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Philip Rollo; or, the Scottish Musketeers

James Grant · 1854 · Scanned text

232,900 words · about 16 h 19 min to read

Period artwork: Interior of the Bodleian Library, 1845
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Licence: PDM · British Library Digitised Books dataset db14 (doi 10.21250/db14) marks the OCR texts CC Public Domain Mark 1.0 (c. 1510-c. 1900 publications); text+metadata JSONL release doi 10.23636/r7w6-zy15 is CC0 1.0. Public Domain Mark is a status label, not a new copyright licence. · Digitised by the British Library (with Microsoft). Text: British Library Digitised Books, CC Public Domain Mark 1.0.

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About this book

Language
English
Published
1854
Length
232,900 words · about 16 h 19 min
Sections
90 reader sections
Text
Scanned text, read from page scans by OCR; may contain errors
Rights
Public Domain Mark 1.0

 

Contents (90)
  1. Front matter about 1 min
  2. Chapter I about 2 min
  3. Introduction about 14 min
  4. Chapter II. How about 13 min
  5. Chapter III. Sir Donald And His Regiment about 9 min
  6. Chapter IV. We Sail For The Elre about 7 min
  7. Chapter V. Gluckstadt about 9 min
  8. Chapter VI. After Escaping about 6 min
  9. Chapter VII. The Repast about 9 min
  10. Chapter VIII. Our Cantonment about 7 min
  11. Chapter IX. The Mysterious Door about 8 min
  12. Chapter X. The Full Effect Of about 29 min
  13. Chapter XII. Who Prudentia's Spouse Proved To Be about 7 min
  14. Chapter XIII. Two Kisses For Ten Doubloons about 14 min
  15. Chapter XIV about 8 min
  16. Chapter XV. Mt Goddess Deceives Me about 15 min
  17. Chapter XVI. The Scottish Standard about 12 min
  18. Chapter XVII. The Sconce Of Boitzesbcrg about 11 min
  19. Chapter XVIII. How Our Old Scottish Blades Pommeled The Imperialists about 7 min
  20. Chapter XIX. The Crown Op Fibe about 15 min
  21. Chapter XX. Bupeet-with-the-red-plome about 9 min
  22. Chapter XXI. The Faib Haib Axd The Dark Hair about 10 min
  23. Chapter XXII. Dandt Dbeghokn about 12 min
  24. Chapter XXIII. Ernestine And Oabrielle about 11 min
  25. Chapter XXIV. Probability Op Escaping And Leaving Mt Heart Behind Me about 7 min
  26. Chapter XXV about 13 min
  27. Chapter XXVI. The Scoct about 10 min
  28. Chapter XXVII. The March Towards Lacenbcrg about 8 min
  29. Chapter XXVIII about 10 min
  30. Chapter XXIX. Cairn Na Cuimhne about 11 min
  31. Chapter XXX. The Jesuit about 8 min
  32. Chapter XXXI. Op The Good Deeds Our Musketeers Were Undoing about 5 min
  33. Chapter XXXII. The Merodeurs about 12 min
  34. Chapter XXXIII. The Hunter's Cot about 13 min
  35. Chapter XXXIV about 14 min
  36. Chapter XXXV. Photevs Again about 13 min
