glishmen, after some courteous
opposition, were persuaded to regard the whole as a joke.

"And now, Allan," said the Laird, "please to remove your candles; for,
since the Saxon gentlemen have seen them, they will eat their dinner
as comfortably by the light of the old tin sconces, without scomfishing
them with so much smoke."

Accordingly, at a sign from Allan, the living chandeliers, recovering
their broadswords, and holding the point erect, marched out of the hall,
and left the guests to enjoy their refreshment. [Such a bet as that
mentioned in the text is said to have been taken by MacDonald of
Keppoch, who extricated himself in the manner there narrated.]

CHAPTER V.

Thareby so fearlesse and so fell he grew,
That his own syre and maister of his guise
Did often tremble at his horrid view;
And if for dread of hurt would him advise,
The angry beastes not rashly to despise,
Nor too much to provoke; for he would learne
The lion stoup to him in lowly wise,
(A lesson hard,) and make the libbard sterne
Leave roaring, when in rage he for revenge did earne.--SPENSER.

Notwithstanding the proverbial epicurism of the English,--proverbial,
that is to say, in Scotland at the period,--the English visitors made
no figure whatever at the entertainment, compared with the portentous
voracity of Captain Dalgetty, although that gallant soldier had already
displayed much steadiness and pertinacity in his attack upon the lighter
refreshment set before them at their entrance, by way of forlorn hope.
He spoke to no one during the time of his meal; and it was not until
the victuals were nearly withdrawn from the table, that he gratified
the rest of the company, who had watched him with some surprise, with an
account of the reasons why he ate so very fast and so very long.

"The former quality," he said, "he had acquired, while he filled a place
at the bursar's table at the Mareschal-College of Aberdeen; when," said
he; "if you did not move your jaws as fast as a pair of castanets, you
were very unlikely to get any thing to put between them. And as for the
quantity of my food, be it known to this honourable company," continued
the Captain, "that it's the duty of every commander of a fortress, on
all occasions which offer, to secure as much munition and vivers as
their magazines can possibly hold, not knowing when they may have to
sustain a siege or a blockade. Upon which principle, gen