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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Billow and the Rock, by Harriet Martineau
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Billow and the Rock
+
+Author: Harriet Martineau
+
+Illustrator: E.J. Wheeler
+
+Release Date: October 20, 2007 [EBook #23115]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BILLOW AND THE ROCK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+The Billow and the Rock, by Harriet Martineau.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+It is the time of the 1745 Rebellion, when the adherents of Prince
+Charles, the Pretender to the Throne, landed in Scotland, and started to
+march towards London.
+
+Lord Carse, and his friend Lord Lovat, are fearful that Lady Carse, who
+has some knowledge and evidence of their political beliefs, may betray
+them.  So they abduct her from her home in Edinburgh and have her taken
+away to a remote island in the Outer Hebrides.  She was at first a most
+unwilling prisoner, but gradually an instinct for survival let her eat
+and drink, and ride pillion, and so survive the journey.
+
+The Edinburgh newspapers are fed a story of her illness, then of her
+death, and finally of her burial.  So there is no hue and cry.
+
+The story is well-written as one would hope from such an accomplished
+writer.  It makes a good audiobook, but probably you will need to listen
+to it twice before the story and its background become clear to you.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+THE BILLOW AND THE ROCK, BY HARRIET MARTINEAU.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+LORD AND LADY CARSE.
+
+Scotland was a strange and uncomfortable country to live in a hundred
+years ago.  Strange beyond measure its state of society appears to us
+when we consider, not only that it was called a Christian country, but
+that the people had shown that they really did care very much for their
+religion, and were bent upon worshipping God according to their
+conscience and true belief.  Whilst earnest in their religion, their
+state of society was yet very wicked: a thing which usually happens when
+a whole people are passing from one way of living and being governed to
+another.  Scotland had not long been united with England.  While the
+wisest of the nation saw that the only hope for the country was in being
+governed by the same king and parliament as the English, many of the
+most powerful men wished not to be governed at all, but to be altogether
+despotic over their dependents and neighbours, and to have their _own_
+way in everything.  These lords and gentlemen did such violent things as
+are never heard of now in civilised countries; and when their inferiors
+had any strong desire or passion, they followed the example of the great
+men, so that travelling was dangerous; citizens did not feel themselves
+safe in their own houses if they had reason to believe they had enemies;
+few had any trust in the protection of the law; and stories of fighting
+and murder were familiar to children living in the heart of cities.
+
+Children, however, had less liberty then than in our time.  The more
+self-will there was in grown people, the more strictly were the children
+kept in order, not only because the uppermost idea of everyone in
+authority was that he would be obeyed, but because it would not do to
+let little people see the mischief that was going on abroad.  So, while
+boys had their hair powdered, and wore long coats and waistcoats, and
+little knee-breeches, and girls were laced tight in stays all stiff with
+whalebone, they were trained to manners more formal than are ever seen
+now.
+
+One autumn afternoon a party was expected at the house of Lord Carse, in
+Edinburgh; a handsome house in a very odd situation, according to our
+modern notions.  It was at the bottom of a narrow lane of houses--that
+sort of lane called a Wynd in Scotch cities.  It had a court-yard in
+front.  It was necessary to have a court-yard to a good house in a
+street too narrow for carriages.  Visitors must come in sedan chairs and
+there must be some place, aside from the street, where the chairs and
+chairmen could wait for the guests.  This old fashioned house had
+sitting-rooms on the ground floor, and on the sills of the windows were
+flower-pots, in which, on this occasion, some asters and other autumn
+flowers were growing.
+
+Within the largest sitting-room was collected a formal group, awaiting
+the arrival of visitors.  Lord Carse's sister, Lady Rachel Ballino, was
+there, surrounded by her nephews and nieces.  As they came in, one after
+another, dressed for company, and made their bow or curtsey at the door,
+their aunt gave them permission to sit down till the arrival of the
+first guest, after which time it would be a matter of course that they
+should stand.  Miss Janet and her brothers sat down on their low stools,
+at some distance from each other; but little Miss Flora had no notion of
+submitting to their restraints at her early age, and she scrambled up
+the window-seat to look abroad as far as she could, which was through
+the high iron gates to the tall houses on the other side the Wynd.
+
+Lady Rachel saw the boys and Janet looking at each other with smiles,
+and this turned her attention to the child in the window, who was
+nodding her little curly head very energetically to somebody outside.
+
+"Come down, Flora," said her aunt.
+
+But Flora was too busy, nodding, to hear that she was spoken to.
+
+"Flora, come down.  Why are you nodding in that way?"
+
+"Lady nods," said Flora.
+
+Lady Rachel rose deliberately from her seat, and approached the window,
+turning pale as she went.  After a single glance in the court-yard, she
+sank on a chair, and desired her nephew Orme to ring the bell twice.
+Orme who saw that something was the matter, rang so vigorously as to
+bring the butler in immediately.
+
+"John, you see?" said the pale lips of Lady Rachel, while she pointed,
+with a trembling finger, to the court-yard.
+
+"Yes, my lady; the doors are fastened."
+
+"And Lord Carse not home yet?"
+
+"No, my lady.  I think perhaps he is somewhere near, and cannot get
+home."
+
+John looked irresolutely towards the child in the window.  Once more
+Flora was desired to come down, and once more she only replied, "Lady
+nods at me."
+
+Janet was going towards the window to enforce her aunt's orders, but she
+was desired to keep her seat, and John quickly took up Miss Flora in his
+arms and set her down at her aunt's knee.  The child cried and
+struggled, said she would see the lady, and must infallibly have been
+dismissed to the nursery, but her eye was caught, and her mind presently
+engaged by Lady Rachel's painted fan, on which there was a burning
+mountain, and a blue sea, and a shepherdess and her lamb--all very gay.
+Flora was allowed to have the fan in her own hands--a very rare favour.
+But presently she left off telling her aunt what she saw upon it,
+dropped it, and clapped her hands, saying, as she looked at the window,
+"Lady nods at me."
+
+"It is mamma!" cried the elder ones, starting to their feet, as the lady
+thrust her face through the flowers, and close to the window-pane.
+
+"Go to the nursery, children," said Lady Rachel, making an effort to
+rise.  "I will send for you presently."  The elder ones appeared glad to
+escape, and they carried with them the struggling Flora.
+
+Lady Rachel threw up the sash, crossed her arms, and said, in the most
+formal manner, "What do you want, Lady Carse?"
+
+"I want my children."
+
+"You cannot have them, as you well know.  It is too late.  I pity you;
+but it is too late."
+
+"I will see my children.  I will come home and live.  I will make that
+tyrant repent setting up anyone in my place at home.  I have it in my
+power to ruin him.  I--"
+
+"Abstain from threats," said Lady Rachel, shutting the window, and
+fastening the sash.
+
+Lady Carse doubled her fist, as if about to dash in a pane; but the iron
+gates behind her creaked on their hinges, and she turned her head.  A
+chair was entering, on each side of which walked a footman, whose livery
+Lady Carse well knew.  Her handsome face, red before, was now more
+flushed.  She put her mouth close to the window, and said, "If it had
+been anybody but Lovat you would not have been rid of me this evening.
+I would have stood among the chairmen till midnight for the chance of
+getting in.  Be sure I shall to-morrow, or some day.  But now I am off."
+She darted past the chair, her face turned away, just as Lord Lovat was
+issuing from it.
+
+"Ho! ho!" cried he, in a loud and mocking tone.  "Ho, there! my Lady
+Carse!  A word with you!"  But she ran up the Wynd as fast as she could
+go.
+
+"You should not look so white upon it," Lord Lovat observed to Lady
+Rachel, as soon as the door was shut.  "Why do you let her see her power
+over you?"
+
+"God knows!" replied Lady Rachel.  "But it is not her threats alone that
+make us nervous.  It is the being incessantly subject--"
+
+She cleared her throat; but she could not go on.
+
+Lord Lovat swore that he would not submit to be tormented by a virago in
+this way.  If Lady Carse were his wife--
+
+"Well! what would you do?" asked Lady Rachel.
+
+"I would get rid of her.  I tell your brother so.  I would get rid of
+her in one way, if she threatened to get rid of me in another.  She may
+have learned from her father how to put her enemies out of the way."
+
+Lady Rachel grew paler than ever.  Lord Lovat went on.
+
+"Her father carried pistols in the streets of Edinburgh and so may she.
+Her father was hanged for it; and it is my belief that she would have no
+objection to that end if she could have her revenge first.  Ay! you
+wonder why I say such things to you, frightened as you are already.  I
+do it that you may not infuse any weakness into your brother's purposes,
+if he should think fit to rid the town of her one of these days.  Come,
+come!  I did not say rid the world of her."
+
+"Merciful Heaven! no!"
+
+"There are places, you know, where troublesome people have no means of
+doing mischief.  I could point out such a place presently, if I were
+asked--a place where she might be as safe as under lock and key, without
+the trouble and risk of confining her, and having to consider the law."
+
+"You do not mean a prison, then?"
+
+"No.  She has not yet done anything to make it easy to put her in prison
+for life; and anything short of that would be more risk than comfort.
+If Carse gives me authority, I will dispose of her where she can be free
+to rove like the wild goats.  If she should take a fancy to jump down a
+precipice, or drown herself, that is her own affair, you know."
+
+The door opened for the entrance of company.  Lord Lovat whispered once
+more, "Only this.  If Carse thinks of giving the case into my hands,
+don't you oppose it.  I will not touch her life, I swear to you."
+
+Lady Rachel knew, like the rest of the world, that Lord Lovat's swearing
+went for no more than any of his other engagements.  Though she would
+have given all she had in the world to be freed from the terror of Lady
+Carse, and to hope that the children might forget their unhappy mother,
+she shrank from the idea of putting any person into the hands of the
+hard, and mocking, and plotting Lord Lovat.  As for the legality of
+doing anything at all to Lady Carse while she did not herself break the
+law, that was a consideration which no more occurred to Lady Rachel than
+to the violent Lord Lovat himself.
+
+Lady Rachel was exerting herself to entertain her guests, and had sent
+for the children, when, to her inexplicable relief, the butler brought
+her the news that Lord Carse and his son Willie were home, and would
+appear with all speed.  They had been detained two hours in a tavern,
+John said.
+
+"In a tavern?"
+
+"Yes, my lady.  Could not get out.  Did not wish to collect more people,
+to cause a mob.  It is all right now, my lady."
+
+When Lord Carse entered, he made formal apologies to his guests first,
+and his sister afterwards, for his late appearance.  He had been delayed
+by an affair of importance on his way home.  His rigid countenance was
+somewhat paler than usual, and his manner more dictatorial.  His hard
+and unwavering voice was heard all the evening, prosing and explaining.
+The only tokens of feeling were when he spoke to his eldest son Willie,
+who was spiritless, and, as the close observer saw, tearful; and when he
+took little Flora in his arms, and stroked her shining hair, and asked
+her if she had been walking with the nurse.
+
+Flora did not answer.  She was anxiously watching Lady Rachel's
+countenance.  Her papa bade her look at him and answer his question.
+She did so, after glancing at her aunt, and saying eagerly, in a loud
+whisper, "I am not going to say anything about the lady that came to the
+window, and nodded at me."
+
+It did not mend the matter that her sister and brothers all said at
+once, in a loud whisper, "Hush!  Flora."
+
+Her father sat her down hastily.  Lord Carse's domestic troubles were
+pretty well-known throughout Edinburgh; and the company settled it in
+their own minds that there had been a scene this afternoon.
+
+When they were gone, Lord Carse gave his sister his advice not to
+instruct any very young child in any part to be acted.  He assured her
+that very young children have not the discretion of grown people, and
+gave it as his opinion that when the simplicity, which is extremely
+agreeable by the domestic fireside, becomes troublesome or dangerous in
+society, the child is better disposed of in the nursery.
+
+Lady Rachel meekly submitted; only observing what a singular and painful
+case was that of these children, who had to be so early trained to avoid
+the very mention of their mother.  She believed her brother to be the
+most religious man she had ever known; yet she now heard him mutter
+oaths so terrible that they made her blood run cold.
+
+"Brother! my dear brother," she expostulated.
+
+"I'll tell you what she has done," he said, from behind his set teeth.
+"She has taken a lodging in this very Wynd, directly opposite my gates.
+Not a child, not a servant, not a dog or cat can leave my house without
+coming under her eye.  She will be speaking to the children out of her
+window."
+
+"She will be nodding at Flora from the court-yard as often as you are
+out," cried Lady Rachel.  "And if she should shoot you from her window,
+brother."
+
+"She hints that she will; and there are many things more unlikely,
+considering (as she herself says) whose daughter she is.--But, no," he
+continued, seeing the dreadful alarm into which his sister was thrown.
+"This will not be her method of revenge.  There is another that pleases
+her better, because she suspects that I dread it more.--You know what I
+mean?"
+
+"Political secrets?"  Lady Rachel whispered--not in Flora's kind of
+whisper, but quite into her brother's ear.
+
+He nodded assent, and then he gravely informed her that his
+acquaintance, Duncan Forbes, had sent a particular request to see him in
+the morning.  He should go, he said.  It would not do to refuse waiting
+on the President of the Court of Session, as he was known to be in
+Edinburgh.  But he wished he was a hundred miles off, if he was to hear
+a Hanoverian lecture from a man so good natured, and so dignified by his
+office, that he must always have his own way.
+
+Lady Rachel went to bed very miserable this night.  She wished that Lady
+Carse and King George, and all the House of Brunswick had never existed;
+or that Prince Charlie, or some of the exiled royal family, would come
+over at once and take possession of the kingdom, that her brother and
+his friends might no longer be compelled to live in a state of suspicion
+and dread--every day planning to bring in a new king, and every day
+obliged to appear satisfied with the one they had; their secret, or some
+part of it, being all the while at the mercy of a violent woman who
+hated them all.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+THE TURBULENT.
+
+When Lord Carse issued from his own house the next morning to visit the
+President, he had his daughter Janet by his side, and John behind him.
+He took Janet in the hope that her presence, while it would be no
+impediment to any properly legal business, would secure him from any
+political conversation being introduced; and there was no need of any
+apology for her visit, as the President usually asked why he had not the
+pleasure of seeing her, if her father went alone.  Duncan Forbes's good
+nature to all young people was known to everybody; but he declared
+himself an admirer of Janet above all others; and Janet never felt
+herself of so much consequence as in the President's house.
+
+John went as an escort to his young lady on her return.
+
+Janet felt her father's arm twitch as they issued from their gates; and,
+looking up to see why, she saw that his face was twitching too.  She did
+not know how near her mother was, nor that her father and John had their
+ears on the stretch for a hail from the voice they dreaded above all
+others in the world.  But nothing was seen or heard of Lady Carse; and
+when they turned out of the Wynd Lord Carse resumed his usual air and
+step of formal importance; and Janet held up her head, and tried to take
+steps as long as his.
+
+All was right about her going to the President's.  He kissed her
+forehead, and praised her father for bringing her, and picked out for
+her the prettiest flowers from a bouquet before he sat down to business;
+and then he rose again, and provided her with a portfolio of prints to
+amuse herself with; and even then he did not forget her, but glanced
+aside several times, to explain the subject of some print, or to draw
+her attention to some beauty in the one she was looking at.
+
+"My dear lord," said he, "I have taken a liberty with your time; but I
+want your opinion on a scheme I have drawn out at length for Government,
+for preventing and punishing the use of tea among the common people."
+
+"Very good, very good!" observed Lord Carse, greatly relieved about the
+reasons for his being sent for.  "It is high time, if our agriculture is
+to be preserved, that the use of malt should be promoted to the utmost
+by those in power."
+
+"I am sure of it," said the President.  "Things have got to such a pass,
+that in towns the meanest people have tea at the morning's meal, to the
+discontinuance of the ale which ought to be their diet; and poor women
+dank this drug also in the afternoons, to the exclusion of the
+twopenny."
+
+"It is very bad; _very_ unpatriotic; very immoral," declared Lord Carse.
+"Such people must be dealt with outright."
+
+The President put on his spectacles, and opened his papers to explain
+his plan--that plan, which it now appears almost incredible should have
+come from a man so wise, so liberal, so kind-hearted as Duncan Forbes.
+He showed how he would draw the line between those who ought and those
+who ought not to be permitted to drink tea; how each was to be
+described, and how, when anyone was suspected of taking tea, when he
+ought to be drinking beer, he was to tell on oath what his income was,
+that it might be judged whether he could pay the extremely high duty on
+tea which the plan would impose.  Houses might be visited, and cupboards
+and cellars searched, at all hours, in cases of suspicion.
+
+"These provisions are pretty severe," the President himself observed.
+"But--"
+
+"But not more than is necessary," declared Lord Carse.  "I should say
+they are too mild.  If our agriculture is not supported, if the malt tax
+falls off, what is to become of us?"
+
+And he sighed deeply.
+
+"If we find this scheme work well, as far as it goes," observed the
+President, cheerfully, "we can easily render it as much more stringent
+as occasion may require.  And now, what can Miss Janet tell us on this
+subject?  Can she give information of any tea being drunk in the nursery
+at home?"
+
+"Oh! to be sure," said Janet.  "Nurse often lets me have some with her;
+and Katie fills Flora's doll's teapot out of her own, almost every
+afternoon."
+
+"Bless my soul!" cried Lord Carse, starting from his seat in
+consternation.  "My servants drink tea in my house!  Off they shall go--
+every one of them who does it."
+
+"Oh! papa.  No; pray papa!" implored Janet.  "They will say I sent them
+away.  Oh!  I wish nobody had asked me anything about it."
+
+"It was my doing," said the President.  "My dear lord, I make it my
+request that your servants may be forgiven."
+
+Lord Carse bowed his acquiescence; but he shook his head, and looked
+very gloomy about such a thing happening in his house.  The President
+agreed with him that it must not happen again, on pain of instant
+dismissal.
+
+The President next invited Janet to the drawing-room to see a grey
+parrot, brought hither since her last visit--a very entertaining
+companion in the evenings, the President declared.  He told Lord Carse
+he would be back in three minutes, and so he was--with a lady on his
+arm, and that lady was--Lady Carse.
+
+She was not flushed now, nor angry, nor forward.  She was quiet and
+ladylike, while in the house of one of the most gentlemanly men of his
+time.  If her husband had looked at her, he would have seen her so much
+like the woman he wooed and once dearly loved, that he might have
+somewhat changed his feelings towards her.  But he went abruptly to the
+window when he discovered who she was, and nothing could make him turn
+his head.  Perhaps he was aware how pale he was, and desired that she
+should not see it.
+
+The President placed the lady in a chair, and then approached Lord
+Carse, and laid his hand on his shoulder, saying, "You will forgive me
+when you know my reasons.  I want you to join me in prevailing on this
+good lady to give up a design which I think imprudent--I will say,
+wrong."
+
+It was surprising, but Lady Carse for once bore quietly with somebody
+thinking her wrong.  Whatever she might feel, she said nothing.  The
+President went on.
+
+"Lady Carse--"
+
+He felt, as his hand lay on his friend's shoulder, that he winced, as if
+the very name stung him.
+
+"Lady Carse," continued the President, "cannot be deterred by any
+account that can be given her of the perils and hardships of a journey
+to London.  She declares her intention of going."
+
+"I am no baby; I am no coward," declared the lady.  "The coach would not
+have been set up, and it would not continue to go once a fortnight if
+the journey were not practicable; and where others go I can go."
+
+"Of the dangers of the road, I tell this good lady," resumed the
+President, "she can judge as well as you or I, my lord.  But of the
+perils of the rest of her errand she must, I think, admit that we may be
+better judges."
+
+"How can you let your Hanoverian prejudices seduce you into
+countenancing such a devil as that woman, and believing a word that she
+says?" muttered Lord Carse, in a hoarse voice.
+
+"Why, my good friend," replied the President, "it does so vex my very
+heart every day to see how the ladies, whom I would fain honour for
+their discretion as much as I admire them for their other virtues, are
+wild on behalf of the Pretender, or eager for a desperate and
+treasonable war, that you must not wonder if I take pleasure in meeting
+with one who is loyal to her rightful sovereign.  Loyal, I must suppose,
+at home, and in a quiet way; for she knows that I do not approve of her
+journey to London to see the minister."
+
+"The minister!" faltered out Lord Carse.
+
+He heard, or fancied he heard his wife laughing behind him.
+
+"Come, now, my friends," said the President, with a good-humoured
+seriousness, "let me tell you that the position of either of you is no
+joke.  It is too serious for any lightness and for any passion.  I do
+not want to hear a word about your grievances.  I see quite enough.  I
+see a lady driven from home, deprived of her children, and tormenting
+herself with thoughts of revenge because she has no other object.  I see
+a gentleman who has been cruelly put to shame in his own house and in
+the public street, worn with anxiety about his innocent daughters, and
+with natural fears--inevitable fears, of the mischief that may be done
+to his character and fortunes by an ill use of the confidence he once
+gave to the wife of his bosom."
+
+There was a suppressed groan from Lord Carse, and something like a
+titter from the lady.  The President went on even more gravely.
+
+"I know how easy it is for people to make each other wretched, and
+especially for you two to ruin each other.  If I could but persuade you
+to sit down with me to a quiet discussion of a plan for living together
+or apart, abstaining from mutual injury--"
+
+Lord Carse dissented audibly from their living together, and the lady
+from living apart.
+
+"Why," remonstrated the President, "things cannot be worse than they are
+now.  You make life a hell--"
+
+"I am sure it is to me!" sighed Lord Carse.
+
+"It is not yet so to me," said the lady.  "I--"
+
+"It is not!" thundered her husband, turning suddenly round upon her.
+"Then I will take care it shall be."
+
+"For God's sake, hush!" exclaimed the President, shocked to the soul.
+
+"Do your worst," said the lady, rising.  "We will try which has the most
+power.  You know what ruin is."
+
+"Stop a moment," said the President.  "I don't exactly like to have this
+quiet house of mine made a hell of.  I cannot have you part on these
+terms."
