All these were
objects fitted to arouse and interest a romantic imagination.
But Waverley had other objects of meditation, and an incident soon
occurred of a nature to disturb meditation of any kind. Balmawhapple, in
the pride of his heart, as he wheeled his little body of cavalry round
the base of the Castle, commanded his trumpet to sound a flourish and his
standard to be displayed. This insult produced apparently some sensation;
for when the cavalcade was at such distance from the southern battery as
to admit of a gun being depressed so as to bear upon them, a flash of
fire issued from one of the embrazures upon the rock; and ere the report
with which it was attended could be heard, the rushing sound of a
cannon-ball passed over Balmawhapple's head, and the bullet, burying
itself in the ground at a few yards' distance, covered him with the earth
which it drove up. There was no need to bid the party trudge. In fact,
every man, acting upon the impulse of the moment, soon brought Mr.
Jinker's steeds to show their mettle, and the cavaliers, retreating with
more speed than regularity, never took to a trot, as the lieutenant
afterwards observed, until an intervening eminence had secured them from
any repetition of so undesirable a compliment on the part of Stirling
Castle.
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