dom, endeavoured to shake Allan from
him with violence; but, powerful as he was, he proved in the struggle
inferior to the gigantic mountaineer, who threw him off with such
violence, that after reeling a few paces, he fell at full length, and
the vaulted hall rang with the clash of his armour. When he arose, his
first action was to draw his sword and to fly at Allan, who, with folded
arms, seemed to await his onset with the most scornful indifference.
Lord Menteith and his attendants interposed to preserve peace, while the
Highlanders, snatching weapons from the wall, seemed prompt to increase
the broil.

"He is mad," whispered Lord Menteith, "he is perfectly mad; there is no
purpose in quarrelling with him."

"If your lordship is assured that he is NON COMPOS MENTIS," said Captain
Dalgetty, "the whilk his breeding and behaviour seem to testify, the
matter must end here, seeing that a madman can neither give an affront,
nor render honourable satisfaction. But, by my saul, if I had my
provstnt and a bottle of Rhenish under my belt, I should hive stood
otherways up to him. And yet it's a pity he should be sae weak in the
intellectuals, being a strong proper man of body, fit to handle pike,
morgenstern, or any other military implement whatsoever." [This was
a sort of club or mace, used in the earlier part of the seventeenth
century in the defence of breaches and walls. When the Germans insulted
a Scotch regiment then besieged in Trailsund, saying they heard there
was a ship come from Denmark to them laden with tobacco pipes, "One of
our soldiers," says Colonel Robert Munro, "showing them over the work a
morgenstern, made of a large stock banded with iron, like the shaft of
a halberd, with a round globe at the end with cross iron pikes, saith,
'Here is one of the tobacco pipes, wherewith we will beat out your
brains when you intend to storm us.'"]

Peace was thus restored, and the party seated themselves agreeably to
their former arrangement, with which Allan, who had now returned to his
settle by the fire, and seemed once more immersed in meditation, did
not again interfere. Lord Menteith, addressing the principal domestic,
hastened to start some theme of conversation which might obliterate all
recollection of the fray that had taken place. "The laird is at the hill
then, Donald, I understand, and some English strangers with him?"

"At the hill he is, an it like your honour, and two Saxon calabaleros
are with him sure