 checked his horse until they came up, and
then, without directly appearing to notice Edward, said sternly to the
genealogist, »I thought, lieutenant, my orders were preceese, that no one should
speak to the prisoner?«
    The metamorphosed horse-dealer was silenced of course, and slunk to the
rear, where he consoled himself by entering into a vehement dispute upon the
price of hay with a farmer, who had reluctantly followed his laird to the field,
rather than give up his farm, whereof the lease had just expired. Waverley was
therefore once more consigned to silence, foreseeing that further attempts at
conversation with any of the party would only give Balmawhapple a wished-for
opportunity to display the insolence of authority, and the sulky spite of a
temper naturally dogged, and rendered more so by habits of low indulgence and
the incense of servile adulation.
    In about two hours' time, the party were near the Castle of Stirling, over
whose battlements the union flag was brightened as it waved in the evening sun.
To shorten his journey, or perhaps to display his importance, and insult the
English garrison, Balmawhapple, inclining to the right, took his route through
the royal park which reaches to and surrounds the rock upon which the fortress
is situated.
    With a mind more at ease, Waverley could not have failed to admire the
mixture of romance and beauty which renders interesting the scene through which
he was now passing - the field which had been the scene of the tournaments of
old - the rock from which the ladies beheld the contest, while each made vows
for the success of some favourite knight - the towers of the Gothic church,
where these vows might be paid - and, surmounting all, the fortress itself, at
once a castle and palace, where valour received the prize from royalty, and
knights and dames closed the evening amid the revelry of the dance, the song,
and the feast. All these were objects fitted to arouse and interest a romantic
imagination.
    But Waverley had other objects of meditation, and an incident soon occurred
of a nature to disturb meditation of any kind. Balmawhapple, in the pride of his
heart, as he wheeled his little body of cavalry round the base of the castle,
commanded his trumpet to sound a flourish, and his standard to be displayed.
This insult produced apparently some sensation; for when the cavalcade was at
such distance from the southern battery as to admit of a gun being depressed so
as to bear upon them, a flash of fire issued from one of the embrasures upon the
rock; and ere the report with which it
