Waverley, as we have elsewhere observed, possessed at times a wonderful flow of rhetoric; and, on the present occasion, he touched more than once the higher notes of feeling, and then again ran off in a wild voluntary of fanciful mirth.He was supported and excited by kindred spirits, who felt the same impulse of mood and time; and even those of more cold and calculating habits were hurried along by the torrent.Many ladies declined the dance, which still went forward, and, under various pretences, joined the party to which the ``handsome young Englishman'' seemed to have attached himself.He was presented to several of the first rank, and his manners, which for the present were altogether free from the bashful restraint by which, in a moment of less excitation, they were usually clouded, gave universal delight.
Flora Mac-Ivor appeared to be the only female present who regarded him with a degree of coldness and reserve; yet even she could not suppress a sort of wonder at talents, which, in the course of their acquaintance, she had never seen displayed with equal brilliancy and impressive effect.I do not know whether she might not feel a momentary regret at having taken so decisive a resolution upon the addresses of a lover, who seemed fitted so well to fill a high place in the highest stations of society.Certainly she had hitherto accounted among the incurable deficiencies of Edward's disposition, the mauvaise honte, which, as she had been educated in the first foreign circles, and was little acquainted with the shyness of English manners, was, in her opinion, too nearly related to timidity and imbecility of disposition.But if a passing wish occurred that Waverley could have rendered himself uniformly thus amiable and attractive, its influence was momentary; for circumstances had arisen since they met, which rendered, in her eyes, the resolution she had formed respecting him, final and irrevocable.
With opposite feelings, Rose Bradwardine bent her whole soul to listen.She felt a secret triumph at the public tribute paid to one whose merit she had learned to prize too early and too fondly.Without a thought of jealousy, without a feeling of fear, pain, or doubt, and undisturbed by a single selfish consideration, she resigned herself to the pleasure of observing the general murmur of applause.When Waverley spoke, her ear was exclusively filled with his voice; when others answered, her eye took its turn of observation, and seemed to watch his reply.Perhaps the delight which she experienced in the course of that evening, though transient, and followed by much sorrow, was in its nature the most pure and disinterested which the human mind is capable of enjoying.
``Baron,'' said the Chevalier, ``I would not trust my mistress in the company of your young friend.He is really, though perhaps somewhat romantic, one of the most fascinating young men whom I have ever seen.''
``And by my honour, sir,'' replied the Baron, ``the lad can sometimes be as dowff as a sexagenary like myself.If your Royal Highness had seen him dreaming and dozing about the banks of Tully-Veolan like an hypochondriac person, or, as Burton's Anatomia hath it, a phrenesiac or lethargic patient, you would wonder where he hath sae suddenly acquired all this fine sprack festivity and jocularity.''
``Truly,'' said Fergus Mac-Ivor, ``I think it can only be the inspiration of the tartans; for, though Waverley be always a young fellow of sense and honour, I have hitherto often found him a very absent and inattentive companion.''
``We are the more obliged to him,'' said the Prince, ``for having reserved for this evening qualities which even such intimate friends had not discovered.---But come, gentlemen, the night advances, and the business of to-morrow must be early thought upon.Each take charge of his fair partner, and honour a small refreshment with your company.''
He led the way to another suite of apartments, and assumed the seat and canopy at the head of a long range of tables, with an air of dignity mingled with courtesy, which well became his high birth and lofty pretensions.An hour had hardly flown away when the musicians played the signal for parting, so well known in Scotland.<*>
* Which is, or was wont to be, the old air of ``Good-night, and joy be wi * you a'!''
``Good-night, then,'' said the Chevalier, rising; ``Good-night, and joy be with you!---Good-night, fair ladies, who have so highly honoured a proscribed and banished Prince.---Good-night, my brave friends---may the happiness we have this evening experienced be an omen of our return to these our paternal halls, speedily and in triumph, and of many and many future meetings of mirth and pleasure in the palace of Holyrood!''
When the Baron of Bradwardine afterwards mentioned this adieu of the Chevalier, he never failed to repeat, in a melancholy tone, Audiit, et voti Ph<oe>bus succedere partem Mente dedit; partem volucres dispersit in auras;``which,'' as he added, ``is weel rendered into English metre by my friend Bangour:
Ae half the prayer, wi' Ph<oe>bus grace did find, The t'other half he whistled down the wind.''
