Illustrated Article. A SEA STORY. BY THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD. So lately as forty years ago, and upward time out of mind, the woollen manufactures of Scotland were principally supplied from the cottages and from the kitchens of the farmers. Over the whole of the lowland districts the muckle wheel was plied early and late. The old women carded, and the young ones span; and a more graceful employment for a handsome young woman never existed, as she flew backward and forward over the floor. Many cottagers depended solely on the sale of this yarn for their bread. The goodman's earnings were laid out in the purchase of wool, which his wife and daughters spun into yarn: and for this commodity there was always a certain demand and ready money; for the country swarmed with yarn-merchants, and among them there was a good deal of rivalry; so that there was little danger of the holder not making the most of it. VOL. VI. 2 C See Page 401 Among other itinerants was one Jolin Robson, a very old man, but a great favourite with the wives. He had plenty of money, plenty of long prayers and graces, and plenty of long romantic stories of battles and perils by land and water; and with those advantages, John contrived to get the best bargains all over the country, and was sure of a snug lodging when night overtook him. Among his stories there was one which I heard him tell twice or thrice over, and which I remember very well, save that I do not recollect the place from whence the vessel sailed on her voyage homeward to the Clyde; but I think it was from some port in Spain. I shall tell it in John's own words, or, at least, in his own peculiar way. "We were sailing and sailing as sweetly afore a gentle breeze as ever rippled the sea, when ae morning after break o' day, we saw something floating lightly o'er and o'er the waves, like a buoy; and when it was pointed out to the captain, he had some curiosity to see what it was, and made us luff to come up with it. And what was it but 162 a boy, sitting crying in a wicker basket! We were a' terribly astonished how the creature was preserved; for the basket was just like another basket; the water gaed through and through it as fast as it likit; but the lightness o't keepit it afloat. We hanled in the poor object without a moment's delay, or the least hesitation, and then he cried for his creel, until we were obliged to bring it on board likewise. "As soon as we got time to look at him, we didna like him unco weel. He was a creature about four feet lang, wi' an auld withered face, like a fairy, or some o' thae half-earthly half-hellish beings. We gae him different kinds o' meat, and he eatit like mad, and seemed hardly ever to be satisfied. He spoke very readily, and very prettily too, but it was in a language that no ane o' us could understand a word of; sae we could neither learn what he was nor wha he was. "But I think he hadna been ten minutes aboard, when we heard a kind o' crash in the rigging o' the top-gallant, and at the same time the ship gae a rock like a cradle. What the devil's that?' cried the captain. Every man declared his ignorance of the matter, for at that time we felt no difference of the breeze on deck, and saw not the slightest symptoms of an approaching gale; and while we were all standing gazing to see if we could discern from whence the shock proceeded, we heard a kind of moaning in the shrouds, like a wind wi' a voice in it; and in a few minutes crash went the upper shrouds a second time, and reel went the ship with double violence. The captain was now terribly alarmed at a thing sae contrair to a' that he had ever seen before; however, he commanded us to reef with all expedition, as there seemed a kind o' whirlwind descending on us. Never will I forget that morning; for, without the least prelude or appearance of a storm, the wind came on us thud after thud, and aye the last the loudest, till we were soon in the middle of sic a turmoil as e'e o' man never saw. The wind daddit us, and cuffed us, whiles on the ae side and whiles on the other, till at one time I really believed the ship was whirled up in the air. The beam wrappit about backward and forward, knocking a' down that came before it; the rigging crashed, and the jib-sail went to tatters. All was utter confusion; and we were sometimes running in one direction, and instantly again in another. The waves o' the sea werena rowing away before the gale wi' full sweep, but they were boiling and clashing against each other. The thunder roared, the tire flashed, and the hailstanes rattled; and there were we towering to the cludds, and then down with a dive into the channels o' the ocean. We gaed sae deep at ae time that I heard our keel play rusk against the gravel and sludge in the bottom. "In short, as the hurricane had an unnatural beginning, so there wasna ae naturnal thing in it, and it was the greatest miracle that I ever saw how we escapit a' wi' life; but what need I say that? for our time hadna been come, nor the number o' our days fulfilled. At length there comes an auld man astern, and he says, Captain M'Nicol, it strikes me that there's an Achan in the camp, a Jonah on shipboard; and it is better that he share the lot o' the prophet than that we should a' perish.