FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175  
176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   >>   >|  
e gotten--that burnt feathers and asafoetida, fair water, and hartshorn, might be procured, all at once, and without one instant's delay. Archibald, more calm and considerate, only desired the carriage to push forward; and it was not till they had got beyond sight of the fatal spectacle, that, seeing the deadly paleness of Jeanie's countenance, he stopped the carriage, and jumping out himself, went in search of the most obvious and most easily procured of Mrs. Dutton's pharmacopoeia--a draught, namely, of fair water. While Archibald was absent on this good-natured piece of service, damning the ditches which produced nothing but mud, and thinking upon the thousand bubbling springlets of his own mountains, the attendants on the execution began to pass the stationary vehicle in their way back to Carlisle. From their half-heard and half-understood words, Jeanie, whose attention was involuntarily rivetted by them, as that of children is by ghost stories, though they know the pain with which they will afterwards remember them, Jeanie, I say, could discern that the present victim of the law had died game, as it is termed by those unfortunates; that is, sullen, reckless, and impenitent, neither fearing God nor regarding man. "A sture woife, and a dour," said one Cumbrian peasant, as he clattered by in his wooden brogues, with a noise like the trampling of a dray-horse. "She has gone to ho master, with ho's name in her mouth," said another; "Shame the country should be harried wi' Scotch witches and Scotch bitches this gate--but I say hang and drown." "Ay, ay, Gaffer Tramp, take awa yealdon, take awa low--hang the witch, and there will be less scathe amang us; mine owsen hae been reckan this towmont." "And mine bairns hae been crining too, mon," replied his neighbour. "Silence wi' your fule tongues, ye churls," said an old woman, who hobbled past them, as they stood talking near the carriage; "this was nae witch, but a bluidy-fingered thief and murderess." "Ay? was it e'en sae, Dame Hinchup?" said one in a civil tone, and stepping out of his place to let the old woman pass along the footpath--"Nay, you know best, sure--but at ony rate, we hae but tint a Scot of her, and that's a thing better lost than found." The old woman passed on without making any answer. "Ay, ay, neighbour," said Gaffer Tramp, "seest thou how one witch will speak for t'other--Scots or English, the same to them." His companion shook h
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175  
176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
carriage
 

Jeanie

 

Gaffer

 

Scotch

 

neighbour

 

Archibald

 

procured

 

scathe

 

making

 
reckan

towmont

 

answer

 

yealdon

 

country

 

harried

 

companion

 

witches

 
English
 
bitches
 
master

crining

 

Hinchup

 

murderess

 

bluidy

 

fingered

 

footpath

 

stepping

 

tongues

 
Silence
 

replied


passed
 
churls
 

talking

 
hobbled
 
bairns
 
unfortunates
 

Dutton

 

pharmacopoeia

 
draught
 
easily

obvious
 

jumping

 

stopped

 
search
 
absent
 

thinking

 

thousand

 

bubbling

 

produced

 

natured