"I never had that honour," replied Mr Young Mandeville, "which I particularly regret, for I have a high--may I say the highest?--respect for that intelligent country, and indeed claim a remote connection with it. I admire the importance which Scotsmen invariably attach to pure blood and ancient descent. It is a proof, Mr Cutts, that with them the principles of chivalry are not extinct, and that the honours which should be paid to birth alone, are not indiscriminately lavished upon the mere acquisition of wealth." "Which means, I suppose, that a lot of rubbishy ancestors is better than a fortune in the funds. Well--every man according to his own idea. I am particularly glad to say, that I understand no nonsense of the kind. There's Fred, however, will keep you in countenance. He says--but I'll be hanged if I believe it--that he is descended from some old king or another, who lived before the invention of breeches." "Cutts--don't be a fool!" "Oh, by Jove, it's quite true!" said the irreverent Saxon; "you used to tell me about it every night when you were half-seas over at Shrewsbury. It was capital fun to hear you, about the mixing of the ninth tumbler." "Excuse me, sir," said Mr Mandeville, with an appearance of intense interest--"do you indeed reckon kindred with the royal family of Scotland? I have a particular reason personal to myself in the inquiry." "Why, if you really want to know about it," said I, looking, I suppose, especially foolish, for Cutts was evidently trotting me out, and I more than half suspected his companion--"I do claim--but it's a ridiculous thing to talk of--a lineal descent from a daughter of William the Lion." "You delight me!" said Mr Mandeville. "The connection is highly respectable--I have myself some of that blood in my veins, though perhaps of a little older date than yours; for one of my ancestors, Ulric of Mandeville, married a daughter of Fergus the First. I am very glad indeed to make the acquaintance of a relative after the lapse of so many centuries." I returned a polite bow to the salutation of my new-found cousin, and wished him at the bottom of the Euxine. "Will you pardon me, Mr Cutts, if I ask my kinsman a question or two upon family affairs? The older cadets of the royal blood have seldom an opportunity of meeting." "Fire away," said the Saxon, "but be done with it as soon as you can." "Reduced as we are," continued Mr Mandeville, addressing himself to me, "in numbers as well as circumstances, it appears highly advisable that we should maintain some intercourse with each other for the preservation of our common rights. These, as we well know, had their origin before the institution of Parliaments, and therefore are by no means fettered or impugned by any of the popular enactments of a later age. Now, as you are a lawyer, I should like to have your opinion on a point of some consequence. Did you ever happen to meet our cousin, Count Ferguson of the Roman Empire?"