Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Volume 2

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER LXX

  DULCE DOMUM

  The impression of horror with which Waverley left Carlislesoftened by degrees into melancholy, a gradation which wasaccelerated by the painful yet soothing task of writing to Rose;and, while he could not suppress his own feelings of the calamity,he endeavoured to place it in a light which might grieve herwithout shocking her imagination. The picture which he drew forher benefit he gradually familiarised to his own mind, and hisnext letters were more cheerful, and referred to the prospects ofpeace and happiness which lay before them. Yet, though his firsthorrible sensations had sunk into melancholy, Edward had reachedhis native country before he could, as usual on former occasions,look round for enjoyment upon the face of nature.

  He then, for the first time since leaving Edinburgh, began toexperience that pleasure which almost all feel who return to averdant, populous, and highly cultivated country from scenes ofwaste desolation or of solitary and melancholy grandeur. But howwere those feelings enhanced when he entered on the domain so longpossessed by his forefathers; recognised the old oaks of Waverley-Chace; thought with what delight he should introduce Rose to allhis favourite haunts; beheld at length the towers of the venerablehall arise above the woods which embowered it, and finally threwhimself into the arms of the venerable relations to whom he owedso much duty and affection!

  The happiness of their meeting was not tarnished by a single wordof reproach. On the contrary, whatever pain Sir Everard and Mrs.Rachel had felt during Waverley's perilous engagement with theyoung Chevalier, it assorted too well with the principles in whichthey had been brought up to incur reprobation, or even censure.Colonel Talbot also had smoothed the way with great address forEdward's favourable reception by dwelling upon his gallantbehaviour in the military character, particularly his bravery andgenerosity at Preston; until, warmed at the idea of their nephew'sengaging in single combat, making prisoner, and saving fromslaughter so distinguished an officer as the Colonel himself, theimagination of the Baronet and his sister ranked the exploits ofEdward with those of Wilibert, Hildebrand, and Nigel, the vauntedheroes of their line.

  The appearance of Waverley, embrowned by exercise and dignified bythe habits of military discipline, had acquired an athletic andhardy character, which not only verified the Colonel's narration,but surprised and delighted all the inhabitants of Waverley-Honour. They crowded to see, to hear him, and to sing his praises.Mr. Pembroke, who secretly extolled his spirit and courage inembracing the genuine cause of the Church of England, censured hispupil gently, nevertheless, for being so careless of hismanuscripts, which indeed, he said, had occasioned him somepersonal inconvenience, as, upon the Baronet's being arrested by aking's messenger, he had deemed it prudent to retire to aconcealment called 'The Priest's Hole,' from the use it had beenput to in former days; where, he assured our hero, the butler hadthought it safe to venture with food only once in the day, so thathe had been repeatedly compelled to dine upon victuals eitherabsolutely cold or, what was worse, only half warm, not to mentionthat sometimes his bed had not been arranged for two daystogether. Waverley's mind involuntarily turned to the Patmos ofthe Baron of Bradwardine, who was well pleased with Janet's fareand a few bunches of straw stowed in a cleft in the front of asand-cliff; but he made no remarks upon a contrast which couldonly mortify his worthy tutor.

  All was now in a bustle to prepare for the nuptials of Edward, anevent to which the good old Baronet and Mrs. Rachel looked forwardas if to the renewal of their own youth. The match, as ColonelTalbot had intimated, had seemed to them in the highest degreeeligible, having every recommendation but wealth, of which theythemselves had more than enough. Mr. Clippurse was thereforesummoned to Waverley-Honour, under better auspices than at thecommencement of our story. But Mr. Clippurse came not alone; for,being now stricken in years, he had associated with him a nephew,a younger vulture (as our English Juvenal, who tells the tale ofSwallow the attorney, might have called him), and they now carriedon business as Messrs. Clippurse and Hookem. These worthygentlemen had directions to make the necessary settlements on themost splendid scale of liberality, as if Edward were to wed apeeress in her own right, with her paternal estate tacked to thefringe of her ermine.

