. And if a set of furious madmen were
now in possession of the government, it was,« he continued, »what often happened
in great revolutions, where extreme measures are adopted in the fury of the
moment, and the state resembles an agitated pendulum which swings from side to
side for some time ere it can acquire its due and perpendicular station. Or it
might be likened to a storm or hurricane, which, passing over a region, does
great damage in its passage, yet sweeps away stagnant and unwholesome vapours,
and repays, in future health and fertility, its immediate desolation and
ravage.«
    The Earl shook his head; but having neither spirit nor inclination for
debate, he suffered the argument to pass uncontested.
    This discussion served to introduce the young soldier's experiences; and he
spoke of the actions in which he had been engaged, with modesty, and at the same
time with an air of spirit and zeal which delighted the Earl, who had been bred
up, like others of his house, in the opinion that the trade of arms was the
first duty of man, and believed that to employ them against the French was a
sort of holy warfare.
    »What would I give,« said he apart to Oldbuck, as they rose to join the
ladies in the drawing-room, »what would I give to have a son of such spirit as
that young gentleman! - He wants something of address and manner, something of
polish, which mixing in good society would soon give him; but with what zeal and
animation he expresses himself - how fond of his profession - how loud in the
praise of others - how modest when speaking of himself!«
    »Hector is much obliged to you, my lord,« replied his uncle, gratified, yet
not so much so as to suppress his consciousness of his own mental superiority
over the young soldier; »I believe in my heart nobody ever spoke half so much
good of him before, except perhaps the sergeant of his company, when he was
wheedling a Highland recruit to enlist with him. He is a good lad
notwithstanding, although he be not quite the hero your lordship supposes him,
and although my commendations rather attest the kindness than the vivacity of
his character. In fact, his high spirit is a sort of constitutional vehemence,
which attends him in everything he sets about, and is often very inconvenient to
his friends. I saw him to-day engage in an animated contest with a phoca, or
seal (sealgh, our people more properly call them, retaining the Gothic guttural
gh)
