[78] [“--The ACCUSING SPIRIT flew up to heaven’s chancery with the
oath, and blushed as he gave it in--the RECORDING ANGEL, as he wrote
it down, dropped a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for
ever!”--_Sterne._ ED.]
* * * * *
~Highland Legend.~
The following poem originates in a legend which is still popular in many
parts of the highlands of Scotland: that a female branch of the noble
family of Douglas contracted an imprudent marriage with a kerne, or
mountain peasant, who was drowned in the Western Islands, where he had
escaped for concealment from the persecutions of the offended family of
his wife. She survived him eighteen years, and wandered a maniac over
the mountains, where, as superstition alleges, she is even now to be
seen at daybreak. The stanzas are supposed to be the extempore
recitations of an old bard to a group of attentive villagers.