d a soldier was at this moment employed with his knife in
the butcher-craft necessary to its preparation for the spit. Ferguson
himself, conspicuous for his robust, athletic, and weather-beaten
exterior, stood by apparently directing the operation. Around the room
were hung the hide and antlers of former victims of the chase,
intermingled with various weapons of war, military cloaks,
cartridge-boxes, bridles, saddles, and other furniture denoting the
habitation of a party of soldiers. There was a general air of disorder
and untidiness throughout the apartment, which seemed to bespeak early
and late revels, and no great observance of the thrift of even military
housekeeping. This impression was heightened to the eye of the beholder,
by the unchecked liberty with which men of all ranks, privates as well
as officers, flung themselves, as their occasions served, into the room
and made free with the contents of the flasks that were scattered over
the table.

The irregular and ill-disciplined host under Ferguson's command lay in
and around the village, and presented a scene of which the predominating
features bore a sufficient resemblance to the economy of their leader's
own quarters, to raise but an unfavorable opinion of their subordination
and soldier-like demeanor: it was wild, noisy, and confused.

When M'Alpine entered the apartment, the words that fell from Ferguson
showed that his mind, at the moment, was disturbed by a double
solicitude--alternating between the operations performed upon the
carcass of venison, and certain symptoms of uproar and disorder that
manifested themselves amongst the militia without.

"Curse on these swaggering, upland bullies!" he said, whilst M'Alpine
and the prisoners stood inside the room, as yet unnoticed. "I would as
soon undertake to train as many wolves from the mountain, as bring these
fellows into habits of discipline. Thady, you cut that haunch too
low--go deep, man--a long sweep from the pommel to the cantle--it is a
saddle worth riding on! By the infernal gods! if these yelping savages
do not learn to keep quiet in camp, I'll make a school for them with my
regulars, where they shall have good taste of the cat! nine hours' drill
and all the camp duty besides! Ha, M'Alpine, is it you who have been
standing here all this while? I didn't observe it, man--my quarters are
like a bar-room, and have been full of comers and goers all day. I
thought you were but some of my usual free-and