Waverley

S >> Sir Walter Scott >> Waverley


Tired of the attendance of Callum Beg, who, he thought, had some
disposition to act as a spy on his motions, Waverley hired as a servant
a simple Edinburgh swain, who had mounted the white cockade in a fit
of spleen and jealousy, because Jenny Jop had danced a whole night with
Corporal Bullock of the Fusileers.



CHAPTER LII

INTRIGUES OF SOCIETY AND LOVE

Colonel Talbot became more kindly in his demeanour towards Waverley
after the confidence he had reposed in him; and as they were necessarily
much together, the character of the Colonel rose in Waverley's
estimation. There seemed at first something harsh in his strong
expressions of dislike and censure, although no one was in the general
case more open to conviction. The habit of authority had also given his
manners some peremptory hardness, notwithstanding the polish which they
had received from his intimate acquaintance with the higher circles. As
a specimen of the military character, he differed from all whom Waverley
had as yet seen. The soldiership of the Baron of Bradwardine was marked
by pedantry; that of Major Melville by a sort of martinet attention to
the minutiae and technicalities of discipline, rather suitable to one
who was to manoeuvre a battalion, than to him who was to command an
army; the military spirit of Fergus was so much warped and blended with
his plans and political views, that it was less that of a soldier than
of a petty sovereign. But Colonel Talbot was in every point the English
soldier. His whole soul was devoted to the service of his king and
country, without feeling any pride in knowing the theory of his art with
the Baron, or its practical minutiae with the Major, or in applying his
science to his own particular plans of ambition, like the Chieftain
of Glennaquoich. Added to this, he was a man of extended knowledge and
cultivated taste, although strongly tinged, as we have already observed,
with those prejudices which are peculiarly English.

The character of Colonel Talbot dawned upon Edward by degrees; for the
delay of the Highlanders in the fruitless siege of Edinburgh Castle
occupied several weeks, during which Waverley had little to do,
excepting to seek such amusement as society afforded. He would willingly
have persuaded his new friend to become acquainted with some of his
former intimates. But the Colonel, after one or two visits, shook his
head, and declined further experiment. Indeed he went further, and
characterized the Baron as the most intolerable formal pedant he had
ever had the misfortune to meet with, and the Chief of Glennaquoich as
a Frenchified Scotchman, possessing all the cunning and plausibility
of the nation where he was educated, with the proud, vindictive, and
turbulent humour of that of his birth. 'If the devil,' he said, 'had
sought out an agent expressly for the purpose of embroiling this
miserable country, I do not think he could find a better than such
a fellow as this, whose temper seems equally active, supple, and
mischievous, and who is followed, and implicitly obeyed, by a gang of
such cut-throats as those whom you are pleased to admire so much.'

The ladies of the party did not escape his censure. He allowed that
Flora Mac-Ivor was a fine woman, and Rose Bradwardine a pretty girl.
But he alleged that the former destroyed the effect of her beauty by an
affectation of the grand airs which she had probably seen practised at
the mock court of St. Germains. As for Rose Bradwardine, he said it
was impossible for any mortal to admire such a little uninformed thing,
whose small portion of education was as ill adapted to her sex or youth,
as if she had appeared with one of her father's old campaign-coats upon
her person for her sole garment. Now much of this was mere spleen and
prejudice in the excellent Colonel, with whom the white cockade on the
breast, the white rose in the hair, and the Mac at the beginning of a
name, would have made a devil out of an angel; and indeed he himself
jocularly allowed, that he could not have endured Venus herself, if she
had been announced in a drawing-room by the name of Miss Mac-Jupiter.

Waverley, it may easily be believed, looked upon these young ladies with
very different eyes. During the period of the siege, he paid them almost
daily visits, although he observed with regret that his suit made as
little progress in the affections of the former as the arms of the
Chevalier in subduing the fortress. She maintained with rigour the rule
she had laid down of treating him with indifference, without either
affecting to avoid him, or to shun intercourse with him. Every word,
every look, was strictly regulated to accord with her system, and
neither the dejection of Waverley, nor the anger which Fergus scarcely
suppressed, could extend Flora's attention to Edward beyond that
which the most ordinary politeness demanded. On the other hand, Rose
Bradwardine gradually rose in Waverley's opinion. He had several
opportunities of remarking, that, as her extreme timidity wore off, her
manners received a higher character; that the agitating circumstances
of the stormy time seemed to call forth a certain dignity of feeling and
expression, which he had not formerly observed; and that she omitted
no opportunity within her reach to extend her knowledge and refine her
taste.

