THE CONFUSION OF KING AGRAMANT'S CAMP
It was Waverley's custom sometimes to ride a little apart from the main
body, to look at any object of curiosity which occurred on the march.
They were now in Lancashire, when, attracted by a castellated old hall,
he left the squadron for half an hour, to take a survey and slight
sketch of it. As he returned down the avenue, he was met by Ensign
Maccombich. This man had contracted a sort of regard for Edward since
the day of his first seeing him at Tully-Veolan, and introducing him to
the Highlands. He seemed to loiter, as if on purpose to meet with
our hero. Yet, as he passed him, he only approached his stirrup, and
pronounced the single word, 'Beware!' and then walked swiftly on,
shunning all further communication.
Edward, somewhat surprised at this hint, followed with his eyes the
course of Evan, who speedily disappeared among the trees. His servant,
Alick Polwarth, who was in attendance, also looked after the Highlander,
and then riding up close to his master, said,
'The ne'er be in me, sir, if I think you're safe amang thae Highland
rintherouts.'
'What do you mean, Alick?' said Waverley.
'The Mac-Ivors, sir, hae gotten it into their heads, that ye hae
affronted their young leddy, Miss Flora; and I hae heard mae than ane
say, they wadna, tak muckle to make a black-cock o' ye; and ye ken
weel eneugh there's mony o' them wadna mind a bawbee the weising a ball
through the Prince himsell, an the Chief gae them the wink--or whether
he did or no,--if they thought it a thing that would please him when it
was dune.'
Waverley, though confident that Fergus Mac-Ivor was incapable of such
treachery, was by no means equally sure of the forbearance of his
followers. He knew, that where the honour of the Chief or his family was
supposed to be touched, the happiest man would be he that could first
avenge the stigma; and he had often heard them quote a proverb, 'That
the best revenge was the most speedy and most safe.' Coupling this with
the hint of Evan, he judged it most prudent to set spurs to his horse,
and ride briskly back to the squadron. Ere he reached the end of the
long avenue, however, a ball whistled past him, and the report of a
pistol was heard.
'It was that deevil's buckie, Callum Beg,' said Alick; I saw him whisk
away through amang the reises.'
Edward, justly incensed at this act of treachery, galloped out of the
avenue, and observed the battalion of Mac-Ivor at some distance moving
along the common, in which it terminated. He also saw an individual
running very fast to join the party; this he concluded was the intended
assassin, who, by leaping an enclosure, might easily make a much shorter
path to the main body than he could find on horseback. Unable to contain
himself, he commanded Alick to go to the Baron of Bradwardine, who was
at the head of his regiment about half a mile in front, and acquaint
him with what had happened. He himself immediately rode up to Fergus's
regiment. The Chief himself was in the act of joining them. He was on
horseback, having returned from waiting on the Prince. On perceiving
Edward approaching, he put his horse in motion towards him.
'Colonel Mac-Ivor,' said Waverley, without any further salutation, 'I
have to inform you that one of your people has this instant fired at me
from a lurking-place.
'As that,' answered Mac-Ivor, 'excepting the circumstance of a
lurking-place, is a pleasure which I presently propose to myself, I
should be glad to know which of my clansmen dared to anticipate me.'
'I shall certainly be at your command whenever you please;--the
gentleman who took your office upon himself is your page there, Callum
Beg.'
'Stand forth from the ranks, Callum! Did you fire at Mr. Waverley?'
'No,' answered the unblushing Callum.
'You did,' said Alick Polwarth, who was already returned, having met a
trooper by whom he dispatched an account of what was going forward to
the Baron of Bradwardine, while he himself returned to his master at
full gallop, neither sparing the rowels of his spurs, nor the sides of
his horse. 'You did; I saw you as plainly as I ever saw the auld kirk at
Coudingham.'
'You lie,' replied Callum, with his usual impenetrable obstinacy. The
combat between the knights would certainly, as in the days of chivalry,
have been preceded by an encounter between the squires (for Alick was
a stout-hearted Merseman, and feared the bow of Cupid far more than
a Highlander's dirk or claymore), but Fergus, with his usual tone of
decision, demanded Callum's pistol. The cock was down, the pan and
muzzle were black with the smoke; it had been that instant fired.
