Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XXXII

  A CONFERENCE, AND THE CONSEQUENCE

  Major Melville had detained Mr. Morton during his examination ofWaverley, both because he thought he might derive assistance from hispractical good sense and approved loyalty, and also because it wasagreeable to have a witness of unimpeached candour and veracity toproceedings which touched the honour and safety of a young Englishman ofhigh rank and family, and the expectant heir of a large fortune. Everystep he knew would be rigorously canvassed, and it was his business toplace the justice and integrity of his own conduct beyond the limits ofquestion.

  When Waverley retired, the laird and clergyman of Cairnvreckan sat downin silence to their evening meal. While the servants were in attendance,neither chose to say anything on the circumstances which occupied theirminds, and neither felt it easy to speak upon any other. The youth andapparent frankness of Waverley stood in strong contrast to the shadesof suspicion which darkened around him, and he had a sort of NAIVETE andopenness of demeanour, that seemed to belong to one unhackneyed in theways of intrigue, and which pleaded highly in his favour.

  Each mused over the particulars of the examination, and each viewed itthrough the medium of his own feelings. Both were men of ready and acutetalent, and both were equally competent to combine various parts ofevidence, and to deduce from them the necessary conclusions. But thewide difference of their habits and education often occasioned a greatdiscrepancy in their respective deductions from admitted premises.

  Major Melville had been versed in camps and cities; he was vigilant byprofession, and cautious from experience; had met with much evil inthe world, and therefore, though himself an upright magistrate and anhonourable man, his opinions of others were always strict, and sometimesunjustly severe. Mr. Morton, on the contrary, had passed from theliterary pursuits of a college, where he was beloved by his companions,and respected by his teachers, to the ease and simplicity of his presentcharge, where his opportunities of witnessing evil were few, and neverdwelt upon but in order to encourage repentance and amendment; and wherethe love and respect of his parishioners repaid his affectionate zeal intheir behalf, by endeavouring to disguise from him what they knewwould give him the most acute pain, namely, their own occasionaltransgressions of the duties which it was the business of his life torecommend. Thus it was a common saying in the neighbourhood (thoughboth wore popular characters), that the laird knew only the ill in theparish, and the minister only the good.

  A love of letters, though kept in subordination to his clerical studiesand duties, also distinguished the pastor of Cairnvreckan, and hadtinged his mind in earlier days with a slight feeling of romance, whichno after incidents of real life had entirely dissipated. The early lossof an amiable young woman, whom he had married for love, and who wasquickly followed to the grave by an only child, had also served, evenafter the lapse of many years, to soften a disposition naturally mildand contemplative. His feelings on the present occasion were thereforelikely to differ from those of the severe disciplinarian, strictmagistrate, and distrustful man of the world.

  When the servants had withdrawn, the silence of both parties continued,until Major Melville, filling his glass, and pushing the bottle to Mr.Morton, commenced. 'A distressing affair this, Mr. Morton. I fear thisyoungster has brought himself within the compass of a halter.'

  'God forbid!' answered the clergyman.

  'Marry, and amen,' said the temporal magistrate; 'but I think even yourmerciful logic will hardly deny the conclusion.'

  'Surely, Major,' answered the clergyman, 'I should hope it might beaverted, for aught we have heard to-night?'

  'Indeed!' replied Melville. 'But, my good parson, you are one of thosewho would communicate to every criminal the benefit of clergy.'

  'Unquestionably I would: mercy and long-suffering are the grounds of thedoctrine I am called to teach.'

  'True, religiously speaking; but mercy to a criminal may be grossinjustice to the community. I don't speak of this young fellow inparticular, who I heartily wish may be able to clear himself, for Ilike both his modesty and his spirit. But I fear he has rushed upon hisfate.'

  'And why? Hundreds of misguided gentlemen are now in arms against theGovernment; many, doubtless, upon principles which education andearly prejudice have gilded with the names of patriotism andheroism;--Justice, when she selects her victims from such a multitude(for surely all will not be destroyed), must regard the moral motive.He whom ambition, or hope of personal advantage, has led to disturb thepeace of a well-ordered government, let him fall a victim to the laws;but surely youth, misled by the wild visions of chivalry and imaginaryloyalty, may plead for pardon.'

  'If visionary chivalry and imaginary loyalty come within the predicamentof high treason,' replied the magistrate, 'I know no court inChristendom, my dear Mr. Morton, where they can sue out their HabeasCorpus.'

  'But I cannot see that this youth's guilt is at all established to mysatisfaction,' said the clergyman.

  'Because your good nature blinds your good sense,' replied MajorMelville. 'Observe now: this young man, descended of a family ofhereditary Jacobites, his uncle the leader of the Tory interest in thecounty of--, his father a disobliged and discontented courtier, histutor a nonjuror, and the author of two treasonable volumes--this youth,I say, enters into Gardiner's dragoons, bringing with him a body-ofyoung fellows from his uncle's estate, who have not stickled atavowing, in their way, the High Church principles they learned atWaverley-Honour, in their disputes with their comrades. To these youngmen Waverley is unusually attentive; they are supplied with money beyonda soldier's wants, and inconsistent with his discipline; and are underthe management of a favourite sergeant, through whom they hold anunusually close communication with their captain, and affect to considerthemselves as independent of the other officers, and superior to theircomrades.'

  'All this, my dear Major, is the natural consequence of their attachmentto their young landlord, and of their finding themselves in a regimentlevied chiefly in the north of Ireland and the west of Scotland, and ofcourse among comrades disposed to quarrel with them, both as Englishmen,and as members of the Church of England.'