Flora Mac-Ivor called Rose her pupil, and was attentive to assist her in
her studies, and to fashion both her taste and understanding. It might
have been remarked by a very close observer, that in the presence of
Waverley she was much more desirous to exhibit her friend's excellences
than her own. But I must request of the reader to suppose, that this
kind and disinterested purpose was concealed by the most cautious
delicacy, studiously shunning the most distant approach to affectation.
So that it was as unlike the usual exhibition of one pretty woman
affecting to PRONER another, as the friendship of David and Jonathan
might be to the intimacy of two Bond-street loungers.

The fact is, that, though the effect was felt, the cause could hardly be
observed. Each of the ladies, like two excellent actresses, were perfect
in their parts, and performed them to the delight of the audience; and
such being the case, it was almost impossible to discover that the
elder constantly ceded to her friend that which was most suitable to her
talents.

But to Waverley, Rose Bradwardine possessed an attraction which few men
can resist, from the marked interest which she took in everything that
effected him. She was too young and too inexperienced to estimate the
full force of the constant attention which she paid to him. Her father
was too abstractedly immersed in learned and military discussions
to observe her partiality, and Flora Mac-Ivor did not alarm her by
remonstrance, because she saw in this line of conduct the most probable
chance of her friend securing at length a return of affection.

The truth is, that, in her first conversation after their meeting,
Rose had discovered the state of her mind to that acute and intelligent
friend, although she was not herself aware of it. From that time,
Flora was not only determined upon the final rejection of Waverley's
addresses, but became anxious that they should, if possible, be
transferred to her friend. Nor was she less interested in this plan,
though her brother had from time to time talked, as between jest and
earnest, of paying his suit to Miss Bradwardine. She knew that Fergus
had the true continental latitude of opinion respecting the institution
of marriage, and would not have given his hand to an angel, unless for
the purpose of strengthening his alliances, and increasing his influence
and wealth. The Baron's whim of transferring his estate to the distant
heir-male instead of his own daughter, was therefore likely to be an
insurmountable obstacle to his entertaining any serious thoughts of Rose
Bradwardine. Indeed, Fergus's brain was a perpetual workshop of scheme
and intrigue of every possible kind and description; while, like many a
mechanic of more ingenuity than steadiness, he would often unexpectedly
and without any apparent motive, abandon one plan, and go earnestly
to work upon another, which was either fresh from the forge of his
imagination, or had at some former period been flung aside half
finished. It was therefore often difficult to guess what line of conduct
he might finally adopt upon any given occasion.

Although Flora was sincerely attached to her brother, whose high
energies might indeed have commanded her admiration even without the
ties which bound them together, she was by no means blind to his faults,
which she considered as dangerous to the hopes of any woman who should
found her ideas of a happy marriage in the peaceful enjoyment of
domestic society, and the exchange of mutual and engrossing affection.
The real disposition of Waverley, on the other hand, notwithstanding
his dreams of tented fields and military honour, seemed exclusively
domestic. He asked and received no share in the busy scenes which were
constantly going on around him, and was rather annoyed than interested
by the discussion of contending claims, rights, and interests, which
often passed in his presence. All this pointed him out as the person
formed to make happy a spirit like that of Rose, which corresponded with
his own.

She remarked this point in Waverley's character one day while she sat
with Miss Bradwardine. 'His genius and elegant taste,' answered Rose,
'cannot be interested in such trifling discussions. What is it to him,
for example, whether the Chief of the Macindallaghers, who has brought
out only fifty men, should be a colonel or a captain? and how could
Mr. Waverley be supposed to interest himself in the violent altercation
between your brother and young Corrinaschian, whether the post of honour
is due to the eldest cadet of a clan or the youngest?' 'My dear Rose,
if he were the hero you suppose him, he would interest himself in these
matters, not indeed as important in themselves, but for the purpose
of mediating between the ardent spirits who actually do make them the
subject of discord. You saw when Corrinaschian raised his voice in great
passion, and laid his hand upon his sword, Waverley lifted his head as
if he had just awaked from a dream, and asked, with great composure,
what the matter was.'

'Well, and did not the laughter they fell into at his absence of mind,
serve better to break off the dispute than anything he could have said
to them?'

'True, my dear,' answered Flora; 'but not quite so creditably for
Waverley as if he had brought them to their senses by force of reason.'

