'No excuse, no subterfuge,' said his letter, 'shall save either those connected with the deed, or such as have given them countenance and shelter, from the ample and bitter penalty of the law, until I shall have taken as many lives in vengeance of this atrocious murder, as the old man had grey hairs upon his venerable head.' There is neither ruth nor favour to be found with him." Jenny Dennison, who had hitherto remained silent, now ventured, in the extremity of distress which the lovers felt, but for which they were unable to devise a remedy, to offer her own advice.
"Wi' your leddyship's pardon, Miss Edith, and young Mr Morton's, we maunna waste time.

Let Milnwood take my plaid and gown; I'll slip them aff in the dark corner, if he'll promise no to look about, and he may walk past Tam Halliday, who is half blind with his ale, and I can tell him a canny way to get out o' the Tower, and your leddyship will gang quietly to your ain room, and I'll row mysell in his grey cloak, and pit on his hat, and play the prisoner till the coast's clear, and then I'll cry in Tam Halliday, and gar him let me out." "Let you out ?" said Morton; "they'll make your life answer it." "Ne'er a bit," replied Jenny; "Tam daurna tell he let ony body in, for his ain sake; and I'll gar him find some other gate to account for the escape." "Will you, by G-- ?" said the sentinel, suddenly opening the door of the apartment; "if I am half blind, I am not deaf, and you should not plan an escape quite so loud, if you expect to go through with it.

Come, come, Mrs Janet--march, troop--quick time--trot, d--n me!--And you, madam kinswoman,--I won't ask your real name, though you were going to play me so rascally a trick,--but I must make a clear garrison; so beat a retreat, unless you would have me turn out the guard." "I hope," said Morton, very anxiously, "you will not mention this circumstance, my good friend, and trust to my honour to acknowledge your civility in keeping the secret.

If you overheard our conversation, you must have observed that we did not accept of, or enter into, the hasty proposal made by this good-natured girl." "Oh, devilish good-natured, to be sure," said Halliday.

"As for the rest, I guess how it is, and I scorn to bear malice, or tell tales, as much as another; but no thanks to that little jilting devil, Jenny Dennison, who deserves a tight skelping for trying to lead an honest lad into a scrape, just because he was so silly as to like her good-for-little chit face." Jenny had no better means of justification than the last apology to which her sex trust, and usually not in vain; she pressed her handkerchief to her face, sobbed with great vehemence, and either wept, or managed, as Halliday might have said, to go through the motions wonderfully well.
"And now," continued the soldier, somewhat mollified, "if you have any thing to say, say it in two minutes, and let me see your backs turned; for if Bothwell take it into his drunken head to make the rounds half an hour too soon, it will be a black business to us all." "Farewell, Edith," whispered Morton, assuming a firmness he was far from possessing; "do not remain here--leave me to my fate--it cannot be beyond endurance since you are interested in it .-- Good night, good night!--Do not remain here till you are discovered." Thus saying, he resigned her to her attendant, by whom she was quietly led and partly supported out of the apartment.
"Every one has his taste, to be sure," said Halliday; "but d--n me if I would have vexed so sweet a girl as that is, for all the whigs that ever swore the Covenant." When Edith had regained her apartment, she gave way to a burst of grief which alarmed Jenny Dennison, who hastened to administer such scraps of consolation as occurred to her.
"Dinna vex yoursell sae muckle, Miss Edith," said that faithful attendant; "wha kens what may happen to help young Milnwood?
He's a brave lad, and a bonny, and a gentleman of a good fortune, and they winna string the like o' him up as they do the puir whig bodies that they catch in the muirs, like straps o' onions; maybe his uncle will bring him aff, or maybe your ain grand-uncle will speak a gude word for him--he's weel acquent wi' a' the red-coat gentlemen." "You are right, Jenny! you are right," said Edith, recovering herself from the stupor into which she had sunk; "this is no time for despair, but for exertion.