+
+But the lady had curtseyed, and was gone.  For a minute or two nothing
+was said.  Then a sort of scream was heard from upstairs.
+
+"My Janet!" cried Lord Carse.
+
+"I will go and see," said the President.  "Janet is my especial pet, you
+know."
+
+He immediately returned, smiling, and said, "There is nothing amiss with
+Janet.  Come and see."
+
+Janet was on her mother's lap, her arms thrown round her neck, while the
+mother's tears streamed over them both.  "Can you resist this?" the
+President asked of Lord Carse.  "Can you keep them apart after this?"
+
+"I can," he replied.  "I will not permit her the devilish pleasure she
+wants--of making my own children my enemies."
+
+He was going to take Janet by force: but the President interfered, and
+said authoritatively to Lady Carse that she had better go: her time was
+not yet come.  She must wait; and his advice was to wait patiently and
+harmlessly.
+
+It could not have been believed how instantaneously a woman in such
+emotion could recover herself.
+
+She put Janet off her knee.  In an instant there were no more traces of
+tears, and her face was composed, and her manner hard.
+
+"Good-bye, my dear," she said to the weeping Janet.  "Don't cry so, my
+dear.  Keep your tears; for you will have something more to cry for
+soon.  I am going home to pack my trunk for London.  Have my friends any
+commands for London?"
+
+And she looked round steadily upon the three faces.
+
+The President was extremely grave when their eyes met; but even his eye
+sank under hers.  He offered his arm to conduct her downstairs, and took
+leave of her at the gate with a silent bow.
+
+He met Lord Carse and Janet coming downstairs, and begged them to stay
+awhile, dreading, perhaps, a street encounter.  But Lord Carse was bent
+on being gone immediately--and had not another moment to spare.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+THE WRONG JOURNEY.
+
+Lady Carse and her maid Bessie--an elderly woman who had served her from
+her youth up, bearing with her temper for the sake of that family
+attachment which exists so strongly in Scotland,--were busy packing
+trunks this afternoon, when they were told that a gentleman must speak
+with Lady Carse below stairs.
+
+"There will be no peace till we are off," observed the lady to her maid.
+In answer to which Bessie only sighed deeply.
+
+"I want you to attend me downstairs," observed the lady.  "But this
+provoking nonsense of yours, this crying about going a journey, has made
+you not fit to be seen.  If any friend of my lord's saw your red eyes,
+he would go and say that my own maid was on my lord's side.  I must go
+down alone."
+
+"Pray, madam, let me attend you.  The gentleman will not think of
+looking at me: and I will stand with my back to the light, and the room
+is dark."
+
+"No; your very voice is full of tears.  Stay where you are."
+
+Lady Carse sailed into the room very grandly, not knowing whom she was
+to see.  Nor was she any wiser when she did see him.  He was muffled up,
+and wore a shawl tied over his mouth, and kept his hat on; so that
+little space was left between hat, periwig, and comforter.  He
+apologised for wearing his hat, and for keeping the lady standing--his
+business was short:--in the first place to show her Lord Carse's ring,
+which she would immediately recognise.
+
+She glanced at the ring, and knew it at once.
+
+"On the warrant of this ring," continued the gentleman, "I come from
+your husband to require from you what you cannot refuse,--either as a
+wife, or consistent with your safety.  You hold a document,--a letter
+from your husband, written to you in conjugal confidence five years ago,
+from London,--a letter--"
+
+"You need not describe it further," said the lady.  "It is my chief
+treasure, and not likely to escape my recollection.  It is a letter from
+Lord Carse, containing treasonable expressions relating to the royal
+family."
+
+"About the treason we might differ, madam; but my business is, not to
+argue that, but to require of you to deliver up that paper to me, on
+this warrant," again producing the ring.
+
+The lady laughed, and asked whether the gentleman was a fool or took her
+to be one, that he asked her to give up what she had just told him was
+the greatest treasure she had in the world,--her sure means of revenge
+upon her enemies.
+
+"You will not?" asked the gentleman.
+
+"I will not."
+
+"Then hear what you have to expect, madam.  Hear it, and then take time
+to consider once more."
+
+"I have no time to spare," she replied.  "I start for London early in
+the morning; and my preparations are not complete."
+
+"You must hear me, however," said the gentleman.  "If you do not yield
+your husband will immediately and irrevocably put you to open shame."
+
+"He cannot," she replied.  "I have no shame.  I have the advantage of
+him there."
+
+"You have, however, personal liberty at present.  You have that to
+lose,--and life, madam.  You have that to lose."
+
+Lady Carse caught at the table, and leaned on it to support herself.  It
+was not from fear about her liberty or life; but because there was a
+cruel tone in the utterance of the last words, which told her that it
+was Lord Lovat who was threatening her; and she _was_ afraid of him.
+
+"I have shaken you now," said he.  "Come: give me the letter."
+
+"It is not fear that shakes me," she replied.  "It is disgust.  The
+disgust that some feel at reptiles I feel at you, my Lord Lovat."
+
+She quickly turned and left the room.  When he followed she had her foot
+on the stairs.  He said aloud, "You will repent, madam.  You will
+repent."
+
+"That is my own affair."
+
+"True, madam, most true.  I charge you to remember that you have
+yourself said that it is your own affair if you find you have cause to
+repent."
+
+Lady Carse stood on the stairs till her visitor had closed the house
+door behind him, struggled up to her chamber, and fainted on the
+threshold.
+
+"This journey will never do, madam," said Bessie, as her mistress
+revived.
+
+"It is the very thing for me," protested the lady.  "In twelve hours
+more we shall have left this town and my enemies behind us; and then I
+shall be happy."
+
+Bessie sighed.  Her mistress often talked of being happy; but nobody had
+ever yet seen her so.
+
+"This fainting is nothing," said Lady Carse, rising from the bed.  "It
+is only that my soul sickens when Lord Lovat comes near; and the visitor
+below was Lord Lovat."
+
+"Mercy on us!" exclaimed Bessie.  "What next?"
+
+"Why, that we must get this lock turned," said her lady, kneeling on the
+lid of a trunk.  "Now, try again.  There it is!  Give me the key.  Get
+me a cup of tea, and then to bed with you!  I have a letter to write.
+Call me at four, to a minute.  Have you ordered two chairs, to save all
+risk?"
+
+"Yes, madam; and the landlord will see your things to the coach office
+to-night."
+
+Lady Carse had sealed her letter, and was winding up her watch with her
+eyes fixed on the decaying fire, when she was startled by a knock at the
+house door.  Everybody else was in bed.  In a vague fear she hastened to
+her chamber, and held the door in her hand and listened while the
+landlord went down.  There were two voices besides his; and there was a
+noise as of something heavy brought into the hall.  When this was done,
+and the bolts and bars were again fastened, she went to the stair-head
+and saw the landlord coming up with a letter in his hand.  The letter
+was for her.  It was heavy.  Her trunks had come back from the coach
+office.  The London coach was gone.
+
+The letter contained the money paid for the fare of Lady Carse and her
+maid to London, and explained that a person of importance having
+occasion to go to London with attendants, and it being necessary to use
+haste, the coach was compelled to start six hours earlier than usual;
+and Lady Carse would have the first choice of places next time;--that is
+in a fortnight.
+
+Bessie had never seen her mistress in such a rage as now: and poor
+Bessie was never to see it again.  At the first news, she was off her
+guard, and thanked Heaven that this dangerous journey was put off for a
+fortnight; and much might happen in that time.  Her mistress turned
+round upon her, said it was not put off,--she would go on horseback
+alone,--she would go on foot,--she would crawl on her knees, sooner than
+give up.  Bessie was silent, well knowing that none of these ways would
+or could be tried, and thankful that there was only this one coach to
+England.  Enraged at her silence, her mistress declared that no one who
+was afraid to go to London was a proper servant for her, and turned her
+off upon the spot.  She paid her wages to the weeping Bessie, and with
+the first light of morning, sent her from the house, herself closing the
+door behind her.  She then went to bed, drawing the curtains close round
+it, remaining there all the next day, and refusing food.
+
+In the evening, she wearily rose, and slowly dressed herself,--for the
+first time in her life without help.  She was fretted and humbled at the
+little difficulties of her toilet, and secretly wished, many times, that
+Bessie would come back and offer her services, though she was resolved
+to appear not to accept them without a very humble apology from Bessie
+for her fears about London.  At last, she was ready to go down to tea,
+dressed in a wrapping-gown and slippers.  When halfway down, she heard a
+step behind her, and looked round.  A Highlander was just two stairs
+above her: another appeared at the foot of the flight; and more were in
+the hall.  She knew the livery.  It was Lovat's tartan.  They dragged
+her downstairs, and into her parlour, where she struggled so violently
+that she fell against the heavy table, and knocked out two teeth.  They
+fastened down her arms by swathing her with a plaid, tied a cloth over
+her mouth, threw another over her head, and carried her to the door.  In
+the street was a sedan chair; and in the chair was a man who took her
+upon his knees, and held her fast.  Still she struggled so desperately,
+that the chair rocked from side to side, and would have been thrown
+over; but that there were plenty of attendants running along by the side
+of it, who kept it upright.
+
+This did not last very long.  When they had got out of the streets, the
+chair stopped.  The cloth was removed from her head; and she saw that
+they were on the Linlithgow road, that some horsemen were waiting, one
+of whom was on a very stout horse, which bore a pillion behind the
+saddle.  To this person she was formally introduced, and told that he
+was Mr Forster of Corsebonny.  She knew Mr Forster to be a gentleman
+of character; and that therefore her personal safety was secure in his
+hands.  But her good opinion of him determined her to complain and
+appeal to him in a way which she believed no gentleman could resist.
+She did not think of making any outcry.  The party was large; the road
+was unfrequented at night; and she dreaded being gagged.  She therefore
+only spoke,--and that as calmly as she could.
+
+"What does this mean, Mr Forster?  Where are you carrying me?"
+
+"I know little of Lord Carse's purposes, madam; and less of the meaning
+of them probably than yourself."
+
+"My Lord Carse!  Then I shall soon be among the dead.  He will go
+through life with murder on his soul."
+
+"You wrong him, madam.  Your life is very safe."
+
+"No; I will not live to be the sport of my husband's mercy.  I tell you,
+sir, I will not live."
+
+"Let me advise you to be silent, madam.  Whatever we have to say will be
+better said at the end of our stage, where I hope you will enjoy good
+rest, under my word that you shall not be molested."
+
+But the lady would not be silent.  She declared very peremptorily her
+determination to destroy herself on the first opportunity; and no one
+who knew her temper could dispute the probability of her doing that, or
+any other act of passion.  From bewailing herself, she went on to say
+things of her husband and Lord Lovat, and of her purposes in regard to
+them, which Mr Forster felt that he and others ought not, for her own
+sake, to hear.  He quickened his pace, but she complained of cramp in
+her side.  He then halted, whispered to two men who watched for his
+orders, and had the poor lady again silenced by the cloth being tied
+over her mouth.  She tried to drop off, but that only caused the strap
+which bound her to the rider to be buckled tighter.  She found herself
+treated like a wayward child.  When she could no longer make opposition,
+the pace of the party was quickened, and it was not more than two hours
+past midnight when they reached a country house, which she knew to
+belong to an Edinburgh lawyer, a friend of her husband's.
+
+Servants were up--fires were burning--supper was on the table.  The lady
+was shown to a comfortable bedroom.
+
+From thence she refused to come down.  Mr Forster and another gentleman
+of the party therefore visited her to explain as much as they thought
+proper of Lord Carse's plans, and of their own method of proceeding.
+
+They told her that Lord Carse found himself compelled, for family
+reasons, to sequestrate her.  For her life and safety there was no fear;
+but she was to live where she could have that personal liberty of which
+no one wished to deprive her, without opportunity of intercourse with
+her family.
+
+"And where can that be?" she asked.  "Who will undertake to say that I
+shall live, in the first place, and that my children shall not hear from
+me, in the next?"
+
+"Where your abode is to be, we do not know," replied Mr Forster.
+"Perhaps it is not yet settled.  As for your life, madam, I have engaged
+to transfer you alive and safe, as far as lies in human power."
+
+"Transfer me!  To whom?"
+
+"To another friend of your husband's, who will take equal care of you.
+I am sorry for your threats of violence on yourself.  They compel me to
+do what I should not otherwise have thought of--to forbid your being
+alone, even in this your own room."
+
+"You do not mean--"
+
+"I mean that you are not to be left unwatched for a single instant.
+There is a woman in the house--the housekeeper.  She and her husband
+will enter this room when I leave it; and I advise you to say nothing to
+them against this arrangement."
+
+"They shall have no peace with me."
+
+"I am sorry for it.  It will be a bad preparation for your further
+journey.  You would do better to lie down and rest,--for which ample
+time shall be allowed."
+
+The people in charge of the house were summoned, and ordered, in the
+lady's hearing, to watch her rest, and on no account to leave the room
+till desired to do so.  A table was set out in one corner, with meat and
+bread, wine and ale.  But the unhappy lady would not attempt either to
+eat or sleep.  She sat by the fire, faint, weary and gloomy.  She
+listened to the sounds from below till the whole party had supped, and
+lain down for the night.  Then she watched her guards,--the woman
+knitting, and the man reading his Bible.  At last, she could hold up no
+longer.  Her head sank on her breast, and she was scarcely conscious of
+being gently lifted, laid upon the bed, and covered up warm with cloak
+and plaid.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+NEWSPAPERS.
+
+Lady Carse did not awake till the afternoon of the next day; and then
+she saw the housekeeper sitting knitting on the same chair, and looking
+as if she had never stirred since she took her place there in the middle
+of the night.  The man was not there.
+
+The woman cheerfully invited the lady to rise and refresh herself, and
+come to the fire, and then go down and dine.  But Lady Carse's spirit
+was awake as soon as her eyes were.  She said she would never rise--
+never eat again.  The woman begged her to think better of it, or she
+should be obliged to call her husband to resume his watch, and to let
+Mr Forster know of her refusal to take food.  To this the poor lady
+answered only by burying her face in the coverings, and remaining silent
+and motionless, for all the woman could say.
+
+In a little while, up came Mr Forster, with three Highlanders.  They
+lifted her, as if she had been a child, placed her in an easy chair by
+the fireside, held back her head, and poured down her throat a basin
+full of strong broth.
+
+"It grieves me, madam," said Mr Forster, "to be compelled to treat you
+thus--like a wayward child.  But I am answerable for your life.  You
+will be fed in this way as often as you decline necessary food."
+
+"I defy you still," she cried.
+
+"Indeed!" said he, with a perplexed look.  She had been searched by the
+housekeeper in her sleep; and it was certain that no weapon and no drug
+was about her person.  She presently lay back in the chair, as if
+wishing to sleep, throwing a shawl over her head; and all withdrew
+except the housekeeper and her husband.
+
+In a little while some movement was perceived under the shawl, and there
+was a suppressed choking sound.  The desperate woman was swallowing her
+hair, in order to vomit up the nourishment she had taken--as another
+lady in desperate circumstances once did to get rid of poison.  The
+housekeeper was ordered to cut off her hair, and Mr Forster then rather
+rejoiced in this proof that she carried no means of destroying her life.
+
+As soon as it was quite dark she was compelled to take more food, and
+then wrapped up warmly for a night ride.  Mr Forster invited her to
+promise that she would not speak, that he might be spared the necessity
+of bandaging her mouth.  But she declared her intention of speaking on
+every possible occasion; and she was therefore effectually prevented
+from opening her mouth at all.
+
+On they rode through the night, stopping to dismount only twice; and
+then it was not at any house, but at mere sheepfolds, where a fire was
+kindled by some of the party, and where they drank whisky, and laughed
+and talked in the warmth and glow of the fire, as if the poor lady had
+not been present.  Between her internal passion, her need of more food
+than she would take, the strangeness of the scene, with the sparkling
+cold stars overhead, and the heat and glow of the fire under the wall--
+amidst these distracting influences the lady felt confused and ill, and
+would have been glad now to have been free to converse quietly, and to
+accept the mercy Mr Forster had been ready to show her.  He was as
+watchful as ever, sat next her as she lay on the ground, said at last
+that they had not much further to go, and felt her pulse.  As the grey
+light of morning strengthened, he went slower and slower, and encouraged
+her to lean upon him, which her weakness compelled her to do.  He sent
+forward the factor of the estate they were now entering upon, desiring
+him to see that everything was warm and comfortable.
+
+When the building they were approaching came in view, the poor lady
+wondered how it could ever be made warm and comfortable.  It was a
+little old tower, the top of which was in ruins, and the rest as dreary
+looking as possible.  Cold and bare it stood on a waste hill-side.  It
+would have looked like a mere grey pillar set down on the scanty
+pasture, but for a square patch behind, which was walled in by a hard
+ugly wall of stones.  A thin grey smoke arose from it, showing that
+someone was within; and dogs began to bark as the party drew near.
+
+One woman was here as at the last resting place.  She showed the way by
+the narrow winding stair, up which Lady Carse was carried like a corpse,
+and laid on a little bed in a _very_ small room, whose single window was
+boarded up, leaving only a square of glass at the top to admit the
+light.  Mr Forster stood at the bedside, and said firmly, "Now, Lady
+Carse, listen to me for a moment, and then you will be left with such
+freedom as this room and this woman's attendance can afford you.  You
+are so exhausted, that we have changed our plan of travel.  You will
+remain here, in this room, till you have so recruited yourself by food
+and rest as to be able to proceed to a place where all restraint will be
+withdrawn.  When you think yourself able to proceed, and declare your
+willingness to do so, I, or a friend of mine, will be at your service--
+at your call at any hour.  Till then this room is your abode; and till
+then I bid you farewell."
+
+He unfastened the bandage, and was gone before she could speak to him.
+What she wanted to say was, that on such terms she would never leave
+this room again.  She desired the woman to tell him so; but the woman
+said she had orders to carry no messages.
+
+Where there is no help and no hope, any force of mere temper is sure to
+give way, as Mr Forster well knew.  Injured people who have done no
+wrong, and who bear no anger against their enemies, have an inward
+strength and liberty of mind which enable them to bear on firmly, and to
+be immovable in their righteous purposes; so that, as has been shown by
+many examples, they will be torn limb from limb sooner than yield.  Lady
+Carse was an injured person--most deeply injured, but she was not
+innocent.  She had a purpose; but it was a vindictive one; and her soul
+was all tossed with passion, instead of being settled in patience.  So
+her intentions of starving herself--of making Mr Forster miserable by
+killing herself through want of sleep and food, gave way; and then she
+was in a rage with herself for having given way.  When all was still in
+the tower, and the silent woman who attended her knitted on for hours
+together, as if she was a machine; and there was nothing to be seen from
+the boarded window; and the smouldering peats in the fireplace looked as
+if they were asleep, Lady Carse could not always keep awake, and, once
+asleep, she did not wake for many hours.
+
+When, at length, she started up and looked around her, she was alone,
+and the room was lighted only by a flickering blaze from the fireplace.
+This dancing light fell on a little low round table, on which was a
+plate with some slices of mutton-ham, some oatcake, three or four eggs,
+and a pitcher.  She was ravenously hungry, and she was alone.  She
+thought she would take something--so little as to save her pride, and
+not to show that she had yielded.  But, once yielding, this was
+impossible.  She ate, and ate, till all was gone--even the eggs; and it
+would have been the same if they had been raw.  The pitcher contained
+ale, and she emptied it.  When she had done, she could have died with
+shame.  She was just thinking of setting her dress on fire, when she
+heard the woman's step on the stair.  She threw herself on the bed, and
+pretended to be asleep.  Presently she was so, and she had another long
+nap.  When she woke the table had nothing on it but the woman's
+knitting; the woman was putting peats on the fire, and she made no
+remark, then or afterwards, on the disappearance of the food.  From that
+day forward food was laid out while the lady slept; and when she awoke,
+she found herself alone to eat it.  It was served without knife or fork,
+with only bone spoons.  It would have been intolerable shame to her if
+she had known that she was watched, through a little hole in the door,
+as a precaution against any attempt on her life.
+
+But her intentions of this kind too gave way.  She was well aware that
+though not free to go where she liked she could, any day, find herself
+in the open air with liberty to converse, except on certain subjects;
+and that she might presently be in some abode--she did not know what--
+where she could have full personal liberty, and her present confinement
+being her own choice made it much less dignified, and this caused her to
+waver about throwing off life and captivity together.  The moment never
+came when she was disposed to try.
+
+At the end of a week she felt great curiosity to know whether Mr
+Forster was at the tower all this time waiting her pleasure.  She would
+not enquire lest she should be suspected of the truth--that she was
+beginning to wish to see him.  She tried one or two distant questions on
+her attendant, but the woman knew nothing.  There seemed to be no sort
+of question that she could answer.
+
+In a few days more the desire for some conversation with somebody became
+very pressing, and Lady Carse was not in the habit of denying herself
+anything she wished for.  Still, her pride pulled the other way.  The
+plan she thought of was to sit apparently musing or asleep by the fire
+while her attendant swept the floor of her room, and suddenly to run
+downstairs while the door was open.  This she did one day, when she was
+pretty sure she had heard an unusual sound of horses' feet below.  If
+Mr Forster should be going without her seeing him it would be dreadful.
+If he should have arrived after an absence this would afford a pretext
+for renewing intercourse with him.  So she watched her moment, sprang to
+the door, and was down the stair before her attendant could utter a cry
+of warning to those below.
+
+Lady Carse stood on the last stair, gazing into the little kitchen,
+which occupied the ground floor of the tower.  Two or three people
+turned and gazed at her, as startled, perhaps, as herself; and she _was_
+startled, for one of them was Lord Lovat.
+
+Mr Forster recovered himself, bowed, and said that perhaps she found
+herself able to travel; in which case, he was at her service.
+
+"O dear, no!" she said.  She had no intention whatever of travelling
+further.  She had heard an arrival of horsemen, and had merely come down
+to know if there was any news from Edinburgh.
