Fiction > Book editions > London, 1893 - Catriona

28 CAITJONA.
saw at the doorsteps talked in a strange tongue ; and
I found out later that this was Picardy, a village where
the French weavers Avrought for the Linen Company.
Here I got a fresh direction for Pilrig, my destina-
tion ; and a little beyond, on the wayside, came by a
gibbet and two men hanged in chains. They Avere
dipped in tar, as the manner is ; the wind span them,
the chains clattered, and the birds hung about the
uncanny jumping-jacks and cried. The sight coming
on me suddenly, like an illustration of my fears, I
could scarce be done with examining it and drinking
in discomfort. And as I thus turned and turned about
the gibbet, what should I strike on, but a weird old
wife, that sat behind a leg of it, and nodded, and
talked aloud to herself with becks and courtesies.
"Who are these two, mother?" I asked, and
pointed to the corpses.
" A blessing on your precious face ! " she cried.
" Twa joes* o' mine : just twa o' my old joos, my hinny
dear."
" What did they suffei' for ? " I asked.
" Ou, just for the guid cause," said she. " Aften I
spaed to them the way that it would end. Twa
shillin' Scots : no pickle mair ; and there are twa
bonny callants hingin' for 't ! They took it frae a
weant belanged to Brouchton."
" Ay ! " said I to myself, and not to the daft
limmer, '' and did they come to such a figure for so
poor a business ? This is to lose all indeed."
"Gie's your loof,j hinny," says she, "and let me
spao your weird to ye."
* Sweethearts. f Child. X Palm.