my gratitude.  I perceived that he still meditated a refusal, and, taking my commission from my pocket, I said (as a last resource) that, as his Royal Highness did not, under these pressing circumstances, think me worthy of a favour which he had not scrupled to grant to other gentlemen whose services I could hardly judge more important than my own, I must beg leave to deposit, with all humility, my commission in his Royal Highness’s hands, and to retire from the service.  He was not prepared for this; he told me to take up my commission, said some handsome things of my services, and granted my request.  You are therefore once more a free man, and I have promised for you that you will be a good boy in future, and remember what you owe to the lenity of government.  Thus you see my prince can be as generous as yours.  I do not pretend, indeed, that he confers a favour with all the foreign graces and compliments of your Chevalier errant; but he has a plain English manner, and the evident reluctance with which he grants your request indicates the sacrifice which he makes of his own inclination to your wishes.  My friend, the adjutant-general, has procured me a duplicate of the Baron’s protection (the original being in Major Melville’s possession), which I send to you, as I know that if you can find him you will have pleasure in being the first to communicate the joyful intelligence.  He will of course repair to the Duchran without loss of time, there to ride quarantine for a few weeks.  As for you, I give you leave to escort him thither, and to stay a week there, as I understand a certain fair lady is in that quarter.  And I have the pleasure to tell you that whatever progress you can make in her good graces will be highly agreeable to Sir Everard and Mrs. Rachel, who will never believe your views and prospects settled, and the three ermines passant in actual safety, until you present them with a Mrs. Edward Waverley.  Now, certain love-affairs of my own—­a good many years since—­interrupted some measures which were then proposed in favour of the three ermines passant; so I am bound in honour to make them amends.  Therefore make good use of your time, for, when your week is expired, it will be necessary that you go to London to plead your pardon in the law courts.

’Ever, dear Waverley, yours most truly, ‘Philip talbot.’

CHAPTER LXVII

    Happy’s the wooing
    That’s not long a doing

When the first rapturous sensation occasioned by these excellent tidings had somewhat subsided, Edward proposed instantly to go down to the glen to acquaint the Baron with their import.  But the cautious Bailie justly observed that, if the Baron were to appear instantly in public, the tenantry and villagers might become riotous in expressing their joy, and give offence to ’the powers that be,’ a sort of persons for whom the Bailie always had unlimited respect.