Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — CompleteScott, Walter
History
Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — Complete
Scott, Walter
Historical fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Fiction; Scotland -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction
Hail to thee, them holy herb,
That sprung on holy ground!
All in the Mount Olivet
First wert thou found.
Thou art boot for many a bruise,
And healest many a wound;
In our Lady's blessed name,
I take thee from the ground.
[Footnote: This metrical spell, or something very like it, is preserved
by Reginald Scott in his work on Witchcraft.]
Edward observed with some surprise that even Fergus, notwithstanding
his knowledge and education, seemed to fall in with the superstitious
ideas of his countrymen, either because he deemed it impolitic to
affect scepticism on a matter of general belief, or more probably
because, ike most men who do not think deeply or accurately on such
subjects, he had in his mind a reserve of superstition which balanced
the freedom of his expressions and practice upon other occasions.
Waverley made no commentary, therefore, on the manner of the treatment,
but rewarded the professor of medicine with a liberality beyond the
utmost conception of his wildest hopes. He uttered on the occasion so
many incoherent blessings in Gaelic and English that Mac-Ivor, rather
scandalised at the excess of his acknowledgments, cut them short by
exclaiming, Ceud mile mhalloich ort! i.e. 'A hundred thousand curses on
you!' and so pushed the helper of men out of the cabin.
After Waverley was left alone, the exhaustion of pain and fatigue--for
the whole day's exercise had been severe--threw him into a profound,
but yet a feverish sleep, which he chiefly owed to an opiate draught
administered by the old Highlander from some decoction of herbs in his
pharmacopoeia.
Early the next morning, the purpose of their meeting being over, and
their sports damped by the untoward accident, in which Fergus and all
his friends expressed the greatest sympathy, it became a question how
to dispose of the disabled sportsman. This was settled by Mac-Ivor, who
had a litter prepared, of 'birch and hazel-grey,'
[FOOTNOTE:
On the morrow they made their biers
Of birch and hazel grey. Chevy Chase.]
which was borne by his people with such caution and dexterity as
renders it not improbable that they may have been the ancestors of some
of those sturdy Gael who have now the happiness to transport the belles
of Edinburgh in their sedan-chairs to ten routs in one evening. When
Edward was elevated upon their shoulders he could not help being
gratified with the romantic effect produced by the breaking up of this
sylvan camp. [Footnote: See Note 25.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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