Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — Volume 2 — John Shaqi
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
Edward had lived at Glennaquoich long enough to be aware of a
distinction which he had repeatedly heard noticed, and now
satisfied that he had no interest with his attendants, he glanced
a disconsolate eye around the interior of the cabin. The only
furniture, excepting a washing-tub and a wooden press, called in
Scotland an ambry, sorely decayed, was a large wooden bed,
planked, as is usual, all around, and opening by a sliding panel.
In this recess the Highlanders deposited Waverley, after he had by
signs declined any refreshment. His slumbers were broken and
unrefreshing; strange visions passed before his eyes, and it
required constant and reiterated efforts of mind to dispel them.
Shivering, violent headache, and shooting pains in his limbs
succeeded these symptoms; and in the morning it was evident to his
Highland attendants or guard, for he knew not in which light to
consider them, that Waverley was quite unfit to travel.
After a long consultation among themselves, six of the party left
the hut with their arms, leaving behind an old and a young man.
The former addressed Waverley, and bathed the contusions, which
swelling and livid colour now made conspicuous. His own
portmanteau, which the Highlanders had not failed to bring off,
supplied him with linen, and to his great surprise was, with all
its undiminished contents, freely resigned to his use. The bedding
of his couch seemed clean and comfortable, and his aged attendant
closed the door of the bed, for it had no curtain, after a few
words of Gaelic, from which Waverley gathered that he exhorted him
to repose. So behold our hero for a second time the patient of a
Highland Esculapius, but in a situation much more uncomfortable
than when he was the guest of the worthy Tomanrait.
The symptomatic fever which accompanied the injuries he had
sustained did not abate till the third day, when it gave way to
the care of his attendants and the strength of his constitution,
and he could now raise himself in his bed, though not without
pain. He observed, however, that there was a great disinclination
on the part of the old woman who acted as his nurse, as well as on
that of the elderly Highlander, to permit the door of the bed to
be left open, so that he might amuse himself with observing their
motions; and at length, after Waverley had repeatedly drawn open
and they had as frequently shut the hatchway of his cage, the old
gentleman put an end to the contest by securing it on the outside
with a nail so effectually that the door could not be drawn till
this exterior impediment was removed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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