The Project Gutenberg EBook of Salute to Adventurers, by John Buchan

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Title: Salute to Adventurers

Author: John Buchan

Release Date: November 11, 2003 [EBook #10046]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SALUTE TO ADVENTURERS ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Charles Aldarondo,
Carol David and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

SALUTE TO ADVENTURERS

BY

JOHN BUCHAN

[Illustration: 1798 EDINBURGH]

TO MAJOR-GENERAL THE HON. SIR REGINALD TALBOT, K.C.B.

I tell of old Virginian ways;
And who more fit my tale to scan
Than you, who knew in far-off days
The eager horse of Sheridan;
Who saw the sullen meads of fate,
The tattered scrub, the blood-drenched sod,
Where Lee, the greatest of the great,
Bent to the storm of God?

I tell lost tales of savage wars;
And you have known the desert sands,
The camp beneath the silver stars,
The rush at dawn of Arab bands,
The fruitless toil, the hopeless dream,
The fainting feet, the faltering breath,
While Gordon by the ancient stream
Waited at ease on death.

And now, aloof from camp and field,
You spend your sunny autumn hours
Where the green folds of Chiltern shield
The nooks of Thames amid the flowers:
You who have borne that name of pride,
In honour clean from fear or stain,
Which Talbot won by Henry's side
In vanquished Aquitaine.

_The reader is asked to believe that most of the characters in this
tale and many of the incidents have good historical warrant. The figure
of Muckle John Gib will be familiar to the readers of Patrick Walker_.

CONTENTS.

* * * * *

I. THE SWEET-SINGERS
II. OF A HIGH-HANDED LADY
III. THE CANONGATE TOLBOOTH
IV. OF A STAIRHEAD AND A SEA-CAPTAIN
V. MY FIRST COMING TO VIRGINIA
VI. TELLS OF MY EDUCATION
VII. I BECOME AN UNPOPULAR CHARACTER
VIII. RED RINGAN
IX. VARIOUS DOINGS IN THE SAVANNAH
X. I HEAR AN OLD SONG
XI. GRAVITY OUT OF BED
XII. A WORD AT THE HARBOUR-SIDE