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 has hisfoibles, or rather he has difficult cards to play, and his Irishofficers, [Footnote: See Note 5.] 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----? Butyou were very right, Edward, to refuse the situation of aide-de-camp.There are two vacant, indeed, but Clanronald and Lochiel, and almostall of us, have requested one for young Aberchallader, and theLowlanders and the Irish party are equally desirous to have the otherfor the master of F--. Now, if either of these candidates were to besuperseded in your favour, you would make enemies. And then I amsurprised that the Prince should have offered you a majority, when heknows very well that nothing short of lieutenant-colonel will satisfyothers, who cannot bring one hundred and fifty men to the field. "Butpatience, cousin, and shuffle the cards!" It is all very well for thepresent, and we must have you properly equipped for the evening in yournew costume; for, to say truth, your outward man is scarce fit for acourt.'
'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 sobusy, first with the scheme of giving battle to Cope, and afterwardswith our operations in the Lowlands, that I could only give generaldirections to such of our people as were left in Perthshire to respectand protect you, should you come in their way. But let me hear the fullstory of your adventures, for they have reached us in a very partialand mutilated manner.'
Waverley then detailed at length the circumstances with which thereader is already acquainted, to which Fergus listened with greatattention. By this time they had reached the door of his quarters,which he had taken up in a small paved court, retiring from the streetcalled the Canongate, at the house of a buxom widow of forty, whoseemed to smile very graciously upon the handsome young Chief, shebeing a person with whom good looks and good-humour were sure to securean interest, whatever might be the party's "political opinions". HereCallum Beg received them with a smile of recognition. 'Callum,' saidthe Chief, 'call Shemus an Snachad' (James of the Needle). This was thehereditary tailor of Vich lan Vohr. 'Shemus, Mr. Waverley is to wearthe cath dath (battle colour, or tartan); his trews must be ready infour hours. You know the measure of a well-made man--two double nailsto the small of the 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 marchedaway my clan to join the Prince, I laid my injunctions on that worthymember of society to perform a certain piece of service, which done, hewas to join me with all the force he could muster. But, instead ofdoing so, the gentleman, finding the coast clear, thought it better tomake war on his own account, and has scoured the country, plundering, Ibelieve, both friend and foe, under pretence of levying blackmail,sometimes as if by my authority, and sometimes (and be cursed to hisconsummate impudence) in his own great name! Upon my honour, if I liveto see the cairn of Benmore again, I shall be tempted to hang thatfellow! I recognise his hand particularly in the mode of your rescuefrom that canting rascal Gilfillan, and I have little doubt that Donaldhimself played the part of the pedlar on that occasion; but how heshould not have plundered you, or put you to ransom, or availed himselfin some way or other of your captivity for his own advantage, passes myjudgment.'
'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 Idid not wish to prejudice you farther with the English government, incase you pursued your purpose of going southward. I knew nothing, youmust recollect, of the charge brought against you of aiding andabetting high treason, which, I presume, had some share in changingyour original plan. That sullen, good-for-nothing brute, Balmawhapple,was sent to escort you from Doune, with what he calls his troop ofhorse. As to his behaviour, in addition to his natural antipathy toeverything that resembles a gentleman, I presume his adventure withBradwardine rankles in his recollection, the rather that I daresay hismode of telling that story contributed to the evil reports whichreached your quondam regiment.'
'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, andunworthy 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,'that they could hardly see Flora before the evening, when she would beat the concert and ball with which the Prince's party were to beentertained. She and I had a quarrel about her not appearing to takeleave of you. I am unwilling to renew it by soliciting her to receiveyou this morning; and perhaps my doing so might not only beineffectual, but prevent your meeting this evening.'
While thus conversing, Waverley heard in the court, before the windowsof the parlour, a well-known voice. 'I aver to you, my worthy friend,'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 tobe coerced with fetters, or debinded 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.He had disappeared before Waverley reached the house in order to greetthe worthy Baron of Bradwardine. The uniform in which he was nowattired, a blue coat, namely, with gold lace, a scarlet waistcoa
t andbreeches, and immense jack-boots, seemed to have added fresh stiffnessand rigidity to his tall, perpendicular figure; and the consciousnessof military command and authority had increased, in the sameproportion, the self-importance of his demeanour and the dogmatism ofhis 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 whichcould merit such ungenerous treatment as he had received fromgovernment, but because it was right and seemly that the Baron ofBradwardine should be, in point of trust and in point of power, fullyable to refute all calumnies against the heir of Waverley-Honour, whomhe had so much right to 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 amatter of scandal and dishonour to infringe the sacramentum militare,and that 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 glebes, 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," alsocalled "Lex Rhemnia," which is prelected upon by Tullius in his oration"In Verrem." I should have deemed, however, Mr. Waverley, that beforedestining yourself to any special service in the army of the Prince, yemight have inquired what rank the old Bradwardine held there, andwhether 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, andeven dangerous, place of residence for an unprotected young lady, onaccount of its vicinity to the Highlands, and also to one or two largevillages which, from aversion as much to the caterans as zeal forpresbytery, had declared themselves on the side of government, andformed irregular bodies of partizans, who had frequent skirmishes withthe mountaineers, and sometimes attacked the houses of the Jacobitegentry 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 streetwhether 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 condamare vasa,that is, truss up their bag and baggage for tomorrow'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.'
'Ay,' 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, as theheathen author says, ferociores in aspectu, mitiores in actu, of ahorrid 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, Ihave 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.
