The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

564 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
brought a' the beasts owerby that I thought ye wad like best. There is
Gowans, and there's your ain brockit cow, and the wee hawkit ane, that ye
ca'd - I needna tell ye how ye ca'd it - but I couldna bid them sell the
petted creature, though the sight o' it may sometimes gie us a sair heart —
it's no the poor dumb creature's fault — And ane or twa beasts mair I hae
reserved, and I caused them to be driven before the other beasts, that men
might say, as when the son of Jesse returned from battle,'This is David's
spoil.'"
Upon more particular inquiry, Jeanie found new occasion to admire the
active beneficence of her friend the Duke of Argyle. While establishing a
sort of experimental farm on the skirts of his immense Highland estates, he
had been somewhat at a loss to find a proper person in whom to vest
the charge of it. The conversation his Grace had upon country matters
with Jeanie Deans during their return from Richmond, had impressed him
with a belief that the father, whose experience and success she so frequently
quoted, must be exactly the sort of person whom he wanted. When the
condition annexed to Effie's pardon rendered it highly probable that David
Deans would choose to change his place of residence, this idea again occurred
to the Duke more strongly, and as he was an enthusiast equally in agriculture and in benevolence, he imagined he was serving the purposes of both,
when he wrote to the gentleman in Edinburgh intrusted with his affairs, to
inquire into the character of David Deans, cowfeeder, and so forth, at St.
Leonard's Crags; and if he found him such as he had been represented, to
engage him without delay, and on the most liberal terms, to superintend his
fancy-farm in Dumbartonshire.
The proposal was made to old David by the gentleman so commissioned,
on the second day after his daughter's pardon had reached Edinburgh. His
resolution to leave St. Leonard's had been already formed; the honour of
an express invitation from the Duke of Argyle to superintend a department
where so much skill and diligence was required, was in itself extremely
flattering; and the more so, because honest David, who was not without an
excellent opinion of his own talents, persuaded himself that, by accepting
this charge, he would in some sort repay the great favour he had received
at the hands of the Argyle family. The appointments, including the right
of sufficient grazing for a small stock of his own, were amply liberal; and
David's keen eye saw that the situation was convenient for trafficking to
advantage in Highland cattle. There was risk of "her'ship"* from the
neighbouring mountains, indeed, but the awful name of the Duke of Argyle
would be a great security, and a trifle of black-mail would, David was awarq,
assure his safety.
Still, however, there were two points on which he haggled. The first was
the character of the clergyman with whose worship he was to join; and on
this delicate point he received, as we will presently show the reader, perfect satisfaction. The next obstacle was the condition of his youngest
daughter, obliged as she was to leave Scotland for so many years.
The gentleman of the law smiled, and said, " There was no occasion to
interpret that clause very strictly —that if the young woman left Scotland
for a few months, or even weeks, and came to her father's new residence by
sea from the western side of England, nobody would know of her arrival,
or at least nobody who had either the right or inclination to give her disturbance. The extensive heritable jurisdictions of his Grace excluded the
interference of other magistrates with those living on his estates, -and they
who were in immediate dependence on him would receive orders to give the
young woman no disturbance. Living on the verge of the Highlands, she
might, indeed, be said to be out of Scotland, that is, beyond the bounds of
ordinary law and civilization."
Her'ship, a Scottish word which may be said to be now obsolete; because, fortunately, the practice of
"plundering by armed force," which is its meaning, does not require to be commonly spoken of.