  37. Chapter XXXVI about 11 min
  38. Chapter XXXVII. The Prisoners Of The Pistolieks about 9 min
  39. Chapter Xxxviii. The Pass Of Oldenburg about 11 min
  40. Chapter XXXIX. The Night Of Horrors At Heilinghafen about 11 min
  41. Chapter XL. We Sail For The Isles Of Denmark about 6 min
  42. Chapter XLI. On Board The Good Ship Anna Catharina about 10 min
  43. Chapter XLII. The Rittersaal about 13 min
  44. Chapter XLIII. March For The Castle Of Ntek about 17 min
  45. Chapter I about 8 min
  46. Chapter II. The Arms Of Expectation about 11 min
  47. Chapter III. Ihe Rose Leaves about 6 min
  48. Chapter IV. Winter Quarters The Secret Of Gabrielle about 19 min
  49. Chapter V. The Dogger about 8 min
  50. Chapter VI. The Capture Of Bubo about 6 min
  51. Chapter VII. St about 7 min
  52. Chapter VIII. The Fireship about 11 min
  53. Chapter IX. The Sisters about 13 min
  54. Chapter X. The Forest Of Eckerkfiord about 13 min
  55. Chapter XII. Proving The Maxim, That Advantage Mat Be Taken In Love about 12 min
  56. Chapter XIII. The about 12 min
  57. Chapter XIV. The Nuns Of St about 11 min
  58. Chapter XV. Comforts Of Was about 8 min
  59. Chapter XVI. Bombardment Of Kiel about 11 min
  60. Chapter XVII about 10 min
  61. Chapter XVIII. Suffocation about 9 min
  62. Chapter XIX. The Castle Of Kiel about 10 min
  63. Chapter XX. The Highland Outpost about 16 min
  64. Chapter XXI. The Dying Soldier about 10 min
  65. Chapter XXII. Cocnt about 15 min
  66. Chapter XXIII. The Cousins about 20 min
  67. Chapter XXIV. The Raid Of Macallum Mhor about 10 min
  68. Chapter XXV. The Battle Of Clenlitat about 11 min
  69. Chapter XXVI. Wallenstein about 6 min
  70. Chapter XXVII. The Major Of Musketeers about 9 min
  71. Chapter XXVIII about 14 min
  72. Chapter XXIX. The Serpent In about 7 min
  73. Chapter XXX. Bernhahd's Offer about 10 min
  74. Chapter XXXI. How Bernhard Delivered The Letter about 13 min
  75. Chapter XXXII. Can She Escape Now about 10 min
  76. Chapter XXXIII. The Crape Scarf Of about 20 min
  77. Chapter XXXIV. The Pistol-shot about 7 min
  78. Chapter XXXV. The Midnight Funeral about 6 min
  79. Chapter XXXVI. Helsingor about 13 min
  80. Chapter XXXVII. Stralsund about 8 min
  81. Chapter Xxxviii. War about 7 min
  82. Chapter XXXIX. The Fraxkendor about 10 min
  83. Chapter XL. The Kirk-bell Of Gometra The Sortie about 19 min
  84. Chapter XLI. The White Flag about 12 min
  85. Chapter XLII Retribution about 7 min
  86. Chapter XLIII. The Jesuit about 12 min
  87. Chapter XLIV. The Black Lake Of Stubbeskamer about 18 min
  88. Chapter XLV. Tbe Black Plague about 12 min
  89. Chapter XLVI. The Plaque Spot about 9 min
  90. Chapter XLVII. Last Assault Of Stralsund about 23 min

