CHAPTER II
WAVERLEY-HONOUR--A RETROSPECT
It is, then, sixty years since Edward Waverley, the hero of thefollowing pages, took leave of his family, to join the regiment ofdragoons in which he had lately obtained a commission. It was amelancholy day at Waverley-Honour when the young officer partedwith Sir Everard, the affectionate old uncle to whose title andestate he was presumptive heir.
A difference in political opinions had early separated the Baronetfrom his younger brother Richard Waverley, the father of our hero.Sir Everard had inherited from his sires the whole train of Toryor High-Church predilections and prejudices which haddistinguished the house of Waverley since the Great Civil War.Richard, on the contrary, who was ten years younger, beheldhimself born to the fortune of a second brother, and anticipatedneither dignity nor entertainment in sustaining the character ofWill Wimble. He saw early that, to succeed in the race of life, itwas necessary he should carry as little weight as possible.Painters talk of the difficulty of expressing the existence ofcompound passions in the same features at the same moment; itwould be no less difficult for the moralist to analyse the mixedmotives which unite to form the impulse of our actions. RichardWaverley read and satisfied himself from history and soundargument that, in the words of the old song,
Passive obedience was a jest, And pshaw! was non-resistance;
yet reason would have probably been unable to combat and removehereditary prejudice could Richard have anticipated that his elderbrother, Sir Everard, taking to heart an early disappointment,would have remained a bachelor at seventy-two. The prospect ofsuccession, however remote, might in that case have led him toendure dragging through the greater part of his life as 'MasterRichard at the Hall, the Baronet's brother,' in the hope that ereits conclusion he should be distinguished as Sir Richard Waverleyof Waverley-Honour, successor to a princely estate, and toextended political connections as head of the county interest inthe shire where it lay.
But this was a consummation of things not to be expected atRichard's outset, when Sir Everard was in the prime of life, andcertain to be an acceptable suitor in almost any family, whetherwealth or beauty should be the object of his pursuit, and when,indeed, his speedy marriage was a report which regularly amusedthe neighbourhood once a year. His younger brother saw nopracticable road to independence save that of relying upon his ownexertions, and adopting a political creed more consonant both toreason and his own interest than the hereditary faith of SirEverard in High-Church and in the house of Stuart. He thereforeread his recantation at the beginning of his career, and enteredlife as an avowed Whig and friend of the Hanover succession.
The ministry of George the First's time were prudently anxious todiminish the phalanx of opposition. The Tory nobility, dependingfor their reflected lustre upon the sunshine of a court, had forsome time been gradually reconciling themselves to the newdynasty. But the wealthy country gentlemen of England, a rankwhich retained, with much of ancient manners and primitiveintegrity, a great proportion of obstinate and unyieldingprejudice, stood aloof in haughty and sullen opposition, and castmany a look of mingled regret and hope to Bois le Due, Avignon,and Italy. [Footnote: Where the Chevalier St. George, or, as he wastermed, the Old Pretender, held his exiled court, as his situationcompelled him to shift his place of residence.] The accession ofthe near relation of one of those steady and inflexible opponentswas considered as a means of bringing over more converts, andtherefore Richard Waverley met with a share of ministerial favourmore than proportioned to his talents or his political importance.It was, however, discovered that he had respectable talents forpublic business, and the first admittance to the minister's leveebeing negotiated, his success became rapid. Sir Everard learnedfrom the public 'News-Letter,' first, that Richard Waverley,Esquire, was returned for the ministerial borough of Barterfaith;next, that Richard Waverley, Esquire, had taken a distinguishedpart in the debate upon the Excise Bill in the support ofgovernment; and, lastly, that Richard Waverley, Esquire, had beenhonoured with a seat at one of those boards where the pleasure ofserving the country is combined with other importantgratifications, which, to render them the more acceptable, occurregularly once a quarter.
Although these events followed each other so closely that thesagacity of the editor of a modern newspaper would have presagedthe two last even while he announced the first, yet they came uponSir Everard gradually, and drop by drop, as it were, distilledthrough the cool and procrastinating alembic of Dyer's 'WeeklyLetter.' [Footnote: See Note I. ] For it may be observed inpassing, that instead of those mail-coaches, by means of whichevery mechanic at his six-penny club, may nightly learn fromtwenty contradictory channels the yesterday's news of the capital,a weekly post brought, in those days, to Waverley-Honour, aWeekly Intelligencer, which, after it had gratified Sir Everard'scuriosity, his sister's, and that of his aged butler, wasregularly transferred from the Hall to the Rectory, from theRectory to Squire Stubbs's at the Grange, from the Squire to theBaronet's steward at his neat white house on the heath, from thesteward to the bailiff, and from him through a huge circle ofhonest dames and gaffers, by whose hard and horny hands it wasgenerally worn to pieces in about a month after its arrival.
