Honour, with all its dependencies.

But an

Honour and generosity were hereditary attrihour of cool reflection is a great matter, when butes of the house of Waverley. With a grace employed in weighing the comparative evil of and delicacy worthy the hero of a romance, Sir two measures, to neither of which we are in Everard withdrew his claim to the hand of Lady ternally partial. Lawyer Clippurse found his Emily. He had even, before leaving Blandeville patron involved in a deep study, which he was Castle, the address to extort from her father too respectful to disturb, otherwise than by a consent to her union with the object of her producing his paper and leathern ink-case, as choice. What arguments he used on this point prepared to minute his honour's commands. cannot exactly be known, for Sir Everard was Even this slight maneuvre was embarrassing never supposed strong in the powers of perto Sir Everard, who felt it as a reproach to suasion ; but the young officer, immediately his indecision. He looked at the attorney with after this transaction, rose in the army with some desire to issue his fiat, when the sun, a rapidity far surpassing the usual pace of emerging from behind a cloud, poured at once unpatronized professional merit, although, to its chequered light through the stained window outward appearance, that was all he had to of the gloomy cabinet in which they were depend upon. seated. The Baronet's eye, as he raised it The shock which Sir Everard encountered to the splendour, fell right upon the central upon this occasion, although diminished by the scutcheon, impressed with the same device consciousness of having acted virtuously and which his ancestor was said to have borne in generously, had its effect upon his future life. the field of Hastings ; three ermines passant, His resolution of marriage had been adopted in argent, in a field azure, with its appropriate a fit of indignation ; the labour of courtship motto, Sans tache. ‘May our name rather did not quite suit the dignified indolence of perish,' exclaimed Sir Everard, than that his habits; he had but just escaped the risk of ancient and loyal symbol should be blended marrying a woman who could never love him; with the dishonoured insignia of a traitorous and his pride could not be greatly flattered by Roundhead !'

the termination of his amour, even if his heart All this was the effect of the glimpse of a had not suffered. The result of the whole matter sunbeam, just sufficient to light Lawyer Clip- was his return to Waverley-Honour without any purse to mend his pen. The pen was mended transfer of his affections, notwithstanding the in vain. The attorney was dismissed, with sighs and languishments of the fair tell-tale, directions to hold himself in readiness on the who had revealed, in mere sisterly affection, the first summons.

secret of Lady Emily's attachment, and in despite The apparition of Lawyer Clippurse at the of the nods, winks, and innuendoes of the officious Hall occasioned much speculation in that portion lady mother, and the grave eulogiums which the of the world to which Waverley-Honour formed Earl pronounced successively on the prudence, the centre ; but the more judicious politicians of and good sense, and admirable dispositions, of this microcosm augured yet worse consequences his first second, third, fourth, and fifth to Richard Waverley from a movement which daughters. The memory of his unsuccessful shortly followed his apostasy. This was no less amour was with Sir Everard, as with many than an excursion of the Baronet in his coach- more of his temper, at once shy, proud, sensitand-six, with four attendants in rich liveries, to ive, and indolent, a beacon against exposing make a visit of some duration to a noble peer on himself to similar mortification, pain, and fruitthe confines of the shire, of untainted descent, less exertion for the time to come. He continued steady Tory principles, and the happy father of to live at Waverley-Honour in the style of an six unmarried and accomplished daughters. old English gentleman of an ancient descent

Sir Everard's reception in this family was, as it and opulent fortune. His sister, Miss Rachel may be easily conceived, sufficiently favourable ; Waverley, presided at his table; and they but of the six young ladies, his taste unfortun- became, by degrees, an old bachelor and an ately determined him in favour of Lady Emily, ancient maiden lady, the gentlest and kindest the youngest, who received his attentions with of the votaries of celibacy. an embarrassment which showed at once that she The vehemence of Sir Everard's resentment durst not decline them, and that they afforded against his brother was but short-lived; yet his her anything but pleasure.

