"The same grade preccesely," answered Dalgetty;gations of boors or burghers against any commander "ritt-master signifying literally file-leader."

"Why, truly, sir," answered the soldier, "an Irish cavalier, called O'Quilligan, being major of our regiment, and I having had words with him the night before, respecting the worth and precedence of our several nations, it pleased him the next day to deliver his orders to me with the point of his batoon advanced and held aloof, instead of declining and trailing the same, as is the fashion from a courteous command"But were not these arrears," said Lord Menteith,ing officer towards his equal in rank, though, it may "paid to the soldiery at some stated period?"

sir, we fought m private rencontre; and as, in the perquisitions which followed, it pleased Walter Butler, our oberst, or colonel, to give the lighter punishment to his countryman, and the heavier to me, whereupon, ill-stomaching such partiality, I exchanged my commission for one under the Spaniard."

"I hope you found yourself better off by the change?" said Lord Menteith.

"In good sooth," answered the Ritt-master, "I had but little to complain of. The pay was somewhat regular, being furnished by the rich Flemings and Waloons of the Low Country. The quarters were excellent; the good wheaten foaves of the Flemings were better than the Provant rye-bread of the Swede, and Rhenish wine was more plenty with us than ever I saw the black-beer of Rostock in Gustavus's camp. Service there was none, duty there was little; and that little we might do, or leave undone, at our pleasure; an excellent retirement for a cavalier somewhat weary of field and leaguer, who had purchased with his blood as much honour as might serve his turn, and was desirous of a little ease and good living." "And may I ask," said Lord Menteith, "why you, Captain, being, as I suppose, in the situation you describe, retired from the Spanish service also ??

"You are to consider, my lord, that your Spaniard," replied Captain Dalgetty, "is a person altogether unparalleled in his own conceit, wherethrough he maketh not fit account of such foreign cavaliers of valour as are pleased to take service with him. And a galling thing it is to every honourable soldado, to be put aside, and postponed, and obliged to yield preference to every puffing signor, who, were it the question which should first mount a breach at push of pike, might be apt to yield willing place to a Scottish cavalier. Moreover, sir, I was pricked in conscience respecting a matter of religion."

"I should not have thought, Captain Dalgetty," said the young nobleman, "that an old soldier, who had changed service so often, would have been too scrupulous on that head."

find the thing was required of me by any of the ar-
ticles of war; neither was I proffered any considera-
tion, either in perquisite or
thereby do to my cost or pay, for the wrong I might
"So you again changed your service?" said Lord
Menteith.

"In troth did I, my lord; and after trying for a short while two or three other powers, I even took on for a time with their High Mightinesses the States of Holland."

"And how did their service jump with your humour?" again demanded his companion. "O! my lord," said the soldier, in a sort of enthusiasm, "their behaviour on pay-day might be a pattern to all Europe-no borrowings, no lendings, no offsets, no arrears-all balanced and paid like a banker's book. The quarters, too, are excellent, and the allowances unchallengcable; but then, sir, they are a preceese, scrupulous people, and will allow nothing for peccadilloes. So that if a boor complains of a broken head, or a beer-seller of a broken can, or a daft wench does but squeak loud enough to be heard above her breath, a soldier of honour shall be dragged, not before his own court-martial, who can best judge of and punish his demerits, but before a base mechanical burgo-master, who shall menace him with the rasphouse, the cord, and what not, as if he were one of their own mean, amphibious, twenty-breeched boors. So not being able to dwell longer among those ungrateful plebeians, who, although unable to defend themselves by their proper strength, will nevertheless allow the noble foreign cavalier who engages with them nothing beyond his dry wages, which no honourable spirit will put in competition with a liberal license and honourable countenance, I resolved to leave the service of the Mynheers. And hearing at this time, to my exceeding satisfaction, that there is something to be doing this summer in my way in this my dear native country, I am come hither, as they say, like a beggar to a bridal, in order to give my loving countrymen the advantage of that experience which I have acquired in foreign parts. So your lordship has an outline of my brief story, excepting my deportment in those passages of action in the field, in leaguers, storms, and onslaughts, whilk would be wearisome to narrate, and might, peradventure, better befit any other tongue than inine own."

