Guy Mannering.

302 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
and the remaining three, two of whom were the seamen,
very strong men, still remained in garrison.
After the space of about half an hour, one of those who
had departed again returned, and whispered the others.
They wrapped up the dead body in the sea-cloak which
had served as a pall, and went out bearing it along with
them. The aged sibyl then rose from her real or feigned
slumbers. She first went to the door, as if for the purpose of watching the departure of her late inmates, then
returned, and commanded Brown, in a low and stifled
voice, to follow her instantly. He obeyed; but, on leaving the hut he would willingly have repossessed himself
of his money, or papers at least; but this she prohibited
in the most peremptory manner. It immediately occurred
to him that the suspicion of' having removed any thing,
of which he might repossess himself, would fall upon this
woman, by whom, in all probability, his life had been
saved. He therefore immediately desisted from his attempt, contenting himself with seizing a cutlass, which
one of the ruffians had flung aside among the straw. On
his feet, and possessed of this weapon, he already found
himself half delivered from the dangers which beset him.
Still, however, he felt stiffened and cramped, both with
the cold, and by the constrained and unaltered position
which he had occupied all night. But as he followed the
gipsy from the door of the hut, the fresh air of the mornillg, and the action of walking, restored circulation and
activity to his benumbed limbs.
The pale light of a winter's morning was rendered
more clear by the snow, which was lying all around,
crisped by the influence of a severe frost. Brown cast a
hasty glance at the landscape around him, that he might
be able again to know the spot. The little tower, of which