Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series - 1819.djvu/225

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A LEGEND OF MONTROSE.

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whilk his breeding and behaviour seem to testify, the matter must end here, seeing that a madman can neither give an affront, nor render honourable satisfaction. But by my saul, if I had had my provant and a bottle of Rhenish under my belt, I should have stood other ways up to him. And yet it's a pity he should be sae weak in the intellectuals, being a strong proper man of body, fit to handle pike, morgenstern,^[1] or any other military implement whatsoever."

↑ This was a sort of club or mace used in the earlier part of the sixteenth century in the defence of breaches and walls. When the Germans insulted a Scotch regiment then beseiged in Trailsund, saying they heard there was a ship come from Denmark to them laden with tobacco pipes, "One of our soldiers," says Colonel Robert Monro, "shewing them over the work a Morgenstern, made of a large stock banded with iron, like the shaft of a halbert, with a round globe at the end with cross iron pikes, saith, 'here is one of the tobacco pipes, wherewith we will beat out your brains when you intend to storm us.'"

[1] This was a sort of club or mace used in the earlier part of the sixteenth century in the defence of breaches and walls. When the Germans insulted a Scotch regiment then beseiged in Trailsund, saying they heard there was a ship come from Denmark to them laden with tobacco pipes, "One of our soldiers," says Colonel Robert Monro, "shewing them over the work a Morgenstern, made of a large stock banded with iron, like the shaft of a halbert, with a round globe at the end with cross iron pikes, saith, 'here is one of the tobacco pipes, wherewith we will beat out your brains when you intend to storm us.'"

[1]