own table, round which they sat carousing, and singing the roister
ribaldry of camp songs. At first, when my brother was taken into this
scene of military domination, he did not observe the laird; for in the
uproar of the alarm the candles had been overset and broken, but new
ones being sworn for and stuck into the necks of the bottles of the wine
they were lavishly drinking, he discovered him lying as it were asleep
where he sat, with his head averted, and his eyes shut on the iniquity
of the scene of oppression with which he was oppressed.

Some touch of contrition had led one of the soldiers to take the aged
matron under his care; and on his intercession she was not placed at the
table, but allowed to sit in a corner, where she mourned in silence,
with her hands clasped together, and her head bent down over them upon
her breast. The laird's grandson and heir, a stripling of some fifteen
years or so, was obligated to be page and butler, for all the rest of
the house had taken to the hills at the approach of the troopers.

As the drinking continued the riot increased, and the rioters growing
heated with their drink, they began to quarrel: fierce words brought
angry answers, and threats were followed by blows. Then there was an
interposition, and a shaking of hands, and a pledging of renewed
friendship.

But still the demon of the drink continued to grow stronger and stronger
in their kindling blood, and the tumult was made perfect by one of the
men, in the capering of his inebriety, rising from his seat, and taking
the old leddy by the toupie to raise her head as he rudely placed his
foul cup to her lips. This called up the ire of the fellow who had sworn
to protect her, and he, not less intoxicated than the insulter, came
staggering to defend her; a scuffle ensued, the insulter was cast with a
swing away, and falling against the laird, who still remained as it were
asleep, with his head on his shoulder, and his eyes shut, he overthrew
the chair in which the old gentleman sat fastened, and they both fell to
the ground.

The soldier, frantic with wine and rage, was soon, like a tiger, on his
adversary; the rest rose to separate them. Some took one side, some
another; bottles were seized for weapons, and the table was overthrown
in the hurricane. Their sergeant, who was as drunk as the worst of them,
tried in vain to call them into order, but they heeded not his call,
which so enraged him, that he swore they should s