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.

PEVERIL OF THE PEAK. 431
of your authority in Man, might not, I think, be superfluous to the matter
in hand."
" Hid me excused, dearest mother," said the Earl, gravely. "The interference was none of my seeking; had you taken your own course, without consulting me, it had been well; but since I have entered on the affair
and it appears sufficiently important - I must transact it to the best of
my own ability."
" Go, then, my son, son," said the Countess, "and may Heaven enlighten thee
with its counsel, since thou wilt have none of mine.- I trust that you,
Master Peveril, will remind him of what is fit for his own honour; and that
only a coward abandons his rights, and only a fool trusts his enemies."
The Earl answered not, but, taking Peveril by the arm, led him up a
winding stair to his own apartment, and from thence into a projecting
turret, where, amidst the roar of waves and sea-mews' clang, he held with
him the following conversation.
" Peveril, it is well I looked into these warrants. My mother queens it
at such a rate as mlay cost me not only my crown, which I care little for,
but perhaps my head, which, though others may think little of, I would feel
it anr inconvenience to be deprived of."
" What on earth is the matter?" said Peveril, with considerable anxiety.
"It seems," said the Earl of Derby, "that Old England, who takes a
frolicsome brain-fever once every two or three years, for the benefit of her
doctors, and the purification of the torpid lethargy brought on by peace and
prosperity, is now gone stark staring mad on the subject of a real or supposed Popish Plot. I read one programme on the subject, by a fellow called
Oates, and thought it the most absurd foolery I evwr perused. But that
cunning fellow Shaftesbury, and some others amongst the great ones, have
taken it up, and are driving on at such a rate as makes harness crack, and
horses smoke for it. The King, who has sworn never to kiss the pillow his
father went to sleep on, temporizes, and gives way to the current; the Duke
of York, suspected and hated on account of his religion, is about to be
driven to the continent; several principal Catholic nobles are in the Tower
already; and the nation, like a bull at Tutbury-running, is persecuted with
so many inflammatory rumours and pestilent pamphlets, that she has cocked
her tail, flung up her heels, taken the bit betwixt her teeth, and is as
furiously unmanageable as in the year 1642."
" All this you must have known already," said Peveril; "I wonder you
told me not of news so important."
"It would have taken long to tell," said the Earl; "moreover, I desired
to have you solus; thirdly, I was about td speak when my mother entered;
and, to conclude, it was no business of mine. But these despatches of my
politic mother's private correspondent put a new face on the whole matter;
for it seems some of the informers-a trade which, having become a thriving
one, is now pursued by many-have dared to glance at the Countess herself
as an agent in this same plot -ay, and have found those that are willing
enough to believe their report."
" On mine honour," said Peveril, "you both take it with great coolness.
I think the Countess the more composed of the two; for, except her movement hither, she exhibited no mark of alarm, and, moreover, seemed no way
more anxious to communicate the matter to your lordship than decency
rendered necessary."
" My good mother," said the Earl, " loves power, though it has cost her
dear. I wish I could truly say that my neglect of business is entirely
assumed in order to leave it in her hands, but that better motive combines
with natural indolence. But she seenms to have feared I should not think
exactly like her in this emergency, and she was right in supposing so."
" How comes the emergency upon you?" said Julian; " and what form
does the danger assume?"