'Take that,' said Fergus, striking the boy upon the head with the heavy
pistol-butt with his whole force, 'take that for acting without orders,
and lying to disguise it.' Callum received the blow without appearing to
flinch from it, and fell without sign of life. 'Stand still, upon your
lives!' said Fergus to the rest of the clan; 'I blow out the brains of
the first man who interferes between Mr. Waverley and me.' They stood
motionless; Evan Dhu alone showed symptoms of vexation and anxiety.
Callum lay on the ground bleeding copiously, but no one ventured to give
him any assistance. It seemed as if he had gotten his death-blow.
'And now for you, Mr. Waverley; please to turn your horse twenty yards
with me upon the common.' Waverley complied; and Fergus, confronting
him when they were a little way from the line of march, said, with great
affected coolness, 'I could not but wonder, sir, at the fickleness of
taste which you were pleased to express the other day. But it was not
an angel, as you justly observed, who had charms for you, unless she
brought an empire for her fortune. I have now an excellent commentary
upon that obscure text.'
'I am at a loss even to guess at your meaning, Colonel Mac-Ivor, unless
it seems plain that you intend to fasten a quarrel upon me.'
'Your affected ignorance shall not serve you, sir. The Prince,--the
Prince himself, has acquainted me with your manoeuvres, I little thought
that your engagements with Miss Bradwardine were the reason of
your breaking off your intended match with my sister. I suppose the
information that the Baron had altered the destination of his estate,
was quite a sufficient reason for slighting your friend's sister, and
carrying off your friend's mistress.'
'Did the Prince tell you I was engaged to Miss Bradwardine?' said
Waverley. 'Impossible.'
'He did, sir,' answered Mac-Ivor; 'so, either draw and defend yourself,
or resign your pretensions to the lady.'
'This is absolute madness,' exclaimed Waverley, 'or some strange
mistake!'
'Oh! no evasion! draw your sword!' said the infuriated Chieftain,--his
own already unsheathed.
'Must I fight in a madman's quarrel?'
'Then give up now, and for ever, all pretensions to Miss Bradwardine's
hand.'
'What title have you,' cried Waverley, utterly losing command of
himself,--'What title have you, or any man living, to dictate such terms
to me?' And he also drew his sword.
At this moment the Baron of Bradwardine, followed by several of his
troop, came up on the spur, some from curiosity, others to take part in
the quarrel, which they indistinctly understood had broken out between
the Mac-Ivors and their corps. The clan, seeing them approach, put
themselves in motion to support their Chieftain, and a scene of
confusion commenced, which seemed likely to terminate in bloodshed.
A hundred tongues were in motion at once. The Baron lectured, the
Chieftain stormed, the Highlanders screamed in Gaelic, the horsemen
cursed and swore in Lowland Scotch. At length matters came to such a
pass, that the Baron threatened to charge the Mac-Ivors unless they
resumed their ranks, and many of them, in return, presented their
fire-arms at him and the other troopers. The confusion was privately
fostered by old Ballenkeiroch, who made no doubt that his own day
of vengeance was arrived, when, behold! a cry arose of 'Room! make
way!--PLACE A MONSEIGNEUR! PLACE A MONSEIGNEUR!' This announced the
approach of the Prince, who came up with a party of Fitz-James's foreign
dragoons that acted as his bodyguard. His arrival produced some degree
of order. The Highlanders re-assumed their ranks, the cavalry fell in
and formed squadron, and the Baron and Chieftain were silent.
The Prince called them and Waverley before him. Having heard the
original cause of the quarrel through the villany of Callum Beg, he
ordered him into custody of the provost-marshal for immediate execution,
in the event of his surviving the chastisement inflicted by his
Chieftain. Fergus, however, in a tone betwixt claiming a right and
asking a favour, requested he might be left to his disposal, and
promised his punishment should be exemplary. To deny this, might have
seemed to encroach on the patriarchal authority of the Chieftains,
of which they were very jealous, and they were not persons to be
disobliged. Callum was therefore left to the justice of his own tribe.