+
+Lord Lovat bowed, said he had just arrived from town, and would be happy
+to wait on her upstairs with any tidings that she might enquire for.
+
+"By no means," she said, haughtily.  She would wait for tidings rather
+than learn them from Lord Lovat.  She turned, and went upstairs again,
+stung by hearing Lord Lovat's hateful laugh behind her as she went.
+
+As she sat by the fire, devouring her shame and wrath, her attendant
+came up with a handful of newspapers, and Lord Lovat's compliments, and
+he had sent her the latest Edinburgh news to read, as she did not wish
+to hear it from him.  She snatched the papers, meaning to thrust them
+into the fire in token of contempt for the sender; but a longing to read
+them came over her, and she might convey sufficient contempt by throwing
+them on the bed--and this she accordingly did.
+
+She watched them, however, as a cat does a mouse.  The woman seemed to
+have no intention of going down any more to-day.  Whether the lady was
+watched, and her impatience detected, through the hole in the door, or
+whether humanity suggested that the unhappy creature should be permitted
+an hour of solitude on such an occasion, the woman was called down, and
+did not immediately return.
+
+How impatiently, then, were the papers seized!  How unsettled was the
+eye which ran over the columns, while the mind was too feverish to
+comprehend what it read!  In a little while, however, the ordinary
+method of newspaper reading established itself, and she went on from one
+item to another with more amusement than anxiety.  In this mood, and
+with the utmost suddenness, she came upon the announcement, in large
+letters, of "The Funeral of Lady Carse!"  It was even so!  In one paper
+was a paragraph intimating the threatening illness of Lady Carse; in the
+next, the announcement of her death; in the third, a full account of her
+funeral, as taking place from her husband's house.
+
+Her fate was now clear.  She was lost to the world for ever!  In the
+midst of the agony of this doom she could yet be stung by the thought
+that this was the cause of Lord Lovat's complaisance in sending her the
+newspapers; that here was the reason of the only indulgence which had
+been permitted her!
+
+As for the rest, her mind made short work of it.  Her object must now be
+to confound her foes--to prove to the world that she was not dead and
+buried.  From this place she could not do this.  Here there was no scope
+and no hope.  In travelling, and in her future residence, there might be
+a thousand opportunities.  She could not stay here another hour, and so
+she sent word to Mr Forster.  His reply was that he should be happy to
+escort her that night.  From the stair-head she told him that she could
+not wait till night.  He declared it impossible to make provision for
+her comfort along the road without a few hours' notice by a horseman
+sent forward.  The messenger was already saddling his horse, and by nine
+in the evening the rest of the party would follow.
+
+At nine the lady was on her pillion, but now comfortably clad in a
+country dress--homely, but warm.  It was dark, but she was informed that
+the party thoroughly knew their road, and that in four or five days they
+should have the benefit of the young moon.
+
+So, after four or five days, they were to be still travelling!  Where
+could they be carrying her?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+CROSS ROADS AND SHORT SEAS.
+
+Where they were carrying her was more than Lady Carse herself could
+discover.  To the day of her death she never knew what country she had
+traversed during the dreary and fatiguing week which ensued.  She saw
+Stirling Castle standing up on its mighty rock against the dim sky; and
+she knew that before dawn they had entered the Highlands.
+
+But beyond this she was wholly ignorant.  In those days there were no
+milestones on the road she travelled.  The party went near no town,
+stopped at no inn, and never permitted her an opportunity of speaking to
+anyone out of their own number.  They always halted before daylight at
+some solitary house--left open for them, but uninhabited--or at some
+cowshed, where they shook down straw for her bed, made a fire, and
+cooked their food; and at night they always remounted, and rode for many
+hours, through a wild country, where the most hopeful of captives could
+not dream of rescue.  Sometimes they carried torches while ascending a
+narrow ravine, where a winter torrent dashed down the steep rocks and
+whirled away below, and where the lady unawares showed her desire to
+live by clinging faster to the horseman behind whom she rode.  Sometimes
+she saw the whole starry hemisphere resting like a dome on a vast
+moorland, the stars rising from the horizon here and sinking there, as
+at sea.
+
+The party rarely passed any farmsteads or other dwellings; and when they
+did silence was commanded, and the riders turned their horses on the
+grass or soft earth, in order to appear as little as possible like a
+cavalcade to any wakeful ears.  Once, on such an occasion, Lady Carse
+screamed aloud; but this only caused her to be carried at a gallop,
+which instantly silenced her, and then to be gagged for the rest of the
+night.  She would have promised to make no such attempt again, such a
+horror had she now of the muffle which bandaged her mouth, but nobody
+asked her to promise.  On the contrary, she heard one man say to
+another, that the lady might scream all night long now, if she liked;
+nobody but the eagles would answer her, now she was among the Frasers.
+
+Among the Frasers!  Then she was on Lord Lovat's estates.  Here there
+was no hope for her; and all her anxiety was to get on, though every
+step removed her further from her friends, and from the protection of
+law.  But this was exactly the place where she was to stop for a
+considerable time.
+
+Having arrived at a solitary house among moorland hills, Mr Forster
+told her that she would live here till the days should be longer, and
+the weather warm enough for a more comfortable prosecution of her
+further journey.  He would advise her to take exercise in the garden,
+small as it was, and to be cheerful, and preserve her health, in
+expectation of the summer, when she would reach a place where all
+restrictions on her personal liberty would cease.  He would now bid her
+farewell.
+
+"You are going back to Edinburgh," said she, rising from her seat by the
+fire.  "You will see Lord Carse.  Tell him that though he has buried his
+wife, he has not got rid of her.  She will haunt him--she will shame
+him--she will ruin him yet."
+
+"I see now--" observed a voice behind her.  She turned and perceived
+Lord Lovat, who addressed himself to Mr Forster, saying, "I see now
+that it _is_ best to let such people live.  If she were dead, we cannot
+say but that she might haunt him; though I myself have no great belief
+of it.  As it is, she is safe out of his way--at any rate, till she dies
+first.  I see now that his method is the right one."
+
+"Why, I don't know, my lord," replied Lady Carse.  "You should consider
+how little trouble it would have cost to put me out of the way in my
+grave; and how much trouble I am costing you now.  It is some comfort to
+me to think of the annoyance and risk, and fatigue and expense, I am
+causing you all."
+
+"You mistake the thing, madam.  We rejoice in these things, as incurred
+for the sake of some people over the water.  It gratifies our loyalty--
+our loyalty, madam, is a sentiment which exalts and endears the meanest
+services, even that of sequestrating a spy, an informer."
+
+"Come, come, Lovat, it is time we were off," said Mr Forster, who was
+at once ashamed of his companion's brutality, and alarmed at its effect
+upon the lady.  She looked as if she would die on the spot.  She had not
+been aware till now how her pride had been gratified by the sense of her
+own importance, caused by so many gentlemen of consequence entering into
+her husband's plot against her liberty.  She was now rudely told that it
+was all for their own sakes.  She was controlled not as a dignified and
+powerful person, but as a mischievous informer.  She rallied quickly--
+not only through pride, but from the thought that power is power,
+whencesoever derived, and that she might yet make Lord Lovat feel this.
+She curtseyed to the gentlemen, saying, "It is your turn now to jeer,
+gentlemen; and to board up windows, and the like.  The day may come when
+I shall sit at a window to see your heads fall."
+
+"Time will show," said Lord Lovat, with a smile, and an elegant bow.
+And they left her alone.
+
+They no longer feared to leave her alone.  Her temper was well-known to
+them; and her purposes of ultimate revenge, once clearly announced, were
+a guarantee that she would, if possible, live to execute them.  She
+would make no attempts upon her life henceforward.  Weeks and months
+passed on.  The snow came, and lay long, and melted away.  Beyond the
+garden wall she saw sprinklings of young grass among the dark heather;
+and now the bleat of a lamb, and now the scudding brood of the
+moor-fowl, told her that spring was come.  Long lines of wild geese in
+the upper air, winging steadily northwards, indicated the advancing
+season.  The whins within view burst into blossom; and the morning
+breeze which dried the dews wafted their fragrance.  Then the brooding
+mists drew off under the increasing warmth of the sun; and the lady
+discovered that there was a lake within view--a wide expanse, winding
+away among mountains till it was lost behind their promontories.  She
+strained her eyes to see vessels on this lake, and now and then she did
+perceive a little sail hoisted, or a black speck, which must be a
+rowboat traversing the waters when they were sheeny in the declining
+sun.  These things, and the lengthening and warmth of the days,
+quickened her impatience to be removed.  She often asked the people of
+the house whether no news and no messengers had come; but they did not
+improve in their knowledge of the English tongue any more than she did
+in that of the Gaelic, and she could obtain no satisfaction.  In the
+sunny mornings she lay on the little turf plat in the garden, or walked
+restlessly among the cabbage-beds (being allowed to go no further), or
+shook the locked gate desperately, till someone came out to warn her to
+let it alone.  In the June nights she stood at her window, only one
+small pane of which would open, watching the mists shifting and curling
+in the moonlight, or the sheet lightning which now and then revealed the
+lake in the bosom of the mountains, or appeared to lay open the whole
+sky.  But June passed away, and there was no change.  July came and
+went--the sun was visibly shortening his daily journey, and leaving an
+hour of actual darkness in the middle of the night: and still there was
+no prospect of a further journey.  She began to doubt Mr Forster as
+much as she hated Lord Lovat, and to say to herself that his promises of
+further personal liberty in the summer were mere coaxing words, uttered
+to secure a quiet retreat from her presence.  If she could see him, for
+only five minutes, how she would tell him her mind!
+
+She never again saw Mr Forster: but, one night in August, while she was
+at the window, and just growing sleepy, she was summoned by the woman of
+the house to dress herself for a night ride.  She prepared herself
+eagerly enough, and was off presently, without knowing anything of the
+horsemen who escorted her.
+
+It was with a gleam of pleasure that she saw that they were approaching
+the lake she had so often gazed at from afar: and her heart grew lighter
+still when she found that she was to traverse it.  She began to talk, in
+her new exhilaration; and she did not leave off, though nobody replied.
+But her exclamations about the sunrise, the clearness of the water, and
+the leaping of the fish, died away when she looked from face to face of
+those about her, and found them all strange and very stern.  At last,
+the dip of the oars was the only sound; but it was a pleasant and
+soothing one.  All went well this day.  After landing, the party
+proceeded westwards--as they did nightly for nearly a week.  It mattered
+little that they did not enter a house in all that time.  The weather
+was so fine, that a sheepfold, or a grassy nook of the moorland, served
+all needful purposes of a resting place by day.
+
+On the sixth night, a surprise, and a terrible surprise, awaited the
+poor lady.  Her heart misgave her when the night wind brought the sound
+of the sea to her ears--the surging sea which tosses and roars in the
+rocky inlets of the western coast of Scotland.  But her dismay was
+dreadful when she discovered that there was a vessel below, on board
+which she was to be carried without delay.  On the instant, dreadful
+visions arose before her imagination, of her being carried to a foreign
+shore, to be delivered into the hands of the Stuarts, to be punished as
+a traitor and spy; and of those far off plantations and dismal colonies
+where people troublesome to their families were said to be sent, to be
+chained to servile labour with criminals and slaves.  She wept bitterly:
+she clasped her hands--she threw herself at the feet of the conductor of
+the party--she appealed to them all, telling them to do what they would
+with her, if only they would not carry her to sea.  Most of them looked
+at one another, and made no reply--not understanding her language.  The
+conductor told her to fear nothing, as she was in the hands of the
+Macdonalds, who had orders from Sir Alexander Macdonald, of Skye, to
+provide for her safety.  He promised that the voyage would not be a long
+one; and that as soon as the sloop should have left the loch she should
+be told where she was going.  With that, he lifted her lightly, stepped
+into a boat, and was rowed to the sloop, where she was received by the
+owner, and half a dozen other Macdonalds.  For some hours they waited
+for a wind; and sorely did the master wish it would come; for the lady
+lost not a glimpse of an opportunity of pleading her cause, explaining
+that she was stolen from Edinburgh, against the laws.  He told her she
+had better be quiet, as nothing could be done.  Sir Alexander Macdonald
+was in the affair.  He, for one, would never keep her or anyone against
+their will unless Sir Alexander Macdonald were in it: but nothing could
+be done.  He saw, however, that some impression was made on one person,
+who visited the sloop on business, one William Tolney, who had
+connexions at Inverness, from having once been a merchant there, and who
+was now a tenant of the Macleods, in a neighbouring island.  This man
+was evidently touched; and the Macdonalds held a consultation in
+consequence, the result of which was that William Tolney was induced to
+be silent on what he had seen and heard.  But for many a weary year
+after did Lady Carse turn with hope to the image of the stranger who had
+listened to her on board the sloop, taken the address of her lawyer, and
+said that in his opinion something must be done.
+
+In the evening the wind rose, and the sloop moved down the loch.  With a
+heavy heart the lady next morning watched the vanishing of the last of
+Glengarry's seats, on a green platform between the grey and bald
+mountains; then the last fishing hamlet on the shores; and, finally, a
+flock of herons come abroad to the remotest point of the shore from
+their roosting places in the tall trees that sheltered Glengarry's
+abode.  After that all was wretchedness.  For many days she was on the
+tossing sea--the sloop now scudding before the wind, now heaving on the
+troubled waters, now creeping along between desolate looking islands,
+now apparently lost amidst the boundless ocean.  At length, soon after
+sunrise, one bright morning, the sail was taken in, and the vessel lay
+before the entrance of an harbour which looked like the mouth of a small
+river.  At noon the sun beat hot on the deck of the sloop.  In the
+afternoon the lady impatiently asked what they were waiting for--if this
+really was, as she was told, their place of destination.  The wind was
+not contrary; what where they waiting for?
+
+"No, madam; the wind is fair.  But it is a curious circumstance about
+this harbour that it can be entered safely only at night.  It is one of
+the most dangerous harbours in all the isles."
+
+"And you dare to enter it at night?  What do you mean?"
+
+"I will show you, madam, when night comes."
+
+Lady Carse suspected that the delay was on her account; that she was not
+to land by daylight, less too much sympathy should be excited by her
+among the inhabitants.  Her indignation at this stimulated her to
+observe all she could of the appearance of the island, in case of
+opportunity occurring to turn to the account of an escape any knowledge
+she might obtain.  On the rocky ledges which stretched out into the sea
+lay basking several seals; and all about them, and on every higher
+ledge, were myriads of puffins.  Hundreds of puffins and fulmars were in
+the air, and skimming the waters.  The fulmars poised themselves on
+their long wings; the fat little puffins poffled about in the water, and
+made a great commotion where everything else was quiet.  From these
+lower ridges of rock vast masses arose, black and solemn, some
+perpendicular, some with a slope too steep and smooth to permit a
+moment's dream of climbing them.  Even on this warm day of August the
+clouds had not risen above the highest peaks; and they threw a gloom
+over the interior of the small island, while the skirting rocks and sea
+were glittering in the sunshine.  Even the scanty herbage of the slopes
+at the top of the rocks looked almost a bright green where the sun fell
+upon it; and especially where it descended so far as to come into
+contrast with the blackness of the yawning caverns with which the rocky
+wall was here and there perforated.
+
+The lady perceived no dwellings; but Macdonald, who observed her
+searching gaze, pointed his glass and invited her to look through it.
+At first she saw nothing but a dim confusion of grey rocks and dull
+grass; but at length she made out a grey cottage, with a roof of turf,
+and a peat stack beside it.
+
+"I see one dwelling," said the lady.
+
+"You see it," observed Macdonald, satisfied, and resuming his glass.
+Then, observing the lady was not satisfied, he added, "There are more
+dwellings, but they are behind yonder ridge, out of sight.  That is
+where my place is."
+
+Lady Carse did not at present discern where the dangerous sympathy with
+her case was to come from.  But there was no saying how many dwellings
+there might be behind that ridge.  She once more insisted on landing by
+daylight; and was once more told that it was out of the question.  She
+resolved to keep as wide awake as her suspicions, in order to see what
+was to be done with her.  She was anxiously on the watch in the darkness
+an hour before midnight, when Macdonald said to her, "Now for it, madam!
+I will presently show you something curious."
+
+The sloop began to move under the soft breathing night wind; and in a
+few minutes Macdonald asked her if she saw anything before her, a little
+to the right.  At first she did not; but was presently told that a tiny
+spark, too minute to be noticed by any but those who were looking for
+it, was a guiding light.
+
+"Where is it?" asked the lady.  "Why have not you a more effectual
+light?"
+
+"We are thankful enough to have any: and it serves our turn."
+
+"Oh!  I suppose it is a smuggler's signal, and it would not do to make
+it more conspicuous."
+
+"No, madam.  It is far from being a smuggler's signal.  There is a
+woman, Annie Fleming, living in the grey house I showed you, an honest
+and pious soul, who keeps up that light for all that want it."
+
+"Why?  Who employs her?"
+
+"She does it of her own liking.  Some have heard tell, but I don't know
+it for true, that when she and her husband were young she saw him drown,
+from his boat having run foul in the harbour that she overlooks, and
+that from that day to this she has had a light up there every night.  I
+can say that I never miss it when I come home; and I always enter by
+night, trusting to it as the best landmark in this difficult harbour."
+
+"And do the other inhabitants trust to it, and come in by night?"
+
+Macdonald answered that his was the only boat on the island; but he
+believed that all who had business on the sea between this and Skye knew
+that light, and made use of it, on occasion, in dangerous weather.  And
+now he must not talk, but see to his vessel.
+
+This is the only boat on the island!  He must mean the only sloop.
+There must be fishing boats.  There must and should be, the lady
+resolved; for she would get back to the mainland.  She would not spend
+her days here, beyond the westerly Skye, where she had just learned that
+this island lay.
+
+The anxious business of entering the harbour was accomplished by slow
+degrees, under the guidance of the spark on the hill-side.  At dawn the
+little vessel was moored to a natural pier of rock, and the lady was
+asked whether she would proceed to Macdonald's house immediately or take
+some hours' rest first.
+
+Here ended her fears of being secluded from popular sympathy.  She was
+weary of the sea and the vessel, and made all haste to leave them.
+
+Her choice lay between walking and being carried by Highlanders.  She
+chose to walk; and with some fatigue, and no little internal
+indignation, she traversed a mile and a half of rocky and moorland ways,
+then arriving at a sordid and dreary looking farmhouse, standing alone
+in a wild place, to which Macdonald proudly introduced her as Sir
+Alexander's estate on this island, of which he was the tenant.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+THE STEADFAST
+
+It was a serene evening when, the day after her landing, Lady Carse
+approached Widow Fleming's abode.  The sun was going down in a clear
+sky; and when, turning from the dazzling western sea, the eye wandered
+eastwards, the view was such as could not but transport a heart at ease.
+The tide was low, and long shadows from the rocks lay upon the yellow
+sands and darkened, near the shore, the translucent sea.  At the
+entrance of the black caverns the spray leaped up on the advance of
+every wave,--not in threatening but as if at play.  Far away over the
+lilac and green waters arose the craggy peaks of Skye, their projections
+and hollows in the softest light and shadow.  As the sea-birds rose from
+their rest upon the billows, opposite the sun, diamond drops fell from
+their wings.  Nearer at hand there was little beauty but what a
+brilliant sunset sheds over every scene.  There were shadows from the
+cottage over the dull green sward, and from the two or three goats which
+moved about on the ledges and slopes of the upper rocks.  The cottage
+itself was more lowly and much more odd than the lady had conceived from
+anything she had yet seen or heard of.  Its walls were six feet thick,
+and roofed from the inside, leaving a sort of platform all round, which
+was overgrown with coarse herbage.  The outer and inner surfaces of the
+wall were of stones, and the middle part was filled in with earth; so
+that grass might well grow on the top.  The roof was of thatch--part
+straw, part sods, tied down to cross poles by ropes of twisted heather.
+The walls did not rise more than five feet from the ground; and nothing
+could be easier than for the goats to leap up, when tempted to graze
+there.  A kid was now amusing itself on one corner.  As Lady Carse
+walked round, she was startled at seeing a woman sitting on the opposite
+corner.  Her back was to the sun--her gaze fixed on the sea, and her
+fingers were busy knitting.  The lady had some doubts at first about its
+being the widow, as this woman wore a bright cotton handkerchief tied
+over her head: but a glance at the face when it was turned towards her
+assured her that it was Annie Fleming herself.
+
+"No, do not come down," said the lady.  "Let me come up beside you.  I
+see the way."
+
+And she stepped up by means of the projecting stones of the wall, and
+threw herself down beside the quiet knitter.
+
+"What are you making?  Mittens?  And what of?  What sort of wool is
+this?"
+
+"It is goats' hair."
+
+"Tiresome work!" the lady observed.  "Wool is bad enough; but these
+short lengths of hair!  I should never have patience."
+
+The widow replied that she had time in these summer evenings; and she
+was glad to take the chance of selling a few pairs when Macdonald went
+to the main, once or twice a year.
+
+"How do they sell?  What do you get for them?"
+
+"I get oil to last me for some time."
+
+"And what else?"
+
+"Now and then I may want something else; but I get chiefly oil--as what
+I want most."
+
+The widow saw that Lady Carse was not attending to what she said, and
+was merely making an opening for what she herself wanted to utter: so
+Annie said no more of her work and its payment, but waited.
+
+"This is a dreadful place," the lady burst out.  "Nobody can live here."
+
+"I have heard there are kindlier places to live in," the widow replied.
+"This island must appear rather bare to people who come from the
+south,--as I partly remember myself."
+
+"Where did you come from?  Do you know where I come from?  Do you know
+who I am?" cried the lady.
+
+"I came from Dumfries.  I have not heard where you lived, my lady.  I
+was told by Macdonald that you came by Sir Alexander Macdonald's orders,
+to live here henceforward."
+
+"I will not live here henceforward.  I would sooner die."
