ry? At which, And the Lord bless me too, says she, It was very happy you spake first, for till then I had no power to speak, though I have followed you so long. My Name, says she, is Margaret —— I lived here before the War, and had one Son by my Husband, when he died, I Married a Soldier, by whom I had several Children, which that former Son maintained, else we must all have starved. He lives beyond the Ban-water; pray go to him, and bid him dig under such a Hearth, and there he shall find 28 s. Let him pay what I owe in such a place, and the rest to the charge unpayed at my Funeral; and go to my Son that lives here, which I had by my latter Husband, and tell him, that he lives a wicked and a dissolute Life, and is very unnatural and ungrateful to his Brother that maintained him, and if he does not mend his Life, God Almighty will destroy him.
David Hunter told her he never knew her: No, says she, I died 7 Years before you came into the Country, but for all that, if he would do her Message, she should never hurt him. But he deferred doing as the Apparition bid him, and she appeared the Night after, as he lay in Bed, and struck him on the Shoulder very hard; at which he cried out, and askt her if she did not promise she would not hurt him? She said that was if he did her Message; if not, she would kill him. He told her, he could not go now, by reason the Waters were out. She said, she was content he should stay till they were abated; but charged him afterwards not to fail her. So he did her Errand, and afterwards she appeared, and gave him Thanks. For now, said she, I shall be at rest, therefore pray you lift me up from the Ground, and I will trouble you no more. So David Hunter lifted her up from the Ground, and, as he said, she felt just like a Bag of Feathers in his Arms; so she vanisht, and he heard the most delicate Musick as she went off, over his Head; and he never was more troubled.
This Account the poor Fellow gave us every Day, as the Apparition spake to him, and my Lady Conway came to Portmore, where she askt the Fellow the same questions, and many more. This I know to be true, being all the while with my Lord of Down, and the Fellow but a poor Neat-herd there.
Thomas Alcock.
