‘Ou, the event and upshot of it was, sir,’ said the precentor, ‘that while they were all looking on, beholding a king’s ship chase a smuggler, this Kennedy suddenly brake away frae them without ony reason that could be descried--ropes nor tows wad not hae held him--and made for the wood of Warroch as fast as his beast could carry him; and by the way he met the young Laird and his governor, and he snatched up the bairn, and swure, if HE was bewitched, the bairn should have the same luck as him; and the minister followed as fast as he could, and almaist as fast as them, for he was wonderfully swift of foot, and he saw Meg the witch, or her master in her similitude, rise suddenly out of the ground, and claught the bairn suddenly out of the ganger’s arms; and then he rampauged and drew his sword, for ye ken a fie man and a cusser fearsna the deil.’ ‘I believe that’s very true,’ said the postilion. ‘So, sir, she grippit him, and clodded him like a stane from the sling ower the craigs of Warroch Head, where he was found that evening; but what became of the babe, frankly I cannot say. But he that was minister here then, that’s now in a better place, had an opinion that the bairn was only conveyed to fairy-land for a season.’ The stranger had smiled slightly at some parts of this recital, but ere he could answer the clatter of a horse’s hoofs was heard, and a smart servant, handsomely dressed, with a cockade in his hat, bustled into the kitchen, with ‘Make a little room, good people’; when, observing the stranger, he descended at once into the modest and civil domestic, his hat sunk down by his side, and he put a letter into his master’s hands. ‘The family at Ellangowan, sir, are in great distress, and unable to receive any visits.’ ‘I know it,’ replied his master. ‘And now, madam, if you will have the goodness to allow me to occupy the parlour you mentioned, as you are disappointed of your guests--’ ‘Certainly, sir,’ said Mrs. Mac-Candlish, and hastened to light the way with all the imperative bustle which an active landlady loves to display on such occasions. ‘Young man,’ said the Deacon to the servant, filling a glass, ‘ye’ll no be the waur o’ this, after your ride.’ ‘Not a feather, sir; thank ye, your very good health, sir.’ ‘And wha may your master be, friend?’ ‘What, the gentleman that was here? that’s the famous Colonel Mannering, sir, from the East Indies.’ ‘What, him we read of in the newspapers?’ ‘Ay, ay, just the same. It was he relieved Cuddieburn, and defended Chingalore, and defeated the great Mahratta chief, Ram Jolli Bundleman. I was with him in most of his campaigns.’ ‘Lord safe us,’ said the landlady; ‘I must go see what he would have for supper; that I should set him down here!’ ‘O, he likes that all the better, mother. You never saw a plainer creature in your life than our old Colonel; and yet he has a spice of the devil in him too.’