Waverley; Or 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Complete

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XIV

  A DISCOVERY--WAVERLEY BECOMES DOMESTICATED AT TULLY-VEOLAN

  The next day Edward arose betimes, and in a morning walk around thehouse and its vicinity came suddenly upon a small court in front of thedog-kennel, where his friend Davie was employed about his four-footedcharge. One quick glance of his eye recognised Waverley, when,instantly turning his back, as if he had not observed him, he began tosing part of an old ballad:--

  Young men will love thee more fair and more fast; Heard ye so merry the little bird sing? Old men's love the longest will last, And the throstle-cock's head is under his wing.

  The young man's wrath is like light straw on fire; Heard ye so merry the little bird sing? But like red-hot steel is the old man's ire, And the throstle-cock's head is under his wing.

  The young man will brawl at the evening board; Heard ye so merry the little bird sing? But the old man will draw at the dawning the sword, And the throstle-cock's head is under his wing.

  Waverley could not avoid observing that Davie laid something like asatirical emphasis on these lines. He therefore approached, andendeavoured, by sundry queries, to elicit from him what the innuendomight mean; but Davie had no mind to explain, and had wit enough tomake his folly cloak his knavery. Edward could collect nothing fromhim, excepting that the Laird of Balmawhapple had gone home yesterdaymorning 'wi' his boots fu' o' bluid.' In the garden, however, he metthe old butler, who no longer attempted to conceal that, having beenbred in the nursery line with Sumack and Co. of Newcastle, he sometimeswrought a turn in the flower-borders to oblige the Laird and Miss Rose.By a series of queries, Edward at length discovered, with a painfulfeeling of surprise and shame, that Balmawhapple's submission andapology had been the consequence of a rencontre with the Baron beforehis guest had quitted his pillow, in which the younger combatant hadbeen disarmed and wounded in the sword arm.

  Greatly mortified at this information, Edward sought out his friendlyhost, and anxiously expostulated with him upon the injustice he haddone him in anticipating his meeting with Mr. Falconer, a circumstancewhich, considering his youth and the profession of arms which he hadjust adopted, was capable of being represented much to his prejudice.The Baron justified himself at greater length than I choose to repeat.He urged that the quarrel was common to them, and that Balmawhapplecould not, by the code of honour, evite giving satisfaction to both,which he had done in his case by an honourable meeting, and in that ofEdward by such a palinode as rendered the use of the sword unnecessary,and which, being made and accepted, must necessarily sopite the wholeaffair.

  With this excuse, or explanation, Waverley was silenced, if notsatisfied; but he could not help testifying some displeasure againstthe Blessed Bear, which had given rise to the quarrel, nor refrain fromhinting that the sanctified epithet was hardly appropriate. The Baronobserved, he could not deny that 'the Bear, though allowed by heraldsas a most honourable ordinary, had, nevertheless, somewhat fierce,churlish, and morose in his disposition (as might be read in ArchibaldSimson, pastor of Dalkeith's 'Hieroglyphica Animalium') and had thusbeen the type of many quarrels and dissensions which had occurred inthe house of Bradwardine; of which,' he continued, 'I might commemoratemine own unfortunate dissension with my third cousin by the mother'sside, Sir Hew Halbert, who was so unthinking as to deride my familyname, as if it had been QUASI BEAR-WARDEN; a most uncivil jest, sinceit not only insinuated that the founder of our house occupied such amean situation as to be a custodier of wild beasts, a charge which, yemust have observed, is only entrusted to the very basest plebeians;but, moreover, seemed to infer that our coat-armour had not beenachieved by honourable actions in war, but bestowed by way ofparanomasia, or pun, upon our family appellation,--a sort of bearingwhich the French call armoires parlantes, the Latins arma cantantia,and your English authorities canting heraldry, [Footnote: See Note 12]being indeed a species of emblazoning more befitting canters,gaberlunzies, and such like mendicants, whose gibberish is formed uponplaying upon the word, than the noble, honourable, and useful scienceof heraldry, which assigns armorial bearings as the reward of noble andgenerous actions, and not to tickle the ear with vain quodlibets, suchas are found in jestbooks.' Of his quarrel with Sir Hew he said nothingmore than that it was settled in a fitting manner.

