'
'My innocence, my rank, my father's intimacy with Lord M--, General G--,
etc., will be a sufficient protection,' said Waverley.
'You will find the contrary,' replied the Chieftain, 'these gentlemen
will have enough to do about their own matters. Once more, will you take
the plaid, and stay a little while with us among the mists and the crows,
in the bravest cause ever sword was drawn in?'
[Footnote: A Highland rhyme on Glencairn's Expedition, in 1650, has these
lines--
We'll bide a while amang ta crows,
We'll wiske ta sword and bend ta bows]
'For many reasons, my dear Fergus, you must hold me excused.'
'Well then,' said Mac-Ivor, 'I shall certainly find you exerting your
poetical talents in elegies upon a prison, or your antiquarian researches
in detecting the Oggam [Footnote: The Oggam is a species of the old Irish
character. The idea of the correspondence betwixt the Celtic and Punic,
founded on a scene in Plautus, was not started till General Vallancey set
up his theory, long after the date of Fergus Mac-Ivor] character or some
Punic hieroglyphic upon the keystones of a vault, curiously arched. Or
what say you to un petit pendement bien joli? against which awkward
ceremony I don't warrant you, should you meet a body of the armed
West-Country Whigs.
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