A Legend of Montrose
by Walter Scott
Hypertext Meanings and Commentaries
from the Encyclopedia of the Self
by Mark Zimmerman

by

Sir Walter Scott, Bart.

CONTENTS.

I.     Introduction to A LEGEND OF MONTROSE.
II.    Introduction (Supplement). Sergeant More M'Alpin.
III.   Main text of A LEGEND OF MONTROSE.
IV.    Appendix    No. I       Clan Alpin's Vow.
                    No. II      The Children of the Mist.
V.     Notes       Note I      Fides et Fiducia sunt relativa.
                    Note II     Wraiths.

I. INTRODUCTION TO A LEGEND OF MONTROSE.

The Legend of Montrose was written chiefly with a view to place
before the reader the melancholy fate of John Lord Kilpont,
eldest son of William Earl of Airth and Menteith, and the
singular circumstances attending the birth and history of James
Stewart of Ardvoirlich, by whose hand the unfortunate nobleman
fell.

Our subject leads us to talk of deadly feuds, and we must begin
with one still more ancient than that to which our story relates.
During the reign of James IV., a great feud between the powerful
families of Drummond and Murray divided Perthshire. The former,
being the most numerous and powerful, cooped up eight score of
the Murrays in the kirk of Monivaird, and set fire to it. The
wives and the children of the ill-fated men, who had also found
shelter in the church, perished by the same conflagration. One
man, named David Murray, escaped by the humanity of one of the
Drummonds, who received him in his arms as he leaped from amongst
the flames. As King James IV. ruled with more activity than most
of his predecessors, this cruel deed was severely revenged, and
several of the perpetrators were beheaded at Stirling. In
consequence of the prosecution against his clan, the Drummond by
whose assistance David Murray had escaped, fled to Ireland,
until, by means of the person whose life he had saved, he was
permitted to return to Scotland, where he and his descendants
were distinguished by the name of Drummond-Eirinich, or Ernoch,
that is, Drummond of Ireland; and the same title was bestowed on
their estate.

The Drummond-ernoch of James the Sixth's time was a king's
forester in the forest of Glenartney, and chanced to be employed
there in search of venison about the year 1588, or early in 1589.
This forest was adjacent to the chief haunts of the MacGregors,
or a particular race of them, known by the title of MacEagh, or
Children of the Mist. They considered the forester's hunting in
their vicinity as an aggression, or perhaps they had him at feud,
for the apprehension or slaughter of some of their own name, or
for some similar reason. This tribe of MacGregors were outlawed
and persecuted, as the reader may see in the Introduction to ROB
ROY; and every man's hand being against them, their hand was of
course directed against every man. In short, they surprised and
slew Drummond-ernoch, cut off his head, and carried it with them,
wrapt in the corner of one of their plaids.

In the full exultation of vengeance, they stopped at the house of
Ardvoirlich and demanded refreshment, which the lady, a sister of
the murdered Drummond-ernoch (her husband being absent), was
afraid or unwilling to refuse. She caused bread and cheese to be
placed before them, and gave directions for more substantial
refreshments to be prepared. While she was absent with this
hospitable intention, the barbarians placed the head of her
brother on the table, filling the mouth with bread and cheese,
and bidding him eat, for many a merry meal he had eaten in that
house.

The poor woman returning, and beholding this dreadful sight,
shrieked aloud, and fled into the woods, where, as described in
the romance, she roamed a raving maniac, and for some time
secreted herself from all living society. Some remaining
instinctive feeling brought her at length to steal a glance from
a distance at the maidens while they milked the cows, which being
observed, her husband, Ardvoirlich, had her conveyed back to her
home, and detained her there till she gave birth to a child, of
whom she had been pregnant; after which she was observed
gradually to recover her mental faculties.

Meanwhile the outlaws had carried to the utmost their insults
against the regal authority, which indeed, as exercised, they had
little reason for respecting. They bore the same bloody trophy,
which they had so savagely exhibited to the lady of Ardvoirlich,
into the old church of Balquidder, nearly in the centre of their
country, where the Laird of MacGregor and all his clan being
convened for the purpose, laid their hands successively on the
dead man's head, and swore, in heathenish and barbarous manner,
to defend the author of the deed. This fierce and vindictive
combination gave the author's late and lamented friend, Sir
Alexander Boswell, Bart., subject for a spirited poem, entitled
"Clan-Alpin's Vow," which was printed, but not, I believe,
published, in 1811 [See Appendix No. I].

The fact is ascertained by a proclamation from the Privy Council,
dated 4th February, 1589, directing letters of fire and sword
against the MacGregors [See Appendix No. II]. This fearful
commission was executed with uncommon fury. The late excellent
John Buchanan of Cambusmore showed the author some correspondence
between his ancestor, the Laird of Buchanan, and Lord Drummond,
about sweeping certain valleys with their followers, on a fixed
time and rendezvous, and "taking sweet revenge for the death of
their cousin, Drummond-ernoch." In spite of all, however, that
could be done, the devoted tribe of MacGregor still bred up
survivors to sustain and to inflict new cruelties and injuries.

[I embrace the opportunity given me by a second mention of this
tribe, to notice an error, which imputes to an individual named
Ciar Mohr MacGregor, the slaughter of the students at the battle
of Glenfruin. I am informed from the authority of John Gregorson,
Esq., that the chieftain so named was dead nearly a century
before the battle in question, and could not, therefore, have
done the cruel action mentioned. The mistake does not rest with
me, as I disclaimed being responsible for the tradition while I
quoted it, but with vulgar fame, which is always disposed to
ascribe remarkable actions to a remarkable name.--See the
erroneous passage, ROB ROY, Introduction; and so soft sleep the
offended phantom of Dugald Ciar Mohr.

It is with mingled pleasure and shame that I record the more
important error, of having announced as deceased my learned
acquaintance, the Rev. Dr. Grahame, minister of Aberfoil.--See
ROB ROY, p.360. I cannot now recollect the precise ground of my
depriving my learned and excellent friend of his existence,
unless, like Mr. Kirke, his predecessor in the parish, the
excellent Doctor had made a short trip to Fairyland, with whose
wonders he is so well acquainted. But however I may have been
misled, my regret is most sincere for having spread such a
rumour; and no one can be more gratified than I that the report,
however I have been induced to credit and give it currency, is a
false one, and that Dr. Grahame is still the living pastor of
Aberfoil, for the delight and instruction of his brother
antiquaries.]

Meanwhile Young James Stewart of Ardvoirlich grew up to manhood
uncommonly tall, strong, and active, with such power in the grasp
of his hand in particular, as could force the blood from beneath
the nails of the persons who contended with him in this feat of
strength. His temper was moody, fierce, and irascible; yet he
must have had some ostensible good qualities, as he was greatly
beloved by Lord Kilpont, the eldest son of the Earl of Airth and
Menteith.

This gallant young nobleman joined Montrose in the setting up his
standard in 1644, just before the decisive battle at Tippermuir,
on the 1st September in that year. At that time, Stewart of
Ardvoirlich shared the confidence of the young Lord by day, and
his bed by night, when, about four or five days after the battle,
Ardvoirlich, either from a fit of sudden fury or deep malice long
entertained against his unsuspecting friend, stabbed Lord Kilpont
to the heart, and escaped from the camp of Montrose, having
killed a sentinel who attempted to detain him. Bishop Guthrie
gives us a reason for this villainous action, that Lord Kilpont
had rejected with abhorrence a proposal of Ardvoirlich to
assassinate Montrose. But it does not appear that there is any
authority for this charge, which rests on mere suspicion.
Ardvoirlich, the assassin, certainly did fly to the Covenanters,
and was employed and promoted by them. He obtained a pardon for
the slaughter of Lord Kilpont, confirmed by Parliament in 1634,
and was made Major of Argyle's regiment in 1648. Such are the
facts of the tale here given as a Legend of Montrose's wars. The
reader will find they are considerably altered in the fictitious
narrative.

