suis pro amicis." Quali mercede donabor, qui
animam meam pro inimicis reipublicae et regni pono? Quod petiit, a rege
et diversis magnatibus conceditur. Cum hoc arcus ejus extenditur, et
primo sagittam in partem contrariam transmittit, et unum interficit.
Confestim hinc inde sagittae volitant, bipennes librant, gladios
vibrant, alterutro certant, et veluti carnifices boves in macello, sic
inconsternate ad invicem se trucidant. Sed nec inter tantos repertus
est vel unus, qui, tanquam vecors ant timidus, sive post tergum alterius
declinans, seipsum a tanta caede praetendit excusare. Iste tamen tyro
superveniens finaliter illaesus exivit; et dehinc multo tempore Boreas
quievit, nec ibidem fuit, ut supra, cateranorum excursus.

The scene is heightened with many florid additions by Boece and Leslie,
and the contending savages in Buchanan utter speeches after the most
approved pattern of Livy.

The devotion of the young chief of Clan Quhele's foster father and
foster brethren in the novel is a trait of clannish fidelity, of which
Highland story furnishes many examples. In the battle of Inverkeithing,
between the Royalists and Oliver Cromwell's troops, a foster father and
seven brave sons are known to have thus sacrificed themselves for Sir
Hector Maclean of Duart; the old man, whenever one of his boys fell,
thrusting forward another to fill his place at the right hand of the
beloved chief, with the very words adopted in the novel, "Another for
Hector!"

Nay, the feeling could outlive generations. The late much lamented
General Stewart of Garth, in his account of the battle of Killiecrankie,
informs us that Lochiel was attended on the field by the son of his
foster brother.

"This faithful adherent followed him like his shadow, ready to assist
him with his sword, or cover him from the shot of the enemy. Suddenly
the chief missed his friend from his side, and, turning round to look
what had become of him, saw him lying on his back with his breast
pierced by an arrow. He had hardly breath, before he expired, to tell
Lochiel that, seeing an enemy, a Highlander in General Mackay's army,
aiming at him with a bow and arrow, he sprung behind him, and thus
sheltered him from instant death. This" observes the gallant David
Stewart, "is a species of duty not often practised, perhaps, by our aide
de camps of the present day."--Sketches of the Highlanders, vol. i. p.
65.

I have only to add, that the Second Series of Chronicles of t