 customs on such occasions and those of the ancients.«
    »Heaven forgive me!« thought M'Intyre; - »I shall certainly misbehave, and
lose all the credit I have so lately and accidentally gained.«
    When they set out, schooled as he was by the warning and entreating looks of
his sister, the soldier made his resolution strong to give no offence by
evincing inattention or impatience. But our best resolutions are frail, when
opposed to our predominant inclinations. Our Antiquary, - to leave nothing
unexplained, had commenced with the funeral rites of the ancient Scandinavians,
when his nephew interrupted him, in a discussion upon the »age of hills,« to
remark that a large sea-gull, which flitted around them, had come twice within
shot. This error being acknowledged and pardoned, Oldbuck resumed his
disquisition.
    »These are circumstances you ought to attend to and be familiar with, my
dear Hector; for, in the strange contingencies of the present war which agitates
every corner of Europe, there is no knowing where you may be called upon to
serve. If in Norway, for example, or Denmark, or any part of the ancient Scania,
or Scandinavia, as we term it, what could be more convenient than to have at
your fingers' ends the history and antiquities of that ancient country, the
officina gentium, the mother of modern Europe, the nursery of those heroes,
 
Stern to inflict, and stubborn to endure,
Who smiled in death? -
 
How animating, for example, at the conclusion of a weary march, to find yourself
in the vicinity of a Runic monument, and discover that you have pitched your
tent beside the tomb of a hero!«
    »I am afraid, sir, our mess would be better supplied if it chanced to be in
the neighbourhood of a good poultry-yard.«
    »Alas, that you should say so! No wonder the days of Cressy and Agincourt
are no more, when respect for ancient valour has died away in the breasts of the
British soldiery.«
    »By no means, sir - by no manner of means. I dare say that Edward and Henry,
and the rest of these heroes, thought of their dinner, however, before they
thought of examining an old tombstone. But I assure you, we are by no means
insensible to the memory of our fathers' fame; I used often of an evening to get
old Rory M'Alpin to sing us songs out of Ossian about the battles of Fingal and
Lamon Mor, and Magnus and the Spirit of Muirartach.«
    »And
