His whole soul was devoted to the service of his king and
country, without feeling any pride in knowing the theory of his art with
the Baron, or its practical minutiae with the Major, or in applying his
science to his own particular plans of ambition, like the Chieftain
of Glennaquoich. Added to this, he was a man of extended knowledge and
cultivated taste, although strongly tinged, as we have already observed,
with those prejudices which are peculiarly English.
The character of Colonel Talbot dawned upon Edward by degrees; for the
delay of the Highlanders in the fruitless siege of Edinburgh Castle
occupied several weeks, during which Waverley had little to do,
excepting to seek such amusement as society afforded. He would willingly
have persuaded his new friend to become acquainted with some of his
former intimates. But the Colonel, after one or two visits, shook his
head, and declined further experiment. Indeed he went further, and
characterized the Baron as the most intolerable formal pedant he had
ever had the misfortune to meet with, and the Chief of Glennaquoich as
a Frenchified Scotchman, possessing all the cunning and plausibility
of the nation where he was educated, with the proud, vindictive, and
turbulent humour of that of his birth.
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