Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since
Page 7
CHAPTER VI
THE ADIEUS OF WAVERLEY
It was upon the evening of this memorable Sunday that Sir Everardentered the library, where he narrowly missed surprising our young heroas he went through the guards of the broadsword with the ancient weaponof old Sir Hildebrand, which, being preserved as an heirloom, usuallyhung over the chimney in the library, beneath a picture of the knightand his horse, where the features were almost entirely hidden by theknight's profusion of curled hair, and the Bucephalus which he bestrodeconcealed by the voluminous robes of the Bath with which he wasdecorated. Sir Everard entered, and after a glance at the picture andanother at his nephew, began a little speech, which, however, soondropped into the natural simplicity of his common manner, agitated uponthe present occasion by no common feeling. 'Nephew,' he said; and then,as mending his phrase, 'My dear Edward, it is God's will, and also thewill of your father, whom, under God, it is your duty to obey, that youshould leave us to take up the profession of arms, in which so many ofyour ancestors have been distinguished. I have made such arrangementsas will enable you to take the field as their descendant, and as theprobable heir of the house of Waverley; and, sir, in the field of battleyou will remember what name you bear. And, Edward, my dear boy, rememberalso that you are the last of that race, and the only hope of itsrevival depends upon you; therefore, as far as duty and honour willpermit, avoid danger--I mean unnecessary danger--and keep no companywith rakes, gamblers, and Whigs, of whom, it is to be feared, there arebut too many in the service into which you are going. Your colonel, asI am informed, is an excellent man--for a Presbyterian; but you willremember your duty to God, the Church of England, and the--' (thisbreach ought to have been supplied, according to the rubric, withthe word KING; but as, unfortunately, that word conveyed a double andembarrassing sense, one meaning DE FACTO, and the other DE JURE, theknight filled up the blank otherwise)--'the Church of England, and allconstituted authorities.' Then, not trusting himself with any furtheroratory, he carried his nephew to his stables to see the horses destinedfor his campaign. Two were black (the regimental colour), superbchargers both; the other three were stout active hacks, designed forthe road, or for his domestics, of whom two were to attend him from theHall: an additional groom, if necessary, might be picked up in Scotland.
'You will depart with but a small retinue,' quoth the Baronet, 'comparedto Sir Hildebrand, when he mustered before the gate of the Hall a largerbody of horse than your whole regiment consists of. I could have wishedthat these twenty young fellows from my estate, who have enlisted inyour troop, had been to march with you on your journey to Scotland.It would have been something, at least; but I am told their attendancewould be thought unusual in these days, when every new and foolishfashion is introduced to break the natural dependence of the people upontheir landlords.'
Sir Everard had done his best to correct this unnatural disposition ofthe times; for he had brightened the chain of attachment between therecruits and their young captain, not only by a copious repast of beefand ale, by way of parting feast, but by such a pecuniary donation toeach individual, as tended rather to improve the conviviality than thediscipline of their march. After inspecting the cavalry, Sir Everardagain conducted his nephew to the library, where he produced a letter,carefully folded, surrounded by a little stripe of flox-silk, accordingto ancient form, and sealed with an accurate impression of the Waverleycoat-of-arms. It was addressed, with great formality, 'To CosmoComyne Bradwardine, Esq. of Bradwardine, at his principal mansion ofTully-Veolan, in Perthshire, North Britain, These--By the handsof Captain Edward Waverley, nephew of Sir Everard Waverley, ofWaverley-Honour, Bart.'
The gentleman to whom this enormous greeting was addressed, of whom weshall have more to say in the sequel, had been in arms for the exiledfamily of Stuart in the year 1715, and was made prisoner at Preston inLancashire. He was of a very ancient family, and somewhat embarrassedfortune; a scholar, according to the scholarship of Scotchmen, that is,his learning was more diffuse than accurate, and he was rather a readerthan a grammarian. Of his zeal for the classic authors he is said tohave given an uncommon instance. On the road between Preston and Londonhe made his escape from his guards; but being afterwards foundloitering near the place where they had lodged the former night, he wasrecognized, and again arrested. His companions, and even his escort,were surprised at his infatuation, and could not help inquiring, why,being once at liberty, he had not made the best of his way to a place ofsafety; to which he replied, that he had intended to do so, but, in goodfaith, he had returned to seek his Titus Livius, which he had forgot inthe hurry of his escape. [2] The simplicity of this anecdotestruck the gentleman, who, as we before observed, had managed thedefence of some of those unfortunate persons, at the expense of SirEverard, and perhaps some others of the party. He was, besides, himselfa special admirer of the old Patavinian; and though probably his ownzeal might not have carried him such extravagant lengths, even torecover the edition of Sweynheim and Pannartz (supposed to be theprinceps), he did not the less estimate the devotion of the NorthBriton, and in consequence exerted himself to so much purpose to removeand soften evidence, detect legal flaws, ET CETERA, that he accomplishedthe final discharge and deliverance of Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine fromcertain very awkward consequences of a plea before our sovereign lordthe king in Westminster.
