close under Ginevra's
window. Both these fell into the Lorrie. Between them the mountain
sloped gently up for some little distance, clothed with forest. On
the side of the smaller burn, however, the side opposite the house,
the ground rose abruptly. There also grew firs, but the soil was
shallow, with rock immediately below, and they had not come to much.
Straight from the mountain, between the two streams, Gibbie
approached the house, through larches and pines, raving and roaring
in the wind. As he drew nearer, and saw how high the house stood
above the valley and its waters, he began to think he had been
foolish in coming there to find work; but when he reached a certain
point whence the approach from the gate was visible, he started,
stopped and stared. He rubbed his eyes. No; he was not asleep and
dreaming by the cottage fire; the wind was about him, and the firs
were howling and hissing; there was the cloudy mountain, with the
Glashburn, fifty times its usual size, darting like brown lightning
from it; but where was the iron gate with its two stone pillars,
crested with wolf's-heads? where was the bridge? where was the wall,
and the gravelled road to the house? Had he mistaken his bearings?
was he looking in a wrong direction? Below him was a wide, swift,
fiercely rushing river, where water was none before! No; he made no
mistake: there was the rest of the road, the end of it next the
house! That was a great piece of it that fell frothing into the
river and vanished! Bridge and gate and wall were gone utterly.
The burn had swallowed them, and now, foaming with madness, was
roaring along, a great way within the grounds, and rapidly drawing
nearer to the house, tearing to pieces and devouring all that
defended it. There! what a mouthful of the shrubbery it gobbled up!
Slowly, graciously, the tall trees bowed their heads and sank into
the torrent, but the moment they touched it, shot away like arrows.
Would the foundations of the house outstand it? Were they as
strong as the walls of Babylon, yet if the water undermined them,
down they must! Did the laird know that the enemy was within his
gates? Not with all he had that day seen and gone through, had
Gibbie until now gathered any notion of the force of rushing water.

Rousing himself from his bewildered amazement, he darted down the
hill. If the other burn was behaving in like fashion, then indeed
the fate of the house was sealed. But no; huge