Scott's indorsation of this letter is characteristic--"Prodigious,
bold request, Tom Thumb."

[28] Among the documents laid before Scott in the Colonial Office, when
he was in London at the close of 1826, "were some which represented one
of Bonaparte's attendants at St. Helena, General Gourgaud, as having
been guilty of gross unfairness, giving the English Government private
information that the Emperor's complaints of ill-usage were utterly
unfounded, and yet then and afterwards aiding and assisting the delusion
in France as to the harshness of Sir Hudson Lowe's conduct towards his
captive. Sir Walter, when using these remarkable documents, guessed that
Gourgaud might be inclined to fix a personal quarrel on himself; and
there now appeared in the newspapers a succession of hints that the
General was seriously bent on this purpose. He applied as _Colonel
Grogg_ would have done forty years before to _The Baronet_" [W.
Clerk].--_Life_, vol. ix. pp. 142-3.

A short time previously Gourgaud had had a quarrel with Count Segur
regarding the latter's _History of the Russian Campaign_, to which he
wrote a reply in 1825, and then fought a duel with the author in support
of his allegations. In Scott's case, however, it came to nothing beyond
a paper war, which Sir Walter declined to prolong, leaving the question
to be decided by the general public. It is due to Gourgaud to state that
on two occasions he saved Napoleon's life, though his subsequent
information to the British Government did not tend to increase his
popularity with the Bonapartists. He died at Paris in his sixty-ninth
year on July 25th, 1852.

[29] _Life_, vol. i. pp. 47, 155-156.

[30] _The Planters' Guide_, by Sir Henry Seton Steuart.

[31] In the _North British Review_, No. 82, there is an extremely
interesting sketch of this learned Peerage lawyer. He died in his 85th
year, in 1864, at his country seat, Kirklands in Roxburghshire, which he
had purchased by Sir Walter's advice.

The following amusing narrative of what took place on Tweedside when
these two old friends were in their prime is given in Mr. Richardson's
own words:--

"On a beautiful morning in September 1810 I started with Sir Walter from
Ashiestiel. We began nearly under the ruins of Elibank, and in sight of
the 'Hanging Tree.' I only had a rod, but Sir Walter walked by my side,
now quoting Izaak Walton, as, 'Fish me this stream by inches,' and now
delighting me with a profusion of Border s