The Baron of Bradwardine, for he was generally so called in Scotland(although his intimates, from his place of residence, used to denominatehim. Tully-Veolan, or more familiarly, Tully), no sooner stood RECTUSIN CURIA, than he posted down to pay his respects and make hisacknowledgements at Waverley-Honour. A congenial passion for fieldsports, and a general coincidence in political opinions, cemented hisfriendship with Sir Everard, notwithstanding the difference of theirhabits and studies in other particulars; and, having spent several weeksat Waverley-Honour, the Baron departed with many expressions of regard,warmly pressing the Baronet to return his visit, and partake of thediversion of grouse-shooting upon his moors in Perthshire nextseason. Shortly after, Mr. Bradwardine remitted from Scotland a sumin reimbursement of expenses incurred in the King's High Court ofWestminster, which, although not quite so formidable when reduced tothe English denomination, had, in its original form of Scotch pounds,shillings, and pence, such a formidable effect upon the frame of DuncanMacwheeble, the laird's confidential factor, baron-bailie, and man ofresource, that he had a fit of the colic which lasted for five days,occasioned, he said, solely and utterly by becoming the unhappyinstrument of conveying such a serious sum of money out of his nativecountry into the hands of the false English. But patriotism as it is thefairest, so it is often the most suspicious mask of other feelings;and many who knew Bailie Macwheeble, concluded that his professions ofregret were not altogether disinterested, and that he would have grudgedthe moneys paid to the LOONS at Westminster much less had they not comefrom Bradwardine estate, a fund which he considered as more particularlyhis own. But the Bailie protested he was absolutely disinterested--
Woe, woe, for Scotland, not a whit for me!
The laird was only rejoiced that his worthy friend, Sir Everard Waverleyof Waverley-Honour, was reimbursed of the expenditure which he hadoutlaid on account of the house of Bradwardine. It concerned, he said,the credit of his own family, and of the kingdom of Scotland at large,that these disbursements should be repaid forthwith, and, if delayed, ifwould be a matter of national reproach. Sir Everard, accustomed to treatmuch larger sums with indifference, received the remittance of 294l.13s. 6d., without being aware that the payment was an internationalconcern, and, indeed, would probably have forgot the circumstancealtogether, if Bailie Macwheeble had thought of comforting his colic byintercepting the subsidy. A yearly intercourse took place, of a shortletter, and a hamper or a cask or two, between Waverley-Honour andTully-Veolan, the English exports consisting of mighty cheeses andmightier ale, pheasants and venison, and the Scottish returns beingvested in grouse, white hares, pickled salmon, and usquebaugh. All whichwere meant, sent, and receiv
ed, as pledges of constant friendship andamity between two important houses. It followed as a matter of course,that the heir-apparent of Waverley-Honour could not, with propriety,visit Scotland without being furnished with credentials to the Baron ofBradwardine.
When this matter was explained and settled, Mr. Pembroke expressed hiswish to take a private and particular leave of his dear pupil. The goodman's exhortations to Edward to preserve an unblemished life and morals,to hold fast the principles of the Christian religion, and to eschew theprofane company of scoffers and latitudinarians, too much aboundingin the army, were not unmingled with his political prejudices. It hadpleased Heaven, he said, to place Scotland (doubtless for the sins oftheir ancestors in 1642) in a more deplorable state of darkness thaneven this unhappy kingdom of England. Here, at least, although thecandlestick of the Church of England had been in some degree removedfrom its place, it yet afforded a glimmering light; there was ahierarchy, though schismatical, and fallen from the principlesmaintained by those great fathers of the church, Sancroft and hisbrethren; there was a liturgy, though wofully perverted in some ofthe principal petitions. But in Scotland it was utter darkness; and,excepting a sorrowful, scattered, and persecuted remnant, the pulpitswere abandoned to Presbyterians, and he feared, to sectaries of everydescription. It should be his duty to fortify his dear pupil to resistsuch unhallowed and pernicious doctrines in church and state, as mustnecessarily be forced at times upon his unwilling ears.
