Excerpt from Tales and Sketches, by the Ettrick Shepherd, Vol. 1 It was a season of calamity and awful interest. From the midst of thatinhospitable wilderness, from those dark morasses, and unfrequented caverns, the prayers of the persecuted race nightly rose to the throne of the Almighty; prayers, as all testified who heard them, fraught with the most simple pathos, as well as bold and vehement sublimity. In the solemn gloom of the evening, after the last rays of day had disappeared, and again in the morning before the ruddy streaks began to paint the east; yea, often at the deepest hours of midnight, songs of praise were sung to that being under whose fatherly chastisement they were patiently suffering. These hymns, always chanted With ardour and wild melody, and borne afar on'the light breezes of the twilight, were often heard at a great dis tance, causing no little consternation to the remote dwel lers of that mountain region. The heart of the shep herd grew chill, and his hairs stood on end, as he hasted home to alarm the cottage circle with a tale of horror. For, besides this'solemn and unearthly music, he perceiv ed lights moving about by night in wilds and in caverns where human thing had never resided, and where foot of man 'had never trod, and be deemed that legions of spiritual creatures had once more taken possession of his solitary dens. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.