r that of Colonel Grahame of Claverhouse, I am given to understand,"
said Morton; "one of the military commission, to whom it has pleased our
king, our privy council, and our parliament, that used to be more
tenacious of our liberties, to commit the sole charge of our goods and of
our lives."

"To Claverhouse?" said Edith, faintly; "merciful Heaven, you are lost ere
you are tried! He wrote to my grandmother that he was to be here
to-morrow morning, on his road to the head of the county, where some
desperate men, animated by the presence of two or three of the actors in
the primate's murder, are said to have assembled for the purpose of
making a stand against the government. His expressions made me shudder,
even when I could not guess that--that--a friend"--

"Do not be too much alarmed on my account, my dearest Edith," said Henry,
as he supported her in his arms; "Claverhouse, though stern and
relentless, is, by all accounts, brave, fair, and honourable. I am a
soldier's son, and will plead my cause like a soldier. He will perhaps
listen more favourably to a blunt and unvarnished defence than a
truckling and time-serving judge might do. And, indeed, in a time when
justice is, in all its branches, so completely corrupted, I would rather
lose my life by open military violence, than be conjured out of it by the
hocus-pocus of some arbitrary lawyer, who lends the knowledge he has of
the statutes made for our protection, to wrest them to our destruction."

"You are lost--you are lost, if you are to plead your cause with
Claverhouse!" sighed Edith; "root and branchwork is the mildest of his
expressions. The unhappy primate was his intimate friend and early
patron. 'No excuse, no subterfuge,' said his letter, 'shall save either
those connected with the deed, or such as have given them countenance and
shelter, from the ample and bitter penalty of the law, until I shall have
taken as many lives in vengeance of this atrocious murder, as the old man
had grey hairs upon his venerable head.' There is neither ruth nor favour
to be found with him."

Jenny Dennison, who had hitherto remained silent, now ventured, in the
extremity of distress which the lovers felt, but for which they were
unable to devise a remedy, to offer her own advice.

"Wi' your leddyship's pardon, Miss Edith, and young Mr Morton's, we
maunna waste time. Let Milnwood take my plaid and gown; I'll slip them
aff in the dark corner, if he'll promise no to look abou