consisted of a man
and woman, who sat apart, one on each side of the fire; they were both
busily employed--the man was carding plaited straw, whilst the woman
seemed to be rubbing something with a white powder, some of which lay on
a plate beside her. Suddenly the man looked up, and, perceiving me,
uttered a strange kind of cry, and the next moment both the woman and
himself were on their feet and rushing upon me.

I retreated a few steps, yet without turning to flee. I was not,
however, without apprehension, which, indeed, the appearance of these two
people was well calculated to inspire. The woman was a stout figure,
seemingly between thirty and forty; she wore no cap, and her long hair
fell on either side of her head, like horse-tails, half-way down her
waist; her skin was dark and swarthy, like that of a toad, and the
expression of her countenance was particularly evil; her arms were bare,
and her bosom was but half-concealed by a slight bodice, below which she
wore a coarse petticoat, her only other article of dress. The man was
somewhat younger, but of a figure equally wild; his frame was long and
lathy, but his arms were remarkably short, his neck was rather bent, he
squinted slightly, and his mouth was much awry; his complexion was dark,
but, unlike that of the woman, was more ruddy than livid; there was a
deep scar on his cheek, something like the impression of a halfpenny. The
dress was quite in keeping with the figure: in his hat, which was
slightly peaked, was stuck a peacock's feather; over a waistcoat of hide,
untanned and with the hair upon it, he wore a rough jerkin of russet hue;
smallclothes of leather, which had probably once belonged to a soldier,
but with which pipeclay did not seem to have come in contact for many a
year, protected his lower man as far as the knee; his legs were cased in
long stockings of blue worsted, and on his shoes he wore immense
old-fashioned buckles.

Such were the two beings who now came rushing upon me; the man was rather
in advance, brandishing a ladle in his hand.

"So I have caught you at last," said he; "I'll teach ye, you young
highwayman, to come skulking about my properties!"

Young as I was, I remarked that his manner of speaking was different from
that of any people with whom I had been in the habit of associating. It
was quite as strange as his appearance, and yet it nothing resembled the
foreign English which I had been in the habit of hearing through