CHAPTER LXIV
COMPARING OF NOTES
The Baron's story was short, when divested of the adages and
commonplaces, Latin, English, and Scotch, with which his erudition
garnished it. He insisted much upon his grief at the loss of Edward and
of Glennaquoich, fought the fields of Falkirk and Culloden, and related
how, after all was lost in the last battle, he had returned home, under
the idea of more easily finding shelter among his own tenants, and on
his own estate, than elsewhere. A party of soldiers had been sent to
lay waste his property, for clemency was not the order of the day. Their
proceedings, however, were checked by an order from the civil court.
The estate, it was found, might not be forfeited to the crown, to the
prejudice of Malcolm Bradwardine of Inch-Grabbit, the heir-male, whose
claim could not be prejudiced by the Baron's attainder, as deriving no
right through him, and who, therefore, like other heirs of entail in
the same situation, entered upon possession. But, unlike many in similar
circumstances, the new laird speedily showed that he intended utterly to
exclude his predecessor from all benefit or advantage in the estate, and
that it was his purpose to avail himself of the old Baron's evil fortune
to the full extent.
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