ant you to aid
me in a matter that I have on hand."

"What sort of matter is it?"

"I want to find four good men to take into my service. The queen has
granted me an estate, as if a colonelcy was not an ample and more than
ample reward for discovering that ambuscade. It is the fief of la Villar
in Poitou, and the most absurd point of the thing is that with it is a
title, and I am now Colonel Campbell, Baron de la Villar."

"Well, well," the sergeant exclaimed; "you will be coming and telling me
next that you are going to marry a princess of the blood. Did one ever
hear of such things! However, Hector, lad, I congratulate you with all
my heart, and I am as glad as if it had been a bairn of my own that had
had your good fortune. Now, in what can I help you about the four men?
What sort of men do you want?"

"I want four good men and true, sergeant, men that I can rely upon. I
shall want them to ride with me in the field as orderlies, for I have
been appointed to the command of an infantry regiment. Of course, I
should like young and active men, but that they should be steady and
accustomed to arms is still more important."

"I know but few men outside the regiment," the sergeant said. "The
laddies like to have the place to themselves, and I don't encourage
others about; but if you can do with good men who have somewhat passed
their prime, but are still capable of service and handy with their arms,
I know just the men that will suit you. We had a little bit of trouble
in the regiment a week since; four of the men--Allan Macpherson, Jock
Hunter, Donald Nicholl, and Sandy Grahame--came in after tattoo, and all
a bit fu'. It was not here they got it, though; I know better than
to supply men with liquor when it is time for them to be off to the
barracks. Captain Muir, who is the only dour carl in the regiment,
happened to be on duty, and he spoke a good deal more hardly to them
than to my mind there was any occasion, seeing that they are good
soldiers and not in the guardroom more often than others. They answered
him more freely, no doubt, than they would have done had they not been
in their cups.

"They were had up before the colonel the next morning. They had all
served their time, and having been greatly angered at their treatment,
they at once up and told the colonel that they would take their
discharges. The colonel would have pacified them, but Captain Muir stood
out strongly, and said that if such insolence as th