This terrible ultimatum of the law did not, however, in all cases put an end to the hopes and energies of the discomfited litigant. Another card still remained to be played, by any one reckless and desperate enough to avail himself of it: this was no less than to rise in open opposition to all law, set the sheriff and his subalterns at defiance, and hold possession with a strong hand after the manner of the ancients. Before matters came to this, the tenantry were usually, from the causes I have mentioned, sufficiently demoralized for any purpose; and whatever might have been their previous conduct, those sympathies which seldom fail a ruined master, were of course roused to their highest pitch; in addition to which stimulant, it was manifestly their advantage that the reign of misrule should continue, so that, when a man was thus turned at bay, there was no saying how the matter might end. I believe it very often happened, during the weak and uncertain administration of justice in the past century, that a pertinacious adherence to this desperate line of policy has tired out the persecution of all adversaries, and been crowned with final success. Any money, therefore, for a partizan able and willing to undertake the support of such a desperate cause; one who, while his principal kept in the background, had no fear or shame to prevent him from putting himself forward--drilling the tenants--collecting adherents and information--concentrating all the lawlessness of the district against the operations of the law--holding his own life at nought, and the lives of all others at a lower standard, if possible.