Guy Mannering.

GUY MANNERING. 143
Another opinion, which was also plausibly supported,
went to charge this horrid crime upon the late tenants
of Derncleugh. They were known to have resented
highly the conduct of the Laird of Ellangowan towards
them, and to have used threatening expressions, which
every one supposed them capable of carrying into effect.
The kidnapping the child was a crime much more consistent with their habits than with those of smugglers, and
his temporary guardian might have fallen in an attempt
to protect him. Besides, it was remembered that Kennedy had been an active agent, two or three days before,
in the forcible expulsion of these people from Derncleugh,
and that harsh and menacing language had been exchanged between him and some of the Egyptian patriarchs on that memorable occasion.
The Sheriff received also the depositions of the unfortunate father and his servant, concerning what had passed
at their meeting the caravan of gipsies, as they left the
estate of Ellangowan. The speech of Meg AMerrilies
seemed particularly suspicious. There was, as the magistrate observed in his law language, damnnum minatumna damage, or evil turn, threatened, and mnlzum secutuzman evil of the very kind predicted, shortly afterwards
following. A young woman, who had been gatherilng
nuts in Warroch wood upon the fatal day, was also
strongly of opinion, though she declined to make positive
oath, that she had seen Meg Merrilies, at least a woman
of her remarkable size and appearance, start suddenly out
of a thicket-she said she had called to her by name, but,
as the figure turned from her, and made no answer, she
was uncertain if it were the gipsy or her wraith, and was
afraid to go nearer to one who was always reckoned, in
the vulgar phrase, no canny. This vague story received