The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Scenes of Long Ago. 57
" Ciudad Rodree-ee-eego," " Torres Ve-e-edras," " The
Aguee-da," '" Salamanca," and what not ; while ev^er and
anon " Ciudad Rodree-ee-eego" rose loud over all. Then,
during a slight lull in the Babel of sound, a tiny but
venomous voice at my elbow shrieked out, clear and shrill,
" Make for the rear, my man, while your blood is warm."'
This saying, meant in mere fun and wantonness to be
perhaps the shrewdest hit (;f an}\ did indeed strike home ;
but it did so in a manner that took us all by surprise, and
threw the perpetrator into confusicjii. Our first sallies had
only awakened a good-humoured smile on the somewhat
grim, but withal attractive, countenance of the antique son
of Mars. Had he not been so accosted in that exact spot,
by successive generations of schoolbows, for two score
years ?
The names of the great battles and sieges of the
Napoleonic wars had for long been as by-words in the
country. In former times, when the Pensioners' Day
arrived, a considerable number of those who had been
companions-in-arms foregathered at the village to receive
their well-earned allowance. Officers who had held various
ranks would be there, glad to give up a few hours to the
and among
cup of fraternit}' and the days that were gone ;
them, as the centre and life of the party, he who had fol-
lowed the colours as the devoted chaplain ot the regiment.
While they sat at dinner of state in the inn parlour, their
humbler comrades either stood in groups outside or
crowded the tap. Proud to have shaken hands with the
worthy Highland gentlemen who had often led them to
victory in foreign lands, each felt he had been of no small
consequence in his time to King and country, and, growing
more
" Vain,
Fought all his battles o'er again
And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice
he slew the slain."
Anecdotes known to all were now aired anew. It was told
how the unfortunate Portuguee that fell into a ditch
;