strenuous exertions, and the emulation
awakened by your noble and disinterested conduct, could have brought
so many of us, the scattered remnant of a disheartened party, to meet
together once again in solemn consultation; for I take it, gentlemen,'
he said, looking round, 'this is only a consultation.'

'Nothing more,' said the young lord.

'Nothing more,' said Doctor Grumball, shaking his large academical
peruke.

And, 'Only a consultation,' was echoed by the others.

Redgauntlet bit his lip. 'I had hopes,' he said, 'that the discourses
I have held with most of you, from time to time, had ripened into more
maturity than your words imply, and that we were here to execute as
well as to deliberate; and for this we stand prepared. I can raise five
hundred men with my whistle.'

'Five hundred men!' said one of the Welsh squires; 'Cot bless us! and
pray you, what cood could five hundred men do?'

'All that the priming does for the cannon, Mr. Meredith,' answered
Redgauntlet; 'it will enable us to seize Carlisle, and you know what our
friends have engaged for in that case.'

'Yes--but,' said the young nobleman, 'you must not hurry us on too fast,
Mr. Redgauntlet; we are all, I believe, as sincere and truehearted in
this business as you are, but we will not be driven forward blindfold.
We owe caution to ourselves and our families, as well as to those whom
we are empowered to represent on this occasion.'

'Who hurries you, my lord? Who is it that would drive this meeting
forward blindfold? I do not understand your lordship,' said Redgauntlet.

'Nay,' said Sir Richard Glendale, 'at least do not let us fall under
our old reproach of disagreeing among ourselves. What my lord means,
Redgauntlet, is, that we have this morning heard it is uncertain
whether you could even bring that body of men whom you count upon; your
countryman, Mr. MacKellar, seemed, just before you came in, to doubt
whether your people would rise in any force, unless you could produce
the authority of your nephew.'

'I might ask,' said Redgauntlet,' what right MacKellar, or any one, has
to doubt my being able to accomplish what I stand pledged for? But our
hopes consist in our unity. Here stands my nephew. Gentlemen, I present
to you my kinsman, Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet of that Ilk.'

'Gentlemen,' said Darsie, with a throbbing bosom, for he felt the crisis
a very painful one, 'Allow me to say, that I suspend expressing my
sentiments on the impo