by him in the ancient halls of his paternal palace, recovered by
the sword which he was already bending towards other conquests, gave Edward, in
his own eyes, the dignity and importance which he had ceased to consider as his
attributes. Rejected, slandered, and threatened upon the one side, he was
irresistibly attracted to the cause which the prejudices of education, and the
political principles of his family, had already recommended as the most just.
These thoughts rushed through his mind like a torrent, sweeping before them
every consideration of an opposite tendency, - the time, besides, admitted of no
deliberation, - and Waverley, kneeling to Charles Edward, devoted his heart and
sword to the vindication of his rights!
    The Prince (for, although unfortunate in the faults and follies of his
forefathers, we shall here, and elsewhere, give him the title due to his birth)
raised Waverley from the ground, and embraced him with an expression of thanks
too warm not to be genuine. He also thanked Fergus Mac-Ivor repeatedly for
having brought him such an adherent, and presented Waverley to the various
noblemen, chieftains, and officers who were about his person, as a young
gentleman of the highest hopes and prospects, in whose bold and enthusiastic
avowal of his cause they might see an evidence of the sentiments of the English
families of rank at this important crisis.72 Indeed, this was a point much
doubted among the adherents of the house of Stuart; and as a well-founded
disbelief in the co-operation of the English Jacobites kept many Scottish men of
rank from his standard, and diminished the courage of those who had joined it,
nothing could be more seasonable for the Chevalier than the open declaration in
his favour of the representative of the house of Waverley-Honour, so long known
as cavaliers and royalists. This Fergus had foreseen from the beginning. He
really loved Waverley, because their feelings and projects never thwarted each
other; he hoped to see him united with Flora, and he rejoiced that they were
effectually engaged in the same cause. But, as we before hinted, he also exulted
as a politician in beholding secured to his party a partisan of such
consequence; and he was far from being insensible to the personal importance
which he himself gained with the Prince, from having so materially assisted in
making the acquisition.
    Charles Edward, on his part, seemed eager to show his attendants the value
which he attached to his new adherent, by entering immediately, as in
confidence, upon the circumstances of his situation. »You have been secluded so
much from intelligence,