murdered bairn,
And near the thorn, aboon the well,
Where Mungo's mither hanged hersel',
When glimmering through the groaning trees,
Kirk Alloway seemed in a bleeze.'

I almost shuddered as I said to myself, 'What if there be lights
glimmering from the frameless windows of the ruined chapel? or what if old
Mawsie's windows be "in a bleeze"?'

Tall, ghostly-looking elder-trees grew round the old manse, which people
had told me always kept moving, even when no breath of wind was blowing.

If I had shuddered before, my heart stood still now with a nameless dread,
for sure enough, from both the 'butt' and the 'ben' of the so-called
witch's cottage lights were glancing.

What could it mean? She was too old to have company, almost an invalid,
with age alone and its attendant infirmities--so, at least, people said.
But it had also been rumoured lately that Mawsie was up to doings which
were far from canny, that lights had been seen flitting about the old
churchyard and ruin, and that something was sure to happen. Nobody in the
parish could have been found hardy enough to cross the glen-foot where
Mawsie lived long after dark. Well, had I thought of all this before, it
is possible that I might have given her house a wide berth. It was now too
late. I felt like one in a dream, impelled forward towards the cottage. I
seemed to be walking on the air as I advanced.

To get to the windows, however, I must cross the graveyard yard and the
ruin. This last was partly covered with tall rank ivy, and, hearing sounds
inside, and seeing the glimmer of lanterns, I hid in the old porch, quite
shaded by the greenery.

From my concealment I could notice that men were at work in a vault or pit
on the floor of the old chapel, from which earth and rubbish were being
dislodged, while another figure--not that of a workman--was bending over
and addressing them in English. It was evident, therefore, those people
below were not Highlanders, for in the face of the man who spoke I was
able at a glance to distinguish the hard-set lineaments of the villain
Duncan M'Rae. This man had been everything in his time--soldier,
school-teacher, poacher, thief. He was abhorred by his own clan, and
feared by every one. Even the school children, if they met him on the
road, would run back to avoid him.

Duncan had only recently come back to the glen after an absence of years,
and every one said his pres