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The Black Dwarf-Part4_WALTER SCOTT(1771-1832)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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diabolical partners.

Once upon a time this old hag is said to have crossed the moor,



driving before her a flock of geese, which she proposed to sell

to advantage at a neighbouring fair;--for it is well known that



the fiend, however liberal in imparting his powers of doing

mischief, ungenerously leaves his allies under the necessity of



performing the meanest rustic labours for subsistence. The day

was far advanced, and her chance of obtaining a good price



depended on her being first at the market. But the geese, which

had hitherto preceded her in a pretty orderly manner, when they



came to this wide common, interspersed with marshes and pools of

water, scattered in every direction, to plunge into the element



in which they delighted. Incensed at the obstinacy with which

they defied all her efforts to collect them, and not remembering



the precise terms of the contract by which the fiend was bound to

obey her commands for a certain space, the sorceress exclaimed,



"Deevil, that neither I nor they ever stir from this spot more!"

The words were hardly uttered, when, by a metamorphosis as sudden



as any in Ovid, the hag and her refractory flock were converted

into stone, the angel whom she served, being a strict formalist,



grasping eagerly at an opportunity of completing the ruin of her

body and soul by a literal obedience to her orders. It is said,



that when she perceived and felt the transformation which was

about to take place, she exclaimed to the treacherous fiend, "Ah,



thou false thief! lang hast thou promised me a grey gown, and

now I am getting ane that will last for ever." The dimensions of



the pillar, and of the stones, were often appealed to, as a proof

of the superior stature and size of old women and geese in the



days of other years, by those praisers of the past who held the

comfortable opinion of the gradual degeneracy of mankind.



All particulars of this legend Hobbie called to mind as he passed

along the moor. He also remembered, that, since the catastrophe



had taken place, the scene of it had been avoided, at least after

night-fall, by all human beings, as being the ordinary resort of



kelpies, spunkies, and other demons, once the companions of the

witch's diabolical revels, and now continuing to rendezvous upon



the same spot, as if still in attendance on their transformed

mistress. Hobbie's natural hardihood, however, manfully combated



with these intrusive sensations of awe. He summoned to his side

the brace of large greyhounds, who were the companions of his



sports, and who were wont, in his own phrase, to fear neither dog

nor devil; he looked at the priming of his piece, and, like the



clown in Hallowe'en, whistled up the warlike ditty of Jock of the

Side, as a general causes his drums be beat to inspirit the



doubtful courage of his soldiers.

In this state of mind, he was very glad to hear a friendly voice



shout in his rear, and propose to him a partner on the road. He

slackened his pace, and was quickly joined by a youth well known



to him, a gentleman of some fortune in that remote country, and

who had been abroad on the same errand with himself. Young



Earnscliff, "of that ilk," had lately come of age, and succeeded

to a moderate fortune, a good deal dilapidated, from the share



his family had taken in the disturbances of the period. They

were much and generally respected in the country; a reputation



which this young gentleman seemed likely to sustain, as he was




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