of the mystic
art, followed Ochiltree in passive acquiescence to the Prior's Oak--a
spot, as the reader may remember, at a short distance from the
ruins, where the German sat down, and silence waited the old man's
communication.

"Maister Dustandsnivel," said the narrator, "it's an unco while since
I heard this business treated anent;--for the lairds of Knockwinnock,
neither Sir Arthur, nor his father, nor his grandfather--and I mind a wee
bit about them a'--liked to hear it spoken about; nor they dinna like
it yet--But nae matter; ye may be sure it was clattered about in the
kitchen, like onything else in a great house, though it were forbidden
in the ha'--and sae I hae heard the circumstance rehearsed by auld
servants in the family; and in thir present days, when things o' that
auld-warld sort arena keepit in mind round winter fire-sides as they
used to be, I question if there's onybody in the country can tell the
tale but mysell--aye out-taken the laird though, for there's a parchment
book about it, as I have heard, in the charter-room at Knockwinnock
Castle."

"Well, all dat is vary well--but get you on with your stories, mine goot
friend," said Dousterswivel.

"Aweel, ye see," continued the mendicant, "this was a job in the auld
times o' rugging and riving through the hale country, when it was ilka
ane for himsell, and God for us a'--when nae man wanted property if he
had strength to take it, or had it langer than he had power to keep it.
It was just he ower her, and she ower him, whichever could win upmost,
a' through the east country here, and nae doubt through the rest o'
Scotland in the self and same manner.

"Sae in these days Sir Richard Wardour came into the land, and that was
the first o' the name ever was in this country. There's been mony o'
them sin' syne; and the maist, like him they ca'd Hell-in-Harness, and
the rest o' them, are sleeping down in yon ruins. They were a proud
dour set o' men, but unco brave, and aye stood up for the weel o' the
country, God sain them a'--there's no muckle popery in that wish. They
ca'd them the Norman Wardours, though they cam frae the south to this
country. So this Sir Richard, that they ca'd Red-hand, drew up wi' the
auld Knockwinnock o' that day--for then they were Knockwinnocks of that
Ilk--and wad fain marry his only daughter, that was to have the castle
and the land. Laith, laith was the lass--(Sybil Knockwinnock they ca'd
her that tauld me the tale)--laith,