The author has endeavoured to enliven the tragedy of the tale by
the introduction of a personage proper to the time and country.
In this he has been held by excellent judges to have been in some
degree successful. The contempt of commerce entertained by young
men having some pretence to gentility, the poverty of the country
of Scotland, the national disposition to wandering and to
adventure, all conduced to lead the Scots abroad into the
military service of countries which were at war with each other.
They were distinguished on the Continent by their bravery; but in
adopting the trade of mercenary soldiers, they necessarily
injured their national character. The tincture of learning,
which most of them possessed, degenerated into pedantry; their
good breeding became mere ceremonial; their fear of dishonour no
longer kept them aloof from that which was really unworthy, but
was made to depend on certain punctilious observances totally
apart from that which was in itself deserving of praise. A
cavalier of honour, in search of his fortune, might, for example,
change his service as he would his shirt, fight, like the doughty
Captain Dalgetty, in one cause after another, without regard to
the justice of the quarrel, and might plunder the peasantry
subjected to him by the fate of war with the most unrelenting
rapacity; but he must beware how he sustained the slightest
reproach, even from a clergyman, if it had regard to neglect on
the score of duty. The following occurrence will prove the truth
of what I mean:--

"Here I must not forget the memory of one preacher, Master
William Forbesse, a preacher for souldiers, yea, and a captaine
in neede to leade souldiers on a good occasion, being full of
courage, with discretion and good conduct, beyond some captaines
I have knowne, that were not so capable as he. At this time he
not onely prayed for us, but went on with us, to remarke, as I
thinke, men's carriage; and having found a sergeant neglecting
his dutie and his honour at such a time (whose name I will not
expresse), having chidden him, did promise to reveale him unto
me, as he did after their service. The sergeant being called
before me, and accused, did deny his accusation, alleaging, if he
were no pasteur that had alleaged it, he would not lie under the
injury, The preacher offered to fight with him, [in proof] that
it was truth he had spoken of him; whereupon I cashiered the
sergeant, and gave his place to a worthier, called Mungo Gray, a
gentleman of good worth, and of much courage. The sergeant being
cashiered, never called Master William to account, for which he
was evill thought of; so that he retired home, and quit the
warres."

The above quotation is taken from a work which the author
repeatedly consulted while composing the following sheets, and
which is in great measure written in the humour of Captain Dugald
Dalgetty. It bears the following formidable title:--"MONRO his
Expedition with the worthy Scots Regiment, called MacKeye's
Regiment, levied in August 1626, by Sir Donald MacKeye Lord Rees
Colonel, for his Majestie's service of Denmark, and reduced after
the battle of Nerling, in September 1634, at Wormes, in the Palz:
Discharged in several duties and observations of service, first,
under the magnanimous King of Denmark, during his wars against
the Empire; afterwards under the invincible King of Sweden,
during his Majestie's lifetime; and since under the Director-
General, the Rex-Chancellor Oxensterne, and his Generals:
collected and gathered together, at spare hours, by Colonel
Robert Monro, as First Lieutenant under the said Regiment, to the
noble and worthy Captain Thomas MacKenzie of Kildon, brother to
the noble Lord, the Lord Earl of Seaforth, for the use of all
noble Cavaliers favouring the laudable profession of arms. To
which is annexed, the Abridgement of Exercise, and divers
Practical Observations for the Younger Officer, his
consideration. Ending with the Soldier's Meditations on going on
Service."--London, 1637.

Another worthy of the same school, and nearly the same views of
the military character, is Sir James Turner, a soldier of
fortune, who rose to considerable rank in the reign of Charles
II., had a command in Galloway and Dumfries-shire, for the
suppression of conventicles, and was made prisoner by the
insurgent Covenanters in that rising which was followed by the
battle of Pentland. Sir James is a person even of superior
pretensions to Lieutenant-Colonel Monro, having written a
Military Treatise on the Pike-Exercise, called "Pallas Armata."
Moreover, he was educated at Glasgow College, though he escaped
to become an Ensign in the German wars, instead of taking his
degree of Master of Arts at that learned seminary.

In latter times, he was author of several discourses on
historical and literary subjects, from which the Bannatyne Club
have extracted and printed such passages as concern his Life and
Times, under the title of SIR JAMES TURNER'S MEMOIRS. From this
curious book I extract the following passage, as an example of
how Captain Dalgetty might have recorded such an incident had he
kept a journal, or, to give it a more just character, it is such
as the genius of De Foe would have devised, to give the minute
and distinguishing features of truth to a fictitious narrative:--

"Heere I will set doun ane accident befell me; for thogh it was
not a very strange one, yet it was a very od one in all its
parts. My tuo brigads lay in a village within halfe a mile of
Applebie; my own quarter was in a gentleman's house, ho was a
Ritmaster, and at that time with Sir Marmaduke; his wife keepd
her chamber readie to be brought to bed. The castle being over,
and Lambert farre enough, I resolved to goe to bed everie night,
haveing had fatigue enough before. 'The first night I sleepd well
enough; and riseing nixt morning, I misd one linnen stockine, one
halfe silke one, and one boothose, the accoustrement under a
boote for one leg; neither could they be found for any search.
Being provided of more of the same kind, I made myselfe reddie,
and rode to the head-quarters. At my returne, I could heare no
news of my stockins. That night I went to bed, and nixt morning
found myselfe just so used; missing the three stockins for one
leg onlie, the other three being left intire as they were the day
before. A narrower search then the first was made, bot without
successe. I had yet in reserve one paire of whole stockings, and
a paire of boothose, greater then the former. These I put on my
legs. The third morning I found the same usage, the stockins for
one leg onlie left me. It was time for me then, and my servants
too, to imagine it must be rats that had shard my stockins so
inequallie with me; and this the mistress of the house knew well
enough, but would not tell it me. The roome, which was a low
parlour, being well searched with candles, the top of my great
boothose was found at a hole, in which they had drawne all the
rest. I went abroad and ordered the boards to be raised, to see
how the rats had disposed of my moveables. The mistress sent a
servant of her oune to be present at this action, which she knew
concerned her. One board being bot a litle opend, a litle boy of
mine thrust in his hand, and fetchd with him foure and tuentie
old peeces of gold, and one angell. The servant of the house
affirmed it appertained to his mistres. The boy bringing the gold
to me, I went immediatlie to the gentlewomans chamber, and told
her, it was probable Lambert haveing quarterd in that house, as
indeed he had, some of his servants might have hid that gold; and
if so, it was lawfullie mine; bot if she could make it appeare it
belongd to her, I should immediatlie give it her. The poore
gentlewoman told me with many teares, that her husband being none
of the frugallest men (and indeed he was a spendthrift), she had
hid that gold without his, knowledge, to make use of it as she
had occasion, especiallie when she lay in; and conjured me, as I
lovd the King (for whom her husband and she had suffered much),
not to detaine her gold. She said, if there was either more or
lesse then foure and tuentie whole peeces, and two halfe ones, it
sould be none of hers; and that they were put by her in a red
velvet purse. After I had given her assureance of her gold, a
new search is made, the other angell is found, the velvet purse
all gnawd in bits, as my stockins were, and the gold instantlie
restord to the gentlewoman. I have often heard that the eating
or gnawing of cloths by rats is ominous, and portends some
mischance to fall on those to whom the cloths belong. I thank
God I was never addicted to such divinations, or heeded them. It
is true, that more misfortunes then one fell on me shortlie
after; bot I am sure I could have better forseene them myselfe
then rats or any such vermine, and yet did it not. I have heard
indeed many fine stories told of rats, how they abandon houses
and ships, when the first are to be burnt and the second dround.
Naturalists say they are very sagacious creatures, and I beleeve
they are so; bot I shall never be of the opinion they can forsee
future contingencies, which I suppose the divell himselfe can
neither forknow nor fortell; these being things which the
Almightie hath keepd hidden in the bosome of his divine
prescience. And whither the great God hath preordained or
predestinated these things, which to us are contingent, to fall
out by ane uncontrollable and unavoidable necessitie, is a
question not yet decided." [SIR JAMES TURNER'S MEMOIRS, Bannatyne
edition, p. 59.]

