iness ability and
general caliber of character as is connoted by the name which Scott
coined for him, "Rigdumfunnidos." The selection of such a man for such a
place betrays in Scott's eminently sane and balanced mind a curious
strain of impracticality, to say the least; indeed, we are almost
constrained to feel with his harsher critics that it betrays something
worse than defective judgment--defective character. His greatest
failing, if failing it can be called, was pride. He could not endure
even the mild dictations of a competent publisher, as is shown by his
answer to a letter written by one of them proposing some salaried work;
he replied curtly that he was a "black Hussar" of literature, and not to
be put to such tame service. Probably this haughty dislike of dictation,
this imperious desire to patronize rather than be patronized, led him to
choose inferior men with whom to enter into business relations. If so,
he paid for the fault so dearly that it is hard for a biographer to
press the issue against him.

For the present, however, the wind of fortune was blowing fair, and all
the storm clouds were below the horizon. In 1808 _Marmion_ appeared, and
was greeted with an enthusiasm which made the unprecedented reception of
the _Lay_ seem lukewarm in comparison. _Marmion_ contains nothing which
was not plainly foreshadowed in the _Lay_, but the hand of the poet has
grown more sure, his descriptive effects are less crude and amateurish,
the narrative proceeds with a steadier march, the music has gained in
volume and in martial vigor. An anecdote is told by Mr. Hutton which
will serve as a type of a hundred others illustrative of the
extraordinary hold which this poetry took upon the minds of ordinary
men. "I have heard," he says, "of two old men--complete
strangers--passing each other on a dark London night, when one of them
happened to be repeating to himself, just as Campbell did to the
hackney coachman of the North Bridge of Edinburgh, the last lines of the
account of Flodden Field in _Marmion_, 'Charge, Chester, charge,' when
suddenly a reply came out of the darkness, 'On, Stanley, on,' whereupon
they finished the death of _Marmion_ between them, took off their hats
to each other, and parted, laughing." _The Lady of the Lake_, which
followed in little more than a year, was received with the same popular
delight, and with even greater respect on the part of the critics. Even
the formidable Jeffrey, who was supposed