ere a small Lowland clan, or rather faction, for their
name does not appear in history as a clan. For all that, they were as
loyal to their king and as devoted to their chief as any clan in
Scotland, and when the time for sacrifice and hard blows came, the
Singletons, as every one knew, were ever to the front.

And it is only fair to say the Singletons were _always_ in the wars.
When they were not fighting the Roundheads they were fighting the
Campbells or the Frasers or the Macintoshes, or others of their
hereditary foes; or if none of these were obliging enough, or at liberty
to indulge them in their favourite pastime, then they made enemies for
themselves among the neighbouring clans, or else crossed over to Holland
to keep their hands in there till fortune favoured them once more at
home. The old castle, with its rambling towers, and walls, and
buttresses was a sort of rallying-point for all the pugnacious spirits
of the time, and its bluff walls showed many a scar and many a dint
where hostile guns had played upon them, not, you may be sure, without
reply.

The Singletons, in fact (and specially since the old laird had died),
thrived on fighting. At the present day they might, perhaps, have
passed as freebooters and outlaws, but during the troubled times of the
Commonwealth they were looked upon as a noble band of patriots, whose
swords were ever ready in the king's cause, and whose castle was as open
and hospitable to a friend as it was unyielding to a foe.

Such was the place within whose weather-beaten and war-beaten walls a
festive company was assembled one November afternoon in the year of our
Lord 16--.

For once in a way the Singletons were at peace. The king's cause was
for a time under a cloud, and the Campbells and the Frasers and the
Macintoshes were far too busy about their own affairs to come out of the
way to defy this small bulldog of a clan in the south. The Singletons
had serious thoughts of invading some place, or sacking some castle, or
making a raid across the border, just to pass the time. It was like
being out of work! They fretted and chafed in their fortress, and
nearly fell out among themselves, and very heartily wished some one
would give them a pretext for a fight. But no one did.

It was at least a diversion for them to celebrate the coming of age of
the young laird, and the event, which in times of war might have passed
scarcely heeded, now became one of mighty importance t