WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS
AND OF SCOTLAND.
HISTORICAL, TRADITIONARY, & IMAGINATIVE.
WITH A GLOSSARY.
REVISED BY
ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
ONE OF THE ORIGINAL EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS.
VOL. XIII.
LONDON:
WALTER SCOTT, 14 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.
1885.
CONTENTS.
The Unknown, (John Mackay Wilson)
The Trials Of Menie Dempster, (Alexander Leighton)
The Professor's Tales, (Professor Thomas Gillespie)
The Natural History Of Idiots
The Floshend Inn, (Alexander Campbell)
Lottery Hall, (John Mackay Wilson)
The Dominie and the Souter, (James Wilson)
The Dominie's Courtship
The Souter's Wedding
Roseallan's Daughter, (Alexander Leighton)
The Two Sailors, (Oliver Richardson)
The Dream, (Alexander Campbell)
WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS, AND OF SCOTLAND.
THE UNKNOWN.
In the year 1785, a young and beautiful woman, whose dress and featuresbespoke her to be a native of Spain, was observed a few miles beyondPonteland, on the road which leads to Rothbury. She appeared faint andweary; dimness was deepening over the lustre of her dark eyes, and theirglance bespoke anxious misery. Her raiment was of the finest silk; buttime had caused its colour to fade; and it hung around her a tatteredrobe—an ensign of present poverty and wretchedness, a ruined remnant ofprouder days that were past. She walked feebly and slowly along, bearingin her arms an infant boy; and she was observed, at intervals, to sitdown, press her pale lips to her child's cheek, and weep. Severalpeasants, who were returning from their labours in the fields, stood andspoke to her; but she gazed on them with wild looks of despair, and sheanswered them in a strange language, which they did not understand.
"She has been a lady, poor thing," said some of them.
"Ha!" said others, who had less charity in their breasts, "they have notall been ladies that wear tattered silk in strange fashions."
Some inquired at her if she were hungry; if she wanted a lodging; orwhere she was going. But, like the mother of Thomas à Beckett, to alltheir inquiries she answered them but one word that they understood,and that word was "Edinburgh!"
Some said, "the poor creature is crazed;" and when she perceived thatthey comprehended her not, she waved her hand impatiently for them todepart, and pressing her child closer to her bosom, she bent her headover him, and sighed. The peasants, believing from her gestures that shedesired not t