Chapter 35 - Page 2

the bridegroom's face was wrung round ahint him?"

"Ye needna care wha did it, or how it was done," said Aislie Gourlay;
"but I'll uphaud it for nae stickit job, and that the lairds and leddies
ken weel this day."

"And was it true," said Annie Winnie, "sin ye ken sae muckle about it,
that the picture of auld Sir Malise Ravenswood came down on the ha'
floor, and led out the brawl before them a'?"

"Na," said Ailsie; "but into the ha' came the picture--and I ken weel
how it came there--to gie them a warning that pride wad get a fa'. But
there's as queer a ploy, cummers, as ony o' thae, that's gaun on even
now in the burial vault yonder: ye saw twall mourners, wi' crape and
cloak, gang down the steps pair and pair!"

"What should ail us to see them?" said the one old woman.

"I counted them," said the other, with the eagerness of a person to
whom the spectacle had afforded too much interest to be viewed with
indifference.

"But ye did not see," said Ailsie, exulting in her superior observation,
"that there's a thirteenth amang them that they ken naething about; and,
if auld freits say true, there's ane o' that company that'll no be lang
for this warld. But come awa' cummers; if we bide here, I'se warrant we
get the wyte o' whatever ill comes of it, and that gude will come of it
nane o' them need ever think to see."

And thus, croaking like the ravens when they anticipate pestilence, the
ill-boding sibyls withdrew from the churchyard.

In fact, the mourners, when the service of interment was ended,
discovered that there was among them one more than the invited number,
and the remark was communicated in whispers to each other. The suspicion
fell upon a figure which, muffled in the same deep mourning with the
others, was reclined, almost in a state of insensibility, against one of
the pillars of the sepulchral vault. The relatives of the Ashton family
were expressing in whispers their surprise and displeasure at the
intrusion, when they were interrupted by Colonel Ashton, who, in his
father's absence, acted as principal mourner. "I know," he said in a
whisper, "who this person is, he has, or shall soon have, as deep cause
of mourning as ourselves; leave me to deal with him, and do not disturb
the ceremony by unnecessary exposure." So saying, he separated himself
from the group of his relations, and taking the unknown mourner by the
cloak, he said to him, in a tone of suppressed emotion, "Follow me."

The stranger, as if starting from a trance at the sound of his voice,
mechanically obeyed, and they ascended the broken ruinous stair which
led from