A Legend of Montrose eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 327 pages of information about A Legend of Montrose.

A Legend of Montrose eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 327 pages of information about A Legend of Montrose.

The English officer, to whom Sir James Turner was prisoner after the rout at Uttoxeter, demanded his parole of honour not to go beyond the wall of Hull without liberty.  “He brought me the message himself,—­I told him I was ready to do so, provided he removed his guards from me, for Fides et Fiducia sunt relativa; and, if he took my word for my fidelity, he was obliged to trust it, otherwise, it was needless for him to seek it, either to give trust to my word, which I would not break, or his own guards, who I supposed would not deceive him.  In this manner I dealt with him, because I knew him to be a scholar.”—­TURNER’S memoirs, p. 80.  The English officer allowed the strength of the reasoning; but that concise reasoner, Cromwell, soon put an end to the dilemma:  “Sir James Turner must give his parole, or be laid in irons.”

Note ii.—­Wraiths.

A species of apparition, similar to what the Germans call a Double-Ganger, was believed in by the Celtic tribes, and is still considered as an emblem of misfortune or death.  Mr. Kirke (See Note to Rob Roy,), the minister of Aberfoil, who will no doubt be able to tell us more of the matter should he ever come back from Fairy-land, gives us the following:—­

“Some men of that exalted sight, either by art or nature, have told me they have seen at these meetings a double man, or the shape of some man in two places, that is, a superterranean and a subterranean inhabitant perfectly resembling one another in all points, whom he, notwithstanding, could easily distinguish one fro another by some secret tokens and operations, and so go speak to the man his neighbour and familiar, passing by the apparition or resemblance of him.  They avouch that every element and different state of being have animals resembling those of another element, as there be fishes at sea resembling Monks of late order in all their hoods and dresses, so as the Roman invention of good and bad daemons and guardian angels particularly assigned, is called by them ane ignorant mistake, springing only from this originall.  They call this reflex man a Co-Walker, every way like the man, as a twin-brother and companion haunting him as his shadow, as is that seen and known among men resembling the originall, both before and after the originall is dead, and was also often seen of old to enter a hous, by which the people knew that the person of that liknes was to visit them within a few days.  This copy, echo, or living picture, goes at last to his own herd.  It accompanied that person so long and frequently for ends best known to its selve, whether to guard him from the secret assaults of some of its own folks, or only as an sportfull ape to counterfeit all his actions.”—­KIRKE’S secret COMMOMWEALTH, p. 3.

The two following apparitions, resembling the vision of Allan M’Aulay in the text, occur in Theophilus Insulanus (Rev. Mr. Fraser’s Treatise on the Second Sight, Relations x. and xvii.):—­

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A Legend of Montrose from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.