“Sinuate—What’s that?”
“I mean, What would you infer when you talk of witches? I have some strange doubts about these dogs myself.”
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Yes, if it is worth keeping.”
“At ony rate, swear that if ever you do tell it, it is not to be in English. Nane o’ your awlis’s an’ ations in it. Gale, I hae the maist wonderfu’ story to tell ye that ever happened sin’ Nimrod first gaed out to the hunting wi’ a bull-dog an’ a pouch-fu’ stanes. Ye see, yesterday at morn, when the hunt began, I clamb up into the Eildon tree, an’ haid mysel’ amang the very thickest o’ its leaves, where I could see every thing, but naething could see me. I saw the twa white hounds a’ the gate, but nae appearance of a deer; an’ aye they came nearer an’ nearer to me, till at last I saw a bonny, braw, young lady, a’ clad i’ white, about a hunder paces frae me, an’ she was aye looking back an’ rinning as gin she wantit to be at the Eildon tree. When she saw the hounds comin on hard behind her, she cried out; but they soon o’ertook her, threw her down, an’ tore her, an’ worried her; an’ I heard her makin’ a noise as gin she had been laughin’ ae while an’ singin’ another, an’ O I thought her sang was sweet; it was something about the fairies. Weel, this scene, sae contrair to a’ nature, didna end here, for I heard the tae dog sayin’ to the tither, in plain language,—‘Wha’s this has been the deer to-day?’ An it answered again an’ said, ‘Lady Marrion of Coomsley, ye may see by her goud rings; she is the twenty-third, and our task will soon be dune.’
‘Sister, read me my riddle,’ said the first.
‘I ate my love an’ I drank my love,
An’ my love she gae me light;
An’ the heart o’ the deer may lie right near
Where it lay yesternight.’
‘Ha! that’s nae riddle!’ said the other; ‘little does some wat what they’re to eat an’ what they’re to drink the night! Can ye tell me, sister, if the wicked deed will be done?—Will the king die to-night?
‘The poison’s distill’d, and the monk is won,
And to-night I fear it will be done.
Hush!—hush!—we are heard an’ seen;
Wae be to the ears, and wae be to the een!’