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.

660 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
" It is not for me to judge," said Chiffinch; " your Grace is a bold commander; and Christian hath the cunning of the devil for a pilot; but —--
However, I remain your Grace's poor friend, and will heartily rejoice in your
extrication."
" Give me a proof of your friendship," said the Duke. " Tell me what
you know of Christian's familiar, as he calls her."
" I believe it to be the same dancing wench who came with Empson to
my house on the morning that Mistress Alice made her escape from us.
But you have seen her, my lord?"
" I?" said the Duke; " when did I see her?"
"She was employed by Christian, I believe, to set his niece at liberty,
-when he found himself obliged to gratify his fanatical brother-in-law, by
restoring his child; besides being prompted by a private desire, as I think,
of bantering your Grace."
" Umph! I suspected so much. I will repay it," said the Duke. " But
first to get out of this dilemma.-That little Numidian witch, then, was his
familiar; and she joined in the plot to tantalize me? - But here we reach
Whitehall. -Now, Chiffinch, be no worse than thy word, and-now, Buckingham, be thyself!"
But ere we follow Buckinghaml into the presence, where he had so difficult a part to sustain, it may not be amiss to follow Chlristian after his brief
conversation with him. On re-entering the house, which he did by a circuitous passage, leading from a distant alley, and through several courts, Christian hastened to a low matted apartment, in which Bridgenorth sat alone,
reading the Bible by the light of a small brazen lamp, with the utmost
serenity of countenance.
" Have you dismissed the Peverils?" said Christian, hastily.
" I have," said the Major.
" And upon what pledge - that they will not carry information against
you to Whitehall?"
" They gave me their promise voluntarily, when I showed them our armed
friends were dismissed. To-morrow, I believe, it is their purpose to lodge
informations."
"And why not to-night, I pray you?" said Christian.
"Because they allow us that time for escape."
"Why, then, do you not avail yourself of it? Wherefore are you here?"
said Christian.
"Nay, rather, why do you not fly?" said Bridgenorth. "Of a surety,
you are as deeply engaged as I."
"Brother Bridgenorth, I am the fox, who knows a hundred modes of deceiving the hounds; you are the deer, whose sole resource is in hasty flight.
Therefore lose no time —begone to the country-or irather, Zedekiah Fish's
vessel, the Good Hope, lies in the river, bound for Massachusetts-take the
wings of the morning, and begone -she can fall down to Gravesend with
the tide."
"And leave to thee, brother Christian," said Bridgenorth, "the charge
of my fortune and my daughter? No, brother; my opinion of your good
faith must be re-established ere I again trust thee."
"Go thy ways, then, for a suspicious fool," said Christian, suppressing
his strong desire to use language more offensive; " or rather stay where thou
art, and take thy chance of the gallows!"
" It is appointed to all men to die once," said Bridgenorth; " my life hath
been a living death. My fairest boughs have been stripped by the axe of
the forester-that which survives must, if it shall blossom, be grafted elsewhere, and at a distance from my aged trunk. The sooner, then, the root
feels the axe, the stroke is more welcome. I had been pleased, indeed, had
I been called to bringing yonder licentious Court to a purer character, and
relieving the yoke of the suffering people of God. That youth too —son to