 made it his
particular request, that this affair should be passed over without severe
notice. He alluded with delicacy to the predicament in which he himself stood
with young Ravenswood, as having succeeded in the long train of litigation by
which the fortunes of that noble house had been so much reduced, and confessed
it would be most peculiarly acceptable to his feelings could he find means in
some sort to counterbalance the disadvantages which he had occasioned the
family, though only in the prosecution of his just and lawful rights. He
therefore made it his particular and personal request that the matter should
have no farther consequences, and insinuated a desire that he himself should
have the merit of having put a stop to it by his favourable report and
intercession. It was particularly remarkable, that, contrary to his uniform
practice, he made no special communication to Lady Ashton upon the subject of
the tumult, and although he mentioned the alarm which Lucy had received from one
of the wild cattle, yet he gave no detailed account of an incident so
interesting and terrible.
    There was much surprise among Sir William Ashton's political friends and
colleagues on receiving letters of a tenor so unexpected. On comparing notes
together, one smiled, one put up his eyebrows, a third nodded acquiescence in
the general wonder, and a fourth asked, if they were sure these were all the
letters the Lord Keeper had written on the subject. »It runs strangely in my
mind, my lords, that none of these advices contain the root of the matter.«
    But no secret letters of a contrary nature had been received, although the
questions seemed to imply the possibility of their existence.
    »Well,« said an old grey-headed statesman, who had contrived, by shifting
and trimming, to maintain his post at the steerage through all the changes of
course which the vessel had held for thirty years, »I thought Sir William would
hae verified the auld Scottish saying, As soon comes the lamb's skin to market
as the auld tup's.«
    »We must please him after his own fashion,« said another, »though it be an
unlooked-for one.«
    »A wilful man maun hae his way,« answered the old counsellor.
    »The Keeper will rue this before year and day are out,« said a third; »the
Master of Ravenswood is the lad to wind him a pirn.«9 »Why, what would you do,
my lords, with the poor young fellow?« said a noble Marquis present; »the Lord
Keeper has got all his estates - he has
