fairyland like me to avoid lending a few touches to make it
perfect in its kind. But here it is, and if you do not incline to leave this
shade till the heat of the day has somewhat declined, and will have sympathy
with my bad composition, perhaps Sir Arthur or Mr. Oldbuck will read it to us.«
    »Not I,« said Sir Arthur; »I was never fond of reading aloud.«
    »Nor I,« said Oldbuck, »for I have forgot my spectacles. But here is Lovel,
with sharp eyes and a good voice; for Mr. Blattergowl, I know, never reads
anything, lest he should be suspected of reading his sermons.«
    The task was therefore imposed upon Lovel, who received, with some
trepidation, as Miss Wardour delivered, with a little embarrassment, a paper
containing the lines traced by that fair hand, the possession of which he
coveted as the highest blessing the earth could offer to him. But there was a
necessity of suppressing his emotions; and after glancing over the manuscript,
as if to become acquainted with the character, he collected himself, and read
the company the following tale: -
 

                        The Fortunes of Martin Walbeck.

The solitudes of the Harz forest in Germany,14 but especially the mountains
called Blocksberg, or rather Brockenberg, are the chosen scenes for tales of
witches, demons, and apparitions. The occupation of the inhabitants, who are
either miners or foresters, is of a kind that renders them peculiarly prone to
superstition, and the natural phenomena which they witness in pursuit of their
solitary or subterraneous profession, are often set down by them to the
interference of goblins or the power of magic. Among the various legends current
in that wild country, there is a favourite one, which supposes the Harz to be
haunted by a sort of tutelar demon, in the shape of a wild man, of huge stature,
his head wreathed with oak leaves, and his middle cinctured with the same,
bearing in his hand a pine torn up by the roots. It is certain that many persons
profess to have seen such a form traversing, with huge strides, in a line
parallel to their own course, the opposite ridge of a mountain, when divided
from it by a narrow glen; and indeed the fact of the apparition is so generally
admitted, that modern scepticism has only found refuge by ascribing it to
optical deception.15
    In elder times, the intercourse of the demon with the inhabitants was more
familiar, and, according to the traditions of the Harz, he was wont, with the
caprice