you is to bid them loose my hands and gie me my claymore, and bide you just a minute sitting where you are!"

Remove the prisoners," said the Judge; "his blood be upon his own head.”

Almost stupified with his feelings, Edward found that the ush of the crowd had conveyed him out into the street, ere he new what he was doing. His immediate wish was to see and peak with Fergus once more. He applied at the Castle where is unfortunate friend was confined, but was refused admittance. The High Sheriff," a non-comissioned officer said, "had equested of the governor that none should be admitted to see he prisoner excepting his confessor and his sister."

And where was Miss Mac-Ivor?" They gave him the irection. It was the house of a respectable Catholic family ear Carlisle.

Repulsed from the gate of the Castle, and not venturing to nake application to the High Sheriff or Judges in his own npopular name, he had recourse to the solicitor who came own in Fergus's behalf. This gentleman told him, that it as thought the public mind was in danger of being debauched y the account of the last moments of these persons, as given y the friends of the Pretender; that there had been a resoluon, therefore, to exclude all such persons as had not the lea of near kindred for attending upon them. Yet, he romised (to oblige the heir of Waverley-Honour) to get him 1 order for admittance to the prisoner the next morning, efore his irons were knocked of for execution.

Is it of Fergus Mac-Ivor they speak thus, thought Waverley, r do I dream? Of Fergus, the bold, the chivalrous, the ee-minded? The lofty chieftain of a tribe devoted to him? › it he, that I have seen lead the chase and head the attack, -the brave, the active, the young, the noble, the love of dies, and the theme of song,-is it he who is ironed like a alefactor; who is to be dragged on a hurdle to the common allows; to die a lingering and cruel death, and to be mangled y the hand of the most outcast of wretches? Evil indeed as the spectre, that boded such a fate as this to the brave Chief of Glennaquoich!

With a faltering voice he requested the solicitor to find heans to warn Fergus of his intended visit, should he obtain ermission to make it. He then turned away from him, and, eturning to the inn, wrote a scarcely intelligible note to Flora Mac-Ivor, intimating his purpose to wait upon her that even

ing. The messenger brought back a letter in Flora's beautiful Italian hand, which seemed scarce to tremble even under this load of misery. "Miss Flora Mac-Ivor," the letter bore, "could not refuse to see the dearest friend of her dear brother, even in her present circumstances of unparalleled distress."

When Edward reached Miss Mac-Ivor's present place of abode, he was instantly admitted. In a large and gloom tapestried apartment, Flora was seated by a latticed window, sewing what seemed to be a garment of white flannel. At a little distance sat an elderly woman, apparently a foreigner and of a religious order. She was reading in a book of Catholic devotion, but when Waverley entered, laid it on the table and left the room. Flora rose to receive him, and stretched out her hand, but neither ventured to attempt speech. Her fine complexion was totally gone; her perso considerably emaciated; and her face and hands as white a the purest statuary marble, forming a strong contrast with her sable dress and jet-black hair. Yet, amid these marks of distress, there was nothing negligent or ill-arranged about he attire; even her hair, though totally without ornament, was disposed with her usual attention to neatness. The first words she uttered were, "Have you seen him?”

"Alas, no," answered Waverley, "I have been refused admittance."

"It accords with the rest," she said; "but we must submit Shall you obtain leave, do you suppose?"

"For-for-to-morrow," said Waverley; but muttering the last word so faintly that it was almost unintelligible.

Ay, then or never," said Flora, "until "—she added, look ing upward, "the time when, I trust, we shall all meet. B I hope you will see him while earth yet bears him. H always loved you at his heart, though-but it is vain to talk of the past."

"Vain indeed!" echoed Waverley.

"Or even of the future, my good friend," said Flora, "s far as earthly events are concerned; for how often have! pictured to myself the strong possibility of this horrid issue and tasked myself to consider how I could support my part and yet how far has all my anticipation fallen short of the un imaginable bitterness of this hour!"

"Dear Flora, if your strength of mind

"Ay, there it is," she answered, somewhat wildly; "there" is, Mr. Waverley, there is a busy devil at my heart, tha

whispers but it were madness to listen to it-that the strength of mind on which Flora prided herself has murdered her rother!"

"Good God! how can you give utterance to a thought so hocking?"

'Ay, is it not so? but yet it haunts me like a phantom; I now it is unsubstantial and vain; but it will be present; ill intrude its horrors on my mind; will whisper that my rother, as volatile as ardent, would have divided his energies mid a hundred objects. It was I who taught him to conentrate them, and to gage all on this dreadful and desperate ast. Oh that I could recollect that I had but once said to im, 'He that striketh with the sword shall die by the sword;' hat I had but once said, 'Remain at home; reserve yourself, our vassals, your life, for enterprises within the reach of man. But O, Mr. Waverley, I spurred his fiery temper, and half of is ruin at least lies with his sister!"

The horrid idea which she had intimated, Edward eneavoured to combat by every incoherent argument that ccurred to him. He recalled to her the principles on which oth thought it their duty to act, and in which they had been ducated.

