232 THE LAST DAY AT CIIEE-I1A. 



c Kec Deus intersit nisi nodus vindice dignus,' is 

 tlie safer maxim." 



" There is great force in what you say," I re- 

 joined; "but how can we reason against the evi- 

 dence of our senses. I have not seen ghosts, but I 

 have had visions /" 



The hunters, who were seated loungingly about 

 the table, playing with their glasses, started at this 

 avowal, as if a ghost had taken a seat among them. 



" Explain ! tell us what you mean ! can you be 

 in earnest ?" 



But, before a word could be uttered 



" Ho ! ho ! ho ! ho !" interrupted the Laird, who 

 had waked up at this moment, from a sort of 

 "brown study" to which he was subject and 

 caught up the thread that we had dropped " will 

 you suffer him to gull you at this rate ? ' Mark 

 you how a plain tale shall set him down.' This ro- 

 mantic story is woven out of mere cob-web. This 

 old May, whom he would invest with the dignity of 

 a poetical personage, was nothing more than a sod- 

 den-headed sot, who loved his bottle better than 

 anything in life ; and this is the clue to lead us to the 

 understanding of a conduct not otherwise easy to be 

 explained. How do I know this? you will say. 

 Don't bother me, and you shall hear. It happened 

 that I was galloping after the hounds which were 



