government. The other project was to endeavour to attain
a Scottish seaport, and thence to take shipping for England. His mind
wavered between these plans, and probably, if he had effected his escape
in the manner he proposed, he would have been finally determined by the
comparative facility by which either might have been executed. But his
fortune had settled that he was not to be left to his option.

Upon the evening of the seventh day the door of the hut suddenly opened,
and two Highlanders entered, whom Waverley recognised as having been a
part of his original escort to this cottage. They conversed for a short
time with the old man and his companion, and then made Waverley
understand, by very significant signs, that he was to prepare to
accompany them. This was a joyful communication. What had already passed
during his confinement made it evident that no personal injury was
designed to him; and his romantic spirit, having recovered during his
repose much of that elasticity which anxiety, resentment, disappointment,
and the mixture of unpleasant feelings excited by his late adventures had
for a time subjugated, was now wearied with inaction. His passion for the
wonderful, although it is the nature of such dispositions to be excited
by that degree of danger which merely gives dignity to the feeling of the
individual exposed to it, had sunk under the extraordinary and apparently
insurmountable evils by which he appeared environed at Cairnvreckan. In
fact, this compound of intense curiosity and exalted imagination forms a
peculiar species of courage, which somewhat resembles the light usually
carried by a miner--sufficiently competent, indeed, to afford him
guidance and comfort during the ordinary perils of his labour, but
certain to be extinguished should he encounter the more formidable hazard
of earth damps or pestiferous vapours. It was now, however, once more
rekindled, and with a throbbing mixture of hope, awe, and anxiety,
Waverley watched the group before him, as those who were just arrived
snatched a hasty meal, and the others assumed their arms and made brief
preparations for their departure.

As he sat in the smoky hut, at some distance from the fire, around which
the others were crowded, he felt a gentle pressure upon his arm. He
looked round; it was Alice, the daughter of Donald Bean Lean. She showed
him a packet of papers in such a manner that the motion was remarked by
no one else, put her finger for a s