One of his sons had died by poison.

One of his daughters had poniarded her bridegroom on the wedding night.

One of his grandsons had in boyish sport been slain by another.

Savage libellers asserted, and some of the superstitious vulgar believed, that calamities so portentous were the consequences of some connection between the unhappy race and the powers of darkness.

Sir James had a wry neck; and he was reproached with this misfortune as if it had been a crime, and was told that it marked him out as a man doomed to the gallows.