'A happy time of it I should have had,' thought he, after he was mounted,
'to have been so closely allied to this superb specimen of pride and
self-opinion and passion. A colonel! why, he should have been a
generalissimo. A petty chief of three or four hundred men! his pride
might suffice for the Cham of Tartary--the Grand Seignior--the Great
Mogul! I am well free of him. Were Flora an angel, she would bring with
her a second Lucifer of ambition and wrath for a brother-in-law.'
The Baron, whose learning (like Sancho's jests while in the Sierra
Morena) seemed to grow mouldy for want of exercise, joyfully embraced the
opportunity of Waverley's offering his service in his regiment, to bring
it into some exertion. The good-natured old gentleman, however, laboured
to effect a reconciliation between the two quondam friends. Fergus turned
a cold ear to his remonstrances, though he gave them a respectful
hearing; and as for Waverley, he saw no reason why he should be the first
in courting a renewal of the intimacy which the Chieftain had so
unreasonably disturbed. The Baron then mentioned the matter to the
Prince, who, anxious to prevent quarrels in his little army, declared he
would himself remonstrate with Colonel Mac-Ivor on the unreasonableness
of his conduct.
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