I had enough of it, so I kept in my
quarters. And though his men did not desert him as before, yet upon
the appearance of the enemy they did not think fit to fight, and came
off with but little more honour than they did before.

There was no need to go out to seek the enemy after this, for they
came, as I have noted, and pitched in sight of us, and their parties
came up every day to the very out-works of Berwick, but nobody
cared to meddle with them. And in this posture things stood when the
pacification was agreed on by both parties, which, like a short truce,
only gave both sides breath to prepare for a new war more ridiculously
managed than the former. When the treaty was so near a conclusion
as that conversation was admitted on both sides, I went over to the
Scotch camp to satisfy my curiosity, as many of our English officers
did also.

I confess the soldiers made a very uncouth figure, especially the
Highlanders. The oddness and barbarity of their garb and arms seemed
to have something in it remarkable.

They were generally tall swinging fellows; their swords were
extravagantly, and, I think, insignificantly broad, and they carried
great wooden targets, large enough to cover the upper part of their
bodies. Their dress was as antique as the rest; a cap on their heads,
called by them a bonnet, long hanging sleeves behind, and their
doublet, breeches, and stockings of a stuff they called plaid, striped
across red and yellow, with short cloaks of the same. These fellows
looked, when drawn out, like a regiment of merry-andrews, ready for
Bartholomew Fair. They are in companies all of a name, and therefore
call one another only by their Christian names, as Jemmy, Jocky, that
is, John, and Sawny, that is, Alexander, and the like. And they scorn
to be commanded but by one of their own clan or family. They are all
gentlemen, and proud enough to be kings. The meanest fellow among them
is as tenacious of his honour as the best nobleman in the country,
and they will fight and cut one another's throats for every trifling
affront.

But to their own clans or lairds, they are the willingest and most
obedient fellows in nature. Give them their due, were their skill in
exercises and discipline proportioned to their courage, they would
make the bravest soldiers in the world. They are large bodies, and
prodigiously strong; and two qualities they have above other nations,
viz., hardy to endure hunger, cold, and hardships, and wond