THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR.
43
CHAPTER IV.
"In which a witch did dwell, in loathly weeds,
And wilful want, all careless of her needs;
So chusing solitary to abide,
Far from all neighbours, that her devilish deeds
And hellish arts from people she might hide,
And hurt far off, unknown, whomever she envied."
Fairy Queen.
The health of Lucy Ashton soon required the assistance of a person more skilled in the office of a sick nurse than the female domestics of the family. Ailsie Gourlay, sometimes called the Wise Woman of Bowden, was the person whom, for her own strong reasons, Lady Ashton selected as an attendant upon her daughter.
This woman had acquired a considerable reputation among the ignorant by the pre-
