Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XLIV

  THE MARCH

  The conflicting passions and exhausted feelings of Waverley had resignedhim to late but sound repose. He was dreaming of Glennaquoich, and hadtransferred to the halls of Ian nan Chaistel the festal train which solately graced those of Holyrood. The pibroch too was distinctly heard;and this at least was no delusion, for the 'proud step of the chiefpiper' of the 'chlain Mac-Ivor' was perambulating the court before thedoor of his Chieftain's quarters, and, as Mrs. Flockhart, apparentlyno friend to his minstrelsy, was pleased to observe, 'garring the verystane-and-lime wa's dingle wi' his screeching.' Of course, it soonbecame too powerful for Waverley's dream, with which it had at firstrather harmonized.

  The sound of Callum's brogues in his apartment (for Mac-Ivor had againassigned Waverley to his care) was the next note of parting. 'Winna yerehonour bang up? Vich Ian Vohr and ta Prince are awa to the lang greenglen ahint the clachan, tat they ca' the King's Park, and mony ane's onhis ain shanks the day, that will be carried on ither folk's ere night.'[The main body of the Highland army encamped, or rather bivouacked,in that part of the King's Park which lies towards the village ofDuddingston.]

  Waverley sprang up, and, with Callum's assistance and instructions,adjusted his tartans in proper costume. Callum told him also, 'tat hisleather DORLACH wi' the lock on her was come frae Doune, and she was awaagain in the wain wi' Vich Inn Vohr's walise,'

  By this periphrasis Waverley readily apprehended his portmanteau wasintended. He thought upon the mysterious packet of the maid of thecavern, which seemed always to escape him when within his very grasp.But this was no time for indulgence of curiosity; and having declinedMrs. Flockhart's compliment of a morning, i.e. a matutinal dram, beingprobably the only man in the Chevalier's army by whom such a courtesywould have been rejected, he made his adieus, and departed with Callum.

  'Callum,' said he, as they proceeded down a dirty close to gain thesouthern skirts of the Canongate, 'what shall I do for a horse?'

  'Ta deil ane ye maun think o',' said Callum. 'Vich Ian Vohr's marchingon foot at the head o' his kin (not to say ta Prince, wha doesthe like), wi' his target on his shoulder; and ye maun e'en beneighbour-like.'

  'And so I will, Callum--give me my target;--so, there we are fixed. Howdoes it look?'

  'Like the bra' Highlander tat's painted on the board afore the micklechange-house they ca' Luckie Middlemass's,' answered Callum; meaning,I must observe, a high compliment, for, in his opinion, LuckieMiddlemass's sign was an exquisite specimen of art. Waverley, however,not feeling the full force of this polite simile, asked him no furtherquestions.

  Upon extricating themselves from the mean and dirty suburbs of themetropolis, and emerging into the open air, Waverley felt a renewal bothof health and spirits, and turned his recollection with firmness uponthe events of the preceding evening, and with hope and resolutiontowards those of the approaching day.

  When he had surmounted a small craggy eminence, called St. Leonard'sHill, the King's Park, or the hollow between the mountain of Arthur'sSeat, and the rising grounds on which the southern part of Edinburghis now built, lay beneath him, and displayed a singular and animatingprospect. It was occupied by the army of the Highlanders, now in the actof preparing for their march. Waverley had already seen something of thekind at the hunting-match which he attended with Fergus Mac-Ivor; butthis was on a scale of much greater magnitude, and incomparably deeperinterest. The rocks, which formed the background of the scene, and thevery sky itself, rang with the clang of the bagpipers, summoningforth, each with his appropriate pibroch, his chieftain and clan. Themountaineers, rousing themselves from their couch under the canopy ofheaven, with the hum and bustle of a confused and irregular multitude,like bees alarmed and arming in their hives, seemed to possess all thepliability of movement fitted to execute military manoeuvres. Theirmotions appeared spontaneous and confused, but the result was order andregularity; so that a general must have praised the conclusion, though amartinet might have ridiculed the method by which it was attained.

