"Why, you old fool, what are you thinking of? We are not going out to fight--merely for exercise."
"Waur and waur! Can ye no tak' yer yexerceese at hame, or doun at the Links wi' golf, or gang awa' to the fishin'? Wadna that be better than stravagin' through the streets, wi' a lang swurd harlin' ahint ye, and consortin' wi' deboshed dragoons, and drinkin' the haill nicht, and rinnin' wud after the lasses? And if ye're no gaun out to fecht, what's the use o' ye? Are ye gaun to turn anither Claverse, and burn and hang puir folk like the wicked and bluid-thirsty troopers lang syne? Yexerceese indeed! I wonder, Maister George, ye're no just ashamed o' yoursel'!"
"Hold your tongue, you old fool, and bring the tea-pot."
"Fule! 'Deed I'm maybe just an auld fule to gang on clattering that gate, for I never kent ye tak' gude advice sin' ye were a wean. Aweel! He that will to Cupar maun to Cupar. Ye'se hae it a' yer ain way; but maybe we'll see some day sune, when ye're carried hame on a shutter wi' a broken leg, or a stab in the wame, or a bullet in the harns, whilk o' us twa is the greater fule!"
"Confound that woman!" thought I, as I pensively buttered my roll. "What with her Cameronian nonsense and her prophecies, she is enough to disband a regiment."
And, to say the truth, her last hint about a broken leg was not altogether foreign to my own apprehensions. I had recollected of late, with no slight uneasiness, that for this sort of service a horse was quite as indispensable as a man; and, as already hinted, I had more than doubts as to my own equestrian capabilities. However, I comforted myself with the reflection, that out of the fifty or sixty yeomen whom I knew, not one had ever sustained any serious injury; and I resolved, as a further precaution against accident, to purvey me the very quietest horse that could be found anywhere. Steadiness, I have always understood, is the characteristic feature of the British cavalry.
My correspondence that morning was not of the legal kind. In the first place, I received a circular from the commanding-officer, extremely laudatory of the recruits, whose zeal for the service did them so much credit. We were called upon, in an animated address, to maintain the high character of the regiment--to prove ourselves worthy successors of those who had ridden and fought before us--to turn out regularly and punctually to the field, and to keep our accoutrements in order. Next came a more laconic and pithy epistle from the adjutant, announcing the hours of drill, and the different arrangements for the week; and finally, a communication from the convener of the mess committee.