"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live;"and that it was ordained under the Mosaic law, "that a man or a woman who hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death-they shall stone them with stones - their blood shall be upon them!" And why, demanded those advocates, was the witch of Endor afraid to exercise her sorcery before the king? Was it not because he had cut off those who had familiar spirits out of the land ?— thus clearly demonstrating the fact of their existence, and of the propriety of their being forthwith extirpated from the society of those of less wonderful attainments. These were reasons and questions of a most powerful and unanswerable description. But it never struck those enlightened observers to be within the compass of possibility that, although the "good neighbours" had existed under the law, their power, like that of their master, was at an end under the gospel dispensation. Even, however, if this had occurred to them, it would not have mended the matter much,- for

But,

last, though not least, the irresistible conclusion, that there must be witches, was drawn from the fact that the laws of Scotland had ordained a punishment for the crime of witchcraft. There was no withstanding this most cogent reason. strange as it may appear, even at the period of which we write, some glimmerings of common sense had begun to dawn upon the mind of one of the Senators of the College of Justice, and he entertained an opinion, and, moreover, had the courage to avow it, that "the recitation of verses-the making of crosses or even the laying of flesh on the threshold of the door," could not destroy the vital spark of existence either in man or beast, these being causes very disproportionate to the events which followed,and there being neither contact nor contract betwixt the agent and the patient in such

a case.

But our province is not that of the historian ; — and having thus given a general outline of the ideas of the period with respect to this one subject, and a brief sketch

of those events which are more particularly connected with the principal persons mentioned in the manuscript of the Cistertian Monk, we proceed to our tale, first recalling to the recollection of the indulgent reader, that, in supplying the omissions. which either time or accident, or both, had wrought in the pages of the illumined manuscript before us, we have availed ourselves of sundry varied sources which the peculiar nature of the pursuits we follow had happened to place at our command.

ABOUT twelve miles to the north of the well-known sea-port of Ravensbay, and at nearly the same distance from the east coast of Scotland, where the German Ocean swells and rages like a huge leviathan of the deep, the castle of Glammis raises its proud turrets from the midst of the wide forest of venerable oaks by which it is surrounded. Its battlements, crennels, cur

tains, and ramparts, impress the beholder with no mean or false idea of its strength, while its majestic appearance, and proud frowning aspect, seem to tell that the very stones claimed the privilege of sheltering a high aristocracy within their precincts. Nor was this, in former days, far from the truth; for the noble house of Glammis has numbered kings and queens in its descent, who, when retiring from the fatigues and duties of a court, have often passed many a bright and happy summer day within the walls of this ancient castle. But, at the period when our tale commences, the halls were deserted, -the court-yard was overgrown with grass, the measured tread of the centinel was no longer heard, — and every thing around wore the still, dreary, and desolate appearance of fallen greatness. No living being was seen to move on the wide chase around, and the huge gnarled oaks, which stretched their wild branches in every direction, seemed to mourn in majestic loneliness over their dreary and deserted situation.