erudition
garnished it. He insisted much upon his grief at the loss of Edward and
of Glennaquoich, fought the fields of Falkirk and Culloden, and related
how, after all was lost in the last battle, he had returned home, under
the idea of more easily finding shelter among his own tenants, and on
his own estate, than elsewhere. A party of soldiers had been sent to
lay waste his property, for clemency was not the order of the day. Their
proceedings, however, were checked by an order from the civil court.
The estate, it was found, might not be forfeited to the crown, to the
prejudice of Malcolm Bradwardine of Inch-Grabbit, the heir-male, whose
claim could not be prejudiced by the Baron's attainder, as deriving no
right through him, and who, therefore, like other heirs of entail in
the same situation, entered upon possession. But, unlike many in similar
circumstances, the new laird speedily showed that he intended utterly to
exclude his predecessor from all benefit or advantage in the estate, and
that it was his purpose to avail himself of the old Baron's evil fortune
to the full extent. This was the more ungenerous, as it was generally
known, that, from a romantic idea of not prejudicing this young man's
right as heir-male, the Baron had refrained from settling his estate on
his daughter.

This selfish injustice was resented by the country people, who were
partial to their old master, and irritated against his successor. In the
Baron's own words, 'The matter did not coincide with the feelings of
the commons of Bradwardine, Mr. Waverley; and the tenants were slack and
repugnant in payment of their mails and duties; and when my kinsman came
to the village wi' the new factor, Mr. James Howie, to lift the
rents, some wanchancy person--I suspect John Heatherblutter, the auld
gamekeeper, that was out wi' me in the year fifteen--fired a shot at
him in the gloaming, whereby he was so affrighted, that I may say with
Tullius in Catilinam, ABIIT, EVASIT, ERUPIT, EFFUGIT. He fled, sir, as
one may say, incontinent to Stirling. And now he hath advertised the
estate for sale, being himself the last substitute in the entail. And if
I were to lament about sic matters, this would grieve me mair than its
passing from my immediate possession, whilk, by the course of nature,
must have happened in a few years. Whereas now it passes from the
lineage that should have possessed it in SAECULA SAECULORUM. But God's
will be done, HUMANA PERPESSI SUMUS