He restrained his pace, therefore, and suffered the green
coach to enter the avenue, with all its retinue, which pass it occupied
with the speed of a whirlwind. The Marquis's laced charioteer no
sooner found the pas d'avance was granted to him than he resumed a more
deliberate pace, at which he advanced under the embowering shade of the
lofty elms, surrounded by all the attendants; while the carriage of Lady
Ashton followed, still more slowly, at some distance.
In the front of the castle, and beneath the portal which admitted guests
into the inner court, stood Sir William Ashton, much perplexed in mind,
his younger son and daughter beside him, and in their rear a train of
attendants of various ranks, in and out of livery. The nobility and
gentry of Scotland, at this period, were remarkable even to extravagance
for the number of their servants, whose services were easily purchased
in a country where men were numerous beyond proportion to the means of
employing them.
The manners of a man trained like Sir William Ashton are too much at his
command to remain long disconcerted with the most adverse concurrence
of circumstances.
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