When the battle was over, and all things coming into order, the
Baron of Bradwardine, returning from the duty of the day, and
having disposed those under his command in their proper stations,
sought the Chieftain of Glennaquoich and his friend Edward
Waverley. He found the former busied in determining disputes among
his clansmen about points of precedence and deeds of valour,
besides sundry high and doubtful questions concerning plunder. The
most important of the last respected the property of a gold watch,
which had once belonged to some unfortunate English officer. The
party against whom judgment was awarded consoled himself by
observing, 'She (i.e. the watch, which he took for a living
animal) died the very night Vich lan Vohr gave her to Murdoch';
the machine, having, in fact, stopped for want of winding up.
It was just when this important question was decided that the
Baron of Bradwardine, with a careful and yet important expression
of countenance, joined the two young men. He descended from his
reeking charger, the care of which he recommended to one of his
grooms. 'I seldom ban, sir,' said he to the man; 'but if you play
any of your hound's-foot tricks, and leave puir Berwick before
he's sorted, to rin after spuilzie, deil be wi' me if I do not
give your craig a thraw.' He then stroked with great complacency
the animal which had borne him through the fatigues of the day,
and having taken a tender leave of him—' Weel, my good young
friends, a glorious and decisive victory,' said he; 'but these
loons of troopers fled ower soon. I should have liked to have
shown you the true points of the pralium equestre, or equestrian
combat, whilk their cowardice has postponed, and which I hold to
be the pride and terror of warfare. Weel—I have fought once more
in this old quarrel, though I admit I could not be so far BEN as
you lads, being that it was my point of duty to keep together our
handful of horse. And no cavalier ought in any wise to begrudge
honour that befalls his companions, even though they are ordered
upon thrice his danger, whilk, another time, by the blessing of
God, may be his own case. But, Glennaquoich, and you, Mr.
Waverley, I pray ye to give me your best advice on a matter of
mickle weight, and which deeply affects the honour of the house of
Bradwardine. I crave your pardon, Ensign Maccombich, and yours,
Inveraughlin, and yours, Edderalshendrach, and yours, sir.'
The last person he addressed was Ballenkeiroch, who, remembering
the death of his son, loured on him with a look of savage
defiance. The Baron, quick as lightning at taking umbrage, had
already bent his brow when Glennaquoich dragged his major from the
spot, and remonstrated with him, in the authoritative tone of a
chieftain, on the madness of reviving a quarrel in such a
moment.
'The ground is cumbered with carcasses,' said the old
mountaineer,
turning sullenly away; 'ONE MORE would hardly have been kenn'dupon
it; and if it wasna for yoursell, Vich lan Vohr, that one should
be Bradwardine's or mine.'
The Chief soothed while he hurried him away; and then returned to
the Baron. 'It is Ballenkeiroch,' he said, in an under and
confidential voice, 'father of the young man who fell eight years
since in the unlucky affair at the mains.'
'Ah!' said the Baron, instantly relaxing the doubtful sternness
of
his features, 'I can take naickle frae a man to whom I have
unhappily rendered sic a displeasure as that. Ye were right to
apprise me, Glennaquoich; he may look as black as midnight at
Martinmas ere Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine shall say he does him
wrang. Ah! I have nae male lineage, and I should bear with one I
have made childless, though you are aware the blood-wit was made
up to your ain satisfaction by assythment, and that I have since
expedited letters of slains. Weel, as I have said, I have no male
issue, and yet it is needful that I maintain the honour of my
house; and it is on that score I prayed ye for your peculiar and
private attention.'
The two young men awaited to hear him, in anxious curiosity.
'I doubt na, lads,' he proceeded, 'but your education has been
sae
seen to that ye understand the true nature of the feudal
tenures?'
Fergus, afraid of an endless dissertation, answered, 'Intimately,
Baron,' and touched Waverley as a signal to express no
ignorance.
'And ye are aware, I doubt not, that the holding of the barony of
Bradwardine is of a nature alike honourable and peculiar, being
blanch (which Craig opines ought to be Latinated blancum, or
rather francum, a free holding) pro sermtio detrahendi, seu
exuendi, caligas regis post battalliam.' Here Fergus turned his
falcon eye upon Edward, with an almost imperceptible rise of his
eyebrow, to which his shoulders corresponded in the same degree of
elevation. 'Now, twa points of dubitation occur to me upon this
topic. First, whether this service, or feudal homage, be at any
event due to the person of the Prince, the words being, per
expressum, caligas REGIS, the boots of the king himself; and I
pray your opinion anent that particular before we proceed
farther.'
'Why, he is Prince Regent,' answered Mac-Ivor, with laudable
composure of countenance; 'and in the court of France all the
honours are rendered to the person of the Regent which are due to
that of the King. Besides, were I to pull off either of their
boots, I would render that service to the young Chevalier ten
times more willingly than to his father.'
