Tracts, legal and historical

149
the traitor Menteith ? To the nursery should that
fable be confined." 1
After this we must deeply regret, that neither the
Ruskys, or the inventor of Logarithms, can trace a
descent — at least legitimately — from Sir John ; and
the blood of the Merchistons would receive no stain,
even supposing the latter had been the " immanis
traditor," the black fiend, that has been represent-
ed. The motive, therefore, for the defence of Men-
teith, that has inspired the learned author of the
Memoirs, being, alas ! of an elusory kind, is somewhat
akin to the veneration of the knight of La Mancha
for his mistress, — or, to use a grander simile, like
the fabric of a vision, that leaveth not a wreck
behind.
The Sir John Menteith in question, espoused
Elyne, daughter of the Earl of Mar — " from whose
fair stem most tempting fruit have grown." The
tempting fruit, however, with the exception of a son
John, who died without issue, were only daughters,
and while the Menteiths of Rusky are not sprung
from any of them, it is certain that Christian, the
eldest, married Sir Edward Keith, and that, through
her, the House of Erskine, as heirs-general of her
mother Elyne, (the only wife of Sir John Menteith,)
succeeded eventually to the Earldom of Mar. 2 So
1 Memoirs, p. 527.
2 The essential authorities for these allegations are the follow-
ing:—
On the 2'2d of July 1310, Edward II. in consequence of Sir