s the Second could forfeit
those of his posterity, he had, according to the united voice of the
whole nation, justly forfeited his own. Since that period, four monarchs
had reigned in peace and glory over Britain, sustaining and exalting the
character of the nation abroad, and its liberties at home. Reason
asked, was it worth while to disturb a government so long settled and
established, and to plunge a kingdom into all the miseries of civil
war, for the purpose of replacing upon the throne the descendants of a
monarch by whom it had been wilfully forfeited? If, on the other hand,
his own final conviction of the goodness of their cause, or the commands
of his father or uncle, should recommend to him allegiance to the
Stuarts, still it was necessary to clear his own character by showing
that he had not, as seemed to be falsely insinuated, taken any step to
this purpose, during his holding the commission of the reigning monarch.

The affectionate simplicity of Rose, and her anxiety for his
safety,--his sense, too, of her unprotected state, and of the terror and
actual dangers to which she might be exposed, made an impression upon
his mind, and he instantly wrote to thank her in the kindest terms for
her solicitude on his account, to express his earnest good wishes for
her welfare and that of her father, and to assure her of his own safety.
The feelings which this task excited were speedily lost in the necessity
which he now saw of bidding farewell to Flora Mac-Ivor, perhaps for
ever. The pang attending this reflection were inexpressible; for her
high-minded elevation of character, her self-devotion to the cause which
she had embraced, united to her scrupulous rectitude as to the means of
serving it, had vindicated to his judgement the choice adopted by his
passions. But time pressed, calumny was busy with his fame, and every
hour's delay increased the power to injure it. His departure must be
instant.

With this determination he sought out Fergus, and communicated to him
the contents of Rose's letter, with his own resolution instantly to
go to Edinburgh, and put into the hands of some one or other of those
persons of influence to whom he had letters from his father, his
exculpation from any charge which might be preferred against him.

'You run your head into the lion's mouth,' answered Mac-Ivor. 'You do
not know the severity of a Government harassed by just apprehensions,
and a consciousness of their own illegality and