Balmawhapple, however, having in his recollection the unfriendly
greeting which his troop had received from the battery of Stirling,
had apparently no wish to tempt the forbearance of the artillery of the
Castle. He therefore left the direct road, and sweeping considerably to
the southward, so as to keep out of the range of the cannon, approached
the ancient palace of Holyrood, without having entered the walls of
the city. He then drew up his men in front of that venerable pile,
and delivered Waverley to the custody of a guard of Highlanders, whose
officer conducted him into the interior of the building.
A long, low, and ill-proportioned gallery, hung with pictures, affirmed
to be the portraits of kings, who, if they ever flourished at all, lived
several hundred years before the invention of painting in oil colours,
served as a sort of guard-chamber, or vestibule, to the apartments
which the adventurous Charles Edward now occupied in the palace of his
ancestors. Officers, both in the Highland and Lowland garb, passed and
repassed in haste, or loitered in the hall, as if waiting for orders.
Secretaries were engaged in making out passes, musters, and returns.
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