But as they approached a little nearer, he said, with an appearance of mortification, ’And it is even he, sure enough; and he has not his tail on after all;—­there is no living creature with him but Callum Beg.’

In fact, Fergus Mac-Ivor, of whom a Frenchman might have said, as truly as of any man in the Highlands, ‘QU’IL CONNOIT bien SES gens,’ had no idea of raising himself in the eyes of an English young man of fortune, by appearing with a retinue of idle Highlanders disproportioned to the occasion.  He was well aware that such an unnecessary attendance would seem to Edward rather ludicrous than respectable; and while few men were more attached to ideas of chieftainship and feudal power, he was, for that very reason, cautious of exhibiting external marks of dignity, unless at the time and in the manner when they were most likely to produce an imposing effect.  Therefore, although, had he been to receive a brother chieftain, he would probably have been attended by all that retinue which Evan described with so much unction, he judged it more respectable to advance to meet Waverley with a single attendant, a very handsome Highland boy, who carried his master’s shooting-pouch and his broadsword, without which he seldom went abroad.

When Fergus and Waverley met, the latter was struck with the peculiar grace and dignity of the Chieftain’s figure, Above the middle size, and finely proportioned, the Highland dress, which he wore in its simplest mode, set off his person to great advantage.  He wore the trews, or close trousers, made of tartan, chequed scarlet and white; in other particulars, his dress strictly resembled Evan’s, excepting that he had no weapon save a dirk, very richly mounted with silver.  His page, as we have said, carried his claymore and the fowling-piece, which he held in his hand, seemed only designed for sport.  He had shot in the course of his walk some young wild-ducks, as, though close time was then unknown, the broods of grouse were yet too young for the sportsman.  His countenance was decidedly Scottish, with all the peculiarities of the northern physiognomy, but yet had so little of ifs harshness and exaggeration, that it would have been pronounced in any country extremely handsome.  The martial air of the bonnet, with a single eagle’s feather as a distinction, added much to the manly appearance of his head, which was besides ornamented with a far more natural and graceful cluster of close black curls than ever were exposed to sale in Bond Street.

An air of openness and affability increased the favourable impression derived from this handsome and dignified exterior.  Yet a skilful physiognomist would have been less satisfied with the countenance on the second than on the first view.  The eyebrow and upper lip bespoke something of the habit of peremptory command and decisive superiority.  Even his courtesy, though open, frank, and unconstrained, seemed to indicate