第22章

``Dear Sir Arthur, ``On Tuesday the 17th curt._stilo novo,_ I hold a cnobitical symposion at Monkbarns, and pray you to assist thereat, at four o'clock precisely.If my fair enemy, Miss Isabel, can and will honour us by accompanying you, my womankind will be but too proud to have the aid of such an auxiliary in the cause of resistance to awful rule and right supremacy.If not, I will send the womankind to the manse for the day.I have a young acquaintance to make known to you, who is touched with some strain of a better spirit than belongs to these giddy-paced times --reveres his elders, and has a pretty notion of the classics--and, as such a youth must have a natural contempt for the people about Fairport, I wish to show him some rational as well as worshipful society.--I am, Dear Sir Arthur, etc.

etc.etc.''

``Fly with this letter, Caxon,'' said the senior, holding out his missive, _signatum atque sigillatum,_ ``fly to Knockwinnock, and bring me back an answer.Go as fast as if the town-council were met and waiting for the provost, and the provost was waiting for his new-powdered wig.''

``Ah sir,'' answered the messenger, with a deep sigh, ``thae days hae lang gane by.Deil a wig has a provost of Fairport worn sin' auld Provost Jervie's time--and he had a quean of a servant-lass that dressed it herself, wi' the doup o' a candle and a drudging-box.But I hae seen the day, Monkbarns, when the town-council of Fairport wad hae as soon wanted their town-clerk, or their gill of brandy ower-head after the haddies, as they wad hae wanted ilk ane a weel-favoured, sonsy, decent periwig on his pow.Hegh, sirs! nae wonder the commons will be discontent and rise against the law, when they see magistrates and bailies, and deacons, and the provost himsell, wi' heads as bald and as bare as ane o' my blocks!''

``And as well furnished within, Caxon.But away with you!

--you have an excellent view of public affairs, and, I dare say, have touched the cause of our popular discontent as closely as the provost could have done himself.But away with you, Caxon!''

And off went Caxon upon his walk of three miles--He hobbled--but his heart was good!

Could he go faster than he could?--

While he is engaged in his journey and return, it may not be impertinent to inform the reader to whose mansion he was bearing his embassy.

We have said that Mr.Oldbuck kept little company with the surrounding gentlemen, excepting with one person only.This was Sir Arthur Wardour, a baronet of ancient descent, and of a large but embarrassed fortune.His father, Sir Anthony, had been a Jacobite, and had displayed all the enthusiasm of that party, while it could be served with words only.No man squeezed the orange with more significant gesture; no one could more dexterously intimate a dangerous health without coming under the penal statutes; and, above all, none drank success to the cause more deeply and devoutly.But, on the approach of the Highland army in 1745, it would appear that the worthy baronet's zeal became a little more moderate just when its warmth was of most consequence.He talked much, indeed, of taking the field for the rights of Scotland and Charles Stuart; but his demi-pique saddle would suit only one of his horses; and that horse could by no means be brought to stand fire.Perhaps the worshipful owner sympathized in the scruples of this sagacious quadruped, and began to think, that what was so much dreaded by the horse could not be very wholesome for the rider.At any rate, while Sir Anthony Wardour talked, and drank, and hesitated, the Sturdy provost of Fairport (who, as we before noticed, was the father of our Antiquary) sallied from his ancient burgh, heading a body of whig-burghers, and seized at once, in the name of George II., upon the Castle of Knockwinnock, and on the four carriage-horses, and person of the proprietor.Sir Anthony was shortly after sent off to the Tower of London by a secretary of state's warrant, and with him went his son, Arthur, then a youth.But as nothing appeared like an overt act of treason, both father and son were soon set at liberty, and returned to their own mansion of Knockwinnock, to drink healths five fathoms deep, and talk of their sufferings in the royal cause.This became so much a matter of habit with Sir Arthur, that, even after his father's death, the non-juring chaplain used to pray regularly for the restoration of the rightful sovereign, for the downfall of the usurper, and for deliverance from their cruel and bloodthirsty enemies; although all idea of serious opposition to the House of Hanover had long mouldered away, and this treasonable liturgy was kept up rather as a matter of form than as conveying any distinct meaning.So much was this the case, that, about the year 1770, upon a disputed election occurring in the county, the worthy knight fairly gulped down the oaths of abjuration and allegiance, in order to serve a candidate in whom he was interested;--thus renouncing the heir for whose restoration he weekly petitioned Heaven, and acknowledging the usurper whose dethronement he had never ceased to pray for.And to add to this melancholy instance of human inconsistency, Sir Arthur continued to pray for the House of Stuart even after the family had been extinct, and when, in truth, though in his theoretical loyalty he was pleased to regard them as alive, yet, in all actual service and practical exertion, he was a most zealous and devoted subject of George III.