d home and recounted his
mysterious loss, Kate M'Niven, who was present, straightway went and
produced both articles safe and sound from their accustomed repository.
It was whispered that Kate had personated the bee.

Relieved of her duties in the house of Inchbrakie--as the result, it is
said, of an attempt to poison the young laird--Kate M'Niven returned to
her old home at the Kirkton of Monzie, where she acquired an "uncanny"
reputation. Evidence of her sorceries was collected or suborned, and
through the machinations of the young laird of Inchbrakie, she was
apprehended and brought to trial on a charge of witchcraft, and her
guilt being conclusively established, sentence of death was pronounced
against her. The stake was pitched and the faggots piled on the summit
of the Knock of Crieff, and thither was the sorceress dragged, to
suffer in presence of an immense multitude gathered from all the
surrounding country.

"From Fowlis and Logiealmond, even from Perth,
The rabble-multitude poured thick and fast,
Until it seemed as if the conscious earth
Believed this spectacle might be the last
Of fire and faggot she would e'er behold,
Lighted by _legal cruelty and crime_.
For never did such hosts of young and old,
Of tottering crones, and women in their prime,
Of high and low, of poor men and of rich,
Assemble at the burning of a witch."[5]

The Inchbrakie family tradition is much more reliable than the
traditionary story as related by Dr. Marshall and Rev. Mr Blair.
Writing under date November 25, 1895, Miss L Graeme says:--"My mother
was the wife of the second son of Inchbrakie, and I have over and over
again heard her relate how, on her home-coming as a bride, my
grandfather on one occasion told her the story. He spoke of Monzie
having brought a witch to the notice of the authorities. She was being
burnt on the Knock of Crieff, above Monzie, when the Inchbrakie of the
day,[6] riding past, did all in his power to try and prevent the matter
from being concluded, without avail. Just as the pile was being lit
she bit a blue bead from off her necklet, and spitting it at
Inchbrakie, bade him guard it carefully, for so long as it was kept at
Inchbrakie the lands should pass from father to son. Kate then cursed
the Laird of Monzie.

"My grandfather had the ring[7] carefully kept in a casket, and his own
daughter was not allowed to touch it--only the daughters-in-law. On my