at first apply their galled necks to the collars of the harness. But when the
irresistible arguments of the post-boy have prevailed upon them to proceed a
mile or two, they will become callous to the first sensation; and being warm in
the harness, as the said post-boy may term it, proceed as if their withers were
altogether unwrung. This simile so much corresponds with the state of Waverley's
feelings in the course of this memorable evening, that I prefer it (especially
as being, I trust, wholly original) to any more splendid illustration, with
which Byshe's Art of Poetry might supply me.
    Exertion, like virtue, is its own reward; and our hero had, moreover, other
stimulating motives for persevering in a display of affected composure and
indifference to Flora's obvious unkindness. Pride, which supplies its caustic as
a useful, though severe, remedy for the wounds of affection, came rapidly to his
aid. Distinguished by the favour of a prince; destined, he had room to hope, to
play a conspicuous part in the revolution which awaited a mighty kingdom;
excelling, probably, in mental acquirements, and equalling, at least, in
personal accomplishments, most of the noble and distinguished persons with whom
he was now ranked; young, wealthy, and high-born - could he, or ought he to
droop beneath the frown of a capricious beauty?
 
O nymph, unrelenting and cold as thou art,
My bosom is proud as thine own.
 
With the feeling expressed in these beautiful lines (which, however, were not
then written),78 Waverley determined upon convincing Flora that he was not to be
depressed by a rejection, in which his vanity whispered that perhaps she did her
own prospects as much injustice as his. And, to aid this change of feeling,
there lurked the secret and unacknowledged hope, that she might learn to prize
his affection more highly, when she did not conceive it to be altogether within
her own choice to attract or repulse it. There was a mystic tone of
encouragement, also, in the Chevalier's words, though he feared they only
referred to the wishes of Fergus in favour of a union between him and his
sister. But the whole circumstances of time, place, and incident, combined at
once to awaken his imagination, and to call upon him for a manly and a decisive
tone of conduct, leaving to fate to dispose of the issue. Should he appear to be
the only one sad and disheartened on the eve of battle, how greedily would the
tale be commented upon