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AT ST. COLUMBA.
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who, till of late years, lived at Edinburgh; but I will not disobey my father by going out of the castle."

"Then, my lady," returned Alice joyfully, "I shall run to overtake the brandy messenger, and desire him to hurry the seers to your presence."

Alice ran, though she well knew that the messenger, an old acquaintance, waited her instructions. The spae-wives, warlocks, and interpreters of dreams, soon assembled in the armoury, a large apartment detached from the servants' hall. The seers of futurity were led by a figure of stately port, clad in a long mantle of black velvet, richly embroidered. He accosted Dulsibella as a rustic maid, professing himself to be a lineal descendant of the far-famed sage of Ercildoun, and in that quality must converse with the lady of the castle. Whilst all the damsels were engaged in listening to predictions flattering to their wishes, the sage drew her a little aside, and mentioned the secret history of her parents, of the recently deceased Baroness, and herself, so explicitly, that she fully believed in his pretensions to superhuman intelligence. He then laid hold of her arm, to draw her to a recess at a great distance from her attendants. Dulsibella gently yet steadily reproved this freedom. He said, "Lady Dulsibella!—Nay, start not. I am no

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