of wonder amongst all men,
descending from generation to generation, and unto this day it remains a
mystery. But, on the day after the royal festival at Jedburgh, Patrick
Douglas, the learned soldier, took the vows, and became a monastic brother
at Melrose; and, though he spoke of Jolande in his dreams, he smiled, as if
in secret triumph, when the spectre that had appeared to King Alexander was
mentioned in his hearing.

THE SIMPLE MAN IS THE BEGGAR'S BROTHER.

"Many a time," said Nicholas Middlemiss, as he turned round the skirts and
the sleeve of his threadbare coat to examine them, "many a time have I
heard my mother say to my faither--'Roger, Roger (for that was my faither's
name,) _the simple man is the beggar's brother_.' But, notwithstanding my
mother's admonitions, my faither certainly was a very simple man. He
allowed people to take him in, even while they were laughing in his face at
his simplicity. I dinna think that ever there was a week but that somebody
or other owrereached him, in some transaction or other; for every knave,
kennin' him to be a simpleton, (a nosey-wax, as my mother said,) always
laid their snares to entrap Roger Middlemiss--and his family were the
sufferers. He had been a manufacturer in Langholm for many a long year, and
at his death he left four brothers, a sister and mysel', four hundred
pounds each. Be it remembered, however, that his faither before him left
him near to three thousand, and that was an uncommon fortune in those days,
a fortune I may say that my faither might have made his bairns dukes by.
Had he no been a simple man, his family might have said that they wouldna
ca' the Duke o' Buccleuch their cousin. But he was simple--simplicity's
sel'--(as my mother told him weel about it)--and he didna leave his bairns
sae meikle to divide among them, as he had inherited from their
grandfaither. Yet, if, notwithstanding his opportunities to make a fortune,
he did not even leave us even what he had got, he at least left us his
simpleness unimpaired. My brothers were honest men--owre honest, I am sorry
to say, for the every-day transactions of this world--but they always
followed the _obliging_ path, and kept their face in a direction, which, if
they had had foresight enough to see it, was sure to land them _in_, or
_on_,(just as ye like to take the expression,) their _native parish_. Now,
this is a longing after the place o' one's birth for which I have no
ambition; but on th