In quoting these ancient authorities, I must not forget the more
modern sketch of a Scottish soldier of the old fashion, by a
masterhand, in the character of Lesmahagow, since the existence
of that doughty Captain alone must deprive the present author of
all claim to absolute originality. Still Dalgetty, as the
production of his own fancy, has been so far a favourite with its
parent, that he has fallen into the error of assigning to the
Captain too prominent a part in the story. This is the opinion of
a critic who encamps on the highest pinnacles of literature; and
the author is so far fortunate in having incurred his censure,
that it gives his modesty a decent apology for quoting the
praise, which it would have ill-befited him to bring forward in
an unmingled state. The passage occurs in the EDINBURGH REVIEW,
No. 55, containing a criticism on IVANHOE:--

"There is too much, perhaps, of Dalgetty,--or, rather, he
engrosses too great a proportion of the work,--for, in himself,
we think he is uniformly entertaining;--and the author has
nowhere shown more affinity to that matchless spirit who could
bring out his Falstaffs and his Pistols, in act after act, and
play after play, and exercise them every time with scenes of
unbounded loquacity, without either exhausting their humour, or
varying a note from its characteristic tone, than in his large
and reiterated specimens of the eloquence of the redoubted Ritt-
master. The general idea of the character is familiar to our
comic dramatists after the Restoration--and may be said in some
measure to be compounded of Captain Fluellen and Bobadil;--but
the ludicrous combination of the SOLDADO with the Divinity
student of Mareschal-College, is entirely original; and the
mixture of talent, selfishness, courage, coarseness, and conceit,
was never so happily exemplified. Numerous as his speeches are,
there is not one that is not characteristic--and, to our taste,
divertingly ludicrous."

POSTSCRIPT.

While these pages were passing through the press, the author
received a letter from the present Robert Stewart of Ardvoirlich,
favouring him with the account of the unhappy slaughter of Lord
Kilpont, differing from, and more probable than, that given by
Bishop Wishart, whose narrative infers either insanity or the
blackest treachery on the part of James Stewart of Ardvoirlich,
the ancestor of the present family of that name. It is but fair
to give the entire communication as received from my respected
correspondent, which is more minute than the histories of the
period.

"Although I have not the honour of being personally known to you,
I hope you will excuse the liberty I now take, in addressing you
on the subject of a transaction more than once alluded to by you,
in which an ancestor of mine was unhappily concerned. I allude
to the slaughter of Lord Kilpont, son of the Earl of Airth and
Monteith, in 1644, by James Stewart of Ardvoirlich. As the cause
of this unhappy event, and the quarrel which led to it, have
never been correctly stated in any history of the period in which
it took place, I am induced, in consequence of your having, in
the second series of your admirable Tales on the History of
Scotland, adopted Wishart's version of the transaction, and being
aware that your having done so will stamp it with an authenticity
which it does not merit, and with a view, as far as possible, to
do justice to the memory of my unfortunate ancestor, to send you
the account of this affair as it has been handed down in the
family.

"James Stewart of Ardvoirlich, who lived in the early part of the
17th century, and who was the unlucky cause of the slaughter of
Lord Kilpont, as before mentioned, was appointed to the command
of one of several independent companies raised in the Highlands
at the commencement of the troubles in the reign of Charles I.;
another of these companies was under the command of Lord Kilpont,
and a strong intimacy, strengthened by a distant relationship,
subsisted between them. When Montrose raised the royal standard,
Ardvoirlich was one of the first to declare for him, and is said
to have been a principal means of bringing over Lord Kilpont to
the same cause; and they accordingly, along with Sir John
Drummond and their respective followers, joined Montrose, as
recorded by Wishart, at Buchanty. While they served together, so
strong was their intimacy, that they lived and slept in the same
tent.

"In the meantime, Montrose had been joined by the Irish under the
command of Alexander Macdonald; these, on their march to join
Montrose, had committed some excesses on lands belonging to
Ardvoirlich, which lay in the line of their march from the west
coast. Of this Ardvoirlich complained to Montrose, who, probably
wishing as much as possible to conciliate his new allies, treated
it in rather an evasive manner. Ardvoirlich, who was a man of
violent passions, having failed to receive such satisfaction as
he required, challenged Macdonald to single combat. Before they
met, however, Montrose, on the information and by advice, as it
is said, of Kilpont, laid them both under arrest. Montrose,
seeing the evils of such a feud at such a critical time, effected
a sort of reconciliation between them, and forced them to shake
hands in his presence; when, it was said, that Ardvoirlich, who
was a very powerful man, took such a hold of Macdonald's hand as
to make the blood start from his fingers. Still, it would
appear, Ardvoirlich was by no means reconciled.

"A few days after the battle of Tippermuir, when Montrose with
his army was encamped at Collace, an entertainment was given by
him to his officers, in honour of the victory he had obtained,
and Kilpont and his comrade Ardvoirlich were of the party. After
returning to their quarters, Ardvoirlich, who seemed still to
brood over his quarrel with Macdonald, and being heated with
drink, began to blame Lord Kilpont for the part he had taken in
preventing his obtaining redress, and reflecting against Montrose
for not allowing him what he considered proper reparation.
Kilpont of course defended the conduct of himself and his
relative Montrose, till their argument came to high words; and
finally, from the state they were both in, by an easy transition,
to blows, when Ardvoirlich, with his dirk, struck Kilpont dead on
the spot. He immediately fled, and under the cover of a thick
mist escaped pursuit, leaving his eldest son Henry, who had been
mortally wounded at Tippermuir, on his deathbed.

"His followers immediately withdrew from Montrose, and no course
remained for him but to throw himself into the arms of the
opposite faction, by whom he was well received. His name is
frequently mentioned in Leslie's campaigns, and on more than one
occasion he is mentioned as having afforded protection to several
of his former friends through his interest with Leslie, when the
King's cause became desperate.

"The foregoing account of this unfortunate transaction, I am well
aware, differs materially from the account given by Wishart, who
alleges that Stewart had laid a plot for the assassination of
Montrose, and that he murdered Lord Kilpont in consequence of his
refusal to participate in his design. Now, I may be allowed to
remark, that besides Wishart having always been regarded as a
partial historian, and very questionable authority on any subject
connected with the motives or conduct of those who differed from
him in opinion, that even had Stewart formed such a design,
Kilpont, from his name and connexions, was likely to be the very
last man of whom Stewart would choose to make a confidant and
accomplice. On the other hand, the above account, though never,
that I am aware, before hinted at, has been a constant tradition
in the family; and, from the comparative recent date of the
transaction, and the sources from which the tradition has been
derived, I have no reason to doubt its perfect authenticity. It
was most circumstantially detailed as above, given to my father,
Mr. Stewart, now of Ardvoirlich, many years ago, by a man nearly
connected with the family, who lived to the age of 100. This man
was a great-grandson of James Stewart, by a natural son John, of
whom many stories are still current in this country, under his
appellation of JOHN DHU MHOR. This John was with his father at
the time, and of course was a witness of the whole transaction;
he lived till a considerable time after the Revolution, and it
was from him that my father's informant, who was a man before his
grandfather, John dhu Mhor's death, received the information as
above stated.

"I have many apologies to offer for trespassing so long on your
patience; but I felt a natural desire, if possible, to correct
what I conceive to be a groundless imputation on the memory of my
ancestor, before it shall come to be considered as a matter of
History. That he was a man of violent passions and singular
temper, I do not pretend to deny, as many traditions still
current in this country amply verify; but that he was capable of
forming a design to assassinate Montrose, the whole tenor of his
former conduct and principles contradict. That he was obliged to
join the opposite party, was merely a matter of safety, while
Kilpont had so many powerful friends and connexions able and
ready to avenge his death.

"I have only to add, that you have my full permission to make
what use of this communication you please, and either to reject
it altogether, or allow it such credit as you think it deserves;
and I shall be ready at all times to furnish you with any further
information on this subject which you may require, and which it
may be in my power to afford.

"ARDVOIRLICH,
15TH JANUARY, 1830."

The publication of a statement so particular, and probably so
correct, is a debt due to the memory of James Stewart; the
victim, it would seem, of his own violent passions, but perhaps
incapable of an act of premeditated treachery.

ABBOTSFORD,
1ST AUGUST, 1830.

