A Legend of Montrose Page 7

  CHAPTER V.

  Thareby so fearlesse and so fell he grew, That his own syre and maister of his guise Did often tremble at his horrid view; And if for dread of hurt would him advise, The angry beastes not rashly to despise, Nor too much to provoke; for he would learne The lion stoup to him in lowly wise, (A lesson hard,) and make the libbard sterne Leave roaring, when in rage he for revenge did earne.--SPENSER.

  Notwithstanding the proverbial epicurism of the English,--proverbial,that is to say, in Scotland at the period,--the English visitors madeno figure whatever at the entertainment, compared with the portentousvoracity of Captain Dalgetty, although that gallant soldier had alreadydisplayed much steadiness and pertinacity in his attack upon the lighterrefreshment set before them at their entrance, by way of forlorn hope.He spoke to no one during the time of his meal; and it was not untilthe victuals were nearly withdrawn from the table, that he gratifiedthe rest of the company, who had watched him with some surprise, with anaccount of the reasons why he ate so very fast and so very long.

  "The former quality," he said, "he had acquired, while he filled a placeat the bursar's table at the Mareschal-College of Aberdeen; when," saidhe; "if you did not move your jaws as fast as a pair of castanets, youwere very unlikely to get any thing to put between them. And as for thequantity of my food, be it known to this honourable company," continuedthe Captain, "that it's the duty of every commander of a fortress, onall occasions which offer, to secure as much munition and vivers astheir magazines can possibly hold, not knowing when they may have tosustain a siege or a blockade. Upon which principle, gentlemen," saidhe, "when a cavalier finds that provant is good and abundant, he will,in my estimation, do wisely to victual himself for at least three days,as there is no knowing when he may come by another meal."

  The Laird expressed his acquiescence in the prudence of this principle,and recommended to the veteran to add a tass of brandy and a flagon ofclaret to the substantial provisions he had already laid in, to whichproposal the Captain readily agreed.

  When dinner was removed, and the servants had withdrawn, excepting theLaird's page, or henchman, who remained in the apartment to call for orbring whatever was wanted, or, in a word, to answer the purposes of amodern bell-wire, the conversation began to turn upon politics, andthe state of the country; and Lord Menteith enquired anxiously andparticularly what clans were expected to join the proposed muster of theKing's friends.

  "That depends much, my lord, on the person who lifts the banner," saidthe Laird; "for you know we Highlanders, when a few clans are assembled,are not easily commanded by one of our own Chiefs, or, to say the truth,by any other body. We have heard a rumour, indeed, that Colkitto--thatis, young Colkitto, or Alaster M'Donald, is come over the Kyle fromIreland, with a body of the Earl of Antrim's people, and that they hadgot as far as Ardnamurchan. They might have been here before now, but, Isuppose, they loitered to plunder the country as they came along."

  "Will Colkitto not serve you for a leader, then?" said Lord Menteith.

  "Colkitto?" said Allan M'Aulay, scornfully; "who talks ofColkitto?--There lives but one man whom we will follow, and that isMontrose."

  "But Montrose, sir," said Sir Christopher Hall, "has not been heard ofsince our ineffectual attempt to rise in the north of England. It isthought he has returned to the King at Oxford for farther instructions."

  "Returned!" said Allan, with a scornful laugh; "I could tell ye, but itis not worth my while; ye will know soon enough."

  "By my honour, Allan," said Lord Menteith, "you will weary out yourfriends with this intolerable, froward, and sullen humour--But I knowthe reason," added he, laughing; "you have not seen Annot Lyle to-day."

  "Whom did you say I had not seen?" said Allan, sternly.

  "Annot Lyle, the fairy queen of song and minstrelsy," said LordMenteith.

  "Would to God I were never to see her again," said Allan, sighing, "Oncondition the same weird were laid on you!"

  "And why on me?" said Lord Menteith, carelessly.

  "Because," said Allan, "it is written on your forehead, that you are tobe the ruin of each other." So saying, he rose up and left the room.

  "Has he been long in this way?" asked Lord Menteith, addressing hisbrother.

  "About three days," answered Angus; "the fit is wellnigh over, he willbe better to-morrow.--But come, gentlemen, don't let the tappit-henscraugh to be emptied. The King's health, King Charles's health! andmay the covenanting dog that refuses it, go to Heaven by the road of theGrassmarket!"

