Chapter IX.
"Last night of all,
When yon same star, that's westward from the pole,
Had made its course to illume that part of heaven
Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself
The bell then beating one--"
"Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!"
Hamlet.
It is our duty, as faithful historians of the events recorded in this
homely legend, to conceal no circumstance which may throw the necessary
degree of light on its incidents, nor any opinion that may serve for the
better instruction of the reader in the characters of its actors. In order
that this obligation may be discharged with sufficient clearness and
precision, it has now become necessary to make a short digression from the
immediate action of the tale.
Enough has been already shown, to prove that the Heathcotes lived at a
time, and in a country, where very quaint and peculiar religious dogmas
had the ascendancy. At a period when visible manifestations of the
goodness of Providence, not only in spiritual but in temporal gifts, were
confidently expected and openly proclaimed, it is not at all surprising
that more evil agencies should be thought to exercise their power in a
manner that is somewhat opposed to the experience of our own age.
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