'Would you have him peacemaker general between all the gunpowder
Highlanders in the army? I beg your pardon, Flora--your brother, you
know, is out of the question; he has more sense than half of them. But
can you think the fierce, hot, furious spirits, of whose brawls we see
much, and hear more, and who terrify me out of my life every day in the
world, are at all to be compared to Waverley?'

'I do not compare him with those uneducated men, my dear Rose. I only
lament, that, with his talents and genius, he does not assume that place
in society for which they eminently fit him, and that he does not lend
their full impulse to the noble cause in which he has enlisted. Are
there not Lochiel, and P--, and M--, and G--, all men of the highest
education, as well as the first talents?--why will he not stoop like
them to be alive and useful?--I often believe his zeal is frozen by that
proud cold-blooded Englishman, whom he now lives with so much.'

'Colonel Talbot?--he is a very disagreeable person, to be sure. He looks
as if he thought no Scottish woman worth the trouble of handing her a
cup of tea. But Waverley is so gentle, so well informed'--

'Yes,' said Flora, smiling; 'he can admire the moon, and quote a stanza
from Tasso.'

'Besides, you know how he fought,' added Miss Bradwardine.

'For mere fighting,' answered Flora, 'I believe all men (that is, who
deserve the name) are pretty much alike; there is generally more courage
required to run away. They have, besides, when confronted with each
other, a certain instinct for strife, as we see in other male animals,
such as dogs, bulls, and so forth. But high and perilous enterprise is
not Waverley's forte. He would never have been his celebrated ancestor
Sir Nigel, but only Sir Nigel's eulogist and poet. I will tell you where
he will be at home, my dear, and in his place,--in the quiet circle
of domestic happiness, lettered indolence, and elegant enjoyments, of
Waverley-Honour. And he will refit the old library in the most exquisite
Gothic taste, and garnish its shelves, with the rarest and most valuable
volumes; and he will draw plans and landscapes, and write verses, and
rear temples, and dig grottoes;--and he will stand in a clear summer
night in the colonnade before the hall, and gaze on the deer as they
stray in the moonlight, or lie shadowed by the boughs of the huge old
fantastic oaks;--and he will repeat verses to his beautiful wife, who
will hang upon his arm;--and he will be a happy man.'

'And she will be a happy woman,' thought poor Rose. But she only sighed,
and dropped the conversation.



CHAPTER LIII

FERGUS A SUITOR

Waverly had, indeed, as he looked closer into the state of the
Chevalier's Court, less reason to be satisfied with it. It contained, as
they say an acorn includes all the ramifications of the future oak, as
many seeds of TRACASSERIE and intrigue, as might have done honour to the
Court of a large empire. Every person of consequence had some separate
object, which he pursued with a fury that Waverley considered as
altogether disproportioned to its importance. Almost all had their
reasons for discontent, although the most legitimate was that of the
worthy old Baron, who was only distressed on account of the common
cause.

'We shall hardly,' said he one morning to Waverley, when they had been
viewing the castle,--'we shall hardly gain the obsidional crown, which
you wot well was made of the roots or grain which takes root within
the place besieged, or it may be of the herb woodbind, PARETARIA, or
pellitory; we shall not, I say, gain it by this same blockade or
leaguer of Edinburgh Castle.' For this opinion, he gave most learned and
satisfactory reasons, that the reader may not care to hear repeated.

Having escaped from the old gentleman, Waverley went to Fergus's
lodgings by appointment, to await his return from Holyrood House. 'I
am to have a particular audience to-morrow,' said Fergus to Waverley,
overnight, 'and you must meet me to wish me joy of the success which I
securely anticipate.'

The morrow came, and in the Chief's apartment he found Ensign Maccombich
waiting to make report of his turn of duty in a sort of ditch which they
had dug across the Castle-hill, and called a trench. In a short time
the Chief's voice was heard on the stair in a tone of impatient
fury:--'Callum,--why, Callum Beg,--Diaoul!' He entered the room with all
the marks of a man agitated by a towering passion; and there were few
upon whose features rage produced a more violent effect. The veins of
his forehead swelled when he was in such agitation; his nostril became
dilated; his cheek and eye inflamed; and his look that of a demoniac.
These appearances of half-suppressed rage were the more frightful,
because they were obviously caused by a strong effort to temper with
discretion an almost ungovernable paroxysm of passion, and resulted from
an internal conflict of the most dreadful kind, which agitated his whole
frame of mortality.