  Having been so minute with respect to the diversions of Tully-Veolan onthe first days of Edward's arrival, for the purpose of introducing itsinmates to the reader's acquaintance, it becomes less necessary totrace the progress of his intercourse with the same accuracy. It isprobable that a young man, accustomed to more cheerful society, wouldhave tired of the conversation of so violent an assertor of the 'boastof heraldry' as the Baron; but Edward found an agreeable variety inthat of Miss Bradwardine, who listened with eagerness to his remarksupon literature, and showed great justness of taste in her answers. Thesweetness of her disposition had made her submit with complacency, andeven pleasure, to the course of reading prescribed by her father,although it not only comprehended several heavy folios of history, butcertain gigantic tomes in high-church polemics. In heraldry he wasfortunately contented to give her only such a slight tincture as mightbe acquired by perusal of the two folio volumes of Nisbet. Rose wasindeed the very apple of her father's eye. Her constant liveliness, herattention to all those little observances most gratifying to those whowould never think of exacting them, her beauty, in which he recalledthe features of his beloved wife, her unfeigned piety, and the noblegenerosity of her disposition, would have justified the affection ofthe most doting father.

  His anxiety on her behalf did not, however, seem to extend itself inthat quarter where, according to the general opinion, it is mostefficiently displayed, in labouring, namely, to establish her in life,either by a large dowry or a wealthy marriage. By an old settlement,almost all the landed estates of the Baron went, after his death, to adistant relation; and it was supposed that Miss Bradwardine wouldremain but slenderly provided for, as the good gentleman's cash mattershad been too long under the exclusive charge of Bailie Macwheeble toadmit of any great expectations from his personal succession. It istrue, the said Bailie loved his patron and his patron's daughter next(though at an incomparable distance) to himself. He thought it waspossible to set aside the settlement on the male line, and had actuallyprocured an opinion to that effect (and, as he boasted, without a fee)from an eminent Scottish counsel, under whose notice he contrived tobring the point while consulting him regularly on some other business.But the Baron would not listen to such a proposal for an instant. Onthe contrary, he used to have a perverse pleasure in boasting that thebarony of Bradwardine was a male fief, the first charter having beengiven at that early period when women were not deemed capable to hold afeudal grant; because, according to Les coustusmes de Normandie, c'estl'homme ki se bast et ki conseille; or, as is yet more ungallantlyexpressed by other authorities, all of whose barbarous names hedelighted to quote at full length, because a woman could not serve thesuperior, or feudal lord, in war, on account of the decorum of her sex,nor assist him with advice, because of her limited intellect, nor keephis counsel, owing to the infirmity of her disposition. He wouldtriumphantly ask, how it would become a female, and that female aBradwardine, to be seen employed in servitio exuendi, seu detrahendi,caligas regis post battaliam? that is, in pulling off the king's bootsafter an engagement, which was the feudal service by which he held thebarony of Bradwardine. 'No,' he said, 'beyond hesitation, procul dubio,many females, as worthy as Rose, had been excluded, in order to makeway for my own succession, and Heaven forbid that I should do aughtthat might contravene the destination of my forefathers, or impingeupon the right of my kinsman, Malcolm Bradwardine of Inchgrabbit, anhonourable, though decayed branch of my own family.'

  The Bailie, as prime minister, having received this decisivecommunication from his sovereign, durst not press his own opinion anyfarther, but contented himself with deploring, on all suitableoccasions, to Saunderson, the minister of the interior, th
e laird'sself-willedness, and with laying plans for uniting Rose with the youngLaird of Balmawhapple, who had a fine estate, only moderately burdened,and was a faultless young gentleman, being as sober as a saint--if youkeep brandy from him and him from brandy--and who, in brief, had noimperfection but that of keeping light company at a time; such asJinker, the horse-couper, and Gibby Gaethroughwi't, the piper o' Cupar;'o' whilk follies, Mr. Saunderson, he'll mend, he'll mend,' pronouncedthe Bailie.

  'Like sour ale in simmer,' added Davie Gellatley, who happened to benearer the conclave than they were aware of.

