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GUY MANNERING.
291

"Hagel! if I had him but by the throat!—and what am I to do then?"

"Do?" answered the gypsey, "Die like a man, or be hanged like a dog!"

"Hanged, ye hag of Satan!—the hemp's not sown that shall hang me."

"It's sown, and it's grown, and it's heckled, and it's twisted. Did I not tell ye when ye wad take away the boy Harry Bertram, in spite of my prayers,—did I not say he would come back when he had dree'd his wierd in foreign land till his twenty-first year?—Did I not say the auld fire would burn down to a spark, but wald kindle again?"

"Well, mother, you did say so; and, donner and blitzen! I believe you spoke the truth—that younker of Ellangowan has been a rock a-head to me all my life! and now, with Glossin's cursed contrivance, my crew have been cut off, my boats destroyed, and I dare say the lugger's taken—there were not men enough to work her,