I
was seized with terrors indefinable, and prayed fervently, but did
not attempt rousing my sleeping companion until I saw if no
better could be done. The women, however, were alarmed, and,
rushing into our apartment, exclaimed that all the devils in hell
were besieging the house. Then, indeed, the landlord awoke, and
it was time for him, for the tumult had increased to such a degree
that it shook the house to its foundations, being louder and more
furious than I could have conceived the heat of battle to be when
the volleys of artillery are mixed with groans, shouts, and
blasphemous cursing. It thundered and lightened; and there were
screams, groans, laughter. and execrations, all intermingled.
I lay trembling and bathed in a cold perspiration, but was soon
obliged to bestir myself, the inmates attacking me one after the
other.
"Oh, Tam Douglas! Tam Douglas! haste ye an' rise out frayont
that incarnal devil!" cried the wife. "Ye are in ayont the auld ane
himsel, for our lass Tibbie saw his cloven cloots last night."
"Lord forbid!" roared Tam Douglas, and darted over the bed like
a flying fish. Then, hearing the unearthly tumult with which he
was surrounded, he turned to the side of the bed, and addressed
me thus, with long and fearful intervals:
"If ye be the Deil, rise up, an' depart in peace out o' this house--
afore the bedstrae take kindling about ye, an' than it'll maybe be
the waur for ye.
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