gend like the Greek one concerning the evil "corbie" or raven
messenger to Apollo about his false lady-love, but no other explanation
suggests itself.

ANDREW LANG.
_December 1893._

APPENDIX.

[The following extract from the proof-sheets containing Scott's original
conclusion of "St. Ronan's Well" was sent to the Athenaeum of Feb. 4,
1893, by Mr. J. M. Collyer. The proof-sheets are in the possession of
Mr. Archibald Constable. The scene, of which a few lines remain in the
authorised texts, is that of Hannah Irwin's Confession to Josiah
Cargill.

"Oh, most unhappy woman," he said, "what does your introduction prepare
me to expect?"

"Your expectation, be it ever so ominous, shall be fully satisfied. That
Bulmer, when he told you that a secret marriage was necessary to Miss
Mowbray's honour, thought that he was imposing on you.--But he told you
a fatal truth, so far as concerned Clara. She had indeed fallen, but
Bulmer was not her seducer--knew nothing of the truth of what he so
strongly asseverated."

"_He_ was not her lover, then?--And how came he, then, to press to marry
her?--Or, how came you"----

"Hear me--but question not.--Bulmer had gained the advantage over me
which he pretended to have had over Clara. From that moment my
companion's virtue became at once the object of my envy and hatred: yet,
so innocent were the lovers, that, despite of the various arts which I
used to entrap them, they remained guiltless until the fatal evening
when Clara met Tyrrel for the last time ere he removed from the
neighbourhood--and then the devil and Hannah Irwin triumphed. Much there
was of remorse--much of resolutions of separation until the Church
should unite them--but these only forwarded my machinations--for I was
determined she should wed Bulmer, not Tyrrel."

"Wretch!" exclaimed the clergyman: "and had you not, then, done enough?
Why did you expose the paramour of one brother to become the wife of
another?"

She paused, and answered sullenly, "I had my reasons--Bulmer had treated
me with scorn. He told me plainly that he used me but as a
stepping-stone to his own purposes: and that these finally centred in
wedding Clara. I was resolved he should wed her, and take with her
infamy and misery to his bed."

"This is too horrible," said Cargill, endeavouring, with a trembling
hand, to make minutes of her confession.

"Ay," said the sick woman, "but I contended with a master of the game,
who played me st