, as soon as he
was out of hearing, »for the most absurd original that exists north of the
Tweed! I wish to heaven I had recommended him to attend the circle this evening
with a boot-ketch under his arm. I think he might have adopted the suggestion,
if it had been made with suitable gravity.«
    »And how can you take pleasure in making a man of his worth so ridiculous?«
    »Begging pardon, my dear Waverley, you are as ridiculous as he. Why, do you
not see that the man's whole mind is wrapped up in this ceremony? He has heard
and thought of it since infancy, as the most august privilege and ceremony in
the world; and I doubt not but the expected pleasure of performing it was a
principal motive with him for taking up arms. Depend upon it, had I endeavoured
to divert him from exposing himself, he would have treated me as an ignorant
conceited coxcomb, or perhaps might have taken a fancy to cut my throat; a
pleasure which he once proposed to himself upon some point of etiquette, not
half so important, in his eyes, as this matter of boots or brogues, or whatever
the caligæ shall finally be pronounced by the learned. But I must go to
headquarters to prepare the Prince for this extraordinary scene. My information
will be well taken, for it will give him a hearty laugh at present, and put him
on his guard against laughing, when it might be very mal-a-propos. So, au
revoir, my dear Waverley.«
 

                              Chapter Forty-Ninth.

                             The English Prisoner.

The first occupation of Waverley, after he departed from the Chieftain, was to
go in quest of the officer whose life he had saved. He was guarded, along with
his companions in misfortune, who were very numerous, in a gentleman's house
near the field of battle.
    On entering the room where they stood crowded together, Waverley easily
recognised the object of his visit, not only by the peculiar dignity of his
appearance, but by the appendage of Dugald Mahony, with his battle-axe, who had
stuck to him from the moment of his captivity, as if he had been skewered to his
side. This close attendance was, perhaps, for the purpose of securing his
promised reward from Edward, but it also operated to save the English gentleman
from being plundered in the scene of general confusion; for Dugald sagaciously
argued, that the amount of the salvage which he might be allowed, would be
regulated by the state of the prisoner, when he should
