hy Dr. Blattergowl was induced, from the mention
of a grant of lands, cum decimis inclusis tam vicariis quam garbalibus,
et nunquan antea separatis, to enter into a long explanation concerning
the interpretation given by the Teind Court in the consideration of
such a clause, which had occurred in a process for localling his last
augmentation of stipend. The orators, like three racers, each pressed
forward to the goal, without much regarding how each crossed and jostled
his competitors. Mr. Oldbuck harangued, the Baronet declaimed, Mr.
Blattergowl prosed and laid down the law, while the Latin forms of
feudal grants were mingled with the jargon of blazonry, and the yet
more barbarous phraseology of the Teind Court of Scotland. "He was,"
exclaimed Oldbuck, speaking of the Prior Adhemar, "indeed an exemplary
prelate; and, from his strictness of morals, rigid execution of penance,
joined to the charitable disposition of his mind, and the infirmities
endured by his great age and ascetic habits"--

Here he chanced to cough, and Sir Arthur burst in, or rather
continued--"was called popularly Hell-in-Harness; he carried a shield,
gules with a sable fess, which we have since disused, and was slain at
the battle of Vernoil, in France, after killing six of the English with
his own"--

"Decreet of certification," proceeded the clergyman, in that prolonged,
steady, prosing tone, which, however overpowered at first by the
vehemence of competition, promised, in the long run, to obtain the
ascendancy in this strife of narrators;--"Decreet of certification having
gone out, and parties being held as confessed, the proof seemed to be
held as concluded, when their lawyer moved to have it opened up, on the
allegation that they had witnesses to bring forward, that they had been
in the habit of carrying the ewes to lamb on the teind-free land; which
was a mere evasion, for"--

But here the Baronet and Mr. Oldbuck having recovered their wind,
and continued their respective harangues, the three strands of the
conversation, to speak the language of a rope-work, were again twined
together into one undistinguishable string of confusion.

Yet, howsoever uninteresting this piebald jargon might seem, it was
obviously Miss Wardour's purpose to give it her attention, in preference
to yielding Captain M'Intyre an opportunity of renewing their private
conversation. So that, after waiting for a little time with displeasure,
ill concealed by his haughty