Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 1 - 1819.djvu/308

298 and hereditary respect, from the good deeds done by the Lords of Ravenswood to the community of Wolf's-hope in former days, and from what might be expected from them in future. The Writer stuck to the contents of his feu-charters—he could not see it—'twas not in the bond. And when Caleb, determined to try what a little spirit would do, deprecated the consequences of Lord Ravenswood withdrawing his protection from the burgh, and even hinted at his using active measures of resentment, the man of law sneered in his face.

"His clients," he said, "had determined to do the best they could for their own town, and he thought Lord Ravenswood, since he was a lord, might have enough to do to look after his own castle. As to any threats of stouthrief oppression by rule of thumb, or via facti, as the law termed it, he would have Mr Balderstone recollect, that new times were not as old times—that they lived on the south of the Forth, and far from the Hielands—that his clients