Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — Volume 1Scott, Walter
History
Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — Volume 1
Scott, Walter
Historical fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Fiction; Scotland -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction
conceived there might be objections on his part to his nephew's
following the glorious career of his predecessors. And, in short,
that Edward was now (the intermediate steps of cornet and
lieutenant being overleapt with great agility) Captain Waverley,
of Gardiner's regiment of dragoons, which he must join in their
quarters at Dundee in Scotland, in the course of a month.
Sir Everard Waverley received this intimation with a mixture of
feelings. At the period of the Hanoverian succession he had
withdrawn from parliament, and his conduct in the memorable year
1715 had not been altogether unsuspected. There were reports of
private musters of tenants and horses in Waverley-Chase by
moonlight, and of cases of carbines and pistols purchased in
Holland, and addressed to the Baronet, but intercepted by the
vigilance of a riding officer of the excise, who was afterwards
tossed in a blanket on a moonless night, by an association of
stout yeomen, for his officiousness. Nay, it was even said, that
at the arrest of Sir William Wyndham, the leader of the Tory
party, a letter from Sir Everard was found in the pocket of his
night-gown. But there was no overt act which an attainder could be
founded on, and government, contented with suppressing the
insurrection of 1715, felt it neither prudent nor safe to push
their vengeance farther than against those unfortunate gentlemen
who actually took up arms.
Nor did Sir Everard's apprehensions of personal consequences seem
to correspond with the reports spread among his Whig neighbours.
It was well known that he had supplied with money several of the
distressed Northumbrians and Scotchmen, who, after being made
prisoners at Preston in Lancashire, were imprisoned in Newgate and
the Marshalsea, and it was his solicitor and ordinary counsel who
conducted the defence of some of these unfortunate gentlemen at
their trial. It was generally supposed, however, that, had
ministers possessed any real proof of Sir Everard's accession to
the rebellion, he either would not have ventured thus to brave the
existing government, or at least would not have done so with
impunity. The feelings which then dictated his proceedings were
those of a young man, and at an agitating period. Since that time
Sir Everard's Jacobitism had been gradually decaying, like a fire
which burns out for want of fuel. His Tory and High-Church
principles were kept up by some occasional exercise at elections
and quarter-sessions; but those respecting hereditary right were
fallen into a sort of abeyance. Yet it jarred severely upon his
feelings, that his nephew should go into the army under the
Brunswick dynasty; and the more so, as, independent of his high
and conscientious ideas of paternal authority, it was impossible,
or at least highly imprudent, to interfere authoritatively to
prevent it. This suppressed vexation gave rise to many poohs and
pshaws which were placed to the account of an incipient fit of
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