 But, death to his hopes! as he entered the eastern end of the
straggling village, the awful form of Davie Dingwall, a sly, dry, hard-fisted
shrewd country attorney, who had already acted against the family of Ravenswood,
and was a principal agent of Sir William Ashton, trotted in at the western
extremity, bestriding a leathern portmanteau stuffed with the feu-charters of
the hamlet, and hoping he had not kept Mr. Balderston waiting, »as he was
instructed and fully empowered to pay or receive, compound or compensate, and,
in fine, to agé14 as accords, respecting all mutual and unsettled claims
whatsoever, belonging or competent to the Honourable Edgar Ravenswood, commonly
called the Master of Ravenswood« --
    »The Right Honourable Edgar Lord Ravenswood,« said Caleb, with great
emphasis; for, though conscious he had little chance of advantage in the
conflict to ensue, he was resolved not to sacrifice one jot of honour. »Lord
Ravenswood, then,« said the man of business: »we shall not quarrel with you
about titles of courtesy - commonly called Lord Ravenswood, or Master of
Ravenswood, heritable proprietor of the lands and barony of Wolf's Crag, on the
one part, and to John Whitefish and others, feuars in the town of Wolf's Hope,
within the barony aforesaid, on the other part.«
    Caleb was conscious, from sad experience, that he would wage a very
different strife with this mercenary champion, than with the individual feuars
themselves, upon whose old recollections, predilections, and habits of thinking,
he might have wrought by a hundred indirect arguments, to which their
deputy-representative was totally insensible. The issue of the debate proved the
reality of his apprehensions. It was in vain he strained his eloquence and
ingenuity, and collected into one mass all arguments arising from antique custom
and hereditary respect, from the good deeds done by the Lord 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's
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
