Edward eagerly grasped at the idea.  ’Will you carry a message for me to Colonel Gardiner, my dear Fergus, and oblige me for ever?’

Fergus paused.  ’It is an act of friendship which you should command, could it be useful, or lead to the righting your honour; but in the present case, I doubt if your commanding-officer would give you the meeting on account of his having taken measures, which, however harsh and exasperating, were still within the strict bounds of his duty.  Besides, Gardiner is a precise Huguenot, and has adopted certain ideas about the sinfulness of such rencontres, from which it would be impossible to make him depart, especially as his courage is beyond all suspicion.  And besides, I—­I—­to say the truth—­I dare not at this moment, for some very weighty reasons, go near any of the military quarters or garrisons belonging to this government.’

‘And am I,’ said Waverley, ’to sit down quiet and contented under the injury I have received?’

‘That will I never advise, my friend,’ replied Mac-Ivor.  ’But I would have vengeance to fall on the head, not on the hand; on the tyrannical and oppressive Government which designed and directed these premeditated and reiterated insults, not on the tools of office which they employed in the execution of the injuries they aimed at you.’

‘On the Government!’ said Waverley.

‘Yes,’ replied the impetuous Highlander, ’on the usurping House of Hanover, whom your grandfather would no more have served than he would have taken wages of red-hot gold from the great fiend of hell!’

’But since the time of my grandfather, two generations of this dynasty have possessed the throne,’ said Edward, coolly.

‘True,’ replied the Chieftain; ’and because we have passively given them so long the means of showing their native character,—­because both you and I myself have lived in quiet submission, have even truckled to the times so far as to accept commissions under them, and thus have given them an opportunity of disgracing us publicly by resuming them,—­are we not on that account to resent injuries which our fathers only apprehended, but which we have actually sustained?  Or is the cause of the unfortunate Stuart family become less just, because their title has devolved upon an heir who is innocent of the charges of misgovernment brought against his father?  Do you remember the lines of your favourite poet?—­

     Had Richard unconstrained resigned the throne,
     A king can give no more than is his own;
     The title stood entailed had Richard had a son.

You see, my dear Waverley, I can quote poetry as well as Flora and you.  But come, clear your moody brow, and trust to me to show you an honourable road to a speedy and glorious revenge.  Let us seek Flora, who perhaps has more news to tell us of what has occurred during our absence.  She will rejoice to hear that you are relieved of your servitude.  But first add a postcript to your letter, marking the time when you received this calvinistical Colonel’s first summons, and express your regret that the hastiness of his proceedings prevented your anticipating them by sending your resignation.  Then let him blush for his injustice.’