rving, it was his
intention to spend the time betwixt this and dinner, which, he presumed,
would come upon the parade about noon, in burnishing his armour, which
having sustained some injury from the sea-air, might, he was afraid,
seem discreditable in the eyes of M'Callum More. Yet, while they were
returning to the castle, he failed not to warn Sir Duncan Campbell
against the great injury he might sustain by any sudden onfall of an
enemy, whereby his horses, cattle, and granaries, might be cut off and
consumed, to his great prejudice; wherefore he again strongly conjured
him to construct a sconce upon the round hill called Drumsnab, and
offered his own friendly services in lining out the same. To this
disinterested advice Sir Duncan only replied by ushering his guest to
his apartment, and informing him that the tolling of the castle bell
would make him aware when dinner was ready.

CHAPTER XI.

Is this thy castle, Baldwin? Melancholy
Displays her sable banner from the donjon,
Darkening the foam of the whole surge beneath.
Were I a habitant, to see this gloom
Pollute the face of nature, and to hear
The ceaseless sound of wave, and seabird's scream,
I'd wish me in the hut that poorest peasant
E'er framed, to give him temporary shelter.--BROWN.

The gallant Ritt-master would willingly have employed his leisure in
studying the exterior of Sir Duncan's castle, and verifying his own
military ideas upon the nature of its defences. But a stout sentinel,
who mounted guard with a Lochaber-axe at the door of his apartment, gave
him to understand, by very significant signs, that he was in a sort of
honourable captivity.

It is strange, thought the Ritt-master to himself, how well these
salvages understand the rules and practique of war. Who should have
pre-supposed their acquaintance with the maxim of the great and godlike
Gustavus Adolphus, that a flag of truce should be half a messenger half
a spy?--And, having finished burnishing his arms, he sate down patiently
to compute how much half a dollar per diem would amount to at the end of
a six-months' campaign; and, when he had settled that problem, proceeded
to the more abstruse calculations necessary for drawing up a brigade of
two thousand men on the principle of extracting the square root.

From his musings, he was roused by the joyful sound of the dinner bell,
on which the Highlander, lately his guard, became his gentleman-us