rigour
with which he had been treated fully absolved him, in his own eyes, from his
allegiance to the existing government. The other project was to endeavour to
attain a Scottish seaport, and thence to take shipping for England. His mind
wavered between these plans; and probably, if he had effected his escape in the
manner he proposed, he would have been finally determined by the comparative
facility by which either might have been executed. But his fortune had settled
that he was not to be left to his option.
    Upon the evening of the seventh day the door of the hut suddenly opened, and
two Highlanders entered, whom Waverley recognised as having been a part of his
original escort to this cottage. They conversed for a short time with the old
man and his companion, and then made Waverley understand, by very significant
signs, that he was to prepare to accompany them. This was a joyful
communication. What had already passed during his confinement made it evident
that no personal injury was designed to him; and his romantic spirit, having
recovered during his repose much of that elasticity which anxiety, resentment,
disappointment, and the mixture of unpleasant feelings excited by his late
adventures, had for a time subjugated, was now wearied with inaction. His
passion for the wonderful, although it is the nature of such dispositions to be
excited by that degree of danger which merely gives dignity to the feeling of
the individual exposed to it, had sunk under the extraordinary and apparently
insurmountable evils by which he appeared environed at Cairnvreckan. In fact,
this compound of intense curiosity and exalted imagination forms a peculiar
species of courage, which somewhat resembles the light usually carried by a
miner, - sufficiently competent, indeed, to afford him guidance and comfort
during the ordinary perils of his labour, but certain to be extinguished should
he encounter the more formidable hazard of earth-damps or pestiferous vapours.
It was now, however, once more rekindled, and with a throbbing mixture of hope,
awe, and anxiety, Waverley watched the group before him, as those who had just
arrived snatched a hasty meal, and the others assumed their arms, and made brief
preparations for their departure.
    As he sat in the smoky hut, at some distance from the fire, around which the
others were crowded, he felt a gentle pressure upon his arm. He looked round -
it was Alice, the daughter of Donald Bean Lean. She showed him a packet of
papers in such a manner that the motion was remarked by no one else, put her
finger for a second to her lips, and passed on, as