e shall call it.' Evan now
presented the written report he had in his hand, which Fergus threw from
him with great passion. 'I wish to God,' he said, 'the old den would
tumble down upon the heads of the fools who attack, and the knaves who
defend it! I see, Waverley, you think I am mad--leave us, Evan, but be
within call.'

'The Colonel's in an unco kippage,' said Mrs. Flockhart to Evan, as he
descended; 'I wish he may be weel,--the very veins on his brent brow are
swelled like whipcord: wad he no tak something?'

'He usually lets blood for these fits,' answered the Highland ancient
with great composure.

When this officer left the room, the Chieftain gradually reassumed some
degree of composure.--'I know, Waverley,' he said, 'that Colonel Talbot
has persuaded you to curse ten times a day your engagement with us; nay,
never deny it, for I am at this moment tempted to curse my own. Would
you believe it, I made this very morning two suits to the Prince, and he
has rejected them both: what do you think of it?'

'What can I think,' answered Waverley, 'till I know what your requests
were?'

'Why, what signifies what they were, man? I tell you it was I that made
them,--I, to whom he owes more than to any three who have joined the
standard; for I negotiated the whole business, and brought in all the
Perthshire men when not one would have stirred. I am not likely, I
think, to ask anything very unreasonable, and if I did they might have
stretched a point.--Well, but you shall know all, now that I can draw
my breath again with some freedom.--You remember my earl's patent; it
is dated some years back, for services then rendered; and certainly
my merit has not been diminished, to say the least, by my subsequent
behaviour. Now, sir, I value this bauble of a coronet as little as you
can, or any philosopher on earth; for I hold that the chief of such
a clan as the Sliochd nan Ivor is superior in rank to any earl in
Scotland. But I had a particular reason for assuming this cursed title
at this time. You must know, that I learned accidentally that the Prince
has been pressing that old foolish Baron of Bradwardine to disinherit
his male heir, or nineteenth or twentieth cousin, who has taken a
command in the Elector of Hanover's militia, and to settle his estate
upon your pretty little friend Rose; and this, as being the command
of his king and overlord, who may alter the destination of a fief at
pleasure, the old gentleman seems we