weapon in his hand, which weapon was neither more nor less than a large hazel sapling, that he had cut from the bush; and as he came along he kept snedding the branches from it with his pocket gully. "What's the matter now, mun ?" cried he, addressing Joseph; "is there any thing more wanting?" "Yes, there is, cousin Dick," said Joseph, slapping him on the shoulder; "but not on your part. You are a man, every inch of you; and one too at whose side I'll fight or fall any day in the year. But there is a want on my part; a want of proof against a meanspirited, bullying poltron, who denies his word and his engagement; and here, before you both, I give him the lie direct, and I spit in his face.-Now, sir, make the most of that that you can, or that you dare." 66 Whoy, callant, that's excessively impudent," said Richard, not wholly comprehending the extent of the Hebridean's blame, or rather not aware of its enormity; "thou sees the want of the sword is no great matter to quarrel about. A might man never wants a weapon;" and with that he brandished his tree. "But an thou likes to kick him, I'll stand be thee." Joseph, who was as angry at M'Coll as it was possible to be, took his cousin's hint, sprung forward, and gave M'Coll a hearty kick in the rear. The latter made an effort to return it, but Joseph was too agile for him, and twice he spent his limb's strength in air. The indignity made the blood rush to his cheeks and forehead, and he made as though he meditated a furious personal attack on his assailant; but his eye chancing to rise to Richard's staff, the sight cut his sally short at once, and he contented himself with turning round on his heel, and saying, with high and affected disdain, "Did not I pe thelling her tat she was te fery fulgar poy, without any of te preeding of te shentleman in his whoule pody and shoul?" 66 Canny, mun; canny a wee bit, an thou lykes,' 99 'said Dick, brandishing his weapon. "No family reflections here, or here's a bit of a rung will give thee thine answer." That rung was as uncouth and dangerous looking a weapon of the sort as could be conceived. It was jagged and crooked; some of the stubs on it an inch and a half in length; and with this stake he insisted on fighting the Ensign with his long sword. To this, however, the acute and genteel Highlander objected; he shook his head, with a mild and forgiving accent, "Hu no, sir! You must be taking my excuse. A Highland shentleman nefer takes the advantage; nefer, nefer!" “Whoy, mun, I'll give thee all the advantage thou has," said Richard, "and something into the boot foreby. When I's willing to take such a weapon as the place affords, it is impossible thou can have any objections." "Hu, not indheed, sir. You mhust be content to pe hafing my excuse, it is peing out of all te points of honour and shentleman's dhuel. She will be putting it over to the secondaries." "I am quite content, for my part, that my friend take his chance with his sapling," said Joseph. "Hu, put, shentlemans, I'll not pe content," said M'Coll, nhor nefer shan't. What de diabhal more! shall it pe said, when my friend, te Captain tere, puts his swort trou te hert, and te pody, and te plood of tat prafe shentleman, that she killet a mhan wit a swort, who had nothing for defhence put a pranch of a stick? Cot's creat pig tamm! she would not consent for te whoule wourld and mhore. Just pe te considerhation tat she were to pe cutting and slashing down through his head, and his prains, and his face. And nothing put a stick? Phoo, phoo! Nhot at all, nhot at all. Let us go, let us go." "You shall either fight me here, as you engaged," said Richard, stepping before them," or I'll bast you both with this caber, till you lie on the spot, and kick you with my foot after you are down. Draw out your sword without another word." "Dhear, sir, te mhatter is peyond te law, and pe yond all shenteel pehaviours," said the Ensign, bowing in manifest dismay. Draw out your sword," bellowed Richard, in his most tremendous voice, and heaved his cudgel, as if about to fell an ox. The ireful sound actually made Peter M'Turk spring a yard from the ground, with a sort of backward leap, and when he alighted, it so chanced that his back was toward Richard, and his eye at the same moment catching a glance of one of the impending quivers of the jagged hazel branch, he was seized with an involuntary and natural feeling of self-preservation; and as the most obvious way of attaining this, he fell a running with no ordinary degree of speed. Now all this, though notoriously unlucky, as far as it regarded the manhood of the gallant Ensign, was the consequence and summary of feelings so spontaneous and irresistible, that to have acted otherwise, was, without