Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 4 - 1819.djvu/214

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TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

almost fixed in the sockets, can I discover the face of this Highlander, or even conjecture who he may be, although his person and air seem familiar to me."

"Have you reversed your own plaid!" said Ranald, "according to the rule of the experienced Seers in such cases?"

"I have," answered Allan, speaking low, and shuddering as if with internal agony.

"And in what guise did the phantom then appear to you?" said Ranald.

"With his plaid also reversed," answered Allan, in the same low and convulsed tone.

"Then be assured," said Ranald, "that your own hand, and none other, will do the deed of which you have witnessed the shadow."

"So has my anxious soul an hundred times surmised," replied Allan. "But it is impossible! Were I to read the record in the eternal book of fate, I would declare it impossible—we are bound by the ties of blood, and by an hundred ties more intimate—we have stood side by side in battle,