"Do ye ken what that bodes, warlock?" said he, in a
broad accent: "that there'll be a man Mackellar unco sick
at sea."

When I got to my chamber, I sat there under a painful
excitation, hearkening to the turmoil of the gale which
struck fuU upon that gable of the house. "What with the
pressure on my spirits, the eldiitch cries of the wind among
the turret-tops, and the perpetual trepidation of the masoned



190 U/orKij of I^obert Couis Steue^soQ

house, sleep fled my eyelids utterly. I sat by my taper,
looking on the black panes of the window where the storm
appeared continually on the point of bursting in its entrance ;
and upon that empty field I beheld a perspective of conse-
quences that made the hair to rise upon my scalp. The
child corrupted, the home broken up, my master dead or
worse than dead, my mistress' plunged in desolation — all
these I saw before me painted brightly on the darkness ; and
the outcry of the wind appeared to mock at my inaction.
ME. MACKELLAR'S JOURNEY WITH THE
MASTER

The chaise came to the door in a strong drenching mist.
