Major, filling a cup to the brim, to shew the zeal with which he drank the toast, "and victory over all your enemies, and particularly over Argyle. I hope to pull another handful from his beard myself—I have had one pluck at it already."
"Very true," answered Montrose; "but to return to these men of the Mist. You understand, Dalgetty, that their presence here, and the purpose for which we employ them, is a secret between you and me."
Delighted, as Montrose had anticipated, with this mark of his general's confidence, the Major laid his hand upon his nose, and nodded intelligence.
"How many may there be of Ranald's followers?" continued the Marquis.
"They are reduced, so far as I know, to some eight or ten men," answered Major Dalgetty, "and a few women and children."
"Where are they now?" demanded Montrose.
"In a valley, at three miles distance," an-
