ptoms which indicated a disposition in the Highlanders to take arms;
but added, that having no inclination to join their cause, and no longer
any reason for remaining in Scotland, he was now on his return to his
native country, to which he had been summoned by those who had a right
to direct his motions, as Major Melville would perceive from the letters
on the table.

Major Melville accordingly perused the letters of Richard Waverley, of
Sir Everard, and of Aunt Rachel; but the inferences he drew from them
were different from what Waverley expected. They held the language of
discontent with Government, threw out no obscure hints of revenge; and
that of poor Aunt Rachel, which plainly asserted the justice of the
Stuart cause, was held to contain the open avowal of what the others
only ventured to insinuate.

'Permit me another question, Mr. Waverley,' said Major Melville. 'Did
you not receive repeated letters from your commanding-officer, warning
you and commanding you to return to your post, and acquainting you with
the use made of your name to spread discontent among your soldiers?'

'I never did, Major Melville. One letter, indeed, I received from him,
containing a civil intimation of his wish that I would employ my leave
of absence otherwise than in constant residence at Bradwardine, as to
which, I own, I thought he was not called on to interfere; and, finally,
I received, on the same day on which I observed myself superseded in the
Gazette, a second letter from Colonel Gardiner, commanding me to join
the regiment,--an order which, owing to my absence, already mentioned
and accounted for, I received too late to be obeyed. If there were any
intermediate letters--and certainly, from the Colonel's high character,
I think it probable that there were--they have never reached me.'

'I have omitted, Mr. Waverley,' continued Major Melville, 'to inquire
after a matter of less consequence, but which has nevertheless been
publicly talked of to your disadvantage. It is said that a treasonable
toast having been proposed in your hearing and presence, you, holding
his Majesty's commission, suffered the task of resenting it to devolve
upon another gentleman of the company. This, sir, cannot be charged
against you in a court of justice; but if, as I am informed, the
officers of your regiment requested an explanation of such a rumour,
as a gentleman and soldier, I cannot but be surprised that you did not
afford it to them.'

This