"
"Well, sir, cut all this short," said Ravenswood.
"Short! I had like to hae been cut short mysell, in the flower of my
youth, as Scripture says; and that's the very thing that I compleen o'.
Weel! in to the water we behoved a' to splash, heels ower head, sit or
fa'--ae horse driving on anither, as is the way of brute beasts, and
riders that hae as little sense; the very bushes on the ither side were
ableeze wi' the flashes of the Whig guns; and my horse had just taen the
grund, when a blackavised westland carle--I wad mind the face o' him a
hundred years yet--an ee like a wild falcon's, and a beard as broad
as my shovel--clapped the end o' his lang black gun within a quarter's
length of my lug! By the grace o' Mercy, the horse swarved round, and I
fell aff at the tae side as the ball whistled by at the tither, and the
fell auld lord took the Whig such a swauk wi' his broadsword that he
made twa pieces o' his head, and down fell the lurdance wi' a' his bouk
abune me."
"You were rather obliged to the old lord, I think," said Ravenswood.
"Was I? my sartie! first for bringing me into jeopardy, would I nould I,
and then for whomling a chield on the tap o' me that dang the very wind
out of my body? I hae been short-breathed ever since, and canna gang
twenty yards without peghing like a miller's aiver.
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