"Campbell, do you mean to sit here all night?" said Chisholm, looking in on the other side as he passed with a lady. "They are arranging themselves for the galope again."
"It is fit only for subs," replied the major testily. "The idea of a field-officer galloping any way but on horseback!"
"It seems quite the rage here at Aranjuez," said Stuart, as Chisholm moved off. "But then the girls here galope so beautifully, they are in the right to have it so. So, major, you do not mean to join the dancers to-night?"
"Yes," answered the other, shaking the flasks, which all proved empty; "but neither at waltz, quadrille, or galope. I have no idea of flying round a room at the rate of ten miles an hour, in mortal terror the while of crushing the ladies dear little feet and white satin shoes with my heavy brogues. Besides, the dance is too intricate for me—'chassez to the right and left, turn your partner, balancez, turn again, galopade à la chassez to places!' Pooh! I would rather dance Tullochgorm or the Ruighle Thulaichean, or any other decent fling; but I have no love for your Spanish dances and galopade quadrilles. They ill become the sporran and breacan-anfeile of the Highlandman, and are no more to be compared to a strathspey than a Toledo is to a real-fluted Andrea Ferrara." The major snapt his fingers, and chanted with a loud voice a verse of the Grant's reel:
"There needs na be sae great a phrase,
Wi' dringing dull Italian lays,
I wadna gie our ain strathspeys
For half a hundred score o' em.
They're douff an' dowie at the best,
Douff and dowie, douff and dowie,
They're douff an' dowie at the best,
Wi 'a' their variorum.
They're douff and dowie at the best,
Their allegros and a' the rest,
They canna please a Highland taste,
Compared wi' Tullochgorm."
Stuart was leading away Donna Olivia, who laughed excessively at the major's song, which sounded wondrously uncouth to her ears, when Campbell called to him. "I say, Stuart," said he, "I am going to show the ladies here a new fling. I have sent for Ranald Dhu and the six pipers. Fassifern, Ronald Macdonuil, and myself, are about to perform the sword dance. We astonished old Mohammed Djedda with it in Egypt. You must join us."
"I should be most happy, but I am the honoured cavalier of one of the prettiest girls in Aranjuez, and it is impossible I can join you; but we will witness it in the hall."
A few minutes afterwards the pipers arrived, and preparations were made for the Highland dance. Claymores were taken from the wall, and laid across each other on the floor. The colonel, Campbell, and two other officers took their places, while seven pipers stood at the end of the hall, and on a given signal struck up an appropriate air.
"Santa Maria!" screamed the senoras, and "Morte de Dios!" growled the senores, while they covered their ears with their hands to protect them from "so dangerous an invasion." Many an English and Irish officer did so likewise, for the sound of the pipes in the vaulted hall was tremendous. Away went the dancers to the sound of the first note, and continued to leap, skip, and "hooch and hoo!" while they flung about with true Scottish spirit and agility, moving with miraculous precision among the bare blades of the claymores, while applauses loud and long rewarded them. 'Twas a new sight indeed to the Spaniards, and the eyes of every Scotsman present lighted up with enthusiasm, although many of them had never witnessed the martial dance before. Long after the others had resumed their seats, the gigantic Campbell, strong, active, and filled with perfect delight, continued to dance, wave his arms and the folds of his enormous kilt and plaid, until at last compelled to sink into a seat, amid loud huzzas and astounding vivas.
Quadrilles, galopades, and waltzes again followed, and before the ball broke up the light of the morning sun had replaced the illuminations of the palace and its gardens. Then came the gallant farewells, and shawls, mantillas, and furred shoes were in requisition, the gentlemen making themselves as busy as possible in wrapping up the ladies to protect them from the chill morning air; and then, muffling themselves in their cloaks, many an officer and cavalier strode away behind the lumbering carriage or sedan, which conveyed to her home some lady to whom they had been particularly attentive during the night, and whom, as in duty bound, they wished to squire to the door of her own residence,—the streets of continental cities not being very safe at these hours, when picaros and valientes[*] of every kind are on the watch, to exercise their talents on the unsuspecting or unprotected.