The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

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EDITED EV
DUNCAN CAMPBELL, Editor, "Northern Chronicle,
ALEXANDER MACBAIN, M.A., F.S.A.Scot.
No. 43. OCTOBER, 1892. Vol. IV.
IT
A STRANGE REVENGE.
By D. Nairne.
CHAPTER in.
FLORA SAVES THE WITCH'S LIFE.
was one of those floods from which the local
chronology of the next half century was to be dated ;
a flood which swept the straths and glens of five Highland
counties, and struck with awe those rural communities
who best represented the religico-superstitious characteristics
of the period. In its ravages they saw only the hand
of God and the frailty of human concerns. In that devout
spirit they bore ruin meekly and disaster humbly, with
thanksgiving that their lives had been spared whilst others
had been taken away. Compelled by the rising waters to
seek safety for his wife and family in flight, a peasant-
farmer would return and dare the perils of the torrent to
rescue his Bible ! That spirit has passed away with the
growth of the century ; Bibles, we are told, have become
cheaper ; civilisation is advancing, says the scientist, and
the cry is echoed by the Social reformer, who relegates the
Ten Commandments to the ever-extending domain ut
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