to the house. The morning was sharp and clear. Seaton felt
the cold and raw atmosphere cling to his frame, already chilled to an
alarming degree; but the excitation he had undergone prevented further
mischief than the temporary inconvenience he then suffered. As they
came nearer the hut his very faculties seemed to escape from his
control. A sense of danger, imminent and almost insupportable, came
upon him. Bewildered, and actuated with that unaccountable but
instinctive desperation which urges on to some inevitable doom, he
rushed wildly into the dwelling. It was not as they had left it.
Several horses were quietly standing by the door; and a party, who had
merely called for the purpose of half-an-hour's rest and refreshment,
were then making preparations to depart. Seaton took one of them
aside, and disclosed the terrible circumstances we have related. By a
judicious but prompt application of their forces they prevented any
one from leaving the house, and were prepared to seize all who should
return thither. A close search soon betrayed the quality and calling
of its inmates. A vast hoard of plunder was discovered, and proofs too
abundant were found that deeds had been there perpetrated of which we
forbear the recital. The old woman was seized; and her capture was
followed by the apprehension of the whole gang, who shortly after met
with the retribution merited by their crimes.

The maniac proved to be a son of the old beldame. At times, the cloud
unhappily clearing from his mental vision had left him for a short
space fearfully cognisant of the transactions he was then doomed to
witness. On that night to which our history refers a sudden
providential gleam of intelligence flashed upon him, and an unknown
impulse prompted his interference in behalf of the unfortunate, and,
as he thought, unsuspecting victims. Ere leaving the country they saw
him comfortably provided for; and, as far as the nature of his malady
would permit, his mind was soothed, and his darkest moments partly
relieved from the horrors which humanity alone could mitigate, but not
prevent.

[15] _Vide_ West's _Antiquities of Furness_.

THE DEMON OF THE WELL.

"Avaunt, thou senseless thing!
Can graven image mimic life, and glare
Its stony eye-balls; grin, make mouths at me?
Go to, it is possessed;--some demon lurks
Within its substance."

Peggy's well, the subject of our engraving, is near the brink