Waverley; Or 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Complete

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XLIV

  THE MARCH

  The conflicting passions and exhausted feelings of Waverley hadresigned him to late but sound repose. He was dreaming of Glennaquoich,and had transferred to the halls of lan nan Chaistel the festal trainwhich so lately graced those of Holyrood. The pibroch too wasdistinctly heard; and this at least was no delusion, for the 'proudstep of the chief piper' of the 'chlain MacIvor' was perambulating thecourt before the door of his Chieftain's quarters, and as Mrs.Flockhart, apparently no friend to his minstrelsy, was pleased toobserve, 'garring the very stane-and-lime wa's dingle wi' hisscreeching.' Of course it soon became too powerful for Waverley'sdream, with which it had at first rather harmonised.

  The sound of Callum's brogues in his apartment (for Mac-Ivor had againassigned Waverley to his care) was the next note of parting. 'Winna yerhonour bang up? Vich lan Vohr and ta Prince are awa to the lang greenglen ahint the clachan, tat they ca' the King's Park, [Footnote: Themain body of the Highland army encamped, or rather bivouacked, in thatpart of the King's Park which lies towards the village of Duddingston.]and mony ane's on his ain shanks the day that will be carried on itherfolk's ere night.'

  Waverley sprung up, and, with Callum's assistance and instructions,adjusted his tartans in proper costume. Callum told him also,' tat hisleather dorlach wi' the lock on her was come frae Doune, and she wasawa again in the wain wi' Vich Ian Vohr's walise.'

  By this periphrasis Waverley readily apprehended his portmanteau wasintended. He thought upon the mysterious packet of the maid of thecavern, which seemed always to escape him when within his very grasp.But this was no time for indulgence of curiosity; and having declinedMrs. Flockhart's compliment of a MORNING, i.e. a matutinal dram, beingprobably the only man in the Chevalier's army by whom such a courtesywould have been rejected, he made his adieus and departed with Callum.

  'Callum,' said he, as they proceeded down a dirty close to gain thesouthern skirts of the Canongate, 'what shall I do for a horse?'

  'Ta deil ane ye maun think o',' said Callum. 'Vich Ian Vohr's marchingon foot at the head o' his kin (not to say ta Prince, wha does thelike), wi' his target on his shoulder; and ye maun e'en beneighbour-like.'

  'And so I will, Callum, give me my target; so, there we are fixed. Howdoes it look?'

  'Like the bra' Highlander tat's painted on the board afore the micklechange-house they ca' Luckie Middlemass's,' answered Callum; meaning, Imust observe, a high compliment, for in his opinion Luckie Middlemass'ssign was an exquisite specimen of art. Waverley, however, not feelingthe full force of this polite simile, asked him no further questions.

  Upon extricating themselves from the mean and dirty suburbs of themetropolis, and emerging into the open air, Waverley felt a renewal ofboth health and spirits, and turned his recollection with firmness uponthe events of the preceding evening, and with hope and resolutiontowards those of the approaching day.

  When he had surmounted a small craggy eminence called St. Leonard'sHill, the King's Park, or the hollow between the mountain of Arthur'sSeat and the rising grounds on which the southern part of Edinburgh isnow built, lay beneath him, and displayed a singular and animatingprospect. It was occupied by the army of the Highlanders, now in theact of preparing for their march. Waverley had already seen somethingof the kind at the hunting-match which he attended with Fergus MacIvor;but this was on a scale of much greater magnitude, and incomparablydeeper interest. The rocks, which formed the background of the scene,and the very sky itself, rang with the clang of the bagpipers,summoning forth, each with his appropriate pibroch, his chieftain andclan. The mountaineers, rousing themselves from their couch under thecanopy of heaven with the hum and bustle of a confused and irregularmultitude, like bees alarmed and arming in their hives, seemed topossess all the pliability of movement fitted to execute militarymanoeuvres. Their motions appeared spontaneous and confused, but theresult was order and regularity; so that a general must have praisedthe conclusion, though a martinet might have ridiculed the method bywhich it was attained.

