ter, and all the elders of the Kirk, under whose
superintendence an investigation was immediately commenced. Their
proceedings were not promulgated for some days; and, in the mean time,
rumour continued to travel through all the Highlands, magnifying each
mysterious incident the farther it got from home. It was said, that when
the goodwife put her potato-pot on the fire, each potato, as the water
boiled, changed into a demon, and grinned horribly at her as she lifted
the lid; that not only chairs and tables, but carrots and turnips, skipped
along the floor in the merriest manner imaginable; that shoes and boots
went through all the evolutions of the Highland fling without any visible
wearers directing their motions; and that a piece of meat detached itself
from the hook on which it hung in the pantry, and placed itself before the
fire, whence all the efforts of the people of the house were unable to
remove it until it was thoroughly roasted; and that it then flew up the
chimney with a tremendous bang. At Baldarroch itself the belief was not
quite so extravagant; but the farmer was so convinced that the devil and
his imps were alone the cause of all the disturbance, that he travelled a
distance of forty miles to an old conjuror, named Willie Foreman, to
induce him, for a handsome fee, to remove the enchantment from his
property. There were, of course, some sensible and educated people, who,
after stripping the stories circulated of their exaggeration, attributed
all the rest to one or other of two causes; first, that some gipsies, or
strolling mendicants, hidden in the neighbouring plantation, were amusing
themselves by working on the credulity of the country people; or,
secondly, that the inmates of Baldarroch carried on this deception
themselves, for some reason or other, which was not very clear to any
body. The last opinion gained but few believers, as the farmer and his
family were much respected; and so many persons had, in the most open
manner, expressed their belief in the supernatural agency, that they did
not like to stultify themselves by confessing that they had been deceived.

At last, after a fortnight's continuance of the noises, the whole trick
was discovered. The two servant lasses were strictly examined, and then
committed to prison. It appeared that they were alone at the bottom of the
whole affair, and that the extraordinary alarm and credulity of their
master and mistress, in the first instance, and of