apped up in his plaid,
his bonnet over a frowning brow, menace in his eye.

"Not another word, if it must be in that key. Has Archibald Marquis of
Argile and Lord of Lochow no friends in this convocation? I would have
thought his own paid curate and a neighbour so close as Elrigmore would
never waste the hours due to sleep upon treason to the man who deserved
better of them."

"You should have eavesdropped earlier and you would have learned that
there was no treason in the matter. I'm as leal friend to my lord of
Argile as you or any of your clan. What do I care for your bubbly-jock
Highland vanity?" said Gordon.

"We were saying nothing of MacCailein that we would not say to you," I
explained to M'Iver, annoyed in some degree by his interference.

"Ay, ay," said he, with a pitying shrug of the shoulder, and throwing
off his last objection to my curiosity; "you're on the old point again.
Man, but you're ill to satisfy! And yet we must have the story sooner
or later, I suppose. I would rather have it anywhere than in this wauf
and...

[Page 261 missing.]

...malcontents as we thought them, and found Montrose on the braes above
us as the dawn broke. We had but a shot or two apiece to the musket,
they tell me. Dun-barton's drums rolled, the pipes clamoured, the camp
rose from its sleep in a confusion, and a white moon was fainting behind
us. Argile, who had slept in a galley all night, came ashore in a wherry
with his left arm in a sling. His face was like the clay, but he had a
firm lip, and he was buckling a hauberk with a steady hand as the men
fell under arms. Left alone then, I have a belief that he would have
come through the affair gallantly; but the Highland double-dealings were
too much for him. He turned to Auchinbreac and said 'Shall I take the
command, or----?' leaving an alternative for his relative to
guess at Auchinbreac, a stout soldier but a vicious, snapped him very
short 'Leave it to me, leave it to me,' he answered, and busied himself
again in disposing his troops, upon whom I was well aware he had no
great reliance. Then Sir James Rollock-Niddry, and a few others pushed
the Marquis to take his place in his galley again, but would he? Not
till Auchinbreac came up a second time, and seeing the contention of his
mind, took your Highland way of flattering a chief, and made a poltroon
act appear one of judgment and necessity. 'As a man and soldier only,
you might be better here at