The Fiddler and the Bogle of Bogandoran - Page 2

retrieve the disgrace of his late discomfiture, the
bogle instantly seized the fiddler, and attempted with all his might to
pull the latter down the precipice, with the diabolical intention, it is
supposed, of drowning him in the river Avon below. In this pious design
the bogle was happily frustrated by the intervention of some trees which
grew on the precipice, and to which my unhappy grand-uncle clung with the
zeal of a drowning man. The enraged ghost, finding it impossible to
extricate him from those friendly trees, and resolving, at all events, to
be revenged upon him, fell upon maltreating the fiddler with his hands
and feet in the most inhuman manner.

"Such gross indignities my worthy grand-uncle was not accustomed to, and
being incensed beyond all measure at the liberties taken by Bogandoran,
he resolved again to try his mettle, whether life or death should be the
consequence. Having no other weapon wherewith to defend himself but his
_biodag_, which, considering the nature of his opponent's constitution,
he suspected much would be of little avail to him--I say, in the absence
of any other weapon, he sheathed the _biodag_ three times in the ghost of
Bogandoran's body. And what was the consequence? Why, to the great
astonishment of my courageous forefather, the ghost fell down cold dead
at his feet, and was never more seen or heard of."