chimneys, and the expectations which this seemed to warrant of

his encountering an abundant stock of provant, as he was wont to
call supplies of this nature.

The boat soon approached the rugged pier, which abutted into the
loch from the little town of Inverary, then a rude assemblage of

huts, with a very few stone mansions interspersed, stretching
upwards from the banks of Loch Fine to the principal gate of the

castle, before which a scene presented itself that might easily
have quelled a less stout heart, and turned a more delicate

stomach, than those of Ritt-master Dugald Dalgetty, titular of
Drumthwacket.

CHAPTER XII.
For close designs and crooked counsels fit,

Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit,
Restless, unfix'd in principle and place,

In power unpleased, impatient in disgrace.
ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL.

The village of Inverary, now a neat country town, then partook of
the rudeness of the seventeenth century, in the miserable

appearance of the houses, and the irregularity of the unpaved
street. But a stronger and more terrible characteristic of the

period appeared in the market-place, which was a space of
irregular width, half way betwixt the harbour, or pier, and the

frowning castle-gate, which terminated with its gloomy archway,
portcullis, and flankers, the upper end of the vista. Midway

this space was erected a rude gibbet, on which hung five dead
bodies, two of which from their dress seemed to have been

Lowlanders, and the other three corpses were muffled in their
Highland plaids. Two or three women sate under the gallows, who

seemed to be mourning, and singing the coronach of the deceased
in a low voice. But the spectacle was apparently of too ordinary

occurrence to have much interest for the inhabitants at large,
who, while they thronged to look at the military figure, the

horse of an unusual size, and the burnished panoply of Captain
Dalgetty, seemed to bestow no attention whatever on the piteous

spectacle which their own market-place afforded.
The envoy of Montrose was not quite so indifferent; and, hearing

a word or two of English escape from a Highlander of decent
appearance, he immediately halted Gustavus and addressed him,

"The Provost-Marshal has been busy here, my friend. May I crave
of you what these delinquents have been justified for?"

He looked towards the gibbet as he spoke; and the Gael,
comprehending his meaning rather by his action than his words,

immediately replied, "Three gentlemen caterans,--God sain them"
(crossing himself)--"twa Sassenach bits o' bodies, that wadna do

something that M'Callum More bade them;" and turning from
Dalgetty with an air of indifference, away he walked, staying no

farther question.
Dalgetty shrugged his shoulders and proceeded, for Sir Duncan

Campbell's tenth or twelfth cousin had already shown some signs
of impatience.

At the gate of the castle another terrible spectacle of feudal
power awaited him. Within a stockade or palisade, which seemed

lately to have been added to the defences of the gate, and which
was protected by two pieces of light artillery, was a small

enclosure, where stood a huge block, on which lay an axe. Both
were smeared with recent blood, and a quantity of saw-dust

strewed around, partly retained and partly obliterated the marks
of a very late execution.

As Dalgetty looked on this new object of terror, his principal
guide suddenly twitched him by the skirt of his jerkin, and

having thus attracted his attention, winked and pointed with his
finger to a pole fixed on the stockade, which supported a human

head, being that, doubtless, of the late sufferer. There was a
leer on the Highlander's face, as he pointed to this ghastly

spectacle, which seemed to his fellow-traveller ominous of
nothing good.

Dalgetty dismounted from his horse at the gateway, and Gustavus
was taken from him without his being permitted to attend him to

the stable, according to his custom.
This gave the soldier a pang which the apparatus of death had not

conveyed.--"Poor Gustavus!" said he to himself, "if anything but
good happens to me, I had better have left him at Darnlinvarach

than brought him here among these Highland salvages, who scarce
know the head of a horse from his tail. But duty must part a man

from his nearest and dearest--
"When the cannons are roaring, lads, and the colours are flying,

The lads that seek honour must never fear dying;
Then, stout cavaliers, let us toil our brave trade in,

And fight for the Gospel and the bold King of Sweden."
Thus silencing his apprehensions with the but-end of a military

ballad, he followed his guide into a sort of guard-room filled
with armed Highlanders. It was intimated to him that he must

remain here until his arrival was communicated to the Marquis.
To make this communication the more intelligible, the doughty

Captain gave to the Dunniewassel Sir Duncan Campbell's packet,
desiring, as well as he could, by signs, that it should be

delivered into the Marquis's own hand. His guide nodded, and
withdrew.

The Captain was left about half an hour in this place, to endure
with indifference, or return with scorn, the inquisitive, and, at

the same time, the inimical glances of the armed Gael, to whom
his exterior and equipage were as much subject of curiosity, as

his person and country seemed matter of dislike. All this he
bore with military nonchalance, until, at the expiration of the

above period, a person dressed in black velvet, and wearing a
gold chain like a modern magistrate of Edinburgh, but who was, in

fact, steward of the household to the Marquis of Argyle, entered
the apartment, and invited, with solemngravity, the Captain to

follow him to his master's presence.
The suite of apartments through which he passed, were filled with

attendants or visitors of various descriptions, disposed,
perhaps, with some ostentation, in order to impress the envoy of

Montrose with an idea of the superior power and magnificence
belonging to the rival house of Argyle. One ante-room was filled

with lacqueys, arrayed in brown and yellow, the colours of the
family, who, ranged in double file, gazed in silence upon Captain

Dalgetty as he passed betwixt their ranks. Another was occupied
by Highland gentlemen and chiefs of small branches, who were

amusing themselves with chess, backgammon, and other games, which
they scarce intermitted to gaze with curiosity upon the stranger.

A third was filled with Lowland gentlemen and officers, who
seemed also in attendance; and, lastly, the presence-chamber of

the Marquis himself showed him attended by a levee which marked
his high importance.

This apartment, the folding doors of which were opened for the
reception of Captain Dalgetty, was a long gallery, decorated with

tapestry and family portraits, and having a vaulted ceiling of
open wood-work, the extreme projections of the beams being richly

carved and gilded. The gallery was lighted by long lanceolated
Gothic casements, divided by heavy shafts, and filled with

painted glass, where the sunbeams glimmered dimly through boars'-
heads, and galleys, and batons, and swords, armorial bearings of

the powerful house of Argyle, and emblems of the high hereditary
offices of Justiciary of Scotland, and Master of the Royal

Household, which they long enjoyed. At the upper end of this
magnificent gallery stood the Marquis himself, the centre of a

splendid circle of Highland and Lowland gentlemen, all richly
dressed, among whom were two or three of the clergy, called in,

perhaps, to be witnesses of his lordship's zeal for the Covenant.
The Marquis himself was dressed in the fashion of the period,

which Vandyke has so often painted, but his habit was sober and