marching column, which was now moving rapidly forward to occupy the high
grounds above the village of Tranent, between which and the sea, lay the
purposed march of the opposite army.

This melancholy interview with his late sergeant forced many unavailing
and painful reflections upon Waverley's mind. It was clear, from the
confession of the man, that Colonel Gardiner's proceedings had been
strictly warranted, and even rendered indispensable, by the steps taken
in Edward's name to induce the soldiers of his troop to mutiny. The
circumstance of the seal, he now, for the first time, recollected, and
that he had lost it in the cavern of the robber, Bean Lean. That the
artful villain had secured it, and used it as the means of carrying
on an intrigue in the regiment, for his own purposes, was sufficiently
evident, and Edward had now little doubt that in the packet placed in
his portmanteau by his daughter, he should find further light upon
his proceedings. In the meanwhile, the repeated expostulation of
Houghton,--'Ah, squire, why did you leave us?' rang like a knell in his
ears.

'Yes,' he said, 'I have indeed acted towards you with thoughtless
cruelty. I brought you from your paternal fields, and the protection of
a generous and kind landlord, and when I had subjected you to all the
rigour of military discipline, I shunned to bear my own share of the
burden, and wandered from the duties I had undertaken, leaving alike
those whom it was my business to protect, and my own reputation, to
suffer under the artifices of villany. O indolence and indecision of
mind! if not in yourselves vices, to how much exquisite misery and
mischief do you frequently prepare the way!'

CHAPTER XLVI

THE EVE OF BATTLE

Although the Highlanders marched on very fast, the sun was declining
when they arrived upon the brow of those high grounds which command an
open and extensive plain stretching northward to the sea, on which are
situated, but at a considerable distance from each other, the small
villages of Seaton and Cockenzie, and the larger one of Preston. One of
the low coast-roads to Edinburgh passed through this plain, issuing upon
it from the enclosures of Seaton-house, and at the town or village of
Preston again entering the defiles of an enclosed country. By this way
the English general had chosen to approach the metropolis, both as most
commodious for his cavalry, and being probably of opinion that, by doing
so, he would meet in