“I have this moment got your kind letter, just as I
was packing up Don Roderick for
you. This patriotic puppet-show has been finished under wretched auspices; poor
Lord Melville’s death so quickly
succeeding that of President Blair, one
of the best and wisest judges that ever distributed justice, broke my spirit
sadly. My official situation placed me in daily contact with the President, and
his ability and candour were the source
| 344 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“There is a very odd coincidence between the deaths of these eminent characters, and that of a very inferior person, a dentist of this city, named Dubisson. He met the President the day before his death, who used a particular expression in speaking to him; the day before Lord Melville died, he also met Dubisson nearly on the same spot, and to the man’s surprise used the President’s very words in saluting him. On this second death, he expressed (jocularly, however) an apprehension that he himself would be the third—was taken ill and died in an hour’s space. Was not this remarkable? Yours ever,