This slow succession of intelligence was of some advantage toRichard Waverley in the case before us; for, had the sum total ofhis enormities reached the ears of Sir Everard at once, there canbe no doubt that the new commissioner would have had little reasonto pique himself on the success of his politics. The Baronet,although the mildest of human beings, was not without sensitivepoints in his character; his brother's conduct had wounded thesedeeply; the Waverley estate was fettered by no entail (for it hadnever entered into the head of any of its former possessors thatone of their progeny could be guilty of the atrocities laid byDyer's 'Letter' to the door of Richard), and if it had, themarriage of the proprietor might have been fatal to a collateralheir. These various ideas floated through the brain of Sir Everardwithout, however, producing any determined conclusion.
He examined the tree of his genealogy, which, emblazoned with manyan emblematic mark of honour and heroic achievement, hung upon thewell-varnished wainscot of his hall. The nearest descendants ofSir Hildebrand Waverley, failing those of his eldest son Wilfred,of whom Sir Everard and his brother were the only representatives,were, as this honoured register informed him (and, indeed, as hehimself well knew), the Waverleys of Highley Park, com. Hants;with whom the main branch, or rather stock, of the house hadrenounced all connection since the great law-suit in 1670.
This degenerate scion had committed a farther offence against thehead and source of their gentility, by the intermarriage of theirrepresentative with Judith, heiress of Oliver Bradshawe, ofHighley Park, whose arms, the same with those of Bradshawe theregicide, they had quartered with the ancient coat of Waverley.These offences, however, had vanished from Sir Everard'srecollection in the heat of his resentment; and had LawyerClippurse, for whom his groom was despatched express, arrived butan hour earlier, he might have had the benefit of drawing a newsettlement of the lordship and manor of Waverley-Honour, with allits dependencies. But an hour of cool reflection is a great matterwhen employed in weighing the comparative evil of two measures toneither of which we are internally partial. Lawyer Clippurse foundhis patron involved in a deep study, which he was too respectfulto disturb, otherwise than by producing his paper and leathernink-case, as prepared to minute his honour's commands. Even thisslight manoeuvre was embarrassing to Sir Everard, who felt it as areproach to his indecision. He looked at the attorney with somedesire to issue his fiat, when the sun, emerging from behind acloud, poured at once its chequered light through the stainedwindow of the gloomy cabinet in which they were seated. TheBaronet's eye, as he raised it to the splendour, fell right uponthe central scutcheon, inpressed with the same device which hisancestor was said to have borne in the field of Hastings,--threeermines passant, argent, in a field azure, with its appropriatemotto, Sans tache. 'May our name rather perish,' exclaimed SirEverard, 'th
an that ancient and loyal symbol should be blendedwith the dishonoured insignia of a traitorous Roundhead!'
All this was the effect of the glimpse of a sunbeam, justsufficient to light Lawyer Clippurse to mend his pen. The pen wasmended in vain. The attorney was dismissed, with directions tohold himself in readiness on the first summons.
The apparition of Lawyer Clippurse at the Hall occasioned muchspeculation in that portion of the world to which Waverley-Honourformed the centre. But the more judicious politicians of thismicrocosm augured yet worse consequences to Richard Waverley froma movement which shortly followed his apostasy. This was no lessthan an excursion of the Baronet in his coach-and-six, with fourattendants in rich liveries, to make a visit of some duration to anoble peer on the confines of the shire, of untainted descent,steady Tory principles, and the happy father of six unmarried andaccomplished daughters.
Sir Everard's reception in this family was, as it may be easilyconceived, sufficiently favourable; but of the six young ladies,his taste unfortunately determined him in favour of Lady Emily,the youngest, who received his attentions with an embarrassmentwhich showed at once that she durst not decline them, and thatthey afforded her anything but pleasure.
Sir Everard could not but perceive something uncommon in therestrained emotions which the young lady testified at the advanceshe hazarded; but, assured by the prudent Countess that they werethe natural effects of a retired education, the sacrifice mighthave been completed, as doubtless has happened in many similarinstances, had it not been for the courage of an elder sister, whorevealed to the wealthy suitor that Lady Emily's affections werefixed upon a young soldier of fortune, a near relation of her own.
Sir Everard manifested great emotion on receiving thisintelligence, which was confirmed to him, in a private interview,by the young lady herself, although under the most dreadfulapprehensions of her father's indignation.
Honour and generosity were hereditary attributes of the house ofWaverley. With a grace and delicacy worthy the hero of a romance,Sir Everard withdrew his claim to the hand of Lady Emily. He hadeven, before leaving Blandeville Castle, the address to extortfrom her father a consent to her union with the object of herchoice. What arguments he used on this point cannot exactly beknown, for Sir Everard was never supposed strong in the powers ofpersuasion; but the young officer, immediately after thistransaction, rose in the army with a rapidity far surpassing theusual pace of unpatronised professional merit, although, tooutward appearance, that was all he had to depend upon.
