Page:Letters from England.djvu/106

 have striped plaid trousers, and caps with ribbons, but the pipers have red and black skirts, and on them leather bags, and on their pipes they play a bleating and exciting song to the accompaniment of a whole band of drummer. The drumsticks are brandished above the heads of the drummers, they twist and leap up in a strange and savage dance; and the pipers bleat a war-song and march bare-kneed along the castle esplanade with the tripping step of ballet-girls. And bang, bang, the drumsticks twist more rapidly, are crossed, fly up, and suddenly this turns into a funeral march, the pipers whistle an endless and trailing melody, the