the aid of his lamp, subjected Anderson and his companion to the same
investigation, stood a moment as if in deep reflection; then, touching
his forehead, suddenly seized Anderson by the arm, and before he could
offer any effectual resistance, half led and half dragged him to the
vacant seat at the upper end, and having made a mute intimation that
he should there place himself, he hurried the soldado with the same
unceremonious precipitation to the bottom of the table. The Captain,
exceedingly incensed at this freedom, endeavoured to shake Allan from
him with violence; but, powerful as he was, he proved in the struggle
inferior to the gigantic mountaineer, who threw him off with such
violence, that after reeling a few paces, he fell at full length, and
the vaulted hall rang with the clash of his armour. When he arose, his
first action was to draw his sword and to fly at Allan, who, with folded
arms, seemed to await his onset with the most scornful indifference.
Lord Menteith and his attendants interposed to preserve peace, while the
Highlanders, snatching weapons from the wall, seemed prompt to increase
the broil.

"He is mad," whispered Lord Menteith, "he is perfectly mad; there is no
purpose in quarrelling with him."

"If your lordship is assured that he is NON COMPOS MENTIS," said Captain
Dalgetty, "the whilk his breeding and behaviour seem to testify, the
matter must end here, seeing that a madman can neither give an affront,
nor render honourable satisfaction. But, by my saul, if I had my
provstnt and a bottle of Rhenish under my belt, I should hive stood
otherways up to him. And yet it's a pity he should be sae weak in the
intellectuals, being a strong proper man of body, fit to handle pike,
morgenstern, or any other military implement whatsoever." [This was
a sort of club or mace, used in the earlier part of the seventeenth