Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Volume 1

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XXI

  THE CHIEFTAIN'S SISTER

  The drawing-room of Flora Mac-Ivor was furnished in the plainestand most simple manner; for at Glennaquoich every other sort ofexpenditure was retrenched as much as possible, for the purpose ofmaintaining, in its full dignity, the hospitality of theChieftain, and retaining and multiplying the number of hisdependants and adherents. But there was no appearance of thisparsimony in the dress of the lady herself, which was in textureelegant, and even rich, and arranged in a manner which partookpartly of the Parisian fashion and partly of the more simple dressof the Highlands, blended together with great taste. Her hair wasnot disfigured by the art of the friseur, but fell in jettyringlets on her neck, confined only by a circlet, richly set withdiamonds. This peculiarity she adopted in compliance with theHighland prejudices, which could not endure that a woman's headshould be covered before wedlock.

  Flora Mac-Ivor bore a most striking resemblance to her brotherFergus; so much so that they might have played Viola and Sebastianwith the same exquisite effect produced by the appearance of Mrs.Henry Siddons and her brother, Mr. William Murray, in thesecharacters. They had the same antique and regular correctness ofprofile; the same dark eyes, eye-lashes, and eye-brows; the sameclearness of complexion, excepting that Fergus's was embrowned byexercise and Flora's possessed the utmost feminine delicacy. Butthe haughty and somewhat stern regularity of Fergus's features wasbeautifully softened in those of Flora. Their voices were alsosimilar in tone, though differing in the key. That of Fergus,especially while issuing orders to his followers during theirmilitary exercise, reminded Edward of a favourite passage in thedescription of Emetrius:

  --whose voice was heard around, Loud as a trumpet with a silver sound.

  That of Flora, on the contrary, was soft and sweet--'an excellentthing in woman'; yet, in urging any favourite topic, which sheoften pursued with natural eloquence, it possessed as well thetones which impress awe and conviction as those of persuasiveinsinuation. The eager glance of the keen black eye, which, in theChieftain, seemed impatient even of the material obstacles itencountered, had in his sister acquired a gentle pensiveness. Hislooks seemed to seek glory, power, all that could exalt him aboveothers in the race of humanity; while those of his sister, as ifshe were already conscious of mental superiority, seemed to pity,rather than envy, those who were struggling for any fartherdistinction. Her sentiments corresponded with the expression ofher countenance. Early education had impressed upon her mind, aswell as on that of the Chieftain, the most devoted attachment tothe exiled family of Stuart. She believed it the duty of herbrother, of his clan, of every man in Britain, at whateverpersonal hazard, to contribute to that restoration which thepartisans of the Chevalier St. George had not ceased to hope for.For this she was prepared to do all, to suffer all, to sacrificeall. But her loyalty, as it exceeded her brother's in fanaticism,excelled it also in purity. Accustomed to petty intrigue, andnecessarily involved in a thousand paltry and selfish discussions,ambitious also by nature, his political faith was tinctured, atleast, if not tainted, by the views of interest and advancement soeasily combined with it; and at the moment he should unsheathe hisclaymore, it might be difficult to say whether it would be mostwith the view of making James Stuart a king or Fergus Mac-Ivor anearl. This, indeed, was a mixture of feeling which he did not avoweven to himself, but it existed, nevertheless, in a powerfuldegree.

  In Flora's bosom, on the contrary, the zeal of loyalty burnt pureand unmixed with any selfish feeling; she would have as soon madereligion the mask of ambitious and interested views as haveshrouded them under the opinions which she had been taught tothink patriotism. Such instances of devotion were not uncommonamong the followers of the unhappy race of Stuart, of which manymemorable proofs will recur to the minds of most of my readers.But peculiar attention on the part of the Chevalier de St. Georgeand his princess to the parents of Fergus and his sister, and tothemselves when orphans, had riveted their faith. Fergus, upon thedeath of his parents, had been for some time a page of honour inthe train of the Chevalier's lady, and, from his beauty andsprightly temper, was uniformly treated by her with the utmostdistinction. This was also extended to Flora, who was maintainedfor some time at a convent of the first order at the princess'sexpense, and removed from thence into her own family, where shespent nearly two years. Both brother and sister retained thedeepest and most grateful sense of her kindness.

