Chapter 17

Here is a father now,
Will truck his daughter for a foreign venture,
Make her the stop-gap to some canker'd feud,
Or fling her o'er, like Jonah, to the fishes,
To appease the sea at highest.

Anonymous.

THE Lord Keeper opened his discourse with an appearance of unconcern,
marking, however, very carefully, the effect of his communication upon
young Ravenswood.

"You are aware," he said, "my young friend, that suspicion is the
natural vice of our unsettled times, and exposes the best and wisest of
us to the imposition of artful rascals. If I had been disposed to listen
to such the other day, or even if I had been the wily politicians which
you have been taught to believe me, you, Master of Ravenswood, instead
of being at freedom, and with fully liberty to solicit and act against
me as you please, in defence of what you suppose to be your rights,
would have been in the Castle of Edinburgh, or some other state prison;
or, if you had escaped that destiny, it must have been by flight to a
foreign country, and at the risk of a sentence of fugitation."

"My Lord Keeper," said the Master, "I think you would not jest on such a
subject; yet it seems impossible you can be in earnest."

"Innocence," said the Lord Keeper, "is also confident, and sometimes,
though very excusably, presumptuously so."

"I do not understand," said Ravenswood, "how a consciousess of innocence
can be, in any case, accounted presumptuous."

"Imprudent, at least, it may be called," said Sir William Ashton, "since
it is apt to lead us into the mistake of supposing that sufficiently
evident to others of which, in fact, we are only conscious ourselves. I
have known a rogue, for this very reason, make a better defence than
an innocent man could have done in the same circumstances of suspicion.
Having no consciousness of innocence to support him, such a fellow
applies himself to all the advantages which the law will afford him, and
sometimes--if his counsel be men of talent--succeeds in compelling his
judges to receive him as innocent. I remember the celebrated case of Sir
Coolie Condiddle of Condiddle, who was tried for theft under trust, of
which all the world knew him guilty, and yet was not only acquitted, but
lived to sit in judgment on honester folk."

"Allow me to beg you will return to the point," said the Master; "you
seemed to say that I had suffered under some suspicion."

"Suspicion, Master! Ay, truly, and I can show you the proofs of it; if
I happen only to have them with me. Here, Lockhard." His attendant came.
"Fetch me the little private mail with the padlocks,