Begone, and look not behind you.

Tell Jeanie Deans, that when the moon rises I shall expect to meet her at Nicol Muschat's Cairn, beneath Saint Anthony's Chapel." [Illustration: St.Anthony's Chapel--159] As he uttered these words, he turned and took the road against the hill, with a haste that seemed as peremptory as his tone of authority.
Dreading he knew not what of additional misery to a lot which seemed little capable of receiving augmentation, and desperate at the idea that any living man should dare to send so extraordinary a request, couched in terms so imperious, to the half-betrothed object of his early and only affection, Butler strode hastily towards the cottage, in order to ascertain how far this daring and rude gallant was actually entitled to press on Jeanie Deans a request, which no prudent, and scarce any modest young woman, was likely to comply with.
Butler was by nature neither jealous nor superstitious; yet the feelings which lead to those moods of the mind were rooted in his heart, as a portion derived from the common stock of humanity.

It was maddening to think that a profligate gallant, such as the manner and tone of the stranger evinced him to be, should have it in his power to command forth his future bride and plighted true love, at a place so improper, and an hour so unseasonable.

Yet the tone in which the stranger spoke had nothing of the soft half-breathed voice proper to the seducer who solicits an assignation; it was bold, fierce, and imperative, and had less of love in it than of menace and intimidation.
The suggestions of superstition seemed more plausible, had Butler's mind been very accessible to them.

Was this indeed the Roaring Lion, who goeth about seeking whom he may devour?
This was a question which pressed itself on Butler's mind with an earnestness that cannot be conceived by those who live in the present day.