He was to me a man of a great historical
interest, but the interest was not returned.'
'Ah well, we go beyond him,' said Mr. Thomson. 'I daresay
old Peter knew as little about this as I do. You see, I
succeeded to a prodigious accumulation of old law-papers and
old tin boxes, some of them of Peter's hoarding, some of his
father's, John, first of the dynasty, a great man in his day.
Among other collections were all the papers of the
Durrisdeers.'
'The Durrisdeers!' cried I. 'My dear fellow, these may be of
the greatest interest. One of them was out in the '45; one
had some strange passages with the devil - you will find a
note of it in Law's MEMORIALS, I think; and there was an
unexplained tragedy, I know not what, much later, about a
hundred years ago - '
'More than a hundred years ago,' said Mr. Thomson. 'In
1783.'
'How do you know that? I mean some death.'
'Yes, the lamentable deaths of my lord Durrisdeer and his
brother, the Master of Ballantrae (attainted in the
troubles),' said Mr. Thomson with something the tone of a man
quoting. 'Is that it?'
'To say truth,' said I, 'I have only seen some dim reference
to the things in memoirs; and heard some traditions dimmer
still, through my uncle (whom I think you knew). My uncle
lived when he was a boy in the neighbourhood of St. Bride's;
he has often told me of the avenue closed up and grown over
with grass, the great gates never opened, the last lord and
his old maid sister who lived in the back parts of the house,
a quiet, plain, poor, hum-drum couple it would seem - but
pathetic too, as the last of that stirring and brave house -
and, to the country folk, faintly terrible from some deformed
traditions.
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