“Fairly rebuked. You are right, my lad, and I am an old fool to stand prating of what hath no concern for you. But ´tis an old trick of mine to find fault where I cannot mend. Natheless, the onfall at the castle of Carrickfergus and the break of Dromore give me cause to grumble, and Rawdon and Beresford and the rest of them might have taken a lesson from a plain soldier like myself, that they might have profited by. They think me only good enough to fetch and carry, spaniel-like--and you say that Colonel Lundy hath told you nothing?”
“Merely that I should place myself at your disposal; nothing else.”
“We ride pell-mell for Enniskillen; you and I and some dozen troopers, less or more, without drawing bridle or tarrying by the way. There is a precious cartel these Enniskilleners must digest forthwith, inviting them to leave the safety of their water-walls and, as I hear, good store of provender, to take their chance with us and fight it out behind these petty dykes and fences here. If they ask counsel of mine--but it is our business to see that it carries safely.”
“I had hoped,” said Orme, “that we might have seen some service; this doth not hold out much hope of that.”
“Hear how these young cockerels are given to crowing!” cried Macpherson; “I promise you this means no evening stroll upon the battlements, but a work of danger which may try your mettle. I mean not the gathering of the desperadoes who make war upon the defenceless, though these have stood to their half-pikes and other outlandish weapons ere now, but I am much mistaken if the royal troops be not on the roads and give us play enough. In this barbarous country we do not look for the courtesies of war, or even the interchange of prisoners; my Lord Galmoy and others, whom I hope to remember, have shown that a gentleman can play the hangman, and a soldier hath other trades than fighting. The journey is like to prove adventurous though it end in nothing. See that your horse be sure and fresh, and your pistols such that a man may place his life on them. I remember me when my life was placed in jeopardy once by a rotten girth. It was in Flanders in sixty-nine--but this gossip hath no interest for you. It were more to the purpose that I told you we set out at three in the morning with what secrecy we can observe, and that you meet me at the Bishop´s gate. Hackett, who is, I am told, a sergeant of your company, and knows the country, will bring our horses to the gate. You know the man; of what character is he?”
“As true and loyal as any in the city--the best man, I think, in the regiment.”
“And discreet? these good men are ofttimes inconsiderate.”
“He is no babbler, sir,” Orme answered, somewhat nettled by the tone of his companion, “though a pious man and God-fearing.”
“I, Ninian Macpherson, like him none the worse for that, young gentleman,” answered the other gravely.[gravely.] “Our religion hath placed you and me, I humbly trust, in arms this day, and sends us forth on this embassage to the no small peril of our lives. But the ways of grace are not always the ways of worldly prudence, and it behoves me who am answerable for our safety to act with diligence. Now, look you, Mr. Orme, I have watched you carefully, and I think you honest--dull it may be but honest, and I speak you plainly. I am suspicious of your colonel--I do not understand his ways. There is treason in the air, though who is free and who is touched I hardly know, but I who have lived among designing men for nigh on seven-and-fifty years think I know somewhat of honest work, and I was fearful this was but another trap.”
“I think, sir, Colonel Lundy is honest and devoted to Their Majesties.”