by his reply, that his credit in matters of that nature was totally exhausted.

The Colonel was still at Edinburgh, and proposed to wait there for some months upon business confided to him by the Duke of Cumberland. He was to be joined by Lady Emily, to whom easy travelling and goat's whey were recommended, and who was to journey northward, under the escort of Francis Stanley. Edward, therefore, met the Colonel at Edinburgh, who wished him joy in the kindest manner on his approaching happiness, and cheerfully undertook many commissions which our hero was necessarily obliged to delegate to his charge. But on the subject of Fergus he was inexorable. He satisfied Edward, indeed, that his interference would be unavailing. But, besides, Colonel Talbot owned that he could not conscientiously use any influence in favour of this unfortunate gentleman. "Justice, which demanded some penalty of those who had wrapped the whole nation in fear and in

mourning, could not perhaps have selected a fitter victim. He came to the field with the fullest light upon the nature of his attempt. He had studied and understood the subject. His father's fate could not intimidate him; the lenity of the laws, which had restored to him his father's property and rights, could not melt him. That he was brave, generous, and possessed many good qualities, only rendered him more dangerous; that he was enlightened and accomplished, made his crime less excusable; that he was an enthusiast in a wrong cause, only made him the more fit to be its martyr. Above all, he had been the means of bringing many hundreds of men into the field, who, without him, would never have broke the peace of the country.

"I repeat it," said the Colonel, "though heaven knows with a heart distressed for him as an individual, that this young gentleman has studied and fully understood the desperate game which he has played.

He threw for life or death, a coronet or a coffin; and he cannot now be permitted, with justice to the country, to draw stakes, because the dice have gone against him."

Such was the reasoning of these times, held even by brave and humane men towards a vanquished enemy. Let us devoutly hope, that, in this respect at least, we shall never see the scenes, or hold the sentiments, that were general in Britain Sixty Years since.

N 2

CHAPTER XX.

"To-morrow? O that's sudden !-Spare him, spare

EDWARD, attended by his former servant Alick Polwarth, who had re-entered his service at Edinburgh, reached Carlisle while the commission of Oyer and Terminer on his unfortunate associates was yet sitting. He had pushed forward in haste, not, alas! with the most distant hope of saving Fergus, but to see him for the last time, I ought to have mentioned, that he had furnished funds for the defence of the prisoners in the most liberal manner, as soon as he heard that the day of trial was fixed. A solicitor, and the first counsel, accordingly attended; but it was upon the same footing on which the first physi

cians are usually summoned to the bedside of some dying man of rank-the doctors to take the advantage of some incalculable chance of an exertion of nature the lawyers to avail themselves. of the barely possible occurrence of some legal flaw. Edward pressed into the court, which was extremely crowded; but by his arriving from the north, and his extreme eagerness and agitation, it was supposed he was a relation of the prisoners, and people made way for him. It was the third sitting of the court, and there were two men at the bar. The verdict of GUILTY was already pronounced. Edward just glanced at the bar during the momentous pause which ensued. There was no mistaking the stately form and not ble features of Fergus Mac-Ivor, although his dress was squalid, and his countenance tinged with the sickly yellow hue of long and close imprisonment. By his side was Evan Maccombich. Edward felt sick and dizzy as he gazed on them; but he was recalled to himself as the Clerk of