service
the lad whose evidence had thrown additional light on these intrigues. He
represented to him, that it would be doing the man an injury to engage
him in a desperate undertaking, and that, whatever should happen, his
evidence would go some length at least in explaining the circumstances
under which Waverley himself had embarked in it. Waverley therefore wrote
a short state of what had happened to his uncle and his father,
cautioning them, however, in the present circumstances, not to attempt to
answer his letter. Talbot then gave the young man a letter to the
commander of one of the English vessels of war cruising in the frith,
requesting him to put the bearer ashore at Berwick, with a pass to
proceed to ----shire. He was then furnished with money to make an
expeditious journey, and directed to get on board the ship by means of
bribing a fishing-boat, which, as they afterwards learned, he easily
effected.

Tired of the attendance of Callum Beg, who, he thought, had some
disposition to act as a spy on his motions, Waverley hired as a servant a
simple Edinburgh swain, who had mounted the white cockade in a fit of
spleen and jealousy, because Jenny Jop had danced a whole night with
Corporal Bullock of the Fusileers.

CHAPTER XXIII

INTRIGUES OF SOCIETY AND LOVE

Colonel Talbot became more kindly in his demeanour towards Waverley after
the confidence he had reposed in him, and, as they were necessarily much
together, the character of the Colonel rose in Waverley's estimation.
There seemed at first something harsh in his strong expressions of
dislike and censure, although no one was in the general case more open to
conviction. The habit of authority had also given his manners some
peremptory hardness, notwithstanding the polish which they had received
from his intimate acquaintance with the higher circles. As a specimen of
the military character, he differed from all whom Waverley had as yet
seen. The soldiership of the Baron of Bradwardine was marked by pedantry;
that of Major Melville by a sort of martinet attention to the minutiae
and technicalities of discipline, rather suitable to one who was to
manoeuvre a battalion than to him who was to command an army; the
military spirit of Fergus was so much warped and blended with his plans
and political views, that it was less that of a soldier than of a petty
sovereign. But Colonel Talbot was in every point the English soldier. His
whole soul was devoted t