CHAPTER III.

For pleas of right let statesmen vex their head,
Battle's my business, and my guerdon bread;
And, with the sworded Switzer, I can say,

The best of causes is the best of pay. DONNE,

back his horse, held a moment's private conversation with his domestics. The Captain, who now led the van of the party, after about a quarter of a mile's slow and toilsome advance up a broken and rugged ascent, emerged into an upland valley, to which a mountain stream acted as a drain, and afforded sufficient room upon its greensward banks for the travellers to pursue their journey in a more social manner.

No more I am, my lord," said the Captain, "since I hold it to be the duty of the chaplain of the regiment to settle those matters for me, and every other brave cavalier, inasmuch as he does nothing else that I know of for his pay and allowances. But this was a particular case, my lord, a casus improrisus, as I may say, in whilk I had no chaplain of my own persuasion to act as my adviser. I found, in short, that although my being a Protestant might be winked at, in respect that I was a man of action, and had more experience than all the Dons in our tertia put together, yet, when in garrison, it was expected I should go to inass with the regiment. Now, my lord, as a true Scottish man, and educated at the Mareschal-College THE difficulty and narrowness of the road had by of Aberdeen, I was bound to uphold the mass to be this time become such as to interrupt the conversaan act of blinded papistry and utter idolatry, whilk Ition of the travellers, and Lord Menteith, reining was altogether unwilling to homologate by my presence. True it is, that I consulted on the point with a worthy countryman of my own, one Father Fatsides, of the Scottish Convent in Wurtzburg""And I hope," observed Lord Menteith, "you ohtained a clear opinion from this same ghostly father?" As clear as it could be," replied Captain Dalgetty, considering we had drunk six flasks of Rhenish, and about two inutchkins of Kirchen-wasser. Father Fatsides informed me, that, as nearly as he could judge for a heretic like myself, it signified not much whether I went to mass or not, seeing my eternal perdition was signed and sealed at any rate, in respect of my impenitent and obdurate perseverance in my lamnable heresy. Being discouraged by this response, I applied to a Dutch pastor of the reformed church, who told me, he thought I might lawfully go to mass, in respect that the prophet permitted Naaman, a mighty man of valour, and an honourable cavalier of Syria, to follow his master into the house of Rimmon, a false god, or idol, to whom he had vowed service, and to bow down when the king was leaning upon his hand. But neither was this answer satisfactory to me, both because there was an unco difference between an anointed King of Syria and our Spanish colonel, whom I could have blown away like the peeling of an ingan, and chiefly because I could not N

Lord Menteith accordingly resumed the conversation, which had been interrupted by the difficulties of the way, "I should have thought," said he to Captain Dalgetty, "that a cavalier of your honourable mark, who hath so long followed the valiant King of Sweden, and entertains such a suitable contempt for the base mechanical States of Holland, would not have hesitated to embrace the cause of King Charles, in preference to that of the low-born, roundheaded, canting knaves, who are in rebellion against his authority?"

"Ye speak reasonably, my lord," said Dalgetty, "and, cæteris paribus, I might be induced to see the matter in the same light. But, my lord, there is a southern proverb, fine words butter no parsnips. I have heard enough since I came here, to satisfy me that a cavalier of honour is free to take any part in this civil embroilment whilk he may find most convenient for his own peculiar. Loyality is your password, my lord-Liberty, roars another chield from

"A command of Irish," said Menteith, "I think I could almost promise you, should you be disposed to embrace the royal cause.'

the other side of the strath-the King, shouts one | Wherefore, these valiant Inshes, being all put to the war-cry-the Parliament, roars another-Montrose, sword, as is usual in such cases, did nevertheless gan for ever, cries Donald, waving his bonnet--Argyle immortal praise and honour; so that, for their sakes, and Leven, cries a south-country Saunders, vapouring I have always loved and honoured those of that nation with his hat and feather. Fight for the bishops, says a next to my own country of Scotland." priest, with his gown and rochet-Stand stout for the Kirk, cries a minister, in a Geneva cap and band.-Good watchwords all-excellent watchwords. Whilk cause is the best I cannot say. But sure am I, that I have fought knee-deep in blood many a day for one that was ten degrees worse than the worst of them all.' "And pray, Captain Dalgetty," said his lordship, "since the pretensions of both parties seem to you so equal, will you please to inform us by what circum-ed stances your preference will be determined?"

