whom I could have blown away like the peeling of an ingan, and chiefly
because I could not find the thing was required of me by any of the
articles of war; neither was I proffered any consideration, either in
perquisite or pay, for the wrong I might thereby do to my conscience."

"So you again changed your service?" said Lord Menteith.

"In troth did I, my lord; and after trying for a short while two
or three other powers, I even took on for a time with their High
Mightinesses the States of Holland."

"And how did their service jump with your humour?" again demanded his
companion.

"O! my lord," said the soldier, in a sort of enthusiasm, "their
behaviour on pay-day might be a pattern to all Europe--no borrowings, no
lendings, no offsets no arrears--all balanced and paid like a
banker's book. The quarters, too, are excellent, and the allowances
unchallengeable; but then, sir, they are a preceese, scrupulous people,
and will allow nothing for peccadilloes. So that if a boor complains of
a broken head, or a beer-seller of a broken can, or a daft wench does
but squeak loud enough to be heard above her breath, a soldier of honour
shall be dragged, not before his own court-martial, who can best judge
of and punish his demerits, but before a base mechanical burgo-master,
who shall menace him with the rasp-house, the cord, and what not, as if
he were one of their own mean, amphibious, twenty-breeched boors. So
not being able to dwell longer among those ungrateful plebeians, who,
although unable to defend themselves by their proper strength, will
nevertheless allow the noble foreign cavalier who engages with them
nothing beyond his dry wages, which no honourable spirit will put