ackward, and who, with the vulgar appetite for the
horrible, was master of each detail of the butchery--'the heads are ower
the Scotch yate, as they ca' it. It's a great pity of Evan Dhu, who was a
very weel-meaning, good-natured man, to be a Hielandman; and indeed so
was the Laird o' Glennaquoich too, for that matter, when he wasna in ane
o' his tirrivies.'

CHAPTER XLI

DULCE DOMUM

The impression of horror with which Waverley left Carlisle softened by
degrees into melancholy, a gradation which was accelerated by the painful
yet soothing task of writing to Rose; and, while he could not suppress
his own feelings of the calamity, he endeavoured to place it in a light
which might grieve her without shocking her imagination. The picture
which he drew for her benefit he gradually familiarised to his own mind,
and his next letters were more cheerful, and referred to the prospects of
peace and happiness which lay before them. Yet, though his first horrible
sensations had sunk into melancholy, Edward had reached his native
country before he could, as usual on former occasions, look round for
enjoyment upon the face of nature.

He then, for the first time since leaving Edinburgh, began to experience
that pleasure which almost all feel who return to a verdant, populous,
and highly cultivated country from scenes of waste desolation or of
solitary and melancholy grandeur. But how were those feelings enhanced
when he entered on the domain so long possessed by his forefathers;
recognised the old oaks of Waverley-Chace; thought with what delight he
should introduce Rose to all his favourite haunts; beheld at length the
towers of the venerable hall arise above the woods which embowered it,
and finally threw himself into the arms of the venerable relations to
whom he owed so much duty and affection!

The happiness of their meeting was not tarnished by a single word of
reproach. On the contrary, whatever pain Sir Everard and Mrs. Rachel had
felt during Waverley's perilous engagement with the young Chevalier, it
assorted too well with the principles in which they had been brought up
to incur reprobation, or even censure. Colonel Talbot also had smoothed
the way with great address for Edward's favourable reception by dwelling
upon his gallant behaviour in the military character, particularly his
bravery and generosity at Preston; until, warmed at the idea of their
nephew's engaging in single combat, making prisoner, and savi