The Prince next demanded to know the new cause of quarrel between
Colonel Mac-Ivor and Waverley. There was a pause. Both gentlemen found
the presence of the Baron of Bradwardine (for by this time all three
had approached the Chevalier by his command) an insurmountable barrier
against entering upon a subject where the name of his daughter must
unavoidably be mentioned. They turned their eyes on the ground, with
looks in which shame and embarrassment were mingled with displeasure.
The Prince, who had been educated amongst the discontented and mutinous
spirits of the court of St. Germains, where feuds of every kind were the
daily subject of solicitude to the dethroned sovereign, had served his
apprenticeship, as old Frederick of Prussia would have said, to the
trade of royalty. To promote or restore concord among his followers was
indispensable. Accordingly he took his measures.
'Monsieur de Beaujeu!'
'Monseigneur!' said a very handsome French cavalry officer, who was in
attendance.
'Ayez la bonte d'alligner ces montagnards la, ainsi que la cavalerie,
s'il vous plait, et de les remettre a la marche. Vous parlez si bien
l'Anglois, cela ne vous donneroit pas beaucoup de peine.'
'Ah! pas de tout, Monseigneur,' replied Mons. le Comte de Beaujeu, his
head bending down to the neck of his little prancing highly-managed
charger. Accordingly he PIAFFED away, in high spirits and confidence,
to the head of Fergus's regiment, although understanding not a word of
Gaelic, and very little English.
'Messieurs les sauvages Ecossois--dat is--gentilmans savages, have the
goodness d'arranger vous.'
The clan, comprehending the order more from the gesture than the words,
and seeing the Prince himself present, hastened to dress their ranks.
'Ah! ver well! dat is fort bien!' said the Count de Beaujeu. 'Gentilmans
sauvages--mais tres bien--Eh bien!--Qu'est-ce que vous appellez visage,
Monsieur?' (to a lounging trooper who stood by him). 'Ah, oui! FACE--Je
vous remercie, Monsieur.--Gentilshommes, have de goodness to make
de face to de right par file, dat is, by files.--Marsh!--Mais tres
bien--encore, Messieurs; il faut vous mettre a la marche...Marchez donc,
au nom de Dieu, parceque j'ai oublie le mot Anglois--mais vous etes des
braves gens, et me comprenez tres bien.'
The Count next hastened to put the cavalry in motion. 'Gentilmans
cavalry, you must fall in--Ah! par ma foi, I did not say fall off! I am
a fear de little gross fat gentilman is moche hurt. Ah, mon Dieu! c'est
le Commissaire qui nous a apporte les premieres nouvelles de ce maudit
fracas. Je suis trop fache, Monsieur!'
But poor Macwheeble, who, with a sword stuck across him, and a white
cockade as large as a pancake, now figured in the character of a
commissary, being overturned in the bustle occasioned by the troopers
hastening to get themselves in order in the Prince's presence, before
he could rally his galloway, slunk to the rear amid the unrestrained
laughter of the spectators.
'Eh bien, Messieurs, wheel to de right--Ah! dat is it!--Eh, Monsieur de
Bradwardine, ayez la bonte de vous mettre a la tete de votre regiment,
car, par Dieu, je n'en puis plus!'
The Baron of Bradwardine was obliged to go to the assistance of Monsieur
de Beaujeu, after he had fairly expended his few English military
phrases. One purpose of the Chevalier was thus answered. The other he
proposed was, that in the eagerness to hear and comprehend commands
issued through such an indistinct medium in his own presence, the
thoughts of the soldiers in both corps might get a current different
from the angry channel in which they were flowing at the time.
Charles Edward was no sooner left with the Chieftain and Waverley, the
rest of his attendants being at some distance, than he said, 'If I owed
less to your disinterested friendship, I could be most seriously angry
with both of you for this very extraordinary and causeless broil, at a
moment when my father's service so decidedly demands the most perfect
unanimity. But the worst of my situation is, that my very best friends
hold they have liberty to ruin themselves, as well as the cause they are
engaged in, upon the slightest caprice.'