' Ay, but I talk not of personal predilections. However, your
authority is of great weight as to the usages of the court of
France; and doubtless the Prince, as alter ego, may have a right
to claim the homagium of the great tenants of the crown, since all
faithful subjects are commanded, in the commission of regency, to
respect him as the King's own person. Far, therefore, be it from
me to diminish the lustre of his authority by withholding this act
of homage, so peculiarly calculated to give it splendour; for I
question if the Emperor of Germany hath his boots taken off by a
free baron of the empire. But here lieth the second
difficulty—the Prince wears no boots, but simply brogues and trews.'
This last dilemma had almost disturbed Fergus's gravity.
'Why,' said he, 'you know, Baron, the proverb tells us, "It's ill
taking the breeks off a Highlandman," and the boots are here in
the same predicament.'
'The word caligce, however,' continued the Baron, 'though I admit
that, by family tradition, and even in our ancient evidents, it is
explained "lie-boots," means, in its primitive sense, rather
sandals; and Caius Caesar, the nephew and successor of Caius
Tiberius, received the agnomen of Caligula, a caligulis sine
caligis levioribus, quibus adolescentior usus fuerat in exercitu
Germanici patris sui. And the caligce were also proper to the
monastic bodies; for we read in an ancient glossarium upon the
rule of Saint Benedict, in the Abbey of Saint Amand, that caligae
were tied with latchets.'
'That will apply to the brogues,' said Fergus.
'It will so, my dear Glennaquoich, and the words are express:
Caligae, dicta sunt quia ligantur; nam socci non ligantur, sed
tantum intromittuntur; that is, caligae are denominated from the
ligatures wherewith they are bound; whereas socci, which may be
analogous to our mules, whilk the English denominate slippers, are
only slipped upon the feet. The words of the charter are also
alternative, exuere seu detrahere; that is, to undo, as in the
case of sandals or brogues, and to pull of, as we say vernacularly
concerning boots. Yet I would we had more light; but I fear there
is little chance of finding hereabout any erudite author de re
vestiaria.'
'I should doubt it very much,' said the Chieftain, looking around
on the straggling Highlanders, who were returning loaded with
spoils of the slain,'though the res vestiaria itself seems to be
in some request at present.'
This remark coming within the Baron's idea of jocularity, he
honoured it with a smile, but immediately resumed what to him
appeared very serious business.
'Bailie Macwheeble indeed holds an opinion that this honorary
service is due, from its very nature, si petatur tantum; only if
his Royal Highness shall require of the great tenant of the crown
to perform that personal duty; and indeed he pointed out the case
in Dirleton's Doubts and Queries, Grippit versus Spicer, anent the
eviction of an estate ob non solutum canonem; that is, for
non-payment of a feu-duty of three pepper-corns a year, whilk were
taxt to be worth seven-eighths of a penny Scots, in whilk the
defender was assoilzied. But I deem it safest, wi' your good
favour, to place myself in the way of rendering the Prince this
service, and to proffer performance thereof; and I shall cause the
Bailie to attend with a schedule of a protest, whilk he has here
prepared (taking out a paper), intimating, that if it shall be his
Royal Highness's pleasure to accept of other assistance at pulling
off his caligae (whether the same shall be rendered boots or
brogues) save that of the said Baron of Bradwardine, who is in
presence ready and willing to perform the same, it shall in no
wise impinge upon or prejudice the right of the said Cosmo Comyne
Bradwardine to perform the said service in future; nor shall it
give any esquire, valet of the chamber, squire, or page, whose
assistance it may please his Royal Highness to employ, any right,
title, or ground for evicting from the said Cosmo Comyne
Bradwardine the estate and barony of Bradwardine, and others held
as aforesaid, by the due and faithful performance thereof.'
Fergus highly applauded this arrangement; and the Baron took a
friendly leave of them, with a smile of contented importance upon
his visage.
'Long live our dear friend the Baron,' exclaimed the Chief, as
soon as he was out of hearing, 'for the most absurd original that
exists north of the Tweed! I wish to heaven I had recommended him
to attend the circle this evening with a boot-ketch under his arm.
I think he might have adopted the suggestion if it had been made
with suitable gravity.'
'And how can you take pleasure in making a man of his worth so
ridiculous?'
'Begging pardon, my dear Waverley, you are as ridiculous as he.
Why, do you not see that the man's whole mind is wrapped up in
this ceremony? He has heard and thought of it since infancy as the
most august privilege and ceremony in the world; and I doubt not
but the expected pleasure of performing it was a principal motive
with him for taking up arms. Depend upon it, had I endeavoured to
divert him from exposing himself he would have treated me as an
ignorant, conceited coxcomb, or perhaps might have taken a fancy
to cut my throat; a pleasure which he once proposed to himself
upon some point of etiquette not half so important, in his eyes,
as this matter of boots or brogues, or whatever the caliga shall
finally be pronounced by the learned. But I must go to
headquarters, to prepare the Prince for this extraordinary scene.
My information will be well taken, for it will give him a hearty
laugh at present, and put him on his guard against laughing when
it might be very mal-a-propos. So, au revoir, my dear Waverley.'