thor that she had conversed on the subject with one
of the brothers of the bride, a mere lad at the time, who had ridden
before his sister to church. He said her hand, which lay on his as she
held her arm around his waist, was as cold and damp as marble. But,
full of his new dress and the part he acted in the procession, the
circumstance, which he long afterwards remembered with bitter sorrow and
compunction, made no impression on him at the time.

The bridal feast was followed by dancing. The bride and bridegroom
retired as usual, when of a sudden the most wild and piercing cries were
heard from the nuptial chamber. It was then the custom, to prevent any
coarse pleasantry which old times perhaps admitted, that the key of
the nuptial chamber should be entrusted to the bridesman. He was called
upon, but refused at first to give it up, till the shrieks became so
hideous that he was compelled to hasten with others to learn the
cause. On opening the door, they found the bridegroom lying across the
threshold, dreadfully wounded, and streaming with blood. The bride
was then sought for. She was found in the corner of the large chimney,
having no covering save her shift, and that dabbled in gore. There she
sat grinning at them, mopping and mowing, as I heard the expression
used; in a word, absolutely insane. The only words she spoke were, "Tak
up your bonny bridegroom." She survived this horrible scene little more
than a fortnight, having been married on the 24th of August, and dying
on the 12th of September 1669.

The unfortunate Baldoon recovered from his wounds, but sternly
prohibited all inquiries respecting the manner in which he had received
them. "If a lady," he said, "asked him any question upon the subject,
he would neither answer her nor speak to her again while he lived; if
a gentleman, he would consider it as a mortal affront, and demand
satisfaction as having received such." He did not very long survive the
dreadful catastrophe, having met with a fatal injury by a fall from his
horse, as he rode between Leith and Holyrood House, of which he died the
next day, 28th March 1682. Thus a few years removed all the principal
actors in this frightful tragedy.

Various reports went abroad on this mysterious affair, many of them very
inaccurate, though they could hardly be said to be exaggerated. It
was difficult at that time to become acquainted with the history of a
Scottish family above the lower rank; and strange thing