of friendship and
good-will. He was embarrassed, but obstinate. I hinted the policy of
detaching, on all future occasions, the heir of such a fortune as your
uncle's from the machinations of the disaffected. But I made no
impression. I mentioned the obligations which I lay under to Sir Everard
and to you personally, and claimed, as the sole reward of my services,
that he would be pleased to afford me the means of evincing my gratitude.
I perceived that he still meditated a refusal, and, taking my commission
from my pocket, I said (as a last resource) that, as his Royal Highness
did not, under these pressing circumstances, think me worthy of a favour
which he had not scrupled to grant to other gentlemen whose services I
could hardly judge more important than my own, I must beg leave to
deposit, with all humility, my commission in his Royal Highness's hands,
and to retire from the service. He was not prepared for this; he told me
to take up my commission, said some handsome things of my services, and
granted my request. You are therefore once more a free man, and I have
promised for you that you will be a good boy in future, and remember what
you owe to the lenity of government. Thus you see my prince can be as
generous as yours. I do not pretend, indeed, that he confers a favour
with all the foreign graces and compliments of your Chevalier errant; but
he has a plain English manner, and the evident reluctance with which he
grants your request indicates the sacrifice which he makes of his own
inclination to your wishes. My friend, the adjutant-general, has procured
me a duplicate of the Baron's protection (the original being in Major
Melville's possession), which I send to you, as I know that if you can
find him you will have pleasure in being the first to communicate the
joyful intelligence. He will of course repair to the Duchran without loss
of time, there to ride quarantine for a few weeks. As for you, I give you
leave to escort him thither, and to stay a week there, as I understand a
certain fair lady is in that quarter. And I have the pleasure to tell you
that whatever progress you can make in her good graces will be highly
agreeable to Sir Everard and Mrs. Rachel, who will never believe your
views and prospects settled, and the three ermines passant in actual
safety, until you present them with a Mrs. Edward Waverley. Now, certain
love-affairs of my own--a good many years since--interrupted some
measures which were t