ed his doing so, and because he felt inexpressible repugnance at the idea of being accessary to the plague of civil war. Whatever were the original rights of the Stuarts, calm reflection told him, that, omitting the question how far James the Second could forfeit those of his posterity, he had, according to the united voice of the whole nation, justly forfeited his own. Since that period, four monarchs had reigned in peace and glory over Britain, sustaining and exalting the character of the nation abroad, and its liberties at home. Reason asked, was it worth while to disturb a government so long settled and established, and to plunge a kingdom into all the miseries of civil war, to replace upon the throne the descendants of a monarch by whom it had been wilfully forfeited? If, on the other hand, his own final conviction of the goodness of their cause, or the commands of his father or uncle, should recommend to him allegiance to the Stu arts, still it was necessary to clear his own

character by shewing that he had taken no step to this purpose, as seemed to be falsely insinuated, during his holding the commission of the reigning monarch.

The affectionate simplicity of Rose, and her anxiety for his safety, his sense too of her unprotected state, and of the terror and actual dangers to which she might be exposed, made an impression upon his mind, and he instantly wrote to thank her in the kindest terms for her anxiety on his account, to express his earnest good wishes for her welfare and that of her father, and to assure her of his own safety. The feelings which this task excited were speedily lost in the necessity which he now saw of bidding farewell to Flora MacIvor, perhaps for ever. The pang at tending this reflection was inexpressible; for her high-minded elevation of charac ter, her self-devotion to the cause which she had embraced, united to her scrupulous rectitude as to the means of serving it, had vindicated to his judgment

the choice adopted by his passions. But time pressed, calumny was busy with his fame, and every hour's delay increased the power to injure it. His departure must be instant.

With this determination he sought out Fergus, and communicated to him the contents of Rose's letter, with his own resolution instantly to go to Edinburgh, and, seeking out some one or other of those persons of influence to whom he had letters from his father, to put into their hands his exculpation from any charge which might be preferred against him.

"You run your head into the lion's mouth," answered Mac-Ivor. "You do not know the severity of a government harassed by just apprehensions, and a consciousness of their own illegality and insecurity. I shall have to deliver you from some dungeon in Stirling or Edinburgh Castle."

gen

intimacy with Lord M, General G&c. will be a sufficient protection." "You will find the contrary: these tlemen will have enough to do about their own matters. Once more, will you take the plaid, and stay a little while with me among the mists and the crows, in the bravest cause ever sword was drawn in ?" "For many reasons, my dear Fergus, you must hold me excused.”

"Well then, I shall certainly find you exerting your poetical talents in elegies upon a prison, or your antiquarian researches in detecting the Oggam character, or some Punic hieroglyphic upon the key-stones of a vault, curiously arched. Or what say you to un petit pendement bien joli, against which awkward ceremony I don't warrant you, should you meet a body of the armed west-country whigs."

"And why should they use me so?" "For an hundred good reasons: First, you are an Englishman; secondly, a gentleman; thirdly, a prelatist abjured; and,

fourthly, they have not had an opportunity to exercise their talents on such a subject this long while. But don't be cast down, beloved; all will be done in the fear of the Lord."

+

"Well, I must run my hazard."
"You are determined then ?”

"I am."

"Wilful will do't;-but you cannot go on foot, and I shall want no horse, as I must march on foot at the head of the children of Ivor: you shall have brown Dermid."

"If you will sell him, I shall certainly be much obliged."

"If your proud English heart cannot be obliged by a gift or loan, a gift or loan, I will not refuse money at the entrance of a campaign his price is twenty guineas [Re member, reader, it was Sixty Years since.] And when do you propose to depart ?”

"The sooner the better."

"You are right, since go you must, or rather, since go you will: I will take