"Awa soldiering as a volunteer! Wae is me, wae is me, but this is pitiful, exceedingly pitiful!" exclaimed the dominie, lifting up his hands and eyes; "think of my wasted latinity!" "Dominie, you are a gowk! I like the lad's spirit, and respect it," said the quartermaster, whose eyes were so full that he could scarcely peruse the letter; "but he's ower young, he's far ower young for such hard work. I mind well of what I had to go through in my time in Germany and America." "Ower young, think ye?" "But he is hardy and manly." "According to Polybius, in his sixth book, the Romans could be soldiers, indeed, _had_ to be soldiers, in their seventeenth year." "Bother your Romans! fill your jug--a steaming brimmer, and drain it to Quentin's health and success, and his safety too." Then standing up erect, the quartermaster drained his jug at a draught, a process promptly followed by the dominie; but after what they had imbibed already, it had the effect of rapidly multiplying the lights and other objects, and also tended to make their utterance thick and indistinct. "I must away to my lord wi' this braw news," said Girvan; "the puir lad! he didna deceive me after all, but wrote when he had time. And this Captain Warriston who befriended Quentin--(God bless him, say I!)--befriended him, dominie, because he was a soldier's son. Ah, dominie, dominie!--that is the _freemasonry of the service_, which makes all in it brothers--the true spirit of camaraderie! Another jorum to the health of this captain, whoever he be." "Bring forth the _amphora_--the greybeard o' whisky; but John, John," said the dominie, shaking his old wig sententiously, "what saith Habakkuk?" "How the deevil should I ken? and it is but little I care," added the irreverent quartermaster. "He saith, 'Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that putteth a bottle to him, and maketh him drunken,'" said the dominie, balancing himself by turns on each leg; and opening and shutting each eye alternately. "Drunken, you whaislin precentor?" "Yea, as thou, wicked quartermaster, hast made me, and when we are close on the hour 'o' night's black arch the keystone,' as puir Burns has it." "Never mind, dominie, the night is dark, and naebody will see you," stammered Girvan; "stick your knees into the saddle--gie your powny the reins, and he'll take you straight home, as he usually does. But I must away to my lord with this news; and so good-night. Now, dominie, steady--eyes front if you can!--hat cocked forward, cockade over the left eye--queue dressed straight with the seam of the coat--head up, little finger of each hand on the seam of the breeches--left foot thrown well out--pike advanced--forward, march! and hip, hip, hurrah for Quentin the volunteer!" And arm in arm the two old topers quitted the "snuggery," the dominie to go home in care of his pony, and his entertainer to seek Lord and Lady Rohallion before they retired for the night.