The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

260' WAV ERL EY N O:V E L S.
the ascent became steep, advanced slowly, marshalling us forward at the
head of the troop. As we advanced, we heard the wild notes of the bagpipes, which lost their natural discord from being mingled with the dashing
sound of the cascade. When we came close, the wife of MacGregor came
forward to meet us. Her dress was studiously arranged in a more feminine
taste than it had been on the preceding day, but her features wore the same
lofty, unbending, and resolute character; and as she folded my friend the
Bailie in an unexpected and apparently unwelcome embrace, I could perceive, by the agitation of his wig, his back, and the calves of his legs, that
he felt much like to one who feels himself suddenly in the gripe of a shebear, without being able to distinguish whether the animal is in kindness
or in wrath.
"-Kinsman," she said, " you are welcome- and you too, stranger," she
added, releasing my alarmed companion, who instinctively drew back and
settled his wig, and addressing herself to me — "you also are welcome.
You came," she added, "to our unhappy country, when our bloods were
chafed, and our hands were red. Excuse the rudeness that gave you a
rough welcome, and lay it upon the evil times, and not upon us." All this
was said with the manners of a princess, and in the tone and style of a
court. Nor was there the least tincture of that vulgarity which we naturally
attach to the Lowland Scottish. There was a strong provincial accentuation,
but, otherwise, the language rendered by Helen MacGregor, out of the'native and poetical Gaelic, into English, which she had acquired as we do
learned tongues, but had probably never heard applied to the mean purposes of ordinary life, was graceful, flowing, and declamatory. Her husband, who had in his time played many parts, used a much less elevated'
and emphatic dialect; - but even his language rose in purity of expression,
as you may have remarked, if I have been accurate in recording it, when
the affairs which he discussed were, of an agitating and important nature;
and it appears to me in his. case, and in that of some other Highlanders
whom I have known, that, when familiar and facetious, they used the Lowland Scottish dialect, - when serious and impassioned, their thoughts
arranged themselves in the idiom of their native language; and in the
latter case, as they uttered the corresponding ideas in English, the expressions sounded wild, elevated, and poetical. In fact, the language of passion
is almost always pure as well as vehement, and it is no uncommon thing to
hear a Scotchman, when overwhelmed by a countryman with a tone of bitter
and: fluent upbraiding, reply by way of taunt to his adversary, "You have
gotten to your English."
Be this as it may, the wife of MacGregor invited us to a refreshment
spread out on the grass, which abounded with all the good things their
mountains could offer, but was clouded by the dark and undisturbed gravity
which sat on the brow of our hostess, as well as by our deep and anxious
recollection of what had taken place on the preceding day. It was in vain
that the leader exerted himself to excite mirth; —a chill hung over our
minds, as if the feast had been funereal; and every bosom felt light when
it wasii enaded.
"Adieu, cousin," she said to Mr. Jarvie, as we rose from the entertainment; " the best wish Helen MacGregor can give to a friend is, that he
may see her no more."
The Bailie struggled to answer, probably with some commonplace maxim
of morality;-but the calm and melancholy sternness of her countenance
bore down and disconcerted the mechanical and formal importance of the
magistrate. He coughed, - hemmed,: - bowed, - and was silent.
"For you, stranger," she said, " I have a token, from one whom you can
never"
"Helen!" interrupted MacGregor, in a loud and stern voice, "what
means this? - have. you forgotten the charge?"