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Speaker 1: The Veiled Nun of Saint Leonard's by W. T. Lindskill.

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Curiously enough, although I have been in many old haunted

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castles and churches at the exactly correct hour viz. Midnight

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in Scotland, England, Wales and the Rhine Country, yet I

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have never been able to either see or hear a

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ghost of any sort. The only thing of the kind

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I ever saw was an accidental meeting with the far

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famed spring hailed Jack in a dark lane at Helensborough.

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It was many years ago, and as I was then

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very small and he was of immense proportions, the meeting

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was distinctly unpleasant for me. Now, from legends we learned

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that Saint Andrews is possessed of a prodigious number of

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supernatural appearances of different kinds, sizes and shapes, most of

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them of an awe inspiring and blood curdling type. In fact,

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so numerous are they eighty in number, they seem to

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be that there is really no room for any modern

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aspirants whom may want a quiet place to appear and

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turn people's hair white. It might be well to mention

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a few of them before telling the tale of the

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Veiled Nun of Saint Leonard's Church Avenue. We will put

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aside ordinary banshees and things that can only be heard well.

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There is the celebrated phantom Coach that Willie Carson told

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us of. It has been heard and seen by many.

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There is also a white lady that used to haunt

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the abbey Road, the ghost of Saint Rolls Tower, the

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Haunted Tower Ghost, the Blackfriar's Ghost, the Wraith of Haxton

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of Rithelot, the Specter of the Old Castle, the Dancing Skeletons,

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the Smothered Piper lad, the Phantom Bloodhound, the Priory Ghost,

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and many many more. The Nun of Saint Leonard's is

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as curious and interesting as any of them, though a

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bit weird and gruesome. In the time of Charming Mary Stuart,

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our White Queen, there lived in the old South Street

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to a very lovely lady belonging to a very old

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old Scottish family, and her beauty and wit brought many

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admirers to claim her hand, but with little or no success,

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she waved them all away. At last she became affianced

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to a fine and brave young fellow who came from

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the East Lothian country, and for some months all went

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merely as a married bell. But at last clouds overspread

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the rosy horizon. She resolved that she would never become

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an earthly bride, but would take the veil and become

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a bride of holy Church and none. In point of fact,

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when her lover heard that she had left home and

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entered a house of holy sisters, he at once announced

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his intention of hastening to Saint Andrew's, seizing her and

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marrying her at once. In this project, it would seem

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the young ladies parents were in perfect agreement with the

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devoted youth. He did hasten to Saint Andrews almost immediately,

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and there received a terrible shock. On meeting this once

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lovely and loved maiden, he discovered that she had actually

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done what she had written and threatened to do sooner

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than be an earthly bride. She had mutilated her face

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by slitting her nostrils. She had cut off her eyelids

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and both her top and bottom lips, and had branded

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her fair cheeks with cruel hot irons. The poor youth,

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on seeing her famous beauty thus destroyed, fled to Edinburgh,

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where he committed suicide, and she, after becoming a nun,

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died from grief and remorse. That all happened nearly four

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hundred years ago, but her spirit, with the terribly marred

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and mutilated face, still wanders of nights. In the peaceful

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little avenue to old Saint Leonard's Ironkirk Gate down the

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Penn's Road, she is all dressed in black, with a

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long black veil over the once lovely face, and carries

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a lantern in her hand. Should any bold visitor to

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that avenue meet her, she slowly so weeps her face

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veil aside, raises the lantern to her scarred face and

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discloses those awful features to his horrified gaze. Here's the

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curious thing that I know happened there a few years ago,

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a new young fellow here who was reading upon theology

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and church canon law. I also knew a great friend

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of his, an old Cambridge man. The former I will

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call Wilson, and the latter Talbot, as I don't want

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to give the exact names. Well, Wilson had invited Talbot

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up to Saint Andrews for a month of golf, and

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he arrived here on a Christmas day. He came to

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my rooms for about ten minutes, and he never saw

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anyone merrier and brighter and full of old days at Cambridge.

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Then he hurried off to see the links in the club.

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Late that evening, Wilson rushed in, Come along quick and

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see Talbot. He's awfully ill and I don't know what's

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up a bit. I went off and found Talbot in

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his lodgings with a doctor in attendance, and he certainly

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looked dangerously ill and seemed perfectly dazed. Wilson told me

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that he had to go to see some people in

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business that evening down by the harbor, and that he

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took Talbot with him down the Penns Road. It was

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a fine night, and Talbot said he would walk about

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the road and enjoy a cigar till his friends return.

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In about half an hour, Wilson returned up the Penns Road.

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We could see Talbot nowhere in sight. After hunting about

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for a long time, he found him leaning against the

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third or fourth tree up the little avenue to Saint

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Leonard's kirk Gate. He went up to him, when Talbot

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turned a horrified face toward him, saying, oh my god,

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have you come to meet me again, and fell down

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in a fit or a swoon. He got some passers

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by to help to take poor Talbot to his rooms.

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Then he came round for me. We sat up with

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him in wonder, in amazement, and briefly this is what

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he told us. After walking up and down the Penns Road,

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he thought he would take a survey of the little avenue,

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when at the end he saw a little light approaching him,

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and he turned back to meet it, thinking it was

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a policeman. He wished him good evening, but got no reply.

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On approaching nearer, he saw it to be a veiled

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female with a lantern. Getting quite close, she stopped in

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front of him, drew aside her long veil, and held

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up the lantern towards him. My God, said Talbot. I

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can never forget or describe that terrible, fearful face. I

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felt choked, and I fell like a log at her feet.

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I remember no more till I found myself in these

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rooms and you two fellows sitting beside me. I leave

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this place tomorrow, and he did by the first train.

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His state of panic was terrible to see. Neither Wilson

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nor Talbot had ever heard the tale of the awful

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apparition of the Saint Leonards Nun. And I had almost

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forgotten the existence of the strange story till so curiously

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reminded of it. I never saw Talbot again, but I

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had a letter from him a year after, written from Rheinfeld's,

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telling me that on Christmas Day he had had another vision,

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dream or whatever it was, of the same awful specter.

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About a year later I read in a paper that

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poor old Talbot had died on Christmas night at Rosariu

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of heart failure. I ofter wonder if the dear old

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chap had had another visit from the terrible veiled Nun

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of Saint Leonard's Avenue. And of the Veiled Nun of

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Saint Leonard's by W. T. Lindskill