ning upon the floor more dead
than alive, though not exactly "stone dead" as he expressed it; and
ever, as he heard his master's angry voice, he groaned the more, until
in his agony he doubted his existence. When, therefore, on the departure
of the Faas, the laird dragged him to his feet, and feeling some pity
for his terror, spoke to him more mildly, Andrew gazed vacantly around
him, his teeth chattering together, and he first placed his hands upon
his sides, to feel whether he was still indeed the identical flesh,
blood, and bones of Andrew Smith, or his disembodied spirit; and being
assured that he was still a man, he put down his hand to feel for his
chronometer, and again he groaned bitterly--and although he now knew he
was not dead, he almost wished he were so. The other servants thought
also of their money and their trinkets, which, as well as poor Andrew's
chronometer, Elspeth, in the hurry in which she was rudely driven from
the house, had, by a slip of memory, neglected to return to their lawful
owners.

It is unnecessary to dwell upon the laird's anger at his domestics, or
farther to describe Andrew's agitation; but I may say that the laird was
not wroth against the Faa gang without reason. They had committed
ravages on his flocks--they had carried off the choicest of his
oxen--they destroyed his deer--they plundered him of his poultry--and
they even made free with the grain that he reared, and which he could
spare least of all. But Willie Faa considered every landed proprietor as
his enemy, and thought it his duty to quarter on them. Moreover, it was
his boisterous laugh, as he pushed round the tankard, which aroused the
laird from his slumbers, and broke Elspeth's spell. And the destruction
of the charm, by the appearance of their master, before she had washed
her hands in Darden Lough, caused those who had parted with their money
and trinkets to grieve for them the more, and to doubt the promises of
the prophetess, or to

"Take all for gospel that the spaefolk say."

Many weeks, however, had not passed until the laird of Clennel found
that Elspeth the gipsy's threat, that he should "_rue it_," meant more
than idle words. His cattle sickened and died in their stalls, or the
choicest of them disappeared; his favourite horses were found maimed in
the mornings, wounded and bleeding in the fields; and, notwithstanding
the vigilance of his shepherds, the depredations on his flocks augmented
tenfo