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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