He was in full uniform, for he was going on to the King's levee after our business.

He drew his sword from the scabbard and laid it naked on the table before Rupert, and said: "You are going, sir, into a strange and danger country--I have been reading about it since we met--and you will be largely alone amongst fierce mountaineers who resent the very presence of a stranger, and to whom you are, and must be, one.

If you should ever be in any trouble and want a man to stand back to back with you, I hope you will give me the honour!" As he said this pointed to his sword.
Rupert and I were also standing now--one cannot sit down in the presence of such an act as that.

"You are, I am proud to say, allied with my family: and I only wish to God it was closer to myself." Rupert took him by the hand and bent his head before him as answered: "The honour is mine, Sir Colin; and no greater can come to any man than that which you have just done me.

The best way I can show how I value it will be to call on you if I am ever in such a tight place.
By Jove, sir, this is history repeating itself.