"Hate no one, Philip," said M'Alpine, quietly; "for hatred and anger are sure to go together--and sorrow perchance may follow; but I instinctively dislike this person, too."
M'Alpine, a fine-looking soldier, and brave fellow, was somewhat of a gloomy and thoughtful cast. Having once slain a friend in a single combat (as we were informed)--the result of a sudden quarrel--he made a vow to wear crape on his left arm till the end of his days, and never to give another challenge, though he had often received them, and been compelled to fight more than once in defence of his honour and reputation.
"I am sorry you are averse to the Holsteiner," said Ian; "for I have invited him to dine with us."
"Dine!" we exclaimed together; "surely it was more his part to have invited us."
"Four hungry Highlandmen to dine with one German or Dane," replied Ian; "oich! gentlemen, the thing was not to be thought of."
"I hope I shall not quarrel with him," I continued, remembering how he had received me; "in those green eyes of his are the very smile of a Campbell."
"And you know the adage?" added Tan, as he flung aside his sword, plaid, and pistols.
"While there are leaves on the trees, there will be guile----"
"Do not say in a Campbell," said the sergeant, Mhor, pausing in his culinary occupation, and bluntly interrupting M'Alpine; "do not say so, lieutenant, for my great-grandmother was a daughter of Barcaldine."
"I crave your pardon, sergeant," replied M'Alpine; "but my father, Torquil Dhu, was slain at Glenlivat by the men of Loch Awe, and I have a score to settle with that tribe."
"Dane--dost thou call him?" said Angus; "nay, being a Holsteiner, he is pure German."
"Dioul!" said my cousin; "and now let us to dinner."
We all rose to receive this personage, whom our Highland education made us disposed to treat with the utmost respect as the master of the house, or _husbonde_, as the Danes would call him (though only his deputy); Ian bade him welcome in Gaëlic, and Phadrig Mhor, whose vast stature made the Northman open wide his eyes, placed a chair for him, and we proceeded to dine.
I have said each of the five or six stories of the mansion had two dwellings, consisting of several apartments. Phadrig Mhor had ransacked the whole place, and collected within our chamber such furniture and utensils as he could procure among the vacated and desolate rooms. From one he brought a table; from another a high-backed antique chair; from a third a stool; from a fourth a tabourette; from another a pot, a kettle, and so on, until he had almost furnished our damp chamber, which overlooked the row of poplars, beyond which, in the Platz, we saw a regiment of Scottish pikemen being drilled to the use of the pike, according to the new fashion, as laid down in the _Pallas Armata_ of that eminent tactician, Captain Sir Thomas Kellie of Edinburgh and that Ilk.