'
'Yes,' said Mr. Thomson. Henry Graeme Durie, the last lord,
died in 1820; his sister, the Honourable Miss Katherine
Durie, in '27; so much I know; and by what I have been going
over the last few days, they were what you say, decent, quiet
people and not rich. To say truth, it was a letter of my
lord's that put me on the search for the packet we are going
to open this evening. Some papers could not be found; and he
wrote to Jack M'Brair suggesting they might be among those
sealed up by a Mr. Mackellar. M'Brair answered, that the
papers in question were all in Mackellar's own hand, all (as
the writer understood) of a purely narrative character; and
besides, said he, "I am bound not to open them before the
year 1889." You may fancy if these words struck me: I
instituted a hunt through all the M'Brair repositories; and
at last hit upon that packet which (if you have had enough
wine) I propose to show you at once.'
In the smoking-room, to which my host now led me, was a
packet, fastened with many seals and enclosed in a single
sheet of strong paper thus endorsed:-
Papers relating to the lives and lamentable deaths of the
late Lord Durisdeer, and his elder brother James, commonly
called Master of Ballantrae, attainted in the troubles:
entrusted into the hands of John M'Brair in the Lawnmarket of
Edinburgh, W.S.; this 20th day of September Anno Domini 1789;
by him to be kept secret until the revolution of one hundred
years complete, or until the 20th day of September 1889: the
same compiled and written by me,
EPHRAIM MACKELLAR,
FOR NEAR FORTY YEARS LAND STEWARD ON THE
ESTATES OF HIS LORDSHIP.
Pages:
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82