"I think it is not very unlikely that your reverence says," said Sir Ringan, "for he made no great figure in it. Tho' I had always a partiality for him, I had no great faith in his valour. He would rather have cut down a warrior behind his back than before his face any time. He has made mare quake this night wi' his tale than ever he did wi' his weapon. I entreat ye to get on, laird, and let us hear how they made up matters." Made up matters, does my chief say? That was a term no more mentioned between them. They separated but to raise their different forces, and meet again with more fury and effect. The Master spoke to his three pages, and asked if they were resolved to stand firm to his interest? They answered, that they would, till the term of their bondage expired. "Then am I doubly armed!" said the Master, exultingly; "and I will show your tyrant that I can quell his utmost rage. Speed thee, my trusty and nimble spirits; speed to the western and northern spheres, and rouse the slumbering angels of the winds and the waters. Tell them to muster their array, and bear hitherward,--to rear the broad billows of the Atlantic up against the breast of heaven, and to make a bellows of every cloud to gather the winds up behind them. Then bring down the irresistible spirits of the frozen north in ambush,--and who shall stand against their fury! How soon will you execute your commissions?" "Master, I'll ring the surface of the ocean, from the line to the first field of pickled ice, before the hour-glass is half run." "Master, I'll look south on the polar star,--call every whale, sea-monster, and ice-shagged spirit by his name, and return to you before the cock-bittern can boomb his vesper." "And I'll to the moon, And the stars aboon, And rack my invention For the coming contention: And the wind and the weet, And the snow and the sleet, I'll gather and gather, And drive them on hither." With that the three imps departed on their several missions, but not before they had seized me, and bound me to a ring on a turret of the castle. The Master retired into his apartment for some time, but soon came up to the level space on the top of the castle, our old birth, and strode about in the most violent agitation, but appearing rather to be moved by anger and impatience than by dread. At length, he came up to me, and said, "How now, droich? What thinkest thou of all this?" I said nothing, for I durst not answer a word. "Dost thou think," continued he, "that there exists another being, either mortal or immortal, like me, thy master?" I still durst not answer a word; for if I had said _no_, it would have been blasphemy; and if I had said _yes_, it would have provoked him to do me a mischief; so I looked at my bonds, and held my peace.