A Legend of Montrose Page 4

  CHAPTER II.

  His mother could for him as cradle set Her husband's rusty iron corselet; Whose jangling sound could hush her babe to rest, That never plain'd of his uneasy nest; Then did he dream of dreary wars at hand, And woke, and fought, and won, ere he could stand.--HALL'S SATIRES

  It was towards the close of a summer's evening, during the anxiousperiod which we have commemorated, that a young gentleman of quality,well mounted and armed, and accompanied by two servants, one of whom leda sumpter horse, rode slowly up one of those steep passes, by which theHighlands are accessible from the Lowlands of Perthshire. [The beautifulpass of Leny, near Callander, in Monteith, would, in some respects,answer this description.] Their course had lain for some time along thebanks of a lake, whose deep waters reflected the crimson beams of thewestern sun. The broken path which they pursued with some difficulty,was in some places shaded by ancient birches and oak-trees, and inothers overhung by fragments of huge rock. Elsewhere, the hill, whichformed the northern side of this beautiful sheet of water, arose insteep, but less precipitous acclivity, and was arrayed in heath of thedarkest purple. In the present times, a scene so romantic would havebeen judged to possess the highest charms for the traveller; butthose who journey in days of doubt and dread, pay little attention topicturesque scenery.

  The master kept, as often as the wood permitted, abreast of one or bothof his domestics, and seemed earnestly to converse with them, probablybecause the distinctions of rank are readily set aside among those whoare made to be sharers of common danger. The dispositions of the leadingmen who inhabit this wild country, and the probability of their takingpart in the political convulsions that were soon expected, were thesubjects of their conversation.

  They had not advanced above half way up the lake, and the younggentleman was pointing to his attendants the spot where their intendedroad turned northwards, and, leaving the verge of the loch, ascended aravine to the right hand, when they discovered a single horseman comingdown the shore, as if to meet them. The gleam of the sunbeams upon hishead-piece and corslet showed that he was in armour, and the purpose ofthe other travellers required that he should not pass unquestioned."We must know who he is," said the young gentleman, "and whither he isgoing." And putting spurs to his horse, he rode forward as fast as therugged state of the road would permit, followed by his two attendants,until he reached the point where the pass along the side of the lakewas intersected by that which descended from the ravine, securing thusagainst the possibility of the stranger eluding them, by turning intothe latter road before they came up with him.

  The single horseman had mended his pace, when he first observed thethree riders advance rapidly towards him; but when he saw them halt andform a front, which completely occupied the path, he checked hishorse, and advanced with great deliberation; so that each party had anopportunity to take a full survey of the other. The solitary strangerwas mounted upon an able horse, fit for military service, and forthe great weight which he had to carry, and his rider occupied hisdemipique, or war-saddle, with an air that showed it was his familiarseat. He had a bright burnished head-piece, with a plume of feathers,together with a cuirass, thick enough to resist a musket-ball, and aback-piece of lighter materials. These defensive arms he wore over abuff jerkin, along with a pair of gauntlets, or steel gloves, thetops of which reached up to his elbow, and which, like the rest of hisarmour, were of bright steel. At the front of his military saddle hunga case of pistols, far beyond the ordinary size, nearly two feet inlength, and carrying bullets of twenty to the pound. A buff belt, with abroad silver buckle, sustained on one side a long straight double-edgedbroadsword, with a strong guard, and a blade calculated either to strikeor push. On the right side hung a dagger of about eighteen inchesin length; a shoulder-belt sustained at his back a musketoon orblunderbuss, and was crossed by a bandelier containing his charges ofammunition. Thigh-pieces of steel, then termed taslets, met the tops ofhis huge jack-boots, and completed the equipage of a well-armed trooperof the period.

  The appearance of the horseman himself corresponded well with hismilitary equipage, to which he had the air of having been long inured.He was above the middle size, and of strength sufficient to bear withease the weight of his weapons, offensive and defensive. His agemight be forty and upwards, and his countenance was that of a resoluteweather-beaten veteran, who had seen many fields, and brought awayin token more than one scar. At the distance of about thirty yardshe halted and stood fast, raised himself on his stirrups, as if toreconnoitre and ascertain the purpose of the opposite party, and broughthis musketoon under his right arm, ready for use, if occasion shouldrequire it. In everything but numbers, he had the advantage of those whoseemed inclined to interrupt his passage.

