noon
But still he mourned over the individual victim . Who may arraign the bolt of Heaven when it bursts among the sons of the forest ? yet who can refrain from mourning when it selects for the object of its blighting aim the fair stem of a young oak , that promised to be the pride of the dell in which it flourished ? Musing on these melancholy events , noon found him engaged in the mountain passes , by which he was to return to his still distant home . Confident in his knowledge of the country , the clergyman had left the main road , to seek one of those shorter paths , which are only used by pedestrians , or by men , like the minister , mounted on the small , but sure-footed , hardy , and sagacious horses of the country . The place which he now traversed was in itself gloomy and desolate , and tradition had added to it the terror of superstition , by affirming it was haunted by an evil spirit , termed CLOGHT-DEARG -- that is , Redmantle -- who at all times , but especially at noon and at midnight , traversed the glen , in enmity both to man and the inferior creation , did such evil as her power was permitted to extend to , and afflicted with ghastly terrors those whom she had not license otherwise to hurt . The minister of Glenorquhy had set his face in opposition to many of these superstitions , which he justly thought were derived from the dark ages of Popery , perhaps even from those of paganism , and unfit to be entertained or believed by the Christians of an enlightened age .