  The sort of complicated medley created by the hasty arrangements of thevarious clans under their respective banners, for the purpose ofgetting into the order of march, was in itself a gay and livelyspectacle. They had no tents to striket having generally, and bychoice, slept upon the open field, although the autumn was now waningand the nights began to be frosty. For a little space, while they weregetting into order, there was exhibited a changing, fluctuating, andconfused appearance of waving tartans and floating plumes, and ofbanners displaying the proud gathering word of Clanronald, GanionCoheriga (Gainsay who dares), Loch-Sloy, the watchword of theMacFarlanes; Forth, fortune, and fill the fetters, the motto of theMarquis of Tullibardine; Bydand, that of Lord Lewis Gordon, and theappropriate signal words and emblems of many other chieftains and clans.

  At length the mixed and wavering multitude arranged themselves into anarrow and dusky column of great length, stretching through the wholeextent of the valley. In the front of the column the standard of theChevalier was displayed, bearing a red cross upon a white ground, withthe motto Tandem Triumphans. The few cavalry, being chiefly Lowlandgentry, with their domestic servants and retainers, formed the advancedguard of the army; and their standards, of which they had rather toomany in respect of their numbers, were seen waving upon the extremeverge of the horizon. Many horsemen of this body, among whom Waverleyaccidentally remarked Balmawhapple and his lieutenant, Jinker (whichlast, however, had been reduced, with several others, by the advice ofthe Baron of Bradwardine, to the situation of what he called reformedofficers, or reformadoes), added to the liveliness, though by no meansto the regularity, of the scene, by galloping their horses as fastforward as the press would permit, to join their proper station in thevan. The fascinations of the Circes of the High Street, and thepotations of strength with which they had been drenched over night, hadprobably detained these heroes within the walls of Edinburgh somewhatlater than was consistent with their morning duty. Of such loiterers,the prudent took the longer and circuitous, but more open, route toattain their place in the march, by keeping at some distance from theinfantry, and making their way through the inclosures to the right, atthe expense of leaping over or pulling down the drystone fences. Theirregular appearance and vanishing of these small parties of horsemen,as well as the confusion occasioned by those who endeavoured, thoughgenerally without effect, to press to the front through the crowd ofHighlanders, maugre their curses, oaths, and opposition, added to thepicturesque wildness what it took from the military regularity of thescene.

  While Waverley gazed upon this remarkable spectacle, rendered yet moreimpressive by the occasional discharge of cannon-shot from the Castleat the Highland guards as they were withdrawn from its vicinity to jointheir main body, Callum, with his usual freedom of interference,reminded him that Vich lan Vohr's folk were nearly at the head of thecolumn of march which was still distant, and that 'they would gang veryfast after the cannon fired.' Thus admonished, Waverley walked brisklyforward, yet often casting a glance upon the darksome clouds ofwarriors who were collected before and beneath him. A nearer view,indeed, rather diminished the effect impressed on the mind by the moredistant appearance of the army. The leading men of each clan were wellarmed with broad-sword, target, and fusee, to which all added the dirk,and most the steel pistol. But these consisted of gentlemen, that is,relations of the chief, however distant, and who had an immediate titleto his countenance and protection. Finer and hardier men could not havebeen selected out of any army in Christendom; while the free andindependent habits which each possessed, and which each was yet so welltaught to subject to the command of his chief, and the peculiar mode ofdiscipline adopted in Highland warfare, rendered them equallyformidable by their individual courage and high spirit, and from theirrational conviction of the necessity of acting in unison, and of givingtheir national mode of attack the fullest opportunity of success.