Continue:

Front matter

NOVELS AND TALES OF SIE E. BULWEE LYTTON, BAET., M.P. STANDARD EDITION. Uniformly printed in Crown Octavo, Corrected and Revised througliout, with new Prefaces by thc Author, and Frontispieces. LUCRETIA. Cloth, is. HAROLD ; The Last or the Saxon Kings. Cloth, is, LEILA ; or, The Siege of Granada. Cloth, 2s. ZANONI. Cloth, 3s. Gd DEVEREUX. Cloth, 3s. Gd. THE DISOWNED. Cloth, 3s. Gd. ERNEST MALTRAVERS. Cloth, 3s. Gd. ALICE. Cloth, 3s. Gd. NIGHT AND MORNING. Cloth, 4s, GODOLPHIN. Cloth, 3s. PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE. Cloth, 2s. Gd. THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII. Cloth, 3s. Gd. THE LAST OF THE BARONS. Cloth, 5s. EUGENE ARAM. Cloth, 3s. Gd. PELHAM ; os, The Adventures of a Gei heman. Cloth, 3s. Gd. PAUL CLIFFORD. Cloth, 3s. Gd. RIENZI; The Last of the Tribunes. Cloth. 3s. Gd THE CAXTONS will be ready shortly.

MY NOVEL will complete the Series. WOBKS OP ME. W. HAEEISON AECTOETH. LIBRARY EDITION. Uniformly printed in Demy Octavo, Corrected by the Author, Kith IUustrations by George Cruikshank, $c. THE TOWER OF LONDON. Forty Plates, Cloth, 6s. WINDSOR CASTLE. Cloth, 5s. CRICHTON. Cloth, 5s. LANCASHIRE WITCHES. Cloth. JACK SHEPPARD. Cloth. OLD SAINT PAUL'S. Cloth. THE MISER'S DAUGHTER. Cloth. GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & CO., FARRIJGDON STREET, PHILIP ROLLO; Of, THE SCOTTISH MUSKETEERS. BY JAMES GEANT, AUTHOR OF '-ROMANCE OF WAR," "JANE SETON," &c. &c. " 'Tis a tale of campaigning*, of love, and invading, Of marches, of routes, bivouacs, enfilading; Of batteries and breaches, howitzers and mortara, Of posts and intrenchments ; of in and out quarters ; Of advancing in line, by columns, divisions, And fighting whole days without rum or provisions."

U TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & CO., FARRINGDON-STREET, 1854. M-COBQTJODAXE AND CO., PRINTERS, LONDON. — 'WORKS, NTWTON. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. Smtk tin /irst. Page

Chapter I

— Of my Family, and the Misfortune of not having a Large Mouth 1 II. — How I became a Soldier of Fortune .... 8 III. — Sir Donald and his Regiment 17 TV.— We Sail for the Elbe 23 V.— Gliickstadt 28 VI. — After escaping a fall into the Elbe, I am in danger of falling in Love ....... 34 VIL— The Repast 38 VTII. — Our Cantonment 44 IX. — The Mysterious Door — a Discourse on Nymphs . . 49 Sunk ijjt Irani. X. — Full effect of a Spanish Petticoat .... 55 XL— My First Guard . . 64 XII. — Who Prudentia's Spouse proved to be ... 74 XIIL— Two Kisses for ten Doubloons 79 XIV. — I prevail on Prudentia to accept of a Ring . . 88 XV. — My Goddess deceives me. I quarrel with the Haiismeister, and run him through the body 94 Sunk lire ®ktr!r. XVI.— The Scottish Standard 104 XVIL— The Sconce of Boitzenburg . . . . . .112 XVIII — How our old Scottish blades pommeled the Imperialists 120 XIX.— The Crown of Fire 125 XX — Rupert-with-the-Red-plume 135 XXI— The Fair Hair and the Dark Hair ....

CONTENTS. Sank ijre /aurilj. Page CHAP. XXII— Dandy Dreghorn 149 XXIIL— Ernestine and Gabrielle 157 XXIV Probability of escaping, and leaving my Heart behind me 165 XXV. — A serious Mistake, and a learned Discussion on Women 170 XXVI— The Scout, and the Effect of a Sneeze . . . .179 Sunk IkE /ifljj. XXVII. — The March towards Lauenburg 186 XXVIII.— Count Tilly's Opinion of the Presbyterians . . 192 XXIX. — Cairn na Cuimhne ! 199 XXX.— The Jesuit 205 XXXL — Of the Good Deeds our Musketeers were undoing . 212 Srmk IkE gixijr. XXXn The Merodeurs 216 XXXIII.— The Hunter's Cot 224 XXXIV. — I obtain a Company of Musketeers 233 XXXV. — Proteus again ! 242 XXXVI.— A Forest on Fire 251 XXXVII.— The Prisoners of the Pistoliers 259 Srmk thr f rrmrfl*. XXXVIII— The Pass of Oldenburg ....... 265 XXXIX. — The Night of Horrors at Heilinghafen . . . 273 XL. — We sail for the Isles of Denmark 280 XLI.— On Board the good ship Anna Catharina . . . 284 XLII. — The Rittersaal , 290 XLIIL— March for the Castle of Nyekiobing ....

