Of the other actors in the tragedy there is little to tell. That great
and able lawyer, Viscount Stair, has left behind him permanent record of
the ability that brought him his title. For fifty years his wife and he
lived together, and history tells us that "they were tenderly attached
to the last." A witty, brilliant, worldly woman, she had the power of
keeping the love of her husband fresh and living to the very end. She it
was who is reported by a local historian, whose standard possibly may
not have been of the very highest, to have made "one of the best puns
extant." "Bluidy Clavers" was Sheriff of Wigtown in her day, and in her
presence he dared to inveigh against one who was still the idol of
Presbyterian Whigs, John Knox.
"Why are you so severe on the character of John Knox?" asked the Lady
Stair. "You are both reformers: he gained his point by clavers; you
attempt to gain yours by knocks."
When the lady died, in the year 1692, she left an order regarding the
disposal of her body which entirely confirmed the popular belief that,
early in life, she had bargained with the Evil One for the worldly
success of herself and her descendants, and had paid her soul as price.
She asked that her body might not be buried underground, but that the
coffin containing her should be stood upright in the family vault of
Kirkliston.
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