Pembroke.
'He says he never read them,' answered the minister.
'In an ordinary case I should believe him,' replied the magistrate, 'for
they are as stupid and pedantic in composition, as mischievous in their
tenets. But can you suppose anything but value for the principles they
maintain would induce a young man of his age to lug such trash about
with him? Then, when news arrive of the approach of the rebels, he sets
out in a sort of disguise, refusing to tell his name; and, if yon old
fanatic tell truth, attended by a very suspicious character, and mounted
on a horse known to have belonged to Glennaquoich, and bearing on his
person letters from his family expressing high rancour against the house
of Brunswick, and a copy of verses in praise of one Wogan, who abjured
the service of the Parliament to join the Highland insurgents, when in
arms to restore the house of Stuart, with a body of English cavalry the
very counterpart of his own plot--and summed up with a "Go thou and
do likewise," from that loyal subject, and most safe and peaceable
character, Fergus Mac-Ivor of Glennaquoich, Vich Ian Vohr, and so forth.
And, lastly,' continued Major Melville, warming in the detail of his
arguments, 'where do we find this second edition of Cavalier Wogan? Why,
truly, in the very track most proper for execution of his design, and
pistolling the first of the king's subjects who ventures to question his
intentions.
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