t. 'We will join you at the tea-table in an instant, Julia,' said
the Colonel; 'I see that Mr. Sampson wishes to speak to me alone. And now
they are gone, what, in Heaven's name, Mr. Sampson, is the meaning of all
this?'

'It may be a message from Heaven,' said the Dominie, 'but it came by
Beelzebub's postmistress. It was that witch, Meg Merrilies, who should
have been burned with a tar-barrel twenty years since for a harlot,
thief, witch, and gipsy.'

'Are you sure it was she?' said the Colonel with great interest.

'Sure, honoured sir? Of a truth she is one not to be forgotten, the like
o' Meg Merrilies is not to be seen in any land.'

The Colonel paced the room rapidly, cogitating with himself. 'To send out
to apprehend her; but it is too distant to send to Mac-Morlan, and Sir
Robert Hazlewood is a pompous coxcomb; besides, the chance of not finding
her upon the spot, or that the humour of silence that seized her before
may again return. No, I will not, to save being thought a fool, neglect
the course she points out. Many of her class set out by being impostors
and end by becoming enthusiasts, or hold a kind of darkling conduct
between both lines, unconscious almost when they are cheating themselves
or when imposing on others. Well, my course is a plain one at any rate;
and if my efforts are fruitless, it shall not be owing to over-jealousy
of my own character for wisdom.'

With this he rang the bell, and, ordering Barnes into his private
sitting-room, gave him some orders, with the result of which the reader
may be made hereafter acquainted.

We must now take up another adventure, which is also to be woven into the
story of this remarkable day.

Charles Hazlewood had not ventured to make a visit at Woodbourne during
the absence of the Colonel. Indeed, Mannering's whole behaviour had
impressed upon him an opinion that this would be disagreeable; and such
was the ascendency which the successful soldier and accomplished
gentleman had attained over the young man's conduct, that in no respect
would he have ventured to offend him. He saw, or thought he saw, in
Colonel Mannering's general conduct, an approbation of his attachment to
Miss Bertram. But then he saw still more plainly the impropriety of any
attempt at a private correspondence, of which his parents could not be
supposed to approve, and he respected this barrier interposed betwixt
them both on Mannering's account and as he was the liberal and zealous
pro