Page:Remarkable family adventure of Saunders Watson (1).pdf/12

Rh disturbing the mansions of the dead at the hour of midnight, and his fancy arming the intruders with every thing formidable, made his heart almost cease to beat, from terror for his own safety. His son was in no better plight. They both gazed like statues before the window, but neither of them had breath sufficient to say a single word to the other.

It so happened that the shadow of a tree had fallen directly over the grave which their eyes were in quest of, so that it was hardly recognisable;—it seemed a mere dim speck swiming amidst a wave of invisibility. Nothing at first was to be seen, but their ears informed them distinctly enough, that something was busy about the depository of Mary’s remains. Terror, like every other tyrant, can only go a certain length till the powers it has subdued, forcibly resume their functions, and make it turn their slave. The mind of Saunders had now reached this climax; a kind of desperate resolution succeeded to his former cowardice, and snatching a gun, he thurst it into his son’s hand and ordered him in a firm tone to fire through the window. “What! an’ break a’ the glass, an’ maybe blaw some spelks o’t aboot my ain face?” cried Saundy, in despair, at syuch a proposition. “O faither, think what an awfu’ rennish it wad mak’ in the inside