ry ardent
superstition to connect the two events into cause and effect."

But a century and a half had passed away, when it happened that the
young heir of Closeburn Castle--a lad of not quite thirteen years of
age--in one of his visits to Edinburgh attended at the theatre a
performance of "The Merchant of Venice," in the course of which he was
surprised to hear Portia say of Bassanio that he should

"Make a swan-like end,
Fading in music."

Often wondering whether swans really sang before dying he determined,
at the first opportunity, to test the truth of these words for
himself. On his return home, he was one day walking by the lake when
the swans came sailing majestically towards him, and at once reminded
of Portia's remark. Without a moment's thought, he lodged in the
breast of the foremost one a bolt from his crossbow, killing it
instantly. Frightened at what he had done, he made up his mind it
should not be known; and, as the water drifted the dead body of the
bird towards the shore, he buried it deep in the ground.

No small surprise, however, was occasioned in the neighbourhood, when,
for several years, no swans made their annual appearance, the idea at
last being that they must have died in their native home, wherever
that might chance to be. The yearly visit of the swans of Closeburn
had become a thing of the past, when one day much excitement was
caused by the return of a single swan, and much more so when a deep
blood-red stain was observed upon its breast. As might be expected,
this unlooked-for occurrence occasioned grave suspicions even amongst
those who had no great faith in omens; and that such fears were not
groundless was soon abundantly clear, for in less than a week the lord
of Closeburn Castle died suddenly. Thereupon the swan vanished, and
was seen no more for some years, when it again appeared to announce
the loss of one of the house by shipwreck.

The last recorded appearance of the bird was at the third nuptials of
Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, the first baronet of that name. On the
wedding-day, his son Roger was walking by the lake, when, on a sudden,
as if it had emerged from the waters, the swan appeared with the
bleeding breast. Roger had heard of this mysterious swan, and,
although his father's wedding bells were ringing merrily, he himself
returned to the castle a sorrowful man, for he felt convinced that
some evil was hanging over him. Despite his father's jest at what he
co