CHAPTER XLVIII
AN UNEXPECTED EMBARRASSMENT
When the battle was over, and all things coming into order, the Baronof Bradwardine, returning from the duty of the day, and having disposedthose under his command in their proper stations, sought the Chieftainof Glennaquoich and his friend Edward Waverley. He found the formerbusied in determining disputes among his clansmen about points ofprecedence and deeds of valour, besides sundry high and doubtfulquestions concerning plunder. The most important of the last respectedthe property of a gold watch, which had once belonged to someunfortunate English officer. The party against whom judgment wasawarded consoled himself by observing, 'She (i.e. the watch, which hetook for a living animal) died the very night Vich lan Vohr gave her toMurdoch'; the machine, having, in fact, stopped for want of winding up.
It was just when this important question was decided that the Baron ofBradwardine, with a careful and yet important expression ofcountenance, joined the two young men. He descended from his reekingcharger, the care of which he recommended to one of his grooms. 'Iseldom ban, sir,' said he to the man; 'but if you play any of yourhound's-foot tricks, and leave puir Berwick before he's sorted, to rinafter spuilzie, deil be wi' me if I do not give your craig a thraw.' Hethen stroked with great complacency the animal which had borne himthrough the fatigues of the day, and having taken a tender leave ofhim--' Weel, my good young friends, a glorious and decisive victory,'said he; 'but these loons of troopers fled ower soon. I should haveliked to have shown you the true points of the pralium equestre, orequestrian combat, whilk their cowardice has postponed, and which Ihold to be the pride and terror of warfare. Weel--I have fought oncemore in this old quarrel, though I admit I could not be so far BEN asyou lads, being that it was my point of duty to keep together ourhandful of horse. And no cavalier ought in any wise to begrudge honourthat befalls his companions, even though they are ordered upon thricehis danger, whilk, another time, by the blessing of God, may be his owncase. But, Glennaquoich, and you, Mr. Waverley, I pray ye to give meyour best advice on a matter of mickle weight, and which deeply affectsthe honour of the house of Bradwardine. I crave your pardon, EnsignMaccombich, and yours, Inveraughlin, and yours, Edderalshendrach, andyours, sir.'
The last person he addressed was Ballenkeiroch, who, remembering thedeath of his son, loured on him with a look of savage defiance. TheBaron, quick as lightning at taking umbrage, had already bent his browwhen Glennaquoich dragged his major from the spot, and remonstratedwith him, in the authoritative tone of a chieftain, on the madness ofreviving a quarrel in such a moment.
'The ground is cumbered with carcasses,' said the old mountaineer,turning sullenly away; 'ONE MORE would hardly have been kenn'dupon it;and if it wasna for yoursell, Vich lan Vohr, that one should beBradwardine's or mine.'
The Chief soothed while he hurried him away; and then returned to theBaron. 'It is Ballenkeiroch,' he said, in an under and confidentialvoice, 'father of the young man who fell eight years since in theunlucky affair at the mains.'
'Ah!' said the Baron, instantly relaxing the doubtful sternness of hisfeatures, 'I can take naickle frae a man to whom I have unhappilyrendered sic a displeasure as that. Ye were right to apprise me,Glennaquoich; he may look as black as midnight at Martinmas ere CosmoComyne Bradwardine shall say he does him wrang. Ah! I have nae malelineage, and I should bear with one I have made childless, though youare aware the blood-wit was made up to your ain satisfaction byassythment, and that I have since expedited letters of slains. Weel, asI have said, I have no male issue, and yet it is needful that Imaintain the honour of my house; and it is on that score I prayed yefor your peculiar and private attention.'
The two young men awaited to hear him, in anxious curiosity.
'I doubt na, lads,' he proceeded, 'but your education has been sae seento that ye understand the true nature of the feudal tenures?'
Fergus, afraid of an endless dissertation, answered, 'Intimately,Baron,' and touched Waverley as a signal to express no ignorance.
'And ye are aware, I doubt not, that the holding of the barony ofBradwardine is of a nature alike honourable and peculiar, being blanch(which Craig opines ought to be Latinated blancum, or rather francum, afree holding) pro sermtio detrahendi, seu exuendi, caligas regis postbattalliam.' Here Fergus turned his falcon eye upon Edward, with analmost imperceptible rise of his eyebrow, to which his shoulderscorresponded in the same degree of elevation. 'Now, twa points ofdubitation occur to me upon this topic. First, whether this service, orfeudal homage, be at any event due to the person of the Prince, thewords being, per expressum, caligas REGIS, the boots of the kinghimself; and I pray your opinion anent that particular before weproceed farther.'
'Why, he is Prince Regent,' answered Mac-Ivor, with laudable composureof countenance; 'and in the court of France all the honours arerendered to the person of the Regent which are due to that of the King.Besides, were I to pull off either of their boots, I would render thatservice to the young Chevalier ten times more willingly than to hisfather.'
