He slept, therefore, soundly till late in the succeeding
morning, and then awakened to a painful recollection of the scene of the
preceding evening. He had received a personal affront,--he, a gentleman,
a soldier, and a Waverley. True, the person who had offered it was not,
at the time it was given, possessed of the moderate share of sense which
nature had allotted him; true also, in resenting this insult, he would
break the laws of Heaven, as well as of his country; true, in doing so,
he might take the life of a young man who perhaps respectably discharged
the social duties, and render his family miserable; or he might lose his
own;--no pleasant alternative even to the bravest, when it is debated
coolly and in private.
All this pressed on his mind; yet the original statement recurred with
the same irresistible force. He had received a personal insult; he
was of the house of Waverley; and he bore a commission. There was
no alternative; and he descended to the breakfast parlour with the
intention of taking leave of the family, and writing to one of his
brother officers to meet him at the inn mid-way between Tully-Veolan and
the town where they were quartered, in order that he might convey such
a message to the Laird of Balmawhapple as the circumstances seemed to
demand.
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