The shock which Sir Everard encountered upon this occasion,although diminished by the consciousness of having actedvirtuously and generously had its effect upon his future life. Hisresolution of marriage had been adopted in a fit of indignation;the labour of courtship did not quite suit the dignified indolenceof his habits; he had but just escaped the risk of marrying awoman who could never love him, and his pride could not be greatlyflattered by the termination of his amour, even if his heart hadnot suffered. The result of the whole matter was his return toWaverley-Honour without any transfer of his affections,notwithstanding the sighs and languishments of the fair tell-tale,who had revealed, in mere sisterly affection, the secret of LadyEmily's attachment, and in despite of the nods, winks, andinnuendos of the officious lady mother, and the grave eulogiumswhich the Earl pronounced successively on the prudence, and goodsense, and admirable dispositions, of his first, second, third,fourth, and fifth daughters.
The memory of his unsuccessful amour was with Sir Everard, as withmany more of his temper, at once shy, proud, sensitive, andindolent, a beacon against exposing himself to similarmortification, pain, and fruitless exertion for the time to come.He continued to live at Waverley-Honour in the style of an oldEnglish gentleman, of an ancient descent and opulent fortune. Hissister, Miss Rachel Waverley, presided at his table; and theybecame, by degrees, an old bachelor and an ancient maiden lady,the gentlest and kindest of the votaries of celibacy.
The vehemence of Sir Everard's resentment against his brother wasbut short-lived; yet his dislike to the Whig and the placeman,though unable to stimulate him to resume any active measuresprejudicial to Richard's interest, in the succession to the familyestate, continued to maintain the coldness between them. Richardknew enough of the world, and of his brother's temper, to believethat by any ill-considered or precipitate advances on his part, hemight turn passive dislike into a more active principle. It wasaccident, therefore, which at length occasioned a renewal of theirintercourse. Richard had married a young woman of rank, by whosefamily interest and private fortune he hoped to advance hiscareer. In her right he became possessor of a manor of some value,at the distance of a few miles from Waverley-Honour.
Little Edward, the hero of our tale, then in his fifth year, wastheir only child. It chanced that the infant with his maid hadstrayed one morning to a mile's distance from the avenue ofBrerewood Lodge, his father's seat. Their attention was attractedby a carriage drawn by six stately long-tailed black horses, andwith as much carving and gilding as would have done honour to mylord mayor's. It was waiting for the owner, who was at a littledistance inspecting the progress of a half-built farm-house. Iknow not whether the boy's nurse had been a Welsh--or a Scotch-woman, or in what manner he associated a shield emblazoned withthree ermines with the idea of personal property, but he no soonerbeheld this family emblem than he stoutly determined onvindicating his right to the splendid vehicle on which it wasdisplayed. The Baronet arrived while the boy's maid was in vainendeavouring to make him desist from his determination toappropriate the gilded coach-and-six. The rencontre was at a happymoment for Edward, as his uncle had been just eyeing wistfully,with something of a feeling like envy, the chubby boys of thestout yeoman whose mansion was building by his direction. In theround-faced rosy cherub before him, bearing his eye and his name,and vindicating a hereditary title to his family, affection, andpatronage, by means of a tie which Sir Everard held as sacred aseither Garter or Blue-mantle, Providence seemed to have granted tohim the very object best calculated to fill up the void in hishopes and affections. Sir Everard returned to Waverley-Hall upon aled horse, which was kept in readiness for him, while the childand his attendant were sent home in the carriage to BrerewoodLodge, with such a message as opened to Richard Waverley a door ofreconciliation with his elder brother.
Their intercourse, however, though thus renewed, continued to berather formal and civil than partaking of brotherly cordiality;yet it was sufficient to the wishes of both parties. Sir Everardobtained, in the frequent society of his little nephew, somethingon which his hereditary pride might found the anticipated pleasureof a continuation of his lineage, and where his kind and gentleaffections could at the same time fully exercise themselves. ForRichard Waverley, he beheld in the growing attachment between theuncle and nephew the means of securing his son's, if not his own,succession to the hereditary estate, which he felt would be ratherendangered than promoted by any attempt on his own part towards acloser intimacy with a man of Sir Everard's habits and opinions.
Thus, by a sort of tacit compromise, little Edward was permittedto pass the greater part of the year at the Hall, and appeared tostand in the same intimate relation to both families, althoughtheir mutual intercourse was otherwise limited to formal messagesand more formal visits. The education of the youth was regulatedalternately by the taste and opinions of his uncle and of hisfather. But more of this in a subsequent chapter.