se a man whom he had not really injured, was indulging a strong
wish to injure him; but he could so little brook the imputation of
physical cowardice, that he was moral coward enough to resolve to meet
General Gourgaud, if General Gourgaud lusted after a shot at him. Nor
is there any trace preserved of so much as a moral scruple in his own
mind on the subject, and this though there are clear traces in his
other writings as to what he thought Christian morality required. But
the Border chivalry was so strong in Scott that, on subjects of this
kind at least, his morality was the conventional morality of a day
rapidly passing away.

He showed the same conventional feeling in his severity towards one of
his own brothers who had been guilty of cowardice. Daniel Scott was
the black sheep of the family. He got into difficulties in business,
formed a bad connexion with an artful woman, and was sent to try his
fortunes in the West Indies. There he was employed in some service
against a body of refractory negroes--we do not know its exact
nature--and apparently showed the white feather. Mr. Lockhart says
that "he returned to Scotland a dishonoured man; and though he found
shelter and compassion from his mother, his brother would never see
him again. Nay, when, soon after, his health, shattered by dissolute
indulgence, ... gave way altogether, and he died, as yet a young man,
the poet refused either to attend his funeral or to wear mourning for
him, like the rest of his family."[36] Indeed he always spoke of him
as his "relative," not as his brother. Here again Scott's severity was
due to his brother's failure as a "man of honour," i. e. in courage.
He was forbearing enough with vices of a different kind; made John
Ballantyne's dissipation the object rather of his jokes than of his
indignation; and not only mourned for him, but really grieved for him
when he died. It is only fair to say, however, that for this
conventional scorn of a weakness rather than a sin, Scott sorrowed
sincerely later in life, and that in sketching the physical cowardice
of Connochar in _The Fair Maid of Perth_, he deliberately made an
attempt to atone for this hardness towards his brother by showing how
frequently the foundation of cowardice may be laid in perfectly
involuntary physical temperament, and pointing out with what noble
elements of disposition it may be combined. But till reflection on
many forms of human character had enlarged Scott's charity,