She opened the
door of the hut gently, and entered with noiseless
step. Exhausted with his sorrow and anxiety,
and not entirely relieved perhaps from the influence
of the powerful opiate, Hamish Bean again
slept the stern sound sleep, by which the Indians
are said to be overcome during the interval of their
torments. His mother was scarcely sure that she
actually discerned his form on the bed, scarce certain
that her ear caught the sound of his breathing.
With a throbbing heart, Elspat went to the
fire-place in the centre of the hut, where slumbered,
covered with a piece of turf, the glimmering
embers of the fire, never extinguished on a Scottish
hearth until the indwellers leave the mansion
for ever.
``Feeble greishogh,''* she said, as she lighted,
* Greishogh, a glowing ember.
by the help of a match, a splinter of bog pine
which was to serve the place of a candle; ``weak
greishogh, soon shalt thou be put out for ever, and
may Heaven grant that the life of Elspat MacTavish
have no longer duration than thine!''
While she spoke she raised the blazing light
towards the bed, on which still lay the prostrate
limbs of her son, in a posture that left it doubtful
whether he slept or swooned.
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