I am not likely, I think,
to ask anything very unreasonable, and if I did, they might have
stretched a point. Well, but you shall know all, now that I can draw my
breath again with some freedom. You remember my earl's patent; it is
dated some years back, for services then rendered; and certainly my merit
has not been diminished, to say the least, by my subsequent behaviour.
Now, sir, I value this bauble of a coronet as little as you can, or any
philosopher on earth; for I hold that the chief of such a clan as the
Sliochd nan Ivor is superior in rank to any earl in Scotland. But I had a
particular reason for assuming this cursed title at this time. You must
know that I learned accidentally that the Prince has been pressing that
old foolish Baron of Bradwardine to disinherit his male heir, or
nineteenth or twentieth cousin, who has taken a command in the Elector of
Hanover's militia, and to settle his estate upon your pretty little
friend Rose; and this, as being the command of his king and overlord, who
may alter the destination of a fief at pleasure, the old gentleman seems
well reconciled to.'
'And what becomes of the homage?'
'Curse the homage! I believe Rose is to pull off the queen's slipper on
her coronation-day, or some such trash.
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