Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since Read online

  CHAPTER XII

  REPENTANCE AND A RECONCILIATION

  Waverley was unaccustomed to the use of wine, excepting with greattemperance. He slept, therefore, soundly till late in the succeedingmorning, and then awakened to a painful recollection of the scene of thepreceding evening. He had received a personal affront,--he, a gentleman,a soldier, and a Waverley. True, the person who had offered it was not,at the time it was given, possessed of the moderate share of sense whichnature had allotted him; true also, in resenting this insult, he wouldbreak the laws of Heaven, as well as of his country; true, in doing so,he might take the life of a young man who perhaps respectably dischargedthe social duties, and render his family miserable; or he might lose hisown;--no pleasant alternative even to the bravest, when it is debatedcoolly and in private.

  All this pressed on his mind; yet the original statement recurred withthe same irresistible force. He had received a personal insult; hewas of the house of Waverley; and he bore a commission. There wasno alternative; and he descended to the breakfast parlour with theintention of taking leave of the family, and writing to one of hisbrother officers to meet him at the inn mid-way between Tully-Veolan andthe town where they were quartered, in order that he might convey sucha message to the Laird of Balmawhapple as the circumstances seemed todemand. He found Miss Bradwardine presiding over the tea and coffee, thetable loaded with warm bread, both of flour, oatmeal, and barley-meal,in the shape of leaves, cakes, biscuits, and other varieties, togetherwith eggs, reindeer ham, mutton and beef, ditto, smoked salmon,marmalade, and all other delicacies which induced even Johnson himselfto extol the luxury of a Scotch breakfast above that of all othercountries. A mess of oatmeal porridge, flanked by a silver jug, whichheld an equal mixture of cream and butter-milk, was placed for theBaron's share of this repast; but Rose observed he had walked outearly in the morning, after giving orders that his guest should not bedisturbed.

  Waverley sat down almost in silence, and with an air of absence andabstraction, which could not give Miss Bradwardine a favourable opinionof his talents for conversation. He answered at random one or twoobservations which she ventured to make upon ordinary topics; so thatfeeling herself almost repulsed in her efforts at entertaining him, andsecretly wondering that a scarlet coat should cover no better breeding,she left him to his mental amusement of cursing Dr. Doubleit's favouriteconstellation of Ursa Major, as the cause of all the mischief which hadalready happened, and was likely to ensue. At once he started, and hiscolour heightened, as, looking toward the window, he beheld the Baronand young Balmawhapple pass arm in arm, apparently in deep conversation;and he hastily asked, 'Did Mr. Falconer sleep here last night?' Rose,not much pleased with the abruptness of the first question which theyoung stranger had addressed to her, answered drily in the negative, andthe conversation again sank into silence.

  At this moment Mr. Saunderson appeared, with a message from his master,requesting to speak with Captain Waverley in another apartment. Witha heart which beat; a little quicker, not indeed from fear, but fromuncertainty and anxiety, Edward obeyed the summons. He found the twogentlemen standing together, an air of complacent dignity on the brow ofthe Baron, while something like sullenness, or shame, or both, blankedthe bold visage of Balmawhapple. The former slipped his arm through thatof the latter, and thus seeming to walk with him, while in reality heled him, advanced to meet Waverley, and, stopping in the midst ofthe apartment, made in great state the following oration: 'CaptainWaverley,--my young and esteemed friend, Mr. Falconer of Balmawhapple,has craved of my age and experience, as of one not wholly unskilled inthe dependencies and punctilios of the duello or monomachia, to be hisinterlocutor in expressing to you the regret with which he calls toremembrance certain passages of our symposion last night, which couldnot but be highly displeasing to you, as serving for the time under thispresent existing government. He craves you, sir, to drown in oblivionthe memory of such solecisms against the laws of politeness, as beingwhat his better reason disavows, and to receive the hand which he offersyou in amity; and I must needs assure you, that nothing less than asense of being DANS SON TORT, as a gallant French chevalier, Mons, LeBretailleur, once said to me on such an occasion, and an opinion alsoof your peculiar merit, could have extorted such concessions; for he andall his family are, and have been time out of mind, MAVORTIA PECTORA, asBuchanan saith, a bold and warlike sept, or people.'

  Edward immediately, and with natural politeness, accepted the hand whichBalmawhapple, or rather the Baron in his character of mediator, extendedtowards him. 'It was impossible,' he said, 'for him to remember whata gentleman expressed his wish he had not uttered; and he willinglyimputed what had passed to the exuberant festivity of the day.'

