frae them.«
    Thus speaking, the kindly apparition, with the assistance of the mute
personage, who was his son, disencumbered himself of his cloak, and prepared to
escort Dousterswivel to the place of that rest which the adept so much needed.
    »I will apply to the magistrates to-morrow,« said the adept; »oder, I will
have de law put in force against all the peoples.«
    While he thus muttered vengeance against the cause of his injury, he
tottered from among the ruins, supporting himself on Ringan and his son, whose
assistance his state of weakness rendered very necessary.
    When they were clear of the priory, and had gained the little meadow in
which it stands, Dousterswivel could perceive the torches which had caused him
so much alarm issuing in irregular procession from the ruins, and glancing their
light, like that of the ignis fatuus, on the banks of the lake. After moving
along the path for some short space with a fluctuating and irregular motion, the
lights were at once extinguished.
    »We aye put out the torches at the Halie-cross Well on sic occasions,« said
the forester to his guest. And accordingly no farther visible sign of the
procession offered itself to Dousterswivel, although his ear could catch the
distant and decreasing echo of horses' hoofs in the direction towards which the
mourners had bent their course.
 

                              Chapter Twenty-Sixth

 O weel may the boatie row
 And better may she speed,
 And weel may the boatie row
 That earns the bairnies' bread!
 The boatie rows, the boatie rows,
 The boatie rows fu' weel,
 And lightsome be their life that bear
 The merlin and the creel!
                                                                     Old Ballad.
 
We must now introduce our reader to the interior of the fisher's cottage
mentioned in chapter eleventh of this edifying history. I wish I could say that
its inside was well arranged, decently furnished, or tolerably clean. On the
contrary, I am compelled to admit, there was confusion, - there was
dilapidation, - there was dirt good store. Yet, with all this, there was about
the inmates, Luckie Mucklebackit and her family, an appearance of ease, plenty,
and comfort, that seemed to warrant their old sluttish proverb, »The clartier
the cosier.« A huge fire, though the season was summer, occupied the hearth, and
served at once for affording light, heat, and the means of preparing food. The
fishing had been successful, and the family, with customary improvidence, had,
since unlading the cargo, continued an unremitting operation of broiling and
frying that part of