in the years between 1820 and 1890, or whether the schoolmaster of
Rannoch did not tell all he knew. It is unlikely, I think, that the
siege of Seringapatam would have been remembered so long in connection
with the Black Officer if it had not formed part of his original legend.
Meanwhile the earliest printed notice of the event with which I am
acquainted, a notice only ten years later than the date of the Major's
death in 1799, is given by Hogg in "The Spy," 1810-11, pp. 101-3. I
offer an abridgment of the narrative.

"About the end of last century Major Macpherson and a party of friends
went out to hunt on the Grampians between Athole and Badenoch. They were
highly successful, and in the afternoon they went into a little bothy,
and, having meat and drink, they abandoned themselves to jollity.

"During their merry-making a young man entered whose appearance
particularly struck and somewhat shocked Macpherson; the stranger
beckoned to the Major, and he followed him instantly out of the bothy.

"When they parted, after apparently having had some earnest conversation,
the stranger was out of sight long before the Major was half-way back,
though only twenty yards away.

"The Major showed on his return such evident marks of trepidation that
the mirth was marred and no one cared to ask him questions.

"This was early in the week, and on Friday the Major persuaded his
friends to make a second expedition to the mountains, from which they
never returned.

"On a search being made their dead bodies were found in the bothy, some