THE CHIEFTAIN'S SISTER
The drawing-room of Flora Mac-Ivor was furnished in the plainest
and most simple manner; for at Glennaquoich every other sort of
expenditure was retrenched as much as possible, for the purpose of
maintaining, in its full dignity, the hospitality of the
Chieftain, and retaining and multiplying the number of his
dependants and adherents. But there was no appearance of this
parsimony in the dress of the lady herself, which was in texture
elegant, and even rich, and arranged in a manner which partook
partly of the Parisian fashion and partly of the more simple dress
of the Highlands, blended together with great taste. Her hair was
not disfigured by the art of the friseur, but fell in jetty
ringlets on her neck, confined only by a circlet, richly set with
diamonds. This peculiarity she adopted in compliance with the
Highland prejudices, which could not endure that a woman's head
should be covered before wedlock.
Flora Mac-Ivor bore a most striking resemblance to her brother
Fergus; so much so that they might have played Viola and Sebastian
with the same exquisite effect produced by the appearance of Mrs.
Henry Siddons and her brother, Mr. William Murray, in these
characters. They had the same antique and regular correctness of
profile; the same dark eyes, eye-lashes, and eye-brows; the same
clearness of complexion, excepting that Fergus's was embrowned by
exercise and Flora's possessed the utmost feminine delicacy. But
the haughty and somewhat stern regularity of Fergus's features was
beautifully softened in those of Flora. Their voices were also
similar in tone, though differing in the key. That of Fergus,
especially while issuing orders to his followers during their
military exercise, reminded Edward of a favourite passage in the
description of Emetrius:
--whose voice was heard around,
Loud as a trumpet with a silver sound.
That of Flora, on the contrary, was soft and sweet--'an excellent
thing in woman'; yet, in urging any favourite topic, which she
often pursued with natural eloquence, it possessed as well the
tones which impress awe and conviction as those of persuasive
insinuation. The eager glance of the keen black eye, which, in the
Chieftain, seemed impatient even of the material obstacles it
encountered, had in his sister acquired a gentle pensiveness. His
looks seemed to seek glory, power, all that could exalt him above
others in the race of humanity; while those of his sister, as if
she were already conscious of mental superiority, seemed to pity,
rather than envy, those who were struggling for any farther
distinction. Her sentiments corresponded with the expression of
her countenance. Early education had impressed upon her mind, as
well as on that of the Chieftain, the most devoted attachment to
the exiled family of Stuart. She believed it the duty of her
brother, of his clan, of every man in Britain, at whatever
personal hazard, to contribute to that restoration which the
partisans of the Chevalier St. George had not ceased to hope for.
For this she was prepared to do all, to suffer all, to sacrifice
all. But her loyalty, as it exceeded her brother's in fanaticism,
excelled it also in purity. Accustomed to petty intrigue, and
necessarily involved in a thousand paltry and selfish discussions,
ambitious also by nature, his political faith was tinctured, at
least, if not tainted, by the views of interest and advancement so
easily combined with it; and at the moment he should unsheathe his
claymore, it might be difficult to say whether it would be most
with the view of making James Stuart a king or Fergus Mac-Ivor an
earl. This, indeed, was a mixture of feeling which he did not avow
even to himself, but it existed, nevertheless, in a powerful
degree.
In Flora's bosom, on the contrary, the zeal of loyalty burnt pure
and unmixed with any selfish feeling; she would have as soon made
religion the mask of ambitious and interested views as have
shrouded them under the opinions which she had been taught to
think patriotism. Such instances of devotion were not uncommon
among the followers of the unhappy race of Stuart, of which many
memorable proofs will recur to the minds of most of my readers.
But peculiar attention on the part of the Chevalier de St. George
and his princess to the parents of Fergus and his sister, and to
themselves when orphans, had riveted their faith. Fergus, upon the
death of his parents, had been for some time a page of honour in
the train of the Chevalier's lady, and, from his beauty and
sprightly temper, was uniformly treated by her with the utmost
distinction. This was also extended to Flora, who was maintained
for some time at a convent of the first order at the princess's
expense, and removed from thence into her own family, where she
spent nearly two years. Both brother and sister retained the
deepest and most grateful sense of her kindness.
