seemed she was gaun to speak, but wanted words, an' made a sign wi' the

left hand. There cam' a clap o' wund, like a cat's fuff; oot gaed the

can'le, the saughs skrieghed like folk; an' Mr. Soulis kenned that, live

or die, this was the end o't.

'Witch, beldame, devil!' he cried, 'I charge you, by the power of God,

begone--if you be dead, to the grave--if you be damned, to hell.'

An' at that moment the Lord's ain hand out o' the Heevens struck the

Horror whaur it stood; the auld, deid, desecrated corp o' the witch-wife,

sae lang keepit frae the grave and hirsled round by deils, lowed up like

a brunstane spunk and fell in ashes to the grund; the thunder followed,

peal on dirling peal, the rairing rain upon the back o' that; and Mr.

Soulis lowped through the garden hedge, and ran, wi' skelloch upon

skelloch, for the clachan.

That same mornin', John Christie saw the Black Man pass the Muckle Cairn

as it was chappin' six; before eicht, he gaed by the change-house at

Knockdow; an' no lang after, Sandy M'Lellan saw him gaun linkin' doun the

braes frae Kilmackerlie. There's little doubt but it was him that

dwalled sae lang in Janet's body; but he was awa' at last; and sinsyne

the deil has never fashed us in Ba'weary.

But it was a sair dispensation for the minister; lang, lang he lay ravin'

in his bed; and frae that hour to this, he was the man ye ken the day.

OLALLA

'Now,' said the doctor, 'my part is done, and, I may say, with some

vanity, well done. It remains only to get you out of this cold and

poisonous city, and to give you two months of a pure air and an easy

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