y had been
viewing the castle,--'we shall hardly gain the obsidional crown, which
you wot well was made of the roots or grain which takes root within
the place besieged, or it may be of the herb woodbind, PARETARIA, or
pellitory; we shall not, I say, gain it by this same blockade or
leaguer of Edinburgh Castle.' For this opinion, he gave most learned and
satisfactory reasons, that the reader may not care to hear repeated.

Having escaped from the old gentleman, Waverley went to Fergus's
lodgings by appointment, to await his return from Holyrood House. 'I
am to have a particular audience to-morrow,' said Fergus to Waverley,
overnight, 'and you must meet me to wish me joy of the success which I
securely anticipate.'

The morrow came, and in the Chief's apartment he found Ensign Maccombich
waiting to make report of his turn of duty in a sort of ditch which they
had dug across the Castle-hill, and called a trench. In a short time
the Chief's voice was heard on the stair in a tone of impatient
fury:--'Callum,--why, Callum Beg,--Diaoul!' He entered the room with all
the marks of a man agitated by a towering passion; and there were few
upon whose features rage produced a more violent effect. The veins of
his forehead swelled when he was in such agitation; his nostril became
dilated; his cheek and eye inflamed; and his look that of a demoniac.
These appearances of half-suppressed rage were the more frightful,
because they were obviously caused by a strong effort to temper with
discretion an almost ungovernable paroxysm of passion, and resulted from
an internal conflict of the most dreadful kind, which agitated his whole
frame of mortality.

As he entered the apartment, he unbuckled his broadsword, and throwing
it down with such violence that the weapon rolled to the other end of
the room, 'I know not what,' he exclaimed, 'withholds me from taking
a solemn oath that I will never more draw it in his cause. Load my
pistols, Callum, and bring them hither instantly;--instantly!' Callum,
whom nothing ever startled, dismayed, or disconcerted, obeyed very
coolly. Evan Dhu, upon whose brow the suspicion that his Chief had been
insulted, called up a corresponding storm, swelled in sullen silence,
awaiting to learn where or upon whom vengeance was to descend.

'So, Waverley you are there,' said the Chief, after a moment's
recollection;--'Yes, I remember I asked you to share my triumph, and
you have come to witness my--disappointment w