  The health was quickly pledged, and as fast succeeded by another, andanother, and another, all of a party cast, and enforced in an earnestmanner. Captain Dalgetty, however, thought it necessary to enter aprotest.

  "Gentlemen cavaliers," he said, "I drink these healths, PRIMO, both outof respect to this honourable and hospitable roof-tree, and, SECUNDO,because I hold it not good to be preceese in such matters, INTER POCULA;but I protest, agreeable to the warrandice granted by this honourablelord, that it shall be free to me, notwithstanding my presentcomplaisance, to take service with the Covenanters to-morrow, providingI shall be so minded."

  M'Aulay and his English guests stared at this declaration, which wouldhave certainly bred new disturbance, if Lord Menteith had not taken upthe affair, and explained the circumstances and conditions. "I trust,"he concluded, "we shall be able to secure Captain Dalgetty's assistanceto our own party."

  "And if not," said the Laird, "I protest, as the Captain says, thatnothing that has passed this evening, not even his having eaten my breadand salt, and pledged me in brandy, Bourdeaux, or usquebaugh, shallprejudice my cleaving him to the neck-bone."

  "You shall be heartily welcome," said the Captain, "providing my swordcannot keep my head, which it has done in worse dangers than your fendis likely to make for me."

  Here Lord Menteith again interposed, and the concord of the companybeing with no small difficulty restored, was cemented by some deepcarouses. Lord Menteith, however, contrived to break up the partyearlier than was the usage of the Castle, under pretence of fatigue andindisposition. This was somewhat to the disappointment of the valiantCaptain, who, among other habits acquired in the Low countries, hadacquired both a disposition to drink, and a capacity to bear, anexorbitant quantity of strong liquors.

  Their landlord ushered them in person to a sort of sleeping gallery, inwhich there was a four-post bed, with tartan curtains, and a numberof cribs, or long hampers, placed along the wall, three of which,well stuffed with blooming heather, were prepared for the reception ofguests.

  "I need not tell your lordship," said M'Aulay to Lord Menteith, a littleapart, "our Highland mode of quartering. Only that, not liking youshould sleep in the room alone with this German land-louper, I havecaused your servants' beds to be made here in the gallery. By G--d, mylord, these are times when men go to bed with a throat hale and sound asever swallowed brandy, and before next morning it may be gaping like anoyster-shell."

  Lord Menteith thanked him sincerely, saying, "It was just thearrangement he would have requested; for, although he had not the leastapprehension of violence from Captain Dalgetty, yet Anderson was abetter kind of person, a sort of gentleman, whom he always liked to havenear his person."

  "I have not seen this Anderson," said M'Aulay; "did you hire him inEngland?"

  "I did so," said Lord Menteith; "you will see the man to-morrow; in themeantime I wish you good-night."

  His host left the apartment after the evening salutation, and was aboutto pay the same compliment to Captain Dalgetty, but observing him deeplyengaged in the discussion of a huge pitcher filled with brandy posset,he thought it a pity to disturb him in so laudable an employment, andtook his leave without farther ceremony.

  Lord Menteith's two attendants entered the apartment almost immediatelyafter his departure. The good Captain, who was now somewhat encumberedwith his good cheer, began to find the undoing of the clasps of hisarmour a task somewhat difficult, and addressed Anders
on in these words,interrupted by a slight hiccup,--"Anderson, my good friend, you mayread in Scripture, that he that putteth off his armour should not boasthimself like he that putteth it on--I believe that is not the rightword of command; but the plain truth of it is, I am like to sleep in mycorslet, like many an honest fellow that never waked again, unless youunloose this buckle."

  "Undo his armour, Sibbald," said Anderson to the other servant.

  "By St. Andrew!" exclaimed the Captain, turning round in greatastonishment, "here's a common fellow--a stipendiary with four poundsa-year and a livery cloak, thinks himself too good to serve Ritt-masterDugald Dalgetty of Drumthwacket, who has studied humanity at theMareschal-College of Aberdeen, and served half the princes of Europe!"

  "Captain Dalgetty," said Lord Menteith, whose lot it was to standpeacemaker throughout the evening, "please to understand that Andersonwaits upon no one but myself; but I will help Sibbald to undo yourcorslet with much pleasure."

