الفصل الفصل 21 · THE CHIEFTAIN’S SISTER

. THE CHIEFTAIN’S SISTER

The drawing-room of Flora Mac-Ivor was furnished in the plainest and

most simple manner; for at Glennaquoich every other sort of expenditure

was retrenched as much as possible, for the purpose of maintaining, in

its full dignity, the hospitality of the Chieftain, and retaining and

multiplying the number of his dependants and adherents. But there was

no appearance of this parsimony in the dress of the lady herself, which

was in texture elegant, and even rich, and arranged in a manner which

partook partly of the Parisian fashion and partly of the more simple

dress of the Highlands, blended together with great taste. Her hair was

not disfigured by the art of the friseur, but fell in jetty ringlets on

her neck, confined only by a circlet, richly set with diamonds. This

peculiarity she adopted in compliance with the Highland prejudices,

which could not endure that a woman’s head should be covered before

wedlock.

Flora Mac-Ivor bore a most striking resemblance to her brother Fergus;

so much so that they might have played Viola and Sebastian with the

same exquisite effect produced by the appearance of Mrs. Henry Siddons

and her brother, Mr. William Murray, in these characters. They had the

same antique and regular correctness of profile; the same dark eyes,

eye-lashes, and eye-brows; the same clearness of complexion, excepting

that Fergus’s was embrowned by exercise and Flora’s possessed the

utmost feminine delicacy. But the haughty and somewhat stern regularity

of Fergus’s features was beautifully softened in those of Flora. Their

voices were also similar in tone, though differing in the key. That of

Fergus, especially while issuing orders to his followers during their

military exercise, reminded Edward of a favourite passage in the

description of Emetrius:

“Whose voice was heard around,

Loud as a trumpet with a silver sound.”

That of Flora, on the contrary, was soft and sweet—“an excellent thing

in woman”; yet, in urging any favourite topic, which she often pursued

with natural eloquence, it possessed as well the tones which impress

awe and conviction as those of persuasive insinuation. The eager glance

of the keen black eye, which, in the Chieftain, seemed impatient even

of the material obstacles it encountered, had in his sister acquired a

gentle pensiveness. His looks seemed to seek glory, power, all that

could exalt him above others in the race of humanity; while those of

his sister, as if she were already conscious of mental superiority,

seemed to pity, rather than envy, those who were struggling for any

farther distinction. Her sentiments corresponded with the expression of

her countenance. Early education had impressed upon her mind, as well

as on that of the Chieftain, the most devoted attachment to the exiled

family of Stuart. She believed it the duty of her brother, of his clan,

of every man in Britain, at whatever personal hazard, to contribute to

that restoration which the partisans of the Chevalier St. George had

not ceased to hope for. For this she was prepared to do all, to suffer

all, to sacrifice all. But her loyalty, as it exceeded her brother’s in

fanaticism, excelled it also in purity. Accustomed to petty intrigue,

and necessarily involved in a thousand paltry and selfish discussions,

ambitious also by nature, his political faith was tinctured, at least,

if not tainted, by the views of interest and advancement so easily

combined with it; and at the moment he should unsheathe his claymore,

it might be difficult to say whether it would be most with the view of

making James Stuart a king or Fergus Mac-Ivor an earl. This, indeed,

was a mixture of feeling which he did not avow even to himself, but it

existed, nevertheless, in a powerful degree.

In Flora’s bosom, on the contrary, the zeal of loyalty burnt pure and

unmixed with any selfish feeling; she would have as soon made religion

the mask of ambitious and interested views as have shrouded them under

the opinions which she had been taught to think patriotism. Such

instances of devotion were not uncommon among the followers of the

unhappy race of Stuart, of which many memorable proofs will recur to

the minds of most of my readers. But peculiar attention on the part of

the Chevalier de St. George and his princess to the parents of Fergus

and his sister, and to themselves when orphans, had riveted their

faith. Fergus, upon the death of his parents, had been for some time a

page of honour in the train of the Chevalier’s lady, and, from his

beauty and sprightly temper, was uniformly treated by her with the

utmost distinction. This was also extended to Flora, who was maintained

for some time at a convent of the first order at the princess’s

expense, and removed from thence into her own family, where she spent

nearly two years. Both brother and sister retained the deepest and most

grateful sense of her kindness.