Having thus touched upon the leading principle of Flora's
character, I may dismiss the rest more slightly. She was highly
accomplished, and had acquired those elegant manners to be
expected from one who, in early youth, had been the companion of a
princess; yet she had not learned to substitute the gloss of
politeness for the reality of feeling. When settled in the lonely
regions of Glennaquoich, she found that her resources in French,
English, and Italian literature were likely to be few and
interrupted; and, in order to fill up the vacant time, she
bestowed a part of it upon the music and poetical traditions of
the Highlanders, and began really to feel the pleasure in the
pursuit which her brother, whose perceptions of literary merit
were more blunt, rather affected for the sake of popularity than
actually experienced. Her resolution was strengthened in these
researches by the extreme delight which her inquiries seemed to
afford those to whom she resorted for information.
Her love of her clan, an attachment which was almost hereditary in
her bosom, was, like her loyalty, a more pure passion than that of
her brother. He was too thorough a politician, regarded his
patriarchal influence too much as the means of accomplishing his
own aggrandisement, that we should term him the model of a
Highland Chieftain. Flora felt the same anxiety for cherishing and
extending their patriarchal sway, but it was with the generous
desire of vindicating from poverty, or at least from want and
foreign oppression, those whom her brother was by birth, according
to the notions of the time and country, entitled to govern. The
savings of her income, for she had a small pension from the
Princess Sobieski, were dedicated, not to add to the comforts of
the peasantry, for that was a word which they neither knew nor
apparently wished to know, but to relieve their absolute
necessities when in sickness or extreme old age. At every other
period they rather toiled to procure something which they might
share with the Chief, as a proof of their attachment, than
expected other assistance from him save what was afforded by the
rude hospitality of his castle, and the general division and
subdivision of his estate among them. Flora was so much beloved by
them that, when Mac-Murrough composed a song in which he
enumerated all the principal beauties of the district, and
intimated her superiority by concluding, that 'the fairest apple
hung on the highest bough,' he received, in donatives from the
individuals of the clan, more seed-barley than would have sowed
his Highland Parnassus, the bard's croft, as it was called, ten
times over.
From situation as well as choice, Miss Mac-Ivor's society was
extremely limited. Her most intimate friend had been Rose
Bradwardine, to whom she was much attached; and when seen
together, they would have afforded an artist two admirable
subjects for the gay and the melancholy muse. Indeed Rose was so
tenderly watched by her father, and her circle of wishes was so
limited, that none arose but what he was willing to gratify, and
scarce any which did not come within the compass of his power.
With Flora it was otherwise. While almost a girl she had undergone
the most complete change of scene, from gaiety and splendour to
absolute solitude and comparative poverty; and the ideas and
wishes which she chiefly fostered respected great national events,
and changes not to be brought round without both hazard and
bloodshed, and therefore not to be thought of with levity. Her
manner, consequently, was grave, though she readily contributed
her talents to the amusement of society, and stood very high in
the opinion of the old Baron, who used to sing along with her such
French duets of Lindor and Cloris, etc., as were in fashion about
the end of the reign of old Louis le Grand.
It was generally believed, though no one durst have hinted it to
the Baron of Bradwardine, that Flora's entreaties had no small
share in allaying the wrath of Fergus upon occasion of their
quarrel. She took her brother on the assailable side, by dwelling
first upon the Baron's age, and then representing the injury which
the cause might sustain, and the damage which must arise to his
own character in point of prudence--so necessary to a political
agent, if he persisted in carrying it to extremity. Otherwise it
is probable it would have terminated in a duel, both because the
Baron had, on a former occasion, shed blood of the clan, though
the matter had been timely accommodated, and on account of his
high reputation for address at his weapon, which Fergus almost
condescended to envy. For the same reason she had urged their
reconciliation, which the Chieftain the more readily agreed to as
it favoured some ulterior projects of his own.
To this young lady, now presiding at the female empire of the tea-
table, Fergus introduced Captain Waverley, whom she received with
the usual forms of politeness.