  "Too much trouble for you, my lord," said Dalgetty; "and yet it would doyou no harm to practise how a handsome harness is put on and put off.I can step in and out of mine like a glove; only to-night, although notEBRIUS, I am, in the classic phrase, VINO CIBOQUE GRAVATUS."

  By this time he was unshelled, and stood before the fire musing with aface of drunken wisdom on the events of the evening. What seemed chieflyto interest him, was the character of Allan M'Aulay. "To come overthe Englishmen so cleverly with his Highland torch-bearers--eightbare-breeched Rories for six silver candlesticks!--it was amaster-piece--a TOUR DE PASSE--it was perfect legerdemain--and to be amadman after all!--I doubt greatly, my lord" (shaking his head), "thatI must allow him, notwithstanding his relationship to your lordship, theprivileges of a rational person, and either batoon him sufficiently toexpiate the violence offered to my person, or else bring it to a matterof mortal arbitrement, as becometh an insulted cavalier."

  "If you care to hear a long story," said Lord Menteith, "at this time ofnight, I can tell you how the circumstances of Allan's birth account sowell for his singular character, as to put such satisfaction entirelyout of the question."

  "A long story, my lord," said Captain Dalgetty, "is, next to a goodevening draught and a warm nightcap, the best shoeinghorn for drawing ona sound sleep. And since your lordship is pleased to take the trouble totell it, I shall rest your patient and obliged auditor."

  "Anderson," said Lord Menteith, "and you, Sibbald, are dying to hear,I suppose, of this strange man too! and I believe I must indulge yourcuriosity, that you may know how to behave to him in time of need. Youhad better step to the fire then."

  Having thus assembled an audience about him, Lord Menteith sat down uponthe edge of the four-post bed, while Captain Dalgetty, wiping the relicsof the posset from his beard and mustachoes, and repeating the firstverse of the Lutheran psalm, ALLE GUTER GEISTER LOBEN DEN HERRN, etc.rolled himself into one of the places of repose, and thrusting his shockpate from between the blankets, listened to Lord Menteith's relation ina most luxurious state, between sleeping and waking.

  "The father," said Lord Menteith, "of the two brothers, Angus and AllanM'Aulay, was a gentleman of consideration and family, being the chiefof a Highland clan, of good account, though not numerous; his lady, themother of these young men, was a gentlewoman of good family, if I may bepermitted to say so of one nearly connected with my own. Her brother, anhonourable and spirited young man, obtained from James the Sixth a grantof forestry, and other privileges, over a royal chase adjacent tothis castle; and, in exercising and defending these rights, he was sounfortunate as to involve himself in a quarrel with some of our Highlandfreebooters or caterans, of whom I think, Captain Dalgetty, you musthave heard."

  "And that I have," said the Captain, exerting himself to answer theappeal. "Before I left the Mareschal-College of Aberdeen, Dugald Garrwas playing the devil in the Garioch, and the Farquharsons on Dee-side,and the Clan Chattan on the Gordons' lands, and the Grants and Cameronsin Moray-land. And since that, I have seen the Cravats and Pandours inPannonia and Transylvania, and the Cossacks from the Polish frontier,and robbers, banditti, and barbarians of all countries besides, so thatI have a distinct idea of your broken Highlandmen."

  "The clan," said Lord Menteith, "with whom the maternal uncle of theM'Aulays had been placed in feud, was a small sept of banditti, called,from their houseless state, and their incessantly wandering among themountains and glens, the Children of the Mist. They are a fierce andhardy people, with all the irritability, and wild and vengeful passions,proper to men who have never known the restraint of civilized society.A party of them lay in wait for the unfortunate Warden of the Forest,surprised him while hunting alone and unattended, and slew him withevery circumstance of inventive cruelty. They cut off his head,and resolved, in a bravado, to exhibit it at the castle of hisbrother-in-law. The laird was absent, and the lady reluctantly receivedas guests, men against whom, perhaps, she was afraid to shut her gates.Refreshments were placed before the Children of the Mist, who took anopportunity to take the head of their victim from the plaid in whichit was wrapt, placed it on the table, put a piece of bread between thelifeless jaws, bidding them do their office now, since many a good mealthey had eaten at that table. The lady, who had been absent for somehousehold purpose, entered at this moment, and, upon beholding herbrother's head, fled like an arrow out of the house into the woods,uttering shriek upon shriek. The ruffians, satisfied with this savagetriumph, withdrew. The terrified menials, after overcoming the alarmto which they had been subjected, sought their unfortunate mistress inevery direction, but she was nowhere to be found. The miserable husbandreturned next day, and, with the assistance of his people, undertook amore anxious and distant search, but to equally little purpose. Itwas believed universally, that, in the ecstasy of her terror, she musteither have thrown herself over one of the numerous precipices whichoverhang the river, or into a deep lake about a mile from the castle.Her loss was the more lamented, as she was six months advanced inher pregnancy; Angus M'Aulay, her eldest son, having been born abouteighteen months before.--But I tire you, Captain Dalgetty, and you seeminclined to sleep."

