The Bailie opined that this transaction would amount to
theft-boot, or composition of felony; and he recommended that some canny
hand should be sent up to the glens to make the best bargain he could, as
it were for himself, so that the Laird might not be seen in such a
transaction. Edward proposed to send off to the nearest garrison for a
party of soldiers and a magistrate's warrant; and Rose, as far as she
dared, endeavoured to insinuate the course of paying the arrears of
tribute money to Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr, who, they all knew, could
easily procure restoration of the cattle, if he were properly
propitiated.
None of these proposals met the Baron's approbation. The idea of
composition, direct or implied, was absolutely ignominious; that of
Waverley only showed that he did not understand the state of the country,
and of the political parties which divided it; and, standing matters as
they did with Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr, the Baron would make no
concession to him, were it, he said, 'to procure restitution in integrum
of every stirk and stot that the chief, his forefathers, and his clan,
had stolen since the days of Malcolm Canmore.
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