Having thus touched upon the leading principle of Flora’s character, I

may dismiss the rest more slightly. She was highly accomplished, and

had acquired those elegant manners to be expected from one who, in

early youth, had been the companion of a princess; yet she had not

learned to substitute the gloss of politeness for the reality of

feeling. When settled in the lonely regions of Glennaquoich, she found

that her resources in French, English, and Italian literature were

likely to be few and interrupted; and, in order to fill up the vacant

time, she bestowed a part of it upon the music and poetical traditions

of the Highlanders, and began really to feel the pleasure in the

pursuit which her brother, whose perceptions of literary merit were

more blunt, rather affected for the sake of popularity than actually

experienced. Her resolution was strengthened in these researches by the

extreme delight which her inquiries seemed to afford those to whom she

resorted for information.

Her love of her clan, an attachment which was almost hereditary in her

bosom, was, like her loyalty, a more pure passion than that of her

brother. He was too thorough a politician, regarded his patriarchal

influence too much as the means of accomplishing his own

aggrandisement, that we should term him the model of a Highland

Chieftain. Flora felt the same anxiety for cherishing and extending

their patriarchal sway, but it was with the generous desire of

vindicating from poverty, or at least from want and foreign oppression,

those whom her brother was by birth, according to the notions of the

time and country, entitled to govern. The savings of her income, for

she had a small pension from the Princess Sobieski, were dedicated, not

to add to the comforts of the peasantry, for that was a word which they

neither knew nor apparently wished to know, but to relieve their

absolute necessities when in sickness or extreme old age. At every

other period they rather toiled to procure something which they might

share with the Chief, as a proof of their attachment, than expected

other assistance from him save what was afforded by the rude

hospitality of his castle, and the general division and subdivision of

his estate among them. Flora was so much beloved by them that, when

Mac-Murrough composed a song in which he enumerated all the principal

beauties of the district, and intimated her superiority by concluding,

that “the fairest apple hung on the highest bough,” he received, in

donatives from the individuals of the clan, more seed-barley than would

have sowed his Highland Parnassus, the bard’s croft, as it was called,

ten times over.

From situation as well as choice, Miss Mac-Ivor’s society was extremely

limited. Her most intimate friend had been Rose Bradwardine, to whom

she was much attached; and when seen together, they would have afforded

an artist two admirable subjects for the gay and the melancholy muse.

Indeed Rose was so tenderly watched by her father, and her circle of

wishes was so limited, that none arose but what he was willing to

gratify, and scarce any which did not come within the compass of his

power. With Flora it was otherwise. While almost a girl she had

undergone the most complete change of scene, from gaiety and splendour

to absolute solitude and comparative poverty; and the ideas and wishes

which she chiefly fostered respected great national events, and changes

not to be brought round without both hazard and bloodshed, and

therefore not to be thought of with levity. Her manner, consequently,

was grave, though she readily contributed her talents to the amusement

of society, and stood very high in the opinion of the old Baron, who

used to sing along with her such French duets of Lindor and Cloris,

etc., as were in fashion about the end of the reign of old Louis le

Grand.

It was generally believed, though no one durst have hinted it to the

Baron of Bradwardine, that Flora’s entreaties had no small share in

allaying the wrath of Fergus upon occasion of their quarrel. She took

her brother on the assailable side, by dwelling first upon the Baron’s

age, and then representing the injury which the cause might sustain,

and the damage which must arise to his own character in point of

prudence—so necessary to a political agent, if he persisted in carrying

it to extremity. Otherwise it is probable it would have terminated in a

duel, both because the Baron had, on a former occasion, shed blood of

the clan, though the matter had been timely accommodated, and on

account of his high reputation for address at his weapon, which Fergus

almost condescended to envy. For the same reason she had urged their

reconciliation, which the Chieftain the more readily agreed to as it

favoured some ulterior projects of his own.

To this young lady, now presiding at the female empire of the

tea-table, Fergus introduced Captain Waverley, whom she received with

the usual forms of politeness.