  "By no means," answered the soldier; "I am no whit somnolent; I alwayshear best with my eyes shut. It is a fashion I learned when I stoodsentinel."

  "And I daresay," said Lord Menteith, aside to Anderson, "the weight ofthe halberd of the sergeant of the rounds often made him open them."

  Being apparently, however, in the humour of story-telling, the youngnobleman went on, addressing himself chiefly to his servants, withoutminding the slumbering veteran.

  "Every baron in the country," said he, "now swore revenge for thisdreadful crime. They took arms with the relations and brother-in-law ofthe murdered person, and the Children of the Mist were hunted down,I believe, with as little mercy as they had themselves manifested.Seventeen heads, the bloody trophies of their vengeance, weredistributed among the allies, and fed the crows upon the gates of theircastles. The survivors sought out more distant wildernesses, to whichthey retreated."

  "To your right hand, counter-march and retreat to your former ground,"said Captain Dalgetty; the military phrase having produced thecorrespondent word of command; and then starting up, professed he hadbeen profoundly atttentive to every word that had been spoken.

  "It is the custom in summer," said Lord Menteith, without attendingto his apology, "to send the cows to the upland pastures to have thebenefit of the grass; and the maids of the village, and of the family,go there to milk them in the morning and evening. While thus employed,the females of this family, to their great terror, perceived that theirmotions were watched at a distance by a pale, thin, meagre figure,bearing a strong resemblance to their deceased mistress, and passing,of course, for her apparition. When some of the boldest resolved toapproach this faded form, it fled from them into the woods with a wildshriek. The husband, informed of this circumstance, came up to the glenwith some attendants, and took his measures so well as to interceptthe retreat of the unhappy fugitive, and
to secure the person of hisunfortunate lady, though her intellect proved to be totally deranged.How she supported herself during her wandering in the woods could not beknown--some supposed she lived upon roots and wild-berries, with whichthe woods at that season abounded; but the greater part of the vulgarwere satisfied that she must have subsisted upon the milk of the wilddoes, or been nourished by the fairies, or supported in some mannerequally marvellous. Her re-appearance was more easily accounted for. Shehad seen from the thicket the milking of the cows, to superintend whichhad been her favourite domestic employment, and the habit had prevailedeven in her deranged state of mind.

  "In due season the unfortunate lady was delivered of a boy, who not onlyshowed no appearance of having suffered from his mother's calamities,but appeared to be an infant of uncommon health and strength. Theunhappy mother, after her confinement, recovered her reason--at leastin a great measure, but never her health and spirits. Allan was her onlyjoy. Her attention to him was unremitting; and unquestionably she musthave impressed upon his early mind many of those superstitious ideas towhich his moody and enthusiastic temper gave so ready a reception. Shedied when he was about ten years old. Her last words were spoken to himin private; but there is little doubt that they conveyed an injunctionof vengeance upon the Children of the Mist, with which he has sinceamply complied.

