'
'I am not your judge, Mr. Waverley; your examination will be transmitted
elsewhere. And now to proceed--Do you know a person that passes by the
name of Wily Will, or Will Ruthven?'
'I never heard of such a name till this moment.'
'Did you never, through such a person, or any other person, communicate
with Sergeant Humphry Houghton, instigating him to desert, with as
many of his comrades as he could seduce to join him, and unite with the
Highlanders and other rebels now in arms under the command of the young
Pretender?'
'I assure you I am not only entirely guiltless of the plot you have laid
to my charge, but I detest it from the very bottom of my soul, nor would
I be guilty of such treachery to gain a throne, either for myself or any
other man alive.'
'Yet when I consider this envelope, in the handwriting of one of those
misguided gentlemen who are now in arms against their country, and the
verses which it enclosed, I cannot but find some analogy between the
enterprise I have mentioned and the exploit of Wogan, which the writer
seems to expect you should imitate.'
Waverley was struck with the coincidence, but denied that the wishes
or expectations of the letter-writer were to be regarded as proofs of a
charge otherwise chimerical.
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