The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-25 00:00:00

SINGULAR RECOVERY OF AN UNPUBLISHED
ROMANCE OF SIR TVALTER SCOTT.

An English gentleman residing in Paris had occa-
sion, a few days past, to visit a printing-offie on the
quai St. Augustin, when the name of Sir Walter Scott,
on a brochure then at press, caught his eye, and he
could read enough of it to observe that it contained a
narrative of what was entitled " Decouverte Inattendue"
of the manuscript of an historical romance by that great
man. The history of the affair therein given was, that
about thirty years ago a rich old German, who resided
in Paris, was afflicted by the monomania of desiring to
be possessor of an unpublished work of Sir Walter
Scott ; that about this he tormented a Mr. Spencer,
also then living in Paris ; that, on Sir Walter Scott's
visit to Paris, in 1826, Spencer had spoken to Miss
Anne Scott about it, and that the result was her giving
him a MS. of an unpublished historical work by her
father, which he never intended should see the light ;
and that, although the old German often boasted of this
acquisition, all his friends regarded it as the dream of
one afflicted with an incurable monomania. It so
happened, however, that, amongst the visitors to
the old German, there was a young Frenchman,
who assisted him in some statistic works in which
he was engaged, and the old gentleman always
said that a writing case, to which he pointed,
should become his at his death. It was looked upon as
a pleasantry, or a whim, of which the German had many.
The troubles of 1830 came on, the old gentleman was
ruined, died, and his family left Paris, no one knew
whither. A short time ago the young friend of the
German, now living en one of the boulevards, and ex-
tensively engaged in matters connected with the French
Archives, was Arprised to receive a box containing the
writing case. It was seat to him by the daughter of
the old German, now living in Bavaria, with a letter of
apologies, and describing how it had been overlooked.
In this box of papers was found a balky manuscript,
bearing the title of Moredun, ec Tale of the Twelve Hun-
dred and Ten, accompanied by a letter, of which a trans-
lation was given in the brochure then at press. The
visitor to the printing-office, who read the above account,
knowing something of the gentleman who was said to
have received the box, immediately called en him, saw the
writing case, some of the manuscript, and the following
letter, of which he was permitted to take a literal
copy :

" Paris, 4th November, 1326.
"My dear IV— ara constrained to make
of this note a letter of initials, for I am not quite satis-
fied with myself in agreeing to write it, and there is no
saying into whose hands it may fall.
" This story which Anne has told me about your daft
friend, the foreign monomaniac, is as clearly the case of
a man who requires to be cognosced as I ever met with ;
but as it appears to me that she has taken it most ridi-
culously to heart, we have brought our discussion of it
to a conclusion, by my consenting to her doing what
you could not be told of until she had received the per-
mission of papa.
" She has possessed herself, for a long time past, of a
tale which I had at one time the intention of making the
first of a series of such things, drawn from the history
of Scotland—a notion which I afterwards gave up. For
Anne, however, that story has ever possessed a great
charm ; and I allowed her to keep it, beoause I was
under the impression that a mere story, which offers no
particular merits but those of events and a plot, would
not appear advantageously amongst works which had
the higher object of painting character. That would be
to take a step backwards, which would never do. Be-
sides, as far as I can recollect, there are a great many
anachronisms and freedoms used with persons and places
which are not in keeping with the character of historian,
to which I now aspire.
"I consider, then, that in authorising my daughter to
give you that work as a panacea for the imaginary ills
of a foreigu monomaniac, I only permit a change of pro-
prietorship. At the same time, in allowing Anne to
make a present to yon of what is but a trifle after all,
I must make a mcst serious stipulation regarding it ;
for I tell you candidly that I believe W— S— himself
to be the real malade imaginaire. That stipulation is,
that if at any time you take the fancy of publishing that
tale you will do so with the initials only, and that you
will do all that you can in fairness do to countenance
the idea that it is a bairn of your ain.
" I wish I could do something for you personally of
some less doubtful character than of humoring the
caprice of a daft man ; but you know how I am placed
at present. Believe, however, that you have no more
sincere friend than W— 5—."

The gentleman who was allowed to take this copy of
the letter was permitted also to glance over the manu-
script of the first volume of the tale, the others being
in course of translation, and his conviction is, that not
only have the manuscripts every appearance of being of
that date, and of being genuine, but that the tale itself
exceeds in interest and incident anything which after-
wards came from Sir Walter's pen, and that it must be
perfectly obvious to every reader that none but himself
could have written it. The gentleman into whose posses-
sion the manuscript has thus most unexpectedly come is
having it translated into French, and appears in perfect
raptures, not merely with being the proprietor of such a
treasure, but with the tale itself. It will be a curious
enough thing if one of the earliest romances of the
Author of " Waverley" appear first in French !