So spake in ancient days the Blind Bard to the
warriors of Fion."
The young man made no reply, but he fed on what was placed before
him, as if to gather strength for the scene which he was to
undergo. When his mother saw that he had eaten what sufficed
him, she again filled the fatal quaigh, and proffered it as the
conclusion of the repast. But he started aside with a convulsive
gesture, expressive at once of fear and abhorrence.
"Nay, my son," she said, "this time surely, thou hast no cause of
fear."
"Urge me not, mother," answered Hamish--"or put the leprous toad
into a flagon, and I will drink; but from that accursed cup, and
of that mind-destroying potion, never will I taste more!"
"At your pleasure, my son," said Elspat, haughtily, and began,
with much apparent assiduity, the various domestic tasks which
had been interrupted during the preceding day. Whatever was at
her heart, all anxiety seemed banished from her looks and
demeanour. It was but from an over-activity of bustling exertion
that it might have been perceived, by a close observer, that her
actions were spurred by some internal cause of painful
excitement; and such a spectator, too, might also have observed
how often she broke off the snatches of songs or tunes which she
hummed, apparently without knowing what she was doing, in order
to cast a hasty glance from the door of the hut.
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