Respecting Redgauntlet, about whose subsequent history you are more particularly inquisitive, I have learned from an excellent person who was a priest in the Scottish Monastery of Ratisbon, before its suppression, that he remained for two or three years in the family of the Chevalier, and only left it at last in consequence of some discords in that melancholy household. As he had hinted to General Campbell, he exchanged his residence for the cloister, and displayed in the latter part of his life, a strong sense of the duties of religion, which in his earlier days he had too much neglected, being altogether engaged in political speculations and intrigues. He rose to the situation of prior, in the house which he belonged to, and which was of a very strict order of religion. He sometimes received his countrymen, whom accident brought to Ratisbon, and curiosity induced to visit the Monastery of ———. But it was remarked, that though he listened with interest and attention, when Britain, or particularly Scotland, became the subject of conversation, yet he never either introduced or prolonged the subject, never used the English language, never inquired about English affairs, and, above all, never mentioned his own family. His strict observation of the rules of his order gave him, at the time of his death, some pretensions to be chosen a saint, and the brethren of the Monastery of ——— made great efforts for that effect, and brought forward some plausible proofs of miracles. But there was a circumstance which threw a doubt over the subject, and prevented the consistory from acceding to the wishes of the worthy brethren. Under his habit, and secured in a small silver box, he had worn perpetually around his neck a lock of-hair, which the fathers avouched to be a relic. But the Avvocato del Diabolo, in combating (as was his official duty) the pretensions of the candidate for sanctity, made it at least equally probable that the supposed relic was taken from the head of a brother of the deceased prior, who had been executed for adherence to the Stuart family in 1745-6; and the motto, HAUD OBLIVISCENDUM, seemed to intimate a tone of mundane feeling and recollection of injuries, which made it at least doubtful whether, even in the quiet and gloom of the cloister, Father Hugo had forgotten the sufferings and injuries of the House of Redgauntlet.
June 10, 1824,
GLOSSARY
ABOON, above.
AD LITEM, in law.
AD VINDICTAM PUBLICAM, for the public defence.
ADUST, looking as if burned or scorched.
AE, one.
AFFLATUS, breath, inspiration.
AIRT, direct.
ALCANDER, a Greek soothsayer.
ALDEBORONTIPHOSCOPHORNIO, a courtier in H. Carey's burlesque,
CHRONONHOTONTHOLOGOS.
ALIMENTARY, nourishing.
ALQUIFE, an enchanter in the mediaeval romances of knight-errantry.
AMADIS, a hero of the romances, especially in Amadis of Gaul.
ANENT, about.
ANES, once.
ANNO DOMINI, in the year of the Lord.
ARGUMENTUM AD HOMINEM, AD FEMINAM, lit. 'the argument to a man, to a woman,' refutation of a man's argument by an example drawn from his own conduct.
ARIES, earnest-money, a gift.
ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS, art is long, life short.
ARS MEDENDI, art of medicine.
APPROBATE, approve.
ATLANTES, a character in ORLANDO FURIOSO.
AULD REEKIE, Edinburgh.
ADVOCATO DEL DIABOLO, lit. 'the devil's advocate', one whose duty it is to oppose the canonization of a person on whose behalf claims to sanctity are made.
AWSOME, awful, fearful.
BACK-GANGING, behind hand in paying.
BACKSPAUL, the back of the shoulder.
BALLANT, a ballad, a fable.
BANNOCK, a flat, round cake.
BARLEY-BROO, barley-broth.
BARON-OFFICER, the magistrate's officer in a burgh of barony.
BARTIZAN, a small overhanging turret, the battlements.
BEAUFET, cupboard.
BEAVER, the lower part of the helmet.