As he entered the apartment, he unbuckled his broadsword, and throwing
it down with such violence that the weapon rolled to the other end of
the room, 'I know not what,' he exclaimed, 'withholds me from taking
a solemn oath that I will never more draw it in his cause. Load my
pistols, Callum, and bring them hither instantly;--instantly!' Callum,
whom nothing ever startled, dismayed, or disconcerted, obeyed very
coolly. Evan Dhu, upon whose brow the suspicion that his Chief had been
insulted, called up a corresponding storm, swelled in sullen silence,
awaiting to learn where or upon whom vengeance was to descend.

'So, Waverley you are there,' said the Chief, after a moment's
recollection;--'Yes, I remember I asked you to share my triumph, and
you have come to witness my--disappointment we shall call it.' Evan now
presented the written report he had in his hand, which Fergus threw from
him with great passion. 'I wish to God,' he said, 'the old den would
tumble down upon the heads of the fools who attack, and the knaves who
defend it! I see, Waverley, you think I am mad--leave us, Evan, but be
within call.'

'The Colonel's in an unco kippage,' said Mrs. Flockhart to Evan, as he
descended; 'I wish he may be weel,--the very veins on his brent brow are
swelled like whipcord: wad he no tak something?'

'He usually lets blood for these fits,' answered the Highland ancient
with great composure.

When this officer left the room, the Chieftain gradually reassumed some
degree of composure.--'I know, Waverley,' he said, 'that Colonel Talbot
has persuaded you to curse ten times a day your engagement with us; nay,
never deny it, for I am at this moment tempted to curse my own. Would
you believe it, I made this very morning two suits to the Prince, and he
has rejected them both: what do you think of it?'

'What can I think,' answered Waverley, 'till I know what your requests
were?'

'Why, what signifies what they were, man? I tell you it was I that made
them,--I, to whom he owes more than to any three who have joined the
standard; for I negotiated the whole business, and brought in all the
Perthshire men when not one would have stirred. I am not likely, I
think, to ask anything very unreasonable, and if I did they might have
stretched a point.--Well, but you shall know all, now that I can draw
my breath again with some freedom.--You remember my earl's patent; it
is dated some years back, for services then rendered; and certainly
my merit has not been diminished, to say the least, by my subsequent
behaviour. Now, sir, I value this bauble of a coronet as little as you
can, or any philosopher on earth; for I hold that the chief of such
a clan as the Sliochd nan Ivor is superior in rank to any earl in
Scotland. But I had a particular reason for assuming this cursed title
at this time. You must know, that I learned accidentally that the Prince
has been pressing that old foolish Baron of Bradwardine to disinherit
his male heir, or nineteenth or twentieth cousin, who has taken a
command in the Elector of Hanover's militia, and to settle his estate
upon your pretty little friend Rose; and this, as being the command
of his king and overlord, who may alter the destination of a fief at
pleasure, the old gentleman seems well reconciled to.'

'And what becomes of the homage?'

'Curse the homage!--I believe Rose is to pull off the queen's slipper
on her coronation-day, or some such trash. Well sir, as Rose Bradwardine
would always have made a suitable match for me, but for this idiotical
predilection of her father for the heir-male, it occurred to me there
now remained no obstacle, unless that the Baron might expect his
daughter's husband to take the name of Bradwardine (which you know would
be impossible in my case), and that this might be evaded by my assuming
the title to which I had so good a right, and which, of course, would
supersede that difficulty. If she was to be also Viscountess Bradwardine
in her own right, after her father's demise, so much the better; I could
have no objection.'

'But, Fergus,' said Waverley, 'I had no idea that you had any affection
for Miss Bradwardine, and you are always sneering at her father.'

'I have as much affection for Miss Bradwardine, my good friend, as I
think it necessary to have for the future mistress of my family, and the
mother of my children. She is a very pretty, intelligent girl, and is
certainly of one of the very first Lowland families; and, with a little
of Flora's instructions and forming, will make a very good figure. As to
her father, he is an original, it is true, and an absurd one enough; but
he has given such severe lessons to Sir Hew Halbert, that dear defunct
the Laird of Balmawhapple, and others, that nobody dare laugh at him,
so his absurdity goes for nothing. I tell you there could have been
no earthly objection--none. I had settled the thing entirely in my own
mind.'

'But had you asked the Baron's consent,' said Waverley, 'Or Rose's?'

