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. 543
worn-out prodigal of quality. And then, doing perfect justice to his own
character, he felt it would not be one whit impaired, while his fortune
would be, in every respect, greatly amended, if, after sharing the short
reign of the Gwyns, the Davis's, the Robert's, and so forth, Alice Bridgenorth should retire from the state of a royal favourite, into the humble
condition of Mrs. Chiffinch.
After cautiously sounding Christian, and finding that the near prospect
of interest to himself effectually prevented his starting at this iniquitous
scheme, Chiffinch detailed it to him fully, carefully keeping the final termination out of sight, and talking of the favour to be acquired by the fair
Alice as no passing caprice, but the commencement of a reign as long and
absolute as that of the Duchess of Portsmouth, of whose avarice and domineering temper Charles was now understood to be much tired, though the
force of habit rendered him unequal to free himself of her yoke.
Thus chalked out, the scene prepared was no longer the intrigue of a
Court pander, and a villanous resolution for the ruin of an innocent girl,
but became a state intrigue, for the removal of an obnoxious favourite, and
the subsequent change of the King's sentiments upon various material
points, in which he was at present influenced by the Duchess of Portsmouth. In this light it was exhibited to the Duke of Buckingham, who,
either to sustain his character for daring gallantry, or in order to gratify
some capricious fancy, had at one time made love to the reigning favourite,
and experienced a repulse which he had never forgiven.
But one scheme was too little to occupy the active and enterprising spirit
of the Duke. An appendix of the Popish Plot was easily so contrived as
to involve the Countess of Derby, who, from character and religion, was
precisely the person whom the credulous part of the public were inclined to
suppose the likely accomplice of such a conspiracy. Christian and Bridgenorth undertook the perilous commission of attacking her even in her own
little kingdom of Man, and had commissions for this purpose, which were
only to be produced in case of their scheme taking effect.
It miscarried, as the reader is aware, from the Countess's alert preparations for defence; and neither Christian nor Bridgenorth held it sound
policy to practise openly, even under parliamentary authority, against a
lady so little liable to hesitate upon the measures most likely to secure her
feudal sovereignty; wisely considering, that even the omnipotence, as it has
been somewhat too largely styled, of Parliament, might fail to relieve them
from the personal consequences of a failure.
On the continent of Britain, however, no opposition was to be feared;
and so well was Christian acquainted with all the motions in the interior of
the Countess's little court, or household, that Peveril would have been
arrested the instant he set foot on shore, but for the gale of wind, which
obliged the vessel, in which he was a passenger, to run for Liverpool. Here
Christian, under the name of Ganlesse, unexpectedly met with him, and preserved him from the fangs of the well-breathed witnesses of the Plot, with
the purpose of securing his despatches, or, if necessary, his person also, in
such a manner as to place him at his own discretion - a narrow and perilous game, which he thought it better, however, to undertake, than to permit
these subordinate agents, who were always ready to mutiny against all in
league with them, to obtain the credit which they must have done by the
seizure of the Countess of Derby's despatches. It was, besides, essential
to Buckingham's schemes that these should not pass into the hands of a
public officer like Topham, who, however pompous and stupid, was upright
and well-intentioned, until they had undergone the revisal of a private committee, where something might have probably been suppressed, even supposing that nothing had been added. In short, Christian, in carrying on
his own separate and peculiar intrigue, by the agency of the Great Popish
Plot, as it was called, acted just like an engineer, who derives the principle