"My dear Rose, if he were the hero you suppose him, he would interest himself in these matters, not indeed as important in themselves, but for the purpose of mediating between the ardent spirits who actually do make them the subject of discord. You saw when Corrinaschian raised his voice in a great passion, and laid his hand upon his sword, Waverley lifted his head as if he had just awaked from a dream, and asked with great composure what the matter

was."

"Well, and did not the laughter they fell into at his absence of mind, serve better to break off the dispute, than any thing he could have said to them."

"True, but not quite so creditably for Waverley, as if he had brought them to their senses by force of

reason."

"Would you have him peace-maker general between all the gun-powder Highlanders in the army? I beg your pardon, Flora, your brother, you know, is out of the question; he has more sense than half of them. But can you think the fierce, hot, furious spirits, of whose brawls we see much and hear more, and who terrify me out of my life every day in the world, are at all to be compared to Waverley?"

" I do not compare him with those uneducated men, my dear Rose. I only lament that, with his talents and genius, he does not assume that place in society for which they eminently fit him, and that he does not lend their full impulse to the noble cause in which he has enlisted. Are there not Lochiel, and P-, and M-, and G-, all men of the highest education, as well as the first talents-why will he not stoop like them to be alive and useful?-I often believe his zeal is frozen by that proud coldblooded Englishman, whom he now lives with so much.

"Colonel Talbot-he is a very disagreeable person, to be sure. He looks as if he thought no Scottish

woman worth the trouble of handing her a cup of tea. But Waverley is so gentle, so well informed"

" Yes he can admire the moon, and quote a stanza from Tasso."

" Besides, you know how he fought."

" For mere fighting," answered Flora, " I believe all men (that is, who deserve the name) are pretty much alike: there is generally more courage required to run away. They have besides, when confronted with each other, a certain instinct for strife, as we see in other male animals, such as dogs, bulls, and so forth. But high and perilous enterprise is not Waverley's forte. He would never have been his celebrated ancestor Sir Nigel, but only Sir Nigel's eulogist and poet. I will tell you where he will be at home, my dear, and in his place in the quiet circle of domes. tic happiness, lettered indolence, and elegant enjoyments of Waverley-Honour. And he will refit the old library in the most exquisite Gothic taste, and garnish its shelves with the rarest and most valuable volumes; and he will draw plans and landscapes, and write verses, and rear temples, and dig grottoes, -and he will stand in a clear summer night in the colonnade before the hall, and gaze on the deer as they stray in the moonlight, or lie shadowed by the boughs of the huge old fantastic oaks; and he will repeat verses to his beautiful wife, who shall hang upon his arm; and he will be a happy man."

" And she will be a happy woman," thought poor Rose. But she only sighed and dropped the conversation.

CHAPTER XV.

Fergus a Suitor.

WAVERLEY had, indeed, as he looked closer upon the state of the chevalier's court, less reason to be satisfied with it. It contained, as they say an acorn includes all the ramifications of the future oak, as many seeds of tracassaire and intrigue as might have done honour to the court of a large empire. Every person of importance had some separate object, which he pursued with a fury that Waverley considered as altogether disproportionate to its importance. Almost all had their causes of discontent, although the most legitimate was that of the worthy old baron, who was only distressed on account of the common cause.

"We will hardly," said he one morning to Waverley when they had been viewing the castle, "gain the obsidional crown, which you wot well was made of the roots, or grain which takes root, within the place besieged, or, it may be, of the herb woodbind, paretaria, or pellitory; we will not, I say, gain it by this same blockade or leaguer of Edinburgh Castle." For this opinion he gave most learned and satisfactory reasons, that the reader may not care to hear re. peated.

Having escaped from the old gentleman, Waverley went to Fergus's lodgings by appointment, to await his return from Holyrood-house. "I am to have a particular audience to-morrow," said Fergus to Waverley, overnight, " and you must meet me to wish me joy of the success which I securely anticipate."

The morrow came, and in the chief's apartment he found Ensign Maccombich waiting to make report of his turn of duty in a sort of ditch which they had dug

across the Castle-hill, and called a trench. In a short time the chief's voice was heard on the stair in a tone of impatient fury-" Callum-why, Callum Beg -Diaoul!" He entered the room with all the marks of a man agitated by a towering passion; and there were few upon whose features, rage produced a more violent effect. The veins of his forehead swelled, when he was in such agitation; his nostril became dilated; his cheek and eye enflamed; and his look that of a demoniac. These appearances of half suppressed rage were the more frightful, because they were obviously caused by a strong effort to temper with discretion an almost ungovernable paroxysm of passion, and resulted from an internal conflict of the most dreadful kind, which agitated his whole frame of mortality.

As he entered the apartment he unbuckled his broad-sword, and throwing it down with such violence that the weapon rolled to the other end of the room, "I know not what," he exclaimed, " withholds me from taking a solemn oath that I will never more draw it in his cause; load my pistols, Callum, and bring them hither instantly-instantly!" Callum, whom nothing ever startled, dismayed, or disconcerted, obeyed very coolly. Even Dhu, upon whose brow the suspicion that his chief had been insulted, called up a corresponding storm, swelled in sullen silence, awaiting to learn where or upon whom vengeance was to descend.

"So, Waverley, you are there," said the chief, after a moment's recollection; "Yes, I remember I asked you to share my triumph, and you have come to witness my-disappointment, we shall call it." Evan now presented the written report he had in his hand, which Fergus threw from him with great passion. "I wish to God," he said, " the old den would tumble down upon the heads of the fools who attack, and the knaves who defend it. I see, Waverley you think I am mad-leave us Evan, but be within call."

"The Colonel's in an unco' kippage," said Mrs. Flockhart to Evan, as he descended; "I wish he may be weel the very veins on his brent brow are swelled like whip-cord; wad he not tak something?"

"He usually lets blood for these fits," answered the Highland Ancient with great composure. When his officer left the room, the chieftain gradually reassumed some degree of composure. know, Waverley," he said " that Colonel Talbot has persuaded you to curse ten times a-day your engagment with us;-nay, never deny it, for I am at this moment tempted to curse my own. Would you believe it, I made this very morning two suits to the • prince, and he has rejected them both; what do you think of it?

"What can I think till I know what your requests were?"

"Why, what signifies what they were, man? I tell you it was I that made them; I, to whom he owes more than any three that have joined the standard; for I negotiated the whole business, and brought in allthe Pertshire men when not one would have stirred. I am not likely, I think to ask any thing very unreasonable, and if I did, they might have stretched a point. Well, but you shall know all, now that I can draw my breath again with some freedom. You remember my earl's patent; it is dated some years back for services then rendered, and certainly my merit has not been diminished, to say the least, by my subsequent behaviour. Now, sir, I value this bauble of a coronet as little as you, or any philosopher on earth; for I hold that the chief of such a clan as the Sliochd nan Ivor is superior in rank to any earl in Scotland. But I had a particular reason for assuming this cursed title at this time. You must know I learned accidentally that the prince has been pressing that old foolish baron of Bradwardine to disinherit his male heir, or nineteenth or twentieth cousin, who has taken a command in the elector of Hanover's militia, and