  "From this moment, the habits of Allan M'Aulay were totally changed.He had hitherto been his mother's constant companion, listening toher dreams, and repeating his own, and feeding his imagination,which, probably from the circumstances preceding his birth, wasconstitutionally deranged, with all the wild and terrible superstitionsso common to the mountaineers, to which his unfortunate mother hadbecome much addicted since her brother's death. By living in thismanner, the boy had gotten a timid, wild, startled look, loved to seekout solitary places in the woods, and was never so much terrified, asby the approach of children of the same age. I remember, although someyears younger, being brought up here by my father upon a visit, nor canI forget the astonishment with which I saw this infant-hermit shun everyattempt I made to engage him in the sports natural to our age. I canremember his father bewailing his disposition to mine, and alleging, atthe same time, that it was impossible for him to take from his wifethe company of the boy, as he seemed to be the only consolation thatremained to her in this world, and as the amusement which Allan'ssociety afforded her seemed to prevent the recurrence, at least in itsfull force, of that fearful malady by which she had been visited. But,after the death of his mother, the habits and manners of the boy seemedat once to change. It is true he remained as thoughtful and serious asbefore; and long fits of silence and abstraction showed plainly thathis disposition, in this respect, was in no degree altered. But at othertimes, he sought out the rendezvous of the youth of the clan, whichhe had hitherto seemed anxious to avoid. He took share in all theirexercises; and, from his very extraordinary personal strength, soonexcelled his brother and other youths, whose age considerably exceededhis own. They who had hitherto held him in contempt, now feared, if theydid not love him; and, instead of Allan's being esteemed a dreaming,womanish, and feeble-minded boy, those who encountered him in sports ormilitary exercise, now complained that, when heated by the strife, hewas too apt to turn game into earnest, and to forget that he was onlyengaged in a friendly trial of strength.--But I speak to regardlessears," said Lord Menteith, interrupting himself, for the Captain's nosenow gave the most indisputable signs that he was fast locked in the armsof oblivion.

  "If you mean the ears of that snorting swine, my lord," said Anderson,"they are, indeed, shut to anything that you can say; nevertheless, thisplace being unfit for more private conference, I hope you will have thegoodness to proceed, for Sibbald's benefit and for mine. The history ofthis poor young fellow has a deep and wild interest in it."

  "You must know, then," proceeded Lord Menteith, "that Allan continued toincrease in strength and activity, till his fifteenth year, about whichtime he assumed a total independence of character, and impatience ofcontrol, which much alarmed his surviving parent. He was absent in thewoods for whole days and nights, under pretence of hunting, though hedid not always bring home game. His father was the more alarmed, becauseseveral of the Children of the Mist, encouraged by the increasingtroubles of the state, had ventured back to their old haunts, nor didhe think it altogether safe to renew any attack upon them. The riskof Allan, in his wanderings, sustaining injury from these vindictivefreebooters, was a perpetual source of apprehension.

  "I was myself upon a visit to the castle when this matter was broughtto a crisis. Allan had been absent since day-break in the woods, whereI had sought for him in vain; it was a dark stormy night, and he did notreturn. His father expressed the utmost anxiety, and spoke of detachinga party at the dawn of morning in quest of him; when, as we were sittingat the supper-table, the door suddenly opened, and Allan entered theroom with a proud, firm, and confident air. His intractability oftemper, as well as the unsettled state of his mind, had such aninfluence over his father, that he suppressed all other tokens ofdispleasure, excepting the observation that I had killed a fat buck, andhad returned before sunset, while he supposed Allan, who had been onthe hill till midnight, had returned with empty hands. 'Are you sure ofthat?' said Allan, fiercely; 'here is something will tell you anothertale.'

  "We now observed his hands were bloody, and that there were spots ofblood on his face, and waited the issue with impatience; when suddenly,undoing the corner of his plaid, he rolled down on the table a humanhead, bloody and new severed, saying at the same time, 'Lie thou wherethe head of a better man lay before ye.' From the haggard features,and matted red hair and beard, partly grizzled with age, his father andothers present recognised the head of Hector of the Mist, a well-knownleader among the outlaws, redoubted for strength and ferocity, who hadbeen active in the murder of the unfortunate Forester, uncle to Allan,and had escaped by a desperate defence and extraordinary agility,when so many of his companions were destroyed. We were all, it maybe believed, struck with surprise, but Allan refused to gratify ourcuriosity; and we only conjectured that he must have overcome the outlawafter a desperate struggle, because we discovered that he had sustainedseveral wounds from the contest. All measures were now taken to ensurehim against the vengeance of the freebooters; but neither his wounds,nor the positive command of his father, nor even the locking of thegates of the castle and the doors of his apartment, were precautionsadequate to prevent Allan from seeking out the very persons to whom hewas peculiarly obnoxious. He made his escape by night from the window ofthe apartment, and laughing at his father's vain care, produced on oneoccasion the head of one, and upon another those of two, of the Childrenof the Mist. At length these men, fierce as they were, became appalledby the inveterate animosity and audacity with which Allan sought outtheir recesses. As he never hesitated to encounter any odds, theyconcluded that he must bear a charmed life, or fight under theguardianship of some supernatural influence. Neither gun, dirk, nordourlach [DOURLACH--quiver; literally, satchel--of arrows.], theysaid, availed aught against him. They imputed this to the remarkablecircumstances under which he was born; and at length five or six of thestoutest caterans of the Highlands would have fled at Allan's halloo, orthe blast of his horn.