' Ay, but I talk not of personal predilections. However, your authorityis of great weight as to the usages of the court of France; anddoubtless the Prince, as alter ego, may have a right to claim thehomagium of the great tenants of the crown, since all faithful subjectsare commanded, in the commission of regency, to respect him as theKing's own person. Far, therefore, be it from me to diminish the lustreof his authority by withholding this act of homage, so peculiarlycalculated to give it splendour; for I question if the Emperor ofGermany hath his boots taken off by a free baron of the empire. Buthere lieth the second difficulty--the Prince wears no boots, but simplybrogues and trews.'
This last dilemma had almost disturbed Fergus's gravity.
'Why,' said he, 'you know, Baron, the proverb tells us, "It's illtaking the breeks off a Highlandman," and the boots are here in thesame predicament.'
'The word caligce, however,' continued the Baron, 'though I admit that,by family tradition, and even in our ancient evidents, it is explained"lie-boots," means, in its primitive sense, rather sandals; and CaiusCaesar, the nephew and successor of Caius Tiberius, received theagnomen of Caligula, a caligulis sine caligis levioribus, quibusadolescentior usus fuerat in exercitu Germanici patris sui. And thecaligce were also proper to the monastic bodies; for we read in anancient glossarium upon the rule of Saint Benedict, in the Abbey ofSaint Amand, that caligae were tied with latchets.'
'That will apply to the brogues,' said Fergus.
'It will so, my dear Glennaquoich, and the words are express: Caligae,dicta sunt quia ligantur; nam socci non ligantur, sed tantumintromittuntur; that is, caligae are denominated from the ligatureswherewith they are bound; whereas socci, which may be analogous to ourmules, whilk the English denominate slippers, are only slipped upon thefeet. The words of the charter are also alternative, exuere seudetrahere; that is, to undo, as in the case of sandals or brogues, andto pull of, as we say vernacularly concerning boots. Yet I would we hadmore light; but I fear there is little chance of finding hereabout anyerudite author de re vestiaria.'
'I should doubt it very much,' said the Chieftain, looking around onthe straggling Highlanders, who were returning loaded with spoils ofthe slain,'though the res vestiaria itself seems to be in some requestat present.'
This remark coming within the Baron's idea of jocularity, he honouredit with a smile, but immediately resumed what to him appeared veryserious business.
'Bailie Macwheeble indeed holds an opinion that this honorary serviceis due, from its very nature, si petatur tantum; only if his RoyalHighness shall require of the great tenant of the crown to perform thatpersonal duty; and indeed he pointed out the case in Dirleton's Doubtsand Queries, Grippit versus Spicer, anent the eviction of an estate obnon solutum canonem; that is, for non-payment of a feu-duty of threepepper-corns a year, whilk were taxt to be worth seven-eighths of apenny Scots, in whilk the defender was assoilzied. But I deem itsafest, wi' your good favour, to place myself in the way of renderingthe Prin
ce this service, and to proffer performance thereof; and Ishall cause the Bailie to attend with a schedule of a protest, whilk hehas here prepared (taking out a paper), intimating, that if it shall behis Royal Highness's pleasure to accept of other assistance at pullingoff his caligae (whether the same shall be rendered boots or brogues)save that of the said Baron of Bradwardine, who is in presence readyand willing to perform the same, it shall in no wise impinge upon orprejudice the right of the said Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine to perform thesaid service in future; nor shall it give any esquire, valet of thechamber, squire, or page, whose assistance it may please his RoyalHighness to employ, any right, title, or ground for evicting from thesaid Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine the estate and barony of Bradwardine, andothers held as aforesaid, by the due and faithful performance thereof.'
Fergus highly applauded this arrangement; and the Baron took a friendlyleave of them, with a smile of contented importance upon his visage.
'Long live our dear friend the Baron,' exclaimed the Chief, as soon ashe was out of hearing, 'for the most absurd original that exists northof the Tweed! I wish to heaven I had recommended him to attend thecircle this evening with a boot-ketch under his arm. I think he mighthave adopted the suggestion if it had been made with suitable gravity.'
'And how can you take pleasure in making a man of his worth soridiculous?'
'Begging pardon, my dear Waverley, you are as ridiculous as he. Why, doyou not see that the man's whole mind is wrapped up in this ceremony?He has heard and thought of it since infancy as the most augustprivilege and ceremony in the world; and I doubt not but the expectedpleasure of performing it was a principal motive with him for taking uparms. Depend upon it, had I endeavoured to divert him from exposinghimself he would have treated me as an ignorant, conceited coxcomb, orperhaps might have taken a fancy to cut my throat; a pleasure which heonce proposed to himself upon some point of etiquette not half soimportant, in his eyes, as this matter of boots or brogues, or whateverthe caliga shall finally be pronounced by the learned. But I must go toheadquarters, to prepare the Prince for this extraordinary scene. Myinformation will be well taken, for it will give him a hearty laugh atpresent, and put him on his guard against laughing when it might bevery mal-a-propos. So, au revoir, my dear Waverley.'