e welcomed as warmly as the most fortunate
of their predecessors.[85] Constable's resolution to begin with an
{p.203} edition of 10,000 proved to have been as sagacious as brave;
for within a fortnight a second impression of 3000 was called for; and
the subsequent sale of this novel has considerably exceeded 40,000
more.

[Footnote 85: [On the 16th of February, Lady Louisa
Stuart wrote:--

"I have read _Rob Roy_ twice.... The scale with me would
be _Waverley_, _Old Mortality_, _Guy Mannering_--so far
I am sure. I am not sure which of the others I could
positively prefer; there are striking beauties in each.
In _Rob Roy_ the painting of character is as vivid as in
anything the author ever wrote. Rob himself, Die Vernon,
Nicol Jarvie, Andrew Fairservice, not to speak of the
Tory baronet and his cubs, or the Jesuit Rashleigh. The
beginning and end, I am afraid, I quarrel with; ... but
beginnings signify little; ends signify more. Now, I
fear the end of this is huddled, as if the author were
tired and wanted to get rid of his personages as fast as
he could, knocking them on the head without mercy. Die
Vernon has what a Lord Bellamont (famous in my day and
before it for profligacy and affectation) used to call
such 'a catastrophical countenance' that one cannot
reconcile oneself to her being married and settled like
her sober neighbors. It is almost as bad as if Flora
MacIvor had married the Colonel's nephew.... You see I
give my opinion (let it be worth something or nothing)
as if I were writing to a person not supposed to be in
any way sib to the mysterious Unknown; but it is because
I believe you have too distinguishing a taste to relish
all sugar and treacle. Goldsmith's metaphor was bad when
he said, 'Who peppers the highest is surest to please,'
for flattery resembles neither pepper nor salt. Apropos
of the mystery, those who see far into a millstone are
now sure that the _Tales of my Landlord_ were written by
a different person, and parts of them by different
hands. When they