Meanwhile he mounted
the white cockade, and waited upon Rose with a pretext of great devotion
for the service in which her father was engaged, and many apologies for
the freedom he must necessarily use for the support of his people. It was
at this moment that Rose learned, by open-mouthed fame, with all sorts of
exaggeration, that Waverley had killed the smith at Cairnvreckan, in an
attempt to arrest him; had been cast into a dungeon by Major Melville of
Cairnvreckan, and was to be executed by martial law within three days. In
the agony which these tidings excited she proposed to Donald Bean the
rescue of the prisoner. It was the very sort of service which he was
desirous to undertake, judging it might constitute a merit of such a
nature as would make amends for any peccadilloes which he might be guilty
of in the country. He had the art, however, pleading all the while duty
and discipline, to hold off, until poor Rose, in the extremity of her
distress, offered to bribe him to the enterprise with some valuable
jewels which had been her mother's.
Donald Bean, who had served in France, knew, and perhaps over-estimated,
the value of these trinkets.
Pages:
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829