Introduction

. At a sale of the effects of an eminent antiquary lately deceased, it was our happiness and good fortune to become the possessor of a certain little MS. volume, closely written, in a neat small hand of the 17th century. It is very thick, contains nearly a thousand pages, is bound in black leather, and is fastened by two brass clasps. On the title-page was written, '* The Storie of my Lyffe, concludit to this year 1660." On examining our literary and antiquarian treasure, which we did with ardour, we found that it was the ad-, ventures of a Scottish gentleman, of that stirring period indicated by the date, who had served for a time, as a soldier of fortune, in the armies of Denmark. We found the book interesting, from the glimpses of wild adventure, hair-breadth escapes, high military courage, and raciness it exhibited ; thus, the more we read, the more pleased did we become.

Philip Rollo, for such was the name of the writer, seemed to be beside us relating his own startling adventures; and we were upon the point of handing over the MS. to our enterprising friends of the Bannatyne Club, when, lo ! we discovered that there were two serious gaps in it. Though

INTRODUCTION.

. VI having little doubt that the archæologists would gladly publish these curious memoirs even in their mutilated state, we preferred to restore the thread of the narrative, so far as we could do so, from the quaint pages of the Amsterdam Courant, the Scedish Intelligencer, the warlike story of Colonel Monro and others, and, after modernising the spelling and language of the whole, so as to make it more generally readable, handed over our transcript to our friend Mr. Routledge, of London. Those portions of the work which have been made up from contemporary authority, we are much too cunning to point out ; though we have httle doubt that the critical reader will easily recognise them. But we may add that, historically considered, we have found the military details to tally so closely with those given in the Low Dutch " Relation," *' Ye Danish "VYarres," and other works, that our soldier of fortune may defy the closest scrutiny.

YVben we read the memoirs of any eminent man of whom no portrait is extant, we are naturally curious to know what like he was — the colour of his eyes, of his hair, and so forth ; and, most fortunately, before entering upon the adventures of Philip Rollo, we are enabled to afford the reader a pretty good idea of these matters; for at the same extensive sale, where it was our fortune to find the MS., a portrait of the cavalier was " knocked down" to us for a comparative trifle — nothing, absolutely, when we consider that it was a real and well-authenticated Jamesone, an artist, so justly esteemed the Vandyke of Scotland, and who studied with Sir Anthony under Rubens at Antwerp.

INTRODUCTION.

. VII This portrait, which appears, by a date inscribed thereon, to have been painted about the year 1630, exhibits an eminently handsome cavalier in the gallant and picturesque costume of that time. The face is oval — the forehead white and high — the mustaches and imperial well pointed — the eyes are dark — the hair long and of the deepest brown. The left hand rests in the bowl hilt of a long Spanish rapier, which hangs in a magnificent baldric, worn sash wise over the right shoulder ; the right hand rests on a helmet, to show that it is the portrait of a gentleman and soldier. We have also an admirable example of the Scottish costume of the period. This cavalier's doublet having loose sleeves, slashed with white, the collar being covered by a falling band of the richest point lace ; a short crimson cloak hangs jauntily on the left shoulder; the breeches are of blue velvet, fringed with point lace, and meet the long riding boots, which have tops of ruffled lace.

A military order sparkles on his breast, and a dagger dangles at his right side. Under the helmet there peeps out a slip of paper, on which is written, Philip Rollo, hys portraitoure. There is a proud and lofty expression in the face of this old portrait (which is now hanging above my writing-table), that is remarkably pleasing and impressive. While gazing at it, the dark eyes seem to fill with dusky fire — the proud lips to curl, and the manly breast to expand with the high military spirit the original once possessed, while the clouds of battle, which envelope the background, seem once more to roll around him on the wind. This is power of the

INTRODUCTION.

