262 



and having a moveable ring upon it. ' Captain M'Intyre — Sir, — I 

 have no quarrel with you; but if you interrupt me in my duty, 'I will 

 break the wand of peace, and declare myself deforced.' 



^' ' And who the devil cares,' said Hector, totally ignorant of the words 

 of judicial action, ' whether you declare yourself divorced or married ; 

 and as to breaking your wand, or breaking the peace, or whatever you 

 call it, all I know is, that I will break your bones if you prevent the 



lad from harnessing the horses, to obey his mistress's orders.' ' I 



will take all who stand here to witness,' said the messenger, ' that I 

 showed him my blazon, and explained my character. He that will to 

 Cupar maun to Cupar' — and he slid the enigmatical ring from one end of 

 the haton to the other, being the appropriate symbol of his having been 

 forcibly interrupted in the discharge of his duty." 



Honest Hector, better accustomed to the armoury of the field than 

 that of the law, saw this mystical ceremon)?- with great indifference, 

 and with the like unconcern beheld the messenger sit down to write out 

 an execution of deforcement. But at the moment, to prevent the well- 

 meaning honest Highlander from running the risk of a severe penalty,, 

 the antiquary arrived, puffing and blowing, with his handkerchief 

 crammed under his hat, and his wig upon the end of a stick. 



' What the deuce is the matter here?' he exclaimed, hastily ad- 

 justing his head- gear — ' I have been following you in fear of finding 

 your idle loggerhead knocked against one rock or other.' — ' I think 

 you would not have me stand quietly by and see a scoundrel like this, 

 because he calls himself a king's messenger, forsooth (I hope the king 

 has many better for his meanest errands), insult a young lady of family 

 and fiishion, like Miss "Wardour?' ' Eightly argued. Hector,' said the 

 antiquary ; ' but the king, like other people, has now and then shabby 

 errands, and, in your ear, must have shabby fellows to do them. But 

 even supposing you unacquainted with the statutes of William the 

 Lion, in which, capite quarto versu quinto, this crime of deforcement is 

 termed despeetus Domini Regis, a contempt, to wit, of the king himself, 

 in whose name all legal diligence issues — could you not have inferred, 

 from the information I took so much pains to give you to-day, that 

 those who interrupt officers, who come to execute letters of caption, are 

 tanquam participes eriminis rehellionis ? seeing that he who aids a rebel 

 is himself quodammodo an accessory to rebellion," 



The extract is long, but the words are those of Sir Walter Scott, ana 

 the entire citation was necessary to elucidate the practice, since, contrary 

 to the author's usual wont, when Scotch customs require elucidation for 

 the English reader, this, one of the most curious, is left without expla- 

 nation, though it is termed enigmatical and mystical ; it would have 

 been a great boon to southern readers to have known how Scott found 

 the symbol appropriate.^^ 

 The result of our inquiries hitherto may, we think, be fairly stated — 

 that rings were heathen symbols of great veneration and general juridical 

 use in the possession of the priests of our own and foreign heathen 



