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.

82 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
bloody man, having in me the feeling of human frailty; but, friend, who.
soever putteth his hand to the plough, in the great actings which are now
on foot in these nations, had best beware that he do not look back; for,
rely upon my simple word, that if you fail me, I will not spare on you one
foot's length of the gallows of Haman. Let me therefore know, at a word,
if the leaven of thy malignancy is altogether drubbed out of thee?"
"Your honourable lordship," said the cavalier, shrugging up his shoulders,
"has done that for most of us, so far as cudgelling to some tune can per
form it."
" Say'st thou?" said the General, with a grim smile on his lip, which
seemed to intimate that he was not quite inaccessible to flattery; "yea,
truly, thou dost not lie in that-we have been an instrument. Neither are
we, as I have already hinted, so severely bent against those who have striven
against us as malignants, as others may be. The parliament-men best know
their own interest and their own pleasure; but, to my poor thinking, it is
full time to close these jars, and to allow men of all kinds the means of
doing service to their country; and we think it will be thy fault if thou art
not employed to good purpose for the state and thyself, on condition thou
puttest away the old man entirely from thee, and givest thy earnest attention to what I have to tell thee."
" Your lordship need not doubt my attention," said the cavalier.
And the republican General, after another pause, as one who gave his
confidence not without hesitation, proceeded to explain his views with a
distinctness which he seldom used, yet not without his being a little biassed
now and then, by his long habits of circumlocution, which indeed he never
laid entirely aside, save in the field of battle.
"Thou seest," he said, "my friend, how things stand with me. The
Parliament, I care not who knows it, love me not-still less do the Council
of State, by whom they manage the executive government of the kingdom.
I cannot tell why they nourish suspicion against me, unless it is because I
will not deliver this poor innocent army, which has followed me in so many
military actions, to be now pulled asunder, broken piecemeal and reduced,
so that they who have protected the state at the expense of their blood, will
not have, perchance, the means of feeding themselves by their labour;
which, methinks, were hard measure, since it is taking from Esau his
birthright, even without giving him a poor mess of pottage."
"Esau is likely to help himself, I think," replied Wildrake.
"Truly, thou say'st wisely," replied the General; " it is ill starving an
armed man, if there is food to be had for taking -nevertheless, far be it
from me to encourage rebellion, or want of due subordination to these our
rulers. I would only petition, in a due and becoming, a sweet and harmonious manner, that they would listen to our conditions, and consider
our necessities. But, sir, looking on me, and estimating me so little as
they do, you must think that it would be a provocation in me towards the
Council of State, as well as the Parliament, if, simply to gratify your
worthy master, I were to act contrary to their purposes, or deny currency
to the commission under their authority, which is as yet the highest in the
State-and long may it be so for me!-to carry on the sequestration which
they intend. And would it not also be said, that I was lending myself to
the malignant interest, affording this den of the blood-thirsty and lascivious
tyrants of yore, to be in this our day a place of refuge to that old and
inveterate Amalekite, Sir Ienry Lee, to keep possession of the place in
which he hath so long glorified himself? Truly it would be a perilous
matter."
" Am I then to report," said Wildrake, " an it please you, that you cannot
stead Colonel Everard in this matter?"
"Unconditionally, ay —but, taken conditionally, the answer may be
otherwise,"-answered Cromwell. " I see thou art not able to fathom my