. VIII Jamesone's pencil — that magic power which the lapse of more than two hundred years has failed to obliterate ; and we hope that the reader will, erelong, be as interested as we are ourselves in the fortunes and misfortunes, loves and adventures, of Philip Rollo, whose personal memoirs appear to have been compiled by himself for his own amusement, rather than for that of others. 3Snnk ijji fm\. CHAPTEE I. OF MV FAMILY, AND THE MISFORTUNE OF NOT HAVING A LARGE MOUTH. I was born in the year after King James VI. acquired the dominion of England, at my father's tower of Craigrollo, which overlooks trie great bay of Cromartie. The youngest of four sons, I was (God knows why) a child of ill-omen from my birth ; for, before that event came to pass, my mother had various remarkable dreams, which were darkly and mysteriously construed by certain Highland crones of the district; and the whole family made up their minds to expect that I should never be the source of aught else but discomfort and disgrace to them.

All unconscious of the disagreeable impressions regarding me, I was ushered (poor little devil !) into this world on a Friday, the most ominous day of the week for such an arrival; when a furious storm of wind was rolling the waves of the North Sea against the Sutors of Cromartie ; and a tempest of rain was lashing the walls and windows of the old tower, and drenching the older pine-woods that surrounded it. A knife and spade had been placed below my mother's bed, a Bible below her pillow, and the room was plentifully sprinkled with salt, to avert the mal-influence of the fames, and every way the old fashions of the Highlands were complied with strictly. VOL. L B ; My father had been particularly anxious for a daughter, that he might marry her to his nephew, M'Farquhar of that Ilk, to whom he was tutor or guardian; and various wise women, who had been solemnly convened in council before I was born, had all been morally certain that my mother would have a daughter.

" You have long loved French apples," said old Mhona Toshach ; " your ladyship is sure to have a daughter." My sudden appearance upset ah their calculations, and none more than those of my father. " The devil's in the brat !" said he. " There goes the estate of M'Farquhar, with its five hundred broadswords;" for, in our Scottish fashion, he was what we call the tutor of the property. As if to increase the general prejudice against me, I squalled right lustily, which made all the old crones of the household, and the wise women of the parish, with Mhona Toshach, my mother's nurse, at their head, tremble and predict that, through life, " sore trials and evil would attend the course of the Friday's bairn." AU the crickets in the bakehouse disappeared that day for ever, a surer foreboding of dire calamity.

Though we were a branch of a Lowland or Perthshire family, the gallant Polios of Duncruib, my father, partly to humour my mother, who was a daughter of the race of M'Farquhar, and partly to please his Highland neighbours, resolved to celebrate my arrival in the old country fashion. The old family banner, with its azure chevrons, on which the spiders had been spinning their webs since it had been last unfurled on the birth of my brother Ewen, (for my father was eminently a peaceful man,) was displayed on the old tower; and more than one gallant puncheon of ale, and bombarde of Flemish wine were set abroach in the yard. I was baptized over a broadsword. Then came the solemn and important ceremony of placing in my mouth " the Rollo spoon," which was done in presence of the whole household; and which, from the consternation it occasioned, requires some explanation.

An ancestor of ours, Sir* Pingan Polio of that Ilk, who had accompanied Earl Douglas (afterwards Marshal of France and Duke of Touraine) on Ms successful invasion of England, in the year of God 1420, when sacking the manor-house of a certain English squire, found therein a silver spoon of great size and curious workmanship, which he brought home with him to Cromartie, leaving in place thereof his right eye, which he lost by an English arrow in the assault. This spoon, doubtless the palladium of a long race of well-fed Saxons, became the heirloom of the house of Rollo, on which it produced a very remarkable effect — not unlike that which Rigord tells us the loss of the true cross at Tiberiade, had upon all children bom afterwards in Christendom — for instead of thirty teeth they had but tiventy.

So all the future Rollos of the Craig, caine in time to be distin guished by the unusual size of their mouths from the first year after this spoon was deposited in the oak charter-chest of the family. I had a great-uncle whose mouth, when born, extended from ear to ear ; but still it was almost insufficient to contain this capacious English spoon, which was quite round, measured three inches in diameter, and on which our valiant ancestor had engraved his cre3t, a stag's head, with the legend, " This spune I leave in legacie To the maist mouthed Rollo, after me. Ringan Rollo, 1421." Thus, whenever a son or daughter of the family was born, the insertion of this remarkable heirloom into their mouths was one of the usual ceremonies, and was considered as indispensable as marriage or christening.

