Waverley; Or 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Complete

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER II

  WAVERLEY-HONOUR--A RETROSPECT

  It is, then, sixty years since Edward Waverley, the hero of thefollowing pages, took leave of his family, to join the regiment ofdragoons in which he had lately obtained a commission. It was amelancholy day at Waverley-Honour when the young officer parted withSir Everard, the affectionate old uncle to whose title and estate hewas presumptive heir.

  A difference in political opinions had early separated the Baronet fromhis younger brother Richard Waverley, the father of our hero. SirEverard had inherited from his sires the whole train of Tory orHigh-Church predilections and prejudices which had distinguished thehouse of Waverley since the Great Civil War. Richard, on the contrary,who was ten years younger, beheld himself born to the fortune of asecond brother, and anticipated neither dignity nor entertainment insustaining the character of Will Wimble. He saw early that, to succeedin the race of life, it was necessary he should carry as little weightas possible. Painters talk of the difficulty of expressing theexistence of compound passions in the same features at the same moment;it would be no less difficult for the moralist to analyse the mixedmotives which unite to form the impulse of our actions. RichardWaverley read and satisfied himself from history and sound argumentthat, in the words of the old song,

  Passive obedience was a jest, And pshaw! was non-resistance;

  yet reason would have probably been unable to combat and removehereditary prejudice could Richard have anticipated that his elderbrother, Sir Everard, taking to heart an early disappointment, wouldhave remained a bachelor at seventy-two. The prospect of succession,however remote, might in that case have led him to endure draggingthrough the greater part of his life as 'Master Richard at the Hall,the Baronet's brother,' in the hope that ere its conclusion he shouldbe distinguished as Sir Richard Waverley of Waverley-Honour, successorto a princely estate, and to extended political connections as head ofthe county interest in the shire where it lay.

  But this was a consummation of things not to be expected at Richard'soutset, when Sir Everard was in the prime of life, and certain to be anacceptable suitor in almost any family, whether wealth or beauty shouldbe the object of his pursuit, and when, indeed, his speedy marriage wasa report which regularly amused the neighbourhood once a year. Hisyounger brother saw no practicable road to independence save that ofrelying upon his own exertions, and adopting a political creed moreconsonant both to reason and his own interest than the hereditary faithof Sir Everard in High-Church and in the house of Stuart. He thereforeread his recantation at the beginning of his career, and entered lifeas an avowed Whig and friend of the Hanover succession.

  The ministry of George the First's time were prudently anxious todiminish the phalanx of opposition. The Tory nobility, depending fortheir reflected lustre upon the sunshine of a court, had for some timebeen gradually reconciling themselves to the new dynasty. But thewealthy country gentlemen of England, a rank which retained, with muchof ancient manners and primitive integrity, a great proportion ofobstinate and unyielding prejudice, stood aloof in haughty and sullenopposition, and cast many a look of mingled regret and hope to Bois leDue, Avignon, and Italy. [Footnote: Where the Chevalier St. George, or,as he was termed, the Old Pretender, held his exiled court, as hissituation compelled him to shift his place of residence.] The accessionof the near relation of one of those steady and inflexible opponentswas considered as a means of bringing over more converts, and thereforeRichard Waverley met with a share of ministerial favour more thanproportioned to his talents or his political importance. It was,however, discovered that he had respectable talents for publicbusiness, and the first admittance to the minister's levee beingnegotiated, his success became rapid. Sir Everard learned from thepublic 'News-Letter,' first, that Richard Waverley, Esquire, wasreturned for the ministerial borough of Barterfaith; next, that RichardWaverley, Esquire, had taken a distinguished part in the debate uponthe Excise Bill in the support of government; and, lastly, that RichardWaverley, Esquire, had been honoured with a seat at one of those boardswhere the pleasure of serving the country is combined with otherimportant gratifications, which, to render them the more acceptable,occur regularly once a quarter.

  Although these events followed each other so closely that the sagacityof the editor of a modern newspaper would have presaged the two lasteven while he announced the first, yet they came upon Sir Everardgradually, and drop by drop, as it were, distilled through the cool andprocrastinating alembic of Dyer's 'Weekly Letter.' [Footnote: See NoteI. ] For it may be observed in passing, that instead of thosemail-coaches, by means of which every mechanic at his six-penny club,may nightly learn from twenty contradictory channels the yesterday'snews of the capital, a weekly post brought, in those days, toWaverley-Honour, a Weekly Intelligencer, which, after it had gratifiedSir Everard's curiosity, his sister's, and that of his aged butler, wasregularly transferred from the Hall to the Rectory, from the Rectory toSquire Stubbs's at the Grange, from the Squire to the Baronet's stewardat his neat white house on the heath, from the steward to the bailiff,and from him through a huge circle of honest dames and gaffers, bywhose hard and horny hands it was generally worn to pieces in about amonth after its arrival.

