The blending of the far East with the
Highlands reminds one of his "Master of Ballantrae," and what might he
not make of that fairy red deer! My boatman, too, told me what Mr.
Stevenson says the Highlanders will not tell--the name of the man who
committed the murder of which Alan Breck was accused. But this secret I
do not intend to divulge.
The story of the Black Officer then seemed absolutely unpublished. But
when Sir Walter Scott's diary was given to the world in October, 1890, it
turned out that he was not wholly ignorant of the legend. In 1828 he
complains that he has been annoyed by a lady, because he had printed "in
the 'Review'" a rawhead and bloody-bones story of her father, Major
Macpherson, who was lost in a snowstorm. This Major Macpherson was
clearly the Black Officer. Mr. Douglas, the publisher of Scott's diary,
discovered that the "Review" mentioned vaguely by Scott was the "Foreign
Quarterly," No. I, July, 1827. In an essay on Hoffmann's novels, Sir
Walter introduced the tale as told to him in a letter from a nobleman
some time deceased, not more distinguished for his love of science than
his attachment to literature in all its branches.
The tale is too long to be given completely. Briefly, a Captain M., on
St. Valentine's day, 1799, had been deer-shooting (at an odd time of the
year) in the hills west of D-.
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