[Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott]@TWC D-Link book
Rob Roy

CHAPTER SIXTH
9/15

"Take my advice, and when you speak of Rashleigh, get up to the top of Otterscope-hill, where you can see for twenty miles round you in every direction--stand on the very peak, and speak in whispers; and, after all, don't be too sure that the bird of the air will not carry the matter, Rashleigh has been my tutor for four years; we are mutually tired of each other, and we shall heartily rejoice at our approaching separation." "Mr.Rashleigh leaves Osbaldistone Hall, then ?" "Yes, in a few days;--did you not know that ?--your father must keep his resolutions much more secret than Sir Hildebrand.

Why, when my uncle was informed that you were to be his guest for some time, and that your father desired to have one of his hopeful sons to fill up the lucrative situation in his counting-house which was vacant by your obstinacy, Mr.
Francis, the good knight held a _cour ple'nie're_ of all his family, including the butler, housekeeper, and gamekeeper.

This reverend assembly of the peers and household officers of Osbaldistone Hall was not convoked, as you may suppose, to elect your substitute, because, as Rashleigh alone possessed more arithmetic than was necessary to calculate the odds on a fighting cock, none but he could be supposed qualified for the situation.

But some solemn sanction was necessary for transforming Rashleigh's destination from starving as a Catholic priest to thriving as a wealthy banker; and it was not without some reluctance that the acquiescence of the assembly was obtained to such an act of degradation." "I can conceive the scruples--but how were they got over ?" "By the general wish, I believe, to get Rashleigh out of the house," replied Miss Vernon.

"Although youngest of the family, he has somehow or other got the entire management of all the others; and every one is sensible of the subjection, though they cannot shake it off.


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