Poor Flora! she writes in high spirits; what a change will the news of this unhappy retreat make in her state of mind!' Waverley, who was really much affected by the deep tone of melancholy with which Fergus spoke, affectionately entreated him to banish from his remembrance any unkindness which had arisen between them, and they once more shook hands, but now with sincere cordiality.

Fergus again inquired of Waverley what he intended to do.

'Had you not better leave this luckless army, and get down before us into Scotland, and embark for the Continent from some of the eastern ports that are still in our possession?
When you are out of the kingdom, your friends will easily negotiate your pardon; and, to tell you the truth, I wish you would carry Rose Bradwardine with you as your wife, and take Flora also under your joint protection.' Edward looked surprised--'She loves you, and I believe you love her, though, perhaps, you have not found it out, for you are not celebrated for knowing your own mind very pointedly.' He said this with a sort of smile.
'How!' answered Edward,' can you advise me to desert the expedition in which we are all embarked ?' 'Embarked ?' said Fergus; 'the vessel is going to pieces, and it is full time for all who can, to get into the long-boat and leave her.' 'Why, what will other gentlemen do ?' answered Waverley, 'and why did the Highland chiefs consent to this retreat, if it is so ruinous ?' 'Oh,' replied Mac-Ivor, 'they think that, as on former occasions, the heading, hanging, and forfeiting, will chiefly fall to the lot of the Lowland gentry; that they will be left secure in their poverty and their fastnesses, there, according to their proverb, "to listen to the wind upon the hill till the waters abate." But they will be disappointed; they have been too often troublesome to be so repeatedly passed over, and this time John Bull has been too heartily frightened to recover his good humour for some time.

The Hanoverian ministers always deserved to be hanged for rascals; but now, if they get the power in their hands,--as, sooner or later, they must, since there is neither rising in England nor assistance from France,--they will deserve the gallows as fools, if they leave a single clan in the Highlands in a situation to be again troublesome to Government.

Aye, they will make root-and-branch work, I warrant them.' 'And while you recommend flight to me,' said Edward,--'a counsel which I would rather die than embrace,--what are your own views ?' 'Oh,' answered Fergus, with a melancholy air, 'my fate is settled.