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Rh javelin at the supposed sorceress, "in the name of all that is good, bide off hands! I will not be handled—woman, stand off upon thine own proper peril!—desist, I say—I am strong—lo, I will resist!"—Here his speech was cut short, for Meg, armed with supernatural strength (as the Dominie asserted) broke in upon his guard, put by a thrust which he made at her with his cane, and lifted him into the vault, "as easily," said he, "as I could sway a Kitchen's atlas."

"Sit doun there," she said, pushing the half-throttled preacher with some violence against a broken chair, "sit down there, and gather your wind and your senses, ye black barrow-tram o' the kirk that ye are—are ye fou or fasting?"

"Fasting from all but sin," answered the Dominie, who, recovering his voice, and finding his exorcisms only served to exasperate the intractable sorceress, thought it best to affect complaisance and submission, inwardly conning over, however, the