Here he produced two immense folded packets, which appeared each tocontain a whole ream of closely-written manuscript. They had been thelabour of the worthy man's whole life; and never were labour and zealmore absurdly wasted. He had at one time gone to London, with theintention of giving them to the world, by the medium of a bookseller inLittle Britain, well known to deal in such commodities, and to whom hewas instructed to address himself in a particular phrase, and with acertain sign, which, it seems, passed at that time current among theinitiated Jacobites. The moment Mr. Pembroke had uttered theshibboleth, with the appropriate gesture, the bibliopolist greetedhim, notwithstanding every disclamation, by the title of Doctor, andconveying him into his back shop, after inspecting every possible andimpossible place of concealment, he commenced: 'Eh, doctor! Well--allunder the rose--snug--I keep no holes here even for a Hanoverian ratto hide in. And, what--eh! any good news from our friends over thewater?--and how does the worthy king of France? Or perhaps you are morelately from Rome?--it must be Rome will do it at last--the church mustlight its candle at the old lamp. Eh! what, cautious? I like you thebetter; but no fear.'
Here Mr. Pembroke, with some difficulty, stopped a torrent ofinterrogations, eked out with signs, nods, and winks; and, having atlength convinced the bookseller that he did him too much honour insupposing him an emissary of exiled royalty, he explained his actualbusiness.
The man of books, with a much more composed air, proceeded to examinethe manuscripts. The title of the first was 'A Dissent from Dissenters,or the Comprehension confuted; showing the Impossibility of anyComposition between the Church and Puritans, Presbyterians, or Sectariesof any Description; illustrated from the Scriptures, the fathers ofthe Church, and the soundest Controversial Divines.' To this work thebookseller positively demurred. 'Well meant,' he said, 'and learned,doubtless; but the time had gone by. Printed on small pica it wouldrun to eight hundred pages, and could never pay. Begged therefore to beexcused. Loved and honoured the true church from his soul; and, had itbeen a sermon on the martyrdom, or any twelve-penny touch--why I wouldventure something for the honour of the cloth. But come, let's seethe other. 'Right Hereditary righted!' ah, there's some sense in this!Hum--hum--hum--pages so many, paper so much, letterpress--Ah! I'll tellyou, though, doctor, you must knock out some of the Latin and Greek;heavy, doctor, damn'd heavy--(beg your pardon) and if you throw in afew grains more pepper--I am he that never peached my author--I havepublished for Drake, and Charlwood Lawton, and poor Amhurst. [3]--Ah,Caleb! Caleb! Well, it was a shame to let poor Caleb starve,and so many fat rectors and squires among us. I gave him a dinner oncea week; but, Lord love you, what's once a week, when a man does not knowwhere to go the other six days?--Well, but I must show the manuscriptto little Tom Alibi the solicitor, who manages all my law affairs--mustkeep on the windy side--the mob were very uncivil the last time Imounted in Old Palace Yard--all Whigs and Roundheads every man of them,Williamites and Hanover rats.'
The next day Mr. Pembroke again called on the publisher, but found TomAlibi's advice had determined him against undertaking the work. 'Not butwhat I would go to--(what was I going to say?) to the Plantations forthe church with pleasure--but, dear doctor, I have a wife and family;but, to show my zeal, I'll recommend the job to my neighbour Trimmel--heis a bachelor, and leaving off business, so a voyage in a western bargewould not inconvenience him.' But Mr. Trimmel was also obdurate, and Mr.Pembroke, fortunately perchance for himself, was compelled to return toWaverley-Honour with his treatise in vindication of the real fundamentalprinciples of church and state safely packed in his saddle-bags.
As the public were thus likely to be deprived of the benefit arisingfrom his lucubrations by the selfish cowardice of the trade, Mr.Pembroke resolved to make two copies of these tremendous manuscripts forthe use of his pupil. He felt that he had been indolent as a tutor, and,besides, his conscience checked him for complying with the request ofMr. Richard Waverley, that he would impress no sentiments upon Edward'smind inconsistent with the present settlement in church and state. Butnow, thought he, I may, without breach of my word, since he is no longerunder my tuition, afford the youth the means of judging for himself, andhave only to dread his reproaches for so long concealing the lightwhich the perusal will flash upon his mind. While he thus indulged thereveries of an author and a politician, his darling proselyte, seeingnothing very inviting in the title of the tracts, and appalled by thebulk and compact lines of the manuscript, quietly consigned them to acorner of his travelling trunk.
Aunt Rachel's farewell was brief and affectionate. She only cautionedher dear Edward, whom she probably deemed somewhat susceptible, againstthe fascination of Scottish beauty. She allowed that the northern partof the island contained some ancient families, but they were all Whigsand Presbyterians except the Highlanders; and respecting them she mustneeds say, there could be no great delicacy among the ladies, where thegentlemen's usual attire was, as she had been assured, to say the least,very singular, and not at all decorous. She concluded her farewell witha kind and moving benediction, and gave the young officer, as a pledgeof her regard, a valuable diamond ring (often worn by the male sexat that time), and a purse of broad gold pieces, which also were morecommon Sixty Years since than they have been of late.