her with a black cat or a broomstick,
but was simply a portion of oak copse which was to be felled that day.
She offered, with diffident civility, to show the stranger the way to the
spot, which, it seems, was not far distant; but they were prevented by
the appearance of the Baron of Bradwardine in person, who, summoned by
David Gellatley, now appeared, 'on hospitable thoughts intent,' clearing
the ground at a prodigious rate with swift and long strides, which
reminded Waverley of the seven-league boots of the nursery fable. He was
a tall, thin, athletic figure, old indeed and grey-haired, but with every
muscle rendered as tough as whip-cord by constant exercise. He was
dressed carelessly, and more like a Frenchman than an Englishman of the
period, while, from his hard features and perpendicular rigidity of
stature, he bore some resemblance to a Swiss officer of the guards, who
had resided some time at Paris, and caught the costume, but not the ease
or manner, of its inhabitants. The truth was, that his language and
habits were as heterogeneous as his external appearance.

Owing to his natural disposition to study, or perhaps to a very general
Scottish fashion of giving young men of rank a legal education, he had
been bred with a view to the bar. But the politics of his family
precluding the hope of his rising in that profession, Mr. Bradwardine
travelled with high reputation for several years, and made some campaigns
in foreign service. After his demele with the law of high treason in
1715, he had lived in retirement, conversing almost entirely with those
of his own principles in the vicinage. The pedantry of the lawyer,
superinduced upon the military pride of the soldier, might remind a
modern of the days of the zealous volunteer service, when the bar-gown of
our pleaders was often flung over a blazing uniform. To this must be
added the prejudices of ancient birth and Jacobite politics, greatly
strengthened by habits of solitary and secluded authority, which, though
exercised only within the bounds of his half-cultivated estate, was there
indisputable and undisputed. For, as he used to observe, 'the lands of
Bradwardine, Tully-Veolan, and others, had been erected into a free
barony by a charter from David the First, cum liberali potest. habendi
curias et justicias, cum fossa et furca (LIE, pit and gallows) et saka et
soka, et thol et theam, et infang-thief et outfang-thief, sive
hand-habend, sive bak-barand.' The pecul