Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 1 - 1819.djvu/75

Rh and party, depended on using the present advantage to the uttermost against young Ravenswood, the Lord Keeper sate down to his desk, and proceeded to draw up, for the information of the Privy-council, an account of the disorderly proceedings which, in contempt of his warrant, had taken place at the funeral of Lord Ravenswood. The names of most of the parties concerned, as well as the fact itself would, he was well aware, sound odiously in the ears of his colleagues in administration, and most likely instigate them to make an example of young Ravenswood at least, in terrorem. It was a point of delicacy, however, to select such expressions as might infer his culpability, without seeming directly to urge it, which, on the part of Sir William Ashton, his fathers ancient antagonist, could not but appear odious and invidious. While he was in the act of composition, labouring to find words which might indicate Edgar Ravenswood to be the cause of the uproar, without directly urging the charge, Sir