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And
as
the
village
crept
back
to
life
,
and
those
who
had
escaped
took
heart
to
do
a
little
work
again
,
and
the
convalescent
staggered
to
their
doors
and
looked
on
the
world
,
there
arose
stranger
rumours
.
The
minister
was
all
day
out
and
about
-
-
praying
on
occasion
,
but
more
often
engaged
in
homely
tasks
like
cleaning
up
a
kitchen
and
boiling
water
for
those
who
were
too
frail
to
help
themselves
.
Dark
looks
and
ugly
mutterings
often
followed
him
,
but
he
was
too
intent
upon
his
work
to
take
heed
of
them
.
The
general
sullenness
he
set
down
to
the
dregs
of
grief
and
terror
.
That
was
for
the
daylight
hours
,
but
-
-
it
was
whispered
-
-
after
nightfall
he
had
a
companion
.
There
were
stories
of
a
woman
,
a
creature
beautiful
and
young
,
who
sang
in
a
honeyed
voice
,
and
appeared
especially
at
the
bedsides
of
the
children
.
At
first
few
credited
the
tale
,
but
presently
came
ample
confirmation
.
She
had
been
seen
at
three
houses
in
the
clachan
,
at
the
Mirehope
herd
’
s
,
at
the
Mains
;
with
her
had
been
the
minister
;
and
the
bairns
to
whom
she
had
spoken
cried
for
her
return
.
.
.
.
The
old
and
wise
shook
their
heads
.
There
was
no
such
woman
in
the
parish
or
in
all
the
countryside
.
And
some
remembered
that
the
minister
in
the
back
-
end
had
been
observed
to
meet
with
a
woman
in
the
Wood
,
and
that
she
had
seemed
to
those
who
saw
her
to
be
no
mortal
,
but
the
Queen
of
Elfhame
.
The
truth
was
that
no
commands
of
Mark
,
no
protestations
of
David
,
could
keep
Katrine
out
of
the
village
.
She
saw
the
reason
for
not
appearing
in
the
daylight
,
for
a
stranger
in
Woodilee
-
-
above
all
such
a
stranger
as
she
-
-
would
have
been
too
much
for
the
brittle
nerves
of
the
parish
.
But
after
nightfall
the
case
was
different
,
and
when
with
David
she
had
once
stood
by
the
bed
of
a
sick
child
,
nothing
could
prevent
her
making
a
nightly
duty
of
it
.
Into
those
sodden
,
woeful
households
she
entered
like
a
spring
wind
;
the
people
may
have
marvelled
,
but
they
were
still
too
apathetic
to
ask
questions
,
and
they
felt
dumbly
her
curative
power
.
Among
unkempt
pallid
men
and
frowsy
wild
-
eyed
women
the
face
bright
with
the
weather
,
the
curls
dabbled
with
rain
,
the
cool
firm
arm
,
the
alert
figure
,
worked
a
miracle
,
as
if
an
angel
had
troubled
the
stagnant
waters
of
their
life
.
Her
hand
on
a
child
’
s
hot
brow
sent
it
into
a
peaceful
sleep
;
her
presence
gave
to
the
sick
the
will
to
live
and
to
the
fearful
a
gleam
of
courage
.
What
they
thought
and
said
when
she
had
gone
will
never
be
known
,
but
for
certain
they
longed
for
her
coming
again
.
On
the
18th
day
of
February
the
pestilence
took
its
last
victim
-
-
an
old
woman
,
the
mother
of
the
Windyways
herd
,
and
the
earth
was
still
fresh
on
her
grave
when
the
rain
ceased
.
The
wind
swung
to
the
north
,
and
the
black
frost
for
which
David
had
longed
settled
on
the
land
.
It
put
an
end
to
the
pest
,
but
it
bore
hard
on
the
convalescent
,
and
the
older
and
feebler
died
under
its
rigour
.
In
the
pure
cold
air
the
taint
seemed
to
pass
from
the
land
,
and
the
problem
of
David
and
his
helpers
was
now
a
straightforward
fight
with
normal
ailments
and
the
normal
winter
poverty
.
Stock
during
the
visitation
had
been
scarcely
tended
,
and
the
byres
and
infields
were
full
of
dead
beasts
;
while
in
the
general
terror
the
customary
frugality
of
the
parish
had
been
forgotten
and
many
a
meal
-
ark
was
empty
.
There
was
need
of
clothing
and
food
,
of
fuel
and
cordials
,
and
it
did
not
appear
where
they
were
to
come
from
.
