He was caught in the act of firing a curtain in the
very room in which a fireman was occupied in putting out a blaze. A
still more extraordinary case took place in the year 1848, at Torluck
House, in the Isle of Mull. On Sunday, the 11th of November, the
curtains of a bed were ignited, as was supposed, by lightning; a
window-blind followed; and immediately afterwards the curtains of five
rooms broke out one after another into a flame, even the towels
hanging up in the kitchen were burnt. The next day a bed took fire,
and it being thought advisable to carry the bed-linen into the
coach-house for safety, it caught fire three or four times during the
process of removal. In a few days the phenomenon was renewed. The
furniture, books, and every thing else of an inflammable nature, were,
with much labor, taken from the mansion, and again some body-linen
burst into a flame on the way. Even after these precautions had been
taken, and persons had been set to watch in every part of the house,
the mysterious fires continued to haunt it until the 22d of February,
1849.
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