Published: 2018-03-04
Total Pages: 530
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Excerpt from Tales of the Crusaders, Vol. 1 of 4: The Betrothed Eveline's watch on the battlements, and the faint tinkling sound she hears from afar, are conceived in the true Spirit of romance. The spirit of the Haunted Chamber is wisely left unexplained: she has certainly a tendency to follow the White Lady of Avenel. It would be interesting to know whether Sir Walter borrowed this idea of a mysterious room, which each woman of the family must visit once in a lifetime, from the tradition of Glammis Castle. There, according to a widely circulated legend, is a secret chamber, which the heir must enter once, on attaining his majority. In 1793 Scott passed a night at Glammis, and this was one of the two occasions when he experienced that degree of superstitious awe which his countrymen call eerie. The other occasion was probably on the moor near Ashestiel, when his mare Finella was not anxious to remain in the company of the mysterious figure. (lockhart, i. 295; Gillies, p. Scott mentions the secret chamber of Glammis, known only to the Earl of Strathmore, his heir apparent, and a third person, but he says nothing of the legend akin to that of the Bahr Geist, - the Red Finger. (lockhart, i. Hence it has been argued that the legend is later than Scott's time. His incident of the Balm' Geist's cham ber may suggest a contrary opinion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.