  This slow succession of intelligence was of some advantage to RichardWaverley in the case before us; for, had the sum total of hisenormities reached the ears of Sir Everard at once, there can be nodoubt that the new commissioner would have had little reason to piquehimself on the success of his politics. The Baronet, although themildest of human beings, was not without sensitive points in hischaracter; his brother's conduct had wounded these deeply; the Waverleyestate was fettered by no entail (for it had never entered into thehead of any of its former possessors that one of their progeny could beguilty of the atrocities laid by Dyer's 'Letter' to the door ofRichard), and if it had, the marriage of the proprietor might have beenfatal to a collateral heir. These various ideas floated through thebrain of Sir Everard without, however, producing any determinedconclusion.

  He examined the tree of his genealogy, which, emblazoned with many anemblematic mark of honour and heroic achievement, hung upon thewell-varnished wainscot of his hall. The nearest descendants of SirHildebrand Waverley, failing those of his eldest son Wilfred, of whomSir Everard and his brother were the only representatives, were, asthis honoured register informed him (and, indeed, as he himself wellknew), the Waverleys of Highley Park, com. Hants; with whom the mainbranch, or rather stock, of the house had renounced all connectionsince the great law-suit in 1670.

  This degenerate scion had committed a farther offence against the headand source of their gentility, by the intermarriage of theirrepresentative with Judith, heiress of Oliver Bradshawe, of HighleyPark, whose arms, the same with those of Bradshawe the regicide, theyhad quartered with the ancient coat of Waverley. These offences,however, had vanished from Sir Everard's recollection in the heat ofhis resentment; and had Lawyer Clippurse, for whom his groom wasdespatched express, arrived but an hour earlier, he might have had thebenefit of drawing a new settlement of the lordship and manor ofWaverley-Honour, with all its dependencies. But an hour of coolreflection is a great matter when employed in weighing the comparativeevil of two measures to neither of which we are internally partial.Lawyer Clippurse found his patron involved in a deep study, which hewas too respectful to disturb, otherwise than by producing his paperand leathern ink-case, as prepared to minute his honour's commands.Even this slight manoeuvre was embarrassing to Sir Everard, who felt itas a reproach to his indecision. He looked at the attorney with somedesire to issue his fiat, when the sun, emerging from behind a cloud,poured at once its chequered light through the stained window of thegloomy cabinet in which they were seated. The Baronet's eye, as heraised it to the splendour, fell right upon the central scutcheon,inpressed with the same device which his ancestor was said to haveborne in the field of Hastings,--three ermines passant, argent, in afield azure, with its appropriate motto, Sans tache. 'May our namerather perish,' exclaimed Sir Ever
ard, 'than that ancient and loyalsymbol should be blended with the dishonoured insignia of a traitorousRoundhead!'

  All this was the effect of the glimpse of a sunbeam, just sufficient tolight Lawyer Clippurse to mend his pen. The pen was mended in vain. Theattorney was dismissed, with directions to hold himself in readiness onthe first summons.

  The apparition of Lawyer Clippurse at the Hall occasioned muchspeculation in that portion of the world to which Waverley-Honourformed the centre. But the more judicious politicians of this microcosmaugured yet worse consequences to Richard Waverley from a movementwhich shortly followed his apostasy. This was no less than an excursionof the Baronet in his coach-and-six, with four attendants in richliveries, to make a visit of some duration to a noble peer on theconfines of the shire, of untainted descent, steady Tory principles,and the happy father of six unmarried and accomplished daughters.

  Sir Everard's reception in this family was, as it may be easilyconceived, sufficiently favourable; but of the six young ladies, histaste unfortunately determined him in favour of Lady Emily, theyoungest, who received his attentions with an embarrassment whichshowed at once that she durst not decline them, and that they affordedher anything but pleasure.

  Sir Everard could not but perceive something uncommon in the restrainedemotions which the young lady testified at the advances he hazarded;but, assured by the prudent Countess that they were the natural effectsof a retired education, the sacrifice might have been completed, asdoubtless has happened in many similar instances, had it not been forthe courage of an elder sister, who revealed to the wealthy suitor thatLady Emily's affections were fixed upon a young soldier of fortune, anear relation of her own.

  Sir Everard manifested great emotion on receiving this intelligence,which was confirmed to him, in a private interview, by the young ladyherself, although under the most dreadful apprehensions of her father'sindignation.

  Honour and generosity were hereditary attributes of the house ofWaverley. With a grace and delicacy worthy the hero of a romance, SirEverard withdrew his claim to the hand of Lady Emily. He had even,before leaving Blandeville Castle, the address to extort from herfather a consent to her union with the object of her choice. Whatarguments he used on this point cannot exactly be known, for SirEverard was never supposed strong in the powers of persuasion; but theyoung officer, immediately after this transaction, rose in the armywith a rapidity far surpassing the usual pace of unpatronisedprofessional merit, although, to outward appearance, that was all hehad to depend upon.

