We shall not attempt to describe the meeting of the father and daughter---loving each other so affectionately, and separated tunder such perilous circumstances.Still less shall we attempt to analyze the deep blush of Rose at receiving the compliments of Waverley, or stop to inquire whether she had any curiosity respecting the particular cause of his journey to Scotland at that period.We shall not even trouble the reader with the humdrum details of a courtship Sixty Years since.It is enough to say, that under so strict a martinet as the Baron all things were, conducted in due form.He took upon himself, the morning after their arrival, the task of announcing the proposal of Waverley to Rose, which she heard with a proper degree of maiden timidity.Fame does, however, say, that Waverley had, the evening before, found five minutes to apprize her of what was coming, while the rest of the company were looking at three twisted serpents which formed a _jet d'eau_ in the garden.
My fair readers will judge for themselves; but, for my part, I cannot conceive how so important an affair could be communicated in so short a space of time;--at least, it certainly took a full hour in the Baron's mode of conveying it.
Waverley was now considered as a received lover in all the forms.He was made, by dint of smirking and nodding on the part of the lady of the house, to sit next to Miss Bradwardine at dinner, to be Miss Bradwardine's partner at cards.If he came into the room, she of the four Miss Rubricks who chanced to be next Rose was sure to recollect that her thimble, or her scissors, were at the other end of the room, in order to leave the seat nearest to Miss Bradwardine vacant for his occupation.
And sometimes, if papa and mamma were not in the way to keep them on their good behaviour, the Misses would titter a little.The old Laird of Duchran would also have his occasional jest, and the old lady her remark.Even the Baron could not refrain; but here Rose escaped every embarrassment but that of conjecture, for his wit was usually couched in a Latin quotation.
The very footmen sometimes grinned too broadly, the maid-servants giggled mayhap too loud, and a provoking air of intelligence seemed to pervade the whole family.Alice Bean, the pretty maid of the cavern, who, after her father's _misfortune,_as she called it, had attended Rose as fille-de-chambre, smiled and smirked with the best of them.Rose and Edward, however, endured all these little vexatious circumstances as other folks have done before and since, and probably contrived to obtain some idemnification, since they are not supposed, on the whole, to have been particularly unhappy during Waverley's six days'
stay at the Duchran.
It was finally arranged that Edward should go to Waverley-Honour to make the necessary arrangements for his marriage, thence to London to take the proper measures for pleading his pardon, and return as soon as possible to claim the hand of his plighted bride.He also intended in his journey to visit Colonel Talbot; but above all, it was his most important object to learn the fate of the unfortunate Chief of Glennaquoich; to visit him at Carlisle, and to try whether anything could be done for procuring, if not a pardon, a commutation at least, or alleviation, of the punishment to which he was almost certain of being condemned;---and in case of the worst, to offer the miserable Flora an asylum with Rose, or otherwise to assist her views in any mode which might seem possible.The fate of Fergus seemed hard to be averted.Edward had already striven to interest his friend Colonel Talbot in his behalf; but had been given distinctly to understand, by his reply, that his credit in matters of that nature was totally exhausted.
The Colonel was still in Edinburgh, and proposed to wait there for some months upon business confided to him by the Duke of Cumberland.He was to be joined by Lady Emily, to whom easy travelling and goat's whey were recommended, and who was to journey northward under the escort of Francis Stanley.Edward, therefore, met the Colonel at Edinburgh, who wished him joy in the kindest manner on his approaching happiness, and cheerfully undertook many commissions which our hero was necessarily obliged to delegate to his charge.
But on the subject of Fergus he was inexorable.He satisfied Edward, indeed, that his interference would be unavailing;but besides, Colonel Talbot owned that he could not conscientiously use any influence in favour of that unfortunate gentleman.
``Justice,'' he said, ``which demanded some penalty of those who had wrapped the whole nation in fear and in mourning, could not perhaps have selected a fitter victim.He came to the field with the fullest light upon the nature of his attempt.
He had studied and understood the subject.His father's fate could not intimidate him; the lenity of the laws which had restored to him his father's property and rights could not melt him.That he was brave, generous, and possessed many good qualities, only rendered him the more dangerous; that he was enlightened and accomplished made his crime the less excusable;that he was an enthusiast in a wrong cause only made him the more fit to be its martyr.Above all, he had been the means of bringing many hundreds of men into the field who, without him, would never have broken the peace of the country.''
``I repeat it,'' said the Colonel, ``though Heaven knows with a heart distressed for him as an individual, that this young gentleman has studied and fully understood the desperate game which he has played.He threw for life or death, a coronet or a coffin; and he cannot now be permitted, with justice to the country, to draw stakes because the dice have gone against him.''
Such was the reasoning of those times, held even by brave and humane men towards a vanquished enemy.Let us devoutly hope that, in this respect at least, we shall never see the scenes, or hold the sentiments, that were general in Britain Sixty Years since.
