o' four hundred years
ago--ah! _tempus fugit_, which is a Latin quotation, my girl, from
Horace Walpole, I believe, an' signifies time and tide waits for no
man; that's what they calls a free translation, you must know; well,
it was in the winter o' 1445 that a certain Alexander Ogilvy of
Inverquharity was chosen to act as Chief Justiciar in these parts--I
suppose that means a kind of upper bailiff, a sort o' bo's'n's mate,
to compare great things with small. He was set up in place of one o'
the Lindsay family, who, it seems, was rather extravagant, though
whether his extravagance lay in wearin' a beard (for he was called
Earl Beardie), or in spendin' too much cash, I can't take upon me for
to say. Anyhow, Beardie refused to haul down his colours, so the
Ogilvys mustered their men and friends, and the Lindsays did the
same, and they went at it, hammer and tongs, and fowt what ye may
call the Battle of Arbroath, for it was close to the old town where
they fell to.

"It was a most bloody affair. The two families were connected with
many o' the richest and greatest people in the land, and these went
to lend a hand when they beat to quarters, and there was no end o'
barbed horses, as they call them--which means critters with steel
spikes in their noses, I'm told--and lots of embroidered banners and
flags, though I never heard that anyone hoisted the Union Jack; but,
however that may be, they fowt like bluejackets, for five hundred men
were left dead on the field, an' among them a lot o' the great folk.

"But I'm sorry to say that the Ogilvys were licked, though I say it
that shouldn't," continued the captain, with a sigh, as he relighted
his pipe. "Howsever,

'Never ventur', never win,
Blaze away an' don't give in,"

as Milton remarks in his preface to the _Pilgrim's Progress_."

"True, captain," said the lieutenant, "and you know that 'he who
fights and runs away, shall live to fight another day'." "Leftenant,"
said the captain gravely, "your quotation, besides bein' a kind o'
desecration, is not applicable; 'cause the Ogilvys did _not_ run
away. They fowt on that occasion like born imps, an' they would ha'
certainly won the day, if they hadn't been, every man jack of 'em,
cut to pieces before the battle was finished."

"Well said, uncle," exclaimed Ruby, with a laugh. "No doubt the
Ogilvys would lick the Lindsays _now_ if they had a chance."

"I believe they would," said the lieut