  The shock which Sir Everard encountered upon this occasion, althoughdiminished by the consciousness of having acted virtuously andgenerously had its effect upon his future life. His resolution ofmarriage had been adopted in a fit of indignation; the labour ofcourtship did not quite suit the dignified indolence of his habits; hehad but just escaped the risk of marrying a woman who could never lovehim, and his pride could not be greatly flattered by the termination ofhis amour, even if his heart had not suffered. The result of the wholematter was his return to Waverley-Honour without any transfer of hisaffections, notwithstanding the sighs and languishments of the fairtell-tale, who had revealed, in mere sisterly affection, the secret ofLady Emily's attachment, and in despite of the nods, winks, andinnuendos of the officious lady mother, and the grave eulogiums whichthe Earl pronounced successively on the prudence, and good sense, andadmirable dispositions, of his first, second, third, fourth, and fifthdaughters.

  The memory of his unsuccessful amour was with Sir Everard, as with manymore of his temper, at once shy, proud, sensitive, and indolent, abeacon against exposing himself to similar mortification, pain, andfruitless exertion for the time to come. He continued to live atWaverley-Honour in the style of an old English gentleman, of an ancientdescent and opulent fortune. His sister, Miss Rachel Waverley, presidedat his table; and they became, by degrees, an old bachelor and anancient maiden lady, the gentlest and kindest of the votaries ofcelibacy.

  The vehemence of Sir Everard's resentment against his brother was butshort-lived; yet his dislike to the Whig and the placeman, thoughunable to stimulate him to resume any active measures prejudicial toRichard's interest, in the succession to the family estate, continuedto maintain the coldness between them. Richard knew enough of theworld, and of his brother's temper, to believe that by anyill-considered or precipitate advances on his part, he might turnpassive dislike into a more active principle. It was accident,therefore, which at length occasioned a renewal of their intercourse.Richard had married a young woman of rank, by whose family interest andprivate fortune he hoped to advance his career. In her right he becamepossessor of a manor of some value, at the distance of a few miles fromWaverley-Honour.

  Little Edward, the hero of our tale, then in his fifth year, was theironly child. It chanced that the infant with his maid had strayed onemorning to a mile's distance from the avenue of Brerewood Lodge, hisfather's seat. Their attention was attracted by a carriage drawn by sixstately long-tailed black horses, and with as much carving and gildingas would have done honour to my lord mayor's. It was waiting for theowner, who was at a little distance inspecting the progress of ahalf-built farm-house. I know not whether the boy's nurse had been aWelsh--or a Scotch-woman, or in what manner he associated a shieldemblazoned with three ermines with the idea of personal property, buthe no sooner beheld this family emblem than he stoutly determined onvindicating his right to the splendid vehicle on which it wasdisplayed. The Baronet arrived while the boy's maid was in vainendeavouring to make him desist from his determination to appropriatethe gilded coach-and-six. The rencontre was at a happy moment forEdward, as his uncle had been just eyeing wistfully, with something ofa feeling like envy, the chubby boys of the stout yeoman whose mansionwas building by his direction. In the round-faced rosy cherub beforehim, bearing his eye and his name, and vindicating a hereditary titleto his family, affection, and patronage, by means of a tie which SirEverard held as sacred as either Garter or Blue-mantle, Providenceseemed to have granted to him the very object best calculated to fillup the void in his hopes and affections. Sir Everard returned toWaverley-Hall upon a led horse, which was kept in readiness for him,while the child and his attendant were sent home in the carriage toBrerewood Lodge, with such a message as opened to Richard Waverley adoor of reconciliation with his elder brother.

  Their intercourse, however, though thus renewed, continued to be ratherformal and civil than partaking of brotherly cordiality; yet it wassufficient to the wishes of both parties. Sir Everard obtained, in thefrequent society of his little nephew, something on which hishereditary pride might found the anticipated pleasure of a continuationof his lineage, and where his kind and gentle affections could at thesame time fully exercise themselves. For Richard Waverley, he beheld inthe growing attachment between the uncle and nephew the means ofsecuring his son's, if not his own, succession to the hereditaryestate, which he felt would be rather endangered than promoted by anyattempt on his own part towards a closer intimacy with a man of SirEverard's habits and opinions.

  Thus, by a sort of tacit compromise, little Edward was permitted topass the greater part of the year at the Hall, and appeared to stand inthe same intimate relation to both families, although their mutualintercourse was otherwise limited to formal messages and more formalvisits. The education of the youth was regulated alternately by thetaste and opinions of his uncle and of his father. But more of this ina subsequent chapter.