  'That is very handsomely said,' answered the Baron; 'for undoubtedly,if a man be EBRIUS, or intoxicated--an incident which, on solemn andfestive occasions, may and will take place in the life of a man ofhonour; and if the same gentleman, being fresh and sober, recants thecontumelies which he hath spoken in his liquor, it must be held VINUMLOCUTUM EST; the words cease to be his own. Yet would I not find thisexculpation relevant in the case of one who was EBRIOSUS, or an habitualdrunkard; because, if such a person choose to pass the greater partof his time in the predicament of intoxication, he hath no title to beexeemed from the obligations of the code of politeness, but should learnto deport himself peaceably and courteously when under the influence ofthe vinous stimulus.--And now let us proceed to breakfast, and think nomore of this daft business.'

  I must confess, whatever inference may be drawn from the circumstance,that Edward, after so satisfactory an explanation, did much greaterhonour to the delicacies of Miss Bradwardine's breakfast-table thanhis commencement had promised. Balmawhapple, on the contrary, seemedembarrassed and dejected; and Waverley now, for the first time, observedthat his arm was in a sling, which seemed to account for the awkward andembarrassed manner with which he had presented his hand. To a questionfrom Miss Bradwardine, he muttered, in answer, something about his horsehaving fallen; and, seeming desirous to escape both from the subject andthe company, he arose as soon as breakfast was over, made his bow to theparty, and, declining the Baron's invitation to tarry till after dinner,mounted his horse and returned to his own home.

  Waverley now announced his purpose of leaving Tully-Veolan early enoughafter dinner to gain the stage at which he meant to sleep; but theunaffected and deep mortification with which the good-natured andaffectionate old gentleman heard the proposal, quite deprived him ofcourage to persist in it. No sooner had he gained Waverley's consentto lengthen his visit for a few days, than he laboured to remove thegrounds upon which he conceived he had meditated a more early retreat.'I would not have you opine, Captain Waverley, that I am by practice orprecept an advocate of ebriety, though it may be that, in our festivityof last night, some of our friends, if not perchance altogether EBRII,or drunken, were, to say the least, EBRIOLI, by which the ancientsdesigned those who were fuddled, or, as your English vernacular andmetaphorical phrase goes, half-seas-over. Not that I would so insinuaterespecting you, Captain Waverley, who, like a prudent youth, did ratherabstain from potation; nor can it be truly said of myself, who, havingassisted at the tables of many great generals and marechals at theirsolemn carousals, have the art to carry my wine discreetly, and did not,during the whole evening, as ye must have doubtless observed, exceed thebounds of a modest hilarity.'

  There was no refusing assent to a proposition so decidedly laid down byhim who undoubtedly was the best judge; although, had Edward formed hisopinion from his own recollections, he would have pronounced that theBaron was not only EBRIOLUS, but verging to become EBRIUS; or, in plainEnglish, was incomparably the most drunk of the party, except perhapshis antagonist the Laird of Balmawhapple. However, having received theexpected, or rather the required, compliment on his sobriety, the Baronproceeded,--'No, sir, though I am myself of a strong temperament, Iabhor ebriety, and detest those who swallow wine GULAE CAUSA, for theoblectation of the gullet; albeit I might dep
recate the law of Pittacusof Mitylene, who punished doubly a crime committed under the influenceof LIBER PATER; nor would I utterly accede to the objurgation of theyounger Plinius, in the fourteenth book of his HISTORIA NATURALIS. No,sir; I distinguish, I discriminate, and approve of wine so far only asit maketh glad the face, or, in the language of Flaccus, RECEPTO AMICO.'

  Thus terminated the apology which the Baron of Bradwardine thought itnecessary to make for the super-abundance of his hospitality; and it maybe easily believed that he was neither interrupted by dissent, nor anyexpression of incredulity.

  He then invited his guest to a morning ride, and ordered that DavieGellatley should meet them at the DERN PATH with Ban and Buscar. 'For,until the shooting season commenced, I would willingly show you somesport, and we may, God willing, meet with a roe. The roe, CaptainWaverley, may be hunted at all times alike; for never being in what iscalled PRIDE OF GREASE, he is also never out of season, though it be atruth that his venison is not equal to that of either the red or fallowdeer. [The learned in cookery dissent from the Baron of Bradwardine, andhold the roe-venison dry and indifferent food, unless when dressed insoup and Scotch collops.] But he will serve to show how my dogs run; andtherefore they shall attend us with Davie Gellatley.'

