be able to provide you with easier posts at la Villar, and there you
will find a comfortable home in your old age, if you prefer to stay with
me rather than to return to Scotland."

"No further word need be spoken, colonel," Allan Macpherson said; "we
are your men, and shall be proud to follow you, were there no question
of pay at all, but just our rations and a home to look forward to when
our arms get weak and eyes dim."

"Then, men, if so say you all, the service begins from the present time.
You have your armour and headpieces, your doublets and jackboots,
so there is not much to buy. I have horses ready for you. You have
pistols."

"Yes, we have all pistols and swords, colonel, but the musketoons
belonged to the regiment."

"There will be no occasion for you to carry them. Get for yourselves
four long cloaks well lined and serviceable--'tis best that they should
be all of a colour, dark blue or gray--and broad hats to match the
cloaks; have in each a small red feather. I would that you should make a
decent show, for we shall start in two hours for Poitou. Here are twenty
crowns. See that you have ammunition for your pistols. Be at the Hotel
Conde in two hours from the present time. Your dinner here is ready for
you, eat heartily, but do not drink too deeply in honour of your new
service.

"Now, MacIntosh, I have a word or two further to speak to you."

They went into an inner room.

"Now, old friend, are you tired of this life of keeper of a cabaret?
because I shall want you down in Poitou. Your house was mine when
I sorely needed it, and mine shall be yours now. You are as yet but
fifty-five, and I take it that you can do a man's work still, for you
no longer suffer from that wound that disabled you ten years ago. Now,
I shall require someone to drill the fifty men who will form my
contingent, if all vassals of the king are called upon to take the
field. Of course they will not always be under arms; most of them will
be the sons of tenants, or substitutes provided by them, and will only
give two or three days' service a month. It is probable, however, that
half will be regular retainers at the castle. I know nothing about the
castle at present, or how large it is, or whether it is defensible or
not; still, it was spoken of as a castle, and 'tis, I suppose, one to a
certain degree.

"At any rate, I desire that if I do put a troop in the field they shall
be as well drilled and as well equipped as are the S