' To check or dislodge this party, the
English general detached two guns, escorted by a strong party of cavalry.
They approached so near that Waverley could plainly recognise the
standard of the troop he had formerly commanded, and hear the trumpets
and kettle-drums sound the signal of advance which he had so often
obeyed. He could hear, too, the well-known word given in the English
dialect by the equally well-distinguished voice of the commanding
officer, for whom he had once felt so much respect. It was at that
instant, that, looking around him, he saw the wild dress and appearance
of his Highland associates, heard their whispers in an uncouth and
unknown language, looked upon his own dress, so unlike that which he had
worn from his infancy, and wished to awake from what seemed at the moment
a dream, strange, horrible, and unnatural. 'Good God!' he muttered, 'am I
then a traitor to my country, a renegade to my standard, and a foe, as
that poor dying wretch expressed himself, to my native England!'
Ere he could digest or smother the recollection, the tall military form
of his late commander came full in view, for the purpose of
reconnoitring.
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