  But, in a lower rank to these, there were found individuals of aninferior description,
the common peasantry of the Highland country,who, although they did not allow themselves to be so called, andclaimed often, with apparent truth, to be of more ancient descent thanthe masters whom they served, bore, nevertheless, the livery of extremepenury, being indifferently accoutred, and worse armed, half naked,stinted in growth, and miserable in aspect. Each important clan hadsome of those Helots attached to them: thus, the MacCouls, thoughtracing their descent from Comhal, the father of Finn or Fingal, were asort of Gibeonites, or hereditary servants to the Stewarts of Appin;the Macbeths, descended from the unhappy monarch of that name, weresubjects to the Morays and clan Donnochy, or Robertsons of Athole; andmany other examples might be given, were it not for the risk of hurtingany pride of clanship which may yet be left, and thereby drawing aHighland tempest into the shop of my publisher. Now these same Helots,though forced into the field by the arbitrary authority of thechieftains under whom they hewed wood and drew water, were in generalvery sparingly fed, ill dressed, and worse armed. The lattercircumstance was indeed owing chiefly to the general disarming act,which had been carried into effect ostensibly through the wholeHighlands, although most of the chieftains contrived to elude itsinfluence by retaining the weapons of their own immediate clansmen, anddelivering up those of less value, which they collected from theseinferior satellites. It followed, as a matter of course, that, as wehave already hinted, many of these poor fellows were brought to thefield in a very wretched condition.

  From this it happened that, in bodies, the van of which were admirablywell armed in their own fashion, the rear resembled actual banditti.Here was a pole-axe, there a sword without a scabbard; here a gunwithout a lock, there a scythe set straight upon a pole; and some hadonly their dirks, and bludgeons or stakes pulled out of hedges. Thegrim, uncombed, and wild appearance of these men, most of whom gazedwith all the admiration of ignorance upon the most ordinary productionsof domestic art, created surprise in the Lowlands, but it also createdterror. So little was the condition of the Highlands known at that lateperiod that the character and appearance of their population, whilethus sallying forth as military adventurers, conveyed to theSouth-Country Lowlanders as much surprise as if an invasion of AfricanNegroes or Esquimaux Indians had issued forth from the northernmountains of their own native country. It cannot therefore be wonderedif Waverley, who had hitherto judged of the Highlanders generally fromthe samples which the policy of Fergus had from time to time exhibited,should have felt damped and astonished at the daring attempt of a bodynot then exceeding four thousand men, and of whom not above half thenumber, at the utmost, were armed, to change the fate and alter thedynasty of the British kingdoms.

  As he moved along the column, which still remained stationary, an irongun, the only piece of artillery possessed by the army which meditatedso important a revolution, was fired as the signal of march. TheChevalier had expressed a wish to leave this useless piece of ordnancebehind him; but, to his surprise, the Highland chiefs interposed tosolicit that it might accompany their march, pleading the prejudices oftheir followers, who, little accustomed to artillery, attached a degreeof absurd importance to this field-piece, and expected it wouldcontribute essentially to a victory which they could only owe to theirown muskets and broadswords. Two or three French artillerymen weretherefore appointed to the management of this military engine, whichwas drawn along by a string of Highland ponies, and was, after all,only used for the purpose of firing signals. [Footnote: See Note 6.]

  No sooner was its voice heard upon the present occasion than the wholeline was in motion. A wild cry of joy from the advancing batallionsrent the air, and was then lost in the shrill clangour of the bagpipes,as the sound of these, in their turn, was partially drowned by theheavy tread of so many men put at once into motion. The bannersglittered and shook as they moved forward, and the horse hastened tooccupy their station as the advanced guard, and to push onreconnoitring parties to ascertain and report the motions of the enemy.They vanished from Waverley's eye as they wheeled round the base ofArthur's Seat, under the remarkable ridge of basaltic rocks whichfronts the little lake of Duddingston.

  The infantry followed in the same direction, regulating their pace byanother body which occupied a road more to the southward. It costEdward some exertion of activity to attain the place which Fergus'sfollowers occupied in the line of march.