The Lion of the North | Page 8

a fortnight, Nigel Graheme's company completing the number
of men required to fill up the ranks of his regiment.
Captain Hume had proceeded further north. Colonel Munro stopped for
a week in Nithsdale, giving instructions to the officers and
noncommissioned officers as to the drill in use in the Swedish army.
Military manoeuvres were in these days very different to what they
have now become. The movements were few and simple, and easily
acquired. Gustavus had, however, introduced an entirely new formation
into his army. Hitherto troops had fought in solid masses, twenty or
more deep. Gustavus taught his men to fight six deep, maintaining that
if troops were steady this depth of formation should be able to sustain
any assault upon it, and that with a greater depth the men behind were
useless in the fight. His cavalry fought only three deep. The recruits
acquired the new tactics with little difficulty. In Scotland for
generations every man and boy had received a certain military training,
and all were instructed in the use of the pike; consequently, at the end
of a week Colonel Munro pronounced Nigel Graheme's company
capable of taking their place in the regiment without discredit, and so
went forward to see to the training of the companies of Hamilton,
Balfour, and Scott, having arranged with Graheme to march his
company to Dunbar in three weeks' time, when he would be joined by
the other three companies. Malcolm was delighted with the stir and
bustle of his new life. Accustomed to hard exercise, to climbing and
swimming, he was a strong and well grown lad, and was in appearance
fully a year beyond his age. He felt but little fatigued by the incessant

drill in which the days were passed, though he was glad enough of an
evening to lay aside his armour, of which the officers wore in those
days considerably more than the soldiers, the mounted officers being
still clad in full armour, while those on foot wore back and arm pieces,
and often leg pieces, in addition to the helmet and breastplate. They
were armed with swords and pistols, and carried besides what were
called half pikes, or pikes some 7 feet long. They wore feathers in their
helmets, and the armour was of fine quality, and often richly
damascened, or inlaid with gold.
Very proud did Malcolm feel as on the appointed day he marched with
the company from Nithsdale, with the sun glittering on their arms and a
drummer beating the march at their head. They arrived in due course at
Dunbar, and were in a few hours joined by the other three companies
under Munro himself. The regiment which was now commanded by
Lieutenant Colonel Munro had been raised in 1626 by Sir Donald
Mackay of Farre and Strathnaver, 1500 strong, for the service of the
King of Denmark. Munro was his cousin, and when Sir Donald went
home shortly before, he succeeded to the command of the regiment.
They embarked at once on board a ship which Munro had chartered,
and were landed in Denmark and marched to Flensberg, where the rest
of the regiment was lying.
A fortnight was spent in severe drill, and then orders were received
from Oxenstiern, the chancellor of Sweden, to embark the regiment on
board two Swedish vessels, the Lillynichol and the Hound. On board
the former were the companies of Captains Robert Munro, Hector
Munro, Bullion, Nigel Graheme, and Hamilton. Colonel Munro sailed
in this ship, while Major Sennot commanded the wing of the regiment
on board the Hound. The baggage horses and ammunition were in a
smaller vessel.
The orders were that they were to land at Wolgast on the southern shore
of the Baltic. Scarcely had they set sail than the weather changed, and a
sudden tempest burst upon them. Higher and higher grew the wind, and
the vessels were separated in the night. The Lillynichol laboured
heavily in the waves, and the discomfort of the troops, crowded
together between decks, was very great. Presently it was discovered
that she had made a leak, and that the water was entering fast. Munro at
once called forty-eight soldiers to the pumps. They were relieved every

quarter of an hour, and by dint of the greatest exertions barely
succeeded in keeping down the water. So heavily did the vessel labour
that Munro bore away for Dantzig; but when night came on the storm
increased in fury. They were now in shoal water, and the vessel,
already half waterlogged, became quite unmanageable in the furious
waves. Beyond the fact that they were fast driving on to the
Pomeranian coast, they were ignorant of their position.
"This is a rough beginning," Nigel said to his nephew. "We bargained
to run the risk of being killed by the