"Simply upon two considerations, my lord," answered the soldier. "Being, first, on which side my services would be in most honourable request;-And, secondly, whilk is a corollary of the first, by whilk party they are likely to be most gratefully requited. And, to deal plainly with you, my lord, my opinion at present doth on both points rather incline to the side of the Parliament."

"Your reasons, if you please," said Lord Menteith, "and perhaps I may be able to meet them with some others which are more powerful."

"And yet," said Captain Dalgetty, "my second and greatest difficulty reinains behind; for, although I hold it a mean and sordid thing for a soldado to have nothing in his mouth but pay and gelt, like the base cullions, the German lanz-knechts, whom I mentionbefore; and although I will maintain it with my sword, that honour is to be preferred before pay, free quarters, and arrears, yet, ex contrario, a soldier's pay being the counterpart of his engagement of service, it becomes a wise and considerate cavalier to consider what remuneration he is to receive for his service, and from what funds it is to be paid. And truly, my lord, from what I can see and hear, the Convention are the pursemasters. The Highlanders, indeed, may be kept in humour, by allowing them to steal cattle; and for the Irishes, your lordship and your noble associates may, according to the practice of the wars in such cases, pay them as seldom or as little as may suit your pleasure or convenience; but the same mode of treatment doth not apply to a cavalier like me, who must keep up his horses, servants, arms, and equipage, and who neither can, nor will, go to warfare upon his own charges."

"Sir, I shall be amenable to reason," said Captain Dalgetty, "supposing it addresses itself to my honour and my interest. Well, then, my lord, here is a sort of Highland host assembled, or expected to assemble, in these wild hills, in the King's behalf. Now, sir, you know the nature of our Highlanders. I will not Anderson, the domestic who had before spoken, deny them to be a people stout in body and valiant in now respectfully addressed his master.—“ Į thilik, my heart, and courageous enough in their own wild way | lord," he said, "that, under your lordship's favour, I of fighting, which is as remote from the usages and could say something to remove Captain Dalgetty's se discipline of war as ever was that of the ancient cond objection also. He asks us where we are to col Scythians, or of the salvage Indians of America that lect our pay; now, in my poor mind, the resources now is. They havena sae mickle as a German whis- are as open to us as to the covenanters. They tax the tle, or a drum, to beat a march, an alarm, a charge, a country according to their pleasure, and dilapidate retreat, a reveillé, or the tattoo, or any other point of the estates of the King's friends; now, were we once war; and their damnable skirlin' pipes, whilk they in the Lowlands, with our Highlanders and our Irish themselves pretend to understand, are unintelligible at our backs, and our swords in our hands, we can to the ears of any cavaliero accustomed to civilized find inany a fat traitor, whose ill-gotten wealth shall warfare. So that, were I undertaking to discipline fill our military chest and satisfy our soldiery. Besuch a breechless mob, it were impossible for me to sides, confiscations will fall in thick; and, in giving dobe understood; and if I were understood, judge ye, nations of forfeited lands to every adventurous cavalier my lord, what chance I had of being obeyed among who joins his standard, the King will at once reward a band of half salvages, who are accustomed to pay his friends and punish his enemies. In short, he that to their own lairds and chiefs, allenarly, that re-joins these Roundhead dogs may get some miserable spect and obedience whilk ought to be paid to com- pittance of pay-he that joins our standard has a missionate officers. If I were teaching them to form chance to be knight, lord, or earl, if luck serve him." battalia by extracting the square root, that is, by form- "Have you ever served, my good friend?" said the ing your square battalion of equal number of men of Captain to the spokesman. rank and file, corresponding to the square root of the full number present, what return could I expect for communicating this golden secret of military tactic, except it may be a dirk in my wame, on placing some M'Alister More, M'Shemei or Capperfae, in the flank or rear, when he claimed to be in the van? Truly, well saith holy writ, if ye cast pearls before swine, they will turn again and rend ye."

