"terrible to pay"

[George Thompson]

I'm really posting this because I like the image of a Cat Errant, going
about rescuing those in distress.  I can imaging him travelling with a
dog for a sidekick, named Tonto, and saying at the end of the story, "I
think our work here is finished"  and riding off, while the grateful
townspeople exclaim "who was that kittycat?"

But to give some coloring for posting it here, I will point out the
expression "terrible to pay", which seems to be a euphemism for "devil
to pay".  The OED has "devil to pay" from 1711.

        Extract of a Letter from Halifax, December 13, 1750.
"*** I can give you a remarkable Account of a CAT in this Place, with
is very extraordinary as well as perfectly true.  There was a Cat which
by Accident came into Capt. Jonathan Hoar's, and he being very much
troubled with Rats, was glad of her Company, and made much of her, and
in the Night heard the Noise of terrible to pay; but in the Morning
found to his great surprize, above 70 Rats killed about the House, in
one Place and another.  From him the Hero of a Puss went to the next
House, which is Bourn and Freeman's, and clear'd their Place in about
two Nights, and went off the next Day, but we don't hear any more of
her Visits. -----"
N-Y Gazette Revived, January 14, 1750-1, p. 2, col. 2

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

"We have seen the best of our time.  Machinations, hollowness,
treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our
graves."  King Lear, Act 1, scene 2 (Gloucester speaking).