,« replied his friend; »and so far I am well pleased for
your sake, for the governor is a man of honour and humanity. But I am more
doubtful of your treatment upon the road; Major Melville is involuntarily
obliged to entrust the custody of your person to another.«
    »I am glad of it,« answered Waverley. »I detest that coldblooded calculating
Scotch magistrate. I hope he and I shall never meet more: he had neither
sympathy with my innocence nor my wretchedness; and the petrifying accuracy with
which he attended to every form of civility, while he tortured me by his
questions, his suspicions, and his inferences, was as tormenting as the racks of
the Inquisition. Do not vindicate him, my dear sir, for that I cannot bear with
patience; tell me rather who is to have the charge of so important a state
prisoner as I am.«
    »I believe a person called Gilfillan, one of the sect who are termed
Cameronians.«
    »I never heard of them before.«
    »They claim,« said the clergyman, »to represent the more strict and severe
Presbyterians, who in Charles Second's and James Second's days, refused to
profit by the Toleration, or Indulgence, as it was called, which was extended to
others of that religion. They held conventicles in the open fields, and being
treated with great violence and cruelty by the Scottish government, more than
once took arms during those reigns. They take their name from their leader,
Richard Cameron.«
    »I recollect,« said Waverley; »but did not the triumph of Presbytery at the
Revolution extinguish that sect?«
    »By no means,« replied Morton; »that great event fell yet far short of what
they proposed, which was nothing less than the complete establishment of the
Presbyterian Church, upon the grounds of the old Solemn League and Covenant.
Indeed, I believe they scarce knew what they wanted; but being a numerous body
of men, and not unacquainted with the use of arms, they kept themselves together
as a separate party in the state, and at the time of the Union had nearly formed
a most unnatural league with their old enemies, the Jacobites, to oppose that
important national measure. Since that time their numbers have gradually
diminished; but a good many are still to be found in the western counties, and
several, with a better temper than in 1707, have now taken arms for Government.
This person, whom they call Gifted Gilfillan, has been long a leader among them,
and now heads a
