In these manoeuvres on both sides
the daylight was nearly consumed, and both armies prepared to rest upon
their arms for the night in the lines which they respectively occupied.
'There will be nothing done to-night,' said Fergus to his friend
Waverley. 'Ere we wrap ourselves in our plaids, let us go see what the
Baron is doing in the rear of the line.'
When they approached his post, they found the good old careful officer,
after having sent out his night patrols, and posted his sentinels,
engaged in reading the Evening Service of the Episcopal Church to the
remainder of his troop. His voice was loud and sonorous, and though his
spectacles upon his nose, and the appearance of Saunders Saunderson,
in military array, performing the functions of clerk, had something
ludicrous, yet the circumstances of danger in which they stood, the
military costume of the audience, and the appearance of their horses,
saddled and picketed behind them, gave an impressive and solemn effect
to the office of devotion.
'I have confessed to-day, ere you were awake,' whispered Fergus to
Waverley; 'yet I am not so strict a Catholic as to refuse to join in
this good man's prayers.
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