Chapter 2 - Page 2

maintaining through life the character of a skilful fisher in the
troubled waters of a state divided by factions, and governed by
delegated authority; and of one who contrived to amass considerable sums
of money in a country where there was but little to be gathered, and who
equally knew the value of wealth and the various means of augmenting it
and using it as an engine of increasing his power and influence.

Thus qualified and gifted, he was a dangerous antagonist to the fierce
and imprudent Ravenswood. Whether he had given him good cause for the
enmity with which the Baron regarded him, was a point on which men spoke
differently. Some said the quarrel arose merely from the vindictive
spirit and envy of Lord Ravenswood, who could not patiently behold
another, though by just and fair purchase, become the proprietor of
the estate and castle of his forefathers. But the greater part of the
public, prone to slander the wealthy in their absence as to flatter them
in their presence, held a less charitable opinion. They said that the
Lord Keeper (for to this height Sir William Ashton had ascended)
had, previous to the final purchase of the estate of Ravenswood,
been concerned in extensive pecuniary transactions with the former
proprietor; and, rather intimating what was probable than affirming
anything positively, they asked which party was likely to have the
advantage in stating and enforcing the claims arising out of these
complicated affairs, and more than hinted the advantages which the cool
lawyer and able politician must necessarily possess over the hot,
fiery, and imprudent character whom he had involved in legal toils and
pecuniary snares.

The character of the times aggravated these suspicions. "In those days
there was no king in Israel." Since the departure of James VI. to assume
the richer and more powerful crown of England, there had existed in
Scotland contending parties, formed among the aristocracy, by whom,
as their intrigues at the court of St. James's chanced to prevail,
the delegated powers of sovereignty were alternately swayed. The evils
attending upon this system of government resembled those which afflict
the tenants of an Irish estate, the property of an absentee. There was
no supreme power, claiming and possessing a general interest with the
community at large, to whom the oppressed might appeal from subordinate
tyranny, either for justice or for mercy. Let a monarch be as indolent,
as selfish, as much disposed to arbitrary power as he will, still, in a
free country, his own interests are so clearly connected with those of
the public at large, and the evil consequences to his own authority are
so obvious and imminent when a different course is pursued, that common
policy, as well