"Nay, though I could see the river as far up as the Pows of Errol."
"Some service must have turned up in our absence, and while we lingered at the Sluice," said Falconer.
"And if service was to be found," said the admiral, with honest emphasis, "my brave auld messmate, Sir Andrew Barton, would be the last man on the Scottish waters to keep his anchor down. But, ho! gadzooks, here is the captain of Broughty beginning to waste the king's powder. Archy of Anster, order a yeoman of the braces to lower my pennon."
At that moment a puff of white smoke broke over the black ramparts of Broughty, as the cannoneers saluted the admiral's well-known flag, which was thrice lowered in reply to the compliment as the vessels swept slowly past, and entered the broad bosom of that magnificent river.
The tide was now beginning to ebb, and those dangerous shoals, known as the Drummilaw Sands, were gradually appearing.
Under these heaps lie the wrecks of those Norwegian galleys which were destroyed in a storm in the days of Duncan I., after his general had defeated the soldiers of King Sueno in the Carse of Gowrie. There they sank, and there the shifting sand rose like a bar at the river mouth above their shattered hulk.
CHAPTER II.
THE SWASHBUCKLER.
"Kind cousin Gilford, if thou lack'st good counsel
At race, at cockpit, or at gaming table,
Or any freak by which men cheat themselves
As well of life as of the means to live,
Call for assistance upon Philip Mure;
But in all serious parley spare invoking him."
AUCHINDRANE.
By this time, the boat which had shot off from the promontory on which the fortress is situated, was alongside the Yellow Frigate, which was moving slowly, almost imperceptibly, up the river, and was now some hundred yards ahead of the Margaret, which was but a dull sailer. As the boat neared, the song chaunted by the two rowers was heard on board. It was a dull and monotonous chant, the constant burden of which was,