"What we are now to deliver, my brethren,--hem--hem,--I mean, my good friends,--was not done in a corner, and may serve as an answer to witch-advocates, atheists, and misbelievers of all kinds.--Ye must know that the worshipful Laird of Ellangowan was not so preceese as he might have been in clearing his land of witches (concerning whom it is said, 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live'), nor of those who had familiar spirits, and consulted with divination, and sorcery, and lots, which is the fashion with the Egyptians, as they ca' themsells, and other unhappy bodies, in this our country. And the Laird was three years married without having a family-and he was sae left to himself, that it was thought he held ower muckle troking [*Trafficking] and communing wi' that Meg Merrilies, wha was the maist notorious, witch in a' Galloway and Dumfriesshire baith.""Aweel I wot there's something in that," said Mrs. Mac-Candlish;"I've kenn'd him order her twa' glasses o' brandy in this very house.""Aweel, gudewife, then the less I lee.--Sae the lady was wi' bairn at last, and in the night when she should have been delivered, there comes to the door of the ha' house--the Place of Ellangowan as they ca'd--an ancient man, strangely habited, and asked for quarters. His head, and his legs, and his arms were bare, although it was winter time o' the year, and he had a gray beard three quarters lang. Weel, he was admitted; and when the lady was delivered, he craved to know the very moment of the hour of the birth, and he went out and consulted the stars. And when he came back, he tell'd the Laird, that the Evil One wad have power over the knave-bairn, that was that night born, and he charged him that the babe should be bred up in the ways of piety, and that he should aye hae a godly minister at his elbow, to pray wi' the bairn and for him. And the aged man vanished away, and no man of this country saw mair o' him.""Now, that will not pass," said the postilion, who, at a respectful distance, was listening to the conversation, "begging Mr. Skreigh's and the company's pardon,--there was no sae mony hairs on the warlock's face as there's on Letter-Gae's [*The precentor is called by Allan Ramsay,--"The Letter-Gae of haly rhyme."] ain at this moment; and he had as gude a pair o' boots as a man need streik on his legs, and gloves too;--and I should understand boots by this time, I think.""Whisht, Jock," said the landlady.
"Ay? and what do ye ken o' the matter, friend Jabos?" said the precentor contemptuously.
"No muckle, to be sure, Mr. Skreigh--only that I lived within a penny-stane cast o' the head o' the avenue at Ellangowan, when a man cam jingling to our door that night the young Laird was born, and my mother sent me, that was a hafflin callant, [*Half-grown lad] to show the stranger the gate to the Place, which, if he had been sic a warlock, he might hae kenn'd himself, ane wad think--and he was a young, weel-faured, weel-dressed lad, like an Englishman.
And I tell ye he had as gude a hat, and boots, and gloves, as ony gentleman need to have. To be sure he did gie an awesome glance up at the auld castle--and there was some spae-work gaed on--I aye heard that; but as for his vanishing, I held the stirrup mysell when he gaed away, and he gied me a round half-crown--he was riding on a haick they ca'd Souple Sam--it belanged to the George at Dumfries--it was a blood-bay beast, very ill o' the spavin--Ihae seen the beast baith before and since.""Aweel, aweel, Jock," answered Mr. Skreigh, with a tone of mild solemnity, "our accounts differ in no material particulars; but Ihad no knowledge that ye had seen the man.--So ye see, my friends, that this soothsayer having prognosticated evil to the boy, his father engaged a godly minister to be with him morn and night.""Ay, that was him they ca'd Dominie Sampson," said the postilion.
"He's but a dumb dog that," observed the Deacon; "I have heard that he never could preach five words of a sermon endlang, for as lang as he has been licensed.""Weel, but," said the precentor, waving his hand, as if eager to retrieve the command of the discourse, he waited on the young Laird by night and day. Now, it chanced, when the bairn was near five years auld, that the Laird had a sight of his errors, and determined to put these Egyptians aff his ground; and he caused them to remove; and that Frank Kennedy, that was a rough swearing fellow, he was sent to turn them off. And he cursed and damned at them, and they swure at him; and that Meg Merrilies, that was the maist powerfu' with the Enemy of Mankind, she as gude as said she would have him, body and soul, before three days were ower his head. And I have it from a sure hand, and that's ane wha saw it, and that's John Wilson, that was the laird's groom, that Meg appeared to the Laird as he was riding hame from Singleside, over Gibbie's-know, and threatened him wi' what she wad do to his family; but whether it was Meg, or something waur in her likeness, for it seemed bigger than ony mortal creature, John could not say.""Aweel," said the postilion, "it might be sae--I canna say against it, for I was not in the country at the time; but John Wilson was a blustering kind of chield, without the heart of a sprug."[*Sparrow]
"And what was the end of all this?" said the stranger, with some impatience.