which Sixty Years Since
was entire and habitable, and whose venerable ruins, NOT QUITE SIXTY
YEARS SINCE, very narrowly escaped the unworthy fate of being converted
into a barrack for French prisoners. May repose and blessings attend the
ashes of the patriotic statesman who, amongst his last services to
Scotland, interposed to prevent this profanation!

As they approached the metropolis of Scotland, through a champaign and
cultivated country, the sounds of war began to be heard. The distant yet
distinct report of heavy cannon, fired at intervals, apprized Waverley
that the work of destruction was going forward. Even Balmawhapple seemed
moved to take some precautions, by sending an advanced party in front of
his troop, keeping the main body in tolerable order, and moving steadily
forward.

Marching in this manner they speedily reached an eminence, from which
they could view Edinburgh stretching along the ridgy hill which slopes
eastward from the Castle. The latter, being in a state of siege, or
rather of blockade, by the northern insurgents, who had already occupied
the town for two or three days, fired at intervals upon such parties of
Highlanders as exposed themselves, either on the main street or elsewhere
in the vicinity of the fortress. The morning being calm and fair, the
effect of this dropping fire was to invest the Castle in wreaths of
smoke, the edges of which dissipated slowly in the air, while the central
veil was darkened ever and anon by fresh clouds poured forth from the
battlements; the whole giving, by the partial concealment, an appearance
of grandeur and gloom, rendered more terrific when Waverley reflected on
the cause by which it was produced, and that each explosion might ring
some brave man's knell.

Ere they approached the city the partial cannonade had wholly ceased.
Balmawhapple, however, having in his recollection the unfriendly greeting
which his troop had received from the battery at Stirling, had apparently
no wish to tempt the forbearance of the artillery of the Castle. He
therefore left the direct road, and, sweeping considerably to the
southward so as to keep out of the range of the cannon, approached the
ancient palace of Holyrood without having entered the walls of the city.
He then drew up his men in front of that venerable pile, and delivered
Waverley to the custody of a guard of Highlanders, whose officer
conducted him into the interior of the building.

A long, low, and ill-pro