+
+The widow looked surprised.  In answer to that look Lady Carse said,
+"Ah! you do not know who I am, nor what brought me here, or you would
+see that I cannot live here, and why I would rather die.--Why do not you
+speak?  Why do you not ask me what I have suffered?"
+
+"I should not think of it, my lady.  Those who have suffered are slow to
+speak of their heart pain, and would be ashamed before God to say how
+much oftener they would rather have died."
+
+"I must speak, however, and I will," declared Lady Carse.  "You know I
+must; and you are the only person in the island that I can speak to.--I
+want to live with you.  I must.  I know you are a good woman.  I know
+you are kind.  If you are kind to mere strangers that come in boats, and
+keep a light to save them from shipwreck, you will not be cruel to me--
+the most ill used creature--the most wretched--the most--"
+
+She hid her face on her knees, and wept bitterly.
+
+"Take courage, my lady," said Annie.  "If you have not strength enough
+for your troubles to-day, it only shows that there is more to come."
+
+"I do not want strength," said the lady.  "You do not know me.  I am not
+wanting in strength.  What I want--what I must have--is justice."
+
+"Well--that is what we are all most sure of when God's day comes," said
+Annie.  "That we are quite sure of.  And we may surely hope for patience
+till then, if we really wish it.  So I trust you will be comforted, my
+lady."
+
+"I cannot stay here, however.  There are no people here.  There is
+nobody that I can endure at Macdonald's, and there are none others but
+labourers, and they speak only Gaelic.  And it is a wretched place.
+They have not even bread.--Mrs Fleming, I must come and live with you."
+
+"I have no bread, my lady.  I have nothing so good as they have at
+Macdonald's."
+
+"You have a kind heart.  Never mind the bread now.  We will see about
+that.  I don't care how I live; but I want to stay with you.  I want
+never to go back to Macdonald's."
+
+The widow stepped down to the ground, and beckoned to the lady to follow
+her into the house.  It was a poor place as could be seen:--one room
+with a glazed window looking towards the harbour, a fireplace and a bed
+opposite the window;--a rickety old bedstead, with an exhausted flock
+bed and a rug upon it; and from one end of the apartment, a small dim
+space partitioned off, in which was a still less comfortable bed, laid
+on trestles made of driftwood.
+
+"Who sleeps here?"
+
+"My son, when he is at home.  He is absent now, my lady: and see, this
+is the only place;--no place for you, my lady."
+
+Lady Carse shrank back impatiently.  She then turned and said, "I might
+have this larger room, and you the other.  I shall find means of paying
+you--"
+
+"Impossible, madam," the widow replied.  "I am obliged to occupy this
+room."
+
+"For to-night, at least, you will let me have it.  I cannot go back to
+Macdonald's to-night.  I will not go back at all; and you cannot turn me
+out to-night.  I have other reasons besides those I mentioned.  I must
+be in sight of the harbour.  It is my only hope."
+
+"You can stay here, if you will, madam: and you can have that bed.  But
+I can never leave this room between dark and light.  I have yonder lamp
+to attend to."
+
+"Oh!  I will attend to the lamp."
+
+The widow smiled, and observed that she hoped the lady would have better
+sleep than she could enjoy if she had the lamp to watch; and that was a
+business which she could not commit to another hand.  In the course of
+the argument, the lady discovered that it would be a serious matter to
+let out both the fire and lamp, as there was no tinder-box on the
+island, and no wood, except in the season of storms, when some was
+drifted up wet.
+
+"I should like to live with you, and help you to keep up your lamp,"
+said the lady.  "If you could only manage a room for me--Not that I mean
+to stay in this island!  I will not submit to that.  But while I am
+waiting to get away, I should like to spend my time with you.  You have
+a heart.  You would feel for me."
+
+"I do feel for you, madam.  This must be a terrible place for you, just
+to-day,--and for many days to come.  But oh! my lady, if you want peace
+of mind, this is the place!  It is a blessing that may be had anywhere,
+I know.  One would think it shone down from the sky or breathed out from
+the air,--it is so sure to be wherever the sky bends over, or the air
+wraps us round.  But of all places, this is the one for peace of mind."
+
+"This!--this--dreary island!"
+
+"This quiet island.  Look out now, and see if you can call it dreary.
+Why, madam, there can hardly be a brighter glory, or a more cheerful
+glow among the sons of God about the throne, than there is at this
+moment over sea and shore, and near at home up to the very stone of my
+threshold.  Madam, I could never think this island dreary."
+
+"It is not always sunset, nor always summer time," said Lady Carse, who
+could not deny nor wholly resist the beauty of the scene.
+
+"Other beauty comes by night and in the winter," observed the widow,
+"and at times a grandeur which is better than the beauty.  If the
+softness of this sunshine nourishes our peace of mind, yet more does the
+might of the storms.  The beauty might be God's messenger.  The might is
+God Himself."
+
+"You speak as if you did not fear God," said the lady, with the light
+inexperience of one to whom such subjects were not familiar.
+
+"As a sinner, I fear Him, madam.  But as His child--Why, madam, what
+else have we in all the universe?  And having Him, what more do we
+want?"
+
+"He has made us full of wants," said the lady.  "I, for one, am all
+bereaved, and very, very wretched.--But do not let us talk of that now.
+One who is alone in this place, and knows and needs nothing beyond,
+cannot enter into my sorrows at once.  It will take long to make you
+conceive such misery as mine.  But it will be a comfort to me to open my
+heart to you.  And I must live within view of the harbour.  I must see
+every boat that comes.  They say you do."
+
+"I do.  They are few; but I see them all."
+
+"And you save a good many by the spark in your window."
+
+"It has pleased God to save some, it is thought, who would have perished
+as some perished before them.  He set me that task, in a solemn way,
+many years ago; and any mercy that has grown out of it is His.--Do you
+see any vessel on the sea, madam?  I always look abroad the last thing
+before the sun goes down.  My eyes can hardly be much older than yours:
+but they are much worn."
+
+"How have you so used your eyes?  Is it that hair-knitting?"
+
+"That is not good.  But it is more the sharp winds, and the night
+watching, and the shine of the sea in the day."
+
+"I must live with you.  I will watch for you, night and day.  You think
+I cannot.  You think I shall tire.  Why, you are not weary of it."
+
+"Oh, no!  I shall never be weary of it."
+
+"Much less should I.  You want only to keep up your lamp.  I want to get
+away.  All the interests of my life lie beyond this sea; and do you
+think I shall tire of watching for the opportunity?--I will watch
+through this very night.  You shall go to bed, and sleep securely, and I
+will keep your lamp.  And to-morrow we will arrange something.  Why
+should I not have a room,--a cottage built at the end of yours?  I
+will."
+
+"If you could find anyone to build it," suggested the widow.
+
+"Somebody built Macdonald's, I suppose.  And yours."
+
+"Macdonald's is very old;--built, it is thought, at the same time with
+the chapel, which has been in ruins these hundred years.  My husband
+built ours,--with me to help him; and also his brother, who died before
+it was finished."
+
+"Where is your son?" inquired the lady.  "If he will undertake to work
+for me, I will get it done.  Where is your son?  And what is his
+business?"
+
+"I do not know exactly where he is."
+
+"Well, but is he on the island?"
+
+"I believe so.  He comes and goes according to his business.  In the
+early summer he seeks eggs all over the island; and, somewhat later, the
+eider-down.  When he can get nothing better he brings the birds
+themselves."
+
+"What do you do with them?"
+
+"We keep the feathers, and also the skins.  The skins are warm to cover
+the feet with, when made into socks.  If the birds are not very old, we
+salt them for winter food: and at worst, I get some oil from them.  But
+I get most oil from the young seals, and from the livers of the fish he
+catches at times."
+
+"Fish! then he has a boat!  Does he go out in a boat to fish?"
+
+"I can hardly say that he has a boat," replied the mother, with an
+extraordinary calmness of manner that told of internal effort.  "Our
+caverns run very deep into the rocks; and the ledges run out far into
+the sea.  Rollo has made a kind of raft of the driftwood he found: and
+on this he crosses the water in the caverns, and passes from ledge to
+ledge, fishing as he goes.  This is our only way of getting fish, except
+when a chance boat comes into the harbour."
+
+"Could that raft go out on a calm day,--on a very smooth sea,--to meet
+any boat at a distance?"
+
+"Impossible! madam.  I think it too dangerous in our smallest coves to
+be used without sin.  It is against my judgment that Rollo ever goes
+round the end of a ledge, which he has been seen to do."
+
+"But it is impossible to get a boat?  Have you never had a boat?"
+
+"We once had a boat, madam: and it was lost."  Even the selfish Lady
+Carse reproached herself for her question.  It struck her now that boat
+and husband had been lost together; for Macdonald had told her that
+Annie Fleming had seen her husband drown.
+
+"I wish I knew where Rollo is," she said to break the silence.  "I think
+something might be done.  I think I could find a way.  Do not you wish
+you knew where he was?"
+
+"No, madam."
+
+"Well! perhaps you might be uneasy about him if you did.  But which way
+did he go?"
+
+The widow pointed northwards, where huge masses of rock appeared tumbled
+one upon another, and into the sea, at the base of a precipice two
+hundred feet high.  She further told, in reply to a question, that Rollo
+went forth yesterday, without saying where he was going; and there were
+caves among the rocks she had pointed out, where Rollo might possibly be
+fishing.
+
+Lady Carse found it vexatious that darkness was coming on.  She had a
+purpose; but the sun did not set the later, nor promise to rise the
+earlier, on that account.  When the widow set before her some oaten
+bread and dried fish, she ate, without perceiving that none was left for
+her hostess.  And when the widow lighted the iron lamp and set it in the
+window, the lady made only faint pretences of a wish to sit up and watch
+it.  She also said nothing of occupying the meaner bed.  She was
+persuaded that her first duty was to obtain some good rest, preparatory
+to going forth to seek Rollo, and induce him to take her on his raft to
+some place whence she might escape to the mainland.  So she lay down on
+the widow's bed, and slept soundly,--her hungry hostess sitting by the
+smouldering peats in the rude fireplace,--now and then smiling at the
+idea of her guest's late zeal about watching the lamp for her, in order
+to give her a good night's rest.  When daylight came, she retired to her
+son's bed, and had just dropped asleep when Lady Carse roused her to ask
+for some breakfast to take with her, as she did not know when she should
+be back from her expedition.  Again the widow smiled as she said there
+was nothing in the house.  At this time of the year there were no
+stores; and a good appetite at night left nothing for the morning.
+
+"O dear!" said the lady.  "Well: I daresay your sitting up made you
+hungry enough to finish everything while I was asleep.  No doubt it
+must.  But what to do I know not.  I will not go back to Macdonald's, if
+I starve for it.  Perhaps I may meet some fishermen, or somebody.  I
+will try.--Good morning.  I shall come back: but I will not put you long
+out of your ways.  I will get a cottage built at the end of yours as
+soon as possible."  The door closed behind her, and once more the widow
+smiled, as she composed herself to rest on her own bed.  She had already
+returned thanks for the blessings with which the new day had opened; and
+especially that to one so lowly as herself was permitted the honour and
+privilege--so unlooked for and unthought of--of dispensing hospitality.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+THE ROVING OF THE RESTLESS.
+
+The lady began walking at a great rate, being in a vast hurry to find
+Rollo.  She descended to the shore, knowing that if she kept on the
+heights she should arrive at the precipices which would forbid all
+access to the caves below.
+
+The tide was going down; and as soon as she reached the sands of a
+little cove she was pleased to see a good many shell fish.  Her first
+thought was that she would collect some and carry them up for Annie
+Fleming's breakfast; but she immediately remembered that this would add
+to her fatigues, and consume her precious time; and she gave up the
+thought, and began picking up cockles for herself--large blue cockles,
+which she thought would afford her an excellent breakfast, if only she
+could meet with some fresh bread and butter in some nook in the island.
+She turned up her skirt--the skirt of the country woman's gown which she
+wore--and made a bag of it for her cockles, rejoicing for the moment
+that it was not one of her own silks.  Then she remembered that she had
+seen at the widow's a light and strong frail basket, made of the
+sea-bent which grew in the sands.  This basket would be useful to her:
+so she would, after all, go up--carry some cockles for Annie, and borrow
+the basket.  She did so, and came away again without awakening the
+widow.
+
+At first, Lady Carse thought that Annie was right, and that the island
+was not so dreary after all.  The morning breeze was fresh and
+strengthening; the waves ran up gaily upon the sands, and leaped against
+the projecting rocks, and fell back with a merry splash.  And the
+precipices were so fine, she longed for her sketch-book; and the romance
+of her youth began to revive within her.  Here was a whole day for
+roving.  She would somehow make a fire in a cave, and cook for herself.
+She was sure she could live among these caves; and if she was missing
+for a considerable time, the Macdonalds would think she had escaped, or
+was drowned; and she could slip away at last, when some vessel put into
+the harbour.  She stopped and looked round; but on all the vast stretch
+of waters there was no vessel to be seen but the sloop in the harbour;
+while on shore there was no human being visible, nor any trace of
+habitation.  The solitude rather pressed on her heart; but she hastened
+on, and rounded the point which would shut out from her the land view,
+and prevent her being seen by any one from Macdonald's.  She had no fear
+of her return being cut off by the tide.  She had the whole day before
+her, and could climb the rocks to a safe height at any time.
+
+These were caves indeed!  At sight of them her heart was in a sort of
+tumult very different from any it had experienced for long.  She eagerly
+entered the first, and drew deep breath as the thunder of the waters and
+the echoes together almost confounded her senses.  At the lowest tides
+there was some depth of water below, in a winding central channel.  In
+the evening how black that channel must be! how solemn the whole place!
+Now the low sun was shining in, lighting up every point, and disclosing
+all the hollows, and just catching a ripple now and then, which, in its
+turn, made a ripple of light on the roof; and, far in, there was an
+opening--a gaping chink in the side of the cave--which gave admission to
+a second rocky chamber.
+
+Lady Carse was bent on reaching this opening; and did so, at last.  She
+could not cross the clear deep water in the channel below her.  It was
+just too wide for a safe leap.  But she found a footing over the rocks
+which confined it; and on she went--now ascending, now descending almost
+to the water--amidst dancing lights and rising and falling echoes; on
+she went, her heart throbbing, her spirits cheered--her whole soul full
+of a joy which she had not experienced for long.  She stepped over the
+little chasm to which the waters narrowed at last, and, reaching the
+opening thrust herself through it.
+
+She seemed to have left light and sound behind her.  Dim, cool, and
+almost silent was the cavern she now stood in.  Its floor was thickly
+strewn with fine sand, conveying the sensation that her own footsteps
+were not to be heard.  Black pillars of rock rose from a still pool
+which lay in her way, and which she perceived only just in time to
+prevent her stepping into it.  These pillars and other dark masses of
+rock sprang up and up till her eye lost them in the darkness; and if
+there was a roof, she could not see it.  A drip from above made a plash
+about once in a minute in the pool; and the murmur from without was so
+subdued--appeared to be so swallowed up in vastness and gloom--that the
+minute drop was loud in comparison.  Lady Carse lay down on the soft
+sand, to rest, and listen, and think--to ponder plans of hiding and
+escape.  All her meditations brought her round to the same point: that
+three things were necessary to any plan of escape--a supply of food, a
+boat, and an accomplice.  She arose, chilled and hungry, determined to
+try whether she could not meet with one or all of these this very day.
+
+As she slowly proceeded round the pool, she became aware that it was not
+so perfectly still as hitherto; and a gurgle of waters grew upon the
+ear.  It was only that the tide was coming up, and that the pool was
+being fed by such influx as could take place through a few crannies.
+She perceived that these crannies had let in a glimmering of light which
+was now sensibly darkened.  She had no fear--only the delicious awe
+which thrills through the spirit on its admission to the extreme
+privacies of nature.  There was some light, and safe opportunity of
+return by the way she had come.  She would not go back till she had
+tried whether she could get on.
+
+On she went--more than once in almost total darkness--more than once
+slipping on a piece of wet and weedy rock where she expected to tread on
+thick sand--more than once growing irritable at little difficulties, as
+hungry people of better tempers than hers are apt to do in strange
+places.  A surprise awaited her at last.  She had fancied she perceived
+a glimmer of light before her; and she suddenly found herself at the top
+of a steep bank of sand, at the bottom of which there was an opening--a
+very low arch--to the outer air.  While she was sliding down this bank,
+she heard a voice outside.  She was certain of it.  Presently there was
+a laugh, and the voice again.  If she had found Rollo, there was
+somebody else too; and if Rollo was not here, there was the more to hope
+something from.
+
+Now the question was whether she could get through the arch.  She pushed
+her basket through first, and then her own head; and she saw what made
+her lie still for some little time.  The arch opened upon a cove, deep
+and narrow, between projecting rocks.  A small raft rose and fell on the
+surface of the water; and on the raft stood a man, steading himself with
+his legs wide apart, while he held a rope with both hands, and gazed
+intently upwards.  The raft was in a manner anchored; tied with ropes to
+masses of rock on each side of the cove; but it still pitched so much
+that Lady Carse thought the situation of the man very perilous: and she,
+therefore, made no noise, lest she should startle him.  She little
+dreamed how safe was his situation compared with that of the comrade he
+was watching.
+
+In a short time the man changed his occupation.  He relaxed his hold of
+the rope, fastened it to a corner of the raft, gazed about him like a
+man of leisure, and then once more looked upwards, holding out his arms
+as if to catch something good.  And immediately a shower of sea-birds
+began to fall: now one, now three, now one again: down they came, head
+foremost, dead as a stone.  Two fell into the water; but he fished them
+up with a stick with a noose of hair at the end, and flung them on the
+heap in the middle of the raft.
+
+When the shower began to slacken, Lady Carse thought it the time to make
+herself heard.  She put her head and shoulders through the low arch, and
+asked the man if he thought she could get through.  His start at the
+voice, his bewildered look down the face of the rock, and the scared
+expression of his countenance when he discovered the face that peeped
+out at the bottom, amused Lady Carse extremely.  She did not remember
+how unlike her fair complexion and her hair were to those of the women
+of these islands, nor that a stranger was in this place more rare than a
+ghost.  And as for the man--what could he suppose but that the handsome
+face that he saw peeping out, laughing, from the base of the precipice,
+was that of some rock spirit, sent perhaps for mischief?  However, in
+course of time the parties came to an explanation; that is, of all that
+the lady said, the man caught one word--Macdonald; and he saw that she
+had a basket of cockles, and knew the basket to be of island
+manufacture.  Moreover he found, when he ventured to help her out, that
+her hand was of flesh and blood, though he had never before seen one so
+slender and white.
+
+When she stood upright on the margin of the creek, what a scene it was!
+Clear as the undulating waters were, no bottom was visible.  Their
+darkness and depth sent a chill through her frame.  Overhead the
+projecting rocks nearly shut out the sky, while the little strip that
+remained was darkened by a cloud of fluttering and screaming sea-birds.
+The cause of their commotion was pointed out to her.  A man, whom she
+could scarcely have distinguished but for the red cap on his head, was
+on the face of the precipice; now appearing still, now moving, she could
+not tell how, for the rock appeared to her as smooth up there as the
+wall of a house.  But it was not so--there were ledges; and on one of
+these he stood, plundering the nests of the sea fowl, which were
+screaming round his head.
+
+"Rollo?" the lady asked, as she turned away, her brain reeling at the
+sight she had seen.
+
+"Rollo," replied the man, now entirely satisfied.  No spirit would want
+to be told who anyone was.
+
+And now Rollo was to descend.  His comrade again stepped upon the raft,
+pushed out to the middle of the channel, secured the raft, grasped the
+rope, and steadied himself.  Lady Carse thought she could not look; but
+she glanced up now and then, when there was a call from above, or a
+question from below, or when there was a fling of the rope or a pause in
+the proceedings.  When Rollo at last slid down upon the raft, hauled it
+to shore, and jumped on the rock beside her, he was as careless as a
+hedger coming home to breakfast, while she was trembling in every limb.
+
+And Rollo was thinking more of his breakfast than of the way he had
+earned it, or of the presence of a stranger.  He was a stout, and now
+hungry, lad of eighteen, to whom any precipice was no more startling
+than a ladder is to a builder.  And, as his mother had taught him to
+speak English, and he had on that account been employed to communicate
+with such strangers as had now and then come to the island during
+Macdonald's absence, he was little embarrassed by the apparition of the
+lady.  He was chiefly occupied with his pouchful of eggs, there being
+more than he had expected to find so late in the season.  It was all
+very well, he said, for their provision to-day; but it was a sign that
+somebody knew this cove as well as themselves, and that it was no longer
+a property to himself and his comrade.
+
+"How so?" inquired the lady.  "How can you possibly tell by the eggs
+that anyone has been here?"
+
+Rollo glanced at his comrade, in a sort of droll assurance that it could
+be no voice from the grave, no ghostly inhabitant of a cave, who could
+require to have such a matter explained.  He then condescendingly told
+her that when the eggs of the eider-duck are taken she lays more; and
+this twice over, before giving up in despair.  Of course, this puts off
+the season of hatching; and when, therefore, eggs are found fresh so
+late in the season, it is pretty plain that someone has been there to
+take those earlier laid.  Rollo seemed pleased that the lady could
+comprehend this when it was explained to her.  He gave her an
+encouraging nod, and began to scramble onward over the rocks, his
+companion being already some paces in advance of him.  The lady followed
+with her basket as well as she could; but she soon found herself alone,
+and in not the most amiable mood at being thus neglected.  She had not
+yet learned that she was in a place where women are accustomed to shift
+for themselves, and precedence is not thought of, except by the
+fireside, with aged people or a minister of the Gospel in presence.
