g he
was found dead. Such is the true tale. As it occupied Scott's mind in
1813, and as he wrote "Guy Mannering" in 1814-15, it is not impossible
that he may have borrowed his wandering heir, who returns by pure
accident to his paternal domains, and there learns his origin at a
woman's lips, from the Dormont case. The resemblance of the stories, at
least, was close enough to strike a shrewd observer some seventy years
ago.

Another possible source of the plot--a more romantic origin,
certainly--is suggested by Mr. Robert Chambers in "Illustrations of the
Author of 'Waverley.'" A Maxwell of Glenormiston, "a religious and
bigoted recluse," sent his only son and heir to a Jesuit College in
Flanders, left his estate in his brother's management, and died. The
wicked uncle alleged that the heir was also dead. The child, ignorant of
his birth, grew up, ran away from the Jesuits at the age of sixteen,
enlisted in the French army, fought at Fontenoy, got his colours, and,
later, landed in the Moray Firth as a French officer in 1745. He went
through the campaign, was in hiding in Lochaber after Drumossie, and in
making for a Galloway port, was seized, and imprisoned in Dumfries. Here
an old woman of his father's household recognized him by "a mark which
she remembered on his body." His cause was taken up by friends; but the
usurping uncle died, and Sir Robert Maxwell recovered his estates without
a lawsuit. This anecdote is quoted from the "New Monthly Magazine," June,
1819. There is nothing to prove that Scott was acquainted with this
adventure. Scott's own experience, as usual, supplied him with hints for
his characters. The phrase of Dominie Sampson's father, "Please God, my
bairn may live to wag his pow in a pulpit," was uttered in his own
hearing. There was a Bluegown, or Bedesman, like Edie Ochiltree, who had
a son at Edinburgh College. Scott was kind to the son, the Bluegown asked
him to dinner, and at this meal the old man made the remark about the
pulpit and the pow.' A similar tale is told by Scott in the Introduction
to "The Antiquary" (1830). As for the good Dominie, Scott remarks that,
for "certain particular reasons," he must say what he has to say about
his prototype "very generally." Mr. Chambers' finds the prototype in a
Mr. James Sanson, tutor in the house of Mr. Thomas Scott, Sir Walter's
uncle. It seems very unlike Sir Walter to mention this excellent man
almost by his name, and the tale about his devotion to