Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XLI

  THE MYSTERY BEGINS TO BE CLEARED UP

  'How do you like him?' was Fergus's first question, as they descendedthe large stone staircase.

  'A prince to live and die under,' was Waverley's enthusiastic answer.

  'I knew you would think so when you saw him, and I intended you shouldhave met earlier, but was prevented by your sprain. And yet he hashis foibles, or rather he has difficult cards to play, and hisIrish officers, [See note 24.] who are much about him, are but sorryadvisers,--they cannot discriminate among the numerous pretensions thatare set up. Would you think it--I have been obliged for the present tosuppress an earl's patent, granted for services rendered ten years ago,for fear of exciting the jealousy, forsooth, of C-- and M--. But youwere very right, Edward, to refuse the situation of aide de camp. Thereare two vacant, indeed, but Clanronald and Lochiel, and almost all ofus, have requested one for young Aberchallader, and the Lowlanders andthe Irish party are equally desirous to have the other for the Masterof F--. Now, if either of these candidates were to be superseded in yourfavour, you would make enemies. And then I am surprised that the Princeshould have offered you a majority, when he knows very well that nothingshort of lieutenant-colonel will satisfy others, who cannot bring onehundred and fifty men to the field. "But patience, cousin, and shufflethe cards!" It is all very well for the present, and we must have youregularly equipped for the evening in your new costume; for, to saytruth, your outward man is scarce fit for a court.'

  'Why,' said Waverley, looking at his soiled dress, 'my shooting-jackethas seen service since we parted; but that, probably, you, my friend,know as well or better than I.'

  'You do my second-sight too much honour,' said Fergus, 'We were so busy,first with the scheme of giving battle to Cope, and afterwards with ouroperations in the Lowlands, that I could only give general directionsto such of our people as were left in Perthshire to respect and protectyou, should you come in their way. But let me hear the full storyof your adventures, for they have reached us in a very partial andmutilated manner.'

  Waverley then detailed at length the circumstances with which the readeris already acquainted, to which Fergus listened with great attention. Bythis time they had reached the door of his quarters, which he hadtaken up in a small paved court, retiring from the street called theCanongate, at the house of a buxom widow of forty, who seemed to smilevery graciously upon the handsome young Chief, she being a personwith whom good looks and good humour were sure to secure an interest,whatever might be the party's political opinions. Here Callum Begreceived them with a smile of recognition. 'Callum,' said the Chief,'call Shemus an Snachad' (James of the Needle). This was the hereditarytailor of Vich Ian Vohr. 'Shemus, Mr. Waverley is to wear the CATH DATH(battle colour, or tartan); his trews must be ready in four hours. Youknow the measure of a well-made man: two double nails to the small ofthe leg'--

  'Eleven from haunch to heel, seven round the waist--I give your honourleave to hang Shemus, if there's a pair of sheers in the Highlands thathas a baulder sneck than her's ain at the CUMADH AN TRUAIS' (shape ofthe trews).

  'Get a plaid of Mac-Ivor tartan, and sash,' continued the Chieftain,'and a blue bonnet of the Prince's pattern, at Mr. Mouat's in theCrames. My short green coat, with silver lace and silver buttons, willfit him exactly, and I have never worn it. Tell Ensign Maccombich topick out a handsome target from among mine. The Prince has given Mr.Waverley broadsword and pistols, I will furnish him with a dirk andpurse; add but a pair of low-heeled shoes, and then, my dear Edward(turning to him), you will be a complete son of Ivor.

  These necessary directions given, the Chieftain resumed the subject ofWaverley's adventures. 'It is plain,' he said, 'that you have been inthe custody of Donald Bean Lean. You must know, that when I marched awaymy clan to join the Prince, I laid my injunctions on that worthy memberof society to perform a certain piece of service, which done, he was tojoin me with all the force he could muster. But instead of doing so, thegentleman, finding the coast clear, thought it better to make war on hisown account, and has scoured the country, plundering, I believe, bothfriend and foe, under pretence of levying blackmail, sometimes as if bymy authority, and sometimes (and be cursed to his consummate impudence)in his own great name! Upon my honour, if I live to see the cairn ofBenmore again, I shall be tempted to hang that fellow! I recognize hishand particularly in the mode of your rescue from that canting rascalGilfillan, and I have little doubt that Donald himself played the partof the pedlar on that occasion; but how he should not have plunderedyou, or put you to ransom, or availed himself in some way or other ofyour captivity for his own advantage, passes my judgement.'

