1828.] The Elder's Journey. 171 



sounds came nearer, and the sense of touch was next invaded ; he felt 

 hands feeling about his neck, and drawing him by the legs ; and at last, 

 with the courage of despair, he raised himself on his hinder end, arid 

 suffered the mufflings to be removed from his face. It was the dawn of 

 morning, and he looked round bewildered. The ditch, or sea, which 

 had given him so much alarm, was a collection of muddy water, in the 

 rut of a coach wheel ; before him, on the opposite side of the road, stood 

 an ancient-looking house, with the sign of a punch-bowl on the shutter 

 of the window next the door, and several night-capp'd heads protruding 

 from the higher apertures of the building, surmounting faces, which 

 appeared gazing with eager curiosity on the foundered traveller ; while 

 on each side of him, ministered two human forms, one male, and one 

 female. The latter, taking the precedence due to her sex, exclaimed, in a 

 tone of anger and surprise, <f In his name, wha have we here, routing 

 like a whole herd of riowts, at this time o' the morning ?" 



" How long wilt thou be drunken ? When wilt thou put away thy 

 wine from thee?" said the other, in a sanctified and sepulchral tone, 

 which fell upon the ear of Ebenezer like the sound of the last trumpet 

 for it was the voice of Timothy ! Turning away sickening from the 

 severe eye and marble features of the man of Skreigh, the elder, applying 

 to her of the gentle sex, demanded, in the manner at once of solemn 

 adjuration and pathetic entreaty " Tell me, woman, I pray thee, in the 

 name of all goodness, where am I ?" 



" Whare am I ? quo he," answered the landlady, " Whare suld ye 

 be, ye doited body, but at the inn o' Shott's?" 



" The inn o' Shotts !" said Eben, wrathfully, " Thou liest, woman, 

 and the truth is not in thee ! I left Dodrum last night, in the King's 

 coach, and, of a surety, before I had journeyed a dozen miles, the man of 

 JBelial left me on the road even here before I was aware, passing by, 

 like the Levite, on the other side." 



" The Gospel according to St. Luke, tenth chapter, thirty-first and 

 thirty-second verses," interrupted Timothy. 



" And yet in truth," Ebenezer continued, (C there was then no house, 

 nor even a dyke, nor any workmanship whatsoever of men's hands beside 

 me and methought the sea, or some great ditch, was behind, into which 

 my foot was slipping continually, notwithstanding that I held on, like 

 grim death, to the bank ; and methought, although it might peradventure 

 be only a ditch, yet it was wider than could be spanned by the legs of a 

 man, and deeper than the well Haran, as ye go up to Nahor, in the land of 

 the people of the east." 



" Genesis twenty-nine the second verse," said Timothy. 



" Of a surety this is the work of the enemy !" concluded Ebenezer, 

 looking up, in fear and perplexity, into the face of the elder of 

 Skreigh. 



" Yea of the enemy !" said Timothy, stepping upon the ledge of 

 the footpath, where he poised himself gracefully, and extended his arms 

 over his prostrate victim " of the spirit, of the lusts of the flesh, and of 

 the abomination of drunkenness ! Look at thy garments covered with 

 glaur, and thy foot with foul water ; consider thy desolate condition, 

 lying all night in the public road, and an open house on the other side of 

 the way ; thy vain imaginations anent oceans and ditches thy groans 

 and snorings while wallowing in the mire of thy filthiness ! ' Who 

 hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath contentions ? who hath 



Z 2 



