Colonel Talbot often engaged him in discussions
upon the justice of the cause he had espoused. 'Not,' he said, 'that it
is possible for you to quit it at this present moment, for, come what
will, you must stand by your rash engagement. But I wish you to be aware
that the right is not with you; that you are fighting against the real
interests of your country; and that you ought, as an Englishman and a
patriot, to take the first opportunity to leave this unhappy expedition
before the snowball melts.'
In such political disputes Waverley usually opposed the common arguments
of his party, with which it is unnecessary to trouble the reader. But he
had little to say when the Colonel urged him to compare the strength by
which they had undertaken to overthrow the government with that which was
now assembling very rapidly for its support. To this statement Waverley
had but one answer: 'If the cause I have undertaken be perilous, there
would be the greater disgrace in abandoning it.' And in his turn he
generally silenced Colonel Talbot, and succeeded in changing the subject.
One night, when, after a long dispute of this nature, the friends had
separated and our hero had retired to bed, he was awakened about midnight
by a suppressed groan.
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