  The sort of complicated medley created by the hasty arrangements of thevarious clans under their respective banners, for the purpose of gettinginto the order of march, was in itself a gay and lively spectacle. Theyhad no tents to strike, having generally, and by choice, slept upon theopen field, although the autumn was now waning, and the nights began tobe frosty. For a little space, while they were getting into order, therewas exhibited a changing, fluctuating; and confused appearance ofwaving tartans and floating plumes, and of banners displaying the proudgathering word of Clanronald, GANION COHERIGA (Gainsay who dares);LOCH-SLOY, the watchword of the Mac-Farlanes; FORTH FORTUNE, AND FILLTHE FETTERS, the motto of the Marquis of Tuilibardine; BYDAND, that ofLord Lewis Gordon; and the appropriate signal words and emblems of manyother chieftains and clans.

  At length the mixed and wavering multitude arranged themselves into anarrow and dusky column of great length, stretching through the wholeextent of the valley. In the front of the column the standard of theChevalier was displayed, bearing at red cross upon a white ground,with the motto TANDEM TRIUMPHANS. The few cavalry being chiefly Lowlandgentry, with their domestic servants and retainers, formed the advancedguard of the army; and their standards, of which they had rather toomany in respect of their numbers, were seen waving upon the extremeverge of the horizon. Many horsemen of this body, among whom Waverleyaccidentally remarked Balmawhapple, and his lieutenant, Jinker (whichlast, however, had been reduced, with several others, by the advice ofthe Baron of Bradwardine, to the situation of what he called reformedofficers, or reformadoes), added to the liveliness, though by no meansto the regularity, of the scene, by galloping their horses as fastforward as the press would permit, to join their proper station inthe van. The fascinations of the Circes of the High Street, and thepotations of strength with which they had been drenched over night, hadprobably detained these heroes within the walls of Edinburgh somewhatlater than was consistent with their morning duty. Of such loiterers,the prudent took the longer and circuitous, but more open route, toattain their place in the march, by keeping at some distance from theinfantry, and making their way through the enclosures to the right, atthe expense of leaping over or pulling down the dry-stone fences. Theirregular appearance and vanishing of these small parties of horsemen,as well as the confusion occasioned by those who endeavoured, thoughgenerally without effect, to press to the front through the crowd ofHighlanders, maugre their curses, oaths, and opposition, added to thepicturesque wildness what it took from the military regularity of thescene.

  While Waverley gazed upon this remarkable spectacle, rendered yet moreimpressive by the occasional discharge of cannon-shot from the Castleat the Highland guards as they were withdrawn from its vicinity tojoin their main body, Callum, with his usual freedom of interference,reminded him that Vich Ian Vohr's folk were nearly at the head of thecolumn of march, which was still distant, and that 'they would gang veryfast after the cannon fired.' Thus admonished, Waverley walked brisklyforward, yet often easting a glance upon the darksome clouds of warriorswho were collected before and beneath him. A nearer view, indeed,rather diminished the effect impressed on the mind by the more distantappearance of the army. The leading men of each clan were well armedwith broadsword, target, and fusee, to which all added the dirk, andmost the steel pistol. But these consisted of gentlemen, that is,relations of the chief, however distant, and who had an immediate titleto his countenance and protection. Finer and hardier men could nothave been selected out of any army in Christendom; while the free andindependent habits which each possessed, and which each was yet so welltaught to subject to the command of his chief, and the peculiar mode ofdiscipline adopted in Highland warfare, rendered them equally formidableby their individual courage and high spirit, and from their rationalconviction of the necessity of acting in unison, and of giving theirnational mode of attack the fullest opportunity of success.

