n Vohr, that is, the
son of John the Great; and we upon the braes here call him by both names
indifferently.'

'I am afraid I shall never bring my English tongue to call him by either
one or other.'

'But he is a very polite, handsome man,' continued Rose; 'and his sister
Flora is one of the most beautiful and accomplished young ladies in this
country; she was bred in a convent in France, and was a great friend of
mine before this unhappy dispute. Dear Captain Waverley, try your
influence with my father to make matters up. I am sure this is but the
beginning of our troubles; for Tully-Veolan has never been a safe or
quiet residence when we have been at feud with the Highlanders. When I
was a girl about ten, there was a skirmish fought between a party of
twenty of them and my father and his servants behind the mains; and the
bullets broke several panes in the north windows, they were so near.
Three of the Highlanders were killed, and they brought them in wrapped in
their plaids, and laid them on the stone floor of the hall; and next
morning, their wives and daughters came, clapping their hands, and crying
the coronach, and shrieking, and carried away the dead bodies, with the
pipes playing before them. I could not sleep for six weeks without
starting and thinking I heard these terrible cries, and saw the bodies
lying on the steps, all stiff and swathed up in their bloody tartans. But
since that time there came a party from the garrison at Stirling, with a
warrant from the Lord Justice Clerk, or some such great man, and took
away all our arms; and now, how are we to protect ourselves if they come
down in any strength?'

Waverley could not help starting at a story which bore so much
resemblance to one of his own day-dreams. Here was a girl scarce
seventeen, the gentlest of her sex, both in temper and appearance, who
had witnessed with her own eyes such a scene as he had used to conjure up
in his imagination, as only occurring in ancient times, and spoke of it
coolly, as one very likely to recur. He felt at once the impulse of
curiosity, and that slight sense of danger which only serves to heighten
its interest. He might have said with Malvolio, '"I do not now fool
myself, to let imagination jade me!" I am actually in the land of
military and romantic adventures, and it only remains to be seen what
will be my own share in them.'

The whole circumstances now detailed concerning the state of the country
seemed equally no