The Fernlands estate had been the family property of the N——­s since the conquest for aught I know.  The present representative, after having sent his sons out into the world, as all Scotchmen do, to fight their way, (one of whom by the by was accumulating a snug fortune in India) got involved in some commercial speculation, for which he was wholly unfitted, being anything but a business man.  He was a worthy unsuspecting fellow, but at last saw his way clearer, and as he thought got out, though a very heavy loser.  In consequence of this scrape he wrote to his son in India, to say, that unless he could remit him a large sum, which he named, it would be impossible to keep his ground at Fernlands.

Very soon afterwards his late partner, who was a good sort of fellow too, failed, and N——­ was paralyzed on receiving a letter from the attorney to the assignees to say, that not having regularly gazetted his retirement from the concern, he had rendered himself legally liable to the creditors of the late firm of ——­ and Co., and unless N——­ paid the balance which remained due after the assets of the bankrupt’s estate had been ascertained, that immediate steps would be resorted to, to compel him.  The matter soon got abroad, and all N——­’s other creditors also pressed forward to crush him—­well, to make a disagreeable story short, the end is as I have previously related.  Poor N——­ is to be ruined to pay another man’s debts, after a vast deal to do with law and lawyers, and much heat on both sides.

I had taken great interest in the matter from the first, and it was with deep feelings of sorrow that I saw this excellent family likely to be driven from the home of their forefathers, by the merciless and often unjust hand of the law.  N——­ was, I believe, generally liked, and no person in need, in the district where he resided, looked up to the Laird for advice or assistance in vain.  You may judge therefore of the public sensation.  While these matters were pending, N——­ looked with the deepest anxiety for the arrival of a letter from his son in India; and every day did he send his servant express to the little post-office at ——­, but in vain.

At last the fatal day of sale arrived.  N——­, in the depth of his distress had early sent for me to consult whether even at the eleventh hour something could not be done to avert the calamity.  A sinking man catches at a straw.  It wanted less than three hours of the time of sale when I entered the grounds of Fernlands.  The gate was half off its hinges, the posts plastered with advertisements of the sale; and people, as always happens in such cases, were already pouring towards the house more from a motive of curiosity than from an intention of purchasing anything.  As I advanced towards the scene of action, I could observe that the shrubberies were injured, and the rare plants and flowers which both N——­ and his wife had valued so much—­for they were fond of the study of nature—­exhibited