The Heart of Mid-Lothian
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The Heart of Mid−Lothian Sir Walter Scott The Heart of Mid−Lothian Table of Contents The Heart of Mid−Lothian.......................................................................................................................................1 Sir Walter Scott..............................................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER I...................................................................................................................................................2 CHAPTER II..................................................................................................................................................7 CHAPTER III..............................................................................................................................................15 CHAPTER IV..............................................................................................................................................21 CHAPTER V................................................................................................................................................34 CHAPTER VI..............................................................................................................................................37 CHAPTER VII.............................................................................................................................................42 CHAPTER VIII............................................................................................................................................46 CHAPTER VIII............................................................................................................................................50 CHAPTER IX..............................................................................................................................................57 CHAPTER X................................................................................................................................................63 CHAPTER XI..............................................................................................................................................68 CHAPTER XI..............................................................................................................................................74 CHAPTER XII.............................................................................................................................................81 CHAPTER XIII............................................................................................................................................86 CHAPTER XIV...........................................................................................................................................93 CHAPTER XV...........................................................................................................................................100 CHAPTER XVI.........................................................................................................................................105 CHAPTER XVIII.......................................................................................................................................111 CHAPTER XIX.........................................................................................................................................118 CHAPTER XX...........................................................................................................................................124 CHAPTER XXI.........................................................................................................................................127 CHAPTER XXII........................................................................................................................................135 VOL. II....................................................................................................................................................................139 CHAPTER I...............................................................................................................................................139 CHAPTER II..............................................................................................................................................144 CHAPTER III............................................................................................................................................153 CHAPTER IV............................................................................................................................................158 CHAPTER V..............................................................................................................................................161 CHAPTER VI............................................................................................................................................169 CHAPTER VII...........................................................................................................................................172 CHAPTER VIII..........................................................................................................................................178 CHAPTER IX............................................................................................................................................183 CHAPTER X..............................................................................................................................................186 CHAPTER XI............................................................................................................................................191 CHAPTER XII...........................................................................................................................................195 CHAPTER XIII..........................................................................................................................................204 CHAPTER XIV.........................................................................................................................................215 i The Heart of Mid−Lothian Sir Walter Scott This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online. http://www.blackmask.com • VOL I. • CHAPTER I. • CHAPTER II. • CHAPTER III. • CHAPTER IV. • CHAPTER V. • CHAPTER VI. • CHAPTER VII. • CHAPTER VIII. • CHAPTER VIII. • CHAPTER IX. • CHAPTER X. • CHAPTER XI. • CHAPTER XI. • CHAPTER XII. • CHAPTER XIII. • CHAPTER XIV. • CHAPTER XV. • CHAPTER XVI. • CHAPTER XVIII. • CHAPTER XIX. • CHAPTER XX. • CHAPTER XXI. • CHAPTER XXII. • VOL. II. • CHAPTER I. • CHAPTER II. • CHAPTER III. • CHAPTER IV. • CHAPTER V. • CHAPTER VI. • CHAPTER VII. • CHAPTER VIII. • CHAPTER IX. • CHAPTER X. • CHAPTER XI. • CHAPTER XII. • CHAPTER XIII. • CHAPTER XIV. The Heart of Mid−Lothian 1 The Heart of Mid−Lothian CHAPTER I. The spirit I have seen May be the devil. And the devil has power To assume a pleasing shape. Hamlet. Witchcraft and demonology, as we have had already occasion to remark, were at this period believed in by almost all ranks, but more especially among the stricter classes of presbyterians, whose government, when their party were at the head of the state, had been much sullied by their eagerness to enquire into, and persecute these imaginary crimes. Now, in this point of view, also, Saint Leonard's Crags and the adjacent Chase were a dreaded and ill−reputed district. Not only had witches held their meetings there, but even of very late years the enthusiast, or imposter, mentioned in the Pandæmonium of Richard Bovet, Gentleman, had, among the recesses of these romantic cliffs, found his way into the hidden retreats where the fairies revel in the bowels of the earth. With all these legends Jeanie Deans was too well acquainted, to escape that strong impression which they usually make on the imagination. Indeed, relations of this ghostly kind had been familiar to her from her infancy, for they were the only relief which her father's conversation afforded from controversial argument, or the gloomy history of the strivings and testimonies, escapes, captures, tortures, and executions of those martyrs of the Covenant, with whom it was his chiefest boast to say he had been acquainted. In the recesses of mountains, in caverns, and in morasses, to which these persecuted enthusiasts were so ruthlessly pursued, they conceived they had often to contend with the visible assaults of the Enemy of mankind, as in the cities, and in the cultivated fields, they were exposed to those of the tyrannical government and their soldiery. Such were the terrors which made one of their gifted seers exclaim, when his companion returned to him, after having left him alone in a haunted cavern in Sorn in Galloway, "It is hard living in this worldincarnate devils above the earth, and devils under the earth! Satan has been here since ye went away, but I have dismissed him by resistance; we will be no more troubled with him this night." David Deans believed this, and many other such ghostly encounters and victories, on the faith of the Ansars, or auxiliaries of the banished prophets. This event was beyond David's remembrance. But he used to tell with great awe, yet not without a feeling of proud superiority to his auditors, how he himself had been present at a field−meeting at Crochmade, when the duty of the day was interrupted by the apparition of a tall black man,