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To have offered resistance would have been madness, especially as we had no weapons capable of supporting such a demonstration. We therefore submitted to our fate ; and, with great roughness on the part of those who assisted at our toilette, were in the act of being reduced to as unsophisticated a state (to use King Lear's phrase) as the plumeless biped Andrew Fairservice, who stood shivering between fear and cold at a few yards distance. Good chance, however, saved us from this extremity of wretchedness ; for just as I had yielded up my cravat, (a smart Steinkirk, by the way, and richly laced), and the Baillie had been disrobed of the fragments of his riding-coat—enter Dougal, and the scene was changed. By a high tone of expostulation, mixed with oaths and threats, (as far as I could conjecture the tenor of his language from the violence of his gestures,) he compelled the plunderers, however reluctant, not only to give up their farther depredations on our property, but to return the spoil they had already appropriated. He snatched my cravat from the fellow who had seized it, and twisted it (in the zeal of his restitution) around my neck with such suffocating energy, as made me think that he had not only been, during his residence at Glasgow, a substitute of the jailor, but moreover had taken lessons as an apprentice of the hangman. He flung the tattered remnants of Mr. Jarvie's coat around his shoulders, and as more Highlanders began to flock up towards us from the high road, he led the way downwards, directing and commanding the others to afford us, but particularly the Baillie, the assistance necessary to our descending with comparative ease and safety. It was, however, in vain that Andrew Fairservice employed his lungs in obsecrating a share of Dougal's protection, or at least his interference, to procure restoration of his shoes.

From: ROB ROY. By the AUTHOR OF “WAVERLEY,” “ GUY MANNERING,” AND “ THE ANTIQUARY.” Published 1817.

Rob Roy (1817) is a historical novel by Walter Scott. It is considered one of the Waverley novels, as the author identified himself on the title page as "by the author of Waverley".

Description

To have offered resistance would have been madness, especially as we had no weapons capable of supporting such a demonstration. We therefore submitted to our fate ; and, with great roughness on the part of those who assisted at our toilette, were in the act of being reduced to as unsophisticated a state (to use King Lear's phrase) as the plumeless biped Andrew Fairservice, who stood shivering between fear and cold at a few yards distance. Good chance, however, saved us from this extremity of wretchedness ; for just as I had yielded up my cravat, (a smart Steinkirk, by the way, and richly laced), and the Baillie had been disrobed of the fragments of his riding-coat—enter Dougal, and the scene was changed. By a high tone of expostulation, mixed with oaths and threats, (as far as I could conjecture the tenor of his language from the violence of his gestures,) he compelled the plunderers, however reluctant, not only to give up their farther depredations on our property, but to return the spoil they had already appropriated. He snatched my cravat from the fellow who had seized it, and twisted it (in the zeal of his restitution) around my neck with such suffocating energy, as made me think that he had not only been, during his residence at Glasgow, a substitute of the jailor, but moreover had taken lessons as an apprentice of the hangman. He flung the tattered remnants of Mr. Jarvie's coat around his shoulders, and as more Highlanders began to flock up towards us from the high road, he led the way downwards, directing and commanding the others to afford us, but particularly the Baillie, the assistance necessary to our descending with comparative ease and safety. It was, however, in vain that Andrew Fairservice employed his lungs in obsecrating a share of Dougal's protection, or at least his interference, to procure restoration of his shoes.

From: ROB ROY. By the AUTHOR OF “WAVERLEY,” “ GUY MANNERING,” AND “ THE ANTIQUARY.” Published 1817.

Rob Roy (1817) is a historical novel by Walter Scott. It is considered one of the Waverley novels, as the author identified himself on the title page as "by the author of Waverley".