Waverley, were so satisfied with his sentiments and abilities, as to propose, that, in case of a certain revolution in the ministry, he should take an ostensible place in the new order of things, not indeed of the first rank, but greatly higher, in point both of emolument and influence, than that which he now enjoyed. There was no resisting so tempting a proposal, notwithstanding that the Great Man, under whose patronage he had enlisted, and by whose banner he had hitherto stood firm, was the principal object of the proposed sattack by the new allies. Unfor tunately, this fair scheme of ambition was blighted pin the very bud, by a prema ture© movement. All the official gentle, meng concerned in it, who hesitated to take the part of a voluntary resignation, were informed that the king had no farther occasion for their services; and, in Richard Waverley's case, which the minister considered as aggravated by ingratitude, dismissal was accompanied by some

f

thing like personal contempt and contumely. The public, and even the party of whom he shared the fall, sympathised little in the disappointment of this selfish and interested statesman, and he retired to the country under the comfortable reflection, that he had lost, at the same time, character, credit, and, what he at least equally deplored,-emolument.

Richard Waverley's letter to his son upon this occasion was a masterpiece of its kind. Aristides himself could not have made out a harder case. An unjust monarch, and an ungrateful country, were the burthen of each rounded paragraph. He spoke of long services, and unrequited sacrifices, though the former had been over. paid by his salary, and nobody could guess in what the latter consisted, unless it were in his deserting, not from conviction, but for the lucre of gain, the tory principles of his family. In the conclusion, his resentment was wrought to such an excess by the force of his own oratory, that he

could not repress some threats of venamdari bat z

ི་ཟླ་ ོ་

geance, however vague and impotent, and

finally acquainted his son with his pleasure that he should testify his sense of the ill treatment he had sustained, by throwing up his commission as soon as the letter reached him. This, he said, was also his uncle's desire, as he would himself intiaid mate in due course.

Accordingly, the next letter which Edward opened was from Sir Everard. His brother's disgrace seemed to have removed from his well-natured bosom all recol lection of their differences; and, remote as he was from every means of learning that Richard's disgrace was in reality only the just, as well as natural consequence of his own unsuccessful intrigues, the good, but credulous baronet, at once set it down as a new and enormous instance of the injustice of the existing government. It was true, he said, and he must not disguise it even from Edward, that his father could not have sustained such

an insult as was now, for the first time, ofbas gedogm fered to one of his house, unless he had

subjected himself to it by accepting of an

employment under the present system.

Sir Everard had no doubt that he now both saw and felt the magnitude of this aid oals acy.

error, and it should be his (Sir Everard's) business, to take care that the cause of his regret should not extend itself to pecu-bi dɔmw Toll:

niary consequences. It was enough for a 20 01679

Waverley to have sustained the public dis

-0.097 99sd of

grace; the patrimonial injury could easily be obviated by the head of their family.

But it was both the opinion of Mr Richard Waverley and his own, that Edward, the

representative of the family of Waverley

C

2

Honour, should not remain in a situation which subjected him also to such treatment as that with which his father had been stigmatized. He requested his nephew therefore to take the fittest, and, at the same time, the most speedy opportunity of transmitting his resignation to the War-Office, and hinted, moreover, that

105

little ceremony was necessary where so lit tle had been used to his father. He sent multitudinous greetings to the Baron of Bradwardine.

A letter from aunt Rachael spoke out even more plainly. She considered the disgrace of brother Richard as the just reward of his forfeiting his allegiance to a lawful, though exiled sovereign, and taKing the oaths to an alien; a concession which her grandfather, Sir Nigel Waver ley, refused to make, either to the roundhead parliament or to Cromwell, when his life and fortune stood in the utmost extremity. She hoped her dear Edward would follow the footsteps of his ancestors, and as speedily as possible get rid of the badge of servitude to the usurping fa"mily, and regard the wrongs sustained by his father as an admonition from Heaven, that every desertion of the line of loyalty becomes its own punishment. She also concluded with her respects to Mr Bradwardine, and begged Waverley would in