Relieve me of that dog, and I toss you a thousand-pound note, and thank you from my soul, Cumnock.

You know what hangs on it.

Spur, you dolt, or she'll be out of sight.' They cantered upon application of the spur.

Captain Cumnock was an impecunious fearless rascal, therefore a parasite and a bully duellist; a thick-built north-countryman; a burly ape of the ultra-elegant; hunter, gamester, hard-drinker, man of pleasure.

His known readiness to fight was his trump-card at a period when the declining custom of the duel taxed men's courage to brave the law and the Puritan in the interests of a privileged and menaced aristocracy.