A loud shout from fifteen hundred men rang through the market-place, and the brave heart of Dunbarton swelled with exultation at the devotion of his loyal soldiers, and anger at the desertion of their false comrades. He was not, however, without considerable anxiety as to the issue of this decided revolt, or rather appeal to arms, at such a distance from their native land, and in a place where they were so utterly without sympathy, succour, or friends--where to be a Scotsman was to be an enemy. But the very desperation of the attempt endued him with fresh energy. Ere he marched his devoted band, he addressed Gavin of that ilk, a tall gigantic officer, with a rapier nearly five feet long--
"Go to the house of the town treasurer, and tell him instantly to hand you over 10,000_l._ for the service of King James, under pain of immediate military execution. If the villain demur----"
"I'll twist his neck like a cock-patrick!" said Gavin.
"You will rejoin us at the bridge of the Orwell."
"And how if these rascally burghers make me prisoner?"
"Then, by the blood of the Black Douglas!" said the Earl, passionately, "I will not leave one stone of Ipswich standing upon another."
Gavin strode away, and his tall feathers were seen floating above the heads of the shrinking crowd that occupied the lower end of the marketplace.
"And harkee, Finland!" continued the Earl, "take young Walter Fenton and fifty tall musqueteers, break open the English government arsenal, and bring off four pieces of cannon which I understand are there; press horses wherever you can get them; blow up the magazine; and join us at the bridge--forgetting not, if you are invaded, to handle the citizens at discretion, in our old Flemish fashion. By Heaven, they may be thankful that I have not treated their town of Ipswich as old John of Tsercla, the Count Tilly, did Magdeburg. Away, then!"
FALSTAFF. 'Sblood! 'twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too.--HENRY IV.
The redness of the moon passed away as it ascended into the blue wide vault, and its cold white lustre was poured upon the level English landscape that spread at the feet of the Scottish soldiers, as they began to ascend the heights, or gentle eminence to the northward of Ipswich. Above the winter-smoke of the dense little town, the spires of its churches stood out in bold relief, like lances glittering through a sea of gauze; and the _wich_ or bend of the beautiful Orwell swept in a silvery semicircle, like a gleaming snake, among the fallow fields and leafless copsewood; and far around the scenery spread like a moonlit map or fairy amphitheatre. All was still in the town below; at times, a light twinkled, or a voice rang out upon the quietness that reigned there, but the Scots' Royals, who were halted on the brow of an eminence, over which wound the northern road (the way to their distant home), heard nothing to indicate the success of their comrades.