gentleman, who was then and there in the
church, a Mr. Bligh of Botathen, was much
affected with my discourse, and he was heard
to repeat to himself certain parentheses therefrom,
especially a phrase from Maro Virgilius,
which I had applied to the deceased youth, 'Et
puer ipse contra digmas.'

"The cause wherefore this old gentleman was
thus moved by my applications was this: He
had a first-bom and only son; a child who, but
a very few months before, had been not
unworthy the character I drew of young Master
Eliot, but who, by some strange accident, had
of late quite fallen away from his parents' hopes,
and become moody, aud sullen, and distraught.
When the funeral obsequies were over, I had
no sooner come out of church than I was
accosted by this aged parent, and he besought me
incontinently, with a singular energy, that I
would resort with him forthwith to his abode at
Botathen, that very night; nor could I have
delivered myself from his importunity, had not
Mr. Eliot urged his claim to enjoy my
company at his own house. Hereupon I got loose,
but not until I had pledged a fast assurance
that I would pay him, faithfully, an early visit
the next day." "The Place," as it was called,
of Botathen, where old Mr. Bligh resided, was
a low-roofed gabled manor-house of the
fifteenth century, walled and mullioned, and with
clustered chimneys of dark grey stone from the
neighbouring quarries of Ventor-gan. The
mansion was flanked by a pleasance or enclosure
in one space, of garden and lawn, and it was
surrounded by a solemn grove of stag-horned
trees. It had the sombre aspect of age and of
solitude, and looked the very scene of strange
and supernatural events. A legend might well
belong to every gloomy glade around, and there
must surely be a haunted room somewhere
within its walls. Hither, according to his
appointment, on the morrow, Parson Rudall
betook himself. Another clergyman, as it
appeared, had been invited to meet him, who, very
soon after his arrival, proposed a walk together
in the pleasance, on the pretext of showing him,
as a stranger, the walks and trees, until the
dinner-bell should strike. There, with much
prolixity, and with many a solemn pause, his
brother minister proceeded to 'unfold the
mystery.'

"A singular infelicity, he declared, had befallen
young Master Bligh, once the hopeful heir of
his parents and of the lands of Botathen.
Whereas he had been from childhood a blithe
aud merry boy, 'the gladness,' like Isaac of
old, of his father's age, he had suddenly, and
of late, become morose and silent, nay, even
austere and stern—dwelling apart, always
solemn, often in tears. The lad had at first
repulsed all questions as to the origin of this
great change, but of late he had yielded to the
importunate researches of his parents, and had
disclosed the secret cause. It appeared that,
he resorted, every day, by a pathway across the
fields, to this very clergyman's house, who had
charge of his education, and grounded him in
the studies suitable to his age. In the course
of his daily walk he had to pass a certain heath
or down where the road wound along through
tall blocks of granite with open spaces of
grassy sward between. Therein a certain spot,
and always in one and the same place, the lad
declared that he encountered, every day, a
woman with a pale and troubled face, clothed
in a long loose garment of frieze, with one hand
always stretched forth, and the other pressed
against her side. Her name, he said, was
Dorothy Dinglet, for he had known her well
from his childhood, and she often used to come
to his parents' house; but that which troubled
him was, that she had now been dead three
years, and he himself had been with the
neighbours at her burial; so that, as the youth
alleged, with great simplicity, since he had seen
her body laid in the grave, this that he saw
every day must needs be her soul or ghost.
'Questioned again and again,' said the clergyman
'he never contradicts himself; but he
relates the same and the simple tale as a thing
that cannot be gainsaid. Indeed, the lad's
observance is keen and calm for a boy of his age.
The hair of the appearance, sayeth he, is not
like anything alive, but it is so soft and light
that it seemeth to melt away while you look;
but her eyes are set, and never blink, no, not
when the sun shineth full upon her face. She
maketh no steps, but seemeth to swim along
the top of the grass; and her hand, which is
stretched out alway, seemeth to point at
something far away, out of sight. It is her
continual coming; for she never faileth to meet
him, and to pass on, that hath quenched his
spirits; and although he never seeth her by
night, yet cannot he get his natural rest.'

"Thus far the clergyman; whereupon the
dinner clock did sound, and we went into the
house. After dinner, when young Master Bligh
had withdrawn with his tutor, under excuse of
their books, the parents did forthwith beset me
as to my thoughts about their son. Said I,
warily, 'The case is strange, but by no means
impossible. It is one that I will study, and fear
not to handle, if the lad will be free with me,
and fulfil all that I desire.' The mother was
overjoyed, but I perceived that old Mr. Bligh
turned pale, and was downcast with some
thought which, however, he did not express.
Then they bade that Master Bligh should be
called to meet me in the pleasance forthwith.
The boy came, and he rehearsed to me his tale
with an open countenance and, withal, a pretty
modesty of speech. Verily he seemed 'ingenui
vultus puer ingenuique pudoris.' Then I signified
to him my purpose. 'To-morrow,' said I ,
'we will go together to the place; and if, as I
doubt not, the woman shall appear, it will be for
me to proceed according to knowledge, and by
rules laid down in my books.' "

The unaltered scenery of the legend still
survives, and, like the field of the forty footsteps in
another history, the place is still visited by those
who take interest in the supernatural tales of old.
The pathway leads along a moorland waste, where