Most deeply do I regret that I did not meet you before this last and fatal error.' 'I am really ignorant,' said Waverley, in a tone of reserve, 'why Colonel Talbot should have taken so much trouble on my account.' 'Mr.Waverley,' answered Talbot, 'I am dull at apprehending irony; and therefore I shall answer your words according to their plain meaning.
I am indebted to your uncle for benefits greater than those which a son owes to a father.

I acknowledge to him the duty of a son; and as I know there is no manner in which I can requite his kindness so well as by serving you, I will serve you, if possible, whether you will permit me or no.

The personal obligation which you have this day laid me under (although in common estimation as great as one human being can bestow on another) adds nothing to my zeal on your behalf; nor can that zeal be abated by any coolness with which you may please to receive it.' 'Your intentions may be kind, sir,' said Waverley, drily; 'but your language is harsh, or at least peremptory.' 'On my return to England,' continued Colonel Talbot, 'after long absence, I found your uncle, Sir Everard Waverley, in the custody of a king's messenger, in consequence of the suspicion brought upon him by your conduct.

He is my oldest friend--how often shall I repeat it ?--my best benefactor; he sacrificed his own views of happiness to mine--he never uttered a word, he never harboured a thought, that benevolence itself might not have thought or spoken.

I found this man in confinement, rendered harsher to him by his habits of life, his natural dignity of feeling, and--forgive me, Mr.Waverley--by the cause through which this calamity had come upon him.