Connecting it with the letters he had
just received from his family, he could not but suppose that it was
designed to make him feel, in his present situation, the same pressure
of authority which had been exercised in his father's case, and that the
whole was a concerted scheme to depress and degrade every member of the
Waverley family.
Without a pause, therefore, Edward wrote a few cold lines, thanking his
lieutenant-colonel for past civilities, and expressing regret that he
should have chosen to efface the remembrance of them, by assuming a
different tone towards him. The strain of his letter, as well as what
he (Edward) conceived to be his duty, in the present crisis, called upon
him to lay down his commission; and he therefore enclosed the formal
resignation of a situation which subjected him to so unpleasant a
correspondence, and requested Colonel Gardiner would have the goodness
to forward it to the proper authorities.
Having finished this magnanimous epistle, he felt somewhat uncertain
concerning the terms in which his resignation ought to be expressed,
upon which subject he resolved to consult Fergus Mac-Ivor. It may
be observed in passing, that the bold and prompt habits of thinking,
acting, and speaking, which distinguished this young Chieftain, had
given him a considerable ascendancy over the mind of Waverley.
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