themselves have had a chequered history; but these Elliotts deduced,
besides, from three of the most unfortunate of the border clans - the
Nicksons, the Ellwalds, and the Crozers. One ancestor after another
might be seen appearing a moment out of the rain and the hill mist upon
his furtive business, speeding home, perhaps, with a paltry booty of
lame horses and lean kine, or squealing and dealing death in some
moorland feud of the ferrets and the wild cats. One after another
closed his obscure adventures in mid-air, triced up to the arm of the
royal gibbet or the Baron's dule-tree. For the rusty blunderbuss of
Scots criminal justice, which usually hurt nobody but jurymen, became a
weapon of precision for the Nicksons, the Ellwalds, and the Crozers.
The exhilaration of their exploits seemed to haunt the memories of their
descendants alone, and the shame to be forgotten. Pride glowed in their
bosoms to publish their relationship to "Andrew Ellwald of the
Laverockstanes, called `Unchancy Dand,' who was justifeed wi' seeven
mair of the same name at Jeddart in the days of King James the Sax." In
all this tissue of crime and misfortune, the Elliotts of Cauldstaneslap
had one boast which must appear legitimate: the males were gallows-
birds, born outlaws, petty thieves, and deadly brawlers; but, according
to the same tradition, the females were all chaste and faithful. The
power of ancestry on the character is not limited to the inheritance of
cells. If I buy ancestors by the gross from the benevolence of Lyon
King of Arms, my grandson (if he is Scottish) will feel a quickening
emulation of their deeds. The men of the Elliotts were proud, lawless,
violent as of right, cherishing and prolonging a tradition. In like
manner with the women. And the woman, essentially passionate and
reckless, who crouched on the rug, in the shine of the peat fire,
telling these tales, had cherished through life a wild integrity of
virtue.