on of the peace of the Highlands,
were in the course of being levied; and as a gentleman named Cameron,
nearly connected with Mrs. C--, commanded one of those companies,
she was at length persuaded to compromise the matter with her son, by
permitting him to enter this company in the capacity of a cadet, thus
gratifying his love of a military life without the dangers of foreign
service, to which no one then thought these troops were at all liable to
be exposed, while even their active service at home was not likely to
be attended with much danger. She readily obtained a promise from her
relative that he would be particular in his attention to her son and
therefore concluded she had accommodated matters between her son's
wishes and his safety in a way sufficiently attentive to both. She set
off to Edinburgh to get what was awanting for his outfit, and shortly
afterwards received melancholy news from the Highlands. The Independent
Company into which her son was to enter had a skirmish with a party of
caterans engaged in some act of spoil, and her friend the captain
being wounded, and out of the reach of medical assistance, died in
consequence. This news was a thunderbolt to the poor mother, who was at
once deprived of her kinsman's advice and assistance, and instructed by
his fate of the unexpected danger to which her son's new calling exposed
him. She remained also in great sorrow for her relative, whom she loved
with sisterly affection. These conflicting causes of anxiety,
together with her uncertainty, whether to continue or change her son's
destination, were terminated in the following manner:--

The house in which Mrs. C---- resided in the old town of Edinburgh, was
a flat or story of a land accessible, as was then universal, by a common
stair. The family who occupied the story beneath were her acquaintances,
and she was in the habit of drinking tea with them every evening. It was
accordingly about six o'clock, when, recovering herself from a deep fit
of anxious reflection, she was about to leave the parlour in which she
sat in order to attend this engagement. The door through which she was
to pass opened, as was very common in Edinburgh, into a dark passage. In
this passage, and within a yard of her when she opened the door,
stood the apparition of her kinsman, the deceased officer, in his full
tartans, and wearing his bonnet. Terrified at what she saw, or thought
she saw, she closed the door hastily, and, sinking on