ting as Master of Ceremonies, which he
did to the entire satisfaction of his sovereign and of the nation. But
while prosperity seemed to smile with increasing brilliancy, adversity
was hovering near. In 1826, Archibald Constable and Company, the famous
publishers of his works, became insolvent, involving in their
bankruptcy the printing firm of the Messrs Ballantyne, of which Sir
Walter was a partner. The liabilities amounted to the vast sum of
L102,000, for which Sir Walter was individually responsible. To a mind
less balanced by native intrepidity and fortified by principle, the
apparent wreck of his worldly hopes would have produced irretrievable
despondency; but Scott bore his misfortune with magnanimity and manly
resignation. He had been largely indebted to both the establishments
which had unfortunately involved him in their fall, in the elegant
production of his works, as well as in respect of pecuniary
accommodation; and he felt bound in honour, as well as by legal
obligation, fully to discharge the debt. He declined to accept an offer
of the creditors to be satisfied with a composition; and claiming only
to be allowed time, applied himself with indomitable energy to his
arduous undertaking, at the age of fifty-five, in the full
determination, if his life was spared, of cancelling every farthing of
his obligations. At the crisis of his embarrassments he was engaged in
the composition of "Woodstock," which shortly afterwards appeared. The
"Life of Napoleon," which had for a considerable time occupied his
attention, was published in 1827, in nine vols. octavo. In the course of
its preparation he had visited both London and Paris in search of
materials. In the same year he produced "Chronicles of the Canongate,"
_first series_; and in the year following, the second series of those
charming tales, and the first portion of his juvenile history of
Scotland, under the title of "Tales of a Grandfather." A second portion
of these tales appeared in 1829, and the third and concluding series in
1830, when he also contributed a graver History of Scotland in two
volumes to _Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia_. In 1829 likewise appeared
"Anne of Geierstein," a romance, and in 1830 the "Letters on Demonology
and Witchcraft." In 1831 he produced a series of "Tales on French
History," uniform with the "Tales of a Grandfather," and his novels,
"Count Robert of Paris," and "Castle Dangerous," as a fourth series of
"Tales of My Landlord."