  'When and how did you hear the intelligence of my confinement?' askedWaverley.

  'The Prince himself told me,' said Fergus,' and inquired very minutelyinto your history. He then mentioned your being at that moment in thepower of one of our northern parties--you know I could not ask him toexplain particulars--and requested my opinion about disposing of you. Irecommended that you should be brought here as a prisoner, because I didnot wish to prejudice you further with the English Government, in caseyou pursued your purpose of going southward. I knew nothing, you mustrecollect, of the charge brought against you of aiding and abettinghigh treason, which, I presume, had some share in changing your originalplan. That sullen, good-for-nothing brute, Balmawhapple, was sent toescort you from Doune, with what he calls his troop of horse. As tohis behaviour, in addition to his natural antipathy to everything thatresembles a gentleman, I presume his adventure with Bradwardine ranklesin his recollection, the rather that I dare say his mode of tellingthat story contributed to the evil reports which reached your quondamregiment.'

  'Very likely,' said Waverley; 'but now surely, my dear Fergus, you mayfind time to tell me something of Flora.'

  'Why,' replied Fergus, 'I can only tell you that she is well, andresiding for the present with a relation in this city. I thought itbetter she should come here, as since our success a good many ladies ofrank attend our military court; and I assure you, that there is a sortof consequence annexed to the near relative of such a person as FloraMac-Ivor; and where there is such a justling of claims and requests, aman must use every fair means to enhance his importance.'

  There was something in this last sentence which grated on Waverley'sfeelings. He could not bear that Flora should be considered asconducing to her brother's preferment, by the admiration which she mustunquestionably attract; and although it was in strict correspondencewith many points of Fergus's character, it shocked him as selfish,and unworthy of his sister's high mind, and his own independent pride.Fergus, to whom such manoeuvres were familiar, as to one brought up atthe French court, did not observe the unfavourable impression which hehad unwarily made upon his friend's mind, and concluded by saying, thatthey could hardly see Flora before the evening, when she would be at theconcert and ball, with which the Prince's party were to be entertained.She and I had a quarrel about her not appearing to take leave of you. Iam unwilling to renew it, by soliciting her to receive you this morning;and perhaps my doing so might not only be ineffectual, but prevent yourmeeting this evening.'

  While thus conversing, Waverley heard in the court, before the windowsof the parlour, a well-known voice. 'I aver to you, my worthyfriend,' said the speaker, 'that it is a total dereliction of militarydiscipline; and were you not as it were a TYRO, your purpose woulddeserve strong reprobation. For a prisoner of war is on no account to becoerced with fetters, or detained IN ERGASTULO, as would have beenthe case had you put this gentleman into the pit of the peel-house atBalmawhapple. I grant, indeed, that such a prisoner may for security becoerced IN CARCERE, that is, in a public prison.'

  The growling voice of Balmawhapple was heard as taking leave indispleasure, but the word 'land-louper' alone was distinctly audible. Hehad disappeared before Waverley reached the house, in order to greet theworthy Baron of Bradwardine. The uniform in which he was now attired, ablue coat, namely, with gold lace, a scarlet waistcoa
t and breeches, andimmense jack-boots, seemed to have added fresh stiffness and rigidityto his tall, perpendicular figure; and the consciousness of militarycommand and authority had increased, in the same proportion, theself-importance of his demeanour, and the dogmatism of his conversation.

  He received Waverley with his usual kindness, and expressed immediateanxiety to hear an explanation of the circumstances attending the lossof his commission in Gardiner's dragoons; 'not,' he said, 'that he hadthe least apprehension of his young friend having done aught which couldmerit such ungenerous treatment as he had received from Government, butbecause it was right and seemly that the Baron of Bradwardine shouldbe, in point of trust and in point of power, fully able to refute allcalumnies against the heir of Waverley-Honour, whom he had so much rightto regard as his own son.'

