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. 655
flute of being laughed at, when he would otherwise have been pitied, or even
esteemed.
He commenced with a flourish about his sufferings for the Plot, which
the impatience of Ornmond would have cut short, had not the King reminded
his Grace, that a top, when it is not flogged, must needs go down of itself
at the end of a definite time, while the application of the whip may keep
it up for hours.
Geoffrey Hudson was, therefore, allowed to exhaust himself on the subject of his prison-house, which he informed the King was not without a
beam of light —an emanation of loveliness-a mortal angel-quick of step
and beautiful of eye, who had more than once visited his confinement with
words of cheering and comfort.
"By my faith," said the King, " they fare better in Newgate than I was
aware of. Who would have thought of the little gentleman being solaced
with female society in such a place?"
"I pray your Majesty," said the dwarf, after the manner of a solemn
protest, "to understand nothing amiss. My devotion to this fair creature
is rather like what we poor Catholics pay to the blessed saints, than mixed
with any grosser quality. Indeed, she seems rather a sylphid of the Rosicrucian system, than aught more carnal; being slighter, lighter, and less
than the females of common life, who have something of that coarseness of
make which is doubtless derived from the sinful and gigantic race of the
antediluvians."
"Well, say on, man," quoth Charles. "Didst thou not discover this
sylph to be a mere mortal wench after all?"
"Who?-I, my liege?-Oh, fie!"
" Nay, little gentleman, do not be so particularly scandalized," said the
King; "I promise you I suspect you of no audacity of gallantry."
" Time wears fast," said the Duke of Ormlond, impatiently, and looking
at his watch. " Chiffinch hath been gone ten minutes, and ten minutes
will bring him back."
"True," said Charles, gravely. "Come to the point, Hudson; and tell
us what this female has to do with your coming hither in this extraordinary
manner."
" Every thing, my lord," said little Hudson. "I saw her twice during
my confinement in Newgate, and, in my thought, she is the very angel who
guards my life and welfare; for, after my acquittal, as I walked towards
the city with two tall gentlemen, who had been in trouble along with me,
and just while we stood to our defence against a rascally mob, and just as
I had taken possession of an elevated situation, to have some vantage
against the great odds of numbers, I heard a heavenly voice sound, as it
were, from a window behind me, counselling me to take refuge in a certain
house; to which measure I readily persuaded my gallant friends the Peverils, who have always shown themselves willing to be counselled by me."
" Showing therein their wisdom at once and modesty," said the King.
"But what chanced next? Be brief —be like thyself, man."
" For a time, sire," said the dwarf, "it seemed as if I were not the principal object of attention. First, the younger Peveril was withdrawn from
us by a gentleman of venerable appearance, though something smacking
of a Puritan, having boots of neat's leather, and wearing his weapon without a sword-knot. When Master Julian returned, he informed us, for the
first time, that we were in the power of a body of armed fanatics, who
were, as the poet says, prompt for direful act. And your Majesty will remark, that both father and son were in some measure desperate, and disregardful from that moment of the assurances which I gave them, that the
star which I was bound to worship, would, in her own time, shine forth in
signal of our safety. May it please your Majesty, in answer to my hilarious exhortations to confidence, the father did but say tush, and the son