  Having thus touched upon the leading principle of Flora'scharacter, I may dismiss the rest more slightly. She was highlyaccomplished, and had acquired those elegant manners to beexpected from one who, in early youth, had been the companion of aprincess; yet she had not learned to substitute the gloss ofpoliteness for the reality of feeling. When settled in the lonelyregions of Glennaquoich, she found that her resources in French,English, and Italian literature were likely to be few andinterrupted; and, in order to fill up the vacant time, shebestowed a part of it upon the music and poetical traditions ofthe Highlanders, and began really to feel the pleasure in thepursuit which her brother, whose perceptions of literary meritwere more blunt, rather affected for the sake of popularity thanactually experienced. Her resolution was strengthened in theseresearches by the extreme delight which her inquiries seemed toafford those to whom she resorted for information.

  Her love of her clan, an attachment which was almost hereditary inher bosom, was, like her loyalty, a more pure passion than that ofher brother. He was too thorough a politician, regarded hispatriarchal influence too much as the means of accomplishing hisown aggrandisement, that we should term him the model of aHighland Chieftain. Flora felt the same anxiety for cherishing andextending their patriarchal sway, but it was with the generousdesire of vindicating from poverty, or at least from want andforeign oppression, those whom her brother was by birth, accordingto the notions of the time and country, entitled to govern. Thesavings of her income, for she had a small pension from thePrincess Sobieski, were dedicated, not to add to the comforts ofthe peasantry, for that was a word which they neither knew norapparently wished to know, but to relieve their absolutenecessities when in sickness or extreme old age. At every otherperiod they rather toiled to procure something which they mightshare with the Chief, as a proof of their attachment, thanexpected other assistance from him save what was afforded by therude hospitality of his castle, and the general division andsubdivision of his estate among them. Flora was so much beloved bythem that, when Mac-Murrough composed a song in which heenumerated all the principal beauties of the district, andintimated her superiority by concluding, that 'the fairest applehung on the highest bough,' he received, in donatives from theindividuals of the clan, more seed-barley than would have sowedhis Highland Parnassus, the bard's croft, as it was called, tentimes over.

  From situation as well as choice, Miss Mac-Ivor's society wasextremely limited. Her most intimate friend had been RoseBradwardine, to whom she was much attached; and when seentogether, they would have afforded an artist two admirablesubjects for the gay and the melancholy muse. Indeed Rose was sotenderly watched by her father, and her circle of wishes was solimited, that none arose but what he was willing to gratify, andscarce any which did not come within the compass of his power.With Flora it was otherwise. While almost a girl she had undergonethe most complete change of scene, from gaiety and splendour toabsolute solitude and comparative poverty; and the ideas andwishes which she chiefly fostered respected great national events,and changes not to be brought round without both hazard andbloodshed, and therefore not to be thought of with levity. Hermanner, consequently, was grave, though she readily contributedher talents to the amusement of society, and stood very high inthe opinion of the old Baron, who used to sing along with her suchFrench duets of Lindor and Cloris, etc., as were in fashion aboutthe end of the reign of old Louis le Grand.

  It was generally believed, though no one durst have hinted it tothe Baron of Bradwardine, that Flora's entreaties had no smallshare in allaying the wrath of Fergus upon occasion of theirquarrel. She to
ok her brother on the assailable side, by dwellingfirst upon the Baron's age, and then representing the injury whichthe cause might sustain, and the damage which must arise to hisown character in point of prudence--so necessary to a politicalagent, if he persisted in carrying it to extremity. Otherwise itis probable it would have terminated in a duel, both because theBaron had, on a former occasion, shed blood of the clan, thoughthe matter had been timely accommodated, and on account of hishigh reputation for address at his weapon, which Fergus almostcondescended to envy. For the same reason she had urged theirreconciliation, which the Chieftain the more readily agreed to asit favoured some ulterior projects of his own.

  To this young lady, now presiding at the female empire of the tea-table, Fergus introduced Captain Waverley, whom she received withthe usual forms of politeness.