Guy Mannering Volume I - Chapter V

In which our protagonist contemplates the lively and somewhat lawless commerce of the coast, exemplified by the daring Captain Hatteraick and the ever-hospitable, though irked, Laird of Ellangowan, whose country grievances are aired with a mixture of good-nature and pettish vexation. Amidst these rustic scenes and superstitions, the traveller discreetly entrusts a mysterious paper to the Laird, resolving to shield its contents from premature scrutiny as he takes his leave and the narrative turns to events of a later day.