*

II. INTRODUCTION (Supplement).

Sergeant More M'Alpin was, during his residence among us, one of
the most honoured inhabitants of Gandercleugh. No one thought of
disputing his title to the great leathern chair on the "cosiest
side of the chimney," in the common room of the Wallace Arms, on
a Saturday evening. No less would our sexton, John Duirward,
have held it an unlicensed intrusion, to suffer any one to induct
himself into the corner of the left-hand pew nearest to the
pulpit, which the Sergeant regularly occupied on Sundays. There
he sat, his blue invalid uniform brushed with the most scrupulous
accuracy. Two medals of merit displayed at his button-hole, as
well as the empty sleeve which should have been occupied by his
right arm, bore evidence of his hard and honourable service. His
weatherbeaten features, his grey hair tied in a thin queue in the
military fashion of former days, and the right side of his head a
little turned up, the better to catch the sound of the
clergyman's voice, were all marks of his profession and
infirmities. Beside him sat his sister Janet, a little neat old
woman, with a Highland curch and tartan plaid, watching the very
looks of her brother, to her the greatest man upon earth, and
actively looking out for him, in his silver-clasped Bible, the
texts which the minister quoted or expounded.

I believe it was the respect that was universally paid to this
worthy veteran by all ranks in Gandercleugh which induced him to
choose our village for his residence, for such was by no means
his original intention.

He had risen to the rank of sergeant-major of artillery, by hard
service in various quarters of the world, and was reckoned one of
the most tried and trusty men of the Scotch Train. A ball, which
shattered his arm in a peninsular campaign, at length procured
him an honourable discharge. with an allowance from Chelsea, and
a handsome gratuity from the patriotic fund. Moreover, Sergeant
More M'Alpin had been prudent as well as valiant; and, from
prize-money and savings, had become master of a small sum in the
three per cent consols.

He retired with the purpose of enjoying this income in the wild
Highland glen, in which, when a boy, he had herded black cattle
and goats, ere the roll of the drum had made him cock his bonnet
an inch higher, and follow its music for nearly forty years. To
his recollection, this retired spot was unparalleled in beauty by
the richest scenes he had visited in his wanderings. Even the
Happy Valley of Rasselas would have sunk into nothing upon the
comparison. He came--he revisited the loved scene; it was but a
sterile glen, surrounded with rude crags, and traversed by a
northern torrent. This was not the worst. The fires had been
quenched upon thirty hearths--of the cottage of his fathers he
could but distinguish a few rude stones--the language was almost
extinguished--the ancient race from which he boasted his descent
had found a refuge beyond the Atlantic. One southland farmer,
three grey-plaided shepherds, and six dogs, now tenanted the
whole glen, which in his youth had maintained, in content, if not
in competence, upwards of two hundred inhabitants,

In the house of the new tenant, Sergeant M'Alpin found, however,
an unexpected source of pleasure, and a means of employing his
social affections. His sister Janet had fortunately entertained
so strong a persuasion that her brother would one day return,
that she had refused to accompany her kinsfolk upon their
emigration. Nay, she had consented, though not without a feeling
of degradation, to take service with the intruding Lowlander,
who, though a Saxon, she said, had proved a kind man to her.
This unexpected meeting with his sister seemed a cure for all the
disappointments which it had been Sergeant More's lot to
encounter, although it was not without a reluctant tear that he
heard told, as a Highland woman alone could ten it, the story of
the expatriation of his kinsmen.

She narrated at great length the vain offers they had made of
advanced rent, the payment of which must have reduced them to the
extremity of poverty, which they were yet contented to face, for
permission to live and die on their native soil. Nor did Janet
forget the portents which had announced the departure of the
Celtic race, and the arrival of the strangers. For two years
previous to the emigration, when the night wind howled dawn the
pass of Balachra, its notes were distinctly modelled to the tune
of "HA TIL MI TULIDH" (we return no more), with which the
emigrants usually bid farewell to their native shores. The
uncouth cries of the Southland shepherds, and the barking of
their dogs, were often heard in the midst of the hills long
before their actual arrival. A bard, the last of his race, had
commemorated the expulsion of the natives of the glen in a tune,
which brought tears into the aged eyes of the veteran, and of
which the first stanza may be thus rendered:--

Woe, woe, son of the Lowlander,
Why wilt thou leave thine own bonny Border?
Why comes thou hither, disturbing the Highlander,
Wasting the glen that was once in fair order?

What added to Sergeant More M'Alpin's distress upon the occasion
was, that the chief by whom this change had been effected, was,
by tradition and common opinion, held to represent the ancient
leaders and fathers of the expelled fugitives; and it had
hitherto been one of Sergeant More's principal subjects of pride
to prove, by genealogical deduction, in what degree of kindred he
stood to this personage. A woful change was now wrought in his
sentiments towards him.

"I cannot curse him," he said, as he rose and strode through the
room, when Janet's narrative was finished--"I will not curse him;
he is the descendant and representative of my fathers. But never
shall mortal man hear me name his name again."  And he kept his
word; for, until his dying day, no man heard him mention his
selfish and hard-hearted chieftain.

After giving a day to sad recollections, the hardy spirit which
had carried him through so many dangers, manned the Sergeant's
bosom against this cruel disappointment. "He would go," he said,
"to Canada to his kinsfolk, where they had named a Transatlantic
valley after the glen of their fathers. Janet," he said, "should
kilt her coats like a leaguer lady; d--n the distance! it was a
flea's leap to the voyages and marches he had made on a slighter
occasion."

With this purpose he left the Highlands, and came with his sister
as far as Gandercleugh, on his way to Glasgow, to take a passage
to Canada. But winter was now set in, and as he thought it
advisable to wait for a spring passage, when the St. Lawrence
should be open, he settled among us for the few months of his
stay in Britain. As we said before, the respectable old man met
with deference and attention from all ranks of society; and when
spring returned, he was so satisfied with his quarters, that he
did not renew the purpose of his voyage. Janet was afraid of the
sea, and he himself felt the infirmities of age and hard service
more than he had at first expected. And, as he confessed to the
clergyman, and my worthy principal, Mr. Cleishbotham, "it was
better staying with kend friends, than going farther, and faring
worse."

He therefore established himself and his domicile at
Gandercleugh, to the great satisfaction, as we have already said,
of all its inhabitants, to whom he became, in respect of military
intelligence, and able commentaries upon the newspapers,
gazettes, and bulletins, a very oracle, explanatory of all
martial events, past, present, or to come.

It is true, the Sergeant had his inconsistencies. He was a
steady jacobite, his father and his four uncles having been out
in the forty-five; but he was a no less steady adherent of King
George, in whose service he had made his little fortune, and lost
three brothers; so that you were in equal danger to displease
him, in terming Prince Charles, the Pretender, or by saying
anything derogatory to the dignity of King George. Further, it
must not be denied, that when the day of receiving his dividends
came round, the Sergeant was apt to tarry longer at the Wallace
Arms of an evening, than was consistent with strict temperance,
or indeed with his worldly interest; for upon these occasions,
his compotators sometimes contrived to flatter his partialities
by singing jacobite songs, and drinking confusion to Bonaparte,
and the health of the Duke of Wellington, until the Sergeant was
not only flattered into paying the whole reckoning, but
occasionally induced to lend small sums to his interested
companions. After such sprays, as he called them, were over, and
his temper once more cool, he seldom failed to thank God, and the
Duke of York, who had made it much more difficult for an old
soldier to ruin himself by his folly, than had been the case in
his younger days.

It was not on such occasions that I made a part of Sergeant More
M'Alpin's society. But often, when my leisure would permit, I
used to seek him, on what he called his morning and evening
parade, on which, when the weather was fair, he appeared as
regularly as if summoned by tuck of drum. His morning walk was
beneath the elms in the churchyard; "for death," he said, "had
been his next-door neighbour for so many years, that he had no
apology for dropping the acquaintance."  His evening promenade
was on the bleaching-green by the river-side, where he was
sometimes to be seen on an open bench, with spectacles on nose,
conning over the newspapers to a circle of village politicians,
explaining military terms, and aiding the comprehension of his
hearers by lines drawn on the ground with the end of his rattan.
On other occasions, he was surrounded by a bevy of school-boys,
whom he sometimes drilled to the manual, and sometimes, with less
approbation on the part of their parents, instructed in the
mystery of artificial fire-works; for in the case of public
rejoicings, the Sergeant was pyrotechnist (as the Encyclopedia
calls it) to the village of Gandercleugh.

