And besides, when folk talk of a country covered with troops, it's but a kind of a byword at the best.

A soldier covers nae mair of it than his boot-soles.

I have fished a water with a sentry on the other side of the brae, and killed a fine trout; and I have sat in a heather bush within six feet of another, and learned a real bonny tune from his whistling.

This was it," said he, and whistled me the air.
"And then, besides," he continued, "it's no sae bad now as it was in forty-six.

The Hielands are what they call pacified.