insecurity. I shall have
to deliver you from some dungeon in Stirling or Edinburgh Castle.'

'My innocence, my rank, my father's intimacy with Lord M--, General G--,
&c., will be a sufficient protection,' said Waverley.

'You will find the contrary,' replied the Chieftain;--'these gentlemen
will have enough to do about their own matters. Once more, will you
take the plaid, and stay a little while with us among the mists and the
crows, in the bravest cause ever sword was drawn in?' [A Highland rhyme
on Glencairn's Expedition, in 1650, has these lines--

We'll hide a while among ta crows,
'We'll wiske ta sword and bend ta bows.]

'For many reasons, my dear Fergus, you must hold me excused.'

'Well, then,' said Mac-Ivor, 'I shall certainly find you exerting
your poetical talents in elegies upon a prison, or your antiquarian
researches in detecting the Oggam [The Oggam is a species of the old
Irish character. The idea of the correspondence betwixt the Celtic
and Punic, founded on a scene in Plautus, was not started till General
Vallancey set up his theory, long after the date of Fergus Mac-Ivor.]
character, or some Punic hieroglyphic upon the key-stones of a vault,
curiously arched. Or what say you to UN PETIT PENDEMENT BIEN JOLI?
against which awkward ceremony I don't warrant you, should you meet a
body of the armed west-country Whigs.'

'And why should they use me so?' said Waverley.

'For a hundred good reasons,' answered Fergus: 'First, you are an
Englishman; secondly, a gentleman; thirdly, a prelatist abjured; and,
fourthly, they have not had an opportunity to exercise their talents
on such a subject this long while. But don't be cast down, beloved: all
will be done in the fear of the Lord.'

'Well, I must run my hazard,'

'You are determined, then?'

'I am.'

'Wilful will do 't,' said Fergus;--'but you cannot go on foot and I
shall want no horse, as I must march on foot at the head of the children
of Ivor; you shall have Brown Dermid.'

'If you will sell him, I shall certainly be much obliged.'

'If your proud English heart cannot be obliged by a gift or loan, I
will not refuse money at the entrance of a campaign: his price is twenty
guineas, [Remember, reader, it was Sixty Years since.] And when do you
propose to depart?'

'The sooner the better,' answered Waverley.

'You are right, since go you must, or rather, since go you will: I will
take Flora's pony, and ride with you as far as Bal