said she, addressing her followers, "Wonders have been multiplied to night. Behold the third sign!-the third, the sure, the long looked-for sign, even a sign sensible to the touch, the golden time is at hand." All heads were again bowed to the ground. Descending from our place, we passed through the congregation, and walking down the western side of the hill, found ourselves in the midst of a rustic encampment. This was a circular village of booths or tents, fenced round with green boughs, with a marquee of considerable magnitude in the middle. Into this rural sheiling, which I soon found was neither inelegant nor incommodious, I entered with the chieftainess. No one followed. The interior was laid out in that style of simplicity which poets call patriarchal. A table of green turf neatly cut, and seated round with the same native material, occupied the middle; a part of the tent was curtained off, and through a kind of side door I observed a couch, covered with blankets which the white fleece of the Cheviots could alone rival. The rest of this devotional establishment was past all praise; for the white hands of the chieftainess produced from a large bottle called the "Comforter," and from a sack labelled "Mercy's Property," sundry infallible restoratives, after the enthusiastic and violent exercises I had lately witnessed. The said Comforter yielded pure and powerful wine, and the scrip of mercy yielded charming viands, even two fat, broiled, barn-door hens, and abundance of knuckled cakes, well browned on the embers. The chieftainess placed me on a seat, saying in an under-tone, "Youth, I have long looked for thee:-mind my words, be prudent and be wise;"-then raising her voice, she said, "Damsel come forth;" and lo! from the curtained recess came forth a tall and lovely young woman. Her dress was the same as her sister-devotees; her locks, a glistering golden brown, came clustering in masses over a neck long and round,

and glossy as polished marble, and her face had that native, and meek, and gentle composure, which men have so much admired in the lovely twin children from the chisel of immortal Chantrey, over whom so many mothers have wept. Seating herself in silence beside us, we made a rapid inroad on "Mercy's Property;" and by repeated applications to the comforter,—worthy of the name,―we drained it dry; for you may guess it partook not of the excellent virtue of the famous fairy cup of Auchencrieth, which was fated to be always brimful of noble wine, and which the protracted devotion of the thirstiest lips could never diminish, till that sighing saint, Sandy Dargavel, unbonneted and blessed it ere he would drink; at every word of the grace it inlaked an inch, and was as dry ever after as the fool's throat when he finished his ill-timed benediction. There is a time for all things, said a wise man; and even so say I, that never pretended to wisdom.

After this grateful refreshment, I stretched myself on the grass of the tent-floor, carefully wrapped in the large white wool mantle of the chieftainess. These mantles of undyed wool were the favourite production of the lowland loom in ancient times. For the manufacture of her pure and delicate " Whytes," Dumfries was once famous over Europe; but now she has taken to the devouring of luxuries, and left off fabricating them. Truly she can do nought but eat and drink and dance:-Goodly accomplishments!

Early in the morning I was awoke by the whispering of some one near me. I lay quiet, and I immediately distinguished the voice of the elder lady of Lagg. She was addressing her younger companion. "I tell thee this sleeping youth is the latest token before the coming of the happy time. But beware damsel, even by thy baptismal name I warn thee to beware-beware Jenny Jimpansma, thy dominion is not one of loving

BOETHIUS.

looks, and the worship of young men's eyes. When I am translated, and that time is nigh,-thou shalt have my mantle and my rule; but if thou mixest worldly rule with thy dominion, thy power shall fade as fast as these boughs have withered, and they were plucked green yesternight." So saying they departed, and I walked forth into the beaming of the new-risen sun, and the fragrance of the mountain air. The wild enthusiasts of last night existed only in my remembrance, for assuredly the altered scene which I now witnessed might have gone far to persuade me, that the unbridled devotion I beheld at midnight was the visioned pageant of some disturbed dream. Nature and all her works wore the sober and sedate livery of simple rusticity and labour. On a swelling knoll at the sunny side of the hill, I found the women all orderly and silently ranged, and seated on the grass. They were busy with roke and with wheel, manufacturing flaxen thread. Others were summing the amount of their companions' labours on the check reel, at that time not a very old invention, but a very excellent one, and which superseded the ancient mode of numbering the threads audibly as the reel turned round. It's worth hearing how it was invented.-Honest Johnie Tamson of Tupthairm, whose boast it was that he could make a wheel and spin on't—and make a fiddle and play on't, happened once to return home from a market-day carousal rather late, and found his wife numbering her threads in the primitive manner. The thrifty dame, unwilling to stay her labour even for the pleasant pastime of scolding, mingled her admonition and her numbers together, "Where have ye been a' day?-seven-and-twenty-synding yere hawse wi' my thrift-aught-and-twenty—if ye get a sark o' this-nine-and-twenty -may the deel rive't off yere backand that makes thirty." And so he invented the check reel, and ever after obtained his matrimonial admonishments pure and unmixed. To talk of a check reel is no great digression in a tale about thread; so, as I was saying, these maidens were busy making thread, and thread more evenly, firm, and fine, never came cross the haddles. All the male devotees had departed, and on looking down the hill I observed them marching off in groupes in

