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do not permit that it be transposed hither; but they, in whom the struggles of a father's heart and a sectarian's pride-the courage of a sister's affection, and the remonstrance of a lover's fear can excite interest or sympathy, will not read it without emotion. At this juncture, appeared Saddletree. He came to expound the law, and to give counsel to David for the approaching trial of Effie.

By whom information of her crime was given to public authority is not stated; but according to Saddletree, Effie had since her imprisonment confessed, that she had borne a child, which was conveyed from her, she knew not by whom or whither, and that was all that she had disclosed, or that she would. The ground of apprehension for her condemnation, was a statute of William and Mary, amounting to this, "That any woman who should be proved to have secretly given birth to a child, having previously

concealed her condition, in case the child be missing, or be found dead, shall suffer death as the punishment of her presumptive guilt. To discover the woman who had conveyed away Effie's infant was the first object suggested by Saddletree's communication, and with this view Reuben Butler hastily departed for the Tolbooth. Besides the message entrusted to Reuben, a letter flung in at Jeanie's window, demanding her presence at the Cairn, written in the most impassioned manner, promising her own safety, and urging the preservation of her sister as a motive, induced her, notwithstanding all hazards, to repair thither at the appointed hour. Fortified by prayer, and animated by her father's blessing, pronounced as the retired to his bed, at the same time shuddering with the dread of unearthly things, and confiding in the God of noon and night, Jeanie hastened to the place of appointment at the expected hour. There, in that fearful spot, for it was a murderer's grave, she met the unknown being who had demanded her presence.

"Are you the sister of that il! fated young woman asked a tremulous and hollow I am I am the sister of Effie

voice.

Deans,' exclaimed Jeanie. And as I hope God will hear you at your need, tell me, if you can, what can be done to save her!

"I do not hope God will hear me at my need,' was the singular answer. I do not deserve, I do not expect he will.' This desperate language he uttered in a tone calmer than that with which he had at first spoken. Jeanie remained mute with horror to hear language expressed so utterly foreign to all which she had ever been acquainted with, that it sounded in her ears rather like that of a fiend than of a human being. The stranger pursued his address to her without seeming to notice her surprise. You see before you a wretch, predestined to evil here and hereafter.'

"For the sake of Heaven, that hears and sees us,' said Jeanie,dinna speak in this desperate fashion! the gospel is sent to the chief of sinners,—to the most miserable among the miserable.'

"Then should I have my own share therein,' said the stranger, if you call it sinful to have been the destruction of the loved me of the woman that trusted me— mother that bore me-of the friend that of the innocent child that was born to me. If to have done all this is to be a sinner, and to survive it is to be miserable, then I am most guilty and most miserable.'

Then you are the wicked cause of my sister's ruin said Jeanie, with a natural touch of indignation expressed in her tone of voice.

"Curse me for it, if you will,' said the stranger; I have well deserved it at your

hand.'

"It is fitter for me' said Jeanie, 'to pray to God to forgive you.'

"Do as you will, how you will, or what you will,' he replied with vehemence ; ' only promise to obey my directions and save your sister's life.'

"I must first know,' said Jeanie, the means you would have me use in her behalf.'

"No!-you must first swear-solemnly swear, that you will employ them, when I make them known to you."

"Surely, it is needless to swear that I will do all that is lawful to a christian, to save the life of my sister?'

"I will have no reservation !' thundered

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the stranger; lawful or unlawful, christian and act by my counsel, or-you little know or heathen, you shall swear to do my hest, whose wrath you provoke!'

"I will think on what you have said,' at the frantic vehemence of his manner, said Jeanie, who began to get much alarmed and disputed in her own mind, whether she spoke to a maniac, or an apostate spirit inand let you ken to-morrow. carnate- I will think on what you say,

"To-morrow! exclaimed the man, with a laugh of scorn- And where will I be to-morrow ?-or, where will you be tonight, unless you swear to walk by my counsel ?-There was one accursed deed

done at this spot before now; and there shall be another to match it, unless you yield up to my guidance body and soul." "As he spoke, he offered a pistol at the unfortunate young woman. She neither fled nor fainted, but sunk on her knees, and asked him to spare her life.

"Is that all you have to say?" "Do not dip your hands in the blood of a defenceless creature that has trusted to you,' said Jeanie on her knees.

"Is that all you can say for your life? Have you no promise to give? Will you destroy your sister, and compel me to shed more blood?'

"I can promise nothing,' said Jeanie, which is unlawful for a christian.'

"He cocked the weapon, and held it towards her.

