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
'Eh, Lord's sake! d'ye no ken? The poor Hieland body, Dugald
Mahony, cam here a while syne, wi' ane o' his arms cuttit off, and
a sair clour in the head--ye'll mind Dugald, he carried aye an axe
on his shouther--and he cam here just begging, as I may say, for
something to eat. Aweel, he tauld us the Chief, as they ca'd him
(but I aye ca' him the Colonel), and Ensign Maccombich, that ye
mind weel, were ta'en somewhere beside the English border, when it
was sae dark that his folk never missed him till it was ower late,
and they were like to gang clean daft. And he said that little
Callum Beg (he was a bauld mischievous callant that) and your
honour were killed that same night in the tuilzie, and mony mae
braw men. But he grat when he spak o' the Colonel, ye never saw
the like. And now the word gangs the Colonel is to be tried, and
to suffer wi' them that were ta'en at Carlisle.'
'And his sister?'
'Ay, that they ca'd the Lady Flora--weel, she's away up to
Carlisle to him, and lives wi' some grand Papist lady thereabouts
to be near him.'
'And,' said Edward,'the other young lady?'
'Whilk other? I ken only of ae sister the Colonel had.'
'I mean Miss Bradwardine,' said Edward.
'Ou, ay; the laird's daughter' said his landlady. 'She was a very
bonny lassie, poor thing, but far shyer than Lady Flora.'
'Where is she, for God's sake?'
'Ou, wha kens where ony o' them is now? puir things, they're sair
ta'en doun for their white cockades and their white roses; but she
gaed north to her father's in Perthshire, when the government
troops cam back to Edinbro'. There was some prettymen amang them,
and ane Major Whacker was quartered on me, a very ceevil
gentleman,--but O, Mr. Waverley, he was naething sae weel fa'rd
as the puir Colonel.'
'Do you know what is become of Miss Bradwardine's father?'
'The auld laird? na, naebody kens that. But they say he fought
very hard in that bluidy battle at Inverness; and Deacon Clank,
the whit-iron smith, says that the government folk are sair agane
him for having been out twice; and troth he might hae ta'en
warning, but there's nae Me like an auld fule. The puir Colonel
was only out ance.'
Such conversation contained almost all the good-natured widow knew
of the fate of her late lodgers and acquaintances; but it was
enough to determine Edward, at all hazards, to proceed instantly
to Tully-Veolan, where he concluded he should see, or at least
hear, something of Rose. He therefore left a letter for Colonel
Talbot at the place agreed upon, signed by his assumed name, and
giving for his address the post-town next to the Baron's
residence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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