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303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
135
Alexander
Macpherson,
in
his
evidence
at
the
trial,
declared
that,
late
in
May,
1750,
"when
he
was
in
bed,
a
vision
appeared
to
him
as
of
a
man
clothed
in
blue,
who
said,
'I
am
Sergeant
Davies!'".
At
first
Macpherson
thought
the
figure
was
"a
real
living
man,"
a
brother
of
Donald
Farquharson's.
He
therefore
rose
and
followed
his
visitor
to
the
door,
where
the
ghost
indicated
the
position
of
his
bones,
and
said
that
Donald
Farquharson
would
help
to
inter
them.
Macpherson
next
day
found
the
bones,
and
spoke
to
Growar,
the
man
of
the
tartan
coat
(as
Growar
admitted
at
the
trial).
Growar
said
if
Macpherson
did
not
hold
his
tongue,
he
himself
would
inform
Shaw
of
Daldownie.
Macpherson
therefore
went
straight
to
Daldownie,
who
advised
him
to
bury
the
bones
privily,
not
to
give
the
country
a
bad
name
for
a
rebel
district.
While
Macpherson
was
in
doubt,
and
had
not
yet
spoken
to
Farquharson,
the
ghost
revisited
him
at
night
and
repeated
his
command.
He
also
denounced
his
murderers,
Clerk
and
Macdonald,
which
he
had
declined
to
do
on
his
first
appearance.
He
spoke
in
Gaelic,
which,
it
seems,
was
a
language
not
known
by
the
sergeant.
Isobel
MacHardie,
in
whose
service
Macpherson
was,
deponed
that
one
night
in
summer,
June,
1750,
while
she
lay
at
one
end
of
the
sheiling
(a
hill
hut
for
shepherds
or
neatherds)
and
Macpherson
lay
at
the
other,
"she
saw
something
naked
come
in
at
the
door,
which
frighted
her
so
much
that
she
drew
the
clothes
over
her
head.
That
when
it
appeared
it
came
in
in
a
bowing
posture,
and
that
next
morning
she
asked
Macpherson
what
it
was
that
had
troubled
them
in
the
night
before.
To
which
he
answered
that
she
might
be
easy,
for
it
would
not
trouble
them
any
more."
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