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
yet he set about to raise contributions and exactions upon the
tenantry, and otherwise to turn the war to his own advantage.
Meanwhile he mounted the white cockade, and waited upon Rose with
a pretext of great devotion for the service in which her father
was engaged, and many apologies for the freedom he must
necessarily use for the support of his people. It was at this
moment that Rose learned, by open-mouthed fame, with all sorts of
exaggeration, that Waverley had killed the smith at Cairnvreckan,
in an attempt to arrest him; had been cast into a dungeon by Major
Melville of Cairnvreckan, and was to be executed by martial law
within three days. In the agony which these tidings excited she
proposed to Donald Bean the rescue of the prisoner. It was the
very sort of service which he was desirous to undertake, judging
it might constitute a merit of such a nature as would make amends
for any peccadilloes which he might be guilty of in the country.
He had the art, however, pleading all the while duty and
discipline, to hold off, until poor Rose, in the extremity of her
distress, offered to bribe him to the enterprise with some
valuable jewels which had been her mother's.
Donald Bean, who had served in France, knew, and perhaps over-
estimated, the value of these trinkets. But he also perceived
Rose's apprehensions of its being discovered that she had parted
with her jewels for Waverley's liberation. Resolved this scruple
should not part him and the treasure, he voluntarily offered to
take an oath that he would never mention Miss Rose's share in the
transaction; and, foreseeing convenience in keeping the oath and
no probable advantage in breaking it, he took the engagement--in
order, as he told his lieutenant, to deal handsomely by the young
lady--in the only mode and form which, by a mental paction with
himself, he considered as binding: he swore secrecy upon his drawn
dirk. He was the more especially moved to this act of good faith
by some attentions that Miss Bradwardine showed to his daughter
Alice, which, while they gained the heart of the mountain damsel,
highly gratified the pride of her father. Alice, who could now
speak a little English, was very communicative in return for
Rose's kindness, readily confided to her the whole papers
respecting the intrigue with Gardiner's regiment, of which she was
the depositary, and as readily undertook, at her instance, to
restore them to Waverley without her father's knowledge. For 'they
may oblige the bonnie young lady and the handsome young
gentleman,' said Alice, 'and what use has my father for a whin
bits o' scarted paper?'
The reader is aware that she took an opportunity of executing this
purpose on the eve of Waverley's leaving the glen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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