noon
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 . Some of his more attached parishioners considered him as too rash in opposing the ancient faith of their fathers ; and though they honoured the moral intrepidity of their pastor , they could not avoid entertaining and expressing fears that he would one day fall a victim to his temerity , and be torn to pieces in the glen of the Cloght-dearg , or some of those other haunted wilds , which he appeared rather to have a pride and pleasure in traversing alone , on the days and hours when the wicked spirits were supposed to have especial power over man and beast . These legends came across the mind of the clergyman , and , solitary as he was , a melancholy smile shaded his cheek , as he thought of the inconsistency of human nature , and reflected how many brave men , whom the yell of the pibroch would have sent headlong against fixed bayonets , as the wild bull rushes on his enemy , might have yet feared to encounter those visionary terrors , which he himself , a man of peace , and in ordinary perils no way remarkable for the firmness of his nerves , was now risking without hesitation .