He himself
had thought with pain on the boy's inactivity, at an age when all his
ancestors had borne arms; even Royalty itself had deigned to inquire
whether young Waverley was not now in Flanders, at an age when his
grandfather was already bleeding for his king in the Great Civil War.
This was accompanied by an offer of a troop of horse. What could he do?
There was no time to consult his brother's inclinations, even if he could
have conceived there might be objections on his part to his nephew's
following the glorious career of his predecessors. And, in short, that
Edward was now (the intermediate steps of cornet and lieutenant being
overleapt with great agility) Captain Waverley, of Gardiner's regiment of
dragoons, which he must join in their quarters at Dundee in Scotland, in
the course of a month.
Sir Everard Waverley received this intimation with a mixture of feelings.
At the period of the Hanoverian succession he had withdrawn from
parliament, and his conduct in the memorable year 1715 had not been
altogether unsuspected. There were reports of private musters of tenants
and horses in Waverley-Chase by moonlight, and of cases of carbines and
pistols purchased in Holland, and addressed to the Baronet, but
intercepted by the vigilance of a riding officer of the excise, who was
afterwards tossed in a blanket on a moonless night, by an association of
stout yeomen, for his officiousness.
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