various directions, with their sickles in their hands, to the neighbouring corn-fields, for harvest was generally begun; and these men, many in the morn, and all in the vigour of life, were willing and excellent labourers. Nor have I heard, that the expected coming of the golden times on earth ever relaxed their exertions--so necessary is labour for man, and so conducive to happiness is the possession of some useful or visible employment. The earnings of the congregation were deposited in the tent of “our Lady," so they invariably styled their conductress; and as their wants were few their money increased. The capacious Sack of Mercy, and the Gardduvin, called the Comforter, were often replenished by the open hospitality of neighbouring lairds, who came to examine our lady's rural encampment, and oftener by the private donations of opulent dames, who held a half, or kind of twilight belief, in the stability of the prophecies so plentifully scattered over the country from the Hill of Lagg. On another part of the hill, two brothers, as it happened by birth as well as belief, were employed in manufacturing spinning wheels-the larger as well as the less, and likewise reels and rokes. This latter implement no longer graces the bosoms of the young maids; and it is rare to meet with one unless in the hand of some very old person, who wishes to be singular, or has an ancient affection for this portable, ladylike, but dilatory instrument. Such at that time were the staple commodities of the district. The ingenuity and beauty of the works of the two brothers, together with the fame of this singular and harmless people, brought many purchasers, and the wealth of the congregation began to grow proverbial.

As the golden time was reckoned nigh-when care and sorrow would cease on earth-when heaven would extend its limits, and mortals would become immortal, marriage was reckoned an idle and a barren ceremony. Children were works of supererogation; or as one of the female disciples said, as she gazed down the vale of Nith, and saw the whole fragrant vista, as far as Dumfries, moving with children playing in the sun as thick as that luminary" motts," "The Pot of Nith," said she, "shall soon cease to swarm with these dancing deevils." But though

wedlock made no part of their institutions, and children mixed not in the train of this moving camp, yet the decorum of their conduct was remarkable and exemplary. Nor was this excursion over the hill-tops of Dumfriesshire undertaken for the purpose alone of picking up men of loose faith, or women of weak and docile belief; of these they attracted few, and though they obtained the personal attendance and support of some men of education, yet they made few permanent converts. The charm of novelty soon wore off, and the prophetic powers of our Lady received some notable and alarming checks, which staggered men of infirm or imperfect faith, and diminished the chance of swelling her congregation with rustic and enthusiastic recruits from the dales of Dumfries. There were other motives for this inroad than the love and the hope of conversion. Many of our Lady's followers were men of substance, whom the sorcery of her conversation had carried from wealthy farms and lucrative callings. Though, in matters of faith, they did not act like wise and prudent men, yet this infirmity they carried not into less elevated speculation, they had regularly surveyed the unappropriated farms as they proceeded, with the resolution of selecting some retired pastoral valley or hill where their wanderings might find a home. As they were scrupulously just and equitable in their dealings, and intruded not upon the faith of their neighbours, they began to obtain extensive respect; and many who lamented the folly of their faith, courted their acquaintance from their dispositions, and the active morality of their Lady. It was eagerly expected by the congregation, that the Lagg hill, with a suitable accompaniment of lowland, would be obtained on lease, and in this they would probably have succeeded, had not an ominous accident obliged them to remove into Galloway.

On the evening before I commenced my acquaintance with these respectable enthusiasts, the whole congregation, with our Lady at their head, moved to the summit of a neighbouring hill to feel the pulses of the stars, and had already begun to plant their circular palisade of boughs. Meantime a crowd of peasants from a neighbouring parish, hearing that the rarest