dislike to the Whig and the placeman, though Sir Everard could not but perceive something unable to stimulate him to resume any active uncommon in the restrained emotions which the

measures prejudicial to Richard's interest in the young lady testified at the advances he hazarded ; succession to the family estate, continued to but assured by the prudent Countess that they maintain the coldness between them. Richard were the natural effects of a retired education, knew enough of the world, and of his brother's the sacrifice might have been completed, as doubt- temper, to believe that by any ill-considered or less has happened in many similar instances, had precipitate advances on his part he might turn it not been for the courage of an elder sister, who passive dislike into a more active principle. It revealed to the wealthy suitor that Lady Emily's was accident, therefore, which at length occaaffections were fixed upon a young soldier of sioned a renewal of their intercourse. Richard fortune, a near relation of her own. Sir Everard had married a young woman of rank, by whose manifested great emotion on receiving this in- family interest and private fortune he hoped to telligence, which was confirmed to him, in a advance his career. In her right he became private interview, by the young lady herself, possessor of a manor of some value at the disalthough under the most dreadful apprehensions tance of a few miles from Waverley-Honour. of her father's indignation.

Little Edward, the hero of our tale, then in his fifth year, was their only child. It chanced that the infant with his maid had strayed one

CHAPTER III. morning to a mile's distance from the avenue of Brerewood Lodge, his father's seat. Their

EDUCATION. attention was attracted by a carriage drawn by six stately long-tailed black horses, and with as The education of our hero, Edward Waverley, much carving and gilding as would have done was of a nature somewhat desultory. In infancy, honour to my lord mayor's. It was waiting for his health suffered, or was supposed to suffer the owner, who was at a little distance inspecting (which is quite the same thing), by the air of the progress of a half-built farm-house. I know London. As soon, therefore, as official duties, not whether the boy's nurse had been a Welsh attendance on Parliament, or the prosecution of or a Scotch woman, or in what manner he as- any of his plans of interest or ambition, called sociated a shield emblazoned with three ermines his father to town, which was his usual residence with the idea of personal property, but he no for eight months in the year, Edward was transsooner beheld this family emblem than he ferred to Waverley-Honour, and experienced a stoutly determined on vindicating his right to total change of instructors and of lessons, as the splendid vehicle on which it was displayed. well as of residence. This might have been The Baronet arrived while the boy's maid was remedied, had his father placed him under the in vain endeavouring to make him desist from superintendence of a permanent tutor. But he his determination to appropriate the gilded considered that one of his choosing would procoach-and-six. The rencontre was at a happy bably have been unacceptable at Waverley, moment for Edward, as his uncle had been just | Honour, and that such a selection as Sir Everard eyeing wistfully, with something of a feeling might have made, were the matter left to him, like envy, the chubby boys of the stout yeoman would have burdened him with a disagreeablé whose mansion was building by his direction. inmate, if not a political spy, in his family. In the round-faced rosy cherub before him, He therefore prevailed upon his private secretary, bearing his eye and his name, and vindicating a young man of taste and accomplishments, to a hereditary title to his family affection and bestow an hour or two on Edward's education patronage, by means of a tie which Sir Everard while at Brerewood Lodge, and left his uncle held as sacred as either Garter or Blue Mantle, answerable for his improvement in literature Providence seemed to have granted to him the while an inmate at the Hall. very object best calculated to fill up the void in This was in some degree respectably provided his hopes and affections. Sir Everard returned for. Sir Everard's chaplain, an Oxonian, who to Waverley Hall upon a led horse which was had lost his fellowship for declining to take the kept in readiness for him, while the child and oaths at the accession of George I., was not only his attendant were sent home in the carriage to an excellent classical scholar, but reasonably Brerewood Lodge with such a message as opened skilled in science, and master of most modern to Richard Waverley a door of reconciliation languages. He was, however, old and indulwith his elder brother.

