In the meanwhile, the repeated expostulation of
Houghton,--'Ah, squire, why did you leave us?' rang like a knell in his
ears.
'Yes,' he said, 'I have indeed acted towards you with thoughtless
cruelty. I brought you from your paternal fields, and the protection of
a generous and kind landlord, and when I had subjected you to all the
rigour of military discipline, I shunned to bear my own share of the
burden, and wandered from the duties I had undertaken, leaving alike
those whom it was my business to protect, and my own reputation, to
suffer under the artifices of villany. O indolence and indecision of
mind! if not in yourselves vices, to how much exquisite misery and
mischief do you frequently prepare the way!'
CHAPTER XLVI
THE EVE OF BATTLE
Although the Highlanders marched on very fast, the sun was declining
when they arrived upon the brow of those high grounds which command an
open and extensive plain stretching northward to the sea, on which are
situated, but at a considerable distance from each other, the small
villages of Seaton and Cockenzie, and the larger one of Preston. One of
the low coast-roads to Edinburgh passed through this plain, issuing upon
it from the enclosures of Seaton-house, and at the town or village of
Preston again entering the defiles of an enclosed country.
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