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.

218 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
you when you spoke en berger -nay, my complaisance has been so great, as
to answer you en bergire- for I do not thinl any thing except ridicule can
come of dialogues between Lindor and Jeanneton; and the principal fault
of the style is its extreme and tiresome silliness and affectation. But when
you begin to kneel, offer to take my hand, and speak with a more serious
tone, I must remind you of our real characters. I am the daughter of Sir
Henry Lee, sir; you are, or profess to be, Master Louis Kerneguy, my
brother's page, and a fugitive for shelter under my father's roof, who incurs
danger by the harbour he affords you, and whose household, therefore, ought
not to be disturbed by your unpleasing importunities."
"I would to Heaven, fair Alice," said the King, " that your objections to
the suit which I am urging, not in jest, but most seriously, as that on which
my happiness depends, rested only on the low and precarious station of
Louis Kerneguy!- Alice, thou hast the soul of thy family, and must needs
love honour. I am no more the needy Scottish page, whom I have, for my
own purposes, personated, than I am the awkward lout, whose manners I
adopted on the first night of our acquaintance. This hand, poor as I seem,
can confer a coronet."
" Keep it," said Alice, " for some more ambitious damsel, my lord, -for
such I conclude is your title, if this romance be true, - I would not accept
your hand, could you confer a duchy."
" In one sense, lovely Alice, you have neither overrated my power nor my
affection. It is your King-it is Charles Stewart who speaks to you! -he
can confer duchies, and if beauty can merit them, it is that of Alice Lee.
Nay, nay - rise - do not kneel - it is for your sovereign to kneel to thee,
Alice, to whom he is a thousand times more devoted than the wanderer Louis
dared venture to profess himself. My Alice has, I know, been trained up
in those principles of love and obedience to her sovereign, that she cannot,
in conscience or in mercy, inflict on him such a wound as would be implied
in the rejection of his suit."
In spite of all Charles's attempts to prevent her, Alice had persevered in
kneeling on one knee, until she had touched with her lip the hand with which
he attempted to raise her. But this salutation ended, she stood upright,
with her arms folded on her bosom - her looks humble, but composed, keen,
and watchful, and so possessed of herself, so little flattered by the communication which the King had supposed would have been overpowering, that
he scarce knew in what terms next to urge his solicitation.
" Thou art silent-thou art silent," he said, " my pretty Alice. Has the
King no more influence with thee than the poor Scottish page?"
" In one sense, every influence," said Alice; " for he commands my best
thoughts, my best wishes, my earnest prayers, my devoted loyalty, which,
as the men of the House of Lee have been ever ready to testify with the
sword, so are the women bound to seal, if necessary, with their blood. But
beyond the duties of a true and devoted subject, the King is even less to
Alice Lee than poor Louis Kerneguy. The Page could have tendered an honourable union -the Monarch can but offer a contaminated coronet."
"You mistake, Alice -you mistake," said the King, eagerly. "Sit down
and let me speak to you- sit down- What is't you fear?"
I fear nothing, my liege," answered Alice. " What can I fear from the
King of Britain-I, the daughter of his loyal subject, and under my father's
roof? But I remember the distance betwixt us; and though I might trifle
and jest with mine equal, to my King I must only appear in the dutiful
posture of a subject, unless where his safety may seem to require that I do
not acknowledge his dignity."
Charles, though young, being no novice in such scenes, was surprised to
encounter resistance of a kind which had not been opposed to him in similar
pursuits, even in cases where he had been unsuccessful. There was neither
anger, nor injured pride, nor disorder, nor disdain, real or affected, in the