hment
to read that her ladyship had died suddenly in a fit of apoplexy,
which came upon her at the whist-table, and her remains had been
conveyed to the family vault in Dumbartonshire. There was a lesson on
the uncertainty of life! and it is my trust that I found in it a use
of warning; but the continual news and strangers at the toll-bar, the
exact gathering in of the dues, which was not always an easy task, and
your own merry schoolmates, Master Willie, had in a manner shuffled it
out of my mind before the second evening.

It had been a dark, foggy day, and I went early to sleep, there being
few travellers; but in the dead of night, between twelve and one, I
was roused by a thundering summons at the toll-bar. The night was calm
and starless, a mass of heavy clouds covered the sky, broken at times
by gusts of moaning wind from the west, and broad bursts of moonlight.
I threw on my coat, lit my lantern, and hurried out. There stood a
large gig with three persons. They must have been tightly packed in
it, and I never saw a more impatient horse. There was some delay in
getting out the silver, and I had time to see that the two men who
sat, one on each side, were the Highland brothers. There was a woman
between them, in a dingy cloak and bonnet, with a thick black veil.
She neither moved nor spoke, though the toll somehow puzzled the
students. I was determined to have it any way, and one of them saying
something to his companion in Gaelic, reached a half-crown to me. I
knew I had no change, and told him so. 'I'll call in the morning,'
said he; but the horse gave a bound, and the silver flew out of his
fingers. Both the brothers looked down after it. I had a strange
curiosity about their companion, and that instant a gust of wind blew
back the veil, and the moonlight shone clear and full upon the face:
it was the dead visage of Lady Catherine! I saw but one glance of it;
the next moment the heavy veil had fallen. 'Get the silver yourself,
and keep it all,' cried the two men, as I opened for them without a
word: and from that day to this, no one has ever heard the story from
me. I put the half-crown in the poor's-box next Sabbath. But, Master
Willie, after that night I never cared for keeping the toll-bar. The
sound of wheels coming after dark had always a strange effect on me,
and I could never see a gig pass without shivering. So I gave up my
situation, and took to the old trade of gardening again. The pleasant
plants and