By the time she came to these last words, Ellinor’s fears had so much overpowered her, that she cried and sobbed continually, repeating--“What will be done now! What will be done! They’ll surely be the death of you, whatever you do.” As to me, the urgency of the danger wakened my faculties: I rose instantly, wrote a note to Mr. M’Leod, desiring to see him immediately on particular business. Lest my note should by any accident be intercepted or opened, I couched it in the most general and guarded terms; and added a request, that he would bring his last settlement of accounts with him; so that it was natural to suppose my business with him was of a pecuniary nature. I gradually quieted poor Ellinor by my own appearance of composure: I assured her, that we should take our measures so as to prevent all mischief--thanked her for the timely warning she had given me--advised her to go home before she was observed, and charged her not to speak to any one this day of what had happened. I desired that as soon as she should see Mr. M’Leod coming through the gate, she would send Christy after him to the castle, to get his bill paid; so that I might then, without exciting suspicion, talk to him in private, and we might learn from his own lips the particulars of what he saw and heard in the cavern. Ellinor returned home, promising to obey me exactly, especially as to my injunction of secrecy--to make sure of herself she said “she would go to bed straight, and have the rheumatism very bad all day; so as not to be in a way to talk to none who would call in.” The note to M’Leod was despatched by one of my grooms, and I, returning to bed, was now left at full leisure to finish my morning’s nap. Joe Kelly presented himself at the usual hour in my room; I turned my head away from him, and, in a sleepy tone, muttered that I had passed a bad night, and should breakfast in my own apartment. Some time afterwards Mr. M’Leod arrived, with an air of sturdy pride, and produced his accounts, of which I suffered him to talk, till the servant who waited upon us had left the room; I then explained the real cause of my sending for him so suddenly. I was rather vexed, that I could not produce in him, by my wonderful narrative, any visible signs of agitation or astonishment. He calmly observed--“We are lucky to have so many hours of daylight before us. The first thing we have to do is to keep the old woman from talking.” I answered for Ellinor. “Then the next thing is for me, who am a magistrate, to take the examinations of her son, and see if he will swear to the same that he says.”