t for the
divertissement of 'quelque belle batterie a coups de couteau' with
Didier's answer. 'Helas! madame, vous jouez de malheur, ici dans la
Drome, l'on se massacre aussi peu que possible,' p. 33.

[159] Edgeworth's _Tales_ (Hunter, 1827), 'Harrington and Ormond,' vol.
iii. p. 260.

[160] Alice of Salisbury, Alice Lee, Alice Bridgnorth.

[161] Scott's father was habitually ascetic. 'I have heard his son tell
that it was common with him, if any one observed that the soup was good,
to taste it again, and say, "Yes--it is too good, bairns," and dash a
tumbler of cold water into his plate.'--Lockhart's _Life_ (Black,
Edinburgh, 1869), vol. i. p. 312. In other places I refer to this book
in the simple form of 'L.'

[162] A young lady sang to me, just before I copied out this page for
press, a Miss Somebody's 'great song,' 'Live, and Love, and Die.' Had it
been written for nothing better than silkworms, it should at least have
added--Spin.

[163] See passage of introduction to _Ivanhoe_, wisely quoted in L. vi.
106.

[164] See below, note, p. 25, on the conclusion of _Woodstock_.

[165] L. iv. 177.

[166] L. vi. 67.

[167] 'One other such novel, and there's an end; but who can last for
ever? who ever lasted so long?'--Sydney Smith (of the _Pirate_) to
Jeffrey, December 30, 1821. (_Letters_, vol. ii. p. 223.)

[168] L. vi. p. 188. Compare the description of Fairy Dean, vii. 192.

[169] All, alas! were now in a great measure so written. _Ivanhoe_, _The
Monastery_, _The Abbot_ and _Kenilworth_ were all published between
December 1819 and January 1821, Constable & Co. giving five thousand
guineas for the remaining copyright of them, Scott clearing ten thousand
before the bargain was completed; and before the _Fortunes of Nigel_
issued from the press Scott had exchanged instruments and received his
bookseller's bills for no less than four 'works of fiction,' not one of
them otherwise described in the deeds of agreement, to be produced in
unbroken succession, _each of them to fill up at least three volumes,
but with proper saving clauses as to increase of copy money in case any
of them should run to four_; and within two years all this anticipation
had been wiped off by _Peveril of the Peak_, _Quentin Durward_, _St.
Ronan's Well_, and _Redgauntlet_.

[170] _Woodstock_ was finished 26th March 1826. He knew then of his
ruin; and wrote in bitterness, but not in weakness. The closing pages
are the most beautiful of