The old time-serving lord winced excessively under the requisition,
protesting to God, that he saw no occasion the lad could have for the
instant possession of the land, seeing he would doubtless now recover
the bulk of his estate from Sir William Ashton, to which he was ready to
contribute by every means in his power, as was just and reasonable; and
finally declaring, that he was willing to settle the land on the young
gentleman after his own natural demise.
But all these excuses availed nothing, and he was compelled to disgorge
the property, on receiving back the sum for which it had been mortgaged.
Having no other means of making peace with the higher powers, he
returned home sorrowful and malcontent, complaining to his confidants,
"That every mutation or change in the state had hitherto been productive
of some sma' advantage to him in his ain quiet affairs; but that the
present had--pize upon it!--cost him one of the best penfeathers o' his
wing."
Similar measures were threatened against others who had profited by
the wreck of the fortune of Ravenswood; and Sir William Ashton, in
particular, was menaced with an appeal to the House of Peers, a court
of equity, against the judicial sentences, proceeding upon a strict and
severe construction of the letter of the law, under which he held the
castle and barony of Ravenswood.
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