+
+She smoothed her brow, however, when she regained sight of the young
+men.  They were on their knees in the entrance of a cavern, carefully
+managing a smouldering peat so as to obtain a fire.  It was ticklish
+work; for the peat had been left to itself rather too long; and chips
+and shavings were things never seen in these parts.  A wisp of dry
+grass, or a few fibres of heather, were made to serve instead; and it
+was not easy to create with these heat enough to kindle fresh peats.  At
+last, however, it was done; and eggs were poked in, here and there, to
+roast.  The cockles must be roasted, too; and two or three little
+mouse-coloured birds, the young of the eider-duck, were broiled as soon
+as plucked.  So much for the eating.  As for the drinking, there was
+nothing but pure whisky, unless the lady could drink sea-water.  Thirsty
+as she was she thought of the drip in the cave; but, besides that it was
+far to go, and scanty when obtained, she remembered all the slime she
+had seen, and she did not know whence that drip came.  So she gulped
+down two or three mouthfuls of whisky, and was surprised to find how
+little she disliked it, and how well it agreed with her after her walk.
+
+As soon as Rollo could attend to her, she told him where she had spent
+the night--how she had resolved to live with his mother, and in sight of
+the harbour--and how she wanted two or more rooms built for her at the
+end of the widow's cottage, unless, indeed, she could get a boat built
+instead, to take her over to the main, for which she would engage to pay
+hereafter whatever should be asked.  Rollo told his companion this; and
+they both laughed so at the idea of the boat, that the lady rose in
+great anger, and walked away.  Rollo attended her, and pointed to his
+raft, saying that there was no other such craft as even that in the
+island; and people did not think of boats, even in their dreams, though
+he could fancy that any lady in the south might, for he had heard that
+boats were common in the south.  But, he went on to say, if she could
+not have a boat, she might have a house.
+
+"Will you help to build it?" asked the lady.  "Will your companion--will
+all the people you know--help me to build it?"
+
+"Why, yes," Rollo replied.  "We shall have to build some sort of a
+cottage for the minister that is coming--for the minister and his wife;
+and we may as well--"
+
+"Minister!  Is there a minister coming?" cried the lady.
+
+"O thank God, whose servant he is!  Thank God for sending me
+deliverance, as He surely will by these means!"  She had sunk on her
+knees.  Rollo patted her on the shoulder and said the folk were
+certainly coming.  What to make of Rollo she did not know.  He treated
+her as if she were a child.  He used a coaxing way of talking, explained
+to her the plainest things before her eyes, and patted her on the
+shoulder.  She drew away, looking very haughtily at him, but he only
+nodded.
+
+"Why was I not told before that the minister and his wife were coming?
+Macdonald did not tell me.  Your mother did not tell me."
+
+"They do not know it yet.  They seldom know things till I tell them; and
+I did not want to be kept at home to build a house till I had got some
+business of my own done."
+
+He would not tell how he had obtained his information; but explained
+that it was the custom for a minister to live for some time on each of
+the outlying islands, where there were too few people to retain a
+constant pastor.  This island was too little inhabited to have had a
+minister on its shores since the chapel had gone to ruin, a hundred
+years before--but the time was at hand at last.  There had been a
+disappointment in some arrangements in the nearest neighbour islet; and
+Mr Ruthven and his wife were appointed to reside here for a year or
+more, as might appear desirable.  Rollo considered this great news.
+Children and betrothed persons would be brought hither to be baptised
+and married--arriving perhaps more than once in the course of the year;
+and it would be strange if the minister were not, in that time, to be
+sent for in a boat to bury somebody.  Or, perhaps, a funeral or two
+might come to the old chapel.  Some traffic there must be; and that
+would make it a great year for Rollo.  And, to begin with, there would
+be the house to build; and he might be sent for materials.  He should
+like that, though he did not much fancy the trouble of the building.
+
+After a moment's thought the lady asked him if he could not keep the
+secret of the minister's coming till the last possible hour.  She would
+reward him well if he would get the house built as for her.  Seeing how
+precious was the opportunity, she gave Rollo her confidence, showed him
+how it would tend to satisfy Macdonald if she appeared to be settling
+herself quietly in the island; whereas, if he knew of the approach of
+vessels with strangers, he would probably imprison her, or carry her
+away to some yet wilder and more remote speck in the ocean.  Rollo saw
+something of her reasons, and said patronisingly, "Why, you talk like an
+island woman now.  You might almost have lived here, by the way you
+understand things."
+
+Yet better did he apprehend her promises of vast rewards, if he would do
+exactly as she wished.  There was an air about her which enabled him to
+fancy her some queen or other powerful personage; and as it happened to
+suit him to keep the secret till the last moment, he promised, for
+himself and his comrade, to be discreet, and obey orders.
+
+This settled, the lady turned homewards, with a basket full of eggs, and
+fish, and young birds, and news for the widow that her son was safe, and
+not far off, and about to come home to try his hand at building a house.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+THE WAITING OF THE WISE.
+
+The house proceeded well.  Macdonald had no express orders about it; but
+he had express orders to keep Lady Carse on the island, and, if
+possible, in a quiet and orderly state of manners.  When he saw how
+completely engrossed she was in the building of this dwelling, and what
+a close friendship she appeared to have formed with Annie Fleming, he
+believed that she was a woman of a giddy mind and strong self-will, who
+might be managed by humouring.  If he could assist her in providing
+herself with a succession of new objects, he hoped that she might be
+kept from mischief and misery, as a child is by a change of toys.  He
+would try this method, and trust to his chief's repaying him any
+expenses incurred for the strange lady's sake.  So he granted the use of
+his ponies and his people,--now a man or two,--and now their wives, to
+bring stones and earth and turf, and to twist heather bands.  Once or
+twice he came himself, and lent a strong hand to raise a corner-stone,
+and help to lay the hearthstone.  The house consisted of two rooms,
+divided by a passage.  If Lady Carse had chosen to admit the idea of
+remaining after the arrival of the Ruthvens, she would have added a
+third room; but she had resolved that she would leave the island in the
+vessel which brought them, or in the next that their arrival would
+bring: and she would not dwell for an instant on any doubt of
+accomplishing her purpose.
+
+So the thick walls rose, and the low roof was on, and the thatch well
+bound down, and secured moreover with heavy stones, before the autumn
+storms arrived.  And before the hard rains came down, all Macdonald's
+ponies were one evening seen approaching in a string, laden with peat--a
+present to the lady.  In the course of the day there was stacked, at the
+end of her cottage, enough to last for some months.  When the widow came
+out to see it and wish her joy--for a good stack of well dried peat was
+the richest of all possessions in that region--the lady smiled as
+cheerfully as Annie; not at the peat, however, but at the thought that
+she should see little or none of it burn.  She intended to dispose of
+her winter evenings far otherwise.
+
+As for the widow, she was thankful now that she had never thought her
+situation dreary.  If, in her former solitude, when her boy was absent,
+she had murmured at that solitude, her present feelings would have been
+a rebuke to her.  She was not happy now; so far from it, that her former
+life appeared, in comparison with it, as happy as she could desire.
+Perhaps it had been too peaceful, she thought, and she might need some
+exercise of patience.  It was a great advantage, certainly, for both
+herself and Rollo to hear the thing; the lady could tell of ways of
+living in other places, and to learn such a variety of knowledge from a
+person so much better informed than themselves.  But then this knowledge
+appeared to be all so unsanctified!  It did not make the poor lady
+herself strong in heart and peaceful in spirit.  It was wonderful, and
+very stirring to the mind, to learn how wise people were who lived in
+cities and what great ability was required to conduct the affairs of
+life where men were gathered together in numbers; but then these wonders
+did not seem to impress those who lived in the midst of them.  There was
+no sign that they were watching and praising God's hand working among
+the faculties of men, as more retired people do in much meaner things--
+in the warmth which the eider-duck gives to her eggs by wrapping them in
+down from her own breast, and the punctuality with which the herring
+shoals pass by in May and October, making the sea glitter with life and
+light as they go.  She feared that when people lived out of sight of
+green pastures and still waters--and she looked at the moment upon the
+down on which the goats were browsing, and the fresh water pool, where
+the dragon fly hovered for a few hot days in summer--when men lived out
+of sight of green pastures and still waters, she feared that they became
+perplexed in a sort of Babel, where the call of the shepherd was too
+gentle to be heard.  At least, it appeared thus from the effect upon
+Rollo of the lady's conversation.  She had always feared for him the
+effect of seeing the world, as she remembered the world--of his seeing
+it before he had better learned to see God everywhere, and to be humble
+accordingly--and the conversation he now heard was to him much like
+being on the mainland, and even in a town.  It had not made him more
+humble, or more kind, or more helpful; except, indeed, to the lady--
+there was nothing he would not do to help her.
+
+And here Annie sighed and smiled at once, as the thought struck her that
+while she was mourning over other people's corruption she was herself
+not untouched.  She detected herself admitting some dislike to the lady
+because she so occupied Rollo that he had left off supplying his mother
+with fishes' livers and seal-fat for oil.  The best season had passed:--
+she had spoken to him several times not to lose the six-weeks-old seals;
+but he had not attended to it; and now her stock of oil was very low;
+and the long winter nights were before her.  She must speak to Macdonald
+to procure her some oil.  But very strictly must she speak to herself
+about this new trouble of discontent.  Did she not know that He who
+appointed her dwelling-place on that height, and who marked her for her
+life's task by that touch on her heart-strings the night she saw her
+husband drown, would supply the means?  If her light was to be set on
+the hill for men to see from the tossing billows and be saved, it would
+be taken care of that, as of old, the widow's cruise of oil did not
+fail.  What _she_ had to look to was that the lamp of her soul did not
+grow dim and go out.  How lately was she thanking God for the new
+opportunities afforded her by the arrival of this stranger! and now she
+was shrinking from these very opportunities, and finding fault with
+everybody before herself!
+
+There was some little truth in this, and it was very natural; for this
+kind of trial was new to Annie.  But she never yielded to it again--not
+even when the trial was such as few would have been able to bear.
+
+As the dark blustering month of November advanced, the widow's
+rheumatism came on more severely than ever before.  She had given up her
+bed to Lady Carse, and when Rollo was at home, slept on the floor, on
+some ashes covered with a blanket; the only materials for a bed which
+she had been able to command, as Rollo had been too busy to get
+seal-skins, or go to any distance for heather while it was soft.  She
+had caught cold repeatedly, and was likely to have a bad winter with her
+rheumatism, however soon the lady might get into her own house and yield
+up the widow's bed.  One gusty afternoon, when the wet fogs were driving
+past, Annie waited long for the lady and Rollo to come in to the evening
+meal.  She could not think what detained them next door in such weather;
+for it was no weather for working--besides that, it was getting dark.
+She could not, with her stiff and painful limbs, go out of doors; and
+when she perceived that her smallest lamp was gone, she satisfied
+herself that they had some particular work to finish for which they
+needed light, and would come in when it was done.
+
+But it grew dark, and the wind continued to rise, and they did not
+appear.  They did not mean to appear this night.  Macdonald had been
+informed, at last, from his chief, of the intended arrival of the
+minister and his lady; had been very angry at the long concealment of
+the news, and would now, Lady Carse apprehended, keep a careful watch
+over her, and probably confine her till the expected boats had come and
+gone.  So she and her accomplices at once repaired to the cave--a cave
+which Rollo was sure none of Macdonald's people had discovered--where
+for some time past Rollo and his comrade had stored dried fish, such
+small parcels of oatmeal as they could obtain, and plenty of peat for
+fuel.  There they were now sitting at supper over a good fire, kindled
+in a deep sand, which would afford a warm and soft bed--they were at
+supper while the widow was waiting for them in pain and anxiety--and, at
+last, in cold and dreariness.
+
+When the fire was low, she rose painfully from her seat, to feed it, and
+to trim and light the lamp.  Alas! there were no peats in the corner.
+She knew there were plenty at mid-day: but Lady Carse had, at the last
+moment, bethought herself that the fuel in the cave might be damp, and
+had carried off those in the corner, desiring Rollo to bring in more
+from the stack to dry; and this Rollo had neglected to do.  The fire
+would be quite out in an hour.  Annie saw that she must attempt to get
+out to the stack.  She did attempt it; but the stormy blast and the
+thick cold drizzle so drove against her that she could not stand it, and
+could only with difficulty shut the door.  She turned to her lamp, to
+light it while the fire was yet alive.  There was but little oil in it.
+She reached out her hand for the oil can.  It was not there.  Rollo had
+considered that the lady would want light in the cave; Lady Carse had
+considered that the widow might for one night make a good fire serve her
+purposes; and so the oil can was gone to the same place with the peats.
+
+Annie sank down on her seat, almost subdued.  Not quite subdued,
+however, even by this threat of the baffling of the great object of her
+life.  Not quite subdued, for her heart and her ear were yet open to the
+voices of nature.
+
+The scream of a sea-bird reached her, as the creature was swept by on
+the blast.
+
+"That is for me," she said to herself, the blood returning to her
+stricken heart and pale cheek.  "How God sends His creatures to teach us
+at the moment when we need His voice!  I have seen the cormorant sitting
+in his hole in wintry weather,--sitting there for days together, hungry
+and cold, trying now and then to get out, and driven back by such a
+blast as he cannot meet,--by such a blast as this.  And then he sits on
+patiently, and moves no more till the wind lulls and the sky clears.
+And if his wing is weak at first it soon strengthens.  The blast drives
+me back to-night; but I, who have thoughts to rest upon, may well bear
+what a winged creature can.  That screamer was sent to me.  I wonder
+what has become of it.  I hope it is not swept quite away."
+
+But it would not do to sit thinking while the fire was just out, and the
+lamp likely to burn only an hour.  She lighted the lamp with
+difficulty,--with a beating heart and trembling hands, lest the last
+available spark should go out first.  But the wick caught; and the lamp
+was placed in the window, sending, as it seemed to Annie, a gleam
+through the night of her own mind, as well as through that of the stormy
+air.  It quickened her invention and her hopes.
+
+"There is an hour yet," thought she.  "I am sure it will burn an hour;
+and something may be sent by that time."
+
+She took off her cotton handkerchief, tore off the hem, and ravelled out
+the cotton as quickly as she could, and twisted it into a wick which she
+thought she could fix by a skewer across a tin cup from which Rollo
+drank his whisky when at home.  She brought down from the chimney and
+looked over rapidly all the oily parts of the fish, and every fatty
+portion of the dried meat hung up in the smoke for winter use; and these
+she made a desperate endeavour to melt in the flames of her lamp.  She
+wrung out a few drops,--barely enough to soak her wick.  This would not
+burn five minutes.  She persevered to the last moment,--saying to
+herself, "Not once for these seventeen years since I saw my husband
+drown, has there been a dark night between this window and the sea.  Not
+once has my spark been put out: and I will not think it now.  God can
+kindle fire where He pleases.  I have heard tell that people in foreign
+countries have seen a lightning-shaft dart down into a forest, and make
+a tree blaze up like a torch.  God has His own ways."
+
+All the while her hands wrought so busily that she scarcely felt their
+aching in the cold of the night.  But now her new wick was wanted, for
+the old was going out.  It blazed up, but she saw it must soon be gone.
+She broke up her old stool, all shattered as it was already.  Some
+splinters she stuck one after another into the lamp; and then she burned
+the larger pieces in the hearth, saying to herself incessantly, as if
+for support, "God has His own ways."
+
+But the rising and falling flame became more and more uncertain; and at
+last, very suddenly, it went quite out.  There was not, in another
+minute, a spark left.
+
+For a while there was silence in the cottage, now dark for the first
+time since Annie was a widow.  She crept to her cold bed; and there,
+under cover of the strange darkness she shed a few tears.  But soon she
+said to herself, "God has His own ways of kindling our spirits as well
+as the flame of a lamp.  Perhaps by humbling me, or by changing my duty
+when I became too fond of it, He may warm my heart to new trust in Him.
+His will be done!  But He will let me pray that there may be none in the
+harbour this night who may drown, or be buffeted in the storm because He
+is pleased to darken my light."
+
+Before she had quite calmed her heart with this prayer, there was noise
+at a little distance, and red gleams on the fitful mist which drove past
+the window; and then followed a loud knocking at the door.
+
+It was Macdonald with his people, come to see whether the lady was safe.
+He looked perplexed and uneasy when Annie told him that she could not
+think that the lady could be otherwise than safe, now she knew the
+places about the island so well, and was so fearless.  It often happened
+that she was absent for a night and day; and no doubt the storm had this
+night detained her and her companions in some sheltered place,--some
+place where, she had reason to believe, they had fire and light.  As for
+herself, when Annie saw the torch that Macdonald carried, her eyes
+glistened in the blaze, and she said once more in the depth of her mind,
+"Surely God has His own ways."
+
+Macdonald was very wrathful when he learned by questioning Annie how it
+was that her house was dark.  As he hastily kindled the peats he brought
+in from the stack, he muttered that it seemed to have pleased God to
+afflict the island again with a witch, after all the pains that were
+taken twenty years before, as he well remembered, to clear the place of
+one.  This woman must be a witch--
+
+"Nay," said Annie.  "I take her to be sent to us for good.  Let us wait
+and learn."
+
+"Good?  What good?"
+
+"It is through her, you see, that I find how kind a neighbour you are,
+at need," replied Annie; not adding aloud what she was thinking of,--how
+this night had proved that God brings help at the least likely moments.
+
+"She is a witch," Macdonald persisted.  "No power short of that could
+have quenched your lamp, and drawn away your only son from honouring his
+parent to be a slave to a stranger."
+
+As Annie could not at the moment speak, Macdonald went on raising a
+flame meantime by flapping the end of his plaid.
+
+"It is the chapel, I know.  Things have never gone well for any length
+of time here since the chapel fell completely down, and the bleat of the
+kid came out from where the psalm ought to sound.  We must apply
+ourselves to build up the chapel; and, as there is a minister coming, we
+may hope to be released from witches and every kind of curse."
+
+"There will be little room for any kind of curse," thought Annie, "when
+the minister has taught us to `be kindly affectioned one to another,'
+and not to make our little island more stormy with passions than it ever
+is with tempests of wind and hail."
+
+"There, now, there is a good fire for you," said Macdonald, rising from
+his knees; "and I won't ask you.  Annie, what was in your mind as the
+blaze made your eyes shine.  I won't ask you, because you might tell me
+that I am in need of the minister, to make me merciful to a banished
+lady.  Ah, your smile shows that that is what you were thinking of.  But
+I can tell you this: she is a wicked woman.  Her father committed
+murder, and she is quite able and willing to do the same thing.  So I
+must go and find her, and take care that her foot is set in no boat but
+mine."
+
+"Yours?"
+
+"Yes.  I must carry her out of the way of all boats but mine.  This
+island was chosen for such a purpose, and now--"
+
+"And now," said Annie, "if the lady is afflicted with such hardness of
+heart, is it not cruel to take her away from God's word and worship,
+just when there is a minister coming?  Oh, Macdonald! what would you do
+to one who should carry away your poor sick little Malcolm to Saint
+Kilda, just when your watching eye caught sight of an eastward sail, and
+you knew it was the physician coming; sent, moreover, for Malcolm's
+sake?  What would you think then, Macdonald?"
+
+"I should think that if Sir Alexander was in it there could be nothing
+done, and there ought to be nothing said.  And Sir Alexander is in this,
+so I must go."
+
+While Macdonald and his people were beating about among the caves, as
+morning drew on, Lady Carse and Rollo slipped up to the house, partly to
+secure a few more comforts that they had a mind for, and partly to
+obtain a wide view over the sea, and a certainty whether any boats were
+in sight.
+
+"Have you brought up my oil can, Rollo?" asked his mother.  "If not, you
+must go for it, and never again touch it without my leave."
+
+"I took it," said Lady Carse; "and I cannot spare it."
+
+"It cannot be spared from this room, my lady.  It never left this room
+before but by my order, and it never must again."
+
+"It shall never leave the place where it now is," declared Lady Carse,
+reddening.  "I threw myself on your hospitality, and you grudge me light
+in the night.  You, who are housed in a cottage of your own, with a
+fire, and everything comfortable about you--that is, every comfort that
+a poor woman like you knows how to value.  You think yourself very
+religious, I am aware, and I rather believe you think yourself
+charitable, too; and you grudge me your oil can, when there is no one
+thing on earth you can do for me but lend it."
+
+"Your way of thinking is natural, my lady, till you better know me and
+my duty.  But to-day I must say that the oil can is mine, and I cannot
+lend it.  You will please desire Rollo to bring it to me."
+
+"I know well enough about you and your duty, as you call it.  I know
+your particularity about a fancy of your own.  I know well enough how
+obstinate you are about it, and how selfish, that you would sacrifice me
+to your whim about your duty, and your husband, and all that set of
+notions.  And I know more.  I know what it is to have a husband, and
+that you ought to be thankful that yours was gone before he could play
+the tyrant over you.  You pretend to speak with authority because this
+cottage is yours, and your precious oil can, and your rotten old
+bedstead.  But, besides that, I can teach you many things.  You may be
+assured I can pay you for more oil than I shall burn to the end of my
+days, and for more sleeps than I hope ever to have on your old bed.  You
+need not fear but that I shall pay for everything--pay more money than
+you ever saw in your life."
+
+"Money will not do, madam.  I must have my oil can.  Rollo will fetch
+it.  And you will lie down, my lady--lie down and rest on my old bed,
+without thinking of money, or of anything but ease to your head and your
+weary heart.  Lie down in safety here, madam, for your head and your
+heart are aching sadly."
+
+"What do you know about my head and heart aching?"
+
+"By more signs than one.  When anyone is hunted like the deer upon the
+hills--"
+
+Lady Carse groaned.
+
+"That is only for a while, however," said Annie, tenderly.  "When there
+is peace of mind, there is no one to hunt us--no one to hurt us.  We
+abide here or anywhere; for the shadow of the Almighty is everywhere.
+No one can hunt us from it, nor hurt us within it.  And I assure you, my
+lady, this is the place of all places for peace of mind."
+
+"I hurt you just now, however," said the lady; "and I left you little
+peace of mind last night."
+
+"If so, it must be my own fault," said Annie, cheerfully.  "But never
+mind that.  I never have any troubles now hardly; and you, madam, have
+so many, and such sad ones."
