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.

562 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
remarkable man were so much lightened by the varied play of his imagina-.
tion, and the depth of his knowledge of human nature, that since the period
of his becoming a prisoner of war, which relieved him at once from the
cares of his doubtful and dangerous station among the insurgents, and from
the consequences of their suspicious resentment, his hours flowed on less
anxiously -than at any time since his having commenced actor in public
life. He was now, with respect to his fortune, like a rider who has flung,
his reins on the horse's neck, and, while he abandoned himself to circumstances, was at least relieved from the task of attempting to direct them.
In this mood he journeyed on, the number of his companions being continually augmented by detached parties of horse who came in from every
quarter of the country, bringing with them, for the most part, the unfortunate persons who had fallen into their power. At length they approached
Edinburgh.
" Our Council," said Claverhouse, "being resolved, I suppose, to testify
by their present exultation the extent of their former terror, have decreed
a kind of triumphal entry to us victors and our captives; but as I do not
quite approve the taste of it, I am willing to avoid my own part in the
show, and, at the same time, to save you from yours."
So saying, he gave up the command of the forces to Allan (now a Lieutenant-colonel), and, turning his horse into a by-lane, rode into the city
privately, accompanied by Morton and two or three servants. When Claverhouse arrived at the quarters which he usually occupied in the Canongate, he assigned to his prisoner a small apartment, with an intimation that
his parole confined him to it for the present.
After about a quarter of an hour spent in solitary musing on the strango
vicissitudes of his late life, the attention of Morton was summoned to the
window by a great noise in the street beneath. Trumpets, drums, and
kettle-drums, contended in noise with the shouts of a numerous rabble, and
apprised him that that the royal cavalry were passing in the triumphal attitude
which Claverhouse had mentioned. The magistrates of the city, attended
by their guard of halberds, had met the victors with their welcome at the
gate of the city, and now preceded them as a part of the procession. The
next object was twio heads borne upon pikes; and before each bloody head
were carried the hands of the dismembered sufferers, which were, by the
brutal mockery of those who bore them, often approached towards each
other as if in the attitude of exhortation or prayer. These bloody trophies
belonged to two preachers who had fallen at Bothwell Bridge. After them
came a cart led by the executioner's assistant, in which were placed Macbriar and other two prisoners, who seemed of the same profession. They
were bareheaded, and strongly bound, yet looked around them with an air
rather of triumph than dismay, and appeared in no respect moved either
by the fate of their companions, of which the bloody evidences were carried
before them, or by dread of their own approaching execution, which these
preliminaries so plainly indicated.
Behind these prisoners, thus held up to public infamy and derision, came
a body of horse, brandishing their broadswords, and filling the wide street
with acclamations, which were answered by the tumultuous outcries and
shouts of the rabble, who, in every considerable town, are too happy in
being permitted to huzza for anything whatever which calls them together.
In the rear of these troopers came the main body of the prisoners, at the
head of whom were some of their leaders, who were treated with every circumstance of inventive mockery and insult. Several were placed on horseback with their faces to the animal's tail; others were chained to long bars
of iron, which they were obliged to support in their hands, like the galleyslaves in Spain when travelling to the port where they are to be put on
shipboard. The heads of others who had fallen were borne in triumph before the survivors, some on pikes and halberds, some in sacks, bearing the