Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — Volume 2Scott, Walter
History
Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — Volume 2
Scott, Walter
Historical fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Fiction; Scotland -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction
Waverley, who was really much affected by the deep tone of
melancholy with which Fergus spoke, affectionately entreated him
to banish from his remembrance any unkindness which had arisen
between them, and they once more shook hands, but now with sincere
cordiality. Fergus again inquired of Waverley what he intended to
do. 'Had you not better leave this luckless army, and get down
before us into Scotland, and embark for the Continent from some of
the eastern ports that are still in our possession? When you are
out of the kingdom, your friends will easily negotiate your
pardon; and, to tell you the truth, I wish you would carry Rose
Bradwardine with you as your wife, and take Flora also under your
joint protection.'--Edward looked surprised.--'She loves you, and
I believe you love her, though, perhaps, you have not found it
out, for you are not celebrated for knowing your own mind very
pointedly.' He said this with a sort of smile.
'How,' answered Edward, 'can you advise me to desert the
expedition in which we are all embarked?'
'Embarked?' said Fergus; 'the vessel is going to pieces, and it is
full time for all who can to get into the long-boat and leave
her.'
'Why, what will other gentlemen do?' answered Waverley, 'and why
did the Highland Chiefs consent to this retreat if it is so
ruinous?'
'O,' replied Mac-Ivor, 'they think that, as on former occasions,
the heading, hanging, and forfeiting will chiefly fall to the lot
of the Lowland gentry; that they will be left secure in their
poverty and their fastnesses, there, according to their proverb,
"to listen to the wind upon the hill till the waters abate." But
they will be disappointed; they have been too often troublesome to
be so repeatedly passed over, and this time John Bull has been too
heartily frightened to recover his good-humour for some time. The
Hanoverian ministers always deserved to be hanged for rascals; but
now, if they get the power in their hands,--as, sooner or later,
they must, since there is neither rising in England nor assistance
from France,--they will deserve the gallows as fools if they leave
a single clan in the Highlands in a situation to be again
troublesome to government. Ay, they will make root-and-branch-
work, I warrant them.'
'And while you recommend flight to me,' said Edward,--'a counsel
which I would rather die than embrace,--what are your own views?'
'O,' answered Fergus, with a melancholy air, 'my fate is settled.
Dead or captive I must be before tomorrow.'
'What do you mean by that, my friend?' said Edward. 'The enemy is
still a day's march in our rear, and if he comes up, we are still
strong enough to keep him in check. Remember Gladsmuir.'
'What I tell you is true notwithstanding, so far as I am
individually concerned.'
'Upon what authority can you found so melancholy a prediction?'
asked Waverley.
'On one which never failed a person of my house. I have seen,' he
said, lowering his voice, 'I have seen the Bodach Glas.'
'Bodach Glas?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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