Such a trophy was considered some thing to be vain of, by the Rollos of the Craig, who were sorely jealous of their neighbours, the Urquharts of Cromartie, who deduced their descent from Alcibiades the Athenian!* It had been remarked that every Rollo of the Craig, whose mouth would not admit this spoon, or at least a portion of it, was remarkably unfortunate; thus, of my father's ten brothers, three, who were so unhappy as to have mouths like other people, after being distinguished for theh facility in getting into quarrels and turmoils, were all cut off, early in life; one being slain by the English at the Raid of the Redswire; a second with Buc- * See Sir Thomas Urquhart's Works. ; cleuch in the Lowlands of Holland; and the third, who had be come an officer in a Scottish frigate, being taken by the cruel pirates of Barbary, who basely murdered him.

Most happily for themselves, my three elder brothers were blessed with enormously wide mouths — in fact, they were like nothing that I can remem ber but the mouth of a cannon, or the stone gutters of a cathedral ; but I — poor httle wretch ! — had a mouth so remarkably small, that no part of this capacious spoon would enter therein — not even a segment of it; and from that moment I was unanimously considered as a lost, an untrue Rollo. My father turned his back upon me from that day, and vowed there was less of the Rollo than the M'Farquhar about me; so, from thence forward, I was, as it were, delivered into the hands of mischance and misfortune. A goodly volume would be required to narrate all the heart burnings and sore taunts I endured in boyhood, for the smallness of my mouth; the studied coldness of my father; the gibes and laughter of my brother's ; the ominous forebodings and doleful anticipations of the old nurse, Mhona Toshach; and the equivocal taunts of the good-natured friends and tenantry, among whom I seemed to be viewed like the poor dog, that should be hung after aquiring the bad name, the mob and their misdeeds, have given him.

That diabolical old spoon was the bane of my existence ; and, influenced by certain hints from my poor mother, who, having a very small and very pretty mouth herself, sympathised with me, I made more than one essay, to obtain possession of it, for the purpose of throwing it into the deepest part of Cromartie bay, with a pretty heavy stone attached thereto. Put the ancient charter-chest, with its iron bands and triple locks, defied all my efforts; and many a hearty kick I gave it, in pure rage and de spite, after every attempt of myself and Mhona had faded to widen my mouth to the famdy size, by the simple mode of in serting our fingers therein, and pulling the corners in contrarv directions. Had my father (worthy man !) been of a jealous disposition, I doubt not that it might have occasioned some dispeace between him and my mother, who told him often, that "he ought to love my mouth the more for being so like her own ;" but, wedded to his own opinions, based as they were on the traditions and predictions of two hundred years, the old gentleman, who had him self a singularly open countenance, was inexorable, and sorely dreaded that little Philip was foredoomed to bring disgrace, or at least mischance, on the Rollos of the Craig.

Save this peculiar prejudice, he was one of the best men in the county; and was one of those old gentlemen who are always looking back and never forward : he stuck manfully to the bombasted doublets and fashions of his father's days, and never allowed a Michaelmas to pass without eating a St. Michael's bannock, or a Christmas without seeing the yule log laid on the hearth, and never was known to kill a spider, in memory of the good service once rendered to Scotland and the Pruce in the days of old. Though I suffered severely from his strange pique, it was perhaps the source of good to me ultimately. Instead of being retained at home, like my brothers, spelling over the Auld Pry mar, and tremblica; under the ferrule of Domine Daidle, the tutor, fiddler, and factor of the family, and spending three parts of the day in hunting, shooting with the bow, banqueting, dancing, and learning to handle the claymore and target, I was despatched to the King's College at Aberdeen, where I was duly matriculated in 1621, about the time when the battle was fought in Leith Roads between the Spaniards and the Admiral of Zealand; for I remember well that it formed the constant topic of conversation among my brother students, many of whom were from the south country.

