ancient towers. But I am no boy, to sit down and weep be cause the luck has gone against me. I knew the stake which I risked; we played the game boldly, and the forfeit shall be paid manfully. And now, since my time is short, let me come to the questions that interest me most-The Prince? has he escaped the blood-hounds?"

"He has, and is in safety."

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

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

"You are rich," he said, "Waverley, and you are generous. When you hear of these poor Mac-Ivors being distressed about their miserable possessions by some harsh overseer or agent of government, remember you have worn their tartan, and are an adopted son of their race. The Baron, who knows our manners, and lives near our country, will apprise you of the time and means to be their protector. Will you promise this to the last Vich Ian Vohr?"

Edward, as may well be believed, pledged his word; which he afterward so amply redeemed, that his memory still lives in these glens by the name of the Friend of the Sons of Ivor.

"Would to God," continued the Chieftain, "I could be queath to you my rights to the love and obedience of this primitive and brave race:-or at least, as I have striven to do, persuade poor Evan to accept of his life upon their terms, and be to you what he has been to me, the kindest-the bravest-the most devoted ".

The tears which his own fate could not draw forth, fell fast for that of his foster-brother.

But," said he, drying them, "that cannot be. You cannot be to them Vich Ian Vohr; and these three magic words,' said he, half smiling, "are the only Open Sesame to their feelings and sympathies, and poor Evan must attend his fosterbrother in death, as he has done through his whole life.”

"And I am sure," said Maccombich, raising himself from the

floor, on which, or fear of interrupting their conversation, he had lain so still, that in the obscurity of the apartment Edward was not aware of his presence "I am sure Evan never desired or deserved a better end than just to die with his Chieftain."

"And now," said Fergus, "while we are upon the subject of clanship—what think you now of the prediction of the Bodach Glas?"-Then, before Edward could answer, "I saw him again last night-he stood in the slip of moonshine which fell from that high and narrow window toward my bed. Why should I fear him, I thought-to-morrow, long ere this time, I shall be as immaterial as he. False Spirit!' I said, 'art thou come to close thy walk on earth, and to enjoy thy triumph in the fall of the last descendant of thine enemy!' The spectre seemed to beckon and to smile as he faded from my sight. What do you think of it?—I asked the same question of the priest, who is a good and sensible man; he admitted that the church allowed that such apparitions were possible, but urged me not to permit my mind to dwell upon it, as imagination plays us such strange tricks. What do you think of it?"

"Much as your confessor," said Waverley, willing to avoid dispute upon such a point at such a moment. A tap at the door now announced that good man, and Edward retired while he administered to both prisoners the last rites of religion, in the mode which the Church of Rome prescribes.

In about an hour he was re-admitted; soon after, a file of soldiers entered with a blacksmith, who struck the fetters from the legs of the prisoners.

"You see the compliment they pay to our Highland strength and courage-we have lain chained here like wild beasts, till our legs are cramped into palsy, and when they free us, they send six soldiers with loaded muskets to prevent our taking the castle by storm!"

Edward afterward learned that these severe precautions had been taken in consequence of a desperate attempt of the prisoners to escape, in which they had very nearly succeeded.

Shortly afterward the drums of the garrison beat to arms. "This is the last turn-out," said Fergus, "that I shall hear and obey. And now, my dear, dear Edward, ere we part let us speak of Flora-a subject which awakes the tenderest feeling that yet thrills within me.'

"We part not here!" said Waverley.

"O yes, we do; you must come no further. Not that I fear what is to follow for myself," he said proudly: "Nature has her tortures as well as art; and how happy should we think

the man who escapes from the throes of a mortal and painful disorder, in the space of a short half hour? And this matter, spin it out as they will, cannot last longer. But what a dying man can suffer firmly, may kill a living friend to look upon.This same law of high treason," he continued, with astonishing firmness and composure, "is one of the blessings, Edward, with which your free country has accommodated poor old Scotland: her own jurisprudence, as I have heard, was much milder. But I suppose one day or other-when there are no longer any wild Highlanders to benefit by its tender mercies-they will blot it from their records, as leveling them with a nation of cannibals. The mummery, too, of exposing the senseless head -they have not the wit to grace mine with a paper coronet; there would be some satire in that, Edward. I hope they will set it on the Scotch gate though, that I may look, even after death, to the blue hills of my own country, which I love so dearly. The Baron would have added,

Moritur, et moriens dulces, reminiscitur Argos."

A bustle, and the sound of wheels and horses' feet was "As I have told now heard in the court-yard of the Castle. you why you must not follow me, and these sounds admonish me that my time flies fast, tell me how you found poor Flora?" Waverley, with a voice interrupted by suffocating sensation, gave some account of the state of her mind.

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"Poor Flora!" answered the Chief. She could have borne her own sentence of death, but not mine. You, Waverley, will soon know the happiness of mutual affection in the married state-long, long, may Rose and you enjoy it!--but you can never know the purity of feeling which combines two orphans, like Flora and me, left alone as it were in the world, and being all in all to each other from our very infancy. But her strong sense of duty, and predominant feeling of loyalty, will give new nerve to her mind after the immediate and acute sensation of this parting has passed away. She will then think of Fergus as of the heroes of our race, upon whose deeds she loved to dwell."

"Shall she not see you, then?" asked Waverley. seemed to expect it."

"She

"A necessary deceit will spare her the last dreadful parting. I could not part with her without tears, and I cannot bear that these men should think they have power to extort them. She was made to believe she would sce me at a later hour, and this letter, which my confessor will deliver, will apprise her that all is over."