lie; "ye are safe here, for me and
mine winna harm ye; and it is a fougie cock indeed that darena craw in
its ain barn-yard. But wait until the day when we may meet upon the wide
moor, wi' only twa bits o' steel between us, and see wha shall brag
then."

"Away!--instantly away!" exclaimed Clennel, drawing his sword, and
waving it threateningly over the head of the gipsy.

"Proud, cauld-hearted, and unfeeling mortal," said Elspeth, "will ye
turn fellow-beings from beneath your roof in a night like this, when the
fox darena creep frae its hole, and the raven trembles on the tree?"

"Out! out! ye witch!" rejoined the laird.

"Farewell, Clennel," said the Faa king; "we will leave your roof, and
seek the shelter o' the hill-side. But ye shall rue! As I speak, man, ye
shall rue it!"

"Rue it!" screamed Elspeth, rising--and her small dark eyes flashed with
indignation--"he shall rue it--the bairn unborn shall rue it--and the
bann o' Elspeth Faa shall be on Clennel and his kin, until his hearth be
desolate and his spirit howl within him like the tempest which this
night rages in the heavens!"

The servants shrank together into a corner of the hall, to avoid the
rage of their master; and they shook the more at the threatening words
of the weird woman, lest she should involve them in his doom; but he
laughed with scorn at her words.

"Proud, pitiless fool," resumed Elspeth, more bitterly than before,
"repress your scorn. Whom, think ye, ye treat wi' contempt? Ken ye not
that the humble adder which ye tread upon can destroy ye--that the very
wasp can sting ye, and there is poison in its sting? Ye laugh, but for
your want of humanity this night, sorrow shall turn your head grey, lang
before age sit down upon your brow."

"Off! off! ye wretches!" added the laird; "vent your threats on the
wind, if it will hear ye, for I regard them as little as it will. But
keep out o' my way for the future, as ye would escape the honours o' a
hempen cravat, and the hereditary exaltation o' your race."

Willie Faa made a sign to his followers, and without speaking they
instantly rose and departed; but, as he himself reached the door, he
turned round, and significantly striking the hilt of his dagger,
exclaimed--

"Clennel! ye shall rue it!"

And the hoarse voice of Elspeth without, as the sound was borne away on
the storm, was heard crying--"He shall rue it!" and repeating her
imprecations.

Until now, poor Andrew Smith had lain groa