  The leader of the party was, indeed, well mounted and clad in a buffcoat, richly embroidered, the half-military dress of the period; but hisdomestics had only coarse jackets of thick felt, which could scarce beexpected to turn the edge of a sword, if wielded by a strong man; andnone of them had any weapons, save swords and pistols, without whichgentlemen, or their attendants, during those disturbed times, seldomstirred abroad.

  When they had stood at gaze for about a minute, the younger gentlemangave the challenge which was then common in the mouth of all strangerswho met in such circumstances--"For whom are you?"

  "Tell me first," answered the soldier, "for whom are you?--the strongestparty should speak first."

  "We are for God and King Charles," answered the first speaker.--"Nowtell your faction, you know ours."

  "I am for God and my standard," answered the single horseman.

  "And for which standard?" replied the chief of the otherparty--"Cavalier or Roundhead, King or Convention?"

  "By my troth, sir," answered the soldier, "I would be loath to reply toyou with an untruth, as a thing unbecoming a cavalier of fortune anda soldier. But to answer your query with beseeming veracity, itis necessary I should myself have resolved to whilk of the presentdivisions of the kingdom I shall ultimately adhere, being a matterwhereon my mind is not as yet preceesely ascertained."

  "I should have thought," answered the gentleman, "that, when loyalty andreligion are at stake, no gentleman or man of honour could be long inchoosing his party."

  "Truly, sir," replied the trooper, "if ye speak this in the way ofvituperation, as meaning to impugn my honour or genteelity, I wouldblithely put the same to issue, venturing in that quarrel with my singleperson against you three. But if you speak it in the way of logicalratiocination, whilk I have studied in my youth at the Mareschal-Collegeof Aberdeen, I am ready to prove to ye LOGICE, that my resolutionto defer, for a certain season, the taking upon me either of thesequarrels, not only becometh me as a gentleman and a man of honour, butalso as a person of sense and prudence, one imbued with humane lettersin his early youth, and who, from thenceforward, has followed the warsunder the banner of the invincible Gustavus, the Lion of the North, andunder many other heroic leaders, both Lutheran and Calvinist, Papist andArminian."

  After exchanging a word or two with his domestics, the younger gentlemanreplied, "I should be glad, sir, to have some conversation with you uponso interesting a question, and should be proud if I can determine youin favour of the cause I have myself espoused. I ride this evening toa friend's house not three miles distant, whither, if you choose toaccompany me, you shall have good quarters for the night, and freepermission to take your own road in the morning, if you then feel noinclination to join with us."

  "Whose word am I to take for this?" answered the cautious soldier--"Aman must know his guarantee, or he may fall into an ambuscade."

  "I am called," answered the younger stranger, "the Earl of Menteith,and, I trust, you will receive my honour as a sufficient security."

  "A worthy nobleman," answered the soldier, "whose parole is not to bedoubted." With one motion he replaced his musketoon at his back,and with another made his military salute to the young nobleman, andcontinuing to talk as he rode forward to join him-
-"And, I trust," saidhe, "my own assurance, that I will be BON CAMARADO to your lordship inpeace or in peril, during the time we shall abide together, will notbe altogether vilipended in these doubtful times, when, as they say, aman's head is safer in a steel-cap than in a marble palace."

  "I assure you, sir," said Lord Menteith, "that to judge from yourappearance, I most highly value the advantage of your escort; but, Itrust, we shall have no occasion for any exercise of valour, as I expectto conduct you to good and friendly quarters."

  "Good quarters, my lord," replied the soldier, "are always acceptable,and are only to be postponed to good pay or good booty,--not to mentionthe honour of a cavalier, or the needful points of commanded duty. Andtruly, my lord, your noble proffer is not the less welcome, in that Iknew not preceesely this night where I and my poor companion" (pattinghis horse), "were to find lodgments."

  "May I be permitted to ask, then," said Lord Menteith, "to whom I havethe good fortune to stand quarter-master?"

