Historical fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Fiction; Scotland -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction
At length the mixed and wavering multitude arranged themselves into a
narrow and dusky column of great length, stretching through the whole
extent of the valley. In the front of the column the standard of the
Chevalier was displayed, bearing at red cross upon a white ground,
with the motto TANDEM TRIUMPHANS. The few cavalry being chiefly Lowland
gentry, with their domestic servants and retainers, formed the advanced
guard of the army; and their standards, of which they had rather too
many in respect of their numbers, were seen waving upon the extreme
verge of the horizon. Many horsemen of this body, among whom Waverley
accidentally remarked Balmawhapple, and his lieutenant, Jinker (which
last, however, had been reduced, with several others, by the advice of
the Baron of Bradwardine, to the situation of what he called reformed
officers, or reformadoes), added to the liveliness, though by no means
to the regularity, of the scene, by galloping their horses as fast
forward as the press would permit, to join their proper station in
the van. The fascinations of the Circes of the High Street, and the
potations of strength with which they had been drenched over night, had
probably detained these heroes within the walls of Edinburgh somewhat
later than was consistent with their morning duty. Of such loiterers,
the prudent took the longer and circuitous, but more open route, to
attain their place in the march, by keeping at some distance from the
infantry, and making their way through the enclosures to the right, at
the expense of leaping over or pulling down the dry-stone fences. The
irregular appearance and vanishing of these small parties of horsemen,
as well as the confusion occasioned by those who endeavoured, though
generally without effect, to press to the front through the crowd of
Highlanders, maugre their curses, oaths, and opposition, added to the
picturesque wildness what it took from the military regularity of the
scene.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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