Dingwall, with a grin, "would be perfectly able to secure
them against Lord Ravenswood, and all that he or his followers could do
by the strong hand."
If Caleb could have concentrated all the lightnings of aristocracy in
his eye, to have struck dead this contemner of allegiance and privilege,
he would have launched them at his head, without respect to the
consequences. As it was, he was compelled to turn his course backward
to the castle; and there he remained for full half a day invisible and
inaccessible even to Mysie, sequestered in his own peculiar dungeon,
where he sat burnishing a single pewter plate and whistling "Maggie
Lauder" six hours without intermission.
The issue of this unfortunate requisition had shut against Caleb all
resources which could be derived from Wolf's Hope and its purlieus, the
El Dorado, or Peru, from which, in all former cases of exigence, he had
been able to extract some assistance. He had, indeed, in a manner vowed
that the deil should have him, if ever he put the print of his foot
within its causeway again. He had hitherto kept his word; and, strange
to tell, this secession had, as he intended, in some degree, the effect
of a punishment upon the refractory feuars.
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