In my opinion, he
has some scheme in view in which he supposes you can be useful, and he
wishes to keep you at hand, to make use of you when it ripens,
reserving the power of turning you adrift, should his plot fail in the
concoction."
"His plot! Then you suppose it is a treasonable business," answered
Ravenswood.
"What else can it be?" replied Bucklaw; "the Marquis has been long
suspected to have an eye to Saint Germains."
"He should not engage me rashly in such an adventure," said Ravenswood;
"when I recollect the times of the first and second Charles, and of the
last James, truly I see little reason that, as a man or a patriot, I
should draw my sword for their descendants."
"Humph!" replied Bucklaw; "so you have set yourself down to mourn over
the crop-eared dogs whom honest Claver'se treated as they deserved?"
"They first gave the dogs an ill name, and then hanged them," replied
Ravenswood. "I hope to see the day when justice shall be open to Whig
and Tory, and when these nicknames shall only be used among coffee-house
politicians, as 'slut' and 'jade' are among apple-women, as cant terms
of idle spite and rancour.
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