ret, they were severed in secret--They drank of the
fountains of their ain deceit."

"No, wretched beldam!" exclaimed Oldbuck, who could keep silence
no longer, "they drank the poison that you and your wicked mistress
prepared for them."

"Ha, ha!" she replied, "I aye thought it would come to this. It's but
sitting silent when they examine me--there's nae torture in our days;
and if there is, let them rend me!--It's ill o' the vassal's mouth that
betrays the bread it eats."

"Speak to her, Edie," said the Antiquary; "she knows your voice, and
answers to it most readily."

"We shall mak naething mair out o' her," said Ochiltree. "When she has
clinkit hersell down that way, and faulded her arms, she winna speak a
word, they say, for weeks thegither. And besides, to my thinking, her
face is sair changed since we cam in. However, I'se try her ance mair
to satisfy your honour.--So ye canna keep in mind, cummer, that your auld
mistress, the Countess Joscelin, has been removed?"

"Removed!" she exclaimed; for that name never failed to produce its
usual effect upon her; "then we maun a' follow--a' maun ride when she is
in the saddle. Tell them to let Lord Geraldin ken we're on before them.
Bring my hood and scarf--ye wadna hae me gang in the carriage wi' my
leddy, and my hair in this fashion?"

She raised her shrivelled arms, and seemed busied like a woman who puts
on her cloak to go abroad, then dropped them slowly and stiffly; and the
same idea of a journey still floating apparently through her head, she
proceeded, in a hurried and interrupted manner,--"Call Miss Neville--What
do you mean by Lady Geraldin? I said Eveline Neville, not Lady Geraldin--
there's no Lady Geraldin; tell her that, and bid her change her
wet gown, and no' look sae pale. Bairn! what should she do wi' a
bairn?--maidens hae nane, I trow.--Teresa--Teresa--my lady calls us!--Bring
a candle;--the grand staircase is as mirk as a Yule midnight--We are
coming, my lady!"--With these words she sunk back on the settle, and from
thence sidelong to the floor. *

* Note I. Elspeth's death.

Edie ran to support her, but hardly got her in his arms, before he said,
"It's a' ower--she has passed away even with that last word."

"Impossible," said Oldbuck, hastily advancing, as did his nephew. But
nothing was more certain. She had expired with the last hurried word
that left her lips; and all that remained before them were the mortal
relics of the creature wh