or may not
bear upon anything he knows. If not, he will interrupt me before I
go far; but if he says nothing I shall take it I have his leave to
continue. Now, sir, on the 16th day of June last, and at six in the
morning--that would be the day of Quatre Bras--"

He paused for me to nod assent, and continued. "At six in the morning
or a little earlier, this woman, Elspeth Mackenzie, came to me at the
Manse in great perturbation. She had walked all the way from Ardlaugh.
It had come to her (she said) that the young Laird abroad was in great
trouble since the previous evening. I asked, 'What trouble? Was it
danger of life, for instance?'--asking it not seriously, but rather
to compose her; for at first I set down her fears to an old woman's
whimsies. Not that I would call Elspeth old precisely--"

Here he broke off and glanced at her; but, perceiving she paid little
attention, went on again at a gallop. "She answered that it was
worse--that the young Laird stood very near disgrace, and (the worst
of all was) at a distance she could not help him. Now, sir, for
reasons I shall hereafter tell you, Mr. Mackenzie's being in disgrace
would have little surprised me; but that she should know of it, he
being in Belgium, was incredible. So I pressed her, and she being
distraught and (I verily believe) in something like anguish, came out
with a most extraordinary story: to wit, that the Laird of Ardlaugh
had in his service, unbeknown to him (but, as she protested, well
known to her), a familiar spirit--or, as we should say commonly, a
'brownie'--which in general served him most faithfully but at times
erratically, having no conscience nor any Christian principle to
direct him. I cautioned her, but she persisted, in a kind of wild
terror, and added that at times the spirit would, in all good faith,
do things which no Christian allowed to be permissible, and further,
that she had profited by such actions. I asked her, 'Was thieving one
of them?' She answered that it was, and indeed the chief.

"Now, this was an admission which gave me some eagerness to hear
more. For to my knowledge there were charges lying against young Mr.
Mackenzie--though not pronounced--which pointed to a thief in his
employment and presumably in his confidence. You will remember, sir,
that when I had the honour of meeting you at Mr. Mackenzie's table, I
took my leave with much abruptness. You remarked upon it, no doubt.
But you will no longer think it strange