It was generally believed, though no one durst have hinted it to the Baron of Bradwardine, that Flora’s entreaties had no small share in allaying the wrath of Fergus upon occasion of their quarrel.  She took her brother on the assailable side, by dwelling first upon the Baron’s age, and then representing the injury which the cause might sustain, and the damage which must arise to his own character in point of prudence, so necessary to a political agent, if he persisted in carrying it to extremity.  Otherwise it is probable it would have terminated in a duel, both because the Baron had, on a former occasion, shed blood of the clan, though the matter had been timely accommodated, and on account of his high reputation for address at his weapon, which Fergus almost condescended to envy.  For the same reason she had urged their reconciliation, which the Chieftain the more readily agreed to, as it favoured some ulterior projects of his own.

To this young lady, now presiding at the female empire of the tea-table, Fergus introduced Captain Waverley, whom she received with the usual forms of politeness.

CHAPTER XXII

HIGHLAND MINSTRELSY

When the first salutations had passed, Fergus said to his sister, ’My dear Flora, before I return to the barbarous ritual of our forefathers, I must tell you that Captain Waverley is a worshipper of the Celtic muse, not the less so perhaps that he does not understand a word of her language.  I have told him you are eminent as a translator of Highland poetry, and that Mac-Murrough admires your version of his songs upon the same principle that Captain Waverley admires the original,—­because he does not comprehend them.  Will you have the goodness to read or recite to our guest in English, the extraordinary string of names which Mac-Murrough has tacked together in Gaelic?—­My life to a moorfowl’s feather, you are provided with a version; for I know you are in all the bard’s councils, and acquainted with his songs long before he rehearses them in the hall.’

’How can you say so, Fergus?  You know how little these verses can possibly interest an English stranger, even if I could translate them as you pretend.’

’Not less than they interest me, lady fair.  To-day your joint composition, for I insist you had a share in it, has cost me the last silver cup in the castle, and I suppose will cost me something else next time I hold COUR PLENIERE, if the muse descends on Mac-Murrough; for you know our proverb,—­When the hand of the chief ceases to bestow, the breath of the bard is frozen in the utterance.—­Well, I would it were even so:  there are three things that are useless to a modern Highlander, a sword which he must not draw,—­a bard to sing of deeds which he dare not imitate,—­and a large goatskin purse without a louis d’or to put into it.’

’Well, brother, since you betray my secrets, you cannot expect me to keep yours.—­I assure you, Captain Waverley, that Fergus is too proud to exchange his broadsword for a marechal’s baton; that he esteems Mac-Murrough a far greater poet than Homer, and would not give up his goat skin purse for all the louis d’or which it could contain.’