ext year the
countess herself was delivered of more sons at a birth than the lady
had brought forth. Touched with remorse for the hard saying she had
uttered against her neighbour, she concluded it was a just punishment
inflicted; but being anxious to conceal the most extraordinary result,
she sent a maid to drown all the children except one--a son--to heir
his father's estate. Fate so determined that her husband, the earl,
met the young woman as she was going to consign the young inoffensive
infants to a watery grave. On asking what was in her lap, she answered
that she was going to drown some whelps. The earl being a great
hunter, and consequently fond of dogs, demanded to see the whelps,
that he might judge whether they should be destroyed. To his
astonishment, he found children in place of young dogs, all living,
well-proportioned, and beautiful, but small. From the maid he learned
the whole truth; whereupon he enjoined her to silence, and caused the
infants to be carried to one of his tenants to be brought up. When
they became of age, they were sent for to his house, after being
dressed like their brother, who had been cared for by the mother. As
soon as the countess cast her eyes on her offspring she knew them,
and wept in a state between shame and joy. From those children
descended the family of the Whelphs or Guelphs, long renowned in
Germany.

An interesting legend is current in the north of Scotland, of a curse
being turned into a blessing. It is said that Lochmore Castle, in the
parish of Halkirk and county of Caithness, was built and inhabited by
a person called Morrar-na-Shean, which signifies, Lord of the Game or
Venison, because he was a great sportsman. He was very anxious to have
a son to inherit his estates, but his hopes in this respect were
blasted by the curse of a wandering gipsy. It appears that the gipsy
was one day near Lochmore Castle, with a pretty little dark-haired
swarthy-complexioned boy, her son, when she encountered
Morrar-na-Shean in a towering passion--a state of mind in which he was
often to be found. He ordered her and her "beggar bastard brat" to be
off, or he would shoot them. The woman, instead of running away with
her child or imploring mercy, knelt down and cursed him, and praying
at the same time that he might never have an heir to carry down his
name to posterity. However far the fortunes of Morrar-na-Shean's
family were affected by the gipsy's curses and prayers, it is
impo