That he was brave, generous, and possessed many good
qualities, only rendered him the more dangerous; that he was enlightened
and accomplished, made his crime the less excusable; that he was an
enthusiast in a wrong cause, only made him the more fit to be its
martyr. Above all, he had been the means of bringing many hundreds of
men into the field, who, without him, would never have broken the peace
of the country.
'I repeat it,' said the Colonel, 'though Heaven knows with a heart
distressed for him as an individual, that this young gentleman has
studied and fully understood the desperate game which he has played.
He threw for life or death, a coronet or a coffin; and he cannot now be
permitted, with justice to the country, to draw stakes because the dice
have gone against him.'
Such was the reasoning of those times, held even by brave and humane men
towards a vanquished enemy. Let us devoutly hope, that, in this respect
at least, we shall never see the scenes, or hold the sentiments, that
were general in Britain Sixty Years since.
CHAPTER LXVIII:
To-morrow? Oh that's sudden! Spare him! spare him!
SHAKESPEARE.
Edward, attended by his former servant Alick Polwarth, who had
re-entered his service at Edinburgh, reached Carlisle while the
commission of Oyer and Terminer on his unfortunate associates was yet
sitting.
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