Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series - 1819.djvu/250

240 By this time he was unshelled, and stood before the fire musing with a face of drunken wisdom on the events of the evening. What seemed chiefly to interest him, was the character of Allan M'Aulay. "To come over the Englishmen so cleverly with his Highland torch-bearers—eight bare-breeched Rories for six silver candlesticks!—it was a master-piece—a tour de passe—it was perfect legerdemain—and to be a madman after all!—I doubt greatly, my lord, (shaking his head,) that I must allow him, notwithstanding his relationship to your lordship, the privileges of a rational person, and either battoon him sufficiently to expiate the violence offered to my person, or else bring it to a matter of mortal arbitrement, as becometh an insulted cavalier."

"If you care to hear a long story," said Lord Menteith, "at this time of night, I can tell you why the circumstances of Allan's birth account so well for his singular character, as to put such satisfaction entirely out of the question."