destruction and down-putting of Marjory Campbell." Nothing daunted, the lady sent far and wide, and now openly, for various poisons; consulting with "Egyptians" and notorious witches as to what would best "suit the complexion" of her victims, and whether the ratsbane, which was a favourite medicine with her, should be administered in eggs, broth, or cabbage. She paid many sums, too, for clay images, and elf arrows wherewith to shoot at them, and her wickedness at last grew too patent for even her exalted rank to overshadow. She was arrested and arraigned, but the private prosecutor was Hector Munro, who was soon to change his place of advocate for that of "pannel;" and the jury was composed of the Fowlis dependents. So she was acquitted; though many of her creatures had previously been convicted and burnt on the same charges as those now made against her; notably Cristiane Roiss, who, confessing to the clay image and the elf arrows, was quietly burnt for the same. Hector Munro's trial was of a somewhat different character. His stepmother does not seem to have had much confidence in mere sorcery: she put her faith in facts rather than in incantations, and preferred drugs to charms: but Hector was more superstitious and more cowardly too. In 1588, he had communed with three notorious witches for the recovery of his elder brother, Robert; and the witches had "pollit the hair of Robert Munro, and plet the naillis of his fingeris and taes;" but Robert had died in spite of these charms, and now Hector was the chief man of his family. Parings of nails, clippings of hair, water wherein enchanted stones had been laid, black Pater-Nosters, banned plaids and cloths, were all of as much potency in his mind as the "ratoun poysoun" so dear to the lady; and the method of his intended murder rested on such means as these. They made a goodly pair between them, and embodied a fair proportion of the intelligence and morality of the time. After a small piece of preliminary sorcery, undertaken with his foster-mother, Cristiane Neill Dayzell, and Mariaoune M'Ingareach, "one of the most notorious and rank witches of the country," it was pronounced that Hector, who was sick, would not recover, unless the principal man of his blood should suffer for him. This was found to be none other than George Munro, of Obisdale, Lady Katherine's eldest son, whose life must be given that Hector's might be redeemed. George, then, must die; not by poison but by sorcery; and the first step to be taken was to secure his presence by Hector's bedside. "Sewin poistes" or messengers did the invalid impatiently send to him; and when he came at last, Hector said never a word to him, after his surly "Better now that you have come," in answer to his half-brother's unsuspecting "How's a' wi' ye?" but sat for a full hour with his left hand in George's right, working the first spell in silence, according to the directions of his foster-mother and the witch.