Philip Rollo; or, the Scottish Musketeers, Vol. 1 (of 2)Grant, James
General
Philip Rollo; or, the Scottish Musketeers, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Grant, James
Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 -- Fiction
That maxim of the great Count Tilly, "a ragged soldier with a bright
musket," applied not to us, for our harness was polished as bright as
when the armourer had sent it from his shop; and I was astonished by
the finery displayed among our poorest private soldiers. The mouths
of their sporrans, the brooches of their plaids, and the hilts of
their dirks, were either ornamented with silver, or such precious
stones as their own mountains afforded--the topaz, the amethyst, the
cairngorm, and the river pearl; for it was their ambition that, if
they were slain, or should die far from their home, there should be
wherewithal on their persons to pay for a respectable funeral.
My brave comrades! too many of them were doomed to find no other
grave than the maws of the gorged and hideous crows that hovered over
the battle-fields of Low Germanie, when the boom of the culverin
summoned them from the four winds of heaven to their terrible feast.
We were formed in line, three ranks deep, on the quay, and there were
exactly one thousand five hundred and forty men in their helmets; the
colours, with the pipes and drums, were in the centre; the pikemen
flanked the musketeers. Well mounted, and clad in a magnificent suit
of Italian plate, which was covered with so many rare and gold
devices that it was usually believed to be enchanted, Sir Donald,
with his claymore drawn, gave the words of command rapidly, as became
a cavalier of spirit.
"Gentlemen, height your musketeers--dress your ranks, pike-men! To
the right--turn; quick march."
The colours bent forward rustling in the wind, five hundred pikes and
a thousand muskets were sloped in the sunshine, and with our drums
beating that brave Scottish march, which has led so often to death
but never to defeat, we entered Glückstadt, being duly saluted at the
gates with all the honours of war, by the Laird of Craigie's regiment
of Danes, who formed line, with pikes advanced and drums beating.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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