an'
I'll have my fire-arms, Nell; an' by the life that's in me, he'll taste
them if he provokes me; an Ellen knows that." Having thus spoken he left
her.

The old woman stood and looked after him with a fiendish complacency.

"A black business, will you?" she exclaimed, repeating his words in
a soliloquy;--"do so--an' may all that's black assist you in it! Dher
Chiernah, I'll do it or lose a fall--I'll make the Lamh Laudhers the
Lamh Lhugs afore I've done wid 'em. I've put a thorn in their side this
many a year, that'll never come out; I'll now put one in their marrow,
an' let them see how they'll bear that. I've left _one_ empty chair at
their hearth, an' it 'll go hard wid me but I'll lave another."

Having thus expressed her hatred against a family to whom she attributed
the calamities that had separated her from society, and marked her as
a being to be avoided and detested, she also departed from the Common,
striking her stick with peculiar bitterness into the ground as she went
along.

CHAPTER II.

In the mean time young Lamh Laudher felt little suspicion that the
stolen interview between him and Ellen Neil was known. The incident,
however, which occurred to him on his way to keep the assignation,
produced in his mind a vague apprehension which he could not shake off.
To meet a red-haired woman, when going on any business of importance,
was considered at all times a bad omen, as it is in the country parts
of Ireland unto this day; but to meet a female familiar with forbidden
powers, as Nell M'Collum was supposed to be, never failed to produce
fear and misgiving in those who met her. Mere physical courage was no
bar against the influence of such superstitions; many a man was a
slave to them who never knew fear of a human or tangible enemy. They
constituted an important part of the popular belief! for the history of
ghosts and fairies, and omens, was, in general, the only kind of lore
in which the people were educated; thanks to the sapient traditions of
their forefathers.

When Nell passed away from Lamh Laudher, who would fain have flattered
himself that by turning back on the way, until she passed him, he had
avoided meeting her, he once more sought the place of appointment, at
the same slow pace as before. On arriving behind the orchard, he found,
as the progress of the evening told him, that he had anticipated the
hour at which it had been agreed to meet. He accordingly descended the
Grassy Quarry