— Take an auld foggie's word for it, captain, this is nae natural convulsion of the elements, and it is my confirmed opinion that the creature we took out o' the weltering waves, sailing in a creel forsooth, is either a murderer, or a deil, or at the very least a water-kelpie.' "The words gaed to the captain's heart, for, as he held on with both hands, he spake not a word, but stared wildly round him. There is no doubt that the whole of the circumstances taken together struck him as having a most ominous appearance, but yet he was mair awit than I could hae expecti!. At length he said, ' What the deil shall we do? As it is, we must now go to the bottom in a few minutes, or perhaps seconds, for the sea is going on like a boiling cauldron.' "Just pop the imp overboard into his native element,' said the old man, 'unless you wish every soul on board to perish. There's nae fear o' him; he'll haud away ower the waves like a toom barrel.' "It is a fearsome and a cowardly thing,' said I, to throw a poor little fellow, wham we saved from a watery grave already, into these merciless waves. Let us trust in Providence, and try to weather the gale. The Almighty can save or destroy us, as seemeth good to him; for, are not the winds and waves at his control, and what influence can a poor object like that have on them?' "The captain was puzzled how to act, for the confusion on board had stupified him, and from the commencement of the hurricane he appeared to me as scarcely himself. But at that mo ment there was a great hubbub before the mast, and a mixed body of marines and sailors came rushing abaft to the captain, crying out- We have caught the devil, sir? we have caught the devil! This little fellow here, sir, is the devil.' "How, the devil?' said the captain. "O, sir,' said one, him was running and jumping like a cat on all fours through the rigging in the midst of the fire of lightning, and screaming and laughing for joy.' "And please your honour,' said another, I seed him sitting like a monkey with a tail on the top-gallantmast, chuckling and making faces, and waving the storm to come on.' · "Over the side with him! over with him! over with him!' shouted fifty voices at once; and, in spite of my efforts and some others who opposed it, they bore him to the very gunnel, while the creature fought and jabbered in a way that utterly astounded them, making many of them to lie senseless on deck; and he kept repeating one word, Batta, batta,' or some such sound, until one said that he was calling for his basket. Bring him his basket; keep nothing belonging to him,' cried the captain and this was the only acquiescence he manifested in the horrid alternative. As soon as the creature got hold of his large basket he held by it like grim death, and overboard he and it were both plunged. The ship, for all the damage she had sustained, must then have been running at a terrible speed, for I only saw him once with his creel gaun skreeving ower the rigging of a wave behind us, as swift as the wind. He was then struggling with his basket; and when he reached the verge of the wave, he uttered a rending unearthly scream, dived into the gulf beyond, and was seen no more. "The people stood and gazed on one another as if astonished at what they had done. But we had soon greater reason for astonishment, for in one minute afterward the storm began to abate, and in five or six minutes more it was as lovely an afternoon as it had been a morning we saw all around us, and the main ocean appeared never to have been agitated. And what was more curious, though not more wonderful, the rigging and sails, that during the height of the turmoil seemed to be tattered to pieces and flapping about our ears, we found now all standing in state and form: so that the whole re pairs did not take above two hours, when we again held on our course. But the strangest part of all was, if true, that we were carried in a retrograde direction more than a hundred miles, which I never could believe, although it was affirmed both by the captain and boatswain. I said, if such a thing had taken place, we must have been whirled up out of the sea and borne through the air, and that I once had a feeling of the sort as if we were. So superstitious are seamen, and so terribly were all the latent sparks inherent in their nature aroused that morning, that ere night it was talked of and believed through the whole ship, that we had been heaved out of the sea, and borne a hundred miles through the air! "Now, I ken you are a' thinking that auld John Robson's story is dune,-and perhaps it's mair than time it were dune; but sae far frae that, it is little mair than beginning yet. For, ye see, the next morning, about the second watch, the man at the mast-head bawled out A sail! a sail! Helm-a-lee, you lubber!-ahoy!