mself
set us the example of staying at his post in the hour of danger. The
peace of our own county is of the first consequence. I shall therefore
train my force, and keep it ready to call out, in case any disturbance
should arise in our own neighbourhood."

"Aye," replied Eustace, "protect Waverly Park; 'twere a pity it should
be despoiled and plundered."

"No good could accrue to the King from the ruin of a loyal subject,"
said Sir William.

"But," observed Eustace, "you have a son who has just attained full
majority, do you not find it difficult to keep him out of action? Surely
his heart beats high to join the noble Stanley, to whom the King has
intrusted the whole County Palatine."

"You know not," returned Sir William, "how you distress me by this
inquiry. Heaven forbid I should insinuate any thing against so brave a
gentleman and so loyal a subject as the Earl of Derby; but he has lived
so little with his equals that he knows not how to treat his inferiors;
and, unhappily, the stateliness of his manners has so indisposed this
county, that people of no name, and contemned interest, have snatched it
out of his hands, the disaffected being moved, not so much by dislike to
the King or favour to Parliament, as by impatience of the Earl's humour,
and a resolution not to be subject to his commands."

Sir William then expatiated on the impolicy of oppressive haughty
demeanor in people in eminent stations, especially when the times were
so big with peril. His remarks had been wise and instructive, had he not
tried to illustrate them by the popularity and liberality of his own
conduct; yet, as it may be said he was the only evidence of his own
urbanity, which must have been lost to posterity had he not recorded it,
he now pleaded it in extenuation of the blameable sensibility of his
son, who, educated in these liberal notions, had felt so hurt by the
negligence of the Earl of Derby at Preston fair, that he had been
provoked by it to offer his services to Parliament, from whom he had
received a commission, and was now serving in the army of Lord Essex.

Mrs. Mellicent, who saw in this ostensibly-lamented defection a scheme
to secure Waverly-hall and its dependencies, whichever party finally
predominated, remarked that it was a very prudent arrangement.

"So my friends suggest," returned Sir William, "to console me; but my
regret, that any of the name of Waverly should be seen, in what severe
people will call actual r