It was in his morning walk that I most frequently met with the
veteran. And I can hardly yet look upon the village footpath,
overshadowed by the row of lofty elms, without thinking I see his
upright form advancing towards me with measured step, and his
cane advanced, ready to pay me the military salute--but he is
dead, and sleeps with his faithful Janet, under the third of
those very trees, counting from the stile at the west corner of
the churchyard.

The delight which I had in Sergeant M'Alpin's conversation,
related not only to his own adventures, of which he had
encountered many in the course of a wandering life, but also to
his recollection of numerous Highland traditions, in which his
youth had been instructed by his parents, and of which he would
in after life have deemed it a kind of heresy to question the
authenticity. Many of these belonged to the wars of Montrose, in
which some of the Sergeant's ancestry had, it seems, taken a
distinguished part. It has happened, that, although these civil
commotions reflect the highest honour upon the Highlanders, being
indeed the first occasion upon which they showed themselves
superior, or even equal to their Low-country neighbours in
military encounters, they have been less commemorated among them
than any one would have expected, judging from the abundance of
traditions which they have preserved upon less interesting
subjects. It was, therefore, with great pleasure, that I
extracted from my military friend some curious particulars
respecting that time; they are mixed with that measure of the
wild and wonderful which belongs to the period and the narrator,
but which I do not in the least object to the reader's treating
with disbelief, providing he will be so good as to give implicit
credit to the natural events of the story, which, like all those
which I have had the honour to put under his notice, actually
rest upon a basis of truth.

*

III. A LEGEND OF MONTROSE.

*

CHAPTER I.

  Such as do build their faith upon
  The holy text of pike and gun,
  Decide all controversies by
  Infallible artillery,
  And prove their doctrine orthodox,
  By apostolic blows and knocks.      BUTLER.

It was during the period of that great and bloody Civil War which
agitated Britain during the seventeenth century, that our tale
has its commencement. Scotland had as yet remained free from the
ravages of intestine war, although its inhabitants were much
divided in political opinions; and many of them, tired of the
control of the Estates of Parliament, and disapproving of the
bold measure which they had adopted, by sending into England a
large army to the assistance of the Parliament, were determined
on their part to embrace the earliest opportunity of declaring
for the King, and making such a diversion as should at least
compel the recall of General Leslie's army out of England, if it
did not recover a great part of Scotland to the King's
allegiance. This plan was chiefly adopted by the northern
nobility, who had resisted with great obstinacy the adoption of
the Solemn League and Covenant, and by many of the chiefs of the
Highland clans, who conceived their interest and authority to be
connected with royalty, who had, besides, a decided aversion to
the Presbyterian form of religion, and who, finally, were in that
half savage state of society, in which war is always more welcome
than peace.

Great commotions were generally expected to arise from these
concurrent causes; and the trade of incursion and depredation,
which the Scotch Highlanders at all times exercised upon the
Lowlands, began to assume a more steady, avowed, and systematic
form, as part of a general military system.

Those at the head of affairs were not insensible to the peril of
the moment, and anxiously made preparations to meet and to repel
it. They considered, however, with satisfaction, that no leader
or name of consequence had as yet appeared to assemble an army of
royalists, or even to direct the efforts of those desultory
bands, whom love of plunder, perhaps, as much as political
principle, had hurried into measures of hostility. It was
generally hoped that the quartering a sufficient number of troops
in the Lowlands adjacent to the Highland line, would have the
effect of restraining the mountain chieftains; while the power of
various barons in the north, who had espoused the Covenant, as,
for example, the Earl Mareschal, the great families of Forbes,
Leslie, and Irvine, the Grants, and other Presbyterian clans,
might counterbalance and bridle, not only the strength of the
Ogilvies and other cavaliers of Angus and Kincardine, but even
the potent family of the Gordons, whose extensive authority was
only equalled by their extreme dislike to the Presbyterian model.

In the West Highlands the ruling party numbered many enemies; but
the power of these disaffected clans was supposed to be broken,
and the spirit of their chieftains intimidated, by the
predominating influence of the Marquis of Argyle, upon whom the
confidence of the Convention of Estates was reposed with the
utmost security; and whose power in the Highlands, already
exorbitant, had been still farther increased by concessions
extorted from the King at the last pacification. It was indeed
well known that Argyle was a man rather of political enterprise
than personal courage, and better calculated to manage an
intrigue of state, than to control the tribes of hostile
mountaineers; yet the numbers of his clan, and the spirit of the
gallant gentlemen by whom it was led, might, it was supposed,
atone for the personal deficiencies of their chief; and as the
Campbells had already severely humbled several of the
neighbouring tribes, it was supposed these would not readily
again provoke an encounter with a body so powerful.

Thus having at their command the whole west and south of
Scotland, indisputably the richest part of the kingdom,--
Fifeshire being in a peculiar manner their own, and possessing
many and powerful friends even north of the Forth and Tay,--the
Scottish Convention of Estates saw no danger sufficient to induce
them to alter the line of policy they had adopted, or to recall
from the assistance of their brethren of the English Parliament
that auxiliary army of twenty thousand men, by means of which
accession of strength, the King's party had been reduced to the
defensive, when in full career of triumph and success.

The causes which moved the Convention of Estates at this time to
take such an immediate and active interest in the civil war of
England, are detailed in our historians, but may be here shortly
recapitulated. They had indeed no new injury or aggression to
complain of at the hand of the King, and the peace which had been
made between Charles and his subjects of Scotland had been
carefully observed; but the Scottish rulers were well aware that
this peace had been extorted from the King, as well by the
influence of the parliamentary party in England, as by the terror
of their own arms. It is true, King Charles had since then
visited the capital of his ancient kingdom, had assented to the
new organization of the church, and had distributed honours and
rewards among the leaders of the party which had shown themselves
most hostile to his interests; but it was suspected that
distinctions so unwillingly conferred would be resumed as soon as
opportunity offered. The low state of the English Parliament was
seen in Scotland with deep apprehension; and it was concluded,
that should Charles triumph by force of arms against his
insurgent subjects of England, he would not be long in exacting
from the Scotch the vengeance which he might suppose due to those
who had set the example of taking up arms against him. Such was
the policy of the measure which dictated the sending the
auxiliary army into England; and it was avowed in a manifesto
explanatory of their reasons for giving this timely and important
aid to the English Parliament. The English Parliament, they said,
had been already friendly to them, and might be so again; whereas
the King, although he had so lately established religion among
them according to their desires, had given them no ground to
confide in his royal declaration, seeing they had found his
promises and actions inconsistent with each other. "Our
conscience," they concluded, "and God, who is greater than our
conscience, beareth us record, that we aim altogether at the
glory of God, peace of both nations, and honour of the King, in
suppressing and punishing in a legal way, those who are the
troublers of Israel, the firebrands of hell, the Korahs, the
Balaams, the Doegs, the Rabshakehs, the Hamans, the Tobiahs, the
Sanballats of our time, which done, we are satisfied. Neither
have we begun to use a military expedition to England as a mean
for compassing those our pious ends, until all other means which
we could think upon have failed us: and this alone is left to us,
ULTIMUM ET UNICUM REMEDIUM, the last and only remedy."

Leaving it to casuists to determine whether one contracting party
is justified in breaking a solemn treaty, upon the suspicion
that, in certain future contingencies, it might be infringed by
the other, we shall proceed to mention two other circumstances
that had at least equal influence with the Scottish rulers and
nation, with any doubts which they entertained of the King's good
faith.

The first of these was the nature and condition of their army;
headed by a poor and discontented nobility, under whom it was
officered chiefly by Scottish soldiers of fortune, who had served
in the German wars until they had lost almost all distinction of
political principle, and even of country, in the adoption of the
mercenary faith, that a soldier's principal duty was fidelity to
the state or sovereign from whom he received his pay, without
respect either to the justice of the quarrel, or to their own
connexion with either of the contending parties. To men of this
stamp, Grotius applies the severe character--NULLUM VITAE GENUS
ET IMPROBIUS, QUAM EORUM, QUI SINE CAUSAE RESPECTU MERCEDE
CONDUCTI, MILITANT. To these mercenary soldiers, as well as to
the needy gentry with whom they were mixed in command, and who
easily imbibed the same opinions, the success of the late short
invasion of England in 1641 was a sufficient reason for renewing
so  profitable an experiment. The good pay and free quarters of
England had made a feeling impression upon the recollection of
these military adventurers, and the prospect of again levying
eight hundred and fifty pounds a-day, came in place of all
arguments, whether of state or of morality.

