They conversed for a short
time with the old man and his companion, and then made Waverley
understand, by very significant signs, that he was to prepare to
accompany them. This was a joyful communication. What had already passed
during his confinement made it evident that no personal injury was
designed to him; and his romantic spirit, having recovered during his
repose much of that elasticity which anxiety, resentment, disappointment,
and the mixture of unpleasant feelings excited by his late adventures had
for a time subjugated, was now wearied with inaction. His passion for the
wonderful, although it is the nature of such dispositions to be excited
by that degree of danger which merely gives dignity to the feeling of the
individual exposed to it, had sunk under the extraordinary and apparently
insurmountable evils by which he appeared environed at Cairnvreckan. In
fact, this compound of intense curiosity and exalted imagination forms a
peculiar species of courage, which somewhat resembles the light usually
carried by a miner--sufficiently competent, indeed, to afford him
guidance and comfort during the ordinary perils of his labour, but
certain to be extinguished should he encounter the more formidable hazard
of earth damps or pestiferous vapours.
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