and confused while
I explained to him the reason of the bend of bastardy upon the shield yonder
under the corner turret!«
    »True,« said the Baronet, with complacency - »it is the shield of Malcolm
the Usurper, as he is called. The tower which he built is termed, after him,
Malcolm's Tower, but more frequently Misticot's Tower, which I conceive to be a
corruption for Misbegot. He is denominated, in the Latin pedigree of our family,
Milcolumbus Nothus; and his temporary seizure of our property, and most unjust
attempt to establish his own illegitimate line in the estate of Knockwinnock,
gave rise to such family feuds and misfortunes, as strongly to found us in that
horror and antipathy to defiled blood and illegitimacy which has been handed
down to me from my respected ancestry.«
    »I know the story,« said Oldbuck, »and I was telling it to Lovel this
moment, with some of the wise maxims and consequences which it has engrafted on
your family politics. Poor fellow! he must have been much hurt: I took the
wavering of his attention for negligence, and was something piqued at it, and it
proves to be only an excess of feeling. I hope, Sir Arthur, you will not think
the less of your life because it has been preserved by such assistance?«
    »Nor the less of my assistant either,« said the Baronet; »my doors and table
shall be equally open to him as if he had descended of the most unblemished
lineage.«
    »Come, I am glad of that - he'll know where he can get a dinner, then, if he
wants one. But what views can he have in this neighbourhood? I must catechise
him; and if I find he wants it - or, indeed, whether he does or not - he shall
have my best advice.« As the Antiquary made this liberal promise, he took his
leave of Miss Wardour and her father, eager to commence operations upon Mr.
Lovel. He informed him abruptly that Miss Wardour sent her compliments, and
remained in attendance on her father, and then, taking him by the arm, he led
him out of the castle.
    Knockwinnock still preserved much of the external attributes of a baronial
castle. It had its drawbridge, though now never drawn up, and its dry moat, the
sides of which had been planted with shrubs, chiefly of the evergreen tribes.
Above these rose the old building, partly from a foundation of red rock scarped
down to the sea-beach, and partly from