Guy Mannering.

GUY MANXNERINGo 291
lamp beside her, was bent upon that of the dying person.
She moistened his mouth from time to time with some
liquid, and between whiles sung, in a low, monotonous
cadence, one of those prayers, or rather spells, which, in
some parts of Scotland, and the north of England, are
used by the vulgar and ignorant to speed the passage of a
parting spirit, like the tolling of the bell in catholic days.
She accompanied this dismal sound with a slow rocking
motion of her body to and fro, as if to keep time with her
song. The words ran nearly thus:Wasted, weary, wherefore stay,
Wrestling thus with earth and clay?
From the body pass away;Hark! the mass is singing.
From thee doff thy mortal weed,
Mary Mother be thy speed,
Saints to help thee at thy need;Hark! the knell is ringing.
Fear not snow-drift driving fast,
Sleet or hail, or levin blast;
Soon the shroud shall lap thee fast,
And the sleep be on thee cast
That shall ne'er know waking.
Haste thee, haste thee, to be gone,
Earth flits fast, and time draws on,Gasp thy gasp, and groan thy groan,
Day is near the breaking.
The songstress paused, and was answered by one or
two deep and hollow groans, that seemed to proceed from
the very agony of the mortal strife. "'It will not be,"
she muttered to herself; "he cannot pass away with that
on his mind-it tethers him hereHeaven cannot abide it,
Earth refuses to hide it.:
q The mysterious rites in which Meg Merrilies is described as en