Waverley — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 733 pages of information about Waverley — Complete.

Waverley — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 733 pages of information about Waverley — Complete.
He inspired his companions with his sentiments, and when every attempt at open force was deemed hopeless, they resolved to twist their bed-clothes into ropes and thus to descend.  Four persons, with Home himself, reached the ground in safety.  But the rope broke with the fifth, who was a tall, lusty man.  The sixth was Thomas Barrow, a brave young Englishman, a particular friend of Home’s.  Determined to take the risk, even in such unfavourable circumstances, Barrow committed himself to the broken rope, slid down on it as far as it could assist him, and then let himself drop.  His friends beneath succeeded in breaking his fall.  Nevertheless, he dislocated his ankle and had several of his ribs broken.  His companions, however, were able to bear him off in safety.

The Highlanders next morning sought for their prisoners with great activity.  An old gentleman told the author he remembered seeing the commandant Stewart

    Bloody with spurring, fiery red with haste,

riding furiously through the country in quest of the fugitives.

Note 3, p. 28

To go out, or to have been out, in Scotland was a conventional phrase similar to that of the Irish respecting a man having been up, both having reference to an individual who had been engaged in insurrection.  It was accounted ill-breeding in Scotland about forty years since to use the phrase rebellion or rebel, which might be interpreted by some of the parties present as a personal insult.  It was also esteemed more polite, even for stanch Whigs, to denominate Charles Edward the Chevalier than to speak of him as the Pretender; and this kind of accommodating courtesy was usually observed in society where individuals of each party mixed on friendly terms.

Note 4, p. 38

The Jacobite sentiments were general among the western counties and in Wales.  But although the great families of the Wynnes, the Wyndhams, and others had come under an actual obligation to join Prince Charles if he should land, they had done so under the express stipulation that he should be assisted by an auxiliary army of French, without which they foresaw the enterprise would be desperate.  Wishing well to his cause, therefore, and watching an opportunity to join him, they did not, nevertheless, think themselves bound in honour to do so, as he was only supported by a body of wild mountaineers, speaking an uncouth dialect, and wearing a singular dress.  The race up to Derby struck them with more dread than admiration.  But it is difficult to say what the effect might have been had either the battle of Preston or Falkirk been fought and won during the advance into England.

Note 5, p. 43

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Waverley — Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.