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
Accordingly, the next letter which Edward opened was from Sir Everard.
His brother's disgrace seemed to have removed from his well-natured
bosom all recollection of their differences, and, remote as he was from
every means of learning that Richard's disgrace was in reality only the
just as well as natural consequence of his own unsuccessful intrigues,
the good but credulous Baronet at once set it down as a new and
enormous instance of the injustice of the existing government. It was
true, he said, and he must not disguise it even from Edward, that his
father could not have sustained such an insult as was now, for the
first time, offered to one of his house, unless he had subjected
himself to it by accepting of an employment under the present system.
Sir Everard had no doubt that he now both saw and felt the magnitude of
this error, and it should be his (Sir Everard's) business to take care
that the cause of his regret should not extend itself to pecuniary
consequences. It was enough for a Waverley to have sustained the public
disgrace; the patrimonial injury could easily be obviated by the head
of their family. But it was both the opinion of Mr. Richard Waverley
and his own that Edward, the representative of the family of
Waverley-Honour, should not remain in a situation which subjected him
also to such treatment as that with which his father had been
stigmatised. He requested his nephew therefore to take the fittest, and
at the same time the most speedy, opportunity of transmitting his
resignation to the War Office, and hinted, moreover, that little
ceremony was necessary where so little had been used to his father. He
sent multitudinous greetings to the Baron of Bradwardine.
A letter from Aunt Rachel spoke out even more plainly. She considered
the disgrace of brother Richard as the just reward of his forfeiting
his allegiance to a lawful though exiled sovereign, and taking the
oaths to an alien; a concession which her grandfather, Sir Nigel
Waverley, refused to make, either to the Roundhead Parliament or to
Cromwell, when his life and fortune stood in the utmost extremity. She
hoped her dear Edward would follow the footsteps of his ancestors, and
as speedily as possible get rid of the badge of servitude to the
usurping family, and regard the wrongs sustained by his father as an
admonition from Heaven that every desertion of the line of loyalty
becomes its own punishment. She also concluded with her respects to Mr.
Bradwardine, and begged Waverley would inform her whether his daughter,
Miss Rose, was old enough to wear a pair of very handsome ear-rings,
which she proposed to send as a token of her affection. The good lady
also desired to be informed whether Mr. Bradwardine took as much Scotch
snuff and danced as unweariedly as he did when he was at
Waverley-Honour about thirty years ago.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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