will be safest to fall back towards the mountains, and
there protract the war until fresh succours arrive from France, and the
whole body of the Highland clans shall have taken arms in our favour. The
opposite opinion maintains, that a retrograde movement, in our
circumstances, is certain to throw utter discredit on our arms and
undertaking; and, far from gaining us new partizans, will be the means of
disheartening those who have joined our standard. The officers who use
these last arguments, among whom is your friend Fergus Mac-Ivor, maintain
that, if the Highlanders are strangers to the usual military discipline
of Europe, the soldiers whom they are to encounter are no less strangers
to their peculiar and formidable mode of attack; that the attachment and
courage of the chiefs and gentlemen are not to be doubted; and that, as
they will be in the midst of the enemy, their clansmen will as surely
follow them; in fine, that having drawn the sword we should throw away
the scabbard, and trust our cause to battle and to the God of battles.
Will Mr. Waverley favour us with his opinion in these arduous
circumstances?'

Waverley coloured high betwixt pleasure and modesty at the distinction
implied in this question, and answered, with equal spirit and readiness,
that he could not venture to offer an opinion as derived from military
skill, but that the counsel would be far the most acceptable to him which
should first afford him an opportunity to evince his zeal in his Royal
Highness's service.

'Spoken like a Waverley!' answered Charles Edward; 'and that you may hold
a rank in some degree corresponding to your name, allow me, instead of
the captain's commission which you have lost, to offer you the brevet
rank of major in my service, with the advantage of acting as one of my
aides-de-camp until you can be attached to a regiment, of which I hope
several will be speedily embodied.'

'Your Royal Highness will forgive me,' answered Waverley (for his
recollection turned to Balmawhapple and his scanty troop), 'if I decline
accepting any rank until the time and place where I may have interest
enough to raise a sufficient body of men to make my command useful to
your Royal Highness's service. In the meanwhile, I hope for your
permission to serve as a volunteer under my friend Fergus Mac-Ivor.'

'At least,' said the Prince, who was obviously pleased with this
proposal, 'allow me the pleasure of arming you after the Highland
fashion