  "In the meanwhile, however, the Children of the Mist carried on theirold trade, and did the M'Aulays, as well as their kinsmen and allies,as much mischief as they could. This provoked another expedition againstthe tribe, in which I had my share; we surprised them effectually, bybesetting at once the upper and under passes of the country, and madesuch clean work as is usual on these occasions, burning and slayingright before us. In this terrible species of war, even the females andthe helpless do not always escape. One little maiden alone, who smiledupon Allan's drawn dirk, escaped his vengeance upon my earnest entreaty.She was brought to the castle, and here bred up under the name of AnnotLyle, the most beautiful little fairy certainly that ever danced upon aheath by moonlight. It was long ere Allan could endure the p
resenceof the child, until it occurred to his imagination, from her featuresperhaps, that she did not belong to the hated blood of his enemies, buthad become their captive in some of their incursions; a circumstancenot in itself impossible, but in which he believes as firmly as in holywrit. He is particularly delighted by her skill in music, which is soexquisite, that she far exceeds the best performers in this country inplaying on the clairshach, or harp. It was discovered that this producedupon the disturbed spirits of Allan, in his gloomiest moods, beneficialeffects, similar to those experienced by the Jewish monarch of old; andso engaging is the temper of Annot Lyle, so fascinating the innocenceand gaiety of her disposition, that she is considered and treated in thecastle rather as the sister of the proprietor, than as a dependent uponhis charity. Indeed, it is impossible for any one to see her withoutbeing deeply interested by the ingenuity, liveliness, and sweetness ofher disposition."

  "Take care, my lord," said Anderson, smiling; "there is danger in suchviolent commendations. Allan M'Aulay, as your lordship describes him,would prove no very safe rival."

  "Pooh! pooh!" said Lord Menteith, laughing, yet blushing at the sametime; "Allan is not accessible to the passion of love; and for myself,"said he, more gravely; "Annot's unknown birth is a sufficient reasonagainst serious designs, and her unprotected state precludes everyother."

  "It is spoken like yourself, my lord," said Anderson.--"But I trust youwill proceed with your interesting story."

  "It is wellnigh finished," said Lord Menteith; "I have only to add, thatfrom the great strength and courage of Allan M'Aulay, from hisenergetic and uncontrollable disposition, and from an opinion generallyentertained and encouraged by himself that he holds communion withsupernatural beings, and can predict future events, the clan pay a muchgreater degree of deference to him than even to his brother, who is abold-hearted rattling Highlander, but with nothing which can possiblyrival the extraordinary character of his younger brother."

  "Such a character," said Anderson, "cannot but have the deepest effecton the minds of a Highland host. We must secure Allan, my lord, at allevents. What between his bravery and his second sight--"

  "Hush!" said Lord Menteith, "that owl is awaking."

  "Do you talk of the second sight, or DEUTERO-SCOPIA?" said the soldier;"I remember memorable Major Munro telling me how Murdoch Mackenzie,born in Assint, a private gentleman in a company, and a pretty soldier,foretold the death of Donald Tough, a Lochaber man, and certain otherpersons, as well as the hurt of the major himself at a sudden onfall atthe siege of Trailsund."

  "I have often heard of this faculty," observed Anderson, "but I havealways thought those pretending to it were either enthusiasts orimpostors."

  "I should be loath," said Lord Menteith, "to apply either characterto my kinsman, Allan M'Aulay. He has shown on many occasions too muchacuteness and sense, of which you this night had an instance, for thecharacter of an enthusiast; and his high sense of honour, and manlinessof disposition, free him from the charge of imposture."

  "Your lordship, then," said Anderson, "is a believer in his supernaturalattributes?"

  "By no means," said the young nobleman; "I think that he persuadeshimself that the predictions which are, in reality, the result ofjudgment and reflection, are supernatural impressions on his mind, justas fanatics conceive the workings of their own imagination to be divineinspiration--at least, if this will not serve you, Anderson, I have nobetter explanation to give; and it is time we were all asleep after thetoilsome journey of the day."