Is there ony room at your side, Ronald?
Where fain, fain I wad sleep?”
I was not the only person who had been strained beyond endurance by the excitement of that moment. The patroon had lost his wits. He sprang to the old woman’s side.
“Stop your nonsense, hag.”
Again she threw back her head in that peculiar, dog-like way.
“Haud your tongue, ye auld-faced knight,
Some ill death may ye die!
Father my bairn on whom I will,
I’ll father nane on thee.”
He doubled up his fist and struck her square in the mouth. Like a pack of wolves the troopers fell in with their master’s lead. They began to howl about her. One gripped her by the hair and pulled her down. Two others caught her by the legs to drag her across the terrace. God forgive them, they hardly knew what they did! I was struck with horror, then with surprise. For Louis Van Ramm sprang like a snake upon his master and caught him by the throat.