Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 4 - 1819.djvu/79

 had fought his way, in one department or another, through the greater part of the Thirty Years War in Germany, a period when a brave and successful soldier was a companion for princes. The King of Sweden, and, after his example, even the haughty Princes of the Empire, had found themselves fain frequently to compound with their dignity, and silence when they could not satisfy the pecuniary claims osf their soldiers, by admitting them to unusual privileges and familiarity. Captain Dugald Dalgetty had it to boast he had sate with princes at feasts made for monarchs, and therefore was not a person to be brow-beat even by the dignity which surrounded M'Callum More. Indeed, he was naturally by no means the most modest man of the world, but, on the contrary, had so good an opinion of himself, that into whatever company he chanced to be thrown, he was always proportionally elevated in his own conceit; so that he felt as much at ease in the most exalted society as among his own