fortune-teller that ever cut cards, or consulted horny palms, had pitched her tent on Lagg Hill, and that a swarm of bonny lasses always attended her, to be in the way of men, anxious to be married, immediately scaled the encampment, calling out for our Lady. In vain Jenny Jimpansma, a douce and determined damsel, who had been left behind, assured them, that the Lady was a prophetess, commissioned to reveal to men more important and mysterious matters than any regarding cattle, or the domestic joys of wedlock. Some of them laughed; but the majority, incensed at this intrusion of people of motley faith, on the very dominions of the kirk, declared they would break up her establishment, and began to pluck up the palisade of boughs, while others, who professed a more tractable system of morality, plundered the Sack of Mercy, and even drained the Comforter to the lees. One of them, a tippling blacksmith, began to examine and prove the merits of the lock which secured the coffer that contained the accumulated wealth of the people, when he was impeded by the guardian damsel, who, seizing him by the hair of his head, fairly plucked him out of the tent. He uttered an oath, (which, as it was no common one, and might become current in this land of hard swearing, I shall forbear to repeat) and, breaking from the maiden's hands, assailed the coffer with a fist and a gripe nearly rivalling in hardness and force, his own hand hammer and vice. On this the damsel lifted up her voice three successive times, and the whole congregation, quitting their orgies, hastened to the rescue. When they arrived, the rustic invaders had retreated down the eastern side of the hill; and as they had taken nothing that could be retrieved, no pursuit took place.

Many of the neighbouring farmers, incensed at this unprovoked attack on the property of peaceable people, pursued the delinquents with hue and cry. Our lady, with infinite kindness, instantly interposed, said the young men had taken nothing but what they were welcome to take; and if they would oblige her by another visit, she would give them a sound advice and a good supper. This occurrence, however, made her resolve to leave Nithsdale-it was inauspicious and

ominous, and orders were issued that in three days they were to pass the water of Dalgoner, and encamp in the centre of ancient Galloway. This announcement did not stop for a moment the industry of the women, or the labours of the men; and on the evening following, it was resolved, that forty of the prime of the reapers, with our lady at their head, should, in return for the kindness of a Nithsdale farmer, proceed in the morning to reap one of his largest and ripest fields. The men, accustomed to obedience, began to whet their sickles, and the lady proceeded to select forth one of her finest mantles, and one of her richest hoods, in order that she might be seen among men of a different faith in proper state and dignity. In the midst of this preparation, the approach of two strangers was announced-the congregation quitting their labours, as sembled on all sides, with our Lady in the middle; who, seated on a chair of turf, began to preach, and admonish, and instruct, evidently with the wish of presenting an imposing and solemn front to strangers. The heads of two men rose above the summit of the hill, and halting, one of them expressed a wish to converse with our Lady-the audience was granted, and the strangers were conducted into the inner circle of devotees, close to the Lady's chair. The eldest stranger, a tall stately man, in the prime of life, said he was sorry to find that some foolish young men had forgot the courtesy and kindness that all men owed to each other, and had plundered her Ladyship's tent; as a small atonement he had brought some of the common comforts of existence, which he would feel grateful in finding were thought worthy of acceptance." "Miles Cameron," said our Lady, " for this was thy own father, thy gifts are welcome -thy visit is welcomer still. It is my wish, and the wish of my people, to respect and esteem gentle maidens, and generous men. I know thee, and I have known thee long. Thou art worthy of becoming even as one of us; but thy time, perchance, is not yet come. With tomorrow's sun we descend even into thy corn fields to shew our liking of thee by our deeds; and on the following day, we worship upon this hill; and then with the next sun, we pass into Galloway." Thy father said, "" any thing from thy

hand-I am sorry we are to be so soon deprived of the excellent example of thy people, and the precepts of thyself." So saying, he withdrew to bring forward his presents, which twelve strong rustics had found a hardship to drag up the hill. "James, James," said our Lady, addressing thy father's companion, who was a north country gardener, and a shrewd man, "leave off tilling Mr Copland's garden, and come and dig in the garden of the Lord." "Eh! conscience!" said the irreverent highlander," he was nae owre kind to the last gardener he had," referring, no doubt, to the expulsion of Adam from Paradise. On your father's return, our Lady seated him beside her, and informed him of her wishes to obtain the lease of an extensive farm, far removed from town or village, where they could follow their calling, and practise their religious duties and rites free from fear or intrusion. She then descanted upon the extensive commission confided to her alone, of preaching the coming of the golden time, and drew a glowing picture of the future delights of man on earth. She was much impeded, she said, in accomplishing this goodly toil, by the sorry clinging of men to their gains and their traditional delusions; nor did this world lack men, who, pretending to conform to her tenets, and measure their conduct by her rules, were secretly plotting the ruin of all morality and faith. On uttering this she arose, and looking round in silence on her people, seated herself again, and said, "Among us, even on this hill, there is one with an unhallowed foot, who follows us as the raven doth the flock, to fatten on the fairest. But the croak of the evil bird is a warning one-the song of this false follower may be mistaken for that of love." She then pulled forth a paper, and, slanting it to the moon-beam, read, with an audible voice, the following ballad.