+
+"That is true," said Lady Carse, as burning tears forced their way.
+"You never knew--you cannot conceive--such misery as mine."
+
+Annie kissed the hand which was wet with those scalding tears, and laid
+her own hand on the head which was shaken on the pillow with sobs.
+
+After a time, the lady murmured out, "This seems very childish: but it
+is so long--so long since anyone--since I met with any tenderness--any
+affection from anyone!"
+
+"Is that it?" said the widow, cheerfully.  "Well--this is a poor place
+enough; and we are no companions for anybody beyond ourselves: but what
+you speak of is ours to give.  That you may always depend on here."
+
+"In spite of anything I may say or do?  You see how hasty I am at times.
+Will you love me and caress me, through anything I may say or do?"
+
+"No doubt," replied Annie, smiling.  "It will be the happiest way if you
+constrain us to love and cherish you as your due.  But if not, these are
+charities that God has put into every hand that is reached out to Him,
+that the very humblest and poorest may have the best of alms to give."
+
+"Alms!" sighed the lady.  She shook off the kind hand that was upon her
+aching brow, for the thought struck upon her heart that she was a
+destitute beggar for those smallest offices of kindness and courtesy
+which she had not affections or temper to reciprocate or claim.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+THE COVE.
+
+Rollo brought word that Macdonald and his people had left the eastern
+caves, and were now exploring the large northern one called Asdrafil.
+It was time the lady was returning to her hiding place.
+
+"O dear!" exclaimed she.  "May I not rest under a roof for one night?
+Will Macdonald come here again so soon?"
+
+The widow had little doubt he would.  He would be popping in at all
+times of the day or night till he could learn where his prisoner was.
+She could not advise the lady to stay here, if she wished to remain on
+the island till the minister came.
+
+"I must," said Lady Carse.  "But I dread that cave.  I hate it, with its
+echoes that startle one every moment, and the rough walls that look so
+strangely in the red light of the fire.  I hate it.  But," she continued
+impetuously, "no matter!  I hate this place" (looking round with
+disgust).  "I hate every place that I ever was in.  I wish I was dead.
+I wish I had never been born.  Now don't look at me so piteously.  I
+won't be pitied.  I can't bear to be pitied: and do you think I will let
+you pity me?  No, indeed, I may have my own troubles.  God knows I have
+troubles enough.  But I would not change places with you--no, not for
+all else that God or man could give me.  Now what are you smiling at?
+Woman, do you mean to insult my misfortunes?  I am brought low indeed,
+if I am to be smiled at by a hag in a desert--I who once--O!  I see; you
+don't choose to yield me the small respect of listening to what I say."
+
+Annie was now looking round her cottage to see what she could send down
+to render the lady more comfortable in her retreat.  She tried to absorb
+her own attention in this business till Lady Carse should have exhausted
+her anger and become silent.  But Lady Carse once again seized the oil
+can.
+
+"Pardon me, madam," said Annie, "I cannot spare that, as you know.
+Rollo is carrying some things that I hope may make you comfortable.  If
+you see anything else that you wish for, you shall have it--anything but
+my lamp and my oil."
+
+"The oil is the only thing I want; and a small matter it is for me, who
+had dozens of wax-lights burning in my house at Edinburgh, and will have
+dozens more before I die."
+
+"Your fire must serve you, madam.  I give you what I have to bestow.  My
+light is not mine to give: it belongs to wanderers on the sea.  You
+cannot think, madam, of taking what belongs, as I may say, neither to
+you nor me."
+
+Lady Carse had that in her countenance at this moment which alarmed the
+widow for her light; and she therefore desired her son, with authority,
+to relieve the lady of the oil can, and trim the lamp ready for night.
+
+Lady Carse, setting her teeth, and looking as malicious as an ill-bred
+cur, said that if the light belonged to nobody here nobody else should
+have the benefit of it; and attempted to empty the oil upon the hearth.
+This was more than Rollo was disposed to permit.  He seized her arm with
+no gentle grasp, and saved all the oil but a few drops, which blazed
+amongst the peats.  He moreover told the lady, with an air of
+superiority, that he had almost begun to think she had as much wit as
+the islanders; but that he now saw his mistake; and she must manage her
+own affairs.  He should stay with his mother to-night.
+
+It was his mother who, rebuking his incivility, desired him to attend
+upon the lady.  It was his mother who, when Lady Carse burst away from
+them and said she would be followed by nobody, awoke in Rollo something
+of the feeling which she herself entertained.
+
+"Carry down these things," she said.  "It is too true; as she says, that
+every place is hateful to her; and that is the more reason why we should
+do what we can to make some comfort in the place she is in."
+
+"But she says such things to you, mother!  I don't want to hear any more
+such things."
+
+"When people are in torment, Rollo, they do not know what they say.  And
+she has much to torment her, poor lady!  Now go; and let us try to hide
+her from Macdonald.  If she and the minister can have speech of each
+other, I trust she may become more settled in mind.  You know God has
+made His creatures to differ one from another.  There are some that sit
+all the more still in storms; and there are others that are sadly
+bewildered in tempests: but, if one ray of God's sun is sent to them, it
+is like a charm.  They stop and watch it; and when it spreads about
+them, it seems to change their nature: they lie down and bask in it, and
+find content.  It may be so with this lady if the minister gives her a
+glimpse of light from above."
+
+"She shall not be carried off, if David and I can hide her," declared
+Rollo.  "One of us must watch the Macdonalds, while the other entertains
+the lady."
+
+"While she entertains you, you mean," said Annie, smiling.  "She has
+many wonderful things to tell to such as we are."
+
+"Not more than we have to tell her.  Why, mother, she knows no more--"
+
+"Well, well," said the mother, smiling; "you cannot do wrong in amusing
+her to the best of your ability, till she can see the minister, and hear
+better things.  So go, my son."
+
+Rollo trimmed the lamp; saw that his mother was provided with fuel and
+water, and departed; leaving her maternal heart cheered, so that her
+almost bare cottage was like a palace to her.  She was singing when
+Macdonald put his head in, as he said, to bid her good night, but in
+fact to see if Lady Carse had come home, David and Rollo acted in turn
+as scouts; and from their report it appeared that, though the minister's
+boat had not shown itself, there was a blockade of the eastern caves.
+The lady's retreat was certainly suspected to be somewhere in this part
+of the shore; for some of Macdonald's people were always in sight.  Now
+and then, a man, or a couple of women, came prying along the rocks; and
+once two men took shelter in a cave which adjoined that in which the
+trembling lady was sitting, afraid to move, and almost to breathe, lest
+the echoes should betray her.  The entrance to her retreat was so
+curiously concealed by projections of rock, that she had nothing to fear
+but from sound.  But she could not be sure of this; and she would have
+extinguished her fire by heaping sand upon it, and left herself in total
+darkness in a labyrinth which was always sufficiently perplexing, if
+Rollo had not held her hand.  He stepped cautiously through the sand to
+the nearest point to the foe, listened awhile, and then smiled and
+nodded to Lady Carse, and seemed wonderfully delighted.  This excited
+her impatience so much that it seemed to her that the enemy would never
+decamp.  She was obliged to control herself; but by the time she might
+speak, she was very irritable.  She told Rollo not to grin and fidget in
+that manner, but to let her know his news.
+
+"Great news!"  Rollo declared.  "The sloop which was to bring the
+minister and his wife was to lie-to this very night, in a deep cove
+close at hand; and the reason for its coming here, instead of into the
+harbour, was--the best of reasons for the lady--that Macdonald had fears
+that the Macleods who manned the vessel would be friendly to his
+prisoner.  So the minister and his party were to be landed in the
+sloop's yawl; and the sloop was to be quietly brought into the cove
+after dark, that the lady, supposed to be still on the island, might not
+have _any_ opportunity of getting on board."
+
+This did appear a most promising opportunity of deliverance.  The sloop
+came round when expected; and, soon after she was moored, Rollo and
+David went on their raft, and spoke from it to a man who appeared to be
+in command, and who was, after some time, persuaded to think that he
+could, for sufficient payment, go so far out of his way as to land a
+lady passenger on the main--the lady being in anxiety about her family,
+and able to pay handsomely for an early opportunity of joining them.
+The negotiation was rather a long one, as some of the points were
+difficult to arrange; and the master of the vessel appeared somewhat
+careless about the whole matter.  But at last Lady Carse's anxious ear
+heard the slight splash of the raft approaching through the water; and
+then the tall figures of the young men were dimly seen between her and
+the sky.  Her tongue was so parched that she could not speak the
+question which swelled in her heart.
+
+"Come," said Rollo, aloud.  "The master will land you on the main.  You
+had better get on board now, before the sea roughens.  Come, they are
+looking out for you."
+
+Lady Carse endeavoured to make haste; but her limbs would hardly support
+her.  Her companions lifted her upon the raft, and one held her steady
+while the other paddled.  Strong arms were ready on board the sloop to
+hoist her up and carry her to a heap of plaids, made into a sort of bed
+on deck.  In another moment she sprang up, saying that she must speak to
+her companions one more word.  A sailor who stood over her held her
+back; but she declared that she must thank those who had rendered her a
+great service.  At the bidding of someone who spoke in Gaelic, the
+sailor withdrew his opposition, and she tottered to the side of the
+vessel, called to Rollo, desired him to give her love to his mother, and
+promised that he and David should find that she was not ungrateful.
+
+Rollo and his comrade leaped ashore with a comfortable feeling that
+their business was all achieved; but yet with some little regret at
+losing the excitements of their late employment, and of the lady's
+presence and conversation.  They talked her over while eating their
+suppers, wondered what rewards she would send, and how angry Macdonald
+would be; and they were about to lie down to sleep, when the night air
+was rent by such a scream as they had never heard.  They ran out upon
+the rocks, and there they heard from the sloop shriek upon shriek.
+
+"What is it?" exclaimed David.  "They are murdering her!"
+
+"No," said Rollo, after a pause.  "They may be up to that, if this is a
+trick; but they would not do it here, nor so soon.  They could do it
+more safely between this and Saint Kilda, with a rope and heavy stone.
+No--they are not murdering her, whoever they may be."
+
+"What, then?  Who are they?"
+
+"It may be a trick, and that would put the lady in a great passion; and
+when she is in a passion, let me tell you, not all the birds in the face
+of this rock can make more noise.  I am not sure, but I think that is a
+passionate scream."
+
+"I wish it would leave off," said David, turning away.  "I don't like
+it."
+
+"If you don't like it," said Rollo, "I should hardly think she can.  I
+must see about it.  I think it is a trick, and that she is in a
+passion."
+
+It was a trick from beginning to end.  It was Macdonald's sloop; and
+Macdonald himself was on board, prepared to carry his prisoner to Saint
+Kilda.  The conversation overheard by Rollo in the cavern was a trick.
+A similar conversation had been held that day in _every_ cave known to
+Macdonald along that part of the shore, in hopes of some one version
+being overheard by the lady's accomplices.  She had fallen into the trap
+very easily.
+
+"And now," said Macdonald to a clansman, "I have nearly done with the
+business.  _We_ have only to land her in Saint Kilda; and then it will
+be the Macleod's affair.  I shall be glad to have done with the witch.
+I have no wish to carry people anywhere against their wishes; and I
+never would, if Sir Alexander Macdonald were not in it.  But I shall
+have done with the business presently."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+WHICH REFUGE?
+
+Macdonald's self congratulations were premature.  He had more uneasiness
+to undergo about the lady than he had suffered yet.  When her screams of
+rage had sunk into sobs and moans, and these again had been succeeded by
+silence, he had left her undisturbed to cry herself to sleep.  At
+daylight he had gone to take a look, but she had, as he supposed,
+muffled herself up in the plaids provided for her, so as to cover her
+head, and thus conceal her face.  But it soon after appeared that these
+plaids had nothing under them--the lady was not there.
+
+No one had seen her move; and it must have been done in the thickest
+darkness of the night.  One man had heard a splash in the water
+alongside.  A cotton handkerchief, which she had worn on her head, was
+found floating.  It was to be feared that the lady had drowned herself.
+After searching about in the neighbourhood all day, Macdonald departed
+in his vessel, leaving a man to watch, in case of the body being thrown
+up among the rocks.  He had now no doubt of her death; and with a heavy
+heart he went to confide this event--unfortunate for him, whether so or
+not for anyone else--first to friends on the island, and next to his
+chief.  He met the minister on his landing, and took the opportunity of
+whispering his news to some of those who came down to greet the pastor,
+to his own wife, and to Annie Fleming, desiring them not to inform the
+pastor, without his permission, that such a person as Lady Carse had
+been among them.  Then he set sail for Skye, to tell Sir Alexander, with
+what face he might, that the poor lady would trouble them no more.  It
+would have been a vast relief to him to have anticipated the way in
+which his chief would receive the news--how he would say that a great
+perplexity was thus solved--that no harm could ensue, as the lady was
+buried so long ago at Edinburgh--and that he had himself many times
+repented having gone into the affair, and that he never would, but for
+political and party reasons, and that he was heartily glad now to be
+quit of it, in any way--to say nothing of this being, after all, a happy
+event for the wretched lady herself and all belonging to her.
+
+Meanwhile Lady Carse was not yet out of their way.  She had still voice
+to utter political secrets, and temper all eager to punish her foes.
+She had slipped away in the dark, thrown herself overboard when she
+found Rollo below, got drenched with sea-water and bruised against the
+rocks, but was safe in hiding again.
+
+Rollo's trouble was, that she laughed so heartily and so incessantly for
+some time, that there was danger of her merriment betraying her.  He
+told her at last that she must try if she would leave off laughing when
+left to herself.  If she could not, she would then, at any rate, cause
+no one but herself to be taken.  He should go by a way of his own to a
+point whence he could look out and see what was doing at sea and ashore.
+
+When he reappeared, it was with a face which would have stopped any
+laughter on the side of the lady, if the laughter had not stopped of
+itself long before.  She must not hope to escape by the minister's boat.
+Macdonald had so managed his plot as to allure the lady into his boat
+just when she should have been attempting to get on board the other.  It
+was too late now.
+
+The lady would not be finally convinced of this till, by Rollo's
+assistance, she had reached the spot whence she could observe the facts
+for herself.  The knowledge that there was a watch set below, who would
+not fail to take her alive, though his affair was to pick up her dead
+body, kept her from yielding to audible grief, but never had she been
+more convulsed with passion.  She pulled up the heather by handfuls.
+She dashed her head against the ground, till Rollo restrained her.
+
+On the dun wintry sea a vessel was sailing northwards.  It had deposited
+the pastor and his lady, and had actually passed and repassed the very
+shore where she had been concealed.  The long looked for vessel had come
+and gone.  Another was sailing eastwards in the direction she longed to
+go.  This was Macdonald's; and seeing that it was going to Skye or the
+main, she now bitterly lamented having left it.  She would not believe a
+word about the intention to carry her to Saint Kilda.  She would rather
+believe her own eyes, and passionately condemned herself for her haste
+in returning to this dreary island.
+
+Rollo next turned her attention to the little procession which appeared
+upon the hills, bringing the pastor and his wife to their new abode.
+She looked that way; she saw the group ascending the hill--a sight so
+unusual in this place, that Rollo was much excited about it; but her
+eyes kept filling with tears, and she was so heart-sick that she could
+not bear any thoughts but of her own troubles.  She desired Rollo to
+leave her.  She wanted to be alone; nobody had any feeling for her;
+people might go and amuse themselves; all she wanted was to live and die
+alone.
+
+Rollo knew that she could not do that, but he wished to go where others
+were going--said to himself that the lady would be the better for being
+left to herself for awhile, and left her accordingly.  He first asked
+her whether he should help her down to the cave, but she made no answer,
+so he walked off, leaving her lying on the heather in a cold and dreary
+place.
+
+She did not feel the cold, and she was too dreary within to be sensible
+of the desolation without.  How deserted she felt as she saw Rollo
+walking away, quickening his pace to a run when he reached the down.  It
+might be said that she was without a hope in heaven or on earth, but
+that passion always hopes for its own gratification--always expects it,
+in defiance of all probability, and in opposition to all reason.  This
+is one chief mode in which the indulgence of any kind of passion is
+corrupting.  It injures the integrity of the faculties and the
+truthfulness of the mind, inducing its victims to trust to chances
+instead of likelihood, and to dwell upon extravagances till they become
+incapable of seeing things as they are.
+
+So Lady Carse now presently forgot that she was alone on a hill in a far
+island of the Hebrides, with no means of getting away, and no chance of
+letting any friend know that she was not buried long ago--and her
+imagination was busy in London.  She fancied herself there, and, if once
+there, how she would accomplish her revenge.  She imagined herself
+talking to the minister, and repeating to him the things her husband had
+written and said against himself and the royal family.  She imagined
+herself introduced to the king, and telling into his anxious ear the
+tidings of the preparations made for driving him from the throne and
+restoring the exiled family.  She imagined the list made out of the
+traitors to be punished, at the top of which she would put the names of
+her own foes--her husband first, and Lord Lovat next.  She imagined the
+king's grateful command to her to accompany his messengers to Scotland,
+that she might guide and help them to seize the offenders.  She clasped
+her hands behind her head in a kind of rapture when she pictured to
+herself the party stealing a march upon her formal husband, presenting
+themselves before him, and telling him what they came for--marking, and
+showing him how they marked his deadly paleness, perhaps by making
+courteous inquiries about his health.  She feasted her fancy on scenes
+in the presence of her old acquaintance, Duncan Forbes, when she would
+distress him by driving home her charges against the friends of his
+youth, and by appeals to his loyalty, which he could not resist.  She
+pictured to herself the trials and the sentences--and then the
+executions--her slow driving through the streets in her coach in her
+full triumph, people pointing her out all the way as the lady who was
+pretended to be dead and buried, but who had come back, in favour with
+the king, to avenge him and herself at once on their common enemies.
+She wondered whether Lord Lovat's cool assurance would give way at such
+a moment--she almost feared not--almost shrank already from the idea of
+some wounding gibe--frowned and clenched her hands while fancying what
+it would be, and then smiled at the thought of how she would smile, and
+bow an eternal farewell to the dying man, reminding him of her old
+promise to sit at a window and see his head fall.
+
+But the astonishment to all Edinburgh would be when she should look on
+triumphantly to see her husband die.  He had played the widower in sight
+of all Edinburgh, and now it would be seen how great was the lie, and
+nobody could dispute that the widowhood was hers.  She hoped that he
+would turn his prim figure and formal face her way, that she might make
+him, too, an easy bow, showing how she despised the hypocrite, and how
+completely he had failed in breaking her spirit.  She hoped she should
+be in good looks at that time, not owning the power of her enemies by
+looking worn and haggard.  She must consider her appearance a little
+more than she had done lately in view of this future time.  Her being
+somewhat weather-browned would not matter; it would be rather an
+advantage, as testifying to her banishment; but she must be in
+comfortable plight, and for this purpose--
+
+Here her meditations were cut short by the approach of some people.  She
+heard a pony's feet on the rock, and caught sight of a woman's head,
+wrapped in a plaid, as the party mounted directed towards her.  It was
+too late for escape--and there was no need.  The woman on the pony was
+Annie; and nobody else was there but Rollo.
+
+"The wonder is that you are not frozen," said Rollo, "if you have been
+lying here all this time.  You look as red in the face, and as warm as
+if you had been by the fire below in the snug sand.  And that is where
+we must go now directly; for mother cannot stand the cold up here.  She
+would come, as it happened she could have one of Macdonald's ponies
+to-day.  Well, I cannot but think how you could keep yourself warm,
+unless you are a witch as Macdonald says you are."
+
+"It is the mother's heart in her, Rollo, that keeps out the cold and the
+harm," said Annie.  "It may be a wonder to you; for how should you know
+what it is to have had a hope of seeing one's children, to have dreamed
+of nothing else, waking or sleeping, and then to find it nothing but a
+dream.  See her now, Rollo, as the cold comes over her heart.  The heart
+can live warm on its own thoughts, when it is chilling to hear another
+voice speak of them."
+
+Lady Carse was now very pale.  She had once said, and then fully
+believed it, that she had no shame.  It was long since she had felt
+shame.  She felt it now, when it struck her that during all her long
+reveries about her escape and her restoration to the world, not one
+thought of her children had entered into the imagery of her dream.  Like
+all people of strong passions, she had taken for granted that there was
+something grand and fine in the intensity of her feelings.  Now, for a
+moment, the clear mirror of Annie's mind was held up before her own, and
+she saw herself as she was.  For one instant she perceived that she was
+worthy of her husband's detestation.  But she was not one to tolerate
+painful and humbling ideas long.  She recurred to her unequalled wrongs,
+and was proud and comforted.  She walked down to her retreat without
+looking behind her, leaving Rollo to tether the pony, and help his
+mother down as he could.
+
+When Annie entered the cave, the drops were standing on her face, so
+great had been the pain to her rheumatic limbs on descending to the
+shore.
+
+"But," said she, as she sank down on the sand by the smouldering fire,
+"I could not but come, when I heard from Rollo that you were still
+breathing God's air."
+
+"Do you mean that that was good news or bad?"
+
+"Oh, good!  Surely good news.  At first, for a moment after Macdonald
+told me you were drowned in the night, I felt thankful that your
+troubles were over.  But I soon saw it the right way; and when Rollo
+whispered you were--"
+
+"What do you mean by seeing it the right way?  How do you know that your
+first feeling was not the right one?  I am sure it was the kindest to
+me.  You think yourself religious, and so you ought to be glad when an
+unhappy person is `where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary
+are at rest.'"
+
+Annie did not reply.  She was looking at the fire, and by its light it
+might be seen that tears were gathering in her eyes.
+
+"Ah!" said the irritable lady, "you, and such as you, who think you
+abide in the Scriptures so that nothing can move you; what becomes of
+you when you are answered by Scripture?"
+
+"I do not feel myself answered," Annie quietly replied.  "Oh, indeed!"