gent, and the recurring interregnum, during Their intercourse, however, though thus re- which Edward was entirely freed from his disnewed, continued to be rather formal and civil cipline, occasioned such a relaxation of authority, than partaking of brotherly cordiality; yet it that the youth was permitted, in a great measure, was sufficient to the wishes of both parties. Sir to learn as he pleased, what he pleased, and Everard obtained, in the frequent society of his when he pleased. This slackness of rule might little nephew, something on which his hereditary have been ruinous to a boy of slow understandpride might found the anticipated pleasure of a ing, who, feeling labour in the acquisition of continuation of his lineage, and where his kind knowledge, would have altogether neglected it, and gentle, affections could at the same time fully save for the command of a task-master; and it exercise themselves. For Richard Waverley, he might have proved equally dangerous to a youth beheld in the growing attachment between the whose animal spirits were more powerful than uncle and nephew the means of securing his his imagination or his feelings, and whom the son's, if not his own, succession to the hereditary irresistible influence of Alma would have engaged estate, which he felt would be rather endangered in field sports from morning till night. But the than promoted by any attempt on his own part character of Edward Waverley was remote from towards a closer intimacy with a man of Sir either of these. His powers of apprehension Everard's habits and opinions.

were so uncommonly quick, as almost to reThus, by a sort of tacit compromise, little semble intuition, and the chief care of his Edward was permitted to pass the greater part preceptor was to prevent him, as a sportsman of the year at the Hall, and appeared to stand would phrase it, from overrunning his game, in the same intimate relation to both families, that is, from acquiring his knowledge in a although their mutual intercourse was otherwise slight, flimsy, and inadequate manner. And limited to formal messages and more formal here the instructor had to combat another provisits. The education of the youth was regu- pensity too often united with brilliancy of fancy lated alternately by the taste and opinions of his and vivacity of talent,--that indolence, namely, uncle and of his father. But more of this in a of disposition, which can only be stirred by some subsequent chapter.

strong motive of gratification, and which renounces study as soon as curiosity is gratified, the pleasure of conquering the first difficulties exhausted, and the novelty of pursuit at an end. Edward would throw himself with spirit upon

a

a

any classical author of which his preceptor pro- as a mark of splendour, to furnish their shelves posed the perusal, make himself master of the with the current literature of the day, without style so far as to understand the story, and if much scrutiny, or nicety of discrimination. that pleased or interested him, he finished the Throughout this ample realm Edward was pervolume. But it was in vain to attempt fixing mitted to roam at large. His tutor had his own his attention on critical distinctions of philology, studies ; and church politics and controversial upon the difference of idiom, the beauty of divinity, together with a love of learned ease, felicitous expression, or the artificial combina- though they did not withdraw his attention at tions of syntax. 'I can read and understand a stated times from the progress of his patron's Latin author,' said young Edward, with the presumptive heir, induced him readily to grasp self-confidence and rash reasoning of fifteen, at any apology for not extending a strict and ‘and Scaliger or Bentley could not do much regulated survey towards his general studies. more.' Alas! while he was thus permitted to Sir Everard had never been himself a student, read only for the gratification of his amusement, and, like his sister, Miss Rachel Waverley, he he foresaw not that he was losing for ever the held the common doctrine, that idleness is inopportunity of acquiring habits of firm and compatible with reading of any kind, and that assiduous application, of gaining the art of con- the mere tracing the alphabetical characters with trolling, directing, and concentrating the powers the eye is in itself a useful and meritorious task, of his mind for earnest investigation,--an art without scrupulously considering what ideas or far more essential than even that intimate ac- doctrines they may happen to convey. With a quaintance with classical learning, which is the desire of amusement, therefore, which better primary object of study.

