I sat up, but the room was dark, save for a faint light in the casement, high overhead, and I thought I had dreamed.

Howbeit, as I lay down again, heavy at heart, my clothes were again twitched, and now I remembered what I had heard, but never believed, concerning "lutins" or "brownies," as we call them, which, being spirits invisible, and reckoned to have no part in our salvation, are wont in certain houses to sport with men.

Curious rather than affrighted, I sat up once more, and looked around, when I saw two bright spots of light in the dark.

Then deeming that, for some reason unknown to me, the prison door had been opened while I slept, and a cat let in, I stretched out my hands towards the lights, thence came a sharp, faint cry, and something soft and furry leaped on to my breast, stroking me with little hands.
It was Elliot's jackanapes, very meagre, as I could feel, and all his ribs standing out, but he made much of me, fondling me after his manner; and indeed, for my lady's sake, I kissed him, wondering much how he came there.

Then he put something into my hands, almost as if he had been a Christian, for it was a wise beast and a kind.