Twelve Scots Trials

These adventures in criminal biography, begun at the suggestion of the late Mr. Andrew Lang, with his kind encouragement were completed shortly before his death. Mr. Lang read them in manuscript. He was good enough to approve them, and had promised to write an Introduction when they came to be published. Thus, by his sudden passing, which has left literature so much the poorer, the reader is deprived of what would have been the most attractive feature of the book. Dickens has noted the exclusive nature of a true professional relish, as shown in the enthusiasm of Mr. Dennis; and while, personally, I find the people of our causes celebres more convincing than those of many popular and prolific writers, it is quite possible that the reader may not share my taste. I know the disadvantages under which the subjects of these studies labour in competition with their rivals of the circulating library. The fact that they were real men and women, who sinned and suffered in their day, and whose stories are unfortunately true, is alone enough to alienate the sympathy of a fiction-loving public. Yet here we have characters and incidents as curious, and problems in psychology as perplexing, as any wherewith the modern novelist delights his votaries; and although the fitness of my rascals to adorn a tale may be questioned, their ability to point a moral is beyond dispute. So I venture to hope that, if their regrettable actuality be overlooked, they may even afford some measure of entertainment. The selection of the cases dealt with is purely arbitrary.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically