His
whole soul was devoted to the service of his king and country, without
feeling any pride in knowing the theory of his art with the Baron, or its
practical minutiae with the Major, or in applying his science to his own
particular plans of ambition, like the Chieftain of Glennaquoich. Added
to this, he was a man of extended knowledge and cultivated taste,
although strongly tinged, as we have already observed, with those
prejudices which are peculiarly English.
The character of Colonel Talbot dawned upon Edward by degrees; for the
delay of the Highlanders in the fruitless siege of Edinburgh Castle
occupied several weeks, during which Waverley had little to do excepting
to seek such amusement as society afforded. He would willingly have
persuaded his new friend to become acquainted with some of his former
intimates. But the Colonel, after one or two visits, shook his head, and
declined farther experiment. Indeed he went farther, and characterised
the Baron as the most intolerable formal pedant he had ever had the
misfortune to meet with, and the Chief of Glennaquoich as a Frenchified
Scotchman, possessing all the cunning and plausibility of the nation
where he was educated, with the proud, vindictive, and turbulent humour
of that of his birth.
Pages:
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694