best known to its selve, whether to guard him from the secret assaults
of some of its own folks, or only as an sportfull ape to counterfeit all
his actions."--KIRKE'S SECRET COMMOMWEALTH, p. 3.

The two following apparitions, resembling the vision of Allan M'Aulay in
the text, occur in Theophilus Insulanus (Rev. Mr. Fraser's Treatise on
the Second Sight, Relations x. and xvii.):--

"Barbara Macpherson, relict of the deceased Mr. Alexander MacLeod, late
minister of St. Kilda, informed me the natives of that island had a
particular kind of second sight, which is always a forerunner of their
approaching end. Some months before they sicken, they are haunted with
an apparition, resembling themselves in all respects as to their person,
features, or clothing. This image, seemingly animated, walks with them
in the field in broad daylight; and if they are employed in delving,
harrowing, seed-sowing, or any other occupation, they are at the same
time mimicked by this ghostly visitant. My informer added further that
having visited a sick person of the inhabitants, she had the curiosity
to enquire of him, if at any time he had seen any resemblance of himself
as above described; he answered in the affirmative, and told her, that
to make farther trial, as he was going out of his house of a morning, he
put on straw-rope garters instead of those he formerly used, and
having gone to the fields, his other self appeared in such garters. The
conclusion was, the sick man died of that ailment, and she no longer
questioned the truth of those remarkable presages."

"Margaret MacLeod, an honest woman advanced in years, informed me, that
when she was a young woman in the family of Grishornish, a dairy-maid,
who daily used to herd the calves in a park close to the house,
observed, at different times, a woman resembling herself in shape and
attire, walking solitarily at no great distance from her, and being
surprised at the apparition, to make further trial, she put the back
part of her upper garment foremost, and anon the phantom was dressed
in the same manner, which made her uneasy, believing it portended some
fatal consequence to herself. In a short time thereafter she was seized
with a fever, which brought her to her end, and before her sickness and
on her deathbed, declared the second sight to several."

End of Project Gutenberg's A Legend of Montrose, by Sir Walter Scott

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