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. 381
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Bessus.'Tis a challenge, sir, is it not?
Gentleman. "ris ar inviting to the field.
KING AND NO KING.
FoR a day or two after this forcible expulsion from the vicarage, Mr.
Solsgrace continued his residence at Moultrassie-HIall, where the natural
melancholy attendant on his situation added to the gloom of the owner of
the mansion. In the morning, the ejected divine made excursions to different families in the neighbourhood, to whom his ministry had been acceptable in the days of his prosperity, and from whose grateful recollections of
that period he now found sympathy and consolation. He did not require to
be condoled with, because he was deprived of an easy and competent maintenance, and thrust out upon the common of life, after he had reason to
suppose he would be no longer liable to such mutations of fortune. The
piety of Mr. Solsgrace was sincere; and if he had many of the uncharitable
prejudices against other sects, which polemical controversy had generated,
and the Civil War brought to a head, he had also that deep sense of duty,
by which enthusiasm is so often dignified, and held his very life little, if
called upon to lay it down in attestation of the doctrines in which he believed. But he was soon to prepare for leaving the district which Heaven,
he conceived, had assigned to him as his corner of the vineyard; he was to
abandon his flock to the wolf-was to forsake those with whom he had held
sweet counsel in religious communion-was to leave the recently converted
to relapse into false doctrines, and forsake the wavering, whom his continued
cares might haveo directed into the right path, — these were of themselves
deep causes of sorrow, and were aggravated, doubtless, by those natural
feelings with which all men, especially those whose duties or habits have
confined them to a limited circle, regard the separation from wonted scenes,
and their accustomed haunts of solitary musing, or social intercourse.
There was, indeed, a plan of placing Mr. Solsgrace at the head of a nonconforming congregation in his present parish, which his followers would
have readily consented to endow with a sufficient revenue. But although
the act for universal conformity was not yet passed, such a measure was
understood to be impending, and there existed a general opinion among the
Presbyterians, that in no hands was it likely to be more strictly enforced,
than in those of Peveril of the Peak. Solsgrace himself considered not
only his personal danger as being considerable, — for, assuming perhaps
more consequence than was actually attached to him or his productions, he
conceived the honest Knight to be his mortal and determined enemy, but
he also conceived that he should serve the cause of his church by absenting
himself firom Derbyshire.
"Less known pastors," he said, "though perhaps more worthy of the
name, may be permitted to assemble the scattered flocks in caverns or in
secret wilds, and to them shall the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim be
better than the vintage of Abiezer. But I, that have so often carried the
banner forth against the mighty - 1, whose tongue hath testified, morning
and evening, like the watchman upon the tower, against Popery, Prelacy,
and the tyrant of the Peak -for me to abide here, were but to bring the
sword of bloody vengeance amongst you, that the shepherd might be smitten,
and the sheep scattered. The shedders of blood have already assailed me,
even within that ground which they themselves call consecrated; and yourselves have seen the scalp of the righteous broken, as he defended my
cause. Therefore, I will put on my sandals, and gird my loins, and depart