own situation had been less despondent. But
circumstanced as she was, the idea that an evil fate hung over her
attachment became predominant over her other feelings; and the gloom
of superstition darkened a mind already sufficiently weakened by
sorrow, distress, uncertainty, and an oppressive sense of desertion and
desolation. Stories were told by her attendant so closely resembling her
own in their circumstances, that she was gradually led to converse upon
such tragic and mystical subjects with the beldam, and to repose a sort
of confidence in the sibyl, whom she still regarded with involuntary
shuddering. Dame Gourlay knew how to avail herself of this imperfect
confidence. She directed Lucy's thoughts to the means of inquiring into
futurity--the surest mode perhaps, of shaking the understanding and
destroying the spirits. Omens were expounded, dreams were interpreted,
and other tricks of jugglery perhaps resorted to, by which the pretended
adepts of the period deceived and fascinated their deluded followers. I
find it mentioned in the articles of distay against Ailsie Gourlay--for
it is some comfort to know that the old hag was tried, condemned, and
burned on the top of North Berwick Law, by sentence of a commission
from the privy council--I find, I say, it was charged against her, among
other offences, that she had, by the