The Black Dwarf

arne the Hunter

ves of W

precarious. There were, however, found many youth of the country ardently attached to this sport, with all its dangers and fatigues. The sword had been sheathed upon the Borders for more than a hundred years, by the peaceful union of the crowns in the reign of James the First of Great Britain. Still the country retained traces of what it had been in former days; the inhabitants, their more peaceful avocations having been repeatedly interrupted by the civil wars of the preceding century, were scarce yet broken in to the habits of regular industry, sheep-farming had not been introduced upon any considerab

extremity of a civil war, but by carrying through an incorporating union. How that treaty was managed, and how little it seemed for some time to promise the beneficial results which have since taken place to such extent, may be learned from the history of the period. It is enough for our purpose to say, that all Scotland was indignant at the terms on which their legislature had surrendered their national independence. The general resentment led to the strangest leagues and to the wildest plans. The Cameronians were about to take arms for the restoration of the house of Stewart, whom they regarded

d it not happened near a spot, which, according to the traditions of the country, was in extremely bad fame, as haunted by supernatural appearances. To tales of this kind Hobbie had, from his childhood, lent an attentive ear; and as no part of the country afforded such a variety of legends, so no man was more deeply read in their fearful lore than Hobbie of t

e with a supplementary legend of her own, which now came full upon Hobbie's memory. The ground about the pillar was strewed, or rather encumbered, with many large fragments of stone of the same consistence with the column, which, from their appearance as they lay scattered on the waste, were popularly called the Grey Geese of Mucklestane-Moor. The legend accounted for this name and appearance by the catastrophe of a noted

es and pools of water, scattered in every direction, to plunge into the element in which they delighted. Incensed at the obstinacy with which they defied all her efforts to collect them, and not remembering the precise terms of the contract by which the fiend was bound to obey her commands for a certain space, the sorceress exclaimed, "Deevil, that neither I nor they ever stir from this spot more!" The words were hardly uttered, when, by a metamorphosis as sudden as any in Ovid, the hag and her refractory flock were converted into stone, the angel whom she served, being a strict formalist, grasping eagerly a

panions of the witch's diabolical revels, and now continuing to rendezvous upon the same spot, as if still in attendance on their transformed mistress. Hobbie's natural hardihood, however, manfully combated with these intrusive sensations of awe. He summoned to his side the brace of large greyhounds, who were

tune in that remote country, and who had been abroad on the same errand with himself. Young Earnscliff, "of that ilk," had lately come of age, and succeeded to a moderate fortune, a good deal dilapidated, from the share his f

honour ony gate, and company's blithe on a bare moor like t

Earnscliff, returning his greeting. "But

pting three red-wud raes, that never let me within shot of them, though I gaed a mile round to get up the wind to them, an' a'. Deil o' me wad care muckle, only I wanted some venison to our au

sent him to Earnscliff this morning - you s

es frae you - and maist of a' gin ye'll come up and take your share, for I reckon ye are lonesome now in the auld tower, and a' your folk at that weary Edi

in Edinburgh for several years," said Earnscliff; "b

the Laird o' Earnscliff should? I can tell ye, my mother - my grandmother I mean - but, since we lost our ain mother, we ca

come to the Heugh-foot to din

e were nae kin - and my gude-dame's fain to see you - s

a word about that - it's

ill we got some mends for't - but ye ken your ain ways best, you lairds - I have heard say

oned by wine and politics - many swords were draw

d say it was wrang, for your father's blood is beneath his nails - and besides there's naebody else left that was concerned to tak

stir your friend up to break the law, and take vengeance at his own hand, and

them - But I can guess a wee bit what keeps your hand up, Mr. Patrick; we a' ken it's no lack

d it is extremely wrong of you, either to think of, or to utter, such an idea; I have no idea

troth, he kens naething about thae newfangled notions o' peace and quietness - he's a' for the auld-warld doings o' lifting and laying on, and he has a wheen stout lads at his back too, and keeps them weel up in heart, and as fu' o' mischief as young colts. Where he gets the gear to do't n

l advised, I shall try to make the old tower good against him, as it

this be sae, if ye'll just gar your servant jow out the great bell in the tower, there's me, and my twa brother

"but I hope we shall have no war of so unn

would make allowances for it in this uncuItivated place - it's just the nature o' the folk and

you do in supernatural appearances, I must own you take Heaven in y

a sort o' worricows and lang-nebbit things about the land, but what need I care for them? I hae a good conscience, and little to answer for, unless it

oke, and Willie of Winton whom you sh

a thing settled in a peaceable way; and then I am friends wi' Willie again, puir chield - it was but twa or three hail draps after a'. I wad let onybody do the like

ung Earnscliff, "for there st

ld carline hersell was to get up out o' the grund just before us here, I w