"Weel dune, Bash--weel dune, Battie!" he exclaimed as he came up. "By
the honour of a king, ye are a credit to the Braes of Balwhither!--
Haud my horse, man," he called out to Nigel, without stopping to see
to whom he had addressed himself--"Haud my naig, and help me doun out
o' the saddle--deil ding your saul, sirrah, canna ye mak haste before
these lazy smaiks come up?--haud the rein easy--dinna let him swerve--
now, haud the stirrup--that will do, man, and now we are on terra
firma." So saying, without casting an eye on his assistant, gentle
King Jamie, unsheathing the short, sharp hanger, (_couteau de
chasse_,) which was the only thing approaching to a sword that he
could willingly endure the sight of, drew the blade with great
satisfaction across the throat of the buck, and put an end at once to
its struggles and its agonies.
Lord Glenvarloch, who knew well the silvan duty which the occasion
demanded, hung the bridle of the king's palfrey on the branch of a
tree, and, kneeling duteously down, turned the slaughtered deer upon
its back, and kept the _quarree_ in that position, while the king, too
intent upon his sport to observe any thing else, drew his _couteau_
down the breast of the animal, _secundum artem_; and, having made a
cross cut, so as to ascertain the depth of the fat upon the chest,
exclaimed, in a sort of rapture, "Three inches of white fat on the
brisket!--prime--prime--as I am a crowned sinner--and deil ane o' the
lazy loons in but mysell! Seven--aught--aught tines on the antlers.
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