49

BY THE SHRINE OF SAINT CUTHBERT 59

*'MEENISTER' MACHIAVELLI 67

ELDER 'MACHIAVELLI-ER' 83

REPENTANCE TOWER 99

*THE LORD WARDEN'S TOMB 109

CASTLE ICHABOD 121

THE MUNIMENT ROOM 137

IN THE CLIFF LAND OF THE DANE 153

*THE DOPPEL-GANGER 171

*IN MY LADY'S BEDCHAMBER 179

*THE WARLOCK OF GLORORUM 189

'MUCKLE-MOUTHED MEG' 203

*THE PRIOR OF TYNEMOUTH 223

THE HAUNTED ALE-HOUSE 233

THE CRY OF THE PEACOCK 245

KITTY'S BOWER 255

THE TALE OF THE THREE ANTIQUARIES 271

APUD CORSTOPITUM 283

IN THE BLACKFRIARS WYND

'_'Twill be a black day for auld Scotland when she ceases to believe in
the muckle Deil_,' commented 'the Meenister' of the Tron Kirk, when I
had explained to him my troubles and sought his 'ghostly counsel and
advice,' as the English service has it, 'to the quieting of my
conscience, and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness.' My father had
been English, but my mother was Scotch, and she had sent me to my uncle,
Deacon Abercrombie, to be entered as apprentice to his craft of the
goldsmiths. He was a widower, lived alone, and was reputed to be
eccentric, but as far as worldly gear was concerned the Deacon was a
highly responsible citizen; as burgess, guild brother, and deacon of his
craft he could hold his head as high on the causeway as any other, be he
who he might, in the city.

Not even the 'stairhead critics,' who, as Auld Reekie's poet writes,

'_wi' glowering eye
Their neighbours' sma'est faults descry_,'

could point at any speck in his general repute.

The Reverend Andrew Geddes was somewhat stricken in years; his beard was
white as snow, his thrapple loose below his chin, and the flesh had
ebbed from his bones, but his mind was as alert as ever, and his
goodness stood manifest in his face.

We were sitting in his lodging, situate in a high 'timberland' in the
Canongate, just without the Nether Bow, on the same side as the Tron
Kirk, and from his little _tourelle_ we could survey as from an eyrie
the comin