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.

212 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
was called in to keep guard upon passion, " That undoubtedly the Presbyterian gentry had given, through the whole of these unhappy times, such
proofs of an humble, unaspiring, and unambitious desire of the public good,
as entitled them to general credit for the sincerity of those very strong
scruples which they entertained against works, in which the noblest sentiments of religion and virtue, - sentiments which might convert hardened
sinners, and be placed with propriety in the mouths of dying saints and
martyrs, - happened, from the rudeness and coarse taste of the times, to
be mixed with some broad jests, and similar matter, which lay not much
in the way, excepting of those who painfully sought such stuff out, that
they might use it in vilifying what was in itself deserving of the highest
applause. But what he wished especially to know from his nephew was,
whether any of those gifted men, who had expelled the learned scholars and
deep divines of the Church of England from the pulpit, and now flourished
in their stead, received any inspiration from the muses, (if he might use so
profane a term without offence to Colonel Everard,) or whether they were
not as sottishly and brutally averse from elegant letters, as they were from
humanity and common sense?"
Colonel Everard might have guessed, by the ironical tone in which this
speech was delivered, what storm was mustering within his uncle's bosom
-nay, he might have conjectured the state of the old knight's feelings from
his emphasis on the word Colonel, by which epithet, as that which most
-connected his nephew with the party he hated, he never distinguished Everard, unless when his wrath was rising; while, on the contrary, when disposed
to be on good terms with him, he usually called him Kinsman, or Nephew
Markham. Indeed, it was under a partial sense that this was the case, and
in the hope to see his cousin Alice, that the Colonel forbore making any
answer to the harangue of his uncle, which had concluded just as the old
knight had alighted at the door of the Lodge, and was entering the hall,
followed by his two attendants.
Phoebe at the same time made her appearance in the hall, and received
orders to bring some "beverage" for the gentlemen. The Hebe of Woodstock failed not to recognise and welcome Everard by an almost imperceptible
curtsy; but she did not serve her interest, as she designed, when she asked
the knight, as a question of course, whether he commanded the attendance
of Mistress Alice. A stern No, was the decided reply; and the ill-timed
interference seemed to increase his previous irritation against Everard for
his depreciation of Shakspeare. " I would insist," said Sir Henry, resuming the obnoxious subject, " were it fit for a poor disbanded cavalier to use
such a phrase towards a commander of the conquering army, - upon
knowing whether the convulsion which has sent us saints and prophets
without end, has not also afforded us a poet with enough both of gifts and
grace to outshine poor old Will, the oracle and idol of us blinded and carnal
cavaliers."
"Surely, sir," replied Colonel Everard; "I know verses written by a
friend of the Commonwealth, and those, too, of a dramatic character, which,
weighed in an impartial scale, might equal even the poetry of Shakspeare,
and which are free from the fustian and indelicacy with which that great
bard was sometimes content to feed the coarse appetites of his barbarous
audience."
"Indeed!" said the knight, keeping down his wrath with difficulty. " I
should like to be acquainted with this master-piece of poetry! - May we
ask the name of this distinguished person?"
"It must be Vicars, or Withers, at least," said the feigned page.
" No, sir," replied Everard, "nor Drummond of IIawthornden, nor Lord
Stirling neither. And yet the verses will vindicate what I say., if you will
make allowance for indifferent recitation, for I am better accustomed to
speak to a battalion than to those who love the muses. The speaker is a