Here my usual mischance accompanied me, for I was always involved iu quarrels with the ruffling gallants of the Brave City, or lost my money among cheats and sharpers at post and pair, or the old game of trumps. Lord knows ! I never had much to lose, and I nearly reached the end of my wits and my purse together. Then, to crown all, I fell deadly sick of that terrible pestilence which has so frequently desolated Aberdeen, having swept away its citizens no less than ten times between the years 1401 and 1647. So great was the panic latterly, that ; the classes of the universities were removed to Peterhead ; but I, unable to accompany them, was borne to the huts erected for the sick on the Links, where we were strictly guarded by soldiers, to prevent the infection spreading. While there, I received a letter from my father condoling with me on my doleful case, and hinting broadly, that, had my mouth been larger, I could have eaten more, and should assuredly have escaped, like my brothers, who were strong and well As I had been robbed of my last plack by the cruel nurses, a few silver crowns had been more welcome, and I crushed up the poor man's letter, for the least mention of my " small mouth" was sufficient to make me tremble with rage.

My dear mother sent me two jars, one filled with usquebaugh, and the other with honey; but as the soldiers drank the first, and the nurses eat the second, I got no use of either. There, among the pest-stricken, I lingered long, hovering, as it were, betveen life and death, sighing to be beside my mother, to feel her gentle hand on my hot and throbbing brow, and to hear her kind voice whispering in my ear; for, boy hke, I thought if I were only once again beside that kind parent, and she touched me, I should become whole and well. I thought of the old tower too, though, save one, none lovel me there; I saw the dark pines that shaded its old grey walls; the whin rocks, the heath-clad hills, and the blue bay of Cromartie, with tlie great Sutors, like two Cyclopean towers, that overhang its narrow entrance; and sorely I longed to see them all once again, before I died.

Weary, weak and feeble, I hoped to die soon ; but by the blessing of God, and the strength of my own constitution. I recovered ; nor must I omit to make honourable mention of that worthy chirnrgeon, Donald Gordon, author of the learned " Pharmaco-pinax, or Table and Taxe of the Vsmil Medicaments contayned in his A]x>thecarie and Chyniicall shope, in New Aberdene;" and but for whose skill and kindness, I had never hved to write these my memoirs. I recovered, the plague passed away, the Senatus Academicus ornce more returned to the King's College, and the classes were resumed. I commenced my studies again with renewed ardour, and again became immersed in the classic pages of Plutarch, of Sallust, and of Nepos. I longed to become a great scholar, a renowned statesman, or a gallant soldier — any thing famous and lofty, that I might cast from myself the slur that hateful heirloom of the Rollos had fixed upon me; that I might leave for ever the atmosphere of ill omens with which it had surrounded me, and the dark predictions that were ever grating in my ears and rankling in my memory.

I perfected myself in mathematics and the humanities, and spent my whole spare time in acquir ing the use of arms ; thus, before I completed a year at King's College, I could handle the bow and the arquebuse, toss the pike and throw the bar, vault and ride, use pistolette, rapier, and backsword to perfection, so that the oldest and stoutest — yea, and the boldest — of our students were somewhat wary of offend ing me ; for on the shortest notice, off went my gown, and out came bilbo and poniard. I know not whether it was the nature of my studies, the force of circumstances, or my natural inclination towards high enter prise, that have guided me; but this I may boldly aver, that never, to my knowledge, have I swerved from the proper path which a gentleman of honour and cavaher of spirit ought to pursue in his intercourse with society. ;

Chapter II. How

I BECAME A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. Having completed my studies at the King's CoUege, I left it in the June of 1626, and returned to my father's house, from which I had been so long absent, and as I felt with bitterness, unregrettedly so, by all save my poor mother, whom to my borrow I found on the verge of death. She had long been suffering from a pain in her side, and was dwining away (as we Scots say,) but I was not prepared to see her only Uve to bless me, and then close her eyes for ever. I felt that the only friend I possessed on earth had left both it and me ! I was very — very desolate. Many a ghastly visage, and many a stiffened form, have I seen since that day of grief, which passed so many years ago ; but that pale face, and those kind sinking eyes, come vividly before me at times, out of the mist of the years that have gone.