  But before entering upon a subject of proverbial delay, I mustremind my reader of the progress of a stone rolled downhill by anidle truant boy (a pastime at which I was myself expert in my morejuvenile years), it moves at first slowly, avoiding by inflectionevery obstacle of the least importance; but when it has attainedits full impulse, and draws near the conclusion of its career, itsmokes and thunders down, taking a rood at every spring, clearinghedge and ditch like a Yorkshire huntsman, and becoming mostfuriously rapid in its course when it is nearest to beingconsigned to rest for ever. Even such is the course of a narrativelike that which you are perusing. The earlier events arestudiously dwelt upon, that you, kind reader, may be introduced tothe character rather by narrative than by the duller medium ofdirect description; but when the story draws near its close, wehurry over the circumstances, however important, which yourimagination must have forestalled, and leave you to suppose thosethings which it would be abusing your patience to relate atlength.

  We are, therefore, so far from attempting to trace the dullprogress of Messrs. Clippurse and Hookem, or that of their worthyofficial brethren who had the charge of suing out the pardons ofEdward Waverley and his intended father-in-law, that we can buttouch upon matters more attractive. The mutual epistles, forexample, which were exchanged between Sir Everard and the Baronupon this occasion, though matchless specimens of eloquence intheir way, must be consigned to merciless oblivion. Nor can I tellyou at length how worthy Aunt Rachel, not without a delicate andaffectionate allusion to the circumstances which had transferredRose's maternal diamonds to the hands of Donald Bean Lean, stockedher casket with a set of jewels that a duchess might have envied.Moreover, the reader will have the goodness to imagine that JobHoughton and his dame were suitably provided for, although theycould never be persuaded that their son fell otherwise thanfighting by the young squire's side; so that Alick, who, as alover of truth, had made many needless attempts to expound thereal circumstances to them, was finally ordered to say not a wordmore upon the subject. He indemnified himself, however, by theliberal allowance of desperate battles, grisly executions, andraw-head and bloody-bone stories with which he astonished theservants' hall.

  But although these important matters may be briefly told innarrative, like a newspaper report of a Chancery suit, yet, withall the urgency which Waverley could use, the real time which thelaw proceedings occupied, joined to the delay occasioned by themode of travelling at that period, rendered it considerably morethan two months ere Waverley, having left England, alighted oncemore at the mansion of the Laird of Duchran to claim the hand ofhis plighted bride.

  The day of his marriage was fixed for the sixth after his arrival.The Baron of Bradwardine, with whom bridals, christenings, andfunerals were festivals of high and solemn import, felt a littlehurt that, including the family of the Duchran and all theimmediate vicinity who had title to be present on such anoccasion, there could not be above thirty persons collected. 'Whenhe was married,' he observed,'three hundred horse of gentlemenborn, besides servants, and some score or two of Highland lairds,who never got on horseback, were present on the occasion.'

  But his pride found some consolation in reflecting that, he andhis son-in-law having been so lately in arms against government,it might give matter of reasonable fear and offence to the rulingpowers if they were to collect together the kith, kin, and alliesof their houses, arrayed in effeir of war, as was the ancientcustom of Scotland on these occasions--'And, without dubitation,'he concluded with a sigh, 'many of those who would have rejoicedmost freely upon these joyful espousals are either gone to abetter place or are now exiles from their native land.'

  The marriage took place on the appointed day. The Reverend Mr.Rubrick, kinsman to the proprietor of the hospitable mansion whereit was solemnised, and chaplain to the
Baron of Bradwardine, hadthe satisfaction to unite their hands; and Frank Stanley acted asbridesman, having joined Edward with that view soon after hisarrival. Lady Emily and Colonel Talbot had proposed being present;but Lady Emily's health, when the day approached, was foundinadequate to the journey. In amends it was arranged that EdwardWaverley and his lady, who, with the Baron, proposed an immediatejourney to Waverley-Honour, should in their way spend a few daysat an estate which Colonel Talbot had been tempted to purchase inScotland as a very great bargain, and at which he proposed toreside for some time.