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tain, and affect to consider themselves as independent of the other officers, and su perior to their comrades."

"All this, my dear Major, is the natural consequence of their attachment to their young landlord, and their finding themselves among a regiment levied chiefly in the north of Ireland and west of Scotland, and disposed to quarrel with them, both as Englishmen, and as of the church of England,"

"Well said, parson!-I would some of your synod heard you-But let me go on. This young man obtains leave of absence, goes to Tully-Veolan-the principles of the Baron of Brad wardine are pretty well known, not to mention that this lad's un-. cle brought him off in the year fifteen; he engages then in a brawl, in which he is said to have disgraced the commission he bore; Colonel G writes to him, first mildly, then more sharply-I think you will not doubt his having done so, since he says so the mess invite him to explain

the quarrel in which he is said to have been engaged; he neither replies to his commander nor his comrades. In the meanwhile his soldiers become mutinous and disorderly, and at length, while the ru mour of this unhappy rebellion becomes general, his favourite Serjeant Houghton, and another fellow, are detected in correspondence with a French emissary, accredited, as he says, by Captain Waverley, who urges him, according to the men's confession, to desert with the troop and join their captain, who was with Prince Charles. In the meanwhile, this trusty captain is, by his own admission, residing at Glennaquoich with the most active, subtle, and desperate Jacobite in Scot land; he goes with him at least as far as their famous hunting rendezvous, and I fear a little farther. Meanwhile, two other summonses are sent him; one warning him of the disturbances in his troop, another peremptorily ordering him to repair to the regiment, which indeed com

mon sense might have dictated, when he observed rebellion thickening all round him. He returns an absolute refusal, and throws up his commission."

"He had been already deprived of it."

" But he regrets that the measure had anticipated his resignation. His baggage is seized at his quarters, and at Tully-Veolan, and is found to contain a stock of pestilent jacobitical pamphlets, enough to poison a whole country, besides the unprinted lucubrations of his worthy friend and tutor Mr Pembroke."

"He says he never read them."

"In an ordinary case I should believe him, for they are as stupid and pedantie in composition as mischievous in their tenets. But can you suppose any thing but value for the principles they maintain, would induce a young man of his age to lug such trash about with him? Then, when news arrive of the approach of the rebels, he sets out in a sort of disguise, refusing to tell his name; and, if that old

fanatic tell truth, attended by a very suspicious character, and mounted on a horse known to have belonged to Glennaquoich, and bearing on his person letters from his family expressing high rancour against the house of Brunswick, and a copy of verses in praise of one Wogan, who abjured the service of the parliament to join the Highland insurgents, when in arms to restore the house of Stuart, with a body of Eng lish cavalry-the very counterpart of his own plot-and summed up with a Go thou and do likewise, from that loyal subs ject, and most safe and peaceable character, Fergus Mac-Ivor of Glennaquoich, Vich Ian Vohr, and so forth. And, lastly," continued Major Melville, warming in the detail of his arguments, "where do we find this second edition of Cavalier Wogan? Why, truly, in the very track most proper for execution of his design, and pistolling the first of the king's subjects who ventures to question his intentions."

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Mr Morton prudently abstained from argument, which he perceived would only harden the magistrate in his opinion, and barely asked how he intended to dispose of the prisoner?

"It is a question of some difficulty, considering the state of the country."

"Could you not detain him (being such à gentleman-like young man) here in your own house, out of harm's way, till this storm blow over?"

"My good friend, neither your house nor mine will be long out of harm's way, even were it legal to confine him here. I have just learned that the commander-inchief, who marched into the Highlands to seek out and disperse the insurgents, "has declined giving them battle at Corryerick, and marched on northwards with all the disposable force of government to Inverness, John-o'-Groat's House, or the devil, for what I know, leaving the road to the low country open and undefended to the Highland army."

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