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
"I am sorry you are averse to the Holsteiner," said Ian; "for I have
invited him to dine with us."
"Dine!" we exclaimed together; "surely it was more his part to have
invited us."
"Four hungry Highlandmen to dine with one German or Dane," replied
Ian; "oich! gentlemen, the thing was not to be thought of."
"I hope I shall not quarrel with him," I continued, remembering how
he had received me; "in those green eyes of his are the very smile of
a Campbell."
"And you know the adage?" added Tan, as he flung aside his sword,
plaid, and pistols.
"While there are leaves on the trees, there will be guile----"
"Do not say in a Campbell," said the sergeant, Mhor, pausing in his
culinary occupation, and bluntly interrupting M'Alpine; "do not say
so, lieutenant, for my great-grandmother was a daughter of
Barcaldine."
"I crave your pardon, sergeant," replied M'Alpine; "but my father,
Torquil Dhu, was slain at Glenlivat by the men of Loch Awe, and I
have a score to settle with that tribe."
"Hush!" said I, "here comes our Dane."
"Dane--dost thou call him?" said Angus; "nay, being a Holsteiner, he
is pure German."
"What a clatter he makes!"
"'Tis his espadone on the stair."
"Dioul!" said my cousin; "and now let us to dinner."
We all rose to receive this personage, whom our Highland education
made us disposed to treat with the utmost respect as the master of
the house, or _husbonde_, as the Danes would call him (though only
his deputy); Ian bade him welcome in Gaëlic, and Phadrig Mhor, whose
vast stature made the Northman open wide his eyes, placed a chair for
him, and we proceeded to dine.
I have said each of the five or six stories of the mansion had two
dwellings, consisting of several apartments. Phadrig Mhor had
ransacked the whole place, and collected within our chamber such
furniture and utensils as he could procure among the vacated and
desolate rooms. From one he brought a table; from another a
high-backed antique chair; from a third a stool; from a fourth a
tabourette; from another a pot, a kettle, and so on, until he had
almost furnished our damp chamber, which overlooked the row of
poplars, beyond which, in the Platz, we saw a regiment of Scottish
pikemen being drilled to the use of the pike, according to the new
fashion, as laid down in the _Pallas Armata_ of that eminent
tactician, Captain Sir Thomas Kellie of Edinburgh and that Ilk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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