The keeper next conducted me to the rear of the castle, where he pointed out a well-preserved square tower below which the ground slopes at a sharp angle to the river’s edge. The lower part was used as a dungeon, where we may suppose Henry Morton to have been confined. (…) Above the dungeon was the kitchen and pantry, with windows perhaps twenty feet above the ground. At the corner there was once an old yew, the stump of which may still be seen. Sir Walter Scott goes nasty -- beyond knights and damsels -- into a world of religious hatred and sectarian violence that remains more relevant than ever today! In the grey of the morning,” Bessie said, “my little Peggy sail show ye the gate to him before the sodgers are up. But ye maun let his hour of danger, as he ca’s it, be ower, afore ye venture on him in his place of refuge. Peggy will tell ye when to venture in. She kens his ways weel, for whiles she carries him some little helps that he canna do without to sustain life.” Ch. 17 (30): With the agreement of the Covenanting council Henry meets Monmouth to explore possible peace terms; Monmouth puts an end to the discussion by demanding that the Covenanters lay down their arms before negotiations commence. Like most of Scott's novels, `Old Mortality' (1816) is rather difficult to get into but by the third chapter I was finding it a gripping and timely read. The story is set in late 17th century Scotland. Some people think of Scott as promoting a fanciful and sentimental view of Scottish history but in this novel he depicts a nation deeply divided along religious, cultural and political lines. Some of these divisions still exist.

Old Mortality' is set during the 1679 rebellion of the Covenanters, immediately after the assassination of the Archbishop of St. Andrews. The story is very intense and sometimes rather gruesome, but there were some really humorous scenes as well! I also enjoyed the Scottish dialect spoken by many of the characters...it can be a challenge to understand at times, but having read Robert Burns, I was able to understand it pretty well. 😂 Henry Morton is a hero because he steers the middle course. Scott has created the problem perfectly. Morton can’t just abandon the Whigs and join his lover because that would also abandon his principles--and she knows it. The historical characters who inhabit the tale, men from a time of bloody recrimination in Scottish history, are suitably brutalised by their behaviour. Claverhouse and John Balfour of Burley, the foes at sword's edge, still have the sheen of romanticism surrounding them, but their ruthlessness is also evident. Ch. 8: Mause and Cuddie find shelter at Milnewood. Bothwell arrests Henry for succouring Burley. Mause and Cuddie prepare to leave Milnewood after she has uttered fanatically extreme Covenanting sentiments.It will soon be a year since Napoleon, after the defeat at Waterloo, arrived as a prisoner in the remote island of “St Helena” after ten weeks at sea on board the HMS Northumberland. As a writer of historical novels and married to a French lady Sir Walter could only be interested by the Empereur’s story… Ch. 2 (15): The body arrives at Loudon Hill where the royalist force is preparing for battle with the Covenanters. Ch. 15 (28): After an appeal by Jenny Dennison to Henry, he releases Evandale, who arranges the surrender of Tillietudlem before setting out for Edinburgh to join Monmouth, in company with the women folk. I enjoyed the history. It bridged a gap in my knowledge from the English Civil War to the Revolution. The philosophizing from different parties was also fun and an interesting look into the complexity of humanity. It also just confirmed how much of a Sir Walter Scott MC I basically am...

Vincenzo Bellini's opera I puritani (1835), with a libretto written by Italian emigre in Paris, Count Carlo Pepoli, is in turn based on that play. It has become one of Bellini's major operas. [10] Yet you both shed blood without mercy or remorse," said Morton, who could not suppress his feelings.Ch. 5: Henry shelters Burley in the stable at Milnewood, securing for him provisions obtained ostensibly for his own refreshment from the garrulous housekeeper Alison Wilson. Ch. 3 (33): Henry is threatened with death by a group of Cameronians, including Macbriar and Habakkuk Meiklewrath. He is rescued by Claverhouse.

In view of this discussion and of assertions made in a recent issue of The Nineteenth Century, it may be well to place a portion of the will upon record. It is dated 20 Aug., 1827 : http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/mortality.html James Corson, “librarian, scholar and Scottophile” It was no good at all trying to fit the stories to life, and they did not even try. They had long since learned to draw the lines between life, which was real and earnest, and the grave was not its goal; poetry, which was true but not real; and stories, or forbidden reading matter, in which things happened as nowhere else, with the most sublime irrelevance and unlikelihood, and one need not turn a hair, because there was not a word of truth in them.That wad sort ill wi' the auld leddy, to be sure," said Cuddie; "she wad hardly win ower a lang day in the baggage-wain." Ch. 5 (35): Claverhouse and Henry debate on the way to Edinburgh and witness the procession of prisoners into the city.