discipline might soon have converted into a I am aware I may be here reminded of the thirst for knowledge, young Waverley drove necessity of rendering instruction agreeable to through the sea of books, like a vessel without youth, and of Tasso's infusion of honey into the a pilot or a rudder. Nothing perhaps increases medicine prepared for a child ; but an age in by indulgence more than a desultory habit of which children are taught the driest doctrines reading, especially under such opportunities of by the insinuating method of instructive games, gratifying it. I believe one reason why such has little reason to dread the consequences of numerous instances of erudition occur among study being rendered too serious or severe. The the lower ranks is, that, with the same powers history of England is now reduced to a game at of mind, the poor student is limited to a narrow cards, the problems of mathematics to puzzles circle for indulging his passion for books, and and riddles, -and the doctrines of arithmetic must necessarily make himself master of the few may, we are assured, be sufficiently acquired, by he possesses ere he can acquire more. Edward, spending a few hours a week at a new and com- on the contrary, like the epicure who only plicated edition of the Royal Game of the Goose. deigned to take a single morsel from the sunny There wants but one step further, and the Creed | side of a peach, read no volume a moment after and Ten Commandments may be taught in the it ceased to excite his curiosity or interest; and same manner, without the necessity of the grave it necessarily happened, that the habit of seekface, deliberate tone of recital, and devout atten- ing only this sort of gratification rendered it tion, hitherto exacted from the well-governed daily more difficult of attainment, till the childhood of this realm. It may, in the mean- passion for reading, like other strong appetites, time, be subject of serious consideration, whether produced by indulgence a sort of satiety. those who are accustomed only to acquire Ere he attained this indifference, however, he instruction through the medium of amusement, had read, and stored in a memory of uncommon may not be brought to reject that which ap- tenacity, much curious, though ill-arranged and proaches under the aspect of study; whether miscellaneous information. In English literathose who learn history by the cards, may not ture he was master of Shakspeare and Milton, be led to prefer the means to the end ; and of our earlier dramatic authors; of many whether, were we to teach religion in the way of picturesque and interesting passages from our sport, our pupils may not thereby be gradually old historical chronicles ; and was particularly induced to make sport of their religion. To our well acquainted with Spenser, Drayton, and young hero, who was permitted to seek his other poets who have exercised themselves on instruction only according to the bent of his romantic fiction, of all themes the most fascinown mind, and who, of consequence, only sought ating to a youthful imagination, before the it so long as it afforded him amusement, the passions have roused themselves, and demand indulgence of his tutors was attended with evil poetry of a more sentimental description. In consequences, which long continued to influence this respect his acquaintance with Italian opened his character, happiness, and utility.

him yet a wider range. He had perused the Edward's power of imagination and love of numerous romantic poems, which, from the days literature, although the former was vivid, and of Pulci, have been a favourite exercise of the the latter ardent, were so far from affording a wits of Italy; and had sought gratification in remedy to this peculiar evil, that they rather the numerous collections of novelle, which were inflamed and increased its violence. The library brought forth by the genius of that elegant at Waverley-Honour, a large Gothic room, with though luxurious nation, in emulation of the double arches and a gallery, contained such a Decameron. In classical literature, Waverley miscellaneous and extensive collection of volumes had made the usual progress, and read the usual as had been assembled together, during the authors ; and the French had afforded him an course of two hundred years, by a family which almost exhaustless collection of memoirs, scarcely had been always wealthy, and inclined, of course, more faithful than romances, and of romances so

well written as hardly to be distinguished from whom it afforded, were not of a class fit to form memoirs. The splendid pages of Froissart, with Edward's usual companions, far less to excite his heart-stirring and eye-dazzling descriptions him to emulation in the practice of those pasof war and of tournaments, were among his times which composed the serious business of chief favourites ; and from those of Brantome their lives. and de la Noue he learned to compare the wild There were a few other youths of better eduand loose yet superstitious character of the cation, and a more liberal character ; but from nobles of the League, with the stern, rigid, and their society also our hero was in some degree sometimes turbulent disposition of the Huguenot excluded, Sir Everard had, upon the death of party. The Spanish had contributed to his Queen Anne, resigned his seat in Parliament, stock of chivalrous and romantic lore. The and, as his age increased and the number of his earlier literature of the northern nations did contemporaries diminished, had gradually withnot escape the study of one who read rather to drawn ħimself from society; so that when, upon awaken the imagination than to benefit the any particular occasion, Edward mingled with understanding And yet, knowing much that accomplished and well-educated young men of his is known but to few, Edward Waverley might own rank and expectations, he felt an inferiority justly be considered as ignorant, since he knew in their company, not so much from deficiency little of what adds dignity to man, and qualifies of information, as from the want of skill to comhim to support and adorn an elevated situation mand and to arrange that which he possessed. in society

