length burst forth; “or maybe he does na like _me_. What ails him at the bagpipes? By my faith, I have it now; he heard a little too much of them at Waterloo!” While our Scottish regiments have ceased to be composed exclusively of Scotchmen, they have still retained their pipers. They are not the only musicians attached to these regiments, for there are the brass bands besides; but the national music is always most appreciated by those who belong to the north. When the drum and the fife cease, and the bagpipes strike up some well-known pibroch or march, you can tell by their heightened colour and beaming eyes who are the Scotchmen in the ranks; cheered on by that music, they will rush on to danger or to death without dismay. It was a mistake to deprive these regiments of their pipers, as was done in some cases; and Scotland ought to cherish the memory of William IV. for restoring them to the Scots Fusilier Guards. The number attached to each regiment was originally twelve, but it has now, in some instances, been reduced to six. While the pipers may be regarded as non-combatants, they have contributed largely to every victory gained by their countrymen, not only by the animating strains of their music, but by their coolness and self-possession in the hour of danger. Many instances of this might be given; in truth, the pipers imagined that the result of the day depended in no small measure on the unceasing shrillness of their war notes and their constant presence in the thickest of the battle. The 42nd Highlanders formed part of the attacking party which captured Fort Washington in 1777. Determined to have their own share of glory, they scrambled up the precipice, holding on by the brushwood and shrubs which grew out of the crevices of the rocks. The first to reach the summit was one of the pipers, who, as soon as he had made good his footing, began to play; he knew that he was thus concentrating all the fire of the enemy on himself; but what was death to him so long as his comrades secured the victory? His body, riddled with bullets, fell from point to point till it reached the bottom of the rock, mangled and disfigured; but the Highlanders went on with a ringing cheer, and carried everything before them. The piper had the soul of a hero, and who will say that he died in vain?