  "Truly, my lord," said the trooper, "my name is Dalgetty--DugaldDalgetty, Ritt-master Dugald Dalgetty of Drumthwacket, at yourhonourable service to command. It is a name you may have seen in GALLOBELGICUS, the SWEDISH INTELLIGENCER, or, if you read High Dutch, in theFLIEGENDEN MERCOEUR of Leipsic. My father, my lord, having by unthriftycourses reduced a fair patrimony to a nonentity, I had no better shift,when I was eighteen years auld, than to carry the learning whilk Ihad acquired at the Mareschal-College of Aberdeen, my gentle bluid anddesignation of Drumthwacket, together with a pair of stalwarth arms, andlegs conform, to the German wars, there to push my way as a cavalier offortune. My lord, my legs and arms stood me in more stead than eithermy gentle kin or my book-lear, and I found myself trailing a pike asa private gentleman under old Sir Ludovick Leslie, where I learned therules of service so tightly, that I will not forget them in a hurry.Sir, I have been made to stand guard eight hours, being from twelve atnoon to eight o'clock of the night, at the palace, armed with back andbreast, head-piece and bracelets, being iron to the teeth, in a bitterfrost, and the ice was as hard as ever was flint; and all for stoppingan instant to speak to my landlady, when I should have gone toroll-call."

  "And, doubtless, sir," replied Lord Menteith, "you have gone throughsome hot service, as well as this same cold duty you talk of?"

  "Surely, my lord, it doth not become me to speak; but he that hath seenthe fields of Leipsic and of Lutzen, may be said to have seen pitchedbattles. And one who hath witnessed the intaking of Frankfort, andSpanheim, and Nuremberg, and so forth, should know somewhat aboutleaguers, storms, onslaughts and outfalls."

  "But your merit, sir, and experience, were doubtless followed bypromotion?"

  "It came slow, my lord, dooms slow," replied Dalgetty; "but as myScottish countrymen, the fathers of the war, and the raisers of thosevalorous Scottish regiments that were the dread of Germany, began tofall pretty thick, what with pestilence and what with the sword, whywe, their children, succeeded to their inheritance. Sir, I was six yearsfirst private gentleman of the company, and three years lance speisade;disdaining to receive a halberd, as unbecoming my birth. Wherefore Iwas ultimately promoted to be a fahndragger, as the High Dutch callit (which signifies an ancient), in the King's Leif Regiment ofBlack-Horse, and thereafter I arose to be lieutenant and ritt-master,under that invincible monarch, the bulwark of the Protestant faith, theLion of the North, the terror of Austria, Gustavus the Victorious."

  "And yet, if I understand you, Captain Dalgetty,--I think that rankcorresponds with your foreign title of ritt-master--"

  "The same grade preceesely," answered Dalgetty; "ritt-master signifyingliterally file-leader."

  "I was observing," continued Lord Menteith, "that, if I understood youright, you had left the service of this great Prince."

  "It was after his death--it was after his death, sir," said Dalgetty,"when I was in no shape bound to continue mine adherence. There arethings, my lord, in that service, that cannot but go against the stomachof any cavalier of honour. In especial, albeit the pay be none ofthe most superabundant, being only about sixty dollars a-month to aritt-master, yet the invincible Gustavus never paid above one-third ofthat sum, whilk was distributed monthly by way of loan; although, whenjustly considered, it was, in fact, a borrowing by that great monarch ofthe additional two-thirds which were due to the soldier. And I have seensome whole regiments of Dutch and Holsteiners mutiny on the field ofbattle, like base scullions, crying out Gelt, gelt, signifying theirdesire of pay, instead of falling to blows like our noble Scottishblades, who ever disdained, my lord, postponing of honour to filthylucre."

  "But were not these arrears," said Lord Menteith, "paid to the soldieryat some stated period?"

  "My lord," said Dalgetty, "I take it on my conscience, that at noperiod, and by no possible process, could one creutzer of them ever berecovered. I myself never saw twenty dollars of my own all the time Iserved the invincible Gustavus, unless it was from the chance of a stormor victory, or the fetching in some town or doorp, when a cavalier offortune, who knows the usage of wars, seldom faileth to make some smallprofit."

  "I begin rather to wonder, sir," said Lord Menteith, "that you shouldhave continued so long in the Swedish service, than that you should haveultimately withdrawn from it."