A deep and increasing sensibility added to this The occasional attention of his parents might dislike of society. The idea of having commitindeed have been of service, to prevent the ted the slightest solecism in politeness, whether dissipation of mind incidental to such a de- real or imaginary, was agony to him ; for persultory course of reading. But his mother died haps even guilt itself does not impose upon some in the seventh year after the reconciliation minds so keen a sense of shame and remorse, as between the brothers, and Richard Waverley a modest, sensitive, and inexperienced youth himself, who, after this event, resided more feels from the consciousness of having neglected constantly in London, was too much interested etiquette, or excited ridicule. Where we are in his own plans of wealth and ambition, to not at ease, we cannot be happy; and therenotice more respecting Edward, than that he fore it is not surprising, that Edward Waverley was of a very bookish turn, and probably supposed that he disliked and was unfitted destined to be a bishop. If he could have dis- for society, merely because he had not yet accovered and analyzed his son's waking dreams, he quired the habit of living in it with ease and would have formed a very different conclusion. comfort, and of reciprocally giving and receiving

pleasure.

The hours he spent with his uncle and aunt

were exhausted in listening to the oft-repeated CHAPTER IV.

tale of narrative old age. Yet even there his

imagination, the predominant faculty of his CASTLE-BUILDING.

mind, was frequently excited, Family tradition

and genealogical history, upon which much of Sir I HAVE already hinted, that the dainty, Everard's discourse turned, is the very reverse of squeamish, and fastidious taste acquired by a amber, which, itself a valuable substance, usually surfeit of idle reading, had not only rendered includes flies, straws, and other trifles; whereas our hero unfit for serious and sober study, but these studies, being themselves very insignificant had even disgusted him in some degree with that and trifling, do nevertheless serve to perpetuate in which he had hitherto indulged.

a great deal of what is rare and valuable in He was in his sixteenth year, when his habits of ancient manners, and to record many curious abstraction and love of solitude became so much and minute facts, which could have been premarked, as to excite Sir Everard's affectionate served and conveyed through no other medium. apprehension. He tried to counterbalance these If, therefore, Edward Waverley yawned at times propensities, by engaging his nephew in field over the dry deduction of his line of ancestors, with sports

, which had been the chief pleasure of their various intermarriages, and inwardly deprehis own youthful days. But although Edward cated the remorseless and protracted accuracy eagerly carried the gun for one season, yet when with which the worthy Sir Everard rehearsed practice had given him some dexterity, the pas- the various degrees of propinquity between the time ceased to afford him amusement.

house of Waverley-Honour, and the doughty In the succeeding spring, the perusal of old barons, knights, and squires, to whom they Isaac Walton's fascinating volume determined stood allied ; if (notwithstanding his obligations Edward to become 'a brother of the angle.' to the three ermines passant) he sometimes But of all diversions which ingenuity ever de cursed in his heart the jargon of heraldry, its vised for the relief of idleness, fishing is the griffins, its moldwarps, its wyverns, and its worst qualified to amuse a man who is at once dragons, with all the bitterness of Hotspur himindolent and impatient; and our hero's rod self, there were moments when these communiwas speedily flung aside. Society and example, cations interested his fancy and rewarded his which, more than any other motives, master and attention. sway the natural bent of our passions, might The deeds of Wilibert of Waverley in the Holy have had their usual effect upon the youthful Land, his long absence and perilous adventures, visionary ; but the neighbourhood was thinly his supposed death, and his return in the eveninhabited, and the home-bred young squires | ing when the betrothed of his heart had wedded

