Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 4 - 1819.djvu/164

 service, which not being as yet combined with the bayonet, was a formidable weapon at a distance, but gave no assurance against the enemy who rushed on to close quarters. The pike, indeed, was not wholly disused in the Scottish army; but it was no longer the favourite weapon, nor was it relied upon as formerly by those in whose hands it was placed, in so much that Daniel Lupton, a tactician of the day, has written a book expressly upon the superiority of the musquet. This change commenced as early as the wars of Gustavus and Adolphus, whose marches were made with such rapidity, that the pike was very soon thrown aside and exchanged for fire-arms. A circumstance which necessarily accompanied this change, as well as the establishment of standing armies, whereby war became a trade, was the introduction of a laborious and complicated system of discipline, combining a variety of words of command with corresponding operations and manœuvres, the neglect of any one of which