breeze!'
(So I heard my new-born imaginary spirit say to my real one.) 'Yes,
and let the Deacon Convener unfurl the sacred Blue Blanket, under which
every liege burgher of the kingdom is bound to answer summons! The
bale-fires are gleaming, giving alarm to Hume, Haddington, Dunbar,
Dalkeith, and Eggerhope. Rise, Stirling, Fife, and the North! All
Scotland will be under arms in two hours. One bale-fire: the English
are in motion! Two: they are advancing! Four in a row: they are of great
strength! All men in arms west of Edinburgh muster there! All eastward,
at Haddington! And every Englishman caught in Scotland is lawfully the
prisoner of whoever takes him!' (What am I saying? I love Englishmen,
but the spell is upon me!) 'Come on, Macduff!' (The only suitable and
familiar challenge my warlike tenant can summon at the moment.) 'I am
the son of a Gael! My dagger is in my belt, and with the guid broadsword
at my side I can with one blow cut a man in twain! My bow is cut
from the wood of the yews of Glenure; the shaft is from the wood of
Lochetive, the feathers from the great golden eagles of Locktreigside!
My arrowhead was made by the smiths of the race of Macphedran! Come on,
Macduff!'

And now a shopkeeper has filled his window with royal Stuart tartans,
and I am instantly a Jacobite.

'The Highland clans wi' sword in hand,
Frae John o' Groat's to Airly,
Hae to a man declar'd to stand
Or fa' wi' Royal Charlie.

'Come through the heather, around him gather,
Come Ronald, come Donald, come a'thegither,
And crown your rightfu' lawfu' king,
For wha'll be king but Charlie?'

It is the eve of the battle of Prestonpans. Is it not under the Rock
of Dunsappie on yonder Arthur's Seat that our Highland army will encamp
to-night? At dusk the prince will hold a council of his chiefs and
nobles (I am a chief and a noble), and at daybreak we shall march
through the old hedgerows and woods of Duddingston, pipes playing and
colours flying, bonnie Charlie at the head, his claymore drawn and the
scabbard flung away! (I mean awa'!)--

'Then here's a health to Charlie's cause,
And be't complete an' early;
His very name my heart's blood warms
To arms for Royal Charlie!

'Come through the heather, around him gather,
Come Ronald, come Donald, come a'thegither,
And crown your rightfu', lawfu' king,
For wha'll be king but Charlie?'

I hope that those in authority will never atte