第23章 A LEGEND OF MONTROSE.(16)

By this time he was unshelled,and stood before the fire musing with a face of drunken wisdom on the events of the evening.What seemed chiefly to interest him,was the character of Allan M'Aulay."To come over the Englishmen so cleverly with his Highland torch-bearers--eight bare-breeched Rories for six silver candlesticks!--it was a master-piece--a TOUR DE PASSE--it was perfect legerdemain--and to be a madman after all!--I doubt greatly,my lord"(shaking his head),"that I must allow him,notwithstanding his relationship to your lordship,the privileges of a rational person,and either batoon him sufficiently to expiate the violence offered to my person,or else bring it to a matter of mortal arbitrement,as becometh an insulted cavalier."

"If you care to hear a long story,"said Lord Menteith,at this time of night,I can tell you how the circumstances of Allan's birth account so well for his singular character,as to put such satisfaction entirely out of the question."

"A long story,my lord,"said Captain Dalgetty,"is,next to a good evening draught and a warm nightcap,the best shoeinghorn for drawing on a sound sleep.And since your lordship is pleased to take the trouble to tell it,I shall rest your patient and obliged auditor."

"Anderson,"said Lord Menteith,"and you,Sibbald,are dying to hear,I suppose,of this strange man too!and I believe I must indulge your curiosity,that you may know how to behave to him in time of need.You had better step to the fire then."

Having thus assembled an audience about him,Lord Menteith sat down upon the edge of the four-post bed,while Captain Dalgetty,wiping the relics of the posset from his beard and mustachoes,and repeating the first verse of the Lutheran psalm,ALLE GUTER

GEISTER LOBEN DEN HERRN,etc.rolled himself into one of the places of repose,and thrusting his shock pate from between the blankets,listened to Lord Menteith's relation in a most luxurious state,between sleeping and waking.

"The father,"said Lord Menteith,"of the two brothers,Angus and Allan M'Aulay,was a gentleman of consideration and family,being the chief of a Highland clan,of good account,though not numerous;his lady,the mother of these young men,was a gentlewoman of good family,if I may be permitted to say so of one nearly connected with my own.Her brother,an honourable and spirited young man,obtained from James the Sixth a grant of forestry,and other privileges,over a royal chase adjacent to this castle;and,in exercising and defending these rights,he was so unfortunate as to involve himself in a quarrel with some of our Highland freebooters or caterans,of whom I think,Captain Dalgetty,you must have heard."

"And that I have,"said the Captain,exerting himself to answer the appeal."Before I left the Mareschal-College of Aberdeen,Dugald Garr was playing the devil in the Garioch,and the Farquharsons on Dee-side,and the Clan Chattan on the Gordons'lands,and the Grants and Camerons in Moray-land.And since that,I have seen the Cravats and Pandours in Pannonia and Transylvania,and the Cossacks from the Polish frontier,and robbers,banditti,and barbarians of all countries besides,so that I have a distinct idea of your broken Highlandmen."

"The clan,"said Lord Menteith,"with whom the maternal uncle of the M'Aulays had been placed in feud,was a small sept of banditti,called,from their houseless state,and their incessantly wandering among the mountains and glens,the Children of the Mist.They are a fierce and hardy people,with all the irritability,and wild and vengeful passions,proper to men who have never known the restraint of civilized society.A party of them lay in wait for the unfortunate Warden of the Forest,surprised him while hunting alone and unattended,and slew him with every circumstance of inventive cruelty.They cut off his head,and resolved,in a bravado,to exhibit it at the castle of his brother-in-law.The laird was absent,and the lady reluctantly received as guests,men against whom,perhaps,she was afraid to shut her gates.Refreshments were placed before the Children of the Mist,who took an opportunity to take the head of their victim from the plaid in which it was wrapt,placed it on the table,put a piece of bread between the lifeless jaws,bidding them do their office now,since many a good meal they had eaten at that table.The lady,who had been absent for some household purpose,entered at this moment,and,upon beholding her brother's head,fled like an arrow out of the house into the woods,uttering shriek upon shriek.The ruffians,satisfied with this savage triumph,withdrew.The terrified menials,after overcoming the alarm to which they had been subjected,sought their unfortunate mistress in every direction,but she was nowhere to be found.The miserable husband returned next day,and,with the assistance of his people,undertook a more anxious and distant search,but to equally little purpose.It was believed universally,that,in the ecstasy of her terror,she must either have thrown herself over one of the numerous precipices which overhang the river,or into a deep lake about a mile from the castle.Her loss was the more lamented,as she was six months advanced in her pregnancy;Angus M'Aulay,her eldest son,having been born about eighteen months before.--But I tire you,Captain Dalgetty,and you seem inclined to sleep."

"By no means,"answered the soldier;"I am no whit somnolent;I always hear best with my eyes shut.It is a fashion I learned when I stood sentinel."

"And I daresay,"said Lord Menteith,aside to Anderson,"the weight of the halberd of the sergeant of the rounds often made him open them."

Being apparently,however,in the humour of story-telling,the young nobleman went on,addressing himself chiefly to his servants,without minding the slumbering veteran.