. This was easily
done, for the hag's external ugliness was soon balanced by a show of kindness
and interest, to which Lucy had of late been little accustomed; her attentive
services and real skill gained her the ear, if not the confidence, of her
patient; and under pretence of diverting the solitude of a sick room, she soon
led her attention captive by the legends in which she was well skilled, and to
which Lucy's habits of reading and reflection induced her to »lend an attentive
ear.« Dame Gourlay's tales were at first of a mild and interesting character -
 
Of fays that nightly dance upon the wold,
And lovers doom'd to wander and to weep,
And castles high, where wicked wizards keep
Their captive thralls.
 
Gradually, however, they assumed a darker and more mysterious character, and
became such as, told by the midnight lamp, and enforced by the tremulous tone,
the quivering and livid lip, the uplifted skinny fore-finger, and the shaking
head of the blue-eyed hag, might have appalled a less credulous imagination, in
an age more hard of belief. The old Sycorax saw her advantage, and gradually
narrowed her magic circle around the devoted victim on whose spirit she
practised. Her legends began to relate to the fortunes of the Ravenswood family,
whose ancient grandeur and portentous authority, credulity had graced with so
many superstitious attributes. The story of the fatal fountain was narrated at
full length, and with formidable additions, by the ancient sibyl. The prophecy,
quoted by Caleb, concerning the dead bride, who was to be won by the last of the
Ravenswoods, had its own mysterious commentary; and the singular circumstance of
the apparition, seen by the Master of Ravenswood in the forest, having partly
transpired through his hasty inquiries in the cottage of old Alice, formed a
theme for many exaggerations.
    Lucy might have despised these tales, if they had been related concerning
another family, or if her own situation had been less despondent. But
circumstanced as she was, the idea that an evil fate hung over her attachment
became predominant over her other feelings; and the gloom of superstition
darkened a mind, already sufficiently weakened by sorrow, distress, uncertainty,
and an oppressive sense of desertion and desolation. Stories were told by her
attendant so closely resembling her own in their circumstances, that she was
gradually led to converse upon such tragic and mystical subjects with the
beldam, and to repose a sort of confidence in the sibyl, whom she still regarded
with involuntary shuddering. Dame Gourlay knew how to avail herself of