  'Well said, parson!' replied the magistrate.--'I would some of yoursynod heard you.--But let me go on. This young man obtains leaveof absence, goes to Tully-Veolan--the principles of the Baron ofBradwardine are pretty well known, not to mention that this lad's unclebrought him off in the year fifteen; he engages there in a brawl, inwhich he is said to have disgraced the commission he bore; ColonelGardiner writes to him, first mildly, then more sharply--I think youwill not doubt his having done so, since he says so; the mess invitehim to explain the quarrel in which he is said to have been involved; heneither replies to his commander nor his comrades. In the meanwhile, hissoldiers become mutinous and disorderly, and at length, when the rumourof this unhappy rebellion becomes general, his favourite SergeantHoughton, and another fellow, are detected in correspondence with aFrench emissary, accredited, as he says, by Captain Waverley, who urgeshim, according to the men's confession, to desert with the troop andjoin their captain, who was with Prince Charles. In the meanwhile thistrusty captain is, by his own admission, residing at Glennaquoich withthe most active, subtle, and desperate Jacobite in Scotland; he goeswith him at least as far as their famous hunting rendezvous, and Ifear a little farther. Meanwhile two other summonses are sent him;one warning him of the disturbances in his troop, another peremptorilyordering him to repair to the regiment, which, indeed, common sensemight have dictated, when he observed rebellion thickening all roundhim. He returns an absolute refusal, and throws up his commission.'

  'He had been already deprived of it,' said Mr. Morton.

  'But he regrets,' replied Melville, 'that the measure had anticipatedhis resignation. His baggage is seized at his quarters, and atTully-Veolan, and is found to contain a stock of pestilent jacobiticalpamphlets, enough to poison a whole country, besides the unprintedlucubrations of his worthy friend and tutor Mr. Pembroke.

  '
He says he never read them,' answered the minister.

  'In an ordinary case I should believe him,' replied the magistrate, 'forthey are as stupid and pedantic in composition, as mischievous in theirtenets. But can you suppose anything but value for the principles theymaintain would induce a young man of his age to lug such trash aboutwith him? Then, when news arrive of the approach of the rebels, he setsout in a sort of disguise, refusing to tell his name; and, if yon oldfanatic tell truth, attended by a very suspicious character, and mountedon a horse known to have belonged to Glennaquoich, and bearing on hisperson letters from his family expressing high rancour against the houseof Brunswick, and a copy of verses in praise of one Wogan, who abjuredthe service of the Parliament to join the Highland insurgents, when inarms to restore the house of Stuart, with a body of English cavalry thevery counterpart of his own plot--and summed up with a "Go thou anddo likewise," from that loyal subject, and most safe and peaceablecharacter, Fergus Mac-Ivor of Glennaquoich, Vich Ian Vohr, and so forth.And, lastly,' continued Major Melville, warming in the detail of hisarguments, 'where do we find this second edition of Cavalier Wogan? Why,truly, in the very track most proper for execution of his design, andpistolling the first of the king's subjects who ventures to question hisintentions.'

  Mr. Morton prudently abstained from argument, which he perceived wouldonly harden the magistrate in his opinion, and merely asked how heintended to dispose of the prisoner?

  'It is a question of some difficulty, considering the state of thecountry,' said Major Melville.

  'Could you not detain him (being such a gentleman-like young man) herein your own house, out of harm's way, till this storm blow over?'

  'My good friend,' said Major Melville, 'neither your house nor mine willbe long out of harm's way, even were it legal to confine him here. Ihave just learned that the commander-in-chief, who marched into theHighlands to seek out and disperse the insurgents, has declined givingthem battle at Corryerick, and marched on northward with all thedisposable force of Government to Inverness, John-o'-Groat's House, orthe devil, for what I know, leaving the road to the Low Country open andundefended to the Highland army.'

  'Good God!' said the clergyman. 'Is the man a coward, a traitor, or anidiot?'

  'None of the three, I believe,' answered Melville. 'Sir John has thecommonplace courage of a common soldier, is honest enough, does what heis commanded, and understands what is told him, but is as fit to act forhimself in circumstances of importance, as I, my dear parson, to occupyyour pulpit.'

  This important public intelligence naturally diverted the discourse fromWaverley for some time; at length, however, the subject was resumed.

  'I believe,' said Major Melville, 'that I must give this young man incharge to some of the detached parties of armed volunteers, who werelately sent out to overawe the disaffected districts, They are nowrecalled towards Stirling, and a small body comes this way to-morrow ornext day, commanded by the westland man,--what's his name?--You saw him,and said he was the very model of one of Cromwell's military saints,'

  Gilfillan, the Cameronian,' answered Mr. Morton. 'I wish the younggentleman may be safe with him. Strange things are done in the heat andhurry of minds in so agitating a crisis, and I fear Gilfillan is of asect which has suffered persecution without learning mercy.'

  'He has only to lodge Mr. Waverley in Stirling Castle,' said the Major:'I will give strict injunctions to treat him well. I really cannotdevise any better mode for securing him, and I fancy you would hardlyadvise me to encounter the responsibility of setting him at liberty.'

  'But you will have no objection to my seeing him tomorrow in private?'said the minister.

  'None, certainly; your loyalty and character are my warrant. But withwhat view do you make the request?'

  'Simply,' replied Mr. Morton, 'to make the experiment whether he may notbe brought to communicate to me some circumstances which may hereafterbe useful to alleviate, if not to exculpate his conduct.'

  The friends now parted and retired to rest, each filled with the mostanxious reflections on the state of the country.