"No, sir; but—"
"Then he is kidnapped!. I am sure of it, Andrew as sure as that I tread upon earth! She has stolen him—and I will never stir from this place till I have tidings of my bairn!"
"Oh, but ye maun come hame, sir! ye maun come hame!-We have sent for the Sheriff, and we'll set a watch here a' night, in case the gipsies return; but you—ye maun come hame, sir,—for my lady's in the dead-thraw." [*Death-agony.]
Bertram turned a stupefied and unmeaning eye on the messenger who uttered this calamitous news; and, repeating the words, "in the dead-thraw!" as if he could not comprehend their meaning, suffered the old man to drag him towards his horse. During the ride home, he only said, "Wife and bairn, baith—mother and son, baith—Sair, sair to abide!"
It is needless to dwell upon the new scene of agony which awaited him. The news of Kennedy's fate had been eagerly and incautiously communicated at Ellangowan, with the gratuitous addition, that, doubtless, "he had drawn the Young Laird over the craig with him, though the tide had swept away the child's body—he was light, puir thing, and would flee farther into the surf."
Mrs. Bertram heard the tidings; she was far advanced in her pregnancy; she fell into the pains of premature labour, and, ere Ellangowan had recovered his agitated faculties, so as to comprehend the full distress of his situation, he was the father of a female infant, and a widower.
CHAPTER X.
But see, his face is black, and full of blood; His eye-balls farther out than when he lived, Staring full ghastly like a strangled man; His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretch'd with struggling, His hands abroad display'd, as one that gasp'd And tugg'd for life, and was by strength subdued.
Henry IV. Part I
THE Sheriff-depute of the county arrived at Ellangowan next morning by daybreak. To this provincial magistrate the law of Scotland assigns judicial powers of considerable extent, and the task of inquiring into all crimes committed within his jurisdiction, the apprehension and commitment of suspected persons, and so forth. [* The Scottish Sheriff discharges, on such occasions as that now mentioned, pretty much the same duty as a Coroner.]