"May God forgive you!' she said, pressing her hands forcibly against her eyes.

D-n!' uttered the man; and turning aside from her, he uncocked his pistol, and replaced it in his pocket- I am a villain,' he said, 'steeped in guilt, and wretch edness, but not wicked enough to do you any harm! I only wished to terrify you into my measures-She hears me not-She is gone! Great God! what a wretch am I be

come!'"

Jeanie's uncommon firmness was sufficient even for this trial, her powers were a moment suspended, but she recovered so as to understand that her life was safe that her sister was innocent of the guilt of murder-that her infant had perished by another hand-that the criminal could not be brought to justice, and that Effie must die if her sister refused to swear that she had been in the secret confidence of the unhappy girl. This shocking conference was interrupted by approaching footsteps, and the notes of a wild significant voice, which caused the stranger precipitately to depart.

When Butler arrived at the Tolbooth, the turnkey, instead of admitting him to Effie, thought proper to make him a close prisoner, on account of his having been observed among the rioters of the preceding night. After a short confinement, he was summoned to the presence of a magistrate, and commanded to vindicate his conduct on that occasion. Butler was forced to relate not only the way he took in his retreat from the fatal scene, but also to describe whom he had met, and what he had heard. The information he gave concerning the leader of the

mob, the interest this man was observed to take in Effic, the nature of the mysterious stranger's injunction, the declaration of a certain half mad woman, called Madge Wildfire, that she had lent her clothes to a young man for the riot, and the intimate knowledge possessed by one Ratcliffe, a retainer of the jail, of George Robertson's history and character, led to the inference, that the lover of Effie had appeared in these various characters, and was no other than the celebrated fugitive of justice. To elucidate this point, it was decided that Sharpitlaw, the magistrate, should question Eflie Deans, and that certain emissaries of police, among whom was Ratcliffe, should, with Madge Wildfire as a guide, repair to Muschat's Cairn, at the hour appointed by the stranger, and secure the suspected person.

Ratcliffe lent himself to this service, to conciliate the police. He was under a sentence of death, which he had hopes that his services might commute to an office in the prison; the secret sympathy he cherished for Robertson, deterred him from the actual purpose of apprehending him, and his noisy guide was taken to announce his approach, and not to direct his steps.

Poor Jeanie Deans was overtaken by Robertson's pursuers, and left in the care of Ratcliffe, who offered her some indignities, from which she was happily relieved by her own presence of mind, and all her perils past, she reached home in safety. Ratcliffe declared to Sharpitlaw, that Jeanie had set him on a wrong scent, and they were forced to return as they came, and the next day to make report to a magistrate of their ill success. At the time of this communication, the magistrate, Mr. Middleburgh, received an anonymous letter, declaring the innocence of Butler, with the assurance that Jeanic Deans had been the seasonable confidant of her sister, and that if not hard pressed, she would refuse to acknowledge the fact, from the puritanical infatuation then operating upon her class of religionists, against the lawfulness of rendering testimony to existing authorities.

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Butler, after giving bail not to quit the vicinity, was liberated, and after some weeks confinement, Effie was brought to trial.

Terrible was the conflict in the minds of David Deans and his daughter Jeanie -the possible result they shuddered to contemplate, and the exact line of conduct to be pursued, was the subject of most distracting scruples. The extent of submission due to laws and rulers, tormented the conscience of David. The thought that the means to preserve her sister were in her power, but such as her principles prohibited her from using, only found relief in virtuous resolution, and reliance upon God-" Descend into yourself, try your mind with sufficiency of soul exercises, and as you shall finally find yourself clear to do in this matter-even so be it."-Thus the father counselled, and thus the daughter acted.

The wretched sisters met-it is not possible to imagine an interview more tender, melting, and heart-rending than this. "Oh Effie,' said her elder sister, 'how could you conceal your situation from me! O, woman, had I deserved this at your hand? had ye spoke but a word-sorry we might hac been, and shamed we might hae been, but this awfu' dispensation had never come

ower us.'

“And what gude wad that hae done?' answered the prisoner. Na, na, Jeanie, a' was ower when once I forgot what I promised when I faulded down the leaf of my Bible. See,' she said, producing the sacred volume, the book opens aye at the place o' itself. O see, Jeanie, what a fearfu' scrip

ture !'

“Jeanie took her sister's Bible, and found that the fatal mark was made at this impressive text in Job: He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone. And mine hope hath

he removed like a tree.'

