The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete

by Walter Scott

  NOTE J.--INTERCOURSE OF THE COVENANTERS WITH THE INVISIBLE WORLD.

  The gloomy, dangerous, and constant wanderings of the persecuted sect ofCameronians, naturally led to their entertaining with peculiar credulitythe belief that they were sometimes persecuted, not only by the wrath ofmen, but by the secret wiles and open terrors of Satan. In fact, a floodcould not happen, a horse cast a shoe, or any other the most ordinaryinterruption thwart a minister's wish to perform service at a particularspot, than the accident was imputed to the immediate agency of fiends.The encounter of Alexander Peden with the Devil in the cave, and that ofJohn Sample with the demon in the ford, are given by Peter Walker almostin the language of the text.