beginning again to
blacken. "I've no a word to say against her ladyship. I gather she
has been doing what she can for the cause wi' them slippery rascals o'
dragoons and their Laodicean commander, of whom I have my ain
thoughts. I fear me, indeed, to say what I have found, and what I am
suspecting, for ye hae reason to conclude that my head is full o'
plots, and that broodin' ower treachery has made me daft."

"What is it now, Jock?" in a tone between amusement and seriousness.
"Ye havena found a letter from Lochiel to the Prince of Orange,
offering to win the reward upon my head, or caught General MacKay,
dressed in a ragged kilt, stealing about through the army? Out with
it, and let us know the worst at once."

"Ye are laughin', Maister John, and I will not deny ye have
justification. I wish to God I be as far frae the truth this time as I
was last time, but there is some thin' gaein' on in the camp that
bodes nae gude to yersel', and through you to the cause. It was not
for naethin' I watched two of our new recruits for days, and heard a
snap o' their conversation yesterday on the march."

"I'll be bound, Jock, ye heard some wild talk, for I doubt our men are
readier with an oath than a Psalm and a loose story than a sermon.
But we must just take them as they come--rough men for rough work, and
desperate men for a wild adventure."

"Gude knows, my ears are weel accustomed to the clatter of the camp,
and it's no a coarse word here or there would offend Jock Grimond. But
the men I mean are of the other kind; they speak like gentlefolk, and
micht, for the manner o' them, sit wi' her ladyship in Dudhope
Castle."

"Broken gentlemen, very likely, Jock. There have always been plenty in
our ranks. Surely you are not going to make that a crime at this time
of the day. If I had five hundred of that kidney behind me, I would
drive MacKay--horse, foot and bits of artillery--like chaff before the
wind. A gentleman makes a good trooper, and when he has nothing to
lose, he's the very devil to fight."

"But that's no a' else. I wouldna have troubled you, my lord, but the
two are aye the-gither, and keep in company like a pair o' dogs
poachin'. They have the look o' men who are on their gaird, and are
feared o' bein' caught by surprise. According to their story they had
served with Livingstone's dragoons, and had come over to us because
they were for the good cause. But ain o' Livingstone's lads wha
deserted at the same time,