But this was not all -- He
lifted up a huge horse whip, and applied it with great violence
to his back and shoulders, on which I saw the impression with my
own eyes. The apparition was afterwards seen by the sexton of the
parish, hovering about the tomb where his body lies interred; as
the man declared to several persons in the village, before he
knew what had happened to the gentleman -- Nay, he actually came to
me as a justice of the peace, in order to make oath of these
particulars, which, however, I declined administering. As for the
grandson of the defunct, he is a sober, sensible, worldly minded
fellow, too intent upon schemes of interest to give in to
reveries. He would have willingly concealed the affair; but he
bawled out in the first transport of his fear, and, running into
the house, exposed his back and his sconce to the whole family;
so that there was no denying it in the sequel. It is now the
common discourse of the country, that this appearance and
behaviour of the old man's spirit, portends some great calamity
to the family, and the good-woman has actually taken to her bed
in this apprehension.'
Though I did not pretend to explain this mystery, I said, I did
not at all doubt, but it would one day appear to be a deception;
and, in all probability, a scheme executed by some enemy of the
person who had sustained the assault; but still the gentleman
insisted upon the clearness of the evidence, and the concurrence
of testimony, by which two creditable witnesses, without any
communication one with another, affirmed the appearance of the
same man, with whose person they were both well acquainted -- From
Drumlanrig we pursued the course of the Nid to Dumfries, which
stands seven miles above the place where the river falls into the
sea; and is, after Glasgow, the handsomest town I have seen in
Scotland.
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