  Waverley expressed his surprise that his friend Davie was capableof such trust; but the Baron gave him to understand that this poorsimpleton was neither fatuous, NEC NATURALITER IDIOTA, as is expressedin the brieves of furiosity, but simply a crack-brained knave, who couldexecute very well any commission which jumped with his own humour, andmade his folly a plea for avoiding every other. 'He has made an interestwith us,' continued the Baron, 'by saving Rose from a great danger withhis own proper peril; and the roguish loon must therefore eat of ourbread and drink of our cup, and do what he can, or what he will; which,if the suspicions of Saunderson and the Bailie are well founded, mayperchance in his case be commensurate terms.'

  Miss Bradwardine then gave Waverley to understand, that this poorsimpleton was doatingly fond of music, deeply affected by that which wasmelancholy, and transported into extravagant gaiety by light andlively airs. He had in this respect a prodigious memory, stored withmiscellaneous snatches and fragments of all tunes and songs, whichhe sometimes applied, with considerable address, as the vehicles ofremonstrance, explanation, or satire. Davie was much attached to the fewwho showed him kindness; and both aware of any slight or ill usage whichhe happened to receive, and sufficiently apt, where he saw opportunity,to revenge it. The common people, who often judge hardly of eachother, as well as of their betters, although they had expressed greatcompassion for the poor innocent while suffered to wander in rags aboutthe village, no sooner beheld him decently clothed, provided for, andeven a sort of favourite, than they called up all the instances ofsharpness and ingenuity, in action and repartee, which his annalsafforded, and charitably bottomed thereupon a hypothesis, that DavieGellatley was no further fool than was necessary to avoid hard labour.This opinion was not better founded than that of the Negroes, who, fromthe acute and mischievous pranks of the monkeys, suppose that theyhave the gift of speech, and only suppress their powers of elocutionto escape being set to work. But the hypothesis was entirely imaginary:Davie Gellatley was in good earnest the half-crazed simpleton which heappeared, and was incapable of any constant and steady exertion. He hadjust so much solidity as kept on the windy side of insanity; so muchwild wit as saved him from the imputation of idiocy; some dexterityin field sports (in which we have known as great fools excel), greatkindness and humanity in the treatment of animals entrusted to him, warmaffections, a prodigious memory, and an ear for music.

  The stamping of horses was now heard in the court, and Davie's voicesinging to the two large deer greyhounds,--

  Hie away, hie away, Over bank and over brae, Where the copsewood is the greenest, Where the fountains glisten sheenest, Where the lady-fern grows strongest, Where the morning dew lies longest, Where the black-cock sweetest sips it, Where the fairy latest trips it: Hie to haunts right seldom seen, Lovely, lonesome, cool, and green, Over bank and over brae, Hie away, hie away.

  'Do the verses he sings,' asked Waverley, 'belong to old Scottishpoetry, Miss Bradwardine?'

  'I believe not,' she replied. 'This poor creature had a brother, andHeaven, as if to compensate to the family Davie's deficiencies, hadgiven him what the hamlet thought uncommon talents. An uncle contrivedto educate him for the Scottish kirk, but he could not get prefermentbecause he came from our GROUND. He returned from college hopeless andbroken-hearted, and fell into a decline. My father supported him tillhis death, which happened before he was nineteen. He played beautifullyon the flute, and was supposed to have a great turn for poetry. He wasaffectionate and compassionate to his brother, who followed him likehis shadow, and we think that from him Davie gathered many fragments ofsongs and music unlike those of this country. But if we ask him wherehe got such a fragment as he is now singing, he either answers with wildand long fits of laughter, or else breaks into tears of lamentation;but was never heard to give any explanation, or to mention his brother'sname since his death.'

  'Surely,' said Edward, who was readily interested by a tale bordering onthe romantic, 'surely more might be learned by more particular inquiry.'

  'Perhaps so,' answered Rose, 'but my father will not permit any one topractise on his feelings on this subject.'

  By this time the Baron, with the help of Mr. Saunderson, had indueda pair of jack-boots of large dimensions, and now invited our hero tofollow him as he stalked clattering down the ample staircase, tappingeach huge balustrade as he passed with the butt of his massivehorsewhip, and humming, with the air of a chasseur of Louis Quatorze,

  Pour la chasse ordonnee il faut preparer tout, Hola ho! Vite! vite debout.