rtant subject under discussion until I have heard
those of the present meeting.'

'Proceed in your deliberations, gentlemen,' said Redgauntlet; 'I will
show my nephew such reasons for acquiescing in the result, as will
entirely remove any scruples which may hang around his mind.'

Dr. Grumball now coughed, 'shook his ambrosial curls,' and addressed the
assembly.

'The principles of Oxford,' he said,' are well understood, since she
was the last to resign herself to the Arch-Usurper,--since she has
condemned, by her sovereign authority, the blasphemous, atheistical,
and anarchical tenets of Locke, and other deluders of the public
mind. Oxford will give men, money and countenance, to the cause of the
rightful monarch. But we have, been often deluded by foreign powers,
who have availed themselves of our zeal to stir up civil dissensions, in
Britain, not for the advantage of our blessed though banished monarch,
but to stir up disturbances by which they might profit, while we, their
tools, are sure to be ruined. Oxford, therefore, will not rise, unless
our sovereign comes in person to claim our allegiance, in which case,
God forbid we should refuse him our best obedience.'

'It is a very cood advice,' said Mr. Meredith.

'In troth,' said Sir Richard Glendale, 'it is the very keystone of our
enterprise, and the only condition upon which I myself and others
could ever have dreamt of taking up arms. No insurrection which has not
Charles Edward himself at its head, will, ever last longer than till a
single foot company of redcoats march to disperse it.'

'This is my own opinion, and that of all my family,' said the young
nobleman already mentioned; 'and I own I am somewhat surprised at being
summoned to attend a dangerous rendezvous such as this, before something
certain could have been stated to us on this most important preliminary
point.'

'Pardon me, my lord,' said Redgauntlet; 'I have not been so unjust
either to myself or my friends--I had no means of communicating to our
distant confederates (without the greatest risk of discovery) what is
known to some of my honourable friends. As courageous, and as resolved,
as when, twenty years since, he threw himself into the wilds of Moidart,
Charles Edward has instantly complied with the wishes of his faithful
subjects. Charles Edward is in this country--Charles Edward is in this
house!--Charles Edward waits but your present decision, to receive the
homage of those who have