'Poor Flora!' answered the Chief, 'she could have borne her own sentence
of death, but not mine. You, Waverley, will soon know the happiness of
mutual affection in the married state--long, long may Rose and you enjoy
it!--but you can never know the purity of feeling which combines two
orphans, like Flora and me, left alone as it were in the world, and
being all in all to each other from our very infancy. But her strong
sense of duty, and predominant feeling of loyalty, will give new nerve
to her mind after the immediate and acute sensation of this parting has
passed away. She will then think of Fergus as of the heroes of our race,
upon whose deeds she loved to dwell.'
'Shall she not see you, then?' asked Waverley. 'She seemed to expect
it.'
'A necessary deceit will spare her the last dreadful parting. I could
not part with her without tears, and I cannot bear that these men should
think they have power to extort them. She was made to believe she
would see me at a later hour, and this letter, which my confessor will
deliver, will apprize her that all is over.'
An officer now appeared, and intimated that the High Sheriff and his
attendants waited before the gate of the Castle, to claim the bodies of
Fergus Mac-Ivor and Evan Maccombich.
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