  "Neither I should," answered the Ritt-master; "but that great leader,captain, and king, the Lion of the North, and the bulwark of theProtestant faith, had a way of winning battles, taking towns,over-running countries, and levying contributions, whilk made hisservice irresistibly delectable to all true-bred cavaliers who followthe noble profession of arms. Simple as I ride here, my lord, I havemyself commanded the whole stift of Dunklespiel on the Lower Rhine,occupying the Palsgrave's palace, consuming his choice wines with mycomrades, calling in contributions, requisitions, and caduacs, and notfailing to lick my fingers, as became a good cook. But truly all thisglory hastened to decay, after our great master had been shot with threebullets on the field of Lutzen; wherefore, finding that Fortune hadchanged sides, that the borrowings and lendings went on as before out ofour pay, while the caduacs and casualties were all cut off, I e'en gaveup my commission, and took service with Wallenstein, in Walter Butler'sIrish regiment."

  "And may I beg to know of you," said Lord Menteith, apparentlyinterested in the adventures of this soldier of fortune, "how you likedthis change of masters?"

  "Indifferent well," said the Captain--"very indifferent well. I cannotsay that the Emperor paid much better than the great Gustavus. Forhard knocks, we had plenty of them. I was often obliged to run my headagainst my old acquaintances, the Swedish feathers, whilk your honourmust conceive to be double-pointed stakes, shod with iron at eachend, and planted before the squad of pikes to prevent an onfall of thecavalry. The whilk Swedish feathers, although they look gay to the eye,resembling the shrubs or lesser trees of ane forest, as the puissantpikes, arranged in battalia behind them, correspond to the tall pinesthereof, yet, nevertheless, are not altogether so soft to encounter asthe plumage of a goose. Howbeit, in despite of heavy blows and lightpay, a cavalier of fortune may thrive indifferently well in the Imperialservice, in respect his private casualties are nothing so closely lookedto as by the Swede; and so that an officer did his duty on the field,neither Wallenstein nor Pappenheim, nor old Tilly before them, wouldlikely listen to the objurgations of boors or burghers against anycommander or soldado, by whom they chanced to be somewhat closely shorn.So that an experienced cavalier, knowing how to lay, as our Scottishphrase runs, 'the head of the sow to the tail of the grice,' might getout of the country the pay whilk he could not obtain from the Emperor."

  "With a full hand, sir, doubtless, and with interest," said LordMenteith.

  "Indubitably, my lord," answered Dalgetty, composedly; "for it would bedoubly disgraceful for any soldado of rank to have his name called inquestion for any petty delinquency."

  "And pray, Sir," continued Lord Menteith, "what made you leave sogainful a service?"

  "Why, truly, sir," answered
the soldier, "an Irish cavalier, calledO'Quilligan, being major of our regiment, and I having had words withhim the night before, respecting the worth and precedence of our severalnations, it pleased him the next day to deliver his orders to me withthe point of his batoon advanced and held aloof, instead of decliningand trailing the same, as is the fashion from a courteous commandingofficer towards his equal in rank, though, it may be, his inferior inmilitary grade. Upon this quarrel, sir, we fought in private rencontre;and as, in the perquisitions which followed, it pleased WalterButler, our oberst, or colonel, to give the lighter punishment tohis countryman, and the heavier to me, whereupon, ill-stomaching suchpartiality, I exchanged my commission for one under the Spaniard."

  "I hope you found yourself better off by the change?" said LordMenteith.

  "In good sooth," answered the Ritt-master, "I had but little to complainof. The pay was somewhat regular, being furnished by the rich Flemingsand Waloons of the Low Country. The quarters were excellent; the goodwheaten loaves of the Flemings were better than the Provant rye-bread ofthe Swede, and Rhenish wine was more plenty with us than ever I saw theblack-beer of Rostock in Gustavus's camp. Service there was none, dutythere was little; and that little we might do, or leave undone, at ourpleasure; an excellent retirement for a cavalier somewhat weary of fieldand leaguer, who had purchased with his blood as much honour as mightserve his turn, and was desirous of a little ease and good living."

  "And may I ask," said Lord Menteith, "why you, Captain, being, as Isuppose, in the situation you describe, retired from the Spanish servicealso?"

  "You are to consider, my lord, that your Spaniard," replied CaptainDalgetty, "is a person altogether unparalleled in his own conceit,where-through he maketh not fit account of such foreign cavaliers ofvalour as are pleased to take service with him. And a galling thingit is to every honourable soldado, to be put aside, and postponed, andobliged to yield preference to every puffing signor, who, were it thequestion which should first mount a breach at push of pike, might beapt to yield willing place to a Scottish cavalier. Moreover, sir, I waspricked in conscience respecting a matter of religion."