"Do not think I have forgotten them," she said, looking up, ith eager quickness; "I do not regret his attempt, because was wrong! O no! on that point I am armed; but beause it was impossible it could end otherwise than thus."

"Yet it did not always seem so desperate and hazardous as was; and it would have been chosen by the bold spirit of ergus, whether you had approved it or no; your counsels nly served to give unity and consistence to his conduct; to ignify, but not to precipitate, his resolution." Flora had Don ceased to listen to Edward, and was again intent upon er needle-work.

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"Do you remember," she said, looking up with a ghastly nile, you once found me making Fergus's bride-favours, nd now I am sewing his bridal-garment. Our friends here,' he continued, with suppressed emotion, "are to give hallowed arth in their chapel to the bloody relics of the last Vich Ian Tohr. But they will not all rest together; no his head !-I hall not have the last miserable consolation of kissing the old lips of my dear, dear Fergus!"

The unfortunate Flora here, after one or two hysterical sobs, ainted in her chair. The lady, who had been attending in the

anteroom, now entered hastily, and begged Edward to leave the room, but not the house.

When he was recalled, after the space of nearly half an hour, he found that, by a strong effort, Miss Mac-Ivor had greatly composed herself. It was then he ventured to urge Miss Bradwardine's claim to be considered as an adopted sister, and empowered to assist her plans for the future.

"I have had a letter from my dear Rose," she replied, "t the same purpose. Sorrow is selfish and engrossing, or I would have written to express, that, even in my own despair, I felt a gleam of pleasure at learning her happy prospects, and at hear ing that the good old Baron has escaped the general wreck Give this to my dearest Rose; it is her poor Flora's only or ment of value, and it was the gift of a princess." She put into his hands a case, containing the chain of diamonds with which she used to decorate her hair. "To me it is in future, useless. The kindness of my friends has secured me a retreat in the convent of the Scottish Benedictine nuns in Paris To-morrow-if indeed I can survive to-morrow-I set forward on my journey with this venerable sister. And now, M Waverley, adieu! May you be as happy with Rose as your amiable dispositions deserve; and think sometimes on the friends you have lost. Do not attempt to see me again it would be mistaken kindness."

She gave him her hand, on which Edward shed a torrent tears, and, with a faltering step, withdrew from the apartment and returned to the town of Carlisle. At the inn, he found letter from his law friend, intimating, that he would be a mitted to Fergus next morning, as soon as the Castle gates wer opened, and permitted to remain with him till the arrival d the Sheriff gave the signal for the fatal procession.

CHAPTER LXIX

-A darker departure is near,

The death drum is muffled, and sable the bier.-Campbell. AFTER a sleepless night, the first dawn of morning found Waverley on the esplanade in front of the old Gothic gate al Carlisle Castle. But he paced it long in every direction, before the hour when, according to the rules of the garrison, the gates were opened, and the drawbridge lowered. He produced his order to the sergeant of the guard, and was admitted.

The place of Fergus's confinement was a gloomy and vaulted partment in the central part of the Castle; a huge old tower, upposed to be of great antiquity, and surrounded by outworks, eemingly of Henry VIII.'s time, or somewhat later. The rating of the large old-fashioned bars and bolts, withdrawn or the purpose of admitting Edward, was answered by the lash of chains, as the unfortunate Chieftain, strongly and eavily fettered, shuffled along the stone floor of his prison, to ling himself into his friend's arms.

My dear Edward," he said, in a firm and even cheerful oice, "this is truly kind. I heard of your approaching happiess with the highest pleasure. And how does Rose? and ow is our old whimsical friend the Baron? Well, I trust, ince I see you at freedom-And how will you settle preedence between the three ermines passant and the bear and oot-jack?"

"How, O how, my dear Fergus, can you talk of such things t such a moment!

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Why, we have entered Carlisle with happier auspices, to be ire on the 16th of November last, for example, when we arched in, side by side, and hoisted the white flag on these icient towers. But I am no boy, to sit down and weep, ecause the luck has gone against me. I knew the stake hich I risked; we played the game boldly, and the forfeit all be paid manfully. And now, since my time is short, let e come to the questions that interest me most-the Prince? is he escaped the bloodhounds?"

"He has, and is in safety."

"Praised be God for that! Tell me the particulars of his cape."

Waverley communicated that remarkable history, so far as it id then transpired, to which Fergus listened with deep terest. He then asked after several other friends; and made any minute inquiries concerning the fate of his own clansen. They had suffered less than other tribes who had been ngaged in the affair; for, having in a great measure dispersed ad returned home after the captivity of their Chieftain, cording to the universal custom of the Highlanders, they ere not in arms when the insurrection was finally suppressed, ad consequently were treated with less rigour. This Fergus eard with great satisfaction.

"You are rich," he said, "Waverley, and you are generous. Then you hear of these poor Mac-Ivors being distressed about