and without concurrence of his daughter's natural curators, the engagement was inept, and void in law. This precipitate measure, he added, had produced a very bad effect upon Lady Ashton's mind, which it was impossible at present to remove. Her son, Colonel Douglas Ashton, had embraced her prejudices in their fullest extent, and it was impossible for Sir William to adopt a course disagreeable to them, without a fatal and irreconcileable breach in his family; which was not at present to be thought of. Time, the great physician, he hoped would mend all.
In a postscript, Sir William said something more explicitly, that rather than the law of Scotland should sustain a severe wound through his sides, by a parliamentary reversal of the judgment of her supreme courts, in the case of the Barony of Ravenswood, he himself would extrajudicially consent to considerable sacrifices.
From Lucy Ashton, by some unknown