'To what purpose? To have spoke to the Baron before I had assumed my
title would have only provoked a premature and irritating discussion on
the subject of the change of name, when, as Earl of Glennaquoich, I
had only to propose to him to carry his d-d bear and bootjack PARTY
PER PALE, or in a scutcheon of pretence, or in a separate shield
perhaps--any way that would not blemish my own coat of arms. And as to
Rose, I don't see what objection she could have made, if her father was
satisfied.'

'Perhaps the same that your sister makes to me, you being satisfied.'

Fergus gave a broad stare at the comparison which this supposition
implied, but cautiously suppressed the answer which rose to his tongue.
'Oh, we should easily have arranged all that.--so, sir, I craved a
private interview, and this morning was assigned; and I asked you to
meet me here, thinking, like a fool, that I should want your countenance
as bride's-man. Well--I state my pretensions--they are not denied;
the promises so repeatedly made, and the patent granted--they are
acknowledged. But I propose, as a natural consequence, to assume the
rank which the patent bestowed--I have the old story of the jealousy of
C--and M-- trumped up against me--I resist this pretext, and offer to
procure their written acquiescence, in virtue of the date of my patent
as prior to their silly claims--I assure you I would have had such a
consent from them, if it had been at the point of the sword. And then,
out comes the real truth; and he dares to tell me, to my face, that my
patent must be suppressed for the present, for fear of disgusting
that rascally coward and FAINEANT--(naming the rival chief of his own
clan)--who has no better title to be a chieftain than I to be Emperor
of China; and who is pleased to shelter his dastardly reluctance to come
out, agreeable to his promise twenty times pledged, under a pretended
jealousy of the Prince's partiality to me. And, to leave this miserable
driveller without a pretence for his cowardice, the Prince asks if as
a personal favour of me, forsooth, not to press my just and reasonable
request at this moment. After this, put your faith in princes!'

'And did your audience end here?'

'End? Oh, no! I was determined to leave him no pretence for his
ingratitude, and I therefore stated, with all the composure I could
muster,--for I promise you I trembled with passion,--the particular
reasons I had for wishing that his Royal Highness would impose upon me
any other mode of exhibiting my duty and devotion, as my views in life
made, what at any other time would have been a mere trifle, at this
crisis a severe sacrifice; and then I explained to him my full plan.'

'And what did the Prince answer?'

'Answer? why--it is well it is written, Curse not the king; no, not in
thy thought!--why, he answered, that truly he was glad I had made him my
confidant, to prevent more grievous disappointment, for he could assure
me, upon the word of a prince, that Miss Bradwardine's affections were
engaged, and he was under a particular promise to favour them. "So, my
dear Fergus," said he, with his most gracious cast of smile, "as the
marriage is utterly out of question, there need be no hurry, you know,
about the earldom." And so he glided off, and left me PLANTE LA.'

'And what did you do?'

'I'll tell you what I could have done at that moment--sold myself to the
devil or the Elector, whichever offered the dearest revenge. However,
I am now cool. I know he intends to marry her to some of his rascally
Frenchmen, or his Irish officers: but I will watch them close; and let
the man that would supplant me look well to himself.--BISOGNA COPRIRSI,
SIGNOR.'

After some further conversation, unnecessary to be detailed, Waverley
took leave of the Chieftain, whose fury had now subsided into a deep and
strong desire of vengeance, and returned home, scarce able to analyse
the mixture of feelings which the narrative had awakened in his own
bosom.



CHAPTER LIV

'TO ONE THING CONSTANT NEVER'

'I am the very child of caprice,' said Waverley to himself, as he bolted
the door of his apartment, and paced it with hasty steps.--'What is it
to me that Fergus Mac-Ivor should wish to marry Rose Bradwardine?--I
love her not.--I might have been loved by her, perhaps; but I rejected
her simple, natural, and affecting attachment, instead of cherishing it
into tenderness, and dedicated myself to one who will never love mortal
man, unless old Warwick, the King-maker, should arise from the dead.
The Baron, too--I would not have cared about his estate, and so the
name would have been no stumbling-block, The devil might have taken the
barren moors, and drawn off the royal CALIGAE, for anything I would have
minded. But, framed as she is for domestic affection and tenderness, for
giving and receiving all those kind and quiet attentions which sweeten
life to those who pass it together, she is sought by Fergus Mac-Ivor. He
will not use her ill, to be sure--of that he is incapable--but he will
neglect her after the first month; he will be too intent on subduing
some rival chieftain, or circumventing some favourite at court, on
gaining some heathy hill and lake, or adding to his bands some new troop
of caterans, to inquire what she does, or how she amuses herself.