The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

508 WAVEItLEY NOVELS.
" I trust," replied the young lord, "you will not find me more backware
than yourself, though I heartily wish that the enemy were foreigners. It
is, however, no time to debate that matter, for yonder they come, and we
must defend ourselves as well as we can."
As Lord Evandale spoke, the van of the insurgents began to make their
appearance on the road which crossed the top of the hill, and thence descended opposite to the Tower. They did not, however, move downwards,
as if aware that, in doing so, their columns would be exposed to the fire of
the artillery of the place. But their numbers, which at first seemed few,
appeared presently so to deepen and concentrate themselves, that, judging
of the masses which occupied the road behind the hill fromn the closeness of
the front which they presented on the top of it, their force appeared very
considerable. There was a pause of anxiety on both sides; and, while the
unsteady ranks of the Covenanters were agitated, as if by pressure behind,
or uncertainty as to their next movement, their arms, picturesque from
their variety, glanced in the morning sun, whose beams were reflected fromn
a grove of pikes, -muskets, halberds,, and battle-axes. The armed mass
occupied, for a few minutes, this fluctuating position, until three or four
horsemen, who seemed to be leaders, advanced from the front, and occupied
the height a little nearer to the Castle. John Gudyill, who was not without some skill as an artillery-man, brought a gun to bear on this detached
group.
"I'11 flee the falcon" -(so the small cannon was called)-" I'll flee the
falcon whene'er your honour gies command; my certie she'll ruffle their
feathers for them!'
The Major looked at Lord Evandale.
"Stay a moment," said the young nobleman;-"they send us a flag
of truce."
In fact, one of the horsemen at that moment dismounted, anld, displaying a white cloth on a pike, moved forward towards the Tower, while the
Major and Lord Evandlale, descending fronm the battlement of the main
fortress, advanced to meet him as far as the barricade, judging it unwise to
admit him within the precincts which they designed to defend. At the
same time that the ambassador set forth, the group of horsemen, as if they
had anticipated the preparations of John Gudyill for their annoyance, withdrew from the advanced station which they had occupied, and fell back to
the main body.
The envoy of the Covenanters, -to judge by his mien and manner, seemed
fully imbued with that spiritual pride which distinguished his sect. His
features were drawn up to a contemptuous primness, and his half-shut eyes
seemed to scorn to look upon the terrestrial objects around, while, at every
solemn stride, his toes were pointed outwards with an air that appeared to
despise the ground on which they trode. Lord Evandale could not suppress
a smile at this singular figure.
"Did you ever," said he to Major Bellenden, "see such an absurd
automaton? One would swear it moves upon springs -Can it speak,
think you?"
"O, aOy," said the Major; " that seems to be one of my old acquaintance,
a genuine puritan of the right pharisaical leaven.-Stay —he coughs and
hems; he is about to summon the Castle with the butt-end of a sermon,
instead of a parley on the trumlpet."
The veteran, who in his day had had many an opportunity to become
acquainted with the manners of these religionists, was not far misftaken in
his conjecture; only that, instead of a prose exordiumn, the Laird of Langcale-for it was no less a personage-uplifted, with a Stentorian voice, a
verse of the twenty-fourth Psalm:
"Ye gates, lift up your heads 3 ye doors,
Doors that do last for aye,
Be lifted up"