"Isna that ower true a doctrine ? said the prisoner Isna my crown, my honour removed? And what am but a poor, wasted, wan-thriven tree, dug up by the roots, and flung out to waste in the highway, that man and beast may tread it under foot. I thought of the bonnie bit thorn that our father rooted out of the yard last May, when it had a' the flush o' blossoms on it; and then it lay in the court till the beasts had trod them a' pieces wi' their feet. Ilittle thought, when I was wae for the bit silly green bush and its flowers, that I was to gang the same gate mysel.'"

The pathos of self-commiseration and reproach was soon changed to more passionate expressions, to the ardour of love, and the anguish of maternal grief.-A hint from Ratcliffe, the turnkey, who heard all that was said, awakened a frantic hope for her child in Effie's bosom, but his answer destroyed it, and for a moment a strong convulsion suspended the bitterness of her sorrow.

The sisters next met at the fatal tribunal-every eye was charmed by the beauty, and every heart softened by the distress of the prisoner. Her declaration was that she had borne a male child; that it was conveyed from her, she knew not how; that some unhappy circumstances had prevented the father from making a suitable provision for her and her infant; that the woman who had given her a short asylum, had abused her in her distress, and that she had crawled, she knew not how, to her father's house. A letter, addressed to her was produced from her lover, which expressed his care for her welfare, but exhibited some circumstances of his condition, of no ambiguous discredit to him. Effie refused to annex any names to the persons concerned in her fate; but her advocate, and the public in general, rested a hope for her exculpation in the declaration of her sister. This hope was vain-the simple denial of Jeanie, that any confidence had been reposed in her, decided the verdict of the jury and the sentence of the judge. Effie heard her doom.

"God forgive ye, my lords,' she said, and dinna be angry wi' me for wishing itwe a' need forgiveness. As for myself, I canna blame ye, for ye act up to your lights; and if I havena killed my poor infant, ye may witness a' that hae seen it this day, that I hae been the means of killing my grayheaded father-I deserve the warst frae man, and frae God too-but God is mair mercifu' to us than we are to each other.' " With these words the trial concludedWhen Jeanic answered the interrogatory if she had been informed of her sister's situation-" alack! alack! she never breathed word to me about it"-the venerable father fell senseless to the floor,

and to this circumstance, which excited

the most agonising emotions in her breast at the moment, Effie alluded.

A request of the jury that the judge would recommend the criminal to the mercy of the crown, was the only mitiAs soon as Jeanie gation of her doom. learned the bare possibility of a pardon, she resolved to go in person, and to supplicate at the foot of the throne, forgiveness for her sister. The hazard and danger of her scheme, the inaccessibility of courts, and the forms of supplication, she was totally unacquainted with, but to save her sister was an object worth any effort, and she despaired not to accomplish it. Dumbiedikes gave her money, Ratcliffe furnished a passport through any ambush of thieves that might waylay her, and Butler gave her a prevailing introduction to the duke of Argyle, in a little paper, given by an ancestor of that nobleman to his grandfather, Benjamin Butler, and thus provided, the poor, girl sat out for London. -All people, in inns and highways seemed to facilitate her journey, till she reached a part of Lincolnshire, a few miles south of Newark-here she was slightly accosted by two women, riding on the same horse; who, to her surprise, called her by name, and a few minutes after, by two ill-looking men, who demanded her money, and threatened her life. The little talisman of Ratcliffe saved her; his magic power over the gentlemen of the pad, was instantly acknowledged, and all they did to the terrified pilgrim was to conduct her to the old barn which served as their haunt. Here she found the singular maniac, called Madge Wildfire, and a most execrable hag her mother, and no small cause of terror in the wild pranks of one, and the horrible passions of the other. Jeanie was soon ordered to bed with Madge, and was dragged by her, "to a sort of recess, partitioned off from the rest of the barn, and filled with straw."

"Now saw ye e'er in your life,' said Madge sae dainty a chamber of deas? See, as the moon shines down sae caller on the fresh strae! There's nae pleasanter cell in Bedlam for as braw a place as it is on the outside.-Were ye ever in Bedlam?

"No,' answered Jeanie faintly, appalled by the question, and the way in which it was put; yet willing to soothe her insane companion, being in circumstances so unhappily precarious, that even the society of this gibbering mad woman seemed a species of protection."

But even in this condition, Jeanie's strong sense, and exemplary piety did not desert her, so that she was able to attend to and comprehend the discourse carried on in the contiguous apartment. By this she learned that the old woman knew her business in London, that she determined to effect the death of her sister, lest her seducer should marry her, because she required him to marry the wild Madge, and that if he should refuse to do so, she knew of that which would hang him-but as she could not hope for such a son-in-law, she was resolved on revenge."

