ance, and a warm greeting of welcome. 'Happy to meet you here,
my lord,' he said, bowing low to a slender young man. 'I trust you
come with the pledges of your noble father, of B--, and all that loyal
house.--Sir Richard, what news in the west? I am told you had two
hundred men on foot to have joined when the fatal retreat from Derby was
commenced. When the White Standard is again displayed, it shall not
be turned back so easily, either by the force of its enemies, or the
falsehood of its friends.--Doctor Grumball, I bow to the representative
of Oxford, the mother of learning and loyalty.--Pengwinion, you
Cornish chough, has this good wind blown you north?--Ah, my brave
Cambro-Britons, when was Wales last in the race of honour?'

Such and such-like compliments he dealt around, which were in general
answered by silent bows; but when he saluted one of his own countrymen
by the name of MacKellar, and greeted Maxwell of Summertrees by that
of Pate-in-Peril, the latter replied, 'that if Pate were not a fool,
he would be Pate-in-Safety;' and the former, a thin old gentle-man, in
tarnished embroidery, said bluntly, 'Aye, troth, Redgauntlet, I am here
just like yourself; I have little to lose--they that took my land the
last time, may take my life this; and that is all I care about it.'

The English gentlemen, who were still in possession of their paternal
estates, looked doubtfully on each other, and there was something
whispered among them of the fox which had lost his tail.

Redgauntlet hastened to address them. 'I think, my lords and gentlemen,'
he said, 'that I can account for something like sadness which has crept
upon an assembly gathered together for so noble a purpose. Our numbers
seem, when thus assembled, too small and inconsiderable to shake the
firm-seated usurpation of a half-century. But do not count us by what
we are in thew and muscle, but by what our summons can do among our
countrymen. In this small party are those who have power to raise
battalions, and those who have wealth to pay them. And do not believe
our friends who are absent are cold or indifferent to the cause. Let us
once light the signal, and it will be hailed by all who retain love for
the Stuart, and by all--a more numerous body--who hate the Elector. Here
I have letters from'--

Sir Richard Glendale interrupted the speaker. 'We all confide,
Redgauntlet, in your valour and skill--we admire your perseverance; and
probably nothing short of your