this
child of Satan, his bowels yearned for him, that he might cast out the
unclean spirit, and deliver him from his spiritual bondage. He
accordingly girded himself to the work, and a great name did he get
throughout the land by this mighty achievement, for the possessed
became docile as a little child before him, and was subsequently a
sort of erratic follower of the party unto which Gilgal was allied;
but he would at times forsake the assemblies of the faithful, when, it
is said, the dark spirit of divination again came over him, and he
would wander among the tombs, showing symptoms of a disordered
intellect, though not of the same violent character as before.

Towards the dwelling of Gilgal Snape did Marian direct her steps; it
was but a short mile from her own. Often had she been a visitant to
the house, where she imbibed the doctrines and instructions of this
sincere and zealous confessor of the faith. She frequently mingled in
the devotions that were there offered up; but her piety was of a more
moderate and amiable cast--less violent and ascetic, not unmixed with
love and pity for her enemies and the persecutors of the truth.

Her object in this visit was not so much to partake of the crumbs from
the good man's spiritual banquet, as to gain some intelligence through
him respecting Egerton's disappearance. She recognised the individuals
who were in pursuit of him to be scouts from the republican leaders,
with whom the divine was in constant communication. Of the real rank
of Egerton she was still ignorant; but she more than suspected his
disguise, and scarcely hesitated to conclude, from the anxiety shown
for his apprehension, that he was of no little importance in the
estimation of his opponents.

Musing and much troubled, by reason of many conflicting emotions, she
took no note of the lapse of time until her arrival at the habitation
of this devout minister of the word. It was built in a sequestered
glen, by a narrow brook near to a couple of black, shapeless, scraggy
firs, whose long lean arms were extended over the roof. A low porch
guarded the door, in which dairy utensils and implements of husbandry
were usually placed. The short casement windows were rendered still
more gloomy, and in places screened from light, by the creeping
woodbine throwing its luxuriant and unrestricted foliage about their
deep recesses. A little wicket admitted the visitor into the court, on
each side of which was a homely garden