-smack she goes!' with some other incoherent exclamations of horror. All hurried before the mast, and Lieutenant Jones, being on duty, was there himself the very first; but, perceiving nothing, he shouted to the look-out man, inquiring what was the matter. We are struck, sir; there's a sail down,' was the reply. The lieutenant swore the man was raving, for there was no shock; however, he put about ship, and lay-to. But all was quiet; there was neither voice heard nor wreck seen; and when the man was examined, he affirmed that he saw a light vessel coming full sail a-head on an angle of six, and that she ran her ledges right against our prow and went down; that he perceived one man on board, and felt a slight shock. It was noted that Captain M'Nicol looked wistful and pale, but all on board besides only laughed at the story. He was heard muttering to himself—So, then, we are not to get past this same latitude this cursed spot!' But, behold, about the break of day it became apparent that the ship was water-logged. She ran deep before, refused the helm, and appeared to be fast sinking. All was now commotion and dismay; for, the hold being searched, there was no water found, and the pumps were soon drawn dry. Then there was such heaving of stuff out of the forecastle, and such searching; but all to no purpose, the leak could not be found; and in the mean time the ship continued to sink deeper and deeper: the crew became unmanageable, and had already cut the fastenings of the long-boat, when one of the searchers set his head out of the forecastle, and cried, O Lord! come an' see what's here!' There were soon plenty to rush to the spot, and behold! there lay what they called the deil's basket,' the very individual machine which they had lifted from the waves, with a wretched human creature in it, and committed to the waves again! And as the group stared upon one another in utter consternation, they were startled by an unearthly chatter of a laugh behind them, and, on turning round, there was the creature itself sitting on a cask, with a countenance of stern and fearless defiance. The whole of the crew now fled from the face of the creature; but it pointed always downward to the cask on which it was sitting, and made signs and motions, as if it wished to have the cask to itself, or to have it examined. None, however, durst venture near it; but they began to think, from its signs and its gestures, that it wanted a word of the captain. When they told him, he became like one beside himself, and cried out to shoot it -to throw it overboard; and then to put out the long-boat, and let him escape. Lieut. Jones and the boatswain opposed this, and proffered to accompany him to this strange visitant, as, perchance, it might be a mean of saving his Majesty's ship; and then, half by force, they led him away to the concealed corner where the wretch was sitting on its cask. Now this cask had never been seen by any of us before. It had been covered up with lumber and trunks, ever so deep, in its corner, till uncovered that night in the search for a leake that existed not. The creature jabbered, and spoke, and pointed to the cask, while its eyes had a strange gleam of exultation, and still it beckoned the captain to approach. When, at last, he was forced near it, it sprang from its seat and whispered only one word, or rather a name, in his ear, and then again took its place on the cask, shaking its head at him in a menacing manner. "The horror of the captain was now quite unspeakable. So much was he overwhelmed with terror, that his officers wondered how so brave a man could be so much affected. He was completely in a state of derangement; and, indeed, an indefinable terror and confusion reigned on board. The ship grovelled and wallowed in the waves like an unwieldy hulk, and the seamen and marines were running about with out order. Jones did all that a brave officer could to preserve subordination; for he ran about swearing terribly, belabouring some, and knocking down others. As for the captain, all his orders were about the evil one, or the ghost, as he now called it, which no one would face. This new appellation was unfortunate. The sailors were not so much afraid to face the devil; they were brought up in the knowledge that he was their enemy, and a cunning and a dangerous one, whom it was their duty to contend with. But the idea of being haunted by a ghost had an implication that shook their very souls. The captain at first took shelter in the cabin; but the feeling of confinement shocked him, and terror lest the being should enter the companion-door between him and the open air, and cut off his retreat, shook his nerves, and from thence he flew to the top of the round-house, where, in a voice that trembled with agitation, be ordered both boats to be put out, and the ship to be set on fire. 