ill the end of the ceremonies, I saw nothing; I only
heard the continual murmur of her words, like the sound of a running
river.

"When I got home to my lodging, I was just like a demented man; my head
was bizzing like a bee-skep, and I could hear of nothing but the birr of
that wearyful woman's tongue. It was terrible; and I took so ill that
night, and felt such a loss of appetite and lack of spirit the next day,
that I was advised by a friend to take advice; and accordingly, in the
London fashion, I went to a doctor's door to do so, but just as I put
up my hand to the knocker, there within was the wearyful woman in the
passage, talking away to the servant-man. The moment I saw her I was
seized with a terror, and ran off like one that has been bitten by a wud
dog, at the sight and the sound of running water. It is indeed no to be
described what I suffered from that woman; and I met her so often, that
I began to think she had been ordained to torment me; and the dread of
her in consequence so worked upon me, that I grew frightened to leave my
lodgings, and I walked the streets only from necessity, and then I was
as a man hunted by an evil spirit.

"But the worst of all was to come. I went out to dine with a friend that
lives at a town they call Richmond, some six or eight miles from London,
and there being a pleasant company, and me no in any terror of the
wearyful woman, I sat wi' them as easy as you please, till the
stage-coach was ready to take me back to London. When the stage-coach
came to the door, it was empty, and I got in; it was a wet night, and
the wind blew strong, but, tozy wi' what I had gotten, I laid mysel up
in a corner, and soon fell fast asleep. I know not how long I had
slumbered, but I was awakened by the coach stopping, and presently I
heard the din of a tongue coming towards the coach. It was the wearyful
woman; and before I had time to come to mysel, the door was opened, and
she was in, chatting away at my side, the coach driving off.

"As it was dark, I resolved to say nothing, but to sleep on, and never
heed her. But we hadna travelled half a mile, when a gentleman's
carriage going by with lamps, one of them gleamed on my face, and the
wearyful woman, with a great shout of gladness, discovered her victim.

"For a time, I verily thought that my soul would have leapt out at the
croun of my head like a vapour; and when we got to a turn of the road,
where was a public-house, I cried to the coach