"
"Your lordship, I fear, will experience that the faculty of the
present proprietor to entertain his friends is greatly abridged," said
Ravenswood; "the will, I need hardly say, remains the same. But I am as
much at a loss as your lordship to account for so strong and brilliant a
light as is now above Wolf's Crag; the windows of the Tower are few and
narrow, and those of the lower story are hidden from us by the walls of
the court. I cannot conceive that any illumination of an ordinary nature
could afford such a blaze of light."
The mystery was soon explained; for the cavalcade almost instantly
halted, and the voice of Caleb Balderstone was heard at the coach
window, exclaiming, in accents broken by grief and fear, "Och,
gentlemen! Och, my gude lords! Och, haud to the right! Wolf's Crag is
burning, bower and ha'--a' the rich plenishing outside and inside--a'
the fine graith, pictures, tapestries, needle-wark, hangings, and other
decorements--a' in a bleeze, as if they were nae mair than sae mony
peats, or as muckle pease-strae! Haud to the right, gentlemen, I implore
ye; there is some sma' provision making at Luckie Sma'trash's; but oh,
wae for this night, and wae for me that lives to see it!"
Ravenswood was first stunned by this new and unexpected calamity; but
after a moment's recollection he sprang from the carriage, and hastily
bidding his noble kinsman goodnight, was about to ascend the hill
towards the castle, the broad and full conflagration of which now flung
forth a high column of red light, that flickered far to seaward upon the
dashing waves of the ocean.
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