| PAGE | |
| IN THE BLACKFRIARS WYND | [1] |
| BY PEDEN'S CLEUCH | [23] |
| 'ILL-STEEKIT' EPHRAIM | [31] |
| THE COCK-CROW | [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
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,