"I believe, Anderson," said Lord Menteith, looking back to one of his servants, for both were close behind him, "you can assure this gentleman, we shall have more occasion for experienced officers, and be more disposed to profit by their instructions, than he seems to be aware of."

"With your honour's permission," said Anderson, respectfully raising his cap, "when we are joined by the Irish infantry, who are expected, and who should be landed in the West Highlands before now, we shall have need of good soldiers to discipline our levies."

"And I should like well-very well, to be employed in such service," said Dalgetty; "the Irish are pretty fellows-very pretty fellows-I desire to see none better in the field. I once saw a brigade of Irish, at the taking of Frankfort upon the Oder, stand to it with sword and pike until they beat off the blue and yellow Swedish brigades, esteemed as stout as any that fought under the immortal Gustavus. And although stout Hepburn, valiant Lumsdale, courageous Monroe, with myself and other cavaliers, made entry elsewhere at point of pike, yet, had we all met with such opposition, we had returned with great loss and little profit.

A little, sir, in these our domestic quarrels," answered the man, modestly.

"But never in Germany or the Low Countries?" said Dalgetty.

"I never had the honour," answered Anderson.

"I profess," said Dalgetty, addressing Lord Menteith, "your lordship's servant has a sensible, natural, pretty idea of military matters; somewhat irregular, though, and smells a little too much of selling the bear's skin before he has hunted him.-I will take the matter, however, into my consideration."

"Doso, Captain," said Lord Menteith; "you will have the night to think of it, for we are now near the house, where I hope to ensure you a hospitable reception.'

And that is what will be very welcome," said the Captain, "for I have tasted no food since daybreak but a farl of oat-cake, which I divided with my horse. So I have been fain to draw my sword belt three bores tighter for very extenuation, lest hunger and heavy iron should make the gird slip."

flinging their scathed branches across the western horizon, gleamed ruddy in the setting sun. In the centre of this wood rose the towers, or rather the chimneys, of the house, or castle, as it was called, destined for the end of their journey.

As usual at that period, one or two high-ridged narrow buildings, intersecting and crossing each other, formed the corps de logis. A projecting bartizan or two, with the addition of small turrets at the angles, much resembling pepper-boxes, had procured for Darlinvarach the dignified appellation of a castle. It was surrounded by a low court-yard wall, within which were the usual offices.

As the travellers approached more nearly, they discovered marks of recent additions to the defences of the place, which had been suggested, doubtless, by the insecurity of those troublesome times. Additional loop-holes for musketry, were struck out in different parts of the building, and of its surrounding wall. The windows had just been carefully secured by stancheons of iron, crossing each other athwart and endlong, like the grates of a prison. The door of the court-yard was shut; and it was only after cautious challenge that one of its leaves was opened by two domestics, both strong Highlanders, and both under arms, like Bitias and Pandarus in the Eneid, ready to defend the entrance if ought hostile had ventured an mtrusion.

When the travellers were admitted into the court, they found additional preparations for defence. The walls were scaffolded for the use of fire-arms, and one or two of the small guns, called sackers, or falcons, were mounted at the angles and flanking turrets.

13.

head-pieces, and the more ancient habergeons, or shirts of reticulated mail, with hood and sleeves corresponding to it, all hung in confusion about the walls, and would have formed a month's amusement to a member of a modern antiquarian society. But such things were too familiar, to attract much observation on the part of the present spectators.

hasty hospitality of the domestic who had before spoThere was a large clumsy oaken table, which the ken, immediately spread with milk, butter, goat-milk cheese, a flagon of beer, and a flask of usqueba, designed for the refreshment of Lord Menteith; while an inferior servant made similar preparations at the bottom of the table for the benefit of his attendants. The space which intervened between them was, according to the manners of the times, sufficient distinction between master and servant, even though the former was, as in the present instance, of high rank. Meanwhile the guests stood by the fire-the young nobleman under the chimney, and his servants at some little distance.

