But amid all the bustle of the embarkation in transports and ships of war--such rough sea-going ships as Smollet has portrayed in his "Roderick Random"--Charters saw ever before him the happy, bright, and beautiful Emmy of the past year of joy; or as he had last seen her, pale, crushed, and drooping in tears upon his breast--her coquetry, her drollery, her laughter, all evaporated, and the true loving and trusting woman alone remaining--her eyes full of affection, and her voice tremulous with emotion. Louis sailed for America with one of the finest regiments ever sent forth by Scotland, which, in the war that preceded the declaration of American independence, gave to the British ranks more than sixty thousand soldiers*--few, indeed, of whom ever returned to lay their bones in the land of their fathers. * See "Present Conduct of the Chieftains Considered." Edinburgh: 1773. "Thus it appears," says an anti-ministerial pamphlet, published in 1763, "that out of 756 officers commanding in the Army, garrisons, &c., 210 are Scots: and out of 1930 in the Navy, 536 are Scots." The table was thus:-- Army Scots Generals . . . . . . 29 Scots Colonels . . . . . . 39 Scots Lieut.-Colonels . . 81 Scots Majors . . . . . . . 61 Navy Scots Admirals . . . . . . 7 Scots Captains . . . . . . 81 Scots Masters . . . . . . 33 Scots Lieutenants . . . . 271 Scots Surgeons . . . . . . 144 Montgomery's Highlanders consisted of thirteen companies, making a total of 1460 men, including 65 sergeants who were armed with Lochaber axes, and 30 pipers armed with target and claymore. Once more among his comrades, the spirit of Charters rose again; a hundred kindly old regimental sympathies were awakened in his breast, and, though the keen regret of his recent parting was fresh in his memory, yet in the conversation of Alaster Mackenzie (who shared his confidence), and in his military duty, he found a relief from bitterness--a refuge which was denied to poor Emmy, who was left to the solitude of her own thoughts and the bitter solace of her own tears, amid those familiar scenes which only conduced to add poignancy to her grief, and served hourly to recal some memory of the absent, and those hours of love and pleasure that had fled, perhaps never to return. Meanwhile, Charters had not a thought or hope, desire or aim, but to do his duty nobly in the field, to obtain promotion, and to return to wed Emmy. A year--two years--yea, even three, though an eternity to a lover, would soon pass amid the bustle and excitement of war and of foreign service. Three years at most, then, would find him again at the side of Emmy, hand in hand as of old. But, alas I as poor Robert Burns says pithily-- "The best-laid schemes of mice and men Gang aft ajee."