"I was at the Chevalier's levee as soon as he usually rises. He was gone to the camp at Duddingston. I pursued him thither; asked and obtained an audience-but I will tell you not a word more, unless I see you begin to pack.” "Before I know whether I can avail myself of this passport, or how it was obtained?" "O, you can take out the things again, you know.-Now ! see you busy, I will go on. When I first mentioned your name, his eyes sparkled almost as bright as yours did two minutes since. 'Had you,' he earnestly asked, 'shown any sentiments favourable to his cause?' 'Not in the least, nor was there any hope you would do so.' His countenance fell I requested your freedom. 'Impossible,' he said;—'your importance, as a friend and confident of such and such personages, made my request altogether extravagant.' I told him my own story and yours; and asked him to judge what my feelings must be by his own. He has a heart, and a kind one, Colonel Talbot, you may say what you please. He took a sheet of paper, and wrote the pass with his own hand. 'I will not trust myself with my council,' he said; 'they will argue ine out of what is right. I will not endure that a friend, valued as I value you, should be loaded with the painful reflections which must afflict you in case of further misfortune in Colonel Talbot's family; nor will I keep a brave enemy a prisoner under such circumstances. Besides,' he said, 'I think I can justify myself to my prudent advisers, by pleading the good effect such lenity will produce on the minds of the great English families with whom Colonel Talbot is con nected.' "There the politician peeped out," said the Colonel. "Well, at least he concluded like a king's son :-"Take the passport; I have added a condition for form's sake; but if the Colonel objects to it, let him depart without giving any parole whatever. I come here to war with men, but not to distress or endanger women." "Well, I never thought to have been so much indebted to the Pretend "To the Prince," said Waverley, smiling. "To the Chevalier," said the Colonel; "it is a good travelling name, and which we may both freely use. say any thing more?" Did he Only asked if there was any thing else he could oblige me in; and when I replied in the negative, he shook me by the hand, and wished all his followers were as considerate, since some friends of mine not only asked all he had to bestow, but many things which were entirely out of his power, or that of the greatest sovereign upon earth. Indeed, he said, no prince seemed, in the eyes of his followers, so like the Deity as himself, if you were to judge from the extravagant requests which they daily preferred to him." Poor young gentleman," said the Colonel, "I suppose he begins to feel the difficulties of his situation. Well, dear Waverley, this is more than kind, and shall not be forgotten while Philip Talbot can remember any thing. My life-pshaw -let Emily thank you for that-this is a favour worth fifty lives. I cannot hesitate on giving my parole in the circumstances: there it is-(he wrote it out in form)-And now, how am I to get off?" "All that is settled: your baggage is packed, my horses wait, and a boat has been engaged, by the Prince's permission, to put you on board the Fox frigate. I sent a messenger down to Leith on purpose." "That will do excellently well. Captain Beaver is my particular friend: he will put me ashore at Berwick or Shields, from whence I can ride post to London; and you must intrust me with the packet of papers which you recovered by means of your Miss Bean Lean. I may have an opportunity of using them to your advantage. But I see your Highland friend, Glen- what do you call his barbarous name? and his orderly with him—I must not call him his orderly cutthroat any more, I suppose. See how he walks as if the world were his own, with the bonnet on one side of his head, and his plaid puffed out across his breast! I should like now to meet that youth where my hands were not tied: I would tame his pride, or he should tame mine." "For shame, Colonel Talbot! you swell at sight of tartan, as the bull is said to do at scarlet. You and Mac-Ivor have some points not much unlike, so far as national prejudice is concerned." The latter part of this discourse took place in the street. They passed the Chief, the Colonel and he sternly and punctiliously greeting each other, like two duellists before they take their ground. It was evident the dislike was mutual. "I never see that surly fellow that dogs his heels," said the Colonel, after he had mounted his horse, "but he reminds me of lines I have somewhere heard-upon the stage, I think : "I assure you, Colonel," said Waverley, "that you judg too harshly of the Highlanders." 'Not a whit, not a whit; I cannot spare them a jot; I can not bate them an ace. Let them stay in their own barre mountains, and puff and swell, and hang their bonnets on the horns of the moon, if they have a mind; but what busines have they to come where people wear breeches, and speak a intelligible language?