My father, as he closed her eyes, averred sorrowfully, " that, had her mouth been larger, she would have respired more freely, and might have lived for ten good years longer;'' but she died — and on a bed of pigeons' feathers too, to the dismay of all the wise women in Cromarty ; for it is an old superstition, that one cannot die on the feathers of those birds. Though a numerous host of relations were around that gloomy bed, and crowding the chambers of the old tower, I felt lonely (for such was the miserable prejudice against me), and that I was viewed as somewhat of an alien among them — even by those of my own blood and kindred; and the consciousness of that filled my heart with mingled rage and grief. My father was cold as ever, the more so, perhaps, as his heart was full of sorrow, and sorrow is ever selfish; but my brothers, Farquhar, Finlay, and Ewen, were colder still with unkind envy, for they had heard such glowing reports of my progress in all those studies which most become a gentleman.

Eeing certain that I had outstripped their slender knowledge, which was con fined to the narrow limits of Dominie Daidle's classes, they were so full of jealousy, that our mother had scarcely been lowered down into her dark and lonely home, before these youths, who were now grown into taU and swinging Highlandmen, challenged me to various trials of strength and skill. Though I could easily encounter them with broadsword and target, or with single stick, Farquhar could beat me at throwing the hammer, and Finlay at tossing the buUet, as Ewen could at bringing down an eagle on the wing with a single shot, or splitting a tree by one blow of a Lochaber axe ; for they were all strong as young horses, untamed as mountain goats, and from their cradles had been wont to sup usquebaugh with their porridge.

My mother's funeral was celebrated after the good old fashion of the Highlands, and we buried her by torchlight in the ancient kirk of St. Regulus. Under their chief, Ian Dhu, three hundred of her kinsmen, the M'Farquhars, came down from the hills, with six pipers playing before them, and I shall never forget the sad, low wading of the lament performed by those mountain minstrels, as the long funeral procession wound by night, along the margin of Cromartie Firth. The pall was emblazoned with sixteen proofs of her gentle blood, and the nearest kinsmen carried her poor remains on a bier, around which all the old women of her own clan, and my father's barony, moved in a melancholy crowd, beating their breasts, tearing their dishevelled hair, and lamenting wildly. There was no prayer at the grave, because we were old Pro testants; but the Seanachie of her father's race pronounced a long oration on her virtues ; the M'Farquhars fired their pistols in the air, with an explosion which nearly blew out all the church windows; then followed a frightful shovelling of earth, the careful adjusting of a large stone slab — and all was over.

I was the last who left the darkened church. I followed the procession, which, with the pipers strutting in ; front, returned to the tower of Craigrollo, where the funeral feast was spread and the dredgie to be drunk, the great silver spoon of Sir Ringan being laid, on this solemn occasion, beside my father's platter, which stood above the salt. The dredgie I wdlingly pass over, and would as willingly com mit to oblivion; for I may safely assert that, of four hundred men who were in the tower, not one was sober when the morrow dawned ; aud not less than two hundred gallons of mountain whisky were consumed as a libation in my mother's honour. Happily there was no fighting, but only a blow with a dirk and a slash with an axe exchanged between a M'Farquhar and a RoUo of Thauesland, about precedence at table.

After six years of a quiet life at King's College, being somewhat unused to our Highland manners, I was scared by this terrible debauch ; for, amid it all, I saw by the hall fire, a chair which stood vacant, and there seemed to be ever before me that black coffin, with its gdded handles and armorial blazon — the wreath of rosemary and the hour-glass on its lid — the deep dark grave yawning horribly, in the red light of the torches, that had glared on the groined vaults of the ancient kirk. On the morning after the dredgie, leaving the hall encumbered by more than four hundred armed Celts, who, in their plaids, were sleeping and snorting on the floor, I walked forth from the tower to ruminate, and view again the old familiar scenery from which I had so long been absent. Rising in his full refulgence from the sea, the morning sun was soaring high above the noble Firth of Cromartie, and no prospect that I have since beheld, (and in my wandering life I have looked on many,) can compare, in my estimation, with the wild mountain shores of my own native bay.

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