  Miss Bradwardine, such as we have described her, with all thesimplicity and curiosity of a recluse, attached herself to theopportunities of increasing her store of literature which Edward'svisit afforded her. He sent for some of his books from his quarters,and they opened to her sources of delight of which she had hitherto hadno idea. The best English poets, of every description, and other workson belles-lettres, made a part of this precious cargo. Her music, evenher flowers, were neglected, and Saunders not only mourned over, butbegan to mutiny against, the labour for which he now scarce receivedthanks. These new pleasures became gradually enhanced by sharing themwith one of a kindred taste. Edward's readiness to comment, to recite,to explain difficult passages, rendered his assistance invaluable; andthe wild romance of his spirit delighted a character too young andinexperienced to observe its deficiencies. Upon subjects whichinterested him, and when quite at ease, he possessed that flow ofnatural, and somewhat florid eloquence, which has been supposed aspowerful even as figure, fashion, fame, or fortune, in winning thefemale heart. There was, therefore, an increasing danger in thisconstant intercourse to poor Rose's peace of mind, which was the moreimminent as her father was greatly too much abstracted in his studies,and wrapped up in his own dignity, to dream of his daughter's incurringit. The daughters of the house of Bradwardine were, in his opinion,like those of the house of Bourbon or Austria, placed high above theclouds of passion which might obfuscate the intellects of meanerfemales; they moved in another sphere, were governed by other feelings,and amenable to other rules than those of idle and fantastic affection.In short, he shut his eyes so resolutely to the natural consequences ofEdward's intimacy with Miss Bradwardine, that the whole neighbourhoodconcluded that he had opened them to the advantages of a match betweenhis daughter and the wealthy young Englishman, and pronounced him muchless a fool than he had generally shown himself in cases where his owninterest was concerned.

  If the Baron, however, had really meditated such an alliance, theindifference of Waverley would have been an insuperable bar to hisproject. Our hero, since mixing more freely with the world, had learnedto think with great shame and confusion upon his mental legend of SaintCecilia, and the vexation of these reflections was likely, for sometime at least, to counterbalance the natural susceptibility of hisdisposition. Besides, Rose Bradwardine, beautiful and amiable as wehave described her, had not precisely the sort of beauty or merit whichcaptivates a romantic imagination in early youth. She was too frank,too confiding, too kind; amiable qualities, undoubtedly, butdestructive of the marvellous, with which a youth of imaginationdelights to dress the empress of his affections. Was it possible tobow, to tremble, and to adore, before the timid, yet playful littlegirl, who now asked Edward to mend her pen, now to construe a stanza inTasso, and now how to spell a very--very long word in her version ofit? All these incidents have their fascination on the mind at a certainperiod of life, but not when a youth is entering it, and rather lookingout for some object whose affection may dignify him in his own eyesthan stooping to one who looks up to him for such distinction. Hence,though there can be no rule in so capricious a passion, early love isfrequently ambitious in choosing its object; or, which comes to thesame, selects her (as in the case of Saint Cecilia aforesaid) from asituation that gives fair scope for le beau ideal, which the reality ofintimate and familiar life rather tends to limit and impair. I knew avery accomplished and sensible young man cured of a violent passion fora pretty woman, whose talents were not equal to her face and figure, bybeing permitted to bear her company for a whole afternoon. Thus, it iscertain, that had Edward enjoyed such an opportunity of conversing withMiss Stubbs, Aunt Rachel's precaution would have been unnecessary, forhe would as soon have fallen in love with the dairy-maid. And althoughMiss Bradwardine was a very different character, it seems probable thatthe very intimacy of their intercourse prevented his feeling for herother sentiments than those of a brother for an amiable andaccomplished sister; while the sentiments of poor Rose were gradually,and without her being conscious, assuming a shade of warmer affection.

  I ought to have said that Edward, when he sent to Dundee for the booksbefore mentioned, had applied for, and received permission, extendinghis leave of absence. But the letter of his commanding officercontained a friendly recommendation to him not to spend his timeexclusively with persons who, estimable as they might be in a generalsense, could not be supposed well affected to a government which theydeclined to acknowledge by taking the oath of allegiance. The letterfurther insinuated, though with great delicacy, that although somefamily connections might be supposed to render it necessary for CaptainWaverley to communicate with gentlemen who were in this unpleasantstate of suspicion, yet his father's situation and wishes ought toprevent his prolonging those attentions into exclusive intimacy. And itwas intimated, that, while his political principles were endangered bycommunicating with laymen of this description, he might also receiveerroneous impressions in religion from the prelatic clergy, who soperversely laboured to set up the royal prerogative in things sacred.

  This last insinuation probably induced Waverley to set both down to theprejudices of his commanding officer. He was sensible that Mr.Bradwardine had acted with the most scrupulous delicacy, in neverentering upon any discussion that had the most remote tendency to biashis mind in political opinions, although he was himself not only adecided partisan of the exiled family, but had been trusted atdifferent times with important commissions for their service. Sensible,therefore, that there was no risk of his being perverted from hisallegiance, Edward felt as if he should do his uncle's old friendinjustice in removing from a house where he gave and received pleasureand amusement, merely to gratify a prejudiced and ill-judged suspicion.He therefore wrote a very general answer, assuring his commandingofficer that his loyalty was not in the most distant danger ofcontamination, and continued an honoured guest and inmate of the houseof Tully-Veolan.