  "I should not have thought, Captain Dalgetty," said the young nobleman,"that an old soldier, who had changed service so often, would have beentoo scrupulous on that head."

  "No more I am, my lord," said the Captain, "since I hold it to be theduty of the chaplain of the regiment to settle those matters for me, andevery other brave cavalier, inasmuch as he does nothing else that I knowof for his pay and allowances. But this was a particular case, my lord,a CASUS IMPROVISUS, as I may say, in whilk I had no chaplain of my ownpersuasion to act as my adviser. I found, in short, that although mybeing a Protestant might be winked at, in respect that I was a man ofaction, and had more experience than all the Dons in our TERTIA puttogether, yet, when in garrison, it was expected I should go to masswith the regiment. Now, my lord, as a true Scottish man, and educated atthe Mareschal-College of Aberdeen, I was bound to uphold the mass to bean act of blinded papistry and utter idolatry, whilk I was altogetherunwilling to homologate by my presence. True it is, that I consulted onthe point with a worthy countryman of my own, one Father Fatsides, ofthe Scottish Covenant in Wurtzburg--"

  "And I hope," observed Lord Menteith, "you obtained a clear opinion fromthis same ghostly father?"

  "As clear as it could be," replied Captain Dalgetty, "considering we haddrunk six flasks of Rhenish, and about two mutchkins of Kirchenwasser.Father Fatsides informed me, that, as nearly as he could judge for aheretic like myself, it signified not much whether I went to mass ornot, seeing my eternal perdition was signed and sealed at any rate,in respect of my impenitent and obdurate perseverance in my damnableheresy. Being discouraged by this response, I applied to a Dutch pastorof the reformed church, who told me, he thought I might lawfully goto mass, in respect that the prophet permitted Naaman, a mighty man ofvalour, and an honourable cavalier of Syria, to follow his master intothe house of Rimmon, a false god, or idol, to whom he had vowed service,and to bow down when the king was leaning upon his hand. But neitherwas this answer satisfactory to me, both because there was an uncodifference between an anointed King of Syria and our Spanish colonel,whom I could have blown away like the peeling of an ingan, and chieflybecause I could not find the thing was required of me by any of thearticles of war; neither was I proffered any consideration, either inperquisite or pay, for the wrong I might thereby do to my conscience."

  "So you again changed your service?" said Lord Menteith.

  "In troth did I, my lord; and after trying for a short while twoor three other powers, I even took on for a time with their HighMightinesses the States of Holland."

  "And how did their service jump with your humour?" again demanded hiscompanion.

  "O! my lord," said the soldier, in a sort of enthusiasm, "theirbehaviour on pay-day might be a pattern to all Europe--no borrowings, nolendings, no offsets no arrears--all balanced and paid like abanker's book. The quarters, too, are excellent, and the allowancesunchallengeable; but then, sir, they are a preceese, scrupulous people,and will allow nothing for peccadilloes. So that if a boor complains ofa broken head, or a beer-seller of a broken can, or a daft wench doesbut squeak loud enough to be heard above her breath, a soldier of honourshall be dragged, not before his own court-martial, who can best judgeof and punish his demerits, but before a base mechanical burgo-master,who shall menace him with the rasp-house, the cord, and what not, as ifhe were one of their own mean, amphibious, twenty-breeched boors. Sonot being able to dwell longer among those ungrateful plebeians, who,although unable to defend themselves by their proper strength, willnevertheless allow the noble foreign cavalier who engages with themnothing beyond his dry wages, which no honourable spirit will putin competition with a liberal license and honourable countenance, Iresolved to leave the service of the Mynheers. And hearing at this time,to my exceeding satisfaction, that there is something to be doing thissummer in my way in this my dear native country, I am come hither,as they say, like a beggar to a bridal, in order to give my lovingcountrymen the advantage of that experience which I have acquiredin foreign parts. So your lordship has an outline of my brief story,excepting my deportment in those passages of action in the field, inleaguers, storms, and onslaughts, whilk would be wearisome to narrate,and might, peradventure, better befit any other tongue than mine own."