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Serendipity
Oct. 6th, 2001 08:12 pmI enjoy writing - mostly, stories based on roleplaying characters of one flavour or another - and one of the things I love is seeing my own creations interweaving with those of others, and with real life history. If things were truly random, they ought to contradict and fail to mesh more often than not. Instead, they mesh together frighteningly well.
Catherine Gordon might not be beautiful, but she was of good birth, and "proud as Lucifer" of her name, which was one of the most honourable in Scotland. The first laird of Gight, Sir William Gordon, had been the son of the Earl of Huntly and Annabella Stuart, sister of King James the Second. But although the family history opened thus royally, a more tragic sequence of events could hardly be imagined. William Gordon was drowned, Alexander Gordon murdered, John Gordon hanged for the killing of Lord Moray in 1592, another John Gordon hanged in 1634 for the assassination of Wallenstein - it seemed as if a Gordon of Gight had been strung up on every branch of their family tree... even in childhood their temper was clearly shown. In 1610 three young Gordons barricaded themselves in the Aberdeen Grammar School, and there, with sword and pistol, resisted an all-night attack... even although the Crown became stronger during the eighteenth century and was able to compel a respect for law, the string of violent deaths went on as before. Alexander Gordon was drowned; his son George Gordon was drowned (doubtless suicidally) in the Bath Canal.
- Andre Maurois, Byron (trans. Hamish Miles)
Catherine Gordon might not be beautiful, but she was of good birth, and "proud as Lucifer" of her name, which was one of the most honourable in Scotland. The first laird of Gight, Sir William Gordon, had been the son of the Earl of Huntly and Annabella Stuart, sister of King James the Second. But although the family history opened thus royally, a more tragic sequence of events could hardly be imagined. William Gordon was drowned, Alexander Gordon murdered, John Gordon hanged for the killing of Lord Moray in 1592, another John Gordon hanged in 1634 for the assassination of Wallenstein - it seemed as if a Gordon of Gight had been strung up on every branch of their family tree... even in childhood their temper was clearly shown. In 1610 three young Gordons barricaded themselves in the Aberdeen Grammar School, and there, with sword and pistol, resisted an all-night attack... even although the Crown became stronger during the eighteenth century and was able to compel a respect for law, the string of violent deaths went on as before. Alexander Gordon was drowned; his son George Gordon was drowned (doubtless suicidally) in the Bath Canal.
- Andre Maurois, Byron (trans. Hamish Miles)
