These eccentric men soon became intimate.

Each of them had his monomania; and the two monomaniac suited each other perfectly.

Fletcher's whole soul was possessed by a sore, jealous, punctilious patriotism.

His heart was ulcerated by the thought of the poverty, the feebleness, the political insignificance of Scotland, and of the indignities which she had suffered at the hand of her powerful and opulent neighbour.

When he talked of her wrongs his dark meagre face took its sternest expression; his habitual frown grew blacker, and his eyes flashed more than their wonted fire.