danced a
minuet in the moonbeams; afterwards he piped a farewell dirge,--a
wild, weird, funereal dirge, and, marching slowly backwards, his dark,
gleaming eyes fixed gloatingly on hers, disappeared through the
window. Then the reaction set in, and Martha raved and shrieked till
every one in the house flew to the rescue.

Of course, no one--saving her father and mother--believed her. Ernest,
his wife, and the servants attributed her bloody act to jealousy; the
law--to madness; and she subsequently journeyed from Donaldgowerie to
a criminal lunatic asylum, where the recollection of all she had done
soon killed her. This was the climax. Mr. Whittingen sold
Donaldgowerie, and a new house was shortly afterwards erected in its
stead.

CASE XIII

THE FLOATING HEAD OF THE BENRACHETT INN,
NEAR THE PERTH ROAD, DUNDEE

Some years ago, when I was engaged in collecting cases for a book I
contemplated publishing, on _Haunted Houses in England and Wales_, I
was introduced to an Irish clergyman, whose name I have forgotten, and
whom I have never met since. Had the incident he related taken place
in England or Wales, I should have noted it down carefully, but as it
occurred in Scotland (and I had no intention then of bringing out a
volume on Scottish phantasms), I did not do so.

My memory, however, I can assure my readers, in spite of the many
ghost tales committed to it,--for scarcely a day passes that I do not
hear one,--seldom fails, and the Irish clergyman's story, which I am
about to relate, comes back to me now with startling vividness.

One summer evening, early in the eighties, Mr. Murphy--the name by
which I will designate the originator of this story--and his wife
arrived in Dundee. The town was utterly unknown to them, and they were
touring Scotland for the first time. Not knowing where to put up for
the night, and knowing no one to whom they could apply for
information, they consulted a local paper, and from the long list of
hotels and boarding-houses advertised therein selected the Benrachett
Inn, near the Perth Road, as being the one most likely to meet their
modest requirements. They were certainly not disappointed with the
exterior of the hotel they had chosen, for as soon as they saw it they
exclaimed simultaneously, "What a delightful old place!" And old it
certainly was, for the many-gabled, oaken structure and projecting
windows unquestionably indicated the sixteenth