my behalf, such a consummation of my hard adventures is now
not unlikely. But as a soldier I must look with some interest upon that
worm-eaten hold of ragged stone; and if this undermining scoundrel who is
now in possession dare to displace a pebble of it--'

He was here interrupted by Dinmont, who came hastily after them up the
road, unseen till he was near the party: 'Captain, Captain! ye're wanted.
Ye're wanted by her ye ken o'.'

And immediately Meg Merrilies, as if emerging out of the earth, ascended
from the hollow way and stood before them. 'I sought ye at the house,'
she said, 'and found but him (pointing to Dinmont). But ye are right, and
I was wrang; it is HERE we should meet, on this very spot, where my eyes
last saw your father. Remember your promise and follow me.'

CHAPTER XXIV
To hail the king in seemly sort
The ladie was full fain,
But King Arthur, all sore amazed,
No answer made again
'What wight art thou,' the ladie said,
'That will not speak to me?
Sir, I may chance to ease thy pain,
Though I be foul to see'

The Marriage of Sir Gawaine.

The fairy bride of Sir Gawaine, while under the influence of the spell of
her wicked step-mother, was more decrepit probably, and what is commonly
called more ugly, than Meg Merrilies; but I doubt if she possessed that
wild sublimity which an excited imagination communicated to features
marked and expressive in their own peculiar character, and to the
gestures of a form which, her sex considered, might be termed gigantic.
Accordingly, the Knights of the Round Table did not recoil with more
terror from the apparition of the loathly lady placed between 'an oak and
a green holly,' than Lucy Bertram and Julia Mannering did from the
appearance of this Galwegian sibyl upon the common of Ellangowan.

'For God's sake,' said Julia, pulling out her purse, 'give that dreadful
woman something and bid her go away.'

'I cannot,' said Bertram; 'I must not offend her.'

'What keeps you here?' said Meg, exalting the harsh and rough tones of
her hollow voice. 'Why do you not follow? Must your hour call you twice?
Do you remember your oath? "Were it at kirk or market, wedding or
burial,"'--and she held high her skinny forefinger in a menacing
attitude.

Bertram--turned round to his terrified companions. 'Excuse me for a
moment; I am engaged by a promise to follow this woman.'

'Good Heavens! engaged to a