The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-02

This is one of the great series en- titled Tales of My Landlord,' in which Scott created so many characters whose names are more familiar to the Eng lish-reading world than are the names of many great men who existed in real ity. The great character in "A Legend of Montross" is Dugald Dalgetty for mer divinity student, soldier, looter-a most wonderful mixture of education, ignorance honor and dishonor.
 IN the middle of the seventeenth cen
 tury the Scottish Estates of Par lament had made solemn compact with King Charles I. Being as canny, however, as they are now, the Scotch thought it as well to send an army into England to help the Covenanters fight their monarch, arguing no doubt that whoever trusted the word of a Stuart was sure to be swindled, and that an ounce of prevention was better than many pounds of cure applied to that royal family.
 The Highlanders, decidedly averse by taste and instinct to the Presbyterian observances, hereditary foes of the Lowlander, and hereditary Royalists, promptly declared in favor of the King. Noblemen and wild men, chiefs who were half kings and chiefs who were half savages, feudal lords great with spells and half-starved cragsmen, all burst from their fastnesses and gath cred in wild and picturesque array that has probably had no equal in the world for color, barbaric noise and splendid lust for fighting, with the exception of the great war-meetngs of the mighty Delawares and Iroquois of North Amer lea.
 They met at the Castle of Darlin- varach, owned by Angus McAulay. The chiefs saluted the lord of the castle and one another with overfowing kind ness or with unconcealed dislike ac- cording to the circumstances of friend ship or hostility that affected the re- lations of the clans.
 Their followers copied the behavior of their superiors implicitly. and the bag pipers piped against each other like !, hostile blackcocks. approaching each other with swelling plaids and tartans, and playing defiant tunes with such en- ergy that the hills re-echoed and screamed back the wild horrid din.
 Before many hours it seemed quite likely that the generous lovers of bat tie would begin their war for King Charles with a few private battles es- pecially as each chief was prepared to object to any other chief who might be chosen as leader.
 Angus McAulay was relieved when he saw troop of riders approach with the Earl of Montrose at their head. James Grahame, Earl of Montrose, was the one and only one man whom all would follow. not only because he was the idol of the Highlands and renowned in war, but be- cause his rank was so far above the rest that there could be no question as to precedence.
 Had anything else been needed to make the clans accept him, it would have been supplied by the fact that no man was more bitter enemy of the Marquis of Ar gyle, hated by the Highlands because he had thrown in his lot with the estates of parliament and commanded the army raised by the Lowlands.
 With Montrose rode his kinsman, the
 
 Menteith, who was as we'll known as Montrose and almost as well beloved. Their arrival ended all danger of feud. Soemnly the chiefs rendered their alleg- lance and all took off their obnnets for the first time, having kept them defiant ly on their heads till then because none would uncover before the other.
 When the imminent danger of war had vanished and the clansmen were at liberty to withdraw their keen attention from one another, they looked with curiosity at companion whom the two earls had brought with them.
 He was a man of great stature, with a face so sun-scorched, wind-beaten and weapon-scarred that 1t looked like an image of war. The face was surmounted by a furnished steel headpiece with tall plume of feathers. On his body the stout cavalier wore a cuirass thick enough to resist the musket balls of that day. Under it was tough buff jerkin. Bright steel gloves reached to his elbows. Thigh pieces of steel met the tops of his huge jack boots In front of his big war saddle hung a pair of pistols nearly two
 
 double-edged broadsword of a size pro- portionate to his other accoutrements. On his right side hung an 1s-inch dagger. "A shoulder belt sustained at his back musketoon and bandolier with am- munition.
 His war horse was powerful enough to bear all this weight of man and armament and still step gracefully and lightly. Pow 2 erful the steed was, it was no more powerful than its rider, who sat as up- right under his panoply of battle as if he were clad in the lightest of tartans.
 The Earl of Montrose hastened to in troduce the stranger to the chiefs, but it was an unnecessary courtesy, for the man of war had a tongue as active as his body, and prayed his name and career into the ears of all he met, explaining at large with ever new patience and enthus- iasm that he was Dugald Dalgetty of gentle blood and designation at Drum- thwacket, once theological student at the Mareschal college of Aberdeen and after that Ritt-master for the Lion of the North the Terror of Austria, Gustavus Adolphus the Victorious.
 'I have been," rumbled Dugald Dal- getty, Ion the field of Leipsfo and of Lutzen, and should know something of leaguers, storms, onslaughts and outfalls
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