wn. It will be
another feather in his cap, and, to my thinkin', he has got ower many
for his deservin'--an underhand and evil-hearted loon." And Grimond
spoke with such vehemence and a keen dislike that Claverhouse
suspected he had heard something more important than he had told.

"'Is that all?' ye ask, Claverhouse, and I reply no; but I wish to
gudeness that it was. If news be what has happened, even though some
of us expected it, then I have got some, although I would rather that
my tongue was blistered than tell it. It cam into my mind that the
Prince micht be appointin' the new colonel to the Scots Brigade this
mornin', and so I just happened to give a cry on an Angus man who is
gettin' his bit livin' as a servant to one of the aides-de-camp. He is
called a Dutchman, but has honest Scots blood in his veins. We havered
about this and about that, and then I threipit (insisted) that he
would never hear onything that was goin' on, and, for example, that he
wouldna know who was the new colonel. 'Div I no?' said Patrick Harris.
'Maybe I do, but maybe I wouldna be anxious to tell ye, Jock Grimond,
for ye michtna be pleased.' 'Pleased or no pleased,' I said, 'let me
hear his name.' 'Well,' he answered, 'if ye maun have it, it's no your
maister that folk thought would get it.' 'Then,' said I, 'Patrick, I
jalouse who it is; it's MacKay of Scourie.' 'It is,' said Patrick. 'I
heard it when I was standin' close to the door, and I canna say that
I'm pleased.' Naither was I, ye may depend upon it, Claverhouse, but I
wouldna give onybody the satisfaction of knowing what I thocht. So I
just contented mysel' wi' sayin', 'Damn them baith, the are for an
ungrateful scoundrel, and the other for a plottin', schemin'
hypocritical Presbyterian. I cam to tell ye, but no word would have
passed my lips if ye hadna chanced to ask me."

"Jock, you've been a faithful man to the house of Graham for many
years," said Claverhouse, after a silence of some minutes, during
which Grimond busied himself polishing his master's arms, "and I will
say to you what I am not going to tell the camp, that you might have
brought better news. Whether I was right or wrong, man, I had set my
heart upon succeeding Ballantine, and I was imagining that maybe this
very afternoon I could write home to my mother and tell her that her
son was a lieutenant-colonel in the good Scots Brigade. But it's all
in the chances of war, and we must just take things as they come. Do