Lucy might have despised these tales if they had been related concerning
another family, or if her own situation had been less despondent. But
circumstanced as she was, the idea that an evil fate hung over her
attachment became predominant over her other feelings; and the gloom
of superstition darkened a mind already sufficiently weakened by
sorrow, distress, uncertainty, and an oppressive sense of desertion and
desolation. Stories were told by her attendant so closely resembling her
own in their circumstances, that she was gradually led to converse upon
such tragic and mystical subjects with the beldam, and to repose a sort
of confidence in the sibyl, whom she still regarded with involuntary
shuddering. Dame Gourlay knew how to avail herself of this imperfect
confidence. She directed Lucy's thoughts to the means of inquiring into
futurity--the surest mode perhaps, of shaking the understanding and
destroying the spirits. Omens were expounded, dreams were interpreted,
and other tricks of jugglery perhaps resorted to, by which the pretended
adepts of the period deceived and fascinated their deluded followers.
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