Guy Mannering.

100 WWAVERLEY NOVELS.
indifferent reception. He was a partisan of the old administration; and the friends of the new had already set
about an active canvass in behalf of John Featherhead,
Esq., who kept the best hounds and hunters in the shire.
Among others who joined the standard of revolt was
Gilbert Glossin, writer in, agent for the Laird of
Ellangowan. This honest gentleman had either been
refused some favour by the old member, or, what is as
probable, he had got all that he had the most distant pretension to ask, and could only look to the other side for
fresh advancement. Mr. Glossin had a vote upon Ellangowan's property; and he was now determined that his
patron should have one also, there being no doubt which
side Mr. Bertram would embrace in the contest. He
easily persuaded Ellangowan, that it would be creditable
to him to take the field at the head of as strong a party
as possible; and immediately went to work, making votes,
as every Scotch lawyer knows how, by splitting and subdividing the superiorities upon this ancient and once
powerful barony. These were so extensive, that by dint
of clipping and paring here, adding and eking there, and
creating over-lords upon all the estate which Bertram
held of the crown, they advanced, at the day of contest,
at the head of ten as good men of parchment as ever
took the oath of trust and possession. This strong reinforcement turned the dubious day of battle. The principal and his agent divided the honour; the reward fell
to the latter exclusively. Mr. Gilbert Glossin was made
clerk of the peace, and Godfrey Bertram had his name
inserted in a new commission of justices, issued immediately upon the sitting of the parliament.
This had been the summit of Mr. Bertram's ambition;
-not that he liked either the trouble or the responsibility