i had been invited, and was sitting at tea with a very dear old lady friend of mine not long ago. it may seem strange, but tea is, i consider, an extra and an unnecessary meal. it does not appeal to me in the least, and only spoils one’s dinner and digestion. the reason i went to tea was because in her note to me the lady mentioned that she had read my book of ghost tales, and that she was interested in ghosts in general and st andrews ghosts in particular, and that she knew lots of such stories in the days of her girlhood in st andrews, now about 85 years ago. that is why i went to eat cakes with sugar, hot buttered toast, and drink tea as black as senna or a black draught. she had also informed me in the note that she could tell me a lot about the haunted tower and the beautiful white lady.

it took some time to get her to that point. she would talk about archbishop sharpe and his haunted house in the pends road, of the ghost seen by archbishop ross, of my friend the veiled nun, of the cathedral and mr john knox, of hungus, king of the picts, of constantine, thomas plater, and various others. she told me a long tale of the rainham ghost in norfolk, known as “the brown lady of rainham,” whom her father and captain marryat both saw, and so on.

at last we got near the subject i wished information on.

“in my young days,” she said, “st andrews was quite a wee bit place with grass-grown streets, red-tiled houses, outside stairs, queer narrow wynds, not over clean, only a few lights at night—here and there, an old bowet or oil lamp hanging at street corners. every one believed in sharpe’s phantom[63] coach in those good old days.”

“did you ever see it?” i queried.

“no,” she said, “but i have heard it rumble past, and i know those who have seen it, and many other things too.”

“but tell me about the white lady, please,” i said.

“i will. few people in those days cared to pass that haunted tower after nightfall. if they did they ran past it and also the castle. those new-fangled incandescent gas lamps have spoiled it all now. the white lady was one of the maries, one of the maids of honour to poor martyred mary of scotland, they said then. she was madly in love with the french poet and minstrel, ‘castelar,’ and he was hopelessly in love, like many others, with marie’s lovely mistress, ‘the queen of scots.’”

“was she supposed to be the girl seen in the built-up haunted tower?” i asked.

“that i really can’t say,” she said. “there was a story often told in the old days that a beautiful embalmed girl in white lay in that tower, and it was there and near the castle that she used to appear to the people. you know poor castelar, the handsome minstrel, said and did some stupid things, and was beheaded at the castle, and was probably buried near there. get me from that shelf whyte melville’s novel, ‘the queen’s maries.’”

i did as she bade me.

“well, you will see there that the night before castelar was to be beheaded kind queen mary sent one of her maries, the one who loved castelar, at her own special request to the castle with her ring to offer him a pardon if he left this country for ever. this marie did see castelar, showed him the queen’s ring, and pleaded with him to comply, but he refused—he preferred death to banishment from his beloved queen’s court, and the fair messenger left him obstinate in his dungeon. this faithful marie paced up and down all that night before the castle; then at dawn came the sound of a gun or culverin, a wreath of smoke floated out to sea, and castelar was gone. whyte melville says she did not start, she did not shriek, nor faint, nor quiver, but she threw her hood back and looked wildly upward, gasping for air. then as the rising sun shone on[64] her bare head, marie’s raven hair was all streaked and patched with grey. when mary stuart fled to england, this faithful marie, now no more needed, became a nun in st andrews. look at page 371 of whyte melville’s book,” she said. so i read—“it was an early harvest that year in scotland, but e’er the barley was white, marie had done with nuns and nunneries, vows and ceremonies, withered hopes and mortal sorrows, and had gone to that place where the weary heart can alone find the rest it had so longed for at last.”

the pathetic and the comic often go together. just at this interesting point a cat sprang suddenly up and upset a cup of tea in the lap of my genial hostess. this created a diversion. old ladies are apt to wander, which is annoying. she got clean away from her subject for a bit. she asked me if i knew captain robert marshall, who wrote plays and “the haunted mayor.” i said i knew bob well, and that he was an old madras college boy.

she then wanted to know if i knew how to pronounce the name of mr travis’s american putter, and if mr low or i had ever tried it. she also wanted to know if i knew anything of the new patent clock worked on gramophone principles which shouted the hours instead of striking them.

having answered all these queries to her satisfaction, and taken another cup of senna—i mean tea—i got her back to the white lady.

“oh, yes, my dear,” she said, “i saw her, i and some friends. a lot of us had been out at kinkell braes one afternoon and stayed there long past the time allowed us. it was almost dark, and we scuttled up the brae from the harbour rather frightened. just near the turret light we saw the lady gliding along the top of the old abbey wall. she was robed in a grey white dress with a veil over her head. she had raven black hair, and a string of beads hanging from her waist. we all huddled together, with our eyes and mouths wide open, and watched the figure. ‘it’s a girl sleep-walking,’ i murmured. ‘it’s a bride,’ whispered another. ‘oh! she’ll fall,’ said a little boy, grasping my arm. but she did not. she went inside the parapet wall at the haunted tower and vanished completely.[65] ‘it’s a ghost; it’s the white lady,’ we all shrieked, and ran off trembling home. my sister also saw her on one of the turrets in the abbey wall, where she was seen by several people. some months after, as i was doing my hair before my looking-glass, the same face looked over my shoulder, and i fainted. i have always felt an eerie feeling about a looking-glass ever since, even now, old woman as i am. her lovely face is one never, never to be forgotten, having once seen it, but your new fashioned lamps have altered everything.”

“and what do you think about it now?” i asked her.

“i have told you all i know. the lady used to be seen oftenest between the castle and that old turret. perhaps she came to look at the last resting-place of her much loved and wayward minstrel, castelar. maybe she came to revisit the favourite haunts of her beloved girl queen—truly called the queen of the roses; but to my dying day i shall never forget that face, that lovely, pathetic face i saw years ago, and which may still be seen by some. what! must you really go now; won’t you have another cup of tea? very well, good bye.”

as i wended my way clubwards i could not but think of the strange tale i had just heard and of castelar’s sad end, and i could not help wondering if i should ever be favoured with a sight of this beautiful white lady.