to the front, as he wanted to speak to him; to which Captain Schaw
rejoined, that he might speak to him there. "Yes," returned Sinclair,
"but if I fire at you here, I may shoot some other body." Captain Schaw
answered, that he might fire at him if he pleased, he bore him no
ill-will. "If you will not go to the front," returned Sinclair, "beg my
pardon." This was refused, some words of further aggravation ensued;
then the Master of Sinclair drew his pistol and fired at Schaw. The
Captain was also preparing to fire; his hand was in the act of drawing
his pistol when it was for ever checked, whether employed for good or
evil; the aim of Sinclair was certain, and Schaw fell dead from his
horse. Sinclair, without waiting to inquire how far mortal might be the
wound he had inflicted, rode away.

Thus perished two young officers, described by their brother, Sir John
Schaw, as "very gallant gentlemen." To complete the tragedy, a third,
wounded at Lisle, was brought to the camp at Wynendale, and expired in
the same room with his brother, Ensign Schaw, partly of his wounds,
partly of grief for his brother's death; so that the offender, as the
surviving brother remarked, "was not wholly innocent even of his blood:"
yet both these rencontres, to adopt the mild term employed by Sir Walter
Scott, were viewed in a very lenient manner by the officers of the
court-martial which afterwards sat upon the case, and even by
Marlborough himself. The Master of Sinclair speaks of them in his
narrative in terms which imply that one, whose hands were so deeply dyed
in crime, regarded himself as an injured man; there can scarcely be a
better exemplification of the deceitfulness of the heart than such a
representation.

On the seventeenth of October, 1708, a court-martial upon the Master of
Sinclair was held at Ronsales by the command of the Duke of Marlborough.
Upon the first charge, that of challenging Ensign Hugh Schaw (in breach
of the twenty-eighth article of war), Sinclair was acquitted, the court
being of opinion that the challenge was not proved.

Of the second accusation, that of killing Captain Alexander Schaw, the
Master of Sinclair was found guilty, and sentenced to suffer death. He
was, however, recommended to the mercy of the Duke of Marlborough, in
consideration of the provocation which he had received,--the prisoner
having declared that, not only on that occasion, but upon several, and
in different regiments, Captain Schaw had def