66

"What do you think, Anderson," said the former, of our fellow-traveller?"

A stout fellow," replied Anderson, "if all be good that is upcome. I wish we had twenty such, to put our Teagues into some sort of discipline."

"I differ from you, Anderson," said Lord Menteith; "I think this fellow Dalgetty is one of those horse-leeches, whose appetite for blood being only sharpened by what he has sucked in foreign countries, he is now returned to batten upon that of his own. Shame on the pack of these mercenary swordmen ! they have made the name of Scot through all Europe More domestics, both in the Highland and Lowland equivalent to that of a pitiful mercenary, who knows dress, instantly rushed from the interior of the man- neither honour nor principle but his month's pay, who sion, and some hastened to take the horses of the transfers his allegiance from standard to standard, at strangers, while others waited to marshal them a way the pleasure of fortune or the highest bidder; and to into the dwelling-house. But Captain Dalgetty refu- whose insatiable thirst for plunder and warm quarters sed the proffered assistance of those who wished to we owe much of that civil dissension which is now relieve him of the charge of his horse. "It is my cus- turning our swords against our own bowels. I had tom, my friends, to see Gustavus (for so I have called scarce patience with the hired gladiator, and yet could him after my invincible master) accommodated my-hardly help laughing at the extremity of his impuself; we are old friends and fellow-travellers, and as dence." I often need the use of his legs, I always lend him in my turn the service of my tongue, to call for whatever he has occasion for;" and accordingly he strode into the stable after his steed without farther apology.

Neither Lord Menteith nor his attendants paid the same attention to their horses, but, leaving them to the proffered care of the servants of the place, walked forward into the house, where a sort of dark vaulted vestibule displayed, among other miscellaneous articles, a huge barrel of two-penny ale, beside which were ranged two or three wooden queichs, or bickers, ready, it would appear, for the service of whoever thought proper to employ them. Lord Menteith applied himself to the spigot, drank without ceremony, and then handed the stoup to Anderson, who followed his master's example, but not until he had flung out the drop of ale which remained, and slightly rinsed the wooden cup.

"What the deil, man," said an old highland servant belonging to the family, "can she no drink after her ain master without washing the cup and spilling the ale, and be tamned to her!"

"I was bred in France," answered Anderson, "where nobody drinks after another out of the same cup, unless it be after a young lady."

The teil's in their nicety!' said Donald; “and if the ale be gude, fat the waur is't that another man's beard's been in the queich before ye?"

"Your lordship will forgive me," said Anderson, "if I recommend to you, in the present circumstances, to conceal at least a part of this generous indignation; we cannot, unfortunately, do our work without the assistance of those who act on baser motives than our own. We cannot spare the assistance of such fellows as our friend the soldado. To use the canting phrase of the saints in the English Parliament, the sons of Zeruiah are still too many for us."

"I must dissemble, then, as well as I can," said Lord Menteith, as I have hitherto done, upon your hint. But I wish the fellow at the devil with all my heart."

"Ay, but still you must remember, my lord," resumed Anderson, "that to cure the bite of a scorpion you must crush another scorpion on the wound-But stop, we shall be overheard.'

From a side-door in the hall glided a Highlander into the apartment, whose lofty stature and complete equipment, as well as the eagle's feather in his bonnet, and the confidence of his demeanour, announced to be a person of superior rank. He walked slowly up to the table, and made no answer to Lord Menteith, who, addressing him by the name of Allan, asked him how he did.

"Ye manna speak to her e'en now," whispered the old attendant.

