lips; "and gang ye first, and keep
weel to the hill side." Accordingly the boy gave his brother the plaid
and began the ascent. While Philips was knotting his brother's plaid
round his body above his own, a fox peeped out of his hole half way up
the cliff, and thinking flight advisable, dropped down the precipice.
Laughing till the very echoes rang, Philips followed his brother.
Confident in his agility, he ascended with a firm step till he was
within a few yards of the summit. James was now on the top of the
precipice, and looking down on his brother, and not knowing the cause of
his mirth, exclaimed--"Daursay, callant, ye're fey."[I] In a moment the
memory of his last night's vision rushed on Philips Grey's mind, his
eyes became dim, his limbs powerless, he dropped off the very edge of
the giddy precipice, and his form was lost in the black gulf below. For
a few minutes, James felt a sickness of heart which rendered him almost
insensible, and sank down on the grass lest he should fall over the
cliff. At length, gathering strength from very terror, he advanced to
the edge of the cataract and gazed downwards. There, about two-thirds
down the fall, he could perceive the remains of his brother, mangled and
mutilated; the body being firmly wedged between two projecting points of
rock, whereon the descending water streamed, while the bleeding head
hung dangling, and almost separated from the body--and, turned upwards,
discovered to the horrified boy the starting eye-balls of his brother,
already fixed in death, and the teeth clenched in the bitter agony which
had tortured his passing spirit.

[I] "Fey," a Scottish word, expressive of that unaccountable
and violent mirth which is supposed frequently to portend sudden
death.--ED.

It is scarcely necessary to detail the consequences of this cruel
accident. Assistance was procured, and the mangled body conveyed to
the house of Marion's father, whence, a few short hours ago, the young
shepherd had issued in vigour and happiness. When the widowed bride saw
James Grey return to them with horror painted on his features, she
seemed instantly to divine the full extent of her misfortune; she sank
down on the grass, with the unfinished garland of her dead lover in her
hand, and in this state was carried home. For two days she passed from
one fit to another; but on the night of the second day she sank into a
deep sleep. That night, James Grey was watching the corpse of his
brother;