Here the Prince detained him some time, asking various questions about the great Tory and Catholic families of England, their connexions, their influence, and the state of their affections towards the house of Stuart.  To these queries Edward could not at any time have given more than general answers, and it may be supposed that, in the present state of his feelings, his responses were indistinct even to confusion.  The Chevalier smiled once or twice at the incongruity of his replies, but continued the same style of conversation, although he found himself obliged to occupy the principal share of it, until he perceived that Waverley had recovered his presence of mind.  It is probable that this long audience was partly meant to further the idea which the Prince desired should be entertained among his followers, that Waverley was a character of political influence.  But it appeared, from his concluding expressions, that he had a different and good-natured motive, personal to our hero, for prolonging the conference.  ’I cannot resist the temptation,’ he said, ’of boasting of my own discretion as a lady’s confidant.  You see, Mr. Waverley, that I know all, and I assure you I am deeply interested in the affair.  But, my good young friend, you must put a more severe restraint upon your feelings.  There are many here whose eyes can see as clearly as mine, but the prudence of whose tongues may not be equally trusted.’

So saying, he turned easily away, and joined a circle of officers at a few paces’ distance, leaving Waverley to meditate upon his parting expression, which though not intelligible to him in its whole purport, was sufficiently so in the caution which the last word recommended.  Making, therefore, an effort to show himself worthy of the interest which his new master had expressed, by instant obedience to his recommendation, he walked up to the spot where Flora and Miss Bradwardine were still seated, and having made his compliments to the latter, he succeeded, even beyond his own expectation, in entering into conversation upon general topics.

If, my dear reader, thou hast ever happened to take post-horses at—­, or at—­(one at least of which blanks, or more probably both, you will be able to fill up from an inn near your own residence), you must have observed, and doubtless with sympathetic pain, the reluctant agony with which the poor jades at first apply their galled necks to the collars of the harness.  But when the irresistible arguments of the postboy have prevailed upon them to proceed a mile or two, they will become callous to the first sensation; and being warm at the harness, as the said postboy may term it, proceed as if their withers were altogether unwrung.  This simile so much corresponds with the state of Waverley’s feelings in the course of this memorable evening, that I prefer it (especially as being, I trust, wholly original) to any more splendid illustration with which Byshe’s art of poetry might supply me.