threw themselves upon him, disarmed him, and were
about to use him with great violence, when the appearance of a venerable
clergyman, the pastor of the parish, put a curb on their fury.

This worthy man (none of the Goukthrapples or Rentowels) maintained his
character with the common people, although he preached the practical
fruits of Christian faith, as well as its abstract tenets, and was
respected by the higher orders, notwithstanding he declined soothing
their speculative errors by converting the pulpit of the gospel into a
school of heathen morality. Perhaps it is owing to this mixture of faith
and practice in his doctrine, that, although his memory has formed a
sort of era in the annals of Cairnvreckan, so that the parishioners, to
denote what befell Sixty Years since, still say it happened 'in good Mr.
Morton's time,' I have never been able to discover which he belonged to,
the evangelical, or the moderate party in the kirk. Nor do I hold the
circumstance of much moment, since, in my own remembrance, the one was
headed by an Erskine, the other by a Robertson. [The Rev. John Erskine,
D.D., an eminent Scottish divine, and a most excellent man, headed
the Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland at the time when the
celebrated Dr. Robertson, the historian, was the leader of the Moderate
party. These two distinguished persons were colleagues in the Old Grey
Friars' Church, Edinburgh; and, however much they differed in church
politics, preserved the most perfect harmony as private friends, and as
clergymen serving the same cure.]

Mr. Morton had been alarmed by the discharge of the pistol, and the
increasing hubbub around the smithy. His first attention, after he had
directed the bystanders to detain Waverley, but to abstain from injuring
him, was turned to the body of Mucklewrath, over which his wife, in a
revulsion of feeling, was weeping, howling, and tearing her elf-locks,
in a state little short of distraction. On raising up the smith, the
first discovery was, that he was alive; and the next, that he was likely
to live as long as if he had never heard the report of a pistol in his
life. He had made a narrow escape, however; the bullet had grazed his
head, and stunned him for a moment or two, which trance terror and
confusion of spirit had prolonged, somewhat longer. He now arose
to demand vengeance on the person of Waverley, and with difficulty
acquiesced in the proposal of Mr. Morton, that he should be carri