Another cause inflamed the minds of the nation at large, no less
than the tempting prospect of the wealth of England animated the
soldiery. So much had been written and said on either side
concerning the form of church government, that it had become a
matter of infinitely more consequence in the eyes of the
multitude than the doctrines of that gospel which both churches
had embraced. The Prelatists and Presbyterians of the more
violent kind became as illiberal as the Papists, and would
scarcely allow the possibility of salvation beyond the pale of
their respective churches. It was in vain remarked to these
zealots, that had the Author of our holy religion considered any
peculiar form of church government as essential to salvation, it
would have been revealed with the same precision as under the Old
Testament dispensation. Both parties continued as violent as if
they could have pleaded the distinct commands of Heaven to
justify their intolerance, Laud, in the days of his domination,
had fired the train, by attempting to impose upon the Scottish
people church ceremonies foreign to their habits and opinions.
The success with which this had been resisted, and the
Presbyterian model substituted in its place, had endeared the
latter to the nation, as the cause in which they had triumphed.
The Solemn League and Covenant, adopted with such zeal by the
greater part of the kingdom, and by them forced, at the sword's
point, upon the others, bore in its bosom, as its principal
object, the establishing the doctrine and discipline of the
Presbyterian church, and the putting down all error and heresy;
and having attained for their own country an establishment of
this golden candlestick, the Scots became liberally and
fraternally anxious to erect the same in England. This they
conceived might be easily attained by lending to the Parliament
the effectual assistance of the Scottish forces. The
Presbyterians, a numerous and powerful party in the English
Parliament, had hitherto taken the lead in opposition to the
King; while the Independents and other sectaries, who afterwards,
under Cromwell, resumed the power of the sword, and overset the
Presbyterian model both in Scotland and England, were as yet
contented to lurk under the shelter of the wealthier and more
powerful party. The prospect of bringing to a uniformity the
kingdoms of England and Scotland in discipline and worship,
seemed therefore as fair as it was desirable.

The celebrated Sir Henry Vane, one of the commissioners who
negotiated the alliance betwixt England and Scotland, saw the
influence which this bait had upon the spirits of those with whom
he dealt; and although himself a violent Independent, he
contrived at once to gratify and to elude the eager desires of
the Presbyterians, by qualifying the obligation to reform the
Church of England, as a change to be executed "according to the
word of God, and the best reformed churches."  Deceived by their
own eagerness, themselves entertaining no doubts on the JUS
DIVINUM of their own ecclesiastical establishments, and not
holding it possible such doubts could be adopted by others, the
Convention of Estates and the Kirk of Scotland conceived, that
such expressions necessarily inferred the establishment of
Presbytery; nor were they undeceived, until, when their help was
no longer needful, the sectaries gave them to understand, that
the phrase might be as well applied to Independency, or any other
mode of worship, which those who were at the head of affairs at
the time might consider as agreeable "to the word of God, and the
practice of the reformed churches."  Neither were the outwitted
Scottish less astonished to find, that the designs of the English
sectaries struck against the monarchial constitution of Britain,
it having been their intention to reduce the power of the King,
but by no means to abrogate the office. They fared, however, in
this respect, like rash physicians, who commence by over-
physicking a patient, until he is reduced to a state of weakness,
from which cordials are afterwards unable to recover him.

But these events were still in the womb of futurity. As yet the
Scottish Parliament held their engagement with England consistent
with justice, prudence, and piety, and their military undertaking
seemed to succeed to their very wish. The junction of the
Scottish army with those of Fairfax and Manchester, enabled the
Parliamentary forces to besiege York, and to fight the desperate
action of  Long-Marston Moor, in which Prince Rupert and the
Marquis of Newcastle were defeated. The Scottish auxiliaries,
indeed, had less of the glory of this victory than their
countrymen could desire. David Leslie, with their cavalry, fought
bravely, and to them, as well as to Cromwell's brigade of
Independents, the honour of the day belonged; but the old Earl of
Leven, the covenanting general, was driven out of the field by
the impetuous charge of Prince Rupert, and was thirty miles
distant, in full flight towards Scotland, when he was overtaken
by the news that his party had gained a complete victory.

The absence of these auxiliary troops, upon this crusade for the
establishment of Presbyterianism in England, had considerably
diminished the power of the Convention of Estates in Scotland,
and had given rise to those agitations among the anti-
covenanters, which we have noticed at the beginning of this
chapter.

CHAPTER II.

His mother could for him as cradle set
Her husband's rusty iron corselet;
Whose jangling sound could hush her babe to rest,
That never plain'd of his uneasy nest;
Then did he dream of dreary wars at hand,
And woke, and fought, and won, ere he could stand. HALL'S SATIRES

It was towards the close of a summer's evening, during the
anxious period which we have commemorated, that a young gentleman
of quality, well mounted and armed, and accompanied by two
servants, one of whom led a sumpter horse, rode slowly up one of
those steep passes, by which the Highlands are accessible from
the Lowlands of Perthshire. [The beautiful pass of Leny, near
Callander, in Monteith, would, in some respects, answer this
description.] Their course had lain for some time along the banks
of a lake, whose deep waters reflected the crimson beams of the
western sun. The broken path which they pursued with some
difficulty, was in some places shaded by ancient birches and oak-
trees, and in others overhung by fragments of huge rock.
Elsewhere, the hill, which formed the northern side of this
beautiful sheet of water, arose in steep, but less precipitous
acclivity, and was arrayed in heath of the darkest purple. In
the present times, a scene so romantic would have been judged to
possess the highest charms for the traveller; but those who
journey in days of doubt and dread, pay little attention to
picturesque scenery.

The master kept, as often as the wood permitted, abreast of one
or both of his domestics, and seemed earnestly to converse with
them, probably because the distinctions of rank are readily set
aside among those who are made to be sharers of common danger.
The dispositions of the leading men who inhabit this wild
country, and the probability of their taking part in the
political convulsions that were soon expected, were the subjects
of their conversation.

They had not advanced above half way up the lake, and the young
gentleman was pointing to his attendants the spot where their
intended road turned northwards, and, leaving the verge of the
loch, ascended a ravine to the right hand, when they discovered a
single horseman coming down the shore, as if to meet them. The
gleam of the sunbeams upon his head-piece and corslet showed that
he was in armour, and the purpose of the other travellers
required that he should not pass unquestioned. "We must know who
he is," said the young gentleman, "and whither he is going."  And
putting spurs to his horse, he rode forward as fast as the rugged
state of the road would permit, followed by his two attendants,
until he reached the point where the pass along the side of the
lake was intersected by that which descended from the ravine,
securing thus against the possibility of the stranger eluding
them, by turning into the latter road before they came up with
him.

The single horseman had mended his pace, when he first observed
the three riders advance rapidly towards him; but when he saw
them halt and form a front, which completely occupied the path,
he checked his horse, and advanced with great deliberation; so
that each party had an opportunity to take a full survey of the
other. The solitary stranger was mounted upon an able horse, fit
for military service, and for the great weight which he had to
carry, and his rider occupied his demipique, or war-saddle, with
an air that showed it was his familiar seat. He had a bright
burnished head-piece, with a plume of feathers, together with a
cuirass, thick enough to resist a musket-ball, and a back-piece
of lighter materials. These defensive arms he wore over a buff
jerkin, along with a pair of gauntlets, or steel gloves, the tops
of which reached up to his elbow, and which, like the rest of his
armour, were of bright steel. At the front of his military
saddle hung a case of pistols, far beyond the ordinary size,
nearly two feet in length, and carrying bullets of twenty to the
pound. A buff belt, with a broad silver buckle, sustained on one
side a long straight double-edged broadsword, with a strong
guard, and a blade calculated either to strike or push. On the
right side hung a dagger of about eighteen inches in length; a
shoulder-belt sustained at his back a musketoon or blunderbuss,
and was crossed by a bandelier containing his charges of
ammunition. Thigh-pieces of steel, then termed taslets, met the
tops of his huge jack-boots, and completed the equipage of a
well-armed trooper of the period.

