Thearon’s story was short, when divested¹ of the adages² and commonplaces, Latin, English, and Scotch³, with which his erudition garnished⁴ 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 tenants⁶ and on his own estate than elsewhere. A party of soldiers had been sent to lay waste his property, for clemency⁷ was not the order of the day. Their proceedings⁸, however, were checked by an order from the civil court. The estate, it was found, might not be forfeited⁹ to the crown to the prejudice of Malcolm Bradwardine of Inch-Grabbit, the heir-male, whose claim could not be prejudiced by the Baron¹⁰’s attainder, as deriving¹¹ no right through him, and who, therefore, like other heirs of entail¹² in the same situation, entered upon possession. But, unlike many in similar circumstances, the new laird speedily showed that he intended utterly¹³ to exclude his predecessor¹⁴ 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. This was the more ungenerous, as it was generally known that, from a romantic idea of not prejudicing this young man’s right as heir-male, the Baron had refrained from settling his estate on his daughter.

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