After a little time Lucy Bertram and Miss Mannering became fast friends, but the latter was careful never to say anything to her new companion about her lover, Captain Brown.
Now, Brown, when he found that Julia Mannering had gone to
Woodbourne, determined to follow her, with the purpose of resuming
his addresses, and he accordingly set out on foot towards the
North.
It was a fine clear frosty winter's day when he found himself in the wilds of Cumberland on his way to his destination in Scotland. He had walked for some distance, when he stopped at a small public-house to procure refreshment. He here fell in with a farmer named Dandie Dinmont, a big, rollicking fellow, with an honest face and kindly ways, with whom he became friends in a very little time.
There was another person, however, in the inn on whom Brown could not avoid repeatedly fixing his eyes—a tall, witch-like woman. It was Meg Merrilies the gipsy; but time had grizzled her raven locks, and added many wrinkles to her wild features. As he looked at her, he could not help saying to himself: "Have I dreamed of such a figure?"
As he was asking himself the question, the gipsy suddenly made two strides towards him and seized his hand, at the same time saying to him:
"In God's name, young man, tell me your name, and whence you come!"
"My name is Brown, mother, and I come from the East Indies," he answered.
On hearing his answer she dropped his hand with a sigh, and said:
"It cannot be, then—it cannot be; but be what ye will, ye have a face and a tongue that puts me in mind of old times." As Brown took his departure on foot, the gipsy looked after him and muttered to herself: "I maun [Footnote: I must.] see that lad again."
The traveller had gone a considerable distance across the lonely moorland through which his road lay, when his little dog Wasp began to bark furiously at something in front of them. Brown quickened his pace, and soon caught sight of the subject of the terrier's alarm. In a hollow, a little below him, was his late companion Dandie Dinmont, engaged with two other men in a desperate struggle. In a moment Brown, who was both strong and active, came to the rescue; and, after a short fight, the two would-be murderers of the farmer were flying for their own lives across the heath, pursued by Wasp. Dinmont then took his friend upon his pony, and they succeeded after some time in reaching Charlie's Hope, the farmer's home, where they were welcomed by his wife and a large troop of children.