The appearance of the horseman himself corresponded well with his
military equipage, to which he had the air of having been long
inured. He was above the middle size, and of strength sufficient
to bear with ease the weight of his weapons, offensive and
defensive. His age might be forty and upwards, and his
countenance was that of a resolute weather-beaten veteran, who
had seen many fields, and brought away in token more than one
scar. At the distance of about thirty yards he halted and stood
fast, raised himself on his stirrups, as if to reconnoitre and
ascertain the purpose of the opposite party, and brought his
musketoon under his right arm, ready for use, if occasion should
require it. In everything but numbers, he had the advantage of
those who seemed inclined to interrupt his passage.

The leader of the party was, indeed, well mounted and clad in a
buff coat, richly embroidered, the half-military dress of the
period; but his domestics had only coarse jackets of thick felt,
which could scarce be expected to turn the edge of a sword, if
wielded by a strong man; and none of them had any weapons, save
swords and pistols, without which gentlemen, or their attendants,
during those disturbed times, seldom stirred abroad.

When they had stood at gaze for about a minute, the younger
gentleman gave the challenge which was then common in the mouth
of all strangers who met in such circumstances--"For whom are
you?"

"Tell me first," answered the soldier, "for whom are you?--the
strongest party should speak first."

"We are for God and King Charles," answered the first speaker.--"
Now tell your faction, you know ours."

"I am for God and my standard," answered the single horseman.

"And for which standard?"  replied the chief of the other party
--"Cavalier or Roundhead, King or Convention?"

"By my troth, sir," answered the soldier, "I would be loath to
reply to you with an untruth, as a thing unbecoming a cavalier of
fortune and a soldier. But to answer your query with beseeming
veracity, it is necessary I should myself have resolved to whilk
of the present divisions of the kingdom I shall ultimately
adhere, being a matter whereon my mind is not as yet preceesely
ascertained."

"I should have thought," answered the gentleman, "that, when
loyalty and religion are at stake, no gentleman or man of honour
could be long in choosing his party."

"Truly, sir," replied the trooper, "if ye speak this in the way
of vituperation, as meaning to impugn my honour or genteelity, I
would blithely put the same to issue, venturing in that quarrel
with my single person against you three. But if you speak it in
the way of logical ratiocination, whilk I have studied in my
youth at the Mareschal-College of Aberdeen, I am ready to prove
to ye LOGICE, that my resolution to defer, for a certain season,
the taking upon me either of these quarrels, not only becometh me
as a gentleman and a man of honour, but also as a person of sense
and prudence, one imbued with humane letters in his early youth,
and who, from thenceforward, has followed the wars under the
banner of the invincible Gustavus, the Lion of the North, and
under many other heroic leaders, both Lutheran and Calvinist,
Papist and Arminian."

After exchanging a word or two with his domestics, the younger
gentleman replied, "I should be glad, sir, to have some
conversation with you upon so interesting a question, and should
be proud if I can determine you in favour of the cause I have
myself espoused. I ride this evening to a friend's house not
three miles distant, whither, if you choose to accompany me, you
shall have good quarters for the night, and free permission to
take your own road in the morning, if you then feel no
inclination to join with us."

"Whose word am I to take for this?"  answered the cautious
soldier--"A man must know his guarantee, or he may fall into an
ambuscade."

"I am called," answered the younger stranger, "the Earl of
Menteith, and, I trust, you will receive my honour as a
sufficient security."

"A worthy nobleman," answered the soldier, "whose parole is not
to be doubted."  With one motion he replaced his musketoon at his
back, and with another made his military salute to the young
nobleman, and continuing to talk as he rode forward to join him
--"And, I trust," said he, "my own assurance, that I will be BON
CAMARADO to your lordship in peace or in peril, during the time
we shall abide together, will not be altogether vilipended in
these doubtful times, when, as they say, a man's head is safer in
a steel-cap than in a marble palace."

"I assure you, sir," said Lord Menteith, "that to judge from your
appearance, I most highly value the advantage of your escort;
but, I trust, we shall have no occasion for any exercise of
valour, as I expect to conduct you to good and friendly
quarters."

"Good quarters, my lord," replied the soldier, "are always
acceptable, and are only to be postponed to good pay or good
booty,--not to mention the honour of a cavalier, or the needful
points of commanded duty. And truly, my lord, your noble proffer
is not the less welcome, in that I knew not preceesely this night
where I and my poor companion" (patting his horse) "were to find
lodgments."

"May I be permitted to ask, then," said Lord Menteith, "to whom I
have the good fortune to stand quarter-master?"

"Truly, my lord," said the trooper, "my name is Dalgetty--Dugald
Dalgetty, Ritt-master Dugald Dalgetty of Drumthwacket, at your
honourable service to command. It is a name you may have seen in
GALLO BELGICUS, the SWEDISH INTELLIGENCER, or, if you read High
Dutch, in the FLIEGENDEN MERCOEUR of Leipsic. My father, my
lord, having by unthrifty courses reduced a fair patrimony to a
nonentity, I had no better shift, when I was eighteen years auld,
than to carry the learning whilk I had acquired at the Mareschal-
College of Aberdeen, my gentle bluid and designation of
Drumthwacket, together with a pair of stalwarth arms, and legs
conform, to the German wars, there to push my way as a cavalier
of fortune. My lord, my legs and arms stood me in more stead
than either my gentle kin or my book-lear, and I found myself
trailing a pike as a private gentleman under old Sir Ludovick
Leslie, where I learned the rules of service so tightly, that I
will not forget them in a hurry. Sir, I have been made to stand
guard eight hours, being from twelve at noon to eight o'clock of
the night, at the palace, armed with back and breast, head-piece
and bracelets, being iron to the teeth, in a bitter frost, and
the ice was as hard as ever was flint; and all for stopping an
instant to speak to my landlady, when I should have gone to roll-
call."

"And, doubtless, sir," replied Lord Menteith, "you have gone
through some hot service, as well as this same cold duty you talk
of?"

"Surely, my lord, it doth not become me to speak; but he that
hath seen the fields of Leipsic and of Lutzen, may be said to
have seen pitched battles. And one who hath witnessed the
intaking of Frankfort, and Spanheim, and Nuremberg, and so forth,
should know somewhat about leaguers, storms, onslaughts and
outfalls."

"But your merit, sir, and experience, were doubtless followed by
promotion?"

"It came slow, my lord, dooms slow," replied Dalgetty; "but as my
Scottish countrymen, the fathers of the war, and the raisers of
those valorous Scottish regiments that were the dread of Germany,
began to fall pretty thick, what with pestilence and what with
the sword, why we, their children, succeeded to their
inheritance. Sir, I was six years first private gentleman of the
company, and three years lance speisade; disdaining to receive a
halberd, as unbecoming my birth. Wherefore I was ultimately
promoted to be a fahndragger, as the High Dutch call it (which
signifies an ancient), in the King's Leif Regiment of Black-
Horse, and thereafter I arose to be lieutenant and ritt-master,
under that invincible monarch, the bulwark of the Protestant
faith, the Lion of the North, the terror of Austria, Gustavus the
Victorious."

"And yet, if I understand you, Captain Dalgetty,--I think that
rank corresponds with your foreign title of ritt-master--"

"The same grade preceesely," answered Dalgetty; "ritt-master
signifying literally file-leader."

"I was observing," continued Lord Menteith, "that, if I
understood you right, you had left the service of this great
Prince."

"It was after his death--it was after his death, sir," said
Dalgetty, "when I was in no shape bound to continue mine
adherence. There are things, my lord, in that service, that
cannot but go against the stomach of any cavalier of honour. In
especial, albeit the pay be none of the most superabundant, being
only about sixty dollars a-month to a ritt-master, yet the
invincible Gustavus never paid above one-third of that sum, whilk
was distributed monthly by way of loan; although, when justly
considered, it was, in fact, a borrowing by that great monarch of
the additional two-thirds which were due to the soldier. And I
have seen some whole regiments of Dutch and Holsteiners mutiny on
the field of battle, like base scullions, crying out Gelt, gelt,
signifying their desire of pay, instead of falling to blows like
our noble Scottish blades, who ever disdained, my lord,
postponing of honour to filthy lucre."

"But were not these arrears," said Lord Menteith, "paid to the
soldiery at some stated period?"

