Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 4 - 1819.djvu/271

 "Not meaning his Excellency the General, I hope," said Lord Menteith. "For shame, Sir Dugald!"

"My lord," answered the Knight gravely, "I am incapable to mean anything so utterly misbecoming. What I asseverate is, that his Excellency having the same intercourse with his horse during his exercise, that he hath with his soldiers when training them, may form and break either to every feat of war which he chooses to practice, and accordingly that this noble charger is admirably managed. But as it is the intercourse of private life that formeth the social character, so I do not apprehend that of the single soldier to be much polished by the conversation of the corporal or the sergeant, or that of Loyalty's Reward to have been much dulcified, or ameliorated, by the society of his Excellency's grooms, who bestow more oaths, and kicks, and thumps, than kindness or caresses, upon the animals entrusted to their charge, whereby many a generous quadruped, rendered as it were