nd of peace, and declare myself deforced."

"And who the devil cares," said Hector, totally ignorant of the words of
judicial action, "whether you declare yourself divorced or married? And
as to breaking your wand, or breaking the peace, or whatever you call
it, all I know is, that I will break your bones if you prevent the lad
from harnessing the horses to obey his mistress's orders."

"I take all who stand here to witness," said the messenger, "that I
showed him my blazon, and explained my character. He that will to Cupar
maun to Cupar,"--and he slid his enigmatical ring from one end of the
baton to the other, being the appropriate symbol of his having been
forcibly interrupted in the discharge of his duty.

Honest Hector, better accustomed to the artillery of the field than to
that of the law, saw this mystical ceremony with great indifference;
and with like unconcern beheld the messenger sit down to write out
an execution of deforcement. But at this moment, to prevent the
well-meaning hot-headed Highlander from running the risk of a
severe penalty, the Antiquary arrived puffing and blowing, with his
handkerchief crammed under his hat, and his wig upon the end of his
stick.

"What the deuce is the matter here?" he exclaimed, hastily adjusting
his head-gear; "I have been following you in fear of finding your idle
loggerhead knocked against one rock or other, and here I find you parted
with your Bucephalus, and quarrelling with Sweepclean. A messenger,
Hector, is a worse foe than a phoca, whether it be the phoca barbata, or
the phoca vitulina of your late conflict."

"D--n the phoca, sir," said Hector, "whether it be the one or the other--I
say d--n them both particularly! I think you would not have me stand
quietly by and see a scoundrel like this, because he calls himself a
king's messenger, forsooth--(I hope the king has many better for his
meanest errands)--insult a young lady of family and fashion like Miss
Wardour?"

"Rightly argued, Hector," said the Antiquary; "but the king, like other
people, has now and then shabby errands, and, in your ear, must have
shabby fellows to do them. But even supposing you unacquainted with the
statutes of William the Lion, in which capite quarto versu quinto, this
crime of deforcement is termed despectus Domini Regis--a contempt, to
wit, of the king himself, in whose name all legal diligence issues,--
could you not have inferred, from the information I took so much pains
to