more motives
than Waverley was privy to, for the peremptory order that he should join his
regiment. But that, without further inquiry into the circumstances of a
necessary delay, the commanding officer, in contradiction to his known and
established character, should have proceeded in so harsh and unusual a manner,
was a mystery which he could not penetrate. He soothed our hero, however, to the
best of his power, and began to turn his thoughts on revenge for his insulted
honour.
    Edward eagerly grasped at the idea. »Will you carry a message for me to
Colonel Gardiner, my dear Fergus, and oblige me for ever?«
    Fergus paused. »It is an act of friendship which you should command, could
it be useful, or lead to the righting your honour; but in the present case, I
doubt if your commanding-officer would give you the meeting on account of his
having taken measures, which, however harsh and exasperating, were still within
the strict bounds of his duty. Besides, Gardiner is a precise Huguenot, and has
adopted certain ideas about the sinfulness of such rencontres, from which it
would be impossible to make him depart, especially as his courage is beyond all
suspicion. And besides, I - I - to say the truth - I dare not at this moment,
for some very weighty reasons, go near any of the military quarters or garrisons
belonging to this government.«
    »And am I,« said Waverley, »to sit down quiet and contented under the injury
I have received?«
    »That will I never advise, my friend,« replied Mac-Ivor. »But I would have
vengeance to fall on the head, not on the hand; on the tyrannical and oppressive
Government which designed and directed these premeditated and reiterated
insults, not on the tools of office which they employed in the execution of the
injuries they aimed at you.«
    »On the Government!« said Waverley.
    »Yes,« replied the impetuous Highlander, »on the usurping House of Hanover,
whom your grandfather would no more have served than he would have taken wages
of red-hot gold from the great fiend of hell!«
    »But since the time of my grandfather two generations of this dynasty have
possessed the throne,« said Edward coolly.
    »True,« replied the Chieftain; »and because we have passively given them so
long the means of showing their native character - because both you and I myself
have lived in quiet submission, have even truckled to the times so far as to
accept commissions under them, and thus have