It was I who taught
him to concentrate them, and to gage all on this dreadful and desperate
cast. Oh that I could recollect that I had but once said to him, "He
that striketh with the sword shall die by the sword"; that I had but
once said, Remain at home; reserve yourself, your vassals, your life,
for enterprises within the reach of man. But oh, Mr. Waverley, I spurred
his fiery temper, and half of his ruin at least lies with his sister.'
The horrid idea which she had intimated, Edward endeavoured to combat by
every incoherent argument that occurred to him. He recalled to her the
principles on which both thought it their duty to act, and in which they
had been educated.
'Do not think I have forgotten them,' she said, looking up, with eager
quickness; 'I do not regret his attempt, because it was wrong--oh no!
on that point I am armed--but because it was impossible it could end
otherwise than thus.'
'Yet it did not always seem so desperate and hazardous as it was; and
it would have been chosen by the bold spirit of Fergus, whether you
had approved it or no; your counsels only served to give unity and
consistence to his conduct; to dignify, but not to precipitate his
resolution.
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