The Baron of
Bradwardine then took instruments in the hands of Mr. Commissary
Macwheeble, bearing that all points and circumstances of the act of
homage had been rite et solenniter acta et peracta; and a corresponding
entry was made in the protocol of the Lord High Chamberlain and in the
record of Chancery. We understand that it is in contemplation of his
Royal Highness, when his Majesty's pleasure can be known, to raise
Colonel Bradwardine to the peerage, by the title of Viscount Bradwardine
of Bradwardine and Tully-Veolan, and that, in the meanwhile, his Royal
Highness, in his father's name and authority, has been pleased to grant
him an honourable augmentation to his paternal coat of arms, being a
budget or boot-jack, disposed saltier-wise with a naked broadsword, to be
borne in the dexter cantle of the shield; and, as an additional motto, on
a scroll beneath, the words, "Draw and draw off."'
'Were it not for the recollection of Fergus's raillery,' thought Waverley
to himself, when he had perused this long and grave document,' how very
tolerably would all this sound, and how little should I have thought of
connecting it with any ludicrous idea! Well, after all, everything has
its fair as well as its seamy side; and truly I do not see why the
Baron's boot-jack may not stand as fair in heraldry as the water-buckets,
waggons, cart-wheels, plough-socks, shuttles, candlesticks, and other
ordinaries, conveying ideas of anything save chivalry, which appear in
the arms of some of our most ancient gentry.
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