What, to speak without
a metaphor, do you call this monstrous passion which you charge me with
fostering?"
"Revenge, my good sir--revenge; which, if it be as gentle manlike a sin
as wine and wassail, with their et coeteras, is equally unchristian, and
not so bloodless. It is better breaking a park-pale to watch a doe or
damsel than to shoot an old man."
"I deny the purpose," said the Master of Ravenswood. "On my soul, I had
no such intention; I meant but to confront the oppressor ere I left my
native land, and upbraid him with his tyranny and its consequences.
I would have stated my wrongs so that they would have shaken his soul
within him."
"Yes," answered Bucklaw, "and he would have collared you, and cried
'help,' and then you would have shaken the soul OUT of him, I suppose.
Your very look and manner would have frightened the old man to death."
"Consider the provocation," answered Ravenswood--"consider the ruin and
death procured and caused by his hard-hearted cruelty--an ancient house
destroyed, an affectionate father murdered! Why, in our old Scottish
days, he that sat quiet under such wrongs would have been held neither
fit to back a friend nor face a foe.
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