He had no wish to live; and the avenging arm of retributive
justice closed the world and its interests for ever on a wretch who had
forfeited all claims to its protection--cast out, and judged unworthy of
a name and a place amongst his fellow-men.
FOOTNOTES:
[48] Glazebrook's Southport.
[Illustration: THE BAR-GAIST.]
THE BAR-GAIST.
"From hag-bred Merlin's time have I
Thus nightly revelled to and fro;
And for my pranks men call me by
The name of Robin Goodfellow.
Fiends, ghosts, and sprites,
Who haunt the nightes,
The hags and goblins do me know;
And beldames old
My feates have told--
So _vale, vale_; ho, ho, ho!"
--BEN JONSON.
"In the northern parts of England," says Brand, speaking of the popular
superstitions, "ghost is pronounced _gheist_ and _guest_. Hence
_barguest_ or _bargheist_. Many streets are haunted by a _guest_, who
assumes many strange appearances, as a mastiff dog, &c. It is a
corruption of the Anglo-Saxon [Illustration: jart], _spiritus, anima_."
Drake, in his _Eboracum_, says (p. 7, Appendix), "I have been so
frightened with stories of the barguest when I was a child, that I
cannot help throwing away an etymology upon it.
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