"Just sae; and he wham you would hang on the wuddy will stand up against ye, and swear ye were the cause o' the death o' his braw leddie, for that ye concealed her trothlessness, and winked at her wickedness." "Haud your tongue, cummer," cried the Old Light Sinner; "haud your tongue, or you'll drive me mad. Is my heart no like aneugh to brak its strings, but ye maun tug at them? Is my brain no het aneugh, but ye maun set lowe to it, and burn it? And my conscience, ken ye na what it is to hae that terrible thing within ye, when it's waukened up like a fiend o' hell, chasing ye wi' a red-het brand, and nae escape, for the angel o' the Lord hauds ye agen? Ann Hall, my auldest friend, will ye do this thing for me?" "What is it?" "Gang to Mr B----, the fiscal, and tell him that the corpse is there, and that the man is here, and say naething o' me; do this, or I'll never haud up my hands again for grace and mercy." Ann was silent, only driving the wheel, the sound of which in the silent house--dark enough, too, in the small light of the oil cruise over the fireplace--was all that was heard, save the occasional sobs of the unhappy victim of conscience. "I canna, Christian; I canna, lass. I'll hang nae man for the death o' a light-o'-love limmer, and to save the conscience o' ane wha, if she didna see something wrang when it _was_ wrang, ought to hae seen it." "I repent and am sair in the spirit," replied Christian; "but if I had tauld him what I suspected was wrang between Spynie--and ye ken he was a lord, and titles cast glamour ower the een o' maidens--and my mistress, it would hae been a' the same. But wae's me!" she added, as she sighed from the depths of the heart, and wrung her hands, "I had a lichtness about me myself. A woman's no in her ain keeping at wild happy nineteen. The heart is aye jumping against the head. But oh, how changed when the Auld Licht shone ower me! And hae I no been a guid wife to Geordie Gourlay? Will you no help me, woman?" "I hae said it," replied Mrs Hall, as the energy of her resolution passed into the moving power of the wheel, and the revolutions became quicker and quicker. The Cameronian stood for a moment looking at her--the lips compressed, the brow knit, the hand firmly bound up, and striking it upon the wall. "Ye're o' my faith," said she bitterly; "and may the Evil One help ye when ye're in need o' the Lord!"