an easy sleep, from which he
never awoke.

CHAPTER XXI.

Tale by Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd--Aikwood
Castle--Black Pages in Livery--The Witch Henbane--Imps
demanding Work--Michael Scott--Curious Sport--Dreadful
Threat--Rats transformed into the form of
Men--Inventor of Gunpowder--Witches'
Operations--Summoning Evil Spirits to torture a
Man--Latin the Language best understood by Satan and
his Emissaries--Holy Signs and Charms--Two
Captives--Effects of a Friar's Blessing--Magic
Lantern--Man blown into the Air--Michael Scott's
Sealed and Subscribed Conditions--Imps' Song--Spirits
in the forms of Crows--Dreadful Storm--Warlocks'
Hymn--Eildon Hill.

Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, whose memory will long be remembered in
Scotland, particularly in the Border counties, introduces, in his
_Three Perils of Man_, a party of travellers approaching Aikwood
Castle, about nine miles from Melrose. The edifice scarcely seemed to
be the abode of man. "Is that now to be my residence, Yardbire?" said
the beautiful Delany. "Will you go away, and leave Elias and me in
that frightsome and desolate-looking mansion?" "Thou art in good
hands," said the friar. "But thou art perhaps going into a place of
danger, and evil things may await thee. Here, take thou this, and keep
it in thy bosom; and, by the blessing of the Holy Virgin, it will
shield thee from all malevolent spirits, all enchantments, and all
dangers of the wicked one." As he said this, he put into her hand a
small gilded copy of the four Evangelists, which she kissed and put
into her bosom. All the rest of the company saw the small volume, and
took it for a book of the black art. Close to the castle gate there
appeared three pages in black livery, although a moment before there
was no living creature there. They seemed to have risen out of the
ground. All at once the horses and mules on which the travellers rode
became restive; at this, the elves set up a shout, and skipped about
with the swiftness of lightning. Hearing the noise, the great master
asked his only attendant, Gourlay, "What is the meaning of the
uproar?" "It is only Prim, Prig, and Pricker making sport," replied
the servant.

As soon as the mighty master knew of the friar and his companions
being in the castle, he ordered them to be treated as spies. The old
witch Henbane, who acted as housekeeper, and the three pages, were
called