*

the hero who had protected her from insult and the astonishment of the bridegroom ; the terror oppression during his absence ; the generosity and confusion of the bride ; the agony with with which the Crusader relinquished his claims, which Wilibert observed that her heart as well and sought in a neighbouring cloister that peace as consent was in these nuptials; the air of which passeth not away; to these and similar dignity, yet of deep feeling, with which he flung tales he would hearken till his heart glowed and down the half-drawn sword, and turned away his eye glistened. Nor was he less affected, for ever from the house of his ancestors. Then when his aunt, Mrs. Rachel, narrated the suffer- would he change the scene, and fancy would at ings and fortitude of Lady Alice Waverley his wish represent Aunt Rachel's tragedy. He during the Great Civil War. The benevolent saw the Lady Waverley seated in her bower, her features of the venerable spinster kindled into ear strained to every sound, her heart throbbing more majestic expression, as she told how Charles with double agony, now listening to the decay. had, after the field of Worcester, found a day's ing echo of the hoofs of the king's horse, and refuge at Waverley-Honour; and how, when a when that had died away, hearing in every troop of cavalry were approaching to search the breeze that shook the trees of the park, the mansion, Lady Alice dismissed her youngest son noise of the remote skirmish. A distant sound with a handful of domestics, charging them to is heard like the rushing of a swoln stream; it make good with their lives an hour's diversion, comes nearer, and Edward can plainly distinguish that the king might have that space for escape. the galloping of horses, the cries and shouts of And, God help her,' would Mrs. Rachel continue, men, with straggling pistol-shots between, rollfixing her eyes upon the heroine's portrait as ing forwards to the Hall. The lady starts up-a she spoke, full dearly did she purchase the terrified menial rushes in—but why pursue such safety of her prince with the life of her darling a description? child. They brought him here a prisoner, mor- As living in this ideal world became daily more tally wounded ; and you may trace the drops of delectable to our hero, interruption was disagreehis blood from the great hall door along the able in proportion. The extensive domain that little gallery, and up to the saloon, where they surrounded the Hall, which, far exceeding the laid him down to die at his mother's feet. But dimensions of a park, was usually termed there was comfort exchanged between them ; for Waverley - Chase, had originally been forest he knew from the glance of his mother's eye, ground, and still, though broken by extensive that the purpose of his desperate defence was glades, in which the young deer were sporting, attained. Ah! I remember," she continued, 'I retained its pristine and savage character. It remember well to have seen one that knew and was traversed by broad avenues, in many places loved him. Miss Lucy St. Aubin lived and died half grown up with brushwood, where the a maid for his sake, though one of the most beauties of former days used to take their stand beautiful and wealthy matches in this country; to see the stag coursed with greyhounds, or to all the world ran after her, but she wore widow's gain an aim at him with the cross-bow. In one mourning all her life for poor William, for they spot, distinguished by a moss-grown Gothic were betrothed though not married, and died in monument, which retained the name of Queen's

I cannot think of the date ; but I remember, Standing, Elizabeth herself was said to have in the November of that very year, when she pierced seven bucks with her own arrows. This found herself sinking, she desired to be brought was a very favourite haunt of Waverley. At to Waverley-Honour once more, and visited all other times, with his gun and his spaniel, which the places where she had been with my grand served as an apology to others, and with a book in uncle, and caused the carpets to be raised that his pocket, which perhaps served as an apology she might trace the impression of his blood, and to himself, he used to pursue one of these long if tears could have washed it out, it had not avenues, which, after an ascending sweep of four been there now; for there was not a dry eye in miles, gradually narrowed into a rude and conthe house. You would have thought, Edward, tracted path through the cliffy and woody pass that the very trees mourned for her, for their called Mirkwood Dingle, and opened suddenly leaves dropt around her without a gust of wind; upon a deep, dark, and small lake, named, from and, indeed, she looked like one that would the same cause, Mirkwood Mere. There stood, never see them green again.'

in former times, a solitary tower upon a rock From such legends our hero would steal away almost surrounded by the water, which had to indulge the fancies they excited. In the acquired the name of the Strength of Waverley, corner of the large and sombre library, with no because, in perilous times, it had often been the other light than was afforded by the decaying refuge of the family. There, in the wars of brands on its ponderous and ample hearth, he York and Lancaster, the last adherents of the would exercise for hours that internal sorcery, Red Rose who dared to maintain her cause, by which past or imaginary events are presented carried on a harassing and predatory warfare, in action, as it were, to the eye of the muser. till the stronghold was reduced by the celeThen arose in long and fair array the splendour brated Richard of Gloucester. Here, too, a of the bridal feast at Waverley Castle ; the tall party of cavaliers long maintained themselves and emaciated form of its real lord, as he stood under Nigel Waverley, elder brother of that in his pilgrim's weeds, an unnoticed spectator of William whose fate Aunt Rachel commemorated, the festivities of his supposed heir and intended Through these scenes it was that Edward loved bride; the electrical shock occasioned by the to chew the cud of sweet and bitter fancy, discovery; the springing of the vassals to arms; and, like a child among his toys, culled and

arranged, from the splendid yet useless imagery * Note A. Bradshaigh Legend.

and emblems with which his imagination was