ly carved and gilded. The
gallery was lighted by long lanceolated Gothic casements, divided
by heavy shafts, and filled with painted glass, where the sunbeams
glimmered dimly through boars'-heads, and galleys, and batons, and
swords, armorial bearings of the powerful house of Argyle, and emblems
of the high hereditary offices of Justiciary of Scotland, and Master of
the Royal Household, which they long enjoyed. At the upper end of this
magnificent gallery stood the Marquis himself, the centre of a splendid
circle of Highland and Lowland gentlemen, all richly dressed, among whom
were two or three of the clergy, called in, perhaps, to be witnesses of
his lordship's zeal for the Covenant.

The Marquis himself was dressed in the fashion of the period, which
Vandyke has so often painted, but his habit was sober and uniform
in colour, and rather rich than gay. His dark complexion, furrowed
forehead, and downcast look, gave him the appearance of one frequently
engaged in the consideration of important affairs, and who has acquired,
by long habit, an air of gravity and mystery, which he cannot shake off
even where there is nothing to be concealed. The cast with his eyes,
which had procured him in the Highlands the nickname of Gillespie
Grumach (or the grim), was less perceptible when he looked downward,
which perhaps was one cause of his having adopted that habit. In person,
he was tall and thin, but not without that dignity of deportment and
manners, which became his high rank. Something there was cold in his
address, and sinister in his look, although he spoke and behaved with
the usual grace of a man of such quality. He was adored by his own clan,
whose advancement he had greatly studied, although he was in proportion
disliked by the Highlanders of other septs, some of whom he had already
stripped of their possessions, while others conceived themselves in
danger from his future schemes, and all dreaded the height to which he
was elevated.

We have already noticed, that in displaying himself amidst his
councillors, his officers of the household, and his train of vassals,
allies, and dependents, the Marquis of Argyle probably wished to make
an impression on the nervous system of Captain Dugald Dalgetty. But that
doughty person had fought his way, in one department or another, through
the greater part of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, a period when a
brave and successful soldier was a companion for princes. The King of
Swe