  Fergus Mac-Ivor, who had now joined them, went hastily over thecircumstances of Waverley's story, and concluded with the flatteringreception he had met from the young Chevalier. The Baron listened insilence, and at the conclusion shook Waverley heartily by the hand, andcongratulated him upon entering the service of his lawful Prince. 'For,'continued he, 'although it has been justly held in all nations a matterof scandal and dishonour to infringe the SACRAMENTUM MILITARE, andthat whether it was taken by each soldier singly, whilk the Romansdenominated PER CONJURATIONEM, or by one soldier in name of the rest,yet no one ever doubted that the allegiance so sworn was discharged bythe DIMISSIO, or discharging of a soldier, whose case would be as hardas that of colliers, salters, and other ADSCRIPTI GLEBAE, or slaves ofthe soil, were it to be accounted otherwise. This is something like thebrocard expressed by the learned Sanchez in his work DE JURE-JURANDO,which you have questionless consulted upon this occasion. As for thosewho have calumniated you by leasing-making, I protest to Heaven I thinkthey have justly incurred the penalty of the MEMNONIA LEX, also calledLEX RHEMNIA, which is prelected upon by Tullius in his oration INVERREM. I should have deemed, however, Mr. Waverley, that beforedestining yourself to any special service in the army of the Prince,ye might have inquired what rank the old Bradwardine held there,and whether he would not have been peculiarly happy to have had yourservices in the regiment of horse which he is now about to levy.'

  Edward eluded this reproach by pleading the necessity of giving animmediate answer to the Prince's proposal, and his uncertainty at themoment whether his friend the Baron was with the army, or engaged uponservice elsewhere.

  This punctilio being settled, Waverley made inquiry after MissBradwardine, and was informed she had come to Edinburgh with FloraMac-Ivor, under guard of a party of the Chieftain's men. This step wasindeed necessary, Tully-Veolan having become a very unpleasant, and evendangerous place of residence for an unprotected young lady, on accountof its vicinity to the Highlands, and also to one or two large villages,which, from aversion as much to the Caterans as zeal for presbytery,had declared themselves on the side of Government, and formed irregularbodies of partisans, who had frequent skirmishes with the mountaineers,and sometimes attacked the houses of the Jacobite gentry in the braes,or frontier betwixt the mountain and plain.

  'I would propose to you,' continued the Baron, 'to walk as far as myquarters in the Luckenbooths, and to admire in your passage the HighStreet, whilk is, beyond a shadow of dubitation, finer than any street,whether in London or Paris. But Rose, poor thing, is sorely discomposedwith the firing of the Castle, though I have proved to her from Blondeland Coehorn, that it is impossible a bullet can reach these buildings;and, besides, I have it in charge from His Royal Highness to go to thecamp, or leaguer of our army, to see that the men do CONCLAMARE VASA,that is, truss up their bag and baggage for to-morrow's march.'

  'That will be easily done by most of us,' said Mac-Ivor, laughing.

  'Craving your pardon, Colonel Mac-Ivor, not quite so easily as ye seemto opine. I grant most of your folk left the Highlands, expedited as itwere, and free from the incumbrance of baggage; but it is unspeakablethe quantity of useless sprechery which they have collected on theirmarch, I saw one fellow of yours (craving your pardon once more) with apier-glass upon his back.'

  'Aye,' said Fergus, still in good humour, 'he would have told you, ifyou had questioned him, A GANGING FOOT IS AYE GETTING.--But come, mydear Baron, you know as well as I, that a hundred Uhlans, or a singletroop of Schmirschitz's Pandours, would make more havoc in a countrythan the knight of the mirror and all the rest of our clans puttogether.'

  'And that is very true likewise,' replied the Baron; 'they are, asthe heathen author says, FEROCIORES IN ASPECTU, MITIORES IN ACTU, ofa horrid and grim visage, but more benign in demeanour than theirphysiognomy or aspect might infer.--But I stand here talking to you twoyoungsters when I should be in the King's Park.'

  'But you will dine with Waverley and me on your return? I assure you,Baron, though I can live like a Highlander when needs must, I remembermy Paris education, and understand perfectly FAIRE LA MEILLEURE CHERE.'

  'And wha the deil doubts it,' quoth the Baron, laughing, 'when ye bringonly the cookery, and the gude toun must furnish the materials?--'Weel,I have some business in the toun too: But I'll join you at three, if thevivers can tarry so long.'

  So saying, he took leave of his friends, and went to look after thecharge which had been assigned him.