termined accent, and looked around him on
the company, all of whom (excepting Darsie, who saw, he thought, a
fair period to a most perilous enterprise) seemed in deep anxiety and
confusion. At length, Sir Richard spoke in a solemn and melancholy tone.
'If the safety,' he said, 'of poor Richard Glendale were alone concerned
in this matter, I have never valued my life enough to weigh it
against the slightest point of your Majesty's service. But I am only a
messenger--a commissioner, who must execute my trust, and upon whom a
thousand voices will cry, Curse and woe, if I do it not with fidelity.
All of your adherents, even Redgauntlet himself, see certain ruin to
this enterprise--the greatest danger to your Majesty's person--the utter
destruction of all your party and friends, if they insist not on the
point, which, unfortunately, your Majesty is so unwilling to concede. I
speak it with a heart full of anguish--with a tongue unable to utter
my emotions--but it must be spoken--the fatal truth--that if your
royal goodness cannot yield to us a boon which we hold necessary to our
security and your own, your Majesty with one word disarms ten thousand
men, ready to draw their swords in your behalf; or, to speak yet more
plainly, you annihilate even the semblance of a royal party in Great
Britain.'

'And why do you not add,' said the prince, scornfully, 'that the men
who have been ready to assume arms in my behalf, will atone for their
treason to the Elector, by delivering me up to the fate for which so
many proclamations have destined me? Carry my head to St. James's,
gentlemen; you will do a more acceptable and a more honourable action,
than, having inveigled me into a situation which places me so completely
in your power, to dishonour yourselves by propositions which dishonour
me.

'My God, sire!' exclaimed Sir Richard, clasping his hands together,
in impatience, 'of what great and inexpiable crime can your Majesty's
ancestors have 'been guilty, that they have been punished by the
infliction of judicial blindness on their whole generation!--Come, my
Lord ------, we must to our friends.'

'By your leave, Sir Richard,' said the young nobleman, 'not till we,
have learned what measures can be taken for his Majesty's personal
safety.'

'Care not for me, young man,' said Charles Edward; 'when I was in the
society of Highland robbers and cattle-drovers, I was safer than I now
hold myself among the representatives of the best blo