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Edward, out of patience, hemmed in and hustled by the rabble on every
side, and every moment expecting personal violence, resolved to
try measures of intimidation, and at length drew a pocket-pistol,
threatening, on the one hand, to shoot whomsoever dared to stop him,
and, on the other, menacing Ebenezer with a similar doom, if he stirred
a foot with the horses. The sapient Partridge says, that one man with a
pistol is equal to a hundred unarmed, because, though he can shoot but
one of the multitude, yet no one knows but that he himself may be that
luckless individual. The levy en masse of Cairnvreckan would therefore
probably have given way, nor would Ebenezer, whose natural paleness had
waxed three shades more cadaverous, have ventured to dispute a mandate
so enforced, had not the Vulcan of the village, eager to discharge upon
some more worthy object the fury which his helpmate had provoked, and
not ill satisfied to find such an object in Waverley, rushed at him with
the red-hot bar of iron, with such determination as made the discharge
of his pistol an act of self-defence. The unfortunate man fell; and
while Edward, thrilled with a natural horror at the incident, neither
had presence of mind to unsheathe his sword nor to draw his remaining
pistol, the populace threw themselves upon him, disarmed him, and were
about to use him with great violence, when the appearance of a venerable
clergyman, the pastor of the parish, put a curb on their fury.
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