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 TIHE PEAK, 387
6Qnptar Vt Flats.
Cleopatra. Give me to drink mandragora,
That I may sleep away this gap of time.
ANTONY AND,CL0OPATRA.
TII:ERE passed, as we hinted at the conclusion of the last chapter, four or
five years after the period we have dilated upon; the events of which
scarcely require to be discussed, so ftlr as our present purpose is concerned,
in as many lines. The Knight and his lady continued to reside at their
Castle - she, with prudence and, with patience, endeavouring to repair the
damages which the Civil Wars had inflicted upon their fortune; and murmuring a little when her plans of economy were interrupted by the liberal
hospitality, which was her husband's principal expense, and to which lhe
was attached, not only from his own English heartiness of disposition, but
from ideas of maintaining the dignity of his ancestry —no less remarkable,
according to the tradition of their buttery, kitchen, and cellar, for the fat
beeves which they roasted, and the- mighty ale which they brewed, than for
their extensive estates, and the number of their retainers.
The world, however, upon the whole, went happily and easily with the
worthy couple. Sir Geoffrey's debt to his neighbour Bridgenorth continued,
it is true, unabated; but he was the only creditor upon the Martindale estate
- all others being paid off. It would have been most desirable that this
encumbrance also should be cleared, and it was the great object of IDame
Margaret's economy to effect the discharge'; for although interest was regiularly settled with Master Win-the-Fight, the Chesterfield attorney, yet the
principal sum, which was a large one, might be called for at an inconvenient
time. The man, too, was gloomy, imnportant, and mysterious, and always
seemed as if he was thinking upon his broken head in the churchya-ard of
Martindale cum Moultrassie.
Dame Margaret sometimes transacted the necessary business with him in
person; and when he came to the Castle on these occasions, she thought
she saw a malicious and disobliging expression in his manner and counte-.nance. Yet his actual condtuct was not only fair, but liberal; for indulgence
was given, in the way of delay of payment, whenever circumstances rendered it necessary to the debtor to require it. It seemed to Lady Peveril,
that the agent, in such cases, was acting under the strict orders of his absent
employer, concerning whose welfare she could not help feelirg a certain
anxiety.
Shortly after the failure of the singular negotiation for attaining peace by
combat, which Peveril had attempted to open with Major Bridgenorth, that
gentleman left his seat of Moultrassie-IHall in the care of his old housekeeper, and departed, no one knew whither, having in company with him
his daughter Alice and Mrs. Deborah Debbitch, now formally installed in
all the duties of a governante; to these was added the Reverend Master
Solsgrace. For some time public rumour persisted in asserting, that Major
Bridgenorth had only retreated to a distant part of the country for a season,
to achieve his supposed purpose of marrying Mrs. Deborah, and of letting
the news be cold, and the laugh of the neighbourhood be ended, ere he
brought her down as mistress of Lioultrassie-Hall. This rumour died away;
and it was then affirmed, that he had removed to foreign parts, to ensure
the continuance of health in so delicate a constitution as that of little Alice.
But when the Major's dread of Popery was remembered, together with the
still deeper antipathies of worthy Master Nehemiah Solsgrace, it was
resolved unanimously, that nothing less than what they might deem a fair
chance of converting the Pope would have induced the parties to trust them