The tall Highlander, sinking down upon the empty Anderson's companion drank without observing the settle next the fire, fixed his eyes upon the red embers ceremony which had given Donald so much offence, and the huge heap of turf, and seemed buried in proand both of them followed their master into the low-found abstraction. His dark eyes, and wild and enthusiarched stone hall, which was the common rendezyous of a Highland family. A large fire of peats in the huge chimney at the upper end shed a dim light through the apartment, and was rendered necessary by the damp, by which, even during the summer, the apartment was rendered uncomfortable. Twenty or thirty targets, as many claymores, with dirks, and plaids, and guns, both match-lock and fire-lock, and long-bows, and cross-bows, and Lochaber axes, and coats of plate armour, and steel bonnets, and

astic features, bore the air of one who, deeply impressed with his own subjects of meditation, pays little attention to exterior objects. An air of gloomy severity, the fruit perhaps of ascetic and solitary habits, might, in a Lowlander, have been ascribed to religious fanaticism; but by that disease of the mind, then so common both in England and the Lowlands of Scotland, the Highlanders of this period were rarely infected. They had, however, their own peculiar superstitions, which overclouded the mind with thick

14

coming fancies, as completely as the puritanism of their neighbours.

"His lordship's honour," said the Highland servant, sideling up to Lord Menteith, and speaking in a very low tone,"his lordship manna speak to Allan even now, for the cloud is upon his mind."

Lord Menteith nodded, and took no further notice of the reserved mountaineer.

"Said I not," asked the latter, suddenly raising his stately person upright, and looking at the domestic66 said I not that four were to come, and here stand but three on the hall floor?"

Peace was thus restored, and the party seated themselves agreeably to their former arrangement, with which Allan, who had now returned to his settle by the fire, and seemed once more immersed in meditation, did not again interfere. Lord Menteith, addressing the principal domestic, hastened to start some theme of conversation which might obliterate all recollection of the fray that had taken place. "The laird is at the hill then, Donald, I understand, and some English strangers with him?"

At the hill he is, an it like your honour, and two Saxon calabaleros are with him sure enough; and that Sir Miles Musgrave and Christopher Hall, both from the Cumraik, as I think they call their country.' "Hall and Musgrave?" said Lord Menteith, looking at his attendants, "the very men that we wished to see."

"In troth did ye say sae, Allan," said the old High-is lander, "and here's the fourth man coming clinking in at the yett e'en now from the stable, for he's shelled like a partan, wi' airn on back and breast, haunch, and shanks. And am I to set her chair up near the Menteith's, or down wi' the honest gentlemen at the foot of the table?"

Lord Menteith himself answered the inquiry, by pointing to a seat beside his own.

"And here she comes, said Donald, as Captain Dalgetty entered the hall; "and I hope gentlemens will all take bread and cheese, as we say in the glens, until better meat be ready, until the Tiernach comes back frae the hill wi' the southern gentlefolk, and then Dugald Cook will show himself wi' his kid and hill

venison.

In the meantime, Captain Dalgetty had entered the apartment, and, walking up to the seat placed next Lord Menteith, was leaning on the back of it with his arms folded. Anderson and his companion waited at the bottom of the table, in a respectful attitude, until they should receive permission to seat themselves; while three or four Highlanders, under the direction of old Donald, ran hither and thither to bring additional articles of food, or stood still to give attendance upon the guests.

In the midst of these preparations, Allan suddenly started up, and snatching a lamp from the hand of an attendant, held it close to Dalgetty's face, while he perused his features with the most heedful and grave attention.

"By my honour," said Dalgetty, half displeased, as, mysteriously shaking his head, Allan gave up the scrutiny "I trow that lad and I will ken each other when we meet again."

"Troth," said Donald, "an' I wish I had never seen them between the een, for they're come to herry us out o' house and ha'."

"Why, Donald," said Lord Menteith, "you did not use to be so churlish of your beef and ale; southland though they be, they'll scarce eat up all the cattle that's going on the castle mains."

"Teil care an they did," said Donald, "an that were the warst o't, for we have a wheen canny trewsmen here that wadna let us want if there was a horned beast atween this and Perth. But this is a warse job-it's nae less than a wager.

23

"A wager!" repeated Lord Menteith, with some surprise.