"My lord," said Dalgetty, "I take it on my conscience, that at no
period, and by no possible process, could one creutzer of them
ever be recovered. I myself never saw twenty dollars of my own
all the time I served the invincible Gustavus, unless it was from
the chance of a storm or victory, or the fetching in some town or
doorp, when a cavalier of fortune, who knows the usage of wars,
seldom faileth to make some small profit."

"I begin rather to wonder, sir," said Lord Menteith, "that you
should have continued so long in the Swedish service, than that
you should have ultimately withdrawn from it."

"Neither I should," answered the Ritt-master; "but that great
leader, captain, and king, the Lion of the North, and the bulwark
of the Protestant faith, had a way of winning battles, taking
towns, over-running countries, and levying contributions, whilk
made his service irresistibly delectable to all true-bred
cavaliers who follow the noble profession of arms. Simple as I
ride here, my lord, I have myself commanded the whole stift of
Dunklespiel on the Lower Rhine, occupying the Palsgrave's palace,
consuming his choice wines with my comrades, calling in
contributions, requisitions, and caduacs, and not failing to lick
my fingers, as became a good cook. But truly all this glory
hastened to decay, after our great master had been shot with
three bullets on the field of Lutzen; wherefore, finding that
Fortune had changed sides, that the borrowings and lendings went
on as before out of our pay, while the caduacs and casualties
were all cut off, I e'en gave up my commission, and took service
with Wallenstein, in Walter Butler's Irish regiment."

"And may I beg to know of you," said Lord Menteith, apparently
interested in the adventures of this soldier of fortune, "how you
liked this change of masters?"

"Indifferent well," said the Captain--"very indifferent well. I
cannot say that the Emperor paid much better than the great
Gustavus. For hard knocks, we had plenty of them. I was often
obliged to run my head against my old acquaintances, the Swedish
feathers, whilk your honour must conceive to be double-pointed
stakes, shod with iron at each end, and planted before the squad
of pikes to prevent an onfall of the cavalry. The whilk Swedish
feathers, although they look gay to the eye, resembling the
shrubs or lesser trees of ane forest, as the puissant pikes,
arranged in battalia behind them, correspond to the tall pines
thereof, yet, nevertheless, are not altogether so soft to
encounter as the plumage of a goose. Howbeit, in despite of
heavy blows and light pay, a cavalier of fortune may thrive
indifferently well in the Imperial service, in respect his
private casualties are nothing so closely looked to as by the
Swede; and so that an officer did his duty on the field, neither
Wallenstein nor Pappenheim, nor old Tilly before them, would
likely listen to the objurgations of boors or burghers against
any commander or soldado, by whom they chanced to be somewhat
closely shorn. So that an experienced cavalier, knowing how to
lay, as our Scottish phrase runs, 'the head of the sow to the
tail of the grice,' might get out of the country the pay whilk he
could not obtain from the Emperor."

"With a full hand, sir, doubtless, and with interest," said Lord
Menteith.

"Indubitably, my lord," answered Dalgetty, composedly; "for it
would be doubly disgraceful for any soldado of rank to have his
name called in question for any petty delinquency."

"And pray, Sir," continued Lord Menteith, "what made you leave so
gainful a service?"

"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 commanding officer towards his equal
in rank, though, it may be, his inferior in military grade. Upon
this quarrel, sir, we fought in 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 loaves 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, where-through 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."

"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 IMPROVISUS, 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 mass with
the regiment. Now, my lord, as a true Scottish man, and educated
at the Mareschal-College of Aberdeen, I was bound to uphold the
mass to be an act of blinded papistry and utter idolatry, whilk I
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 Covenant in Wurtzburg
--"

"And I hope," observed Lord Menteith, "you obtained 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 mutchkins of
Kirchenwasser. 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 damnable 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 find the
thing was required of me by any of the articles of war; neither
was I proffered any consideration, either in perquisite or pay,
for the wrong I might thereby do to my conscience."

"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 unchallengeable; 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, hut before a base mechanical burgo-
master, who shall menace him with the rasp-house, 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 mine 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.

The difficulty and narrowness of the road had by this time become
such as to interrupt the conversation of the travellers, and Lord
Menteith, reining 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.

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, CAETERIS
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. Loyalty is your pass-word, my lord--Liberty, roars
another chield from the other side of the strath--the King,
shouts one war-cry--the Parliament, roars another--Montrose, for
ever, cries Donald, waving his bonnet--Argyle and Leven, cries a
south-country Saunders, vapouring with his hat and feather.
Fight for the bishops, says a 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 circumstances 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."

"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 deny them to be a people stout in body and valiant in
heart, and courageous enough in their own wild way of fighting,
which is as remote from the usages and discipline of war as ever
was that of the ancient Scythians, or of the salvage Indians of
America that now is, They havena sae mickle as a German whistle,
or a drum, to beat a march, an alarm, a charge, a retreat, a
reveille, or the tattoo, or any other point of war; and their
damnable skirlin' pipes, whilk they themselves pretend to
understand, are unintelligible to the ears of any cavaliero
accustomed to civilised warfare. So that, were I undertaking to
discipline such a breechless mob, it were impossible for me to be
understood; and if I were understood, judge ye, my lord, what
chance I had of being obeyed among a band of half salvages, who
are accustomed to pay to their own lairds and chiefs, allenarly,
that respect and obedience whilk ought to be paid to
commissionate officers. If I were teaching them to form battalia
by extracting the square root, that is, by forming your square
battalion of equal number of men of 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. Wherefore these valiant Irishes, being all put to the
sword, as is usual in such cases, did nevertheless gain immortal
praise and honour; so that, for their sakes, I have always loved
and honoured those of that nation next to my own country of
Scotland."

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

"And yet," said Captain Dalgetty, "my second and greatest
difficulty remains 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
mentioned before; 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 purse-
masters. 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."

Anderson, the domestic who had before spoken now respectfully
addressed his master.--"I think, my lord," he said, "that, under
your lordship's favour, I could say something to remove Captain
Dalgetty's second objection also. He asks us where we are to
collect our pay; now, in my poor mind, the resources are as open
to us as to the Covenanters. They tax the country according to
their pleasure, and dilapidate the estates of the King's friends;
now, were we once in the Lowlands, with our Highlanders and our
Irish at our backs, and our swords in our hands, we can find many
a fat traitor, whose ill-gotten wealth shall fill our military
chest and satisfy our soldiery. Besides, confiscations will fall
in thick; and, in giving donations of forfeited lands to every
adventurous cavalier who joins his standard, the King will at
once reward his friends and punish his enemies. In short, he
that joins these Roundhead dogs may get some miserable pittance
of pay--he that joins our standard has a chance to be knight,
lord, or earl, if luck serve him."

"Have you ever served, my good friend?" said the Captain to the
spokesman.

"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."

"Do so, 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 oatcake, 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."

CHAPTER IV.

Once on a time, no matter when,
Some Glunimies met in a glen;
As deft and tight as ever wore
A durk, a targe, and a claymore,
Short hose, and belted plaid or trews,
In Uist, Lochaber, Skye, or Lewes,
Or cover'd hard head with his bonnet;
Had you but known them, you would own it.   MESTON.

A hill was now before the travellers, covered with an ancient
forest of Scottish firs, the topmost of which, 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 protecting bartizan or two, with the addition of small turrets
at the angles, much resembling pepper-boxes, had procured for
Darnlinvarach 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 end-long, 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 AEneid, ready to defend the
entrance if aught hostile had ventured an intrusion.

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.

More domestics, both in the Highland and Lowland dress, instantly
rushed from the anterior of the mansion, and some hastened to
take the horses of the strangers, while others waited to marshal
them a way into the dwelling-house. But Captain Dalgetty refused
the proffered assistance of those who wished to relieve him of
the charge of his horse. "It is my custom, my friends, to see
Gustavus (for so I have called him, after my invincible master)
accommodated myself; we are old friends and fellow-travellers,
and as 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?"

Anderson's companion drank without observing the ceremony which
had given Donald so much offence, and both of them followed their
master into the low-arched stone hall, which was the common
rendezvous 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 headpieces, and the more ancient haborgeons,
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.

There was a large clumsy oaken table, which the hasty hospitality
of the domestic who had before spoken, immediately spread with
milk, butter, goat-milk cheese, a flagon of beer, and a flask of
usquebae, 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.

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