When Gudgel had heard all this, he seized the first opportunity of taking Pery aside, and proposed to her, for the sake of her own preservation, instantly to change the clown again; “And, as it is all one to you,” said he, “suppose you make him a little fatter—if you do so, I shall keep your secret—if you do not, you may stand by the consequences.”
Pery bade him, “Look to himself,—keep the secret, or not keep it, as he chose;—there were some others, who should be nameless, that were as well worth changing as Croudy.”
Gudgel’s peril appeared to him now so obvious, and the consequences so horrible, that his whole frame became paralysed from head to foot. In proportion with his delight in killing and eating the fat things of the earth, did his mind revolt at being killed and eaten himself; and when he thought of what he had just witnessed, he little wist how soon it might be his fate. He rode away from Eildon-Hall a great deal more hungry and more miserable than he came. The tale, however, soon spread, with many aggravations; and the ill-starred Pery was taken up for a witch, examined, and committed to prison in order to stand her trial; and in the mean time the evidences against her were collected.
CHAPTER V.
The Keylan Rowe.
An’ round, an’ round, an’ seven times round,
An’ round about the Eildon tree!
For there the ground is fairy ground,
And the dark green ring is on the lea.
The prayers were pray’d, and the masses said,
And the waning Moon was rising slow;
And ane dame sits at the Eildon-tree,
Whose cheike is pale as April snow.
Ane cross is claspit in her hand,
Ane other lyis on her breiste bone;
And the glaize of feire is on her ee,
As she looks to the Eildon-stone.
And aye she sung her holy hymn;
It was made to charm the elfin band,
And lure the little wilderit things,
Whose dwelling is in Fairy-land.