"Your wishes, with those of Captain Seaton, shall have due consideration with the court, Captain Blacier," replied the president; and the rifleman withdrew, puffing vehemently with his long pipe. When called upon to make his defence, the prisoner had little to say. He knew that any attempts to extenuate his double crime would be perfectly unavailing, and his knowledge of the rules of the service led him to anticipate his doom. Yet his keen grey eye never quailed or grew less bright, and his voice never faltered while he addressed the court in the following manner:— "Weel do I ken, sirs, that I have been acting wrang,—unco’ wrang. I hae been guilty, in sae far that I abandoned my quarters, and was awa amang the hills; but I deny solemnly, and may I be haulden mansworn, if ever I ettled to desert, or gae ower to the enemy’s colours. I was clean wud, and kenned na’ at the time whar I was danderin’ to. I tell your honours the truth, and I would scorn to affirm it wi’ an aith, because I never tauld a lee in a’ my days, and hae nae need to fib or flaw noo. But, sirs, I think there isna ane in this room that wadna hae dune as I did that nicht, when I kent that I was on the brink o’ losing for ever and ay the winsome lass to whom I had plighted heart and troth; and I will affirm, gentlemen, that neither the danger or disgrace o’ haeing it imputed to me that I abandoned my standard, could keep me frae trying to save her frae sic a tyrannical and avaricious auld carle as her faither. It has been said, in the ’crime,’ that I was gaun the gate to the enemy’s lines. Ablins I was, and ablins I wasna, for I was wading through a sea o’ desperation,—I was dumbfounded and gane gyte that nicht, and it was a’ after I had bent the bicker a gay gude while, as my comrade Evan Iverach has tauld unto ye. "O sirs! I hope that ye will neither flog nor degrade me; but let me dee the death my crime is said to merit. Let me dee noo,—noo that I hae broucht sorrow and wae, sorrow and disgrace to my honest faither’s fireside; for though he is but a puir auld cottar body at Braemar, it will bring his bald head to the grave if he hears I hae come to the halberts,[*]—it would be sic an awfu’ disgrace! the haill kintra-side wad ring wi’t. Let me rather die, sirs: I say again,—a hundred times I hae faced death, and I can easily face him ance mair. But it is whan I think o’ my faither and mother at hame amang the heather hills,—struggling wi’ eild and wi’ poortith,—the ane herdin’ sheep in bonnie Glenclunaidh amang the lang yellow broom, and the ither spinnin’ hard at the ingle-neuk, whar I hae sae aften toddled at her knee,—’tis whan I think o’ them that I am ready to orp and greet, and that my stout heart fails me,—a heart, sirs, that never failed on mony a bluidy day. I hae nae mair to say, your honours, but just that I humbly thank ye for hearing me sae lang, and that I wad as sune dee as live." [*] The triangles: three pikes were used in those days.