THE MARCH.
The conflicting passions and exhausted feelings of Waverley had resigned him to late but sound repose.He was dreaming of Glennaquoich, and had transferred to the halls of Ian nan Chaistel the festal train which so lately graced those of Holyrood.
The pibroch too was distinctly heard; and this at least was no delusion, for the ``proud step of the chief piper'' of the ``chlain Mac-Ivor'' was perambulating the court before the door of his Chieftain's quarters, and, as Mrs.Flockhart, apparently no friend to his minstrelsy, was pleased to observe, ``garring the very stane-and-lime wa's dingle wi' his screeching.''
Of course, it soon became too powerful for Waverley's dream, with which it had at first rather harmonized.
The sound of Callum's brogues in his apartment (for Mac-Ivor had again assigned Waverley to his care) was the next note of parting.``Winna yer honour bang up? Vich Ian Vohr and ta Prince are awa to the lang green glen ahint the clachan, tat they ca' the King's Park,<*> and mony ane's on his ain * The main body of the Highland army encamped, or rather bivouacked, * in that part of the King's Park which lies towards the village of Duddingston.
shanks the day, that will be carried on ither folk's ere night.''
Waverley sprung up, and, with Callum's assistance and instructions, adjusted his tartans in proper costume.Callum told him also, ``tat his leather _dorlach_ wi' the lock on her was come frae Doune, and she was awa again in the wain wi' Vich Ian Vohr's walise.''
By this periphrasis Waverley readily apprehended his portmanteau was intended.He thought upon the mysterious packet of the maid of the cavern, which seemed always to escape him when within his very grasp.But this was no time for indulgence of curiosity; and having declined Mrs.
Flockhart's compliment of a _morning, i.e.,_ a matutinal dram, being probably the only man in the Chevalier's army by whom such a courtesy would have been rejected, he made his adieus, and departed with Callum.
``Callum,'' said he, as they proceeded down a dirty close to gain the southern skirts of the Canongate, ``what shall I do for a horse?''
``Ta deil ane ye maun think o','' said Callum.``Vich Ian Vohr's marching on foot at the head o' his kin (not to say ta Prince, wha does the like), wi' his target on his shoulder; and ye maun e'en be neighbour-like.''
``And so I will, Callum---give me my target;---so, there we are fixed.How does it look?''
``Like the bra' Highlander tat's painted on the board afore the mickle change-house they ca' Luckie Middlemass's,'' answered Callum; meaning, I must observe, a high compliment, for, in his opinion, Luckie Middlemass's sign was an exquisite specimen of art.Waverley, however, not feeling the full force of this polite simile, asked him no farther questions.
Upon extricating themselves from the mean and dirty suburbs of the metropolis, and emerging into the open air, Waverley felt a renewal both of health and spirits, and turned his recollection with firmness upon the events of the preceding evening, and with hope and resolution towards those of the approaching day.
When he had surmounted a small craggy eminence, called St.Leonard's Hill, the King's Park, or the hollow between the mountain of Arthur's Seat, and the rising grounds on which the southern part of Edinburgh is now built, lay beneath him, and displayed a singular and animating prospect.It was occupied by the army of the Highlanders, now in the act of preparing for their march.Waverley had already seen something of the kind at the hunting-match which he attended with Fergus Mac-Ivor, but this was on a scale of much greater magnitude, and incomparably deeper interest.The rocks, which formed the background of the scene, and the very sky itself, rang with the clang of the bagpipers, summoning forth, each with his appropriate pibroch, his chieftain and clan.The mountaineers, rousing themselves from their couch under the canopy of heaven, with the hum and bustle of a confused and irregular multitude, like bees alarmed and arming in their hives, seemed to possess all the pliability of movement fitted to execute military man<oe>uvres.
Their motions appeared spontaneous and confused, but the result was order and regularity; so that a general must have praised the conclusion, though a martinet might have ridiculed the method by which it was attained.
The sort of complicated medley created by the hasty arrangements of the various clans under their respective banners, for the purpose of getting into the order of march, was in itself a gay and lively spectacle.They had no tents to strike, having generally, and by choice, slept upon the open field, although the autumn was now waning, and the nights began to be frosty.
For a little space, while they were getting into order, there was exhibited a changing, fluctuating, and confused appearance of waving tartans and floating plumes, and of banners displaying the proud gathering word of Clanronald, _Ganion Coheriga_(Gainsay who dares); _Loch-Sloy,_ the watchword of the Mac-Farlanes;_Forth, fortune, and fill the fetters,_ the motto of the Marquis of Tullibardine; _Bydand,_ that of Lord Lewis Gordon;and the appropriate signal words and emblems of many other chieftains and clans.