—I mean intelligible in comparison to their gibberish, for even the Lowlanders talk a kind of English little better than the Negroes in Jamaica. I could pity the Pr- I mean the Chevalier himself, for having so many desperadoes about him. And they learn their trade so early There is a kind of subaltern imp, for example, a sort of suck ing devil, whom your friend Glena-Glenamuck there, has sometimes in his train. To look at him, he is about fifteen years; but he is a century old in mischief and villainy. He was playing at quoits the other day in the court; a gentle man, a decent-looking person enough, came past, and as a quoit hit his shin, he lifted his cane: But my young bravo whips out his pistol, like Beau Clincher in the Trip to the Jubilee, and had not a scream of Gardez l'eau, from an upper window, set all parties a scampering for fear of the inevitable consequences, the poor gentleman would have lost his life by the hands of that little cockatrice." "A fine character you'll give of Scotland upon your return, Colonel Talbot." "O, Justice Shallow," said the Colonel, "will save me the trouble-' Barren, barren, beggars all, beggars all. Marry, good air,'-and that only when you are fairly out of Edin burgh, and not yet home to Leith, as is our case at present." In a short time they arrived at the seaport :— "The boat rock'd at the pier of Leith, Full loud the wind blew down the ferry; The ship rode at the Berwick Law". Farewell, Colonel; may you find all as you would wish it! Perhaps we may meet sooner than you expect: they talk of an immediate route to England." "Tell me nothing of that," said Talbot; "I wish to carry no news of your motions." Simply, then, adieu. Say, with a thousand kind greetings, all that is dutiful and affectionate to Sir Everard and Aunt Rachel-Think of me as kindly as you can-speak of me as ndulgently as your conscience will permit, and once more dieu." "And adieu, my dear Waverley; many, many thanks for our kindness. Unplaid yourself on the first opportunity. shall ever think on you with gratitude, and the worst of my ensure shall be, Que diable alloit il faire dans cette galere?" And thus they parted, Colonel Talbot going on board of he boat, and Waverley returning to Edinburgh. CHAPTER LVII THE MARCH T is not our purpose to intrude upon the province of history. We shall therefore only remind our readers, that about the beinning of November the Young Chevalier, at the head of bout six thousand men at the utmost, resolved to peril his cause on an attempt to penetrate into the centre of England, lthough aware of the mighty preparations which were made or his reception. They set forward on this crusade in weather which would have rendered any other troops incapable ›f marching, but which in reality gave these active mountaineers dvantages over a less hardy enemy. In defiance of a superior irmy lying upon the Borders, under Field-Marshal Wade, they besieged and took Carlisle, and soon afterwards prosecuted heir daring march to the southward. As Colonel Mac-Ivor's regiment marched in the van of the clans, he and Waverley, who now equalled any Highlander in the endurance of fatigue, and was become somewhat acquainted with their language, were perpetually at its head. They marked the progress of the army, however, with very different eyes. Fergus, all air and fire, and confident against the world in arms, measured nothing but that every step was a yard nearer London. He neither asked, expected, nor desired any aid, except that of the clans, to place the Stewarts once more on the throne; and when by chance a few adherents joined the standard, he always considered them in the light of new claimants upon the favours of the future monarch, who, he concluded, must therefore subtract for their gratifica tion so much of the bounty which ought to be shared among his Highland followers. Edward's views were very different. He could not but ob serve, that in those towns in which they proclaimed James the Third, no man cried, God bless him." The mob stared and listened, heartless, stupified, and dull, but gave few signs even of that boisterous spirit, which induces them to shout upon all occasions, for the mere exercise of their most sweet voice The Jacobites had been taught to believe that the north western counties abounded with wealthy squires and hard yeomen, devoted to the cause of the White Rose. But of the wealthier Tories they saw little. Some fled from their houses some feigned themselves sick, some surrendered themselves to the government as suspected persons. Of such as remained the ignorant gazed with astonishment, mixed with horror and aversion, at the wild appearance, unknown language, an singular garb, of the Scottish clans. And to the more pr dent, their scanty numbers, apparent deficiency in discipline and poverty of equipment, seemed certain tokens of the calamitous termination of their rash undertaking. Thus the few who joined them were such as bigotry of political prin ciple blinded to consequences, or whose broken fortune induced to hazard all on a risk so desperate. The Baron of Bradwardine being asked what he thought these recruits, took a long pinch of snuff, and answered dril "that he could not but have an excellent opinion of them since they resembled precisely the followers who attache themselves to the good King David at the cave of Adullam videlicet, every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, which the Vulgate renders bitter of soul; and doubtless," he said, "the will prove mighty men of their hands, and there is much need that they should, for I have seen many a sour look cas upon us." But none of these considerations moved Fergus. He ad mired the luxuriant beauty of the country, and the situation of many of the seats which they passed. "Is Waverley-Honour like that house, Edward ?" "It is one-half larger." "" Is your uncle's park as fine a one as that?” 'It is three times as extensive, and rather resembles a fores than a mere park." "Flora will be a happy woman.” |