nd wishes." By which I discernt, that he had purposely
egget her on to urge her gudeman to take the moors for the advantage of
me.

"O, aye," replied the miller; "I could na but be consenting, poor queen,
to lighten her anxieties; and though for a season," he added, in a way
that I well understood, "the eyes above may be closed in slumber, a
watch will be set to gi'e the signal when it's time to be up and ready;
therefore let us go into the house, and cause no further molestation
here."

The three then retired, and, comforted by the words of this friendly
mystery, I confided myself to the care of the defenceless sleeper's
ever-wakeful Sentinel, and for several hours enjoyed a refreshing
oblivion from all my troubles and fears.

Considering the fatigue I had undergone for so many days and nights
together, my slumber might have been prolonged perhaps till morning, but
the worthy miller, who withstood the urgency of his terrified wife to
depart till he thought I was rested, soon after the moon rose came into
the mill and wakened me to make ready for the road. So I left my couch
in the loft, and came down to him; and he conducted me a little way from
the house, where, bidding me wait, he went back, and speedily returned
with a small basket in his hand of the stores which the mistress had
provided for himself.

Having put the handle into my hand, he led me down to a steep shoulder
of a precipice nigh the sea-shore, where, telling me to follow the path
along the bottom of the hills, he shook me with a brotherly affection by
the hand, and bade me farewell,--saying, in a jocose manner, to lighten
the heaviness with which he saw my spirit was oppressed,--that the
gudewife would make baith him and Johnnie Jamieson suffer in the body
for the fright she had gotten. "For ye should ken," said he, "that the
terror she was in was a' bred o' Johnnie's pawkerie. He knew that she
was aye in a dread that I would be laid hands on ever since I signed the
remonstrance to the laird; and Johnnie thought, that if he could get her
to send me out provided for the hills, we would find a way to make the
provision yours. So, Gude be wi' you, and dinna be overly downhearted,
when ye see how wonderfully ye are ta'en care o'."

Being thus cherished, cheered, and exhorted, by the worthy miller of
Inverkip, I went on my way with a sense of renewed hope dawning upon my
heart. The night was frosty, but clear, and the rippling of the sea
glittered as w