Half-way betwixt the house and the beach, they saw the bodies of Nanty Ewart and Cristal Nixon blackening in the sun.
‘That was your informer?’ said Redgauntlet, looking back to General Campbell, who only nodded his assent.
‘Caitiff wretch!’ exclaimed Redgauntlet;—‘and yet the name were better bestowed on the fool who could be misled by thee.’
‘That sound broadsword cut,’ said the general, ‘has saved us the shame of rewarding a traitor.’
They arrived at the place of embarkation. The prince stood a moment with folded arms, and looked around him in deep silence. A paper was then slipped into his hands—he looked at it, and said, ‘I find the two friends I have left at Fairladies are apprised of my destination, and propose to embark from Bowness. I presume this will not be an infringement of the conditions under which you have acted?’
‘Certainly not,’ answered General Campbell; ‘they shall have all facility to join you.’
‘I wish, then,’ said Charles, ‘only another companion. Redgauntlet, the air of this country is as hostile to you as it is to me. These gentlemen have made their peace, or rather they have done nothing to break it. But you—come you and share my home where chance shall cast it. We shall never see these shores again; but we will talk of them, and of our disconcerted bull-fight.’
‘I follow you, sire, through life,’ said Redgauntlet, ‘as I would have followed you to death. Permit me one moment.’
The prince then looked round, and seeing the abashed countenances of his other adherents bent upon the ground, he hastened to say, ‘Do not think that you, gentlemen, have obliged me less because your zeal was mingled with prudence, entertained, I am sure, more on my own account and on that of your country, than from selfish apprehensions.’
He stepped from one to another, and, amid sobs and bursting tears, received the adieus of the last remnant which had hitherto supported his lofty pretensions, and addressed them individually with accents of tenderness and affection.