_Execution of Charles I. and Earl of Stair_ (Vol. ii., pp. 72. 140.
158.).--MATFELONENSIS speaks too fast when he says that "no mention occurs
of the Earl of Stair." I distinctly recollect reading in an old life of the
Earl of Stair an account of his having been sent for to visit a mysterious
person of extreme old age, who stated that he was the earl's ancestor
(grandfather or great-grandfather, but whether paternal or not I do not
remember), and that he had been the executioner of Charles I.