hearing, I would fain know under your own hand the truth concerning
that whereof a shameful report is bruited abroad, even in the
"Gallo Belgicus" and the "Fliegender Mercoeur" of Leipsic--namely,
that in a certain duel lately fought in Paris behind the Palace of
the Luxembourg, four Englishmen encountering as many Musketeers of
the French King's, one out of this realm, to our disgrace,
shamefully fled; and he (by report) Rittmaster Dugald Dalgetty.
Till which, bruit be either abolished, and the stain--as an ill
blot on a clean scutcheon--wiped away, or as shamefully
acknowledged as it is itself shameful, I abide, as I shall hear
from yourself,

MONTROSE.


From Captain Dugald Dalgetty, of Drumthwacket, to the Most Noble
and Puissant Prince James, Earl of Montrose, commanding the musters
of the King in Scotland. These -


My Lord,--As touching the bruit, or fama, as we said at the
Mareschal College, I shall forthwith answer, and that peremptorie.
For this story of the duello, as a man may say (though, indeed,
they that fought in it were not in the dual number, as your Grecian
hath it, but eight soldados--seven of them gallant men), truly the
story is of the longest; but as your lordship will have it, though
more expert with the sword than the goosequill, I must even buckle
to.

Let your lordship conceive of your poor officer, once lieutenant