ditional
loop-holes for musketry were struck out in different parts of the
building, and of its surrounding wall. The windows had just been
carefully secured by stancheons of iron, crossing each other athwart and
end-long, like the grates of a prison. The door of the court-yard was
shut; and it was only after cautious challenge that one of its leaves
was opened by two domestics, both strong Highlanders, and both under
arms, like Bitias and Pandarus in the AEneid, ready to defend the
entrance if aught hostile had ventured an intrusion.

When the travellers were admitted into the court, they found additional
preparations for defence. The walls were scaffolded for the use of
fire-arms, and one or two of the small guns, called sackers, or falcons,
were mounted at the angles and flanking turrets.

More domestics, both in the Highland and Lowland dress, instantly rushed
from the anterior of the mansion, and some hastened to take the horses
of the strangers, while others waited to marshal them a way into the
dwelling-house. But Captain Dalgetty refused the proffered assistance
of those who wished to relieve him of the charge of his horse. "It is my
custom, my friends, to see Gustavus (for so I have called him, after
my invincible master) accommodated myself; we are old friends and
fellow-travellers, and as I often need the use of his legs, I always
lend him in my turn the service of my tongue, to call for whatever he
has occasion for;" and accordingly he strode into the stable after his
steed without farther apology.

Neither Lord Menteith nor his attendants paid the same attention to
their horses, but, leaving them to the proffered care of the servants of
the place, walked forward into the house, where a sort of dark vaulted
vestibule displayed, among other miscellaneous articles, a huge barrel
of two-penny ale, beside which were ranged two or three wooden queichs,
or bickers, ready, it would appear, for the service of whoever thought
proper to employ them. Lord Menteith applied himself

William Babington Maxwell (18661938) was a British novelist. He was a son of novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Though nearly 50 years old at the outbreak of the First World War, he was accepted as a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers and served in France until 1917.

Cyrus Townsend Brady (December 20, 1861 January 24, 1920) was a journalist, historian and adventure writer. His most well-known work is Indian Fights and Fighters. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1883. He was also a deacon in the Episcopal church. His first wife was Clarissa Guthrie, who died in 1890. His second wife was Mary Barrett.

Rebecca Sophia Clarke (1833-1906), also known as Sophie May, was an American author of childrens fiction. Using her nieces and nephews as inspiration, she wrote realistic stories about children. She wrote 45 books between 1860 and 1903. The most popular being the Little Prudy books. She lived most of her life in her native town of Norridgewock, Maine, where she lived out her life with her sister, who was also a successful author.