  But, in a lower rank to these, there were found individuals of aninferior descri
ption, the common peasantry of the Highland country,who, although they did not allow themselves to be so called, and claimedoften, with apparent truth, to be of more ancient descent than themasters whom they served, bore, nevertheless, the livery of extremepenury, being indifferently accoutred, and worse armed, half naked,stinted in growth, and miserable in aspect. Each important clan had someof those Helots attached to them;--thus, the Mac-Couls, though tracingtheir descent from Comhal, the father of Finn or Fingal, were a sortof Gibeonites, or hereditary servants to the Stewarts of Appin; theMacbeths, descended from the unhappy monarch of that name, were subjectsto the Morays, and clan Donnochy, or Robertsons of Athole; and manyother examples might be given, were it not for the risk of hurting anypride of clanship which may yet be left, and thereby drawing a Highlandtempest into the shop of my publisher. Now these same Helots, thoughforced into the field by the arbitrary authority of the chieftains underwhom they hewed wood and drew water, were, in general, very sparinglyfed, ill dressed, and worse armed. The latter circumstance was indeedowing chiefly to the general disarming act, which had been carried intoeffect ostensibly through the whole Highlands, although most of thechieftains contrived to elude-its influence, by retaining the weaponsof their own immediate clansmen, and delivering up those of less value,which they collected from these inferior satellites. It followed, as amatter of course, that, as we have already hinted, many of these poorfellows were brought to the field in a very wretched condition.

  From this it happened, that, in bodies, the van of which were admirablywell armed in their own fashion, the rear resembled actual banditti.Here was a pole-axe, there a sword without a scabbard; here a gunwithout a lock, there a scythe set straight upon a pole; and some hadonly their dirks, and bludgeons or stakes pulled out of hedges. Thegrim, uncombed, and wild appearance of these men, most of whom gazedwith all the admiration of ignorance upon the most ordinary productionof domestic art, created surprise in the Lowlands, but it also createdterror. So little was the condition of the Highlands known at that lateperiod, that the character and appearance of their population,while thus sallying forth as military adventurers, conveyed to thesouth-country Lowlanders as much surprise as if an invasion of AfricanNegroes or Esquimaux Indians had issued forth from the northernmountains of their own native country. It cannot therefore be wonderedif Waverley, who had hitherto judged of the Highlanders generally fromthe samples which the policy of Fergus had from time to time exhibited,should have felt damped and astonished at the daring attempt of a bodynot then exceeding four thousand men, and of whom not above half thenumber, at the utmost, were armed, to change the fate, and alter thedynasty, of the British kingdoms.

  As he moved along the column, which still remained stationary, an irongun, the only piece of artillery possessed by the army which meditatedso important a revolution, was fired as the signal of march. TheChevalier had expressed a wish to leave this useless piece of ordnancebehind him; but, to his surprise, the Highland chiefs interposed tosolicit that it might accompany their march, pleading the prejudices oftheir followers, who, little accustomed to artillery, attached adegree of absurd importance to this field-piece, and expected it wouldcontribute essentially to a victory which they could only owe to theirown muskets and broadswords. Two or three French artillerymen weretherefore appointed to the management of this military engine, whichwas drawn along by a string of Highland ponies, and was, after all, onlyused for the purpose of firing signals. [See Note 25.]

  No sooner was its voice heard upon the present occasion, than the wholeline was in motion. A wild cry of joy from the advancing battalions rentthe air, and was then lost in the shrill clangour of the bagpipes, asthe sound of these, in their turn, was partially drowned by the heavytread of so many men put at once into motion. The banners glitteredand shook as they moved forward, and the horse hastened to occupy theirstation as the advanced guard, and to push on reconnoitring partiesto ascertain and report the motions of the enemy. They vanished fromWaverley's eye as they wheeled round the base of Arthur's seat, underthe remarkable ridge of basaltic rocks which fronts the little lake ofDuddingston.

  The infantry followed in the same direction, regulating their pace byanother body which occupied a road more to the southward. It cost Edwardsome exertion of activity to attain the place which Fergus's followersoccupied in the line of march.