, and joining him in the Highlands, where report
said the clans had already taken arms in great numbers. The men, who had been
educated as Jacobites, so far as they had any opinion at all, and who knew their
landlord, Sir Everard, had always been supposed to hold such tenets, easily fell
into the snare. That Waverley was at a distance in the Highlands, was received
as a sufficient excuse for transmitting his letters through the medium of the
pedlar; and the sight of his well-known seal seemed to authenticate the
negotiations in his name, where writing might have been dangerous. The cabal,
however, began to take air, from the premature mutinous language of those
concerned. Wily Will justified his appellative; for, after suspicion arose, he
was seen no more. When the Gazette appeared, in which Waverley was superseded,
great part of his troop broke out into actual mutiny, but were surrounded and
disarmed by the rest of the regiment. In consequence of the sentence of a
court-martial, Houghton and Tims were condemned to be shot, but afterwards
permitted to cast lots for life. Houghton, the survivor, showed much penitence,
being convinced from the rebukes and explanations of Colonel Gardiner, that he
had really engaged in a very heinous crime. It is remarkable, that, as soon as
the poor fellow was satisfied of this, he became also convinced that the
instigator had acted without authority from Edward, saying, »If it was
dishonourable and against Old England, the squire could know nought about it; he
never did, or thought to do, anything dishonourable, - no more didn't Sir
Everard, nor none of them afore him, and in that belief he would live and die
that Ruffin had done it all of his own head.«
    The strength of conviction with which he expressed himself upon the subject,
as well as his assurances that the letters intended for Waverley had been
delivered to Ruthven, made that revolution in Colonel Gardiner's opinion which
he expressed to Talbot.
    The reader has long since understood that Donald Bean Lean played the part
of tempter on this occasion. His motives were shortly these. Of an active and
intriguing spirit, he had been long employed as a subaltern agent and spy by
those in the confidence of the Chevalier, to an extent beyond what was suspected
even by Fergus Mac-Ivor, whom, though obliged to him for protection, he regarded
with fear and dislike. To success in this political department, he naturally
looked for raising himself by some bold stroke above his present hazardous and
precarious state of
