g my actions for murder and
conspiracy. Let them choose.

"Hear what I have determined concerning them. The woman Catanach shall
take to her cottage the woman Caley. That cottage they shall have rent
free: who could receive money from such hands? I will appoint them also
a sufficiency for life and maintenance, bare indeed, for I would not
have them comfortable. But they shall be free to work if they can find
any to employ them. If, however, either shall go beyond the bounds I set
she shall be followed the moment she is missed, and that with a warrant
for her apprehension. And I beg all honest people to keep an eye upon
them. According as they live shall their life be. If they come to
repentance, they will bless the day I resolved upon such severe measures
on their behalf. Let them go to their place."

I will not try to describe the devilish look, mingled of contempt and
hate, that possessed the countenance of the midwife as, with head erect
and eyes looking straight before her, she obeyed the command. Caley,
white as death, trembled and tottered, nor dared once look up as she
followed her companion to their appointed hell. Whether they made it
pleasant for each other my reader may debate with himself. Before many
months had gone by, stared at and shunned by all, even by Miss Horn's
Jean, driven back upon her own memories, and the pictures that rose out
of them, and deprived of every chance of indulging her dominant passion
for mischievous influence, the midwife's face told such a different tale
that the schoolmaster began to cherish a feeble hope that within a few
years Mrs. Catanach might get so far as to begin to suspect that she was
a sinner--that she had actually done things she ought not to have done.
One of those things that same night Malcolm heard from the lips of
Duncan--a tale of horror and dismay. Not until then did he know, after
all he knew concerning her, what the woman was capable of.

At his own entreaty, Duncan was formally recognized as piper to the
marquis of Lossie. His ambition reached no higher. Malcolm himself saw
to his perfect equipment, heedful specially that his kilt and plaid
should be of Duncan's own tartan of red and blue and green. His dirk and
broadsword he had new sheathed, with silver mountings. A great silver
brooch with a big cairngorm in the centre took the place of the brass
one, which henceforth was laid up among the precious things in the
little armory, and the badge of his clan