If bodies were safe after death, characters were not. Isabel Heriot was
maid of all work to the minister at Preston. "She was of a low Stature,
small and slender of Body, of a Black Complexion. Her Head stood somewhat
awry upon her Neck. She was of a droll and jeering Humour, and would have
spoken to Persons of Honour with great Confidence." After some short time
of service, her master the minister began to dislike her, because she was
not eager in her religious duties; so he discharged her: and in 1680 she
died--and "about the time of her death her face became extreamly black."
Two or three nights after her burial, one Isabel Murray saw her, in her
white grave-clothes, walk from the chapel to the minister's louping-on
stone (horse-block). Here she halted, leaning her elbow on the stone, then
went in at the back gate, and so towards the stable. A few nights after
this stones were flung at the minister's house, over the roof, and in at
the doors and windows; but they fell softly for the most part, and did no
especial damage. Yet one night, just as the minister was coming in at the
hall door, a great stone was flung after him, which hit the door very
smartly and marked it. Isabel Murray was also hit with stones, and the
serving-man who looked to the horses was gripped at the heel by something
which made him cry out lustily. So it went on. Stones and clods, and
lighted coals, and even an old horse-comb long since lost, were
perpetually flying about, and only by severe prayer was the minister able
to lay the devil who molested them.
Soon Isabel Murray reappeared with a fresh set of circumstances concerning
the ghost of her namesake Isabel Heriot, the maid of all work. She said
that as she was coming from church between sermons, to visit her house and
kailyard for fear some vagrant cows might have got over the dyke--which
were very likely of the true Maclarty type--on going down her own yard,
which was next to the minister's, she saw again the apparition of Isabel
Heriot, as she was when laid in her coffin. "Never was an egg liker to
another than this Apparition was like to her, as to her Face, her Stature,
her Motion, her Tongue, and Behaviour; her face was black like the mouten
soot, the very colour which her face had when she died." The ghost was
walking under the fruit-trees, and over the beds where the seeds had been
sown, bending her body downwards, as if she had been seeking somewhat off
the ground, and saying, "A stane! a stane!" Her lap was full of stones; as
some people supposed the stones she cast in the night-time; and these
stones she threw down, as if to harbour them, at a bush-root in the
garden. Isobel Murray, nothing daunted, goes up to her.
"Wow!" says she, "what's thou doing here, Isabel Heriot? I charge thee by
the law thou lives on to tell me."
Says the ghost, "I am come again because I wronged my master when I was
his servant. For it was I that stealed his Shekel (this was a Jewish
shekel of gold which, with some other things, had been stolen from him
several years before), which I hid under the Hearthstone in the Kitching,
and then when I flited took it into the Cannongate, and did offer to sell
it to a French Woman who lodged where I served, who askt where I got it.
I told her I found it between Leith and Edinburgh." Then she went on to
make further confession. Having fyled herself for a thief she went on to
show how she had been also a witch. "One night," says the ghost, "I was
riding home late from the Town, and near the Head of Fanside Brae, the
Horse stumbled, and I said, The Devil raise thee; whereupon the Foul Thief
appeared presently to me, and threatened me, if I would not grant to
destroy my Master the Minister, he would throw me into a deep hole (which
I suppose is yet remaining); or if I could not get power over my master, I
should strive to destroy the Shoolmaster."
"It was very remarkable," says George Sinclair, as a kind of commentary,
"that one of the minister's servant-women had given to the schoolmaster's
servant-woman some Linnings to make clean, among which there was a Cross
cloth of strong Linning, which could never be found, though diligent
search was made for it, till one morning the Master awakening found it
bound round about his Night Cap, which bred admiration both to himself and
his Wife. No more skaith was the Devil or the Witches able to do him. What
way this was done, or for what end it cannot be well known: but it is
somewhat probable that they designed to strangle and destroy him in the
night time, which is their usual time in working and doing of mischief.
This happened about the time (I suppose) that the Devil had charged Isabel
Heriot to destroy this honest man. Yet within two days a young child of
his, of a year old, fell sick, which was quickly pulled away by death,
none knowing the cause or nature of the disease."
Isabel Murray went on to say, that furthermore the ghost confessed to
her, that she, Isabel Heriot, when in life, had met the devil a second
time at Elfiston Mill, near to Ormiston: and she told what foulness the
devil did to her. Also, one night as she was coming home from Haddington
Market with some horse-corn, she met the devil at Knock-hills, and he bade
her destroy Thomas Anderson, who was riding with her. When she refused he
threw all the horse-corn off the horse. "This Thomas Anderson was a
Christian man," and when Murray told her tale "well remembered that Isabel
had got up the next morning timeously," and brought home her oats which
had lain in the road all the night. She said too that she had cheated her
master whenever she went to the market to buy oats, charging him more than
they cost--not an unusual practice with servants at market anywhere; and
she told Isabel Murray that the stone cast at her was not for herself but
for her goodman, who had once flung her, the ghost, into the jawhole, and
abused her. At this point Murray said she began to be frightened, and ran
home in all haste. So Isabel Heriot's character was settled for ever, and
her neighbours only thought the judgment came too late.