`` What kind of Whiggish , canting talk is this , for the house of Cluny Macpherson ? '' `` I will put my hand in the fire for Mr. Balfour , '' says Alan . `` He is an honest and a mettle gentleman , and I would have ye bear in mind who says it . I bear a king 's name , '' says he , cocking his hat ; `` and I and any that I call friend are company for the best . But the gentleman is tired , and should sleep ; if he has no mind to the cartes , it will never hinder you and me . And I 'm fit and willing , sir , to play ye any game that ye can name . '' `` Sir , '' says Cluny , `` in this poor house of mine I would have you to ken that any gentleman may follow his pleasure . If your friend would like to stand on his head , he is welcome . And if either he , or you , or any other man , is not preceesely satisfied , I will be proud to step outside with him . '' I had no will that these two friends should cut their throats for my sake . `` Sir , '' said I , `` I am very wearied , as Alan says ; and what 's more , as you are a man that likely has sons of your own , I may tell you it was a promise to my father . '' `` Say nae mair , say nae mair , '' said Cluny , and pointed me to a bed of heather in a corner of the Cage . For all that he was displeased enough , looked at me askance , and grumbled when he looked . And indeed it must be owned that both my scruples and the words in which I declared them , smacked somewhat of the Covenanter , and were little in their place among wild Highland Jacobites . What with the brandy and the venison , a strange heaviness had come over me ; and I had scarce lain down upon the bed before I fell into a kind of trance , in which I continued almost the whole time of our stay in the Cage . Sometimes I was broad awake and understood what passed ; sometimes I only heard voices , or men snoring , like the voice of a silly river ; and the plaids upon the wall dwindled down and swelled out again , like firelight shadows on the roof . I must sometimes have spoken or cried out , for I remember I was now and then amazed at being answered ; yet I was conscious of no particular nightmare , only of a general , black , abiding horror -- a horror of the place I was in , and the bed I lay in , and the plaids on the wall , and the voices , and the fire , and myself . The barber-gillie , who was a doctor too , was called in to prescribe for me ; but as he spoke in the Gaelic , I understood not a word of his opinion , and was too sick even to ask for a translation . I knew well enough I was ill , and that was all I cared about . I paid little heed while I lay in this poor pass .
But Alan and XXXXX were most of the time at the cards , and I am clear that Alan must have begun by winning ; for I remember sitting up , and seeing them hard at it , and a great glittering pile of as much as sixty or a hundred guineas on the table .
Alan Balfour Cluny Covenanter Jacobites Macpherson barber-gillie cartes fire scruples