+
+"I feel what you said out of Scripture to be quite true; and that it is
+a great blessing that God has set the quiet grave before our eyes for
+such as can find no other rest.  But I would not forget that there is
+another and a better rest, without waiting for the grave."
+
+"You are so narrow, Annie!  You judge of everybody by yourself!"
+
+"That is a great danger I know," Annie agreed.  "And I cannot speak from
+my own knowledge of being troubled by the wicked.  But I have read and
+heard much of good men who were buffeted by the wicked for the best part
+of their lives, and at last got over being troubled by it, and more than
+that."
+
+"Ah! gloried in it, no doubt.  Everyone is proud of something; and they
+were proud of that."
+
+"Some such I fear there may have often been, madam; but I was not
+thinking of those that could fall into such a snare as being proud of
+the ill-will of their brethren.  I was thinking of some who felt the ill
+opinion of their brethren to be very humbling, and who humbled
+themselves to bear it.  Then in time they had comfort in forgiving their
+enemies, and at last they grew fit for a sweeter pleasure still which
+yet remained.  Not that, as I believe, they spoke of it, unless at
+moments when the joy would speak for itself; but then it has been known
+to burst forth from the lips of the persecuted--from some as cruelly
+persecuted as you, madam, that of all the thrillings that God's spirit
+makes in men's hearts, there is none so sweet as the first stirrings of
+the love of enemies."
+
+There was no answer, and Annie went on.
+
+"I could believe that there is no love so altogether good--at least for
+us here.  It is as yearning as that of a mother for her child, and as
+tender as that of lovers; and I should say, more holy than either, for
+theirs is natural to them in their mortal life, though it may be the
+purest part of it; the other love is an instinct belonging to the
+immortal life, a tongue of fire, sent down upon the head of a chosen one
+here and there, gifting them with the language of angels, to tell us on
+this side the grave what we shall find beyond.  One must see that to
+such as these the wicked have ceased from troubling, and their weariness
+has long sunk into rest without help from death."
+
+Lady Carse sighed.
+
+"This was why I was glad, madam, to hear that death had not overtaken
+you yet.  If you may enter into a living rest which we may see, that
+will, under God's blessing, be better than the blank rest of going away
+from your enemies, when their old wrongs may be still in your heart,
+making death a stinging serpent instead of a guiding dove."
+
+Some sweet old words here occurred to Lady Carse, linked with a sweet
+old psalm tune--words of longing to have wings like a dove, to flee away
+and be at rest.  She murmured these words; and they brought softening
+tears.
+
+"You see, madam," said Annie, "your nest is made for you.  You have been
+permitted to flee away from your enemies! now you are not to have wings,
+for the sails of the vessels are out of sight, and this makes it plain
+that here is to be your nest.  It is but a stormy place to abide in, to
+be sure; but if Christ be sought, He is here to command peace, and the
+winds and the sea obey Him."
+
+"I cannot stay here," sobbed Lady Carse.  "I cannot give up my hopes and
+my efforts--the only aim of my life."
+
+"It _is_ hard," said the widow, with starting tears.  "The last thing
+that a mother can give up,--the very last thing she can lay freely into
+God's hand is her yearning for her children.  But you will--"
+
+"It is not my children that I most want.  You say falsely that they are
+the last to be given up.  There is--"
+
+"Falsely!" cried Rollo, springing to his feet.  "My mother speak
+falsely!  If you dare--"
+
+"Gently, my boy," said Annie.  "We have not heard what the lady means."
+
+"Be quiet, Rollo," said Lady Carse.  "Your mother speaks falsely as
+regards me; but I do not say that it is not after her own kind that she
+speaks.  If God gives me to see my children, I will thank him devoutly;
+but there is another thing that I want more--revenge on all my enemies,
+and on my husband first."
+
+Rollo looked breathlessly at his mother.  Her face was calm; but he
+could see in the dim red light its expression of infinite sorrow.  She
+asked her son to help her to rise and go.
+
+"I came," said she to Lady Carse, "to entreat you to come among us, and
+rest in a spirit of surrender to God, on His clear showing that He
+chooses this to be your abiding place; and one reason for my coming was
+to tell you that the minister has brought his children, lest the sight
+of a child's face should move you too suddenly.  But I see that your
+thoughts are on other things; and that your spirit of surrender has yet
+to be prayed for.  Next Sabbath, we are to have worship once more,
+and--"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In the old chapel, if it can be enclosed by that time.  If not, we must
+wait another week: but I think it will be done.  It needs but a word,
+madam, and the minister will ask all our prayers for one under
+affliction--"
+
+"By no means.  I forbid you to speak of me, in one way or another, to
+the minister or his wife.  I insist on my wishes being observed in
+this."
+
+"Certainly, madam.  It is not for us to interfere with your plans."
+
+"Then go; go both of you: and do not come near me without my leave.  I
+want to be alone--I want to be at rest; that is--"
+
+"Ay--at rest," said Annie, half aloud.  She was thinking that there
+would be prayers from one heart at least in the chapel for peace to a
+troubled spirit.
+
+And she did not wait for the Sabbath to pray.  As, assisted by her son,
+she painfully ascended to the heights, she saw the birds fly in and out,
+and hover round on the face of the precipice, as at a bidding she did
+not hear, she could not but silently ask that God would send His dove to
+harbour in the hollow of this rock with one who sorely needed a
+visitation of His peace.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+FOLDING THE FLOCK.
+
+After the busiest week known in the island by anybody living there, the
+Sabbath-day came in, calm and mild.  The winters, however stormy, were
+never severely cold in this sea-beaten spot.  It was seldom that ice was
+seen; and it was never more than half an inch thick.  When, as on this
+Sunday, the wind was lulled and the sky was clear, the climate was as
+mild as in spring on the mainland.  As soon as the aspect of the sunrise
+showed the experienced that the day would be fair, busy hands moved into
+the old roofless chapel the pulpit and benches which the pastor had
+brought with him--the pulpit being a mere desk of unpainted wood, and
+the benches of the roughest sort.  For these the interior space of the
+old building had been cleared during the week; the floor was trodden
+hard and even; the walls were so far repaired as to make a complete
+enclosure; and some rough stones were placed as steps whereby to enter
+the burying-ground.  Some willing hands had done more--had cleared the
+burying-ground of stones, so that the graves, though sunk, and unmarked
+by any memorial but a rough and broken headstone here and there, could
+be distinguished by an eye interested in searching out the dead of a
+century ago.
+
+Another week, if sufficiently fair, was to see the walls finished and
+the roof on: and afterwards would be discharged the pious task of
+enclosing the burying-ground, and preparing room for those whom death
+would lay to rest in their own island.  While the minister remained
+here, no more of the dead would be carried over the sea to some place
+where there was a pastor to commit them to the grave.  Room was to be
+secured for the graves of the fifty people who were now living on the
+island, and for their children after them: and to all the inhabitants
+the island appeared a better place when this arrangement was made.
+
+In the weak sunlight of that Sunday morning appeared gay groups of
+people, all excited with the great thought that they were going to the
+kirk.  They were wonderfully cell clad.  How such clothes could come out
+of such dwellings would have been a marvel to any stranger.  Festival
+days were so rare that a holiday dress lasted for many years.  The
+women's cloth coats fitted at any age; and the caps with gay ribbons and
+bright cotton handkerchiefs did not wear out.  On this remarkable day
+all wore their best, and a pretty sight it was to see the whole fifty
+people drawing towards the chapel as the pastor, his wife, and two
+children, issued from their lowly abode to meet the flock for the first
+time.
+
+Presently the island might have appeared deserted.  Far round as the eye
+could reach not a human being was visible outside the chapel.  But
+something was heard which told that the place was not only inhabited,
+but Christianised.  The slow psalm rose into the still air.  Everyone
+who could speak could sing a psalm.  It was a practice lovingly kept up
+in every house.  Some voices were tremulous, and a few failed; but this
+was from emotion.  The strongest was Annie's, for hers was the most
+practised.  It was her wont to sing some of the many psalms she knew on
+summer days, when she sat at work on the platform of her house, and on
+winter nights, when Rollo was away.  Now that she was once more joining
+in social worship, her soul was joyful, and she sang strong and clear--
+perhaps the more so for the thought of the one absent person, pining in
+the cavern on the shore, or looking from afar, in desolation of heart,
+at the little throng who came privileged to worship.  Perhaps Annie's
+voice might unconsciously rise as if to reach the lonely one, and invite
+her to come to the house of God and seek rest.  However this might be,
+Annie's tones so animated some hearts and strengthened some voices as
+that the psalm might be, and was, heard a long way off.  It reached an
+unwilling ear, and drew forward reluctant steps.  The links of old
+association, are, however, the strongest of chains, and no charm is so
+magical as that of religious emotion.  Lady Carse was drawn nearer and
+nearer, in hope of hearing ano, her psalm, till the solemn tones of
+prayer reached her, and presently she was crouching under the wall
+outside, weeping like a sinner who dares not knock at the gate of
+heaven.
+
+Before the service was quite finished, angry voices were heard from
+without, almost overpowering that of the pastor as he gave the blessing.
+One of Macdonald's people, who had stepped out to collect the ponies
+for some of the women and children, had seen the lady, and, after one
+start back as from the ghost of a drowned woman, had laid hold of her
+gown, and said she must stay where she could be spoken with by Macdonald
+on his return from Skye.  She struggled to escape, and did break away--
+not down the hill, but into the chapel.
+
+The consternation was inexpressible.  The people, supposing her drowned,
+took her for a ghost, though there was no ghostly calm about her; but
+her eyes were swollen, her hair disordered, her lips quivering with
+violent emotion.  There was a solemnity about her, too; for extreme
+anguish is always solemn, in proportion as it approaches to despair.
+She rushed to the front of the pulpit, and held out her hands,
+exclaiming aloud to Mr Ruthven that she was the most persecuted and
+tormented of human beings; that she appealed to him against her
+persecutors; and if he did not see her righted, she warned him that he
+would be damned deeper than hell.  Mrs Ruthven shuddered, and left her
+seat to place herself by her husband.  And now she encountered the poor
+lady's gaze, and, moreover, had her own grasped as it had never been
+before.
+
+"Are these children yours?" she was asked.
+
+"Yes," faltered Mrs Ruthven.
+
+"Then you must help me to recover mine.  Had you ever,"--and here she
+turned to the pastor--"had you ever an enemy?"  Her voice turned hoarse
+as she uttered the word.
+
+"No--yes--Oh, yes!" said he.  "I have had enemies, as every man has."
+
+"Then, as you wish them abased and tormented, you must help me to abase
+and torment mine--my husband, and Lord Lovat--"
+
+"Lord Lovat!" repeated many wondering voices.
+
+"And Sir Alexander Macdonald; and his tenant of this place; and--"
+
+As Mr Ruthven looked round him, perplexed and amazed, one of
+Macdonald's people went up to him, and whispered into his ear that this
+lady had come from some place above or below, for she was drowned last
+week.  Mr Ruthven half smiled.
+
+"I will know," cried the lady, "what that fellow said.  I will hear what
+my enemies tell you against me.  My only hope is in you.  I am stolen
+from Edinburgh; they pretended to bury me there--Eh? what?" she cried,
+as another man whispered something into the pastor's other ear.  "Mad!
+There!  I heard it.  I heard him say I was mad.  Did he not tell you I
+was mad?"
+
+"He did; and one cannot--really I cannot--"
+
+As he looked round again in his perplexity, the widow rose from her
+seat, and said, "I know this lady; my son and I know her better than
+anyone else in the island does; and we should say that she is not mad."
+
+"_Not_ mad!"  Mr Ruthven said, with a mingling of surprise in his tone
+which did not escape the jealous ear of Lady Carse.
+
+"Not mad, sir; but grievously oppressed.  If you could quietly hear the
+story, sir, at a fitting time--"
+
+"Ay, ay; that will be best," declared Mr Ruthven.
+
+"Let me go home with you," said Lady Carse.  "I will go home with you;
+and--"
+
+Mrs Ruthven exchanged a glance with her husband, and then said, in an
+embarrassed way, while giving a hand to each of the two children who
+were clinging to her, that their house was very small, extremely small
+indeed, with too little room for the children, and none whatever left
+over.
+
+"It is my house," exclaimed Lady Carse, impatiently.  "It was built with
+a view to you; but it was done under my orders, and I have a claim upon
+it.  And what ails the children?" she cried, in a tone which made the
+younger cry aloud.  "What are they afraid of?"
+
+"I don't know, I am sure," said their mother, helping them, however, to
+hide their faces in her gown.  "But--"
+
+Again Annie rose and said, "There could be no difficulty about a place
+for the lady if she would be pleased to do as she did before--live in
+her cottage.  The two dwellings might almost be called one, and if the
+lady would go home with her--"
+
+Gratitude was showered on Annie from all the parties.  As the lady moved
+slowly towards the widow's house, holding Annie's arm, and weeping as
+she went, and followed by the Ruthvens, the eyes of all the Macdonalds
+gazed after her, in a sort of doubt whether she were a witch, or a
+ghost, or really and truly a woman.
+
+As soon as Macdonald's sloop could be discerned on its approach the next
+day, Mr Ruthven went down, and paced the shore while daylight lasted,
+though assured that the vessel would not come up till night.  As soon as
+a signal could be made in the morning for the yawl, he passed to the
+sloop, where he had a conference with Macdonald, the consequence of
+which was, that as soon as he was set ashore the sloop again stood out
+to sea.
+
+Mrs Ruthven and Lady Carse saw this, as they stood hand in hand at the
+door of the new dwelling.  They kissed each other at the sight.  They
+had already kissed each other very often, for they called themselves
+dear and intimate friends who had now one great common object in life--
+to avenge Lady Carse's wrongs.
+
+"Well, what news?" they both cried, as Mr Ruthven came towards them,
+panting from the haste with which he had ascended.
+
+"The tenant is gone back," said he, "he has returned to Sir Alexander to
+contradict his last news--of your being drowned.  By-the-way, I promised
+to contradict it, too--to the man who is watching for the body every
+tide."
+
+"Oh, he must have heard the facts from some of the people at the
+chapel."
+
+"If he had he would not believe them, Macdonald says, on any other
+authority than his.  Nor will he leave his post till he finds the body,
+or--"
+
+"Or sees me," cried Lady Carse, laughing.  "Come, let us go and call to
+him, and tell him he may leave off poking among the weeds.  Come; I will
+show you the way."
+
+And she ran on with the spirits and pace of a girl.  Mr and Mrs
+Ruthven looked at each other with smiles, and Mrs Ruthven exclaimed,
+"What a charming creature this was, and how shocking it was to think of
+her cruel fate."  Mr Ruthven shook his head and declared that he
+regarded the conduct of her persecutors with grave moral disapprobation.
+Meantime Lady Carse looked back, beckoned to them with her hand, and
+stamped with her foot, because they were stopping to talk.
+
+"What a simple creature she is!  So childlike!" exclaimed Mrs Ruthven.
+
+"We must quicken our pace, my dear," replied her husband.  "It would not
+be right to detain the lady when she wishes to proceed."
+
+But now Lady Carse was beckoning to somebody else--to little Kate
+Ruthven, who, with her brother Adam, was peeping from the door of their
+new home.
+
+"Come, Katie," said her mother, "don't you see that Lady Carse calls
+you?  Bring Adam, and go with us."
+
+Kate turned very red, but did not come.  Lady Carse came laughing back
+to fetch them; but they bolted into the house, and, when still pursued,
+scrambled under a bed.  When caught, they screamed.
+
+"Well, to be sure," cried their mother; "what behaviour when a lady asks
+you to go with her!  I declare I am quite ashamed."
+
+Papa now came up, and said--
+
+"My dears, I do not approve such behaviour as this."
+
+Kate began to sob, and Adam followed her example.
+
+"There, now, do not cry," said papa; "I cannot permit you to cry.  You
+may go with Lady Carse.  Lady Carse is so kind as to wish you to go with
+her.  You will like to go with the lady.  Why do you not reply, my
+dears.  You must reply when spoken to.  You will like to go with the
+lady--eh?"
+
+"No," murmured Kate.
+
+"No," whispered Adam.
+
+"I am astonished," papa declared.  "I never saw them conduct themselves
+in this manner before.  Did you, my dear?"
+
+"No; but it is an accident, I dare say.  Something has put them out."
+
+"I must ascertain the cause, however," papa declared.  "Such an incident
+must not pass uncorrected.  Listen to me, my dears, and answer me when I
+ask you a question.  Look at this lady."
+
+Kate slowly lifted her eyes, and Adam then did the same.  They seemed on
+the verge of another scream; and this was not extraordinary; for Lady
+Carse was not laughing now, but very far from it.  There was something
+in her face that made the children catch at mamma's gown.
+
+"Listen to me, my dears," papa went on; "and reply when I ask you a
+question.  This good lady is going to live with us--"
+
+A deeper plunge into the folds of mamma's gown.
+
+"And from this time forwards you must love this lady.  You love this
+lady now, my dears, don't you?"
+
+After as long a pause as they dared make, the children said, "No."
+
+"Well, I never heard--!" exclaimed mamma.
+
+"What can possess them?" inquired papa.  "My dears, why do you not love
+the lady, eh,--Kate?"
+
+"I don't know," said Kate.
+
+"You don't know?--That is foolish.  Adam, why do you not love this lady
+who is to live with us?  Do not tell me that you don't know, for that is
+foolish.  Why do you not love the lady?"
+
+"Because I can't."
+
+"Why, that is worse still.  How perverse," he said, looking at the
+ladies, "how perverse is the human heart.  My dear, you can, and you
+must do what is right.  You may love me and your mamma first, and next
+you must love this lady.  Say you will try."
+
+"I'll try," said Kate.
+
+Adam whimpered a little longer; but then he also said, "I'll try."
+
+"That is right.  That is the least you can say after your extraordinary
+behaviour.  Now you may go with the lady, as she is so kind as to wish
+it."
+
+Lady Carse moved off in silence; and the children, tightly grasping each
+other's hands, followed as if going to a funeral.
+
+"Jump, my dears," said papa, when they had reached the down.  "Jump
+about: you may be merry now."
+
+Both looked as if they were immediately going to cry.  "What now, Adam?"
+stooping down that the child might speak confidentially to him, but
+saying to Lady Carse as he did so, that it was necessary sometimes to
+condescend to the weakness of children.  "Adam, tell me why you are not
+merry, when I assure you you may."
+
+"I can't," whispered Adam.
+
+"You can't!  What a sudden fit of humility this boy has got, that he
+can't do anything to-day.  Unless, however, it be true, well-grounded
+humility, I fear--"
+
+Mamma now tried what she could do.  She saw, by Lady Carse's way of
+walking on by herself, that she was displeased; and, under the
+inspiration of this grief, Mrs Ruthven so strove to make her children
+agreeable by causing them to forget everything disagreeable, that they
+were soon like themselves again.  Mamma permitted them to look for hens'
+eggs among the whins, because they had heard that when she was a little
+girl she used to look for them among bushes in a field.  There was no
+occasion to tell them at such a critical moment for their spirits that
+it was mid-winter, or that whins would be found rather prickly by
+poultry, or that there were no hens in the island but Mrs Macdonald's
+well sheltered pets.  They were told that the first egg they found was
+to be presented to Lady Carse; and they themselves might divide the
+next.
+
+Their mother's hope, that if they did not find hens' eggs, they might
+light upon something else, was not disappointed.  Perhaps she took care
+that it should not.  Adam found a barley-cake on the sheltered side of a
+bush; and it was not long before Kate found one just as good.  They were
+desired to do with these what they would have done with the eggs--
+present one to Lady Carse and divide the other.  As they were very
+hungry, they hastened to fulfil the condition of beginning to eat.
+Again grasping one another's hands, they walked with desperate courage
+up to Lady Carse, and held out a cake, without yet daring, however, to
+look up.
+
+"Well, what is that?" she asked sharply.
+
+"A barley-cake."
+
+"Who bade you bring it to me?"
+
+"Mamma."
+
+"You would not have brought it if mamma had not bid you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Allow me to suggest," observed papa, "that they would not have
+ventured.  It would be a liberty unbecoming their years to--"
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" cried Lady Carse; "I hate these put-up manners.  No,
+miss--no, young master--I will not take your cake.  I take gifts only
+from those I love; and if you don't love me, I don't love you--and so
+there is a Rowland for your Oliver."
+
+The children did not know anything about Rowlands and Olivers; but they
+saw that the lady was very angry--so angry that they took to their
+heels, scampered away over the downs, and never stopped till they
+reached home, and had hidden themselves under the bed.
+
+They were not followed.  Punishment for their act of absconding was
+deferred till Lady Carse's errand should be finished.  When once down
+among the rocks, Lady Carse was eager to show her dear friends all the
+secrets of her late hiding.  As soon as Macdonald's watchman was
+convinced by the lady that she was not drowned, and by the minister that
+he might go home--as soon as he was fairly out of sight, the wonders of
+the caves were revealed to the pastor and his wife.  The party were so
+interested in the anecdotes belonging to Lady Carse's season of retreat,
+that they did not observe, sheltered as they were in eastern caves, that
+a storm was coming up from the west--one of the tempests which
+frequently rise from that quarter in the winter season, and break over
+the Western Islands.
+
+The children were aware of it before their parents.  When they found
+they were not followed, they soon grew tired of whispering under the
+bed, and came cautiously forth.
+
+It was very dark, strangely dark, till a glare of lightning came, which
+was worse than the darkness.  But the thunder was worse: it growled
+fearfully, so as to make them hold their breath.  The next clap made
+them cry.  After that cry came help.
+
+The widow heard the wail from next door, and called to the children from
+her door; and glad enough were they to take refuge with a grown-up
+person who smiled and spoke cheerfully, in spite of the thunder.
+
+"Are you not afraid of the thunder?" asked Kate, nestling so close to
+the widow that she was advised to take care lest the sharp bone knitting
+needles went into her eyes.  "But are not you afraid of the thunder?"
+
+"Oh, no!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I am not afraid of anything."