Both the young men protested their resolution to submit every difference
to his arbitration. 'Indeed,' said Edward, 'I hardly know of what I am
accused. I sought Colonel Mac-Ivor merely to mention to him that I had
narrowly escaped assassination at the hand of his immediate dependent--a
dastardly revenge, which I knew him to be incapable of authorizing. As
to the cause for which he is disposed to fasten a quarrel upon me, I
am ignorant of it, unless it be that he accuses me, most unjustly,
of having engaged the affections of a young lady in prejudice of his
pretensions.'
'If there is an error,' said the Chieftain, 'it arises from a
conversation which I held this morning with his Royal Highness himself.'
'With me?' said the Chevalier; 'how can Colonel Mac-Ivor have so far
misunderstood me?'
He then led Fergus aside, and, after five minutes' earnest conversation,
spurred his horse towards Edward. 'Is it possible--nay, ride up,
Colonel, for I desire no secrets--Is it possible, Mr. Waverley, that
I am mistaken in supposing that you are an accepted lover of Miss
Bradwardine?--a fact of which I was by circumstances, though not by
communication from you, so absolutely convinced, that I alleged it to
Vich Ian Vohr this morning as a reason why, without offence to him, you
might not continue to be ambitious of an alliance, which to an unengaged
person, even though once repulsed, holds out too many charms to be
lightly laid aside.'
'Your Royal Highness,' said Waverley, 'must have founded on
circumstances altogether unknown to me, when you did me the
distinguished honour of supposing me an accepted lover of Miss
Bradwardine. I feel the distinction implied in the supposition, but I
have no title to it. For the rest, my confidence in my own merits is
too justly slight to admit of my hoping for success in any quarter after
positive rejection.'
The Chevalier was silent for a moment, looking steadily at them both,
and then said, 'Upon my word, Mr. Waverley, you are a less happy man
than I conceived I had very good reason to believe you.--But now,
gentlemen, allow me to be umpire in this matter, not as Prince Regent,
but as Charles Stuart, a brother adventurer with you in the same gallant
cause. Lay my pretensions to be obeyed by you entirely out of view, and
consider your own honour, and how far it is well, or becoming, to give
our enemies the advantage, and our friends the scandal, of showing that,
few as we are, we are not united. And forgive me if I add, that the
names of the ladies who have been mentioned, crave more respect from us
all than to be made themes of discord.'
He took Fergus a little apart, and spoke to him very earnestly for two
or three minutes, and then returning to Waverley, said--'I believe I
have satisfied Colonel Mac-Ivor that his resentment was founded upon
a misconception, to which, indeed, I myself gave rise; and I trust Mr.
Waverley is too generous to harbour any recollection of what is past,
when I assure him that such is the case.--You must state this matter
properly to your clan, Vich Iain Vohr, to prevent a recurrence of their
precipitate violence.' Fergus bowed. 'And now, gentlemen, let me have
the pleasure to see you shake hands.'
They advanced coldly, and with measured steps, each apparently reluctant
to appear most forward in concession. They did, however, shake hands,
and parted, taking a respectful leave of the Chevalier. Charles Edward
[See Note 31.] then rode to the head of the Mac-Ivors, threw himself
from his horse, begged a drink out of old Ballenkeiroch's canteen, and
marched about half a mile along with them, inquiring into the history
and connexions of Sliochd nan Ivor, adroitly using the few words of
Gaelic he possessed, and affecting a great desire to learn it more
thoroughly. He then mounted his horse once more, and galloped to the
Baron's cavalry, which was in front; halted them, and examined their
accoutrements and state of discipline; took notice of the principal
gentlemen, and even of the cadets; inquired after their ladies,
and commended their horses;--rode about an hour with the Baron of
Bradwardine, and endured three long stories about Field-Marshal the Duke
of Berwick.
'Ah, Beaujeu, mon cher ami,' said he as he returned to his usual place
in the line of march, 'que mon metier de prince errant est ennuyant, par
fois. Mais, courage! c'est le grand jeu, apres tout.'