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.

862 WAVERZLEY NOVELS.
of the Castle were placed almost at once within the reach of the same regu
lating and directing eye.*
In the tapestried room, from which issued these various sallyports, the
Countess and Lady Peveril were speedily seated; and the former, smiling
upon the latter, said, as she took her hand, " Two things have happened today, which might have surprised me, if any thing ought to surprise me in
such times:-the first is, that yonder roundheaded fellow should have dared
to use such insolence in the house of Peveril of the Peak. If your husband
is yet the same honest and downright Cavalier whom I once knew, and had
chanced to be at home, he would have thrown the knave out of window,
But what I wonder at still more, Margaret, is your generalship. I hardly
thought you had courage sufficient to have taken such decided measures,
after keeping on terms with the man so long. When he spoke of justices
and warrants, you look so overawed that I thought I felt the clutch of the
parish-beadles on my shoulder, to drag me to prison as a vagrant."
"We owe Master Bridgenorth some deference, my dearest lady," answered
the Lady Peveril; " he has served us often, and kindly, in these late times;
but neither he, nor any one else, shall insult the Countess of Derby in the
house of Margaret Stanley."
" Thou art become a perfect heroine, IMargaret," replied the Countess.
" Two sieges, and alarms innumerable," said -Lady Peveril, "may have
taught me presence of mindcl. My courage is, I believe, as slender as ever."
"Presence of mind is courage," answered the Countess. " Real valour
consists not in being insensible to danger, but in being prompt to confront
and disarm it;-and we may have present occasion for all that we possess,"
she added, with some slight emotion, "for I hear the trampling of horses'
steps on the pavement of the court."
In one moment, the boy Julian, breathless with joy, came flying into the
room, t say that papa was returned, with Lamington and Sam Brewer;
and that he was himself to ride Black Hastings to the stable. In the
second, the tramp of the honest Knight's heavy jack-boots was heard, as, in
his haste to see his lady, he ascended the staircase by two steps at a time.
Hle b:rst into the room; his manly countenance and disordered dress showing marks that lie had been riding fast; and without looking to any one
else, caught his'good lady in his arms, and kissed her a dozen of times. -
Blushing, and with some difficulty, Lady Peveril extricated herself from Sir
Geoffrey's arms; and in a voice of bashful and gentle rebuke, bid him, for
shame, observe who was in the room.
" One," said the Countess, advancing to him, " who is right glad to see
that Sir Geoffrey Peve'ril, though turned courtier and favourite, still values
the treasu;e which she had some share in bestowing upon him. You cannot
have forgot the raising of the leaguer of Latham-IHouse!'
"The noble Countess of Derby!" said Sir Geoffrey, doffing his plumed
hat with an air of deep deference, and kissing with much reverence the hand
which she held out to him; " I am as glad to see your ladyship in my poor
house, as I would be to hear that they had found a vein of lead in the Brown
Tor. I rode' hard, in the hope of being your escort through the country.
I feared you might have fallen into bad hands, hearing there was a knave
sent out with a warrant from the Council."
"When heard you so? and front whom?
"It was from Cholmondley of Yale-Royal," said Sir Geoffrey; "he is
come down to make provision for your safety through Cheshire; and I promised to bring you there in safety. Prince Rupert, Ormond, and other
fiiends, do not doubt the matter will be driven to a fine; but they say the
Chancellor, and Harry Bennet, and some others of the over-sea counsellors,
* This peculiar collocation of apartments mav he seen at Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, once a seat of the Vernons, where, in the lady's pew in the chlapel, there is a sort of scuttle, which opens into the kitchen, so that
the good lady could ever and anon, without muchr interroption of her religious duties, give an eye that the
roast-meat was not permitted to burn, and that the turn-broclle did his duty.