all doubt, out of his power, be blamed for it how he may. But the worst thing attending all these sudden sensations of danger and dread is, that after a man has fairly turned his back, and fallen a running, it is all over with his courage for that time, and he thinks of nothing but speeding his escape. Without some great intervention, such as the Hays with their oxen yokes, the warrior's character cannot be retrieved at that bout. It is, however, far from being a bad omen of a young hero, that extraordinary degree of fright that drives him at the first outset to desperate resources; therefore no man will look down on Ensign M'Turk for this, after he is informed, that the invincible Arthur Wellesley, in one of the first battles ever he stood in India, fled in a night attack, and left his regiment to be cut up; nor could he find a man of it again before daylight, although he disguised himself under a war cloak, and went about inquiring for such and such a regiment. That gentleman has never again turned his back on his enemies from that day to this. But a still more pleasant instance of this inverted sort of courage was exhibited on board a British man 1 of-war, in an engagement in the mouth of the Channel. A good-looking young man, who was employed at one of the guns, got so frightened, that he actually went mad, and after uttering two or three great roars, threw himself into the sea. An officer on deck, seeing his place left vacant, seized a boat-hook, and in one minute had him again on board, gave him a kick, and ordered him to stand to his post, or he would blow his brains out. The man continued for a while quite unsettled and insensible; but at length, in the utmost desperation, he seized a paint-pot, clapped it on his head for a helmet, and under this ideal safeguard, all fears vanished in one moment. There was no man on board who behaved with more spirit during the whole of the engagement; for he not only exerted himself to the utmost, but encouraged those about him to do the same. The paint ran in streams off at his heels, covering all his body with long stripes; yet there was he flying about on the deck, like a hero, with his paintpot on his head. That man afterward rose to distinction for his undeviating course of steadiness and bravery. Let no man, therefore, flout at Peter M'Turk; for as the old proverb runs, "He may come to a pouchfu' o' peas before he dies, for all that's come and gone." Whoever had been obliged to encounter Richard Rickleton with such a tree over his shoulder, he could then have appreciated the justice of Peter's apprehensions; but without such an experiment, it is impossible. Richard's form is to be seen to this day, nothing deteriorated, and is well known to be equal in dimensions to that of a notable Scotch drover; while the staff that he bore, was of that appalling make, that it was evident a long thin shabble of a sword was no weapon to oppose it. It was like a weaver's beam. When Peter fell a running, Richard could hardly believe his eyes; he gave a broad look at the second, as much as to hint that it was his duty to stop him. But by this time, Joseph, for the want of something VOL. I. 12 better to do, had lifted one of the secondary hazel branches, that his cousin Dick had cut from his tree. "Hilloa ?" cried M'Coll; "hilloa! Captain! Captain!" on pretence of stopping him; but, at the same time, he had likewise begun a running as fast as he:- "Then there such a chase was, The borderers having nothing for it but to start after the fugitives at full speed, the pursuit continued through several enclosures; but it was very nigh unavailing. Joseph, by dint of great exertion, got so near to M'Coll in leaping a fence, that he won him one hearty thwack, which failed in bringing him down; and after that, neither of the two could ever lay a turn on the fliers more. The gallant Ensign escaped altogether with whole bones, and his second, it is supposed, was not much the worse. They did not, however, night in Edinburgh, for they went both on board of an Aberdeen smack that same day; and from that city, M'Coll challenged Joseph, by post, to meet him on the North Inch of Perth, on the 24th of September next, and then and there give him the satisfaction of a gentleman. Unfeasible as this part of the story may seem, it is neither a fiction, nor in any degree sophisticated. I have seen the original letter myself, and can produce it, although, as I said before, I could not swear to the proper name; but is was, doubtless, one of those registered in the celebrated old Jacobite song,- "Then farewell McPhersons, M'Flegs, M'Funs When Richard found himself fairly out of breath, he stood still and held his sides, crying, in broken |