Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 4 - 1819.djvu/187

 tory thoughts and feelings, the soldier who stood centinel upon his quarters announced to the Marquis, that two persons desired to speak with his Excellency.

"Their names?" answered Montrose, "and the cause of their urgency at such a time?"

On these points, the centinel, who was one of Colkitto's Irishmen, could afford his general little information; so that Montrose, who at such a period durst refuse access to no one, lest he might have been neglecting some important intelligence, gave directions, as a necessary precaution, to put the guard under arms, and then prepared to receive them. His groom of the chambers had scarce lighted a pair of torches, and Montrose himself had scarce risen from his couch, when two men entered, one wearing a Lowland dress, of shamoy leather worn almost to tatters; the other, a tall upright old Highlander, of a complexion which might be termed iron grey, wasted and worn by frost and tempest.