near Ballochgray to ask his awmous.

"I winna gang near that fearfu place, Geordie!" again cried Marion. "What
hae ye, a puir hind, to do wi' the Baron o' Ballochgray? Turn, for the sake
o' heaven!--turn frae that living grave o' dry banes, an' the weary goul
that sits jabbering owre them, by their ain light!"

Her companion again smiled; and the man dashed up the avenue, and never
stopped till he came to the gate of the castle--over which there were
placed two human shank-bones of great length, that were said to have
sustained the body of the Baron of Balwearie--that prince of the black art,
and the most cunning necromancer that ever drew a circle. The carriage
stopped; and two servants, dressed in red doublets, (like garments of
fire,) slashed with black, waited at the carriage door, with flambeaux in
their hands, to shew the couple into the hall. Out sprang the male first,
and then Marion Webster was handed, with great state, and led into the
interior of the old castle. She was led direct into the hall, which was
lighted up in a very fanciful manner, by means of many skulls arranged
round the room, and through the eyes and jaws of which lurid lights
streamed all around. Marion was filled with terror as she cast her eyes on
these shining monuments of mortality; and had, in her fear, scarcely
noticed a man in black, sitting at the end of the room, poring over a
black-lettered manuscript.

"Marion Webster," now said her travelling companion, "behold in your old
lover of the Ballochgray Wood the Baron of Ballochgray!"

A scream burst from the choking throat of the terrified damsel, and rung
through the old hall.

"Come, love," he continued, "abate thy terrors. My fame is worse than my
real character. I have wooed thee for reasons known to myself, and to be
known soon to thee. Thou didst love Geordie Dempster; and thy love was weak
indeed, if it is to be scared by brainless tongues or tongueless skulls.
Wilt thou consent to be the lady of the Baron of Ballochgray?"

"Geordie! Geordie!" cried the wondering, and yet loving maiden, "if I would
willingly wed thee in the grave, wi' death himsel for oor priest, shall I
refuse to be yours in a castle o' the livin, filled though it be wi' thae
signs o' mortality?"

"Come forth, Father Anthony!" cried the Baron, "and join us by the rules
and bands of holy kirk!"

The man in black lifted up his head from the black-letter page; and, having
called his witnesses, went through