'Over with the boats, over with the boats!' now resounded from one part of the crew, and 'No, no!' from another; and, in the midst of this confusion, out comes the creature from the forecastle, carrying its cask and a hatchet, as if with intent to have it broken up; and, with its gleaming eyes fixed steadily on the captain, it made straight toward him. The crew fled from before it, some into the shrouds, and some into one place, and some another; but the captain, with a maniac yell of the most dreadful horror, jumped on deck, threw himself overboard, and disappeared. "The creature then uttered an eldrich laugh, flew to seek its basket, and with that in both its hands jumped overboard after our unfortunate captain. The yawl was put out and manned by the boatswain and other two; but ere ever they could get free of the ship (for they were not over-fond of their employment) those on board saw the demoniac creature pick up Captain M'Nicol and drag him into the infernal basket, and away it went with the twain, like a blown-up buoy before the wind. We heard a few broken, short cries from the sufferer, and that was all. They were soon out of sight, and never more seen or heard of either on sea or land. "The moment that the captain and his persecutor left the ship, she hove. She did not rise gradually to her for mer draught, but came up at one spring, which I both saw and felt, and can therefore bear testimony to its truth. But the most curious thing of all was this, which I cannot attest, not understanding these things; but it seems that we were carried a great way south by the hurricane, and on the intervening day having been sailing the same ground ower again, it so happened that this last catastrophe befel us on the very same spot with the first; and of this the captain was doubtless aware when he said, 'So then, it seems we are not to get past this latitude-this cursed spot!' "What had been transacted there on former days was only left to conjecture; and that you may all conjecture as well as any on board, I must tell you that as soon as we got our vessel again into sailing trim, the first thing that we did was to open the cask about which our hellish visitant had made so much ado. This was done on deck before a hundred witnesses, and all that it contained was the body of a young woman, which was disembowelled, cut in twain, and stuffed into a barrel of pickle. And it appeared further, that the woman had been murdered by the cutting of her throat; and this is all that I know for certain. I did hear afterwards, but that was long after 1 had come to Ayrshire, that once, on a former voyage, Captain M'Nicol having had two handsome young foreigners aboard, who were coming to Liverpool, the young man disappeared, and it was certain the captain took possession of his mistress. But, as to whether this was her body, or not her body, I cannot tell. There is little doubt that some great and crying sin had been committed at or near to that spot on the high seas at which our captain met a fate so terrible. And it ought to be a warning to a' you young fo'ks wha hae the warld afore ye, never to do ony dauring deed o' wickedness in hopes that it will remain in darkness. If ye will think but o' the chances that it has to come to light, and what shame and ruin would be attendant thereon, it will amaist restrain ye, if ye be nae perfect slaves to your own vicious inclinations. But at ony rate, ye may aye depend on this-that there is a day coming when every foul deed done in the flesh shall be laid open and exposed to the derision of men and angels." Forget-me-Not. Morals from Flowers. THE SNOWDROP. For the Olio. Thou living pearl, that to the snow Doth not thy speckless blossom tell, Far more than mortal hand can trace, of virgin chastity and grace. When all around is chill and drear, And many a cloud begrim the sky, Thy form peeps forth to glad and cheer The lingering heart and anxious eye; Gives token of the bud and bloom That with more sunny hours will come. So hope should cheer us when we feel The evil of life's wint'ry day, And throw her buds around, and steal In blossoms o'er our dreary way, And yield a charm more bright than gold, Where all is sad and all is cold. So faith within the Christian's breast CORNELIUS AGRIPPA. For the Olio. W.M' A correspondent of the Olio, who signs himself PYLADES, gives some curious particulars relating to supposed Conjurers, Witches, and Astrologers; amongst which is an anecdote of Cornelius Agrippa, “who,” says Jovius, "was always accompanied by a familiar spirit in the shape of a black dog," and further that," when his end approached he took off the enchanted collar from the dog's neck, saying, 'get thee hence, thou accursed beast, which hast utterly destroyed me.'" In the present age, this relation will only excite a smile in the reader; but it shews with what malignity Agrippa was persecuted. He was a most learned but a most eccentric man, and his frequent exposition of the subtle practises of the clergy brought upon him their bitter hatred, as well as the envy and jealousy of the learned whom he so far exceeded. His three books, De Philosophia Occulta, (the fourth, supposed to be written by him, is spurious) together with his "Discourse concerning the apparition of Spirits," procured for him the title of magician; and hence arose all the ridiculous stories related of him, amongst which is that invented by the pensioned libeller, Paul Jovius, whose reasons for abusing those who attacked the members of the catholic church, are obvious. To vindicate himself from the aspersions which were |