ld campaign stories, and displayed much
knowledge of men and manners. Mr. Morton had an internal fund of placid
and quiet gaiety, which seldom failed to enliven any small party in
which he found himself pleasantly seated. Waverley, whose life was a
dream, gave ready way to the predominating impulse, and became the most
lively of the party. He had at all times remarkable natural powers of
conversation, though easily silenced by discouragement. On the present
occasion, he piqued himself upon leaving on the minds of his companions
a favourable impression of one who, under such disastrous circumstances,
could sustain his misfortunes with ease and gaiety. His spirits, though
not unyielding, were abundantly elastic, and soon seconded his efforts.
The trio were engaged in very lively discourse, apparently delighted
with each other, and the kind host was pressing a third bottle of
Burgundy, when the sound of a drum was heard at some distance. The
Major, who, in the glee of an old soldier, had forgot the duties of a
magistrate, cursed, with a muttered military oath, the circumstances
which recalled him to his official functions. He rose and went towards
the window, which commanded a very near view of the high-road, and he
was followed by his guests.

The drum advanced, beating no measured martial tune, but a kind
of rub-a-dub-dub, like that with which the fire-drum startles the
slumbering artisans of a Scotch burgh. It is the object of this history
to do justice to all men; I must therefore record, in justice to the
drummer, that he protested he could beat any known march or point of
war known in the British army, and had accordingly commenced with
'Dumbarton's Drums,' when he was silenced by Gifted Gilfillan, the
commander of the party, who refused to permit his followers to move to
this profane, and even, as he said, persecuting tune, and commanded the
drummer to beat the 119th Psalm. As this was beyond the capacity of the
drubber of sheepskin, he was fain to have recourse to the inoffensive
row-de-dow, as a harmless substitute for the sacred music which his
instrument or skill were unable to achieve. This may be held a trifling
anecdote, but the drummer in question was no less than town-drummer
of Anderton. I remember his successor in office, a member of that
enlightened body, the British Convention: be his memory, therefore,
treated with due respect.

CHAPTER XXXV

A VOLUNTEER SIXTY YEARS SINCE

On hearing the unwel