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"Revenge!' said the old woman, 'why, it is the best reward the devil gives us for our time here and hereafter. wrought hard for it-I have suffered for it, and I have sinned for it--and I will have

I have

it-or there is neither justice in heaven nor in hell!'

"But, mother,' said her companion, if revenge is your wish, you should take it on the young fellow himself.'

"I wish I could,' she said, drawing in her breath, with the eagerness of a thirsty person while mimicking the action of drinking I wish I could-but no-I cannot-1 cannot.'

"And why not?'

"I have nursed him at this withered

breast,' answered the old woman, folding her hands on her bosom, as if pressing an infant to it, and though he has proved an adder to me--though he has been the destruction of me and mine-though he has made me company for the devil, if there be a devil, and food for hell, if there be such a place, yet I cannot take his life-No, I cannot,' she continued with an appearance of rage against herself; I have thought of it—I have tried it—but, Francis Levitt, I canna gang through wi't!-Na, na,-he was the first bairn I ever nurst-ill I had been-and man can never ken what woman feels for the bairn she has first held to her bosom."

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This is an exquisite touch of nature, it comes from that source of feeling which never dries up.-Levitt reminded her, that she had not always been so kind to "bairns"-Her answer implied something mysterious" Madge, puir thing

had a misfortune wi' ane-and the t'other -Madge threw it into the Nor'-Loch." Madge's ears caught the sound, and a furious altercation ensued, which the knife of Meg Murdockson would have ended, if Levitt had not interfered. When Jeanie, whose fears yielded to fatigue, awoke, she found herself alone with Madge. A visitation from the officers of justice had called the other inmates of the mansion abroad; she rejoiced to follow her wild companion into the open air, and after suffering many mortifications from the absurdities of Madge, to be conducted to the house of a respectable clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Staunton. He listened to her story, believed it, and promised to aid her: And here she encountered the cause of all her afflictions; when summoned to the presence of his master, by a servant, she was artfully conveyed to the apartment of a young man, in whom she recognized the stranger of Muschat's Cairn. She beheld him distressed and ill, tortured by the keenest remorse, and the most agonising sorrow for the fate of her sister-she could only offer him religious consolations, which were indeed thrown away, but she inspired such confidence, that when she had related to him the motive of her journey, and the past adventures of it, he requited her by a full disclosure of his history.-He was the son of her host, an only child, indulged and wayward from his birth, who possessed, by the fatal means of an independent property, the power of eluding control, and of gratifying the most guilty propensities, which were not corrected by the well-meant, but mistaken severity of his father. The wretched Margaret Murdockson had been his nurse, her daughter, the mother of his child, and banished by all his excesses from a father's house, he had become a partaker of those adventures in which he assumed the name of Robertson. His acquaintance with Effie Deans commenced near St. Leonard's, among some young friends of her's, and while he was foolishly and desperately engaged with the enterprizes of Wilson,

which were peculiarly engaging to his adventurous spirit, he wooed Effie, and proposed to marry her: but, when he should have done so, the retribution of his follies made him a prisoner in the Tolbooth, and he was obliged to commit her to the care of Meg Murdockson. The sequel has already been shown. He had at this time the hope of saving Effie by offering himself to the government as the perpetrator of so many of fences, and of revealing what he hoped might exculpate her.

At the close of this narrative the Rev. Mr. Staunton entered-he was at first indignant against Jeanie, but the fearless girl protested that the interview was brought about without her concurrence; that it concerned some business she was not at liberty to explain, and that she was ready and willing to pursue her journey. Her manner soon convinced the good man of her innocence, and the next day he furnished her such aid as carried her safely to the house of her kinswoman, Mrs. Glass, in London.

The introduction to the duke of Argyle proved favourable to Jeanie's hopes, and an application to queen Caroline procured Effie's pardon. It was no sooner conveyed to Scotland than George Staunton persuaded her to elope with him. At an interview which happened soon after, and the only one which passed between the sisters for several years, Effie assured Jeanie that she was lawfully married, and thus in some measure relieved the painful concern she ever felt for her. Jeanie married the faithful Reuben Butler and through the goodness of the duke of Argyle they were placed in a happy situation. David Deans lived to see and to rejoice in the felicity of the excellent pair, and died at a very advanced age. The interest of the narrative flags from the moment Effie's pardon is obtained and transmitted to her. George Staunton is too profligate for us to feel much for the woman who gives herself to him. Effie's character is not without a charm, but her fate is so terribly precarious and threatening, that its intense in

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