" Dame Gourlay's tales
were at first of a mild and interesting character--
Of fays that nightly dance upon the wold,
And lovers doom'd to wander and to weep,
And castles high, where wicked wizards keep
Their captive thralls.
Gradually, however, they assumed a darker and more mysterious character,
and became such as, told by the midnight lamp, and enforced by the
tremulous tone, the quivering and livid lip, the uplifted skinny
forefinger, and the shaking head of the blue-eyed hag, might have
appalled a less credulous imagination in an age more hard of belief. The
old Sycorax saw her advantage, and gradually narrowed her magic circle
around the devoted victim on whose spirit she practised. Her legends
began to relate to the fortunes of the Ravenswood family, whose ancient
grandeur and portentous authority credulity had graced with so many
superstitious attributes. The story of the fatal fountain was narrated
at full length, and with formidable additions, by the ancient sibyl. The
prophecy, quoted by Caleb, concerning the dead bride who was to be won
by the last of the Ravenswoods, had its own mysterious commentary;
and the singular circumstance of the apparition seen by the Master of
Ravenswood in the forest, having partly transpired through his
hasty inquiries in the cottage of Old Alice, formed a theme for many
exaggerations.
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