The sum would excite ridicule were I to name it; but sure I am, that the pockets of the noted Green-Breeks never held as much money of his own.He declined the remittance, saying that he would not sell his blood; but at the same time reprobated the idea of being an informer, which he said was _clam,_ i.e.base or mean.With much urgency he accepted a pound of snuff for the use of some old woman-aunt, grandmother, or the like---with whom he lived.We did not become friends, for the _bickers_were more agreeable to both parties than any more pacific amusement;but we conducted them ever after under mutual assurances of the highest consideration of each other.
Such was the hero whom Mr.Thomas Scott proposed to carry to Canada, and involve in adventures with the natives and colonists of that country.
Perhaps the youthful generosity of the lad will not seem so great in the eyes of others as to those whom it was the means of screening from severe rebuke and punishment.But it seemed, to those concerned, to argue a nobleness of sentiment far beyond the pitch of most minds; and however obscurely the lad who showed such a frame of noble spirit may have lived or died, I cannot help being of opinion, that if fortune had placed him in circumstances calling for gallantry or generosity, the man would have fulfilled the promises of the boy.Long afterwards, when the story was told to my father, he censured us severely for not telling the truth at the time, that he might have attempted to be of use to the young man in entering on life.But our alarms for the consequences of the drawn sword, and the wound inflicted with such a weapon, were far too predominant at the time for such a pitch of generosity.
Perhaps I ought not to have inserted this school-boy tale; but besides the strong impression made by the incident at the time, the whole accompaniments of the story are matters to me of solemn and sad recollection.
Of all the little band who were concerned in those juvenile sports or brawls, I can scarce recollect a single survivor.Some left the ranks of mimic war to die in the active service of their country.Many sought distant lands to return no more.Others, dispersed in different paths of life, ``my dim eyes now seek for in vain.'' Of five brothers, all healthy and promising, in a degree far beyond one whose infancy was visited by personal infirmity, and whose health after this period seemed long very precarious, I am, nevertheless, the only survivor.The best loved, and the best deserving to be loved, who had destined this incident to be the foundation of literary composition, died ``before his day'' in a distant and foreign land; and trifles assume an importance not their own when connected with those who have been loved and lost.
APPENDIX <! p492>
TO INTRODUCTION (1829), p.<? p20>.
The mutual protection afforded by Waverley and Talbot to each other, upon which the whole plot depends, is founded upon one of those anecdotes which soften the features even of civil war; and as it is equally honourable to the memory of both parties, we have no hesitation to give their names at length.When the Highlanders, on the morning of the battle of Preston, 1745, made their memorable attack on Sir John Cope's army, a battery of four field-pieces was stormed and carried by the Camerons and the Stewarts of Appine.The late Alexander Stewart of Invernahyle was one of the foremost in the charge, and observing an officer of the King's forces, who, scorning to join the flight of all around, remained with his sword in his hand, as if determined to the very last to defend the post assigned to him, the Highland gentleman commanded him to surrender, and received for reply a thrust, which he caught in his target.The officer was now defenceless, and the battle-axe of a gigantic Highlander (the miller of Invernahyle's mill) was uplifted to dash his brains out, when Mr.Stewart with difficulty prevailed on him to yield.He took charge of his enemy's property, protected his person, and finally obtained him liberty on his parole.The officer proved to be Colonel Whitefoord, an Ayrshire gentleman of high character and influence, and warmly attached to the House of Hanover;yet such was the confidence existing between these two honourable men, though of different political principles, that while the civil war was raging, and straggling officers from the Highland army were executed without mercy, Invernahyle hesitated not to pay his late captive a visit as he returned to the Highlands to raise fresh recruits, on which occasion he spent a day or two in Ayrshire among Colonel Whitefoord's Whig friends, as pleasantly and as good-humouredly as if all had been at peace around him.
After the battle of Culloden had ruined the hopes of Charles Edward, and dispersed his proscribed adherents, it was Colonel Whitefoord's turn to strain every nerve to obtain Mr.Stewart's pardon.He went to the Lord Justice-Clerk, to the Lord Advocate, and to all the officers of state, and each application was answered by the production of a list, in which Invernahyle (as the good old gentleman was wont to express it) appeared ``marked with the sign of the beast!'' as a subject unfit for favour or pardon.
At length Colonel Whitefoord applied to the Duke of Cumberland in person.From him also he received a positive refusal.He then limited his request, for the present, to a protection for Stewart's house, wife, children, and property.This was also refused by the Duke; on which Colonel Whitefoord, taking his commission from his bosom, laid it on the table before his Royal Highness with much emotion, and asked permission to retire from the service of a sovereign who did not know how to spare a vanquished enemy.The Duke was struck, and even affected.He bade the Colonel take up his commission, and granted the protection he required.