ang to say either this or that to
influence the public mind; it is best just to let justice tak its swee.
I hae naething to say, sir. Ye hae been a good enough maister to me,
and paid my wages regularly, but ye hae muckle need to be innocent, for
there are some heavy accusations rising against you."

"I fear no accusations of man," said I, "as long as I can justify my
cause in the sight of Heaven; and that I can do this I am well aware.
Go you and bring me some wine and water, and some other clothes than
these gaudy and glaring ones."

I took a cup of wine and water; put on my black clothes and walked out.
For all the perplexity that surrounded me, I felt my spirits
considerably buoyant. It appeared that I was rid of the two greatest
bars to my happiness, by what agency I knew not. My mother, it seemed,
was gone, who had become a grievous thorn in my side of late; and my
great companion and counsellor, who tyrannized over every spontaneous
movement of my heart, had likewise taken himself off. This last was an
unspeakable relief; for I found that for a long season I had only been
able to act by the motions of his mysterious mind and spirit. I
therefore thanked God for my deliverance, and strode through my woods
with a daring and heroic step; with independence in my eye, and freedom
swinging in my right hand.

At the extremity of the Colwan wood, I perceived a figure approaching
me with slow and dignified motion. The moment that I beheld it, my
whole frame received a shock as if the ground on which I walked had
sunk suddenly below me. Yet, at that moment, I knew not who it was; it
was the air and motion of someone that I dreaded, and from whom I would
gladly have escaped; but this I even had not power to attempt. It came
slowly onward, and I advanced as slowly to meet it; yet, when we came
within speech, I still knew not who it was. It bore the figure, air,
and features of my late brother, I thought, exactly; yet in all these
there were traits so forbidding, so mixed with an appearance of misery,
chagrin and despair, that I still shrunk from the view, not knowing in
whose face I looked. But, when the being spoke, both my mental and
bodily frame received another shock more terrible than the first, for
it was the voice of the great personage I had so long denominated my
friend, of whom I had deemed myself for ever freed, and whose presence
and counsels I now dreaded more than Hell. It was his voice, but so
altered--I sha