re the independent and august Parliament of his own
native kingdom.'

'I did prosecute the study of law for a year or two, said Darsie, 'but I
found I had neither taste nor talents for the science.'

'And left it with scorn, doubtless,' said Mr. Redgauntlet. 'Well, I now
hold up to you, my dearest nephew, a more worthy object of ambition.
Look eastward--do you see a monument standing on yonder plain, near a
hamlet?'

Darsie replied that he did,

'The hamlet is called Burgh-upon-Sands, and yonder monument is erected
to the memory of the tyrant Edward I. The just hand of Providence
overtook him on that spot, as he was leading his bands to complete the
subjugation of Scotland whose civil dissensions began under his accursed
policy. The glorious career of Bruce might have been stopped in its
outset; the field of Bannockburn might have remained a bloodless turf,
if God had not removed, in the very crisis, the crafty and bold tyrant
who had so long been Scotland's scourge. Edward's grave is the cradle of
our national freedom. It is within sight of that great landmark of our
liberty that I have to propose to you an undertaking, second in honour
and importance to none since the immortal Bruce stabbed the Red Comyn,
and grasped with his yet bloody hand the independent crown of Scotland.'

He paused for an answer; but Darsie, overawed by the energy of his
manner, and unwilling to commit himself by a hasty explanation, remained
silent.

'I will not suppose,' said Hugh Redgauntlet, after a pause, that you
are either so dull as not to comprehend the import of my words--or so
dastardly as to be dismayed by my proposal--or so utterly degenerate
from the blood and sentiments of your ancestors, as not to feel my
summons as the horse hears the war-trumpet.'

'I will not pretend to misunderstand you, sir,' said Darsie; 'but an
enterprise directed against a dynasty now established for three reigns
requires strong arguments, both in point of justice and of expediency,
to recommend it to men of conscience and prudence.'

'I will not,' said Redgauntlet, while his eyes sparkled with anger,--'I
will not hear you speak a word against the justice of that enterprise,
for which your oppressed country calls with the voice of a parent,
entreating her children for aid--or against that noble revenge which
your father's blood demands from his dishonoured grave. His skull is
yet standing over the Rikargate, [The northern gate of Carlisle was lon