The Bailie opined that this transaction would amount to
theft-boot, or composition of felony; and he recommended that some CANNY
HAND should be sent up to the glens to make the best bargain he could,
as it were for himself, so that the laird might not be seen in such a
transaction. Edward proposed to send off to the nearest garrison for a
party of soldiers and a magistrate's warrant; and Rose, as far as she
dared, endeavoured to insinuate the course of paying the arrears of
tribute money to Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr, who, they all knew,
could easily procure restoration of the cattle, if he were properly
propitiated.
None of these proposals met the Baron's approbation. The idea of
composition, direct or implied, was absolutely ignominious; that
of Waverley only showed that he did not understand the state of the
country, and of the political parties which divided it; and, standing
matters as they did with Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr, the Baron would
make no concession to him, were it, he said, to procure restitution IN
INTEGRUM of every stirk and stot that the chief, his forefathers, and
his clan, had stolen since the days of Malcolm Canmore.
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