66

"Troth," continued Donald, to the full as eager to tell his news as Lord Menteith was curious to hear them, as your lordship is a friend and kinsman o' the house, an' as ye'll hear encugh o't in less than an hour, I may as weel tell ye mysell. Ye sall be pleased then to know, that when our Laird was up in England, where he gangs oftener than his friends can wish, he was biding at the house o' this Sir Miles Musgrave, an' there was putten on the table six candlesticks, that they tell me were twice as muckle as the candlesticks in Dunblane kirk, and neither airn, brass, nor tin, but a' solid silver, nae less;-up wi' their English pride, has sae muckle, and kens sae little how to guide it! Sae they began to jeer the Laird, that he saw nae sic graith in his ain poor country; and the Laird, scorning to hae his country put Meanwhile Allan strode to the bottom of the table, down without a word for its credit, swore, like a gude and having, by the aid of his lamp, subjected Ander- Scotsman, that he had mair candlesticks, and better son and his companion to the same investigation, candlesticks, in his ain castle at hame, than were ever stood a moment as if in deep reflection; then, touch-lighted in a hall in Cumberland, an Cumberland be ing his forehead, suddenly seized Anderson by the arm, the name o' the country." and before he could offer any effectual resistance, half led and half dragged him to the vacant seat at the upper end, and having made a mute intimation that he should there place himself, he hurried the soldado with the same unceremonious precipitation to the bottom of the table. The Captain, exceedingly incensed at this freedom, endeavoured to shake Allan from him with violence; but, powerful as he was, he proved in the struggle inferior to the gigantic mountaineer, who threw him off with such violence, that after reeling a few paces, he fell at full length, and the vaulted hall rang with the clash of his armour. When he arose, his first action was to draw his sword and to fly at Allan, who, with folded arms, seemed to await his onset with the most scornful indifference. Lord Menteith and his attendants interposed to preserve peace, while the Highlanders, snatching weapons from the wall, seemed prompt to increase the broil.

"He is mad," whispered Lord Menteith, "he is perfectly mad; there is no purpose in quarrelling with him." "If your lordship is assured that he is non compos mentis," said Captain Dalgetty, "the whilk his breeding and behaviour seem to testify, the matter must end here, seeing that a madman can neither give an affront, nor render honourable satisfaction. But, by my saul, if I had my provant and a bottle of Rhenish under my belt, I should have stood otherways up to him. And yet it's a pity he should be sae weak in the intellectuals, being a strong proper man of body, fit to handle pike, morgenstern, or any other military implement whatsoever."

"That was patriotically said," observed Lord Menteith.

"Fary true," said Donald; "but her honour had better hae hauden her tongue; for if ye say ony thing amang the Saxons, that's a wee by ordinar, they clink ye down for a wager as fast as a Lowland smith would hammer shoon on a Highland shelty. An' so the Laird behoved either to gue back o' his word or wager twa hunder merks; and so he e'en took the wager, rather than be shamed wi' the like o' them. And now he's like to get it to pay, and I'm thinking that's what makes him sae swear to come hame at e'en."

"Indeed," said Lord Menteith, "from my idea of your family plate, Donald, your master is certain to lose such a wager."

"Your honour may swear that; an' where he's to get the siller I kenna, although he borrowed out o' twenty purses. I advised him to pit the twa Saxon gentlemen and their servants cannily into the pit o' the tower till they gae up the bargain o' free gude-will, but the Laird winna hear reason."

Allan here started up strode forward, and interrupted the conversation, saying to the domestic in a voice of the seventeenth century in the defence of breaches and walls. When the Germans insulted a Scotch regiment then besieged Denmark to them laden with tobacco pipes, "One of our solin Trailsund, saying they heard there was a ship come from diers," says Colonel Robert Munro, showing them over the work a morgenstern, made of a large stock banded with iron, like the shaft of a halberd, with a round globe at the end with

cross iron pikes, saith, 'Here is one of the tobacco pipes, wherewith we will beat out your brains when you intend to

This was a sort of club or mace, used in the earlier part ❘ storm us?"