There
was
no
help
to
be
looked
for
from
outside
,
for
to
the
neighbourhood
Woodilee
was
like
a
leper
settlement
;
none
would
have
dared
to
enter
the
place
,
and
had
a
Woodilee
man
shown
his
face
in
another
parish
he
would
have
been
driven
back
with
stones
.
Mr
.
Fordyce
managed
to
send
to
David
more
than
one
distressful
letter
,
lamenting
that
for
the
sake
of
his
own
people
he
could
not
lend
his
brother
a
helping
hand
;
but
save
for
that
,
from
the
8th
day
of
January
to
the
15th
day
of
March
there
was
no
communication
with
the
outer
world
.
In
this
crisis
Mark
Riddel
wrought
mightily
.
He
had
ways
and
means
of
getting
supplies
from
distant
places
,
and
his
pack
-
horses
,
guided
by
himself
or
Amos
Ritchie
,
brought
meal
and
homespun
blankets
from
quarters
which
no
man
knew
of
.
David
exhausted
the
manse
stores
,
and
Isobel
kilted
her
coats
and
,
with
a
charity
seasoned
by
maledictions
,
kept
her
pot
or
girdle
continually
on
the
fire
.
But
it
was
the
house
of
Calidon
that
provided
the
main
necessaries
.
Its
brew
-
house
and
its
girnel
,
its
stillroom
and
its
cellars
,
not
to
speak
of
Mistress
Grizel
’
s
private
cordials
,
were
plundered
for
the
sake
of
a
parish
which
Mistress
Grizel
could
not
refer
to
without
a
sour
grimace
.
When
Katrine
rode
to
the
manse
of
a
night
she
would
bring
with
her
usually
a
laden
shelty
.
The
end
of
the
plague
was
for
David
a
harder
season
even
than
its
height
.
For
with
convalescence
Woodilee
seemed
to
lose
its
wits
.
Before
it
had
sat
dazed
and
broken
under
the
rod
;
now
it
woke
to
an
ardour
of
self
-
preservation
.
At
the
beginning
the
people
seemed
to
be
careless
of
infection
;
now
the
survivors
were
possessed
with
a
craze
to
live
,
and
fought
like
terrified
animals
to
get
out
of
danger
.
They
could
not
leave
the
parish
bounds
,
but
those
that
were
able
fled
from
the
village
.
The
leaky
sheilings
on
the
hills
,
occupied
by
the
ewe
-
milkers
during
the
height
of
summer
,
gave
lodging
to
many
,
and
several
died
there
of
the
violence
of
the
frost
.
The
outlying
farms
were
believed
to
be
the
safer
,
so
Mirehope
and
Nether
Fennan
had
many
undesired
tenants
in
their
outhouses
.
The
result
was
that
,
in
a
season
of
convalescence
,
when
nursing
was
especially
needed
,
the
bedridden
were
often
left
deserted
.
David
tried
to
enlist
men
and
women
who
had
either
escaped
the
plague
or
had
been
for
some
weeks
recovered
,
but
he
got
only
fierce
denials
or
an
obstinate
silence
.
The
place
had
become
brutish
,
and
the
selfishness
of
beasts
seemed
to
have
become
the
rule
of
life
.
The
one
exception
was
Chasehope
.
During
the
worst
weeks
the
clachan
had
had
no
news
of
him
,
but
it
was
rumoured
that
he
had
made
a
fortress
of
his
farm
-
town
,
and
had
assiduously
tended
his
own
people
.
At
any
rate
at
Chasehope
there
had
been
only
one
death
.
Now
he
appeared
in
the
street
,
and
to
David
’
s
amazement
it
was
clear
that
he
came
on
an
errand
of
mercy
.
His
house
seemed
still
to
be
well
provided
,
and
he
brought
with
him
a
certain
amount
of
provender
.
This
he
did
not
bestow
indiscriminately
but
only
on
certain
families
,
which
David
guessed
to
contain
members
of
the
coven
.
To
these
he
spoke
with
authority
,
and
he
used
his
power
to
put
reason
into
the
distracted
.
He
alone
in
the
place
seemed
to
have
no
fear
of
infection
-
-
to
be
careless
of
the
risk
which
had
sent
panic
abroad
among
the
others
.
He
passed
the
minister
with
a
grave
salutation
,
and
showed
no
wish
to
give
or
ask
for
help
;
he
had
some
business
afoot
which
was
his
private
concern
.
But
the
fact
stood
out
that
this
man
,
alone
in
Woodilee
,
had
mastered
fear
.
