by Walter Scott
CHAPTER VII
A HORSE-QUARTER IN SCOTLAND
The next morning, amid varied feelings, the chief of which was apredominant, anxious, and even solemn impression, that he was nowin a great measure abandoned to his own guidance and direction,Edward Waverley departed from the Hall amid the blessings andtears of all the old domestics and the inhabitants of the village,mingled with some sly petitions for sergeantcies andcorporalships, and so forth, on the part of those who professedthat 'they never thoft to ha' seen Jacob, and Giles, and Jonathango off for soldiers, save to attend his honour, as in duty bound.'Edward, as in duty bound, extricated himself from the supplicantswith the pledge of fewer promises than might have been expectedfrom a young man so little accustomed to the world. After a shortvisit to London, he proceeded on horseback, then the general modeof travelling, to Edinburgh, and from thence to Dundee, a seaporton the eastern coast of Angus-shire, where his regiment was thenquartered.
He now entered upon a new world, where, for a time, all wasbeautiful because all was new. Colonel Gardiner, the commandingofficer of the regiment, was himself a study for a romantic, andat the same time an inquisitive youth. In person he was tall,handsome, and active, though somewhat advanced in life. In hisearly years he had been what is called, by manner of palliative, avery gay young man, and strange stories were circulated about hissudden conversion from doubt, if not infidelity, to a serious andeven enthusiastic turn of mind. It was whispered that asupernatural communication, of a nature obvious even to theexterior senses, had produced this wonderful change; and thoughsome mentioned the proselyte as an enthusiast, none hinted at hisbeing a hypocrite. This singular and mystical circumstance gaveColonel Gardiner a peculiar and solemn interest in the eyes of theyoung soldier. [Footnote: See Note 5.] It may be easily imaginedthat the officers, of a regiment commanded by so respectable aperson composed a society more sedate and orderly than a militarymess always exhibits; and that Waverley escaped some temptationsto which he might otherwise have been exposed.
Meanwhile his military education proceeded. Already a goodhorseman, he was now initiated into the arts of the manege, which,when carried to perfection, almost realise the fable of theCentaur, the guidance of the horse appearing to proceed from therider's mere volition, rather than from the use of any externaland apparent signal of motion. He received also instructions inhis field duty; but I must own, that when his first ardour waspast, his progress fell short in the latter particular of what hewished and expected. The duty of an officer, the most imposing ofall others to the inexperienced mind, because accompanied with somuch outward pomp and circumstance, is in its essence a very dryand abstract task, depending chiefly upon arithmeticalcombinations, requiring much attention, and a cool and reasoninghead to bring them into action. Our hero was liable to fits ofabsence, in which his blunders excited some mirth, and called downsome reproof. This circumstance impressed him with a painful senseof inferiority in those qualities which appeared most to deserveand obtain regard in his new profession. He asked himself in vain,why his eye could not judge of distance or space so well as thoseof his companions; why his head was not always successful indisentangling the various partial movements necessary to execute aparticular evolution; and why his memory, so alert upon mostoccasions, did not correctly retain technical phrases and minutepoints of etiquette or field discipline. Waverley was naturallymodest, and therefore did not fall into the egregious mistake ofsupposing such minuter rules of military duty beneath his notice,or conceiting himself to be born a general, because he made anindifferent subaltern. The truth was, that the vague andunsatisfactory course of reading which he had pursued, workingupon a temper naturally retired and abstracted, had given him thatwavering and unsettled habit of mind which is most averse to studyand riveted attention. Time, in the mean while, hung heavy on hishands. The gentry of the neighbourhood were disaffected, andshowed little hospitality to the military guests; and the peopleof the town, chiefly engaged in mercantile pursuits, were not suchas Waverley chose to associate with. The arrival of summer, and acuriosity to know something more of Scotland than he could see ina ride from his quarters, determined him to request leave ofabsence for a few weeks. He resolved first to visit his uncle'sancient friend and correspondent, with the purpose of extending orshortening the time of his residence according to circumstances.He travelled of course on horse-back, and with a singleattendant, and passed his first night at a miserable inn, wherethe landlady had neither shoes nor stockings, and the landlord,who called himself a gentleman, was disposed to be rude to hisguest, because he had not bespoke the pleasure of his society tosupper. [Footnote: See Note 6.] The next day, traversing an openand uninclosed country, Edward gradually approached the Highlandsof Perthshire, which at first had appeared a blue outline in thehorizon, but now swelled into huge gigantic masses, which frowneddefiance over the more level country that lay beneath them. Nearthe bottom of this stupendous barrier, but still in the Lowlandcountry, dwelt Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine of Bradwardine; and, ifgrey-haired eld can be in aught believed, there had dwelt hisancestors, with all their heritage, since the days of the graciousKing Duncan.