+
+"What, not of anything at all?"
+
+"Not of anything at all.  And there are many things much more harmful
+than thunder."
+
+"What things?"
+
+"The wind is, perhaps, the most terrible of all."
+
+"How loud it is now!" said Adam, shivering as the rushing storm drowned
+his voice.  When the gust had passed, the widow said, "It was not the
+wind that made all that noise, it was a dash of hail.  Ah! if I do fear
+anything, it is large hail; not because it will hurt me, but because it
+may break my window, and let in the wind to blow out my lamp."
+
+"But why do not things hurt you?  If the lightning was to kill you--"
+
+"That would not hurt me," said the widow, smiling.  "I do not call that
+being hurt, more than dying in any other way that God pleases."
+
+"But if it did not kill you quite, but hurt you--hurt you very much
+indeed--burned you, or made you blind?"
+
+"Then I should know that it was no hurt, but in some way a blessing,
+because the lightning comes from God.  I always like to see it,
+because--There!" she said, as a vivid flash illumined the place.  "Did
+you ever see anything so bright as that?  How should we ever fancy the
+brightness of God's throne, if He did not send us a single ray, now and
+then, in this manner--one single ray, which is as much as we can bear?
+I dare say you have heard it read in church how all things are God's
+messengers, without any word being said about their hurting us,--`fire
+and hail;' here they are!"
+
+When that gust was past, she went on, "`Snow and vapour, stormy winds
+fulfilling His word.'  Here we are in the midst of the fire and the hail
+and the stormy winds.  If we looked out, perhaps we might see the `snow
+and vapour.'"
+
+The children did not seem to wish it.
+
+"Then again," the widow went on, "we are told that `He causeth His wind
+to blow, and the waters flow.'  I am sure I can show you that.  I am
+sure the sea must have risen much already, before such a wind as this.
+Come!" she continued, wrapping her plaid round herself and the children;
+"keep close to me and you will not be cold.  The cold has not come yet:
+and if we stand under the sheltered side of the house we shall not be
+blown.  Hark! there is the roar of the waves when the thunder stops.
+Now we shall see how `He causeth His wind to blow and the waters flow.'"
+
+She looked so cheerful and promised them such a sight, that they did not
+like to beg to stay within.  Though the hail came pelting in gusts,
+there was no rain at present to wet them.  The wind almost strangled
+them at the first moment; but they were under the eastern gable of the
+cottage in an instant, out of the force of the blast.
+
+There they sat down, all huddled together; and there the children saw
+more than they had been promised.
+
+The tempest had not yet reached Skye; and they could see, in the
+intervals of rolling clouds, mountain peaks glittering with snow.
+
+"There is the snow!" said the widow.  "And see the vapours!--the
+tumbling, rolling vapours that we call steam-clouds!  Look how the
+lightning flash darts out of them! and how the sea seems swelling and
+boiling up to meet the vapours!  A little way from the land, the wind
+catches the spray and carries it up and away.  If the wind was now from
+the east, as it will be in spring, that spray would wash over us, and
+drench us to the skin in a minute."
+
+"What, up here?"
+
+"Oh, yes, and higher still.  There!  Adam felt some then."  And well he
+might.  The sea was now wrought into such tumult that its waves rolled
+in upon the rocks with tremendous force, causing the caverns to resound
+with the thundering shock, and the very summit of the precipices to
+vibrate.  Every projection sent up columns of spray, the sprinklings of
+which reached the heights, bedewing the window of the cottage, and
+sending in the party under the gable.
+
+"There now," said the widow, when she had fed her fire, and sat down,
+"we have seen a fine sight to-day; and there will be more to-morrow."
+
+"Shall we see it to-morrow?"
+
+"Oh, yes; if you like to come to me to-morrow, I think I can promise to
+show you the shore all black with weed thrown up by the storm, and,
+perhaps we may get some wood.  These storms often cast up wood,
+sometimes even thick logs.  We must not touch the logs; they belong to
+Sir Alexander Macdonald, but we may take the smaller pieces, those of us
+who can get down before other people have taken them away.  If the
+minister is not aware of this, we must tell him, and the weeds will be
+good to manure his kail-bed, if he can find nothing better."
+
+"Will you go to-morrow and pick up some wood?"
+
+"If I can get down alone; but I cannot climb up and down as I used to
+do.  I will show you something prettier than wood or weed that I picked
+up, after one of these storms, when I was younger."  And she took out of
+her chest three shells, one very large and handsome, which had been cast
+upon the western shore some years before.  Adam thought this so
+beautiful that he begged to have it; but the widow could not give it
+away.  She told him she must keep it for a particular reason; but he
+could see it whenever lie liked to come to her for the purpose.
+
+But Adam thought he might pick up such an one himself, if he could go
+to-morrow to the western shore; and his friend could not say that this
+was impossible.  Oh! then, would she not go and show him the way?  Would
+she not try if he and Kate helped her with all their strength?  They
+were very strong.  If she would stand up they would show her how strong
+they were.  She stood up, and they tried to carry her.  Their faces were
+exceedingly red, and they were very near lifting up their friend, and
+she was laughing and wondering whether they could carry her down the
+rocks in that way, when the door burst open and Lady Carse appeared.
+
+"The children must come home," said she to Annie; "they have no business
+here."
+
+"I called them in, my lady, when the thunder frightened them."
+
+"They should not have come.  They should have told you that they were
+under their parents' displeasure."
+
+All now looked grave enough.  The children stole away home, skilfully
+avoiding taking hold of the lady's offered hands.  She pulled the door
+after her in no gentle manner.  She did not much care whether the
+children were fond of her; but it was somehow disagreeable to her that
+they should be happy with her next-door neighbour.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+THE STEWARD ON HIS ROUNDS.
+
+The return of Macdonald's boat was a great event; and especially to the
+inhabitants of the hill-side cottages.  Macdonald was accompanied by Sir
+Alexander's steward, who brought some furniture and finishings for the
+chapel and the minister's dwelling, and, for the first time, a parcel
+for Lady Carse.
+
+When the package was brought up from the shore, Lady Carse rushed in to
+tell Annie the news, and to bid her come and see the unpacking.
+
+The poor lady was sure that by means of Mr Johny, or through some other
+channel, tidings of her existence and banishment had reached her friends
+at Edinburgh, and that this parcel contained some warrant of release.
+With raised colour and sparkling eyes, she talked of her departure the
+next morning; of how it would be best to travel, when she once set foot
+on the main; of how soon she could reach Edinburgh, and whether it would
+not be better to go first to London, to lay her own case and the treason
+of her enemies before the Prime Minister.  Mrs Ruthven agreed to all
+she said.  Mr Ruthven walked to and fro before the door, stopping at
+every turn to offer his congratulations.  Annie looked anxious and
+eager.
+
+When the package was deposited before the door, and the glee of the
+party was at the highest, the children capered and shouted.  Annie
+quietly checked this, and kept them by her side; whereupon Lady Carse
+smiled at Mrs Ruthven, and said she pitied people who were grave when
+good fortune befell their friends, and who could not bear even to let
+children sympathise in it.
+
+"You mistake me, madam," said Annie.  "If this package was from
+Edinburgh, I should feel more like dancing myself than stopping the
+children's dancing; but I sadly fear this comes from no further off than
+Skye.  I know the Skye packages."
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Lady Carse.  "I know nobody in Skye.  I hate croakers.
+Some people take a pleasure in spoiling other people's pleasure."
+
+"That is a temper that I do not approve of," observed Mr Ruthven.
+"This life is to some such a vale of tears that I think it is ungrateful
+not to pluck the few flowers of innocent pleasure which grow by the
+wayside.  I should think that a Christian temper would be ready to
+assist the enjoyment.  Here, my good men--"
+
+"What stupid fellows those men are!" cried Lady Carse.  "They are
+actually going away without helping us to uncord the package."
+
+She called after them; but in answer to her scolding, the men only
+stared; which made Lady Carse tell them they were idiots.  A word or two
+from Annie in Gaelic brought them back directly, and obtained from them
+what aid was needed.
+
+"Shall I enquire, madam," asked Annie, "anything that you may wish to
+know?"
+
+"No," replied Lady Carse, sharply.  "_You_ speak Gaelic, I think," she
+said to Mr Ruthven.  "Will you learn from the men all you can about
+this package, and tell me every word they say?"
+
+Mr Ruthven bowed, cleared his throat, and began to examine the men.
+Lady Carse meantime said to Mrs Ruthven, in Annie's hearing, that she
+must wait, and restrain her patience a little while.  There was no
+saying what might be in the package, and they must be by themselves when
+they opened it.
+
+Mrs Ruthven said she would send the children away; and Annie offered to
+take them home with her.
+
+"The children!" exclaimed Lady Carse.  "Oh, bless them! what harm can
+they do?  Let _them_ stay by all means.  I hope there will be nobody to
+spoil _their_ pleasure."
+
+Annie curtseyed, and withdrew to her own house.  As she shut the door
+and sank into a chair, she thought how bad her rheumatic pains were.
+Her heart was swelling a little too; but it soon subsided as she said to
+herself, "A vale of tears, indeed, is this life; or rather a waste and
+howling wilderness, to that poor lady with her restless mind.  God knows
+I would not reckon hardly with her, or anyone so far from peace of mind.
+Nor can I wonder, when I pity her so much, that others should also, and
+forget other things when she is before their eyes.  I did think, when I
+heard the minister was coming--But I had no right to expect anything
+beyond the blessing of the sabbath, and of burial, and the ordinances.
+And oh, there is the comfort of the sabbath!  The Word is preached, and
+there is prayer and praise now on sabbath-days for a year to come; or,
+perhaps, as many years as I shall live.  If this was a place for peace
+of mind before, what can trouble us now?"  The closing psalm of last
+sabbath had never been out of her ears and her heart since.  She now
+began to sing it, softly at first, but louder as her soul warmed to it.
+She was soon stopped by a louder sound; a shrill cry from the next
+house, and presently Mrs Ruthven rushed in to know what she was to do.
+Lady Carse was hysterical.  The package had contained no news from her
+friends, but had brought cruel disappointment.  It contained some
+clothing, a stone of sugar, a pound of tea, six pecks of wheat, and an
+anker of spirits; and there was a slip of paper to say that the same
+quantity of these stores would be brought yearly by the steward when he
+came to collect the heather rent.  At this sentence of an abode of years
+in this place, Lady Carse had given way to despair; had vowed she would
+choke the steward in his sacks of feathers, that she might be tried for
+murder on the main; and then she had attempted to scatter the wheat, and
+to empty out the spirits, but that Mr Ruthven had held her hand, and
+told her that the anker of spirits was, in fact, her purse--her means of
+purchasing from Macdonald and others her daily meat and such service as
+she needed.  But now she was in hysterics, and they did not know what to
+do next.  Would Mrs Fleming come?
+
+Annie thought the lady would rather not see her; told Mrs Ruthven how
+to treat the patient, and begged that the children might be sent to her,
+if they were in the way.
+
+The children were with Annie all the rest of the day; for their father
+and mother were exceedingly busy writing letters, to go by the steward.
+
+In the evening the steward paid them a visit, in his round back to the
+boat.  He was very civil, brought with him a girl, the handiest and
+comeliest he said, that he could engage among Macdonald's people, to
+wait upon Lady Carse; gave order for the immediate erection of a sort of
+outhouse for her stores, and desired her to say if there was anything
+else she was pressingly in want of.  She would not say a word to him of
+one kind or another, but turned him over to the minister.  But the
+minister could not carry his own points.  He could not induce the
+steward to convey a single letter of the several written that day.  The
+steward was sorry: had hoped it was understood that no letter was to
+leave the island,--no written paper of any kind,--while Lady Carse
+resided there.  He would not take these to Sir Alexander: he would not
+ask him to yield this point even to the minister.  Sir Alexander's
+orders were positive; and it was clear that in these parts that settled
+the question.
+
+While the argument was going on, Lady Carse rose from her seat, and
+passed behind the steward, to leave the room.  She caught up the letters
+unperceived, and unperceived slipped them into the steward's pocket: so
+that while he bowed himself out, declining to touch the letters, he was
+actually carrying them with him.
+
+Helsa, Lady Carse's new maid, witnessed this prank; and, not daring to
+laugh at the moment, made up for this by telling the story to her
+acquaintance, the widow, when sent for the children at night.
+
+"That will never do," Annie declared.  "Harm may come of it, but no
+good."
+
+And this set her thinking.
+
+The consequence of her meditation was that she roused the family from
+their beds when even Lady Carse had been an hour asleep.  When Mr
+Ruthven found that there was neither fire nor illness in the case, he
+declared to Annie his disapprobation of untimely hours; and said that if
+those who had a lamp to keep burning became in time forgetful of the
+difference between night and day, they should remember that it was not
+so with others; and that the afflicted especially, who had griefs and
+agitations during the day, should be permitted to enjoy undisturbed such
+rest as might be mercifully sent them.
+
+Annie listened respectfully to all this, and acknowledged the truth of
+it.  It was, however, a hope that Lady Carse might possibly sleep
+hereafter under the same roof with her children, if this night were not
+lost, which made her take the liberty of rousing the minister at such an
+hour.
+
+She was confident that the steward would either bring back the letters,
+as soon as he put his hand upon them, or destroy them; for such a thing
+was never heard of as an order of Sir Alexander's being disobeyed.  She
+had thought of a way of sending a note, if the minister could write on a
+small piece of paper what would alarm the lady's friends.  She had now
+and then, at long intervals, a supply from a relation from Dumfries, of
+a particular kind of thread which she used to knit into little socks and
+mittens for sale.  This knitting was now too fine for her eyes: but the
+steward did not know this; and he would no doubt take her order, as he
+had done before.  She believed he would come up to return the letters
+quite early in the morning.  If she had a ball of thread ready, he would
+take it as a pattern: and this ball might contain a little note;--a very
+small one indeed, if the minister would write it.
+
+"How would the receiver know there was a note?" asked Mr Ruthven.
+
+"It might be years before the ball was used up," Mrs Ruthven observed:
+"or it might come back as it went."
+
+"I thought," said Annie, "that I would give the order in this way.  I
+would say that I want four pieces of the thread, all exactly the same
+length as the one that goes.  The steward will set that down in his
+book; and he always does what we ask him very carefully.  Then my
+relation will unwind the ball to see what the length is, and come upon
+the note; and then--"
+
+"I see.  I see it all," declared Mr Ruthven.  "Do not you, my dear?"
+
+"Oh yes; I see.  It will be delightful, will it not, Lady Carse?"
+
+"That is as it may be," said Lady Carse.  "It is a plan which may work
+two ways."
+
+"I do not see how it can work to any mischief," Annie quietly declared.
+"I will leave you to consider it.  If you think well of the plan, I
+shall be found ready with my thread.  If the steward returns, it will be
+very early, that he may not lose the tide."
+
+As might be expected, Annie's offer was accepted; for even Lady Carse's
+prejudiced mind could point out no risk, while the success might be
+everything.  There was something that touched her feelings in the
+patient care with which the widow sat, in the lamplight, winding the
+thread over and over the small slip of paper, so as to leave no speck
+visible, and to make a tight and secure ball.
+
+The slip of paper contained a request that the reader would let Mr
+Hope, advocate, Edinburgh, know that Lady Carse was not dead, though
+pretended to be buried, but stolen away from Edinburgh, and now confined
+to the after-mentioned island of the Hebrides.  Then followed Lady
+Carse's signature and that of the minister, with the date.
+
+"It will do!  It will do!" exclaimed Mrs Ruthven.  "My dear, dear Lady
+Carse--"
+
+But Lady Carse turned away, and paced the room, "I don't wonder, I am
+sure," declared Mrs Ruthven, "I don't wonder that you walk up and down.
+To think what may hang on this night--Now, take my arm,--let me support
+you."
+
+And she put her arm around the waist of her dear friend.  But Lady Carse
+shook her off, turned weeping to Annie, and sobbed out, "If you save
+me--If this is all sincere in you, and--"
+
+"Sincere!" exclaimed Annie, in such surprise that she almost dropped the
+ball.
+
+"O yes, yes; it is all right, and you are an angel to me.  I--"
+
+"What an amiable creature she is!" said Mrs Ruthven to her husband,
+gazing on Lady Carse.  "What noble impulses she has!"
+
+"Very fine impulses," declared the minister.  "It is very affecting.  I
+find myself much moved."  And he began pacing up and down.
+
+"Sincere!"  Annie repeated to herself in the same surprise.
+
+"Oh, dear!" observed Mrs Ruthven, in a whisper, which, however, the
+widow heard: "how long it takes for some people to know some other
+people.  There is Mrs Fleming, now, all perplexed about the dear
+creature.  Why, she knew her; I mean, she had her with her before we
+ever saw her, and now we know her--Oh! how well, how thoroughly we know
+her--we know her to the bottom of her heart."
+
+"A most transparent being, indeed!" declared Mr Ruthven.  "As guileless
+as a child."
+
+"Call me a child; you may," sobbed Lady Carse.  "None but children and
+such as I quarrel with their best friends.  She has been to me--"
+
+"You reproach yourself too severely, my dear lady," declared the
+minister.  "There are seasons of inequality in us all; not that I intend
+to justify--"
+
+His wife did not wait for the end, but said, "Quarrel, my dear soul?
+Quarrel with your best friends?  You do such a thing!  Let us see
+whether you ever quarrel with us; and we _are_ friends, are we not; you
+and we?  Let us see whether you ever quarrel with us!  Ah!"
+
+Annie had finished her work; and she was gone before the long kiss of
+the new friends was over.
+
+"It is only two days more to the sabbath," thought she.  Then she
+smiled, and said, "Anyone might call me a child, counting the days as if
+I could not wait for my treat.  But, really, I did not know what the
+comfort of the sabbath would be.  The chapel is all weather-tight now;
+and thank God for sending us a minister!"
+
+As all expected, up came the steward; very early and very angry.  Nobody
+from the minister's house cared to encounter him.  He threw the letters
+down upon the threshold of the door, and shouted out that his bringing
+them back was more than the writer deserved.  If he had read them, and
+made mischief of their contents, nobody could, under the circumstances,
+have blamed him.  Here they were, however, as a lesson to the family not
+to lose their time, and waste their precious ink and paper in writing
+letters that would never leave the island.
+
+As he was turning to go away, the widow opened her door, and asked if he
+would excuse her for troubling him with one little commission which she
+had not thought of the day before, and she produced the ball of thread.
+
+Lady Carse was watching through a chink in a shutter.  She saw the
+steward's countenance relax, and heard his voice soften as he spoke to
+the widow.  She perceived that Annie had influence with him, if she
+would use it faithfully and zealously.  Next she observed the care with
+which he wrote in his note book Annie's directions about her commission,
+and how he deposited the precious ball in his securest pocket.  She felt
+that this chance of escape, though somewhat precarious, was the best
+that had yet occurred.
+
+Before the steward was out of sight she opened the shutter, though it
+creaked perilously, and kissed her hand to the surprised Annie, who was
+watching her agent down the hill.  Annie smiled, but secured caution by
+immediately going in.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+TRUE SOLITUDE.
+
+The season advanced, bringing the due tokens of the approach of summer.
+The gales came from the east instead of the west, and then subsided into
+mild airs.  The mists which had brooded over sea and land melted away,
+and, as the days lengthened, permitted the purple heights of the rocky
+Saint Kilda to be seen clear and sharp, as the sun went down behind
+them.  The weed which had blackened the shore of the island at the end
+of winter was now gone from the silver sands.  Some of it was buried in
+the minister's garden as manure.  The minister began to have hopes of
+his garden.  He had done his best to keep off the salt spray by building
+the wall ten feet high; and it was thought that just under the wall a
+few cabbages might grow; and in one corner there was an experiment going
+forward to raise onions.  Kate and Adam told the widow, from day to day,
+the hopes and fears of the household about this garden; and it was then
+that she knew that her son Rollo was now gardener, as he had been head
+builder of the wall.
+
+From Rollo himself she heard less and less of his proceedings and
+interests.  Anxious as she was, she abstained from questioning or
+reproving him on the few occasions when he spent an hour with her.  She
+was aware of his high opinion of himself, and of the point he made of
+managing his own affairs; and she knew that there were those next door
+who would certainly engross him if anything passed in his mother's house
+to make him reluctant to stay there.  She therefore mustered all her
+cheerfulness when he appeared on the threshold, gave him her confidence,
+made him as comfortable as she could, and never asked him whence he had
+come, or how long he would stay.  She had a strong persuasion that Rollo
+would discover in time who was his best friend, and was supremely
+anxious that when that time came there should be nothing to get over in
+his return to her--no remembrance of painful scenes--no sting of
+reproach--no shame but such as he must endure from his own heart.
+Strong as was her confidence in the final issue, the time did seem long
+to her yearning spirit, lonely as she was.  Many a night she listened to
+the melancholy song of the throstle from the hill-side, and watched the
+mild twilight without thinking of sleep, till was silent; and was still
+awake when the lark began its merry greeting to the dawn which was
+streaking the east.  Many a day she sat in the sun watching the pathways
+by which she hoped her son might come to her; and then perhaps she would
+hear his laugh from behind the high garden wall, and discover that he
+had been close at hand all day without having a word to say to her.  How
+many true and impressive things passed through her mind that she thought
+she would say to him!  But they all remained unsaid.  When the
+opportunity came she saw it to be her duty to serve him by waiting and
+loving, feeling and trusting that rebuke from God was the only shock
+which would effectually reach this case, and reserving herself as the
+consoler of the sinner when that hour should arrive.
+
+As for the other parties, they were far too busy--far too much devoted
+to each other to have any time to spare for her, or any thought, except
+when the children were wished out of the way, or when the much more
+ardent desire was indulged that her house could be had for the residence
+of Lady Carse and her maid.  In spite of all the assurances given to
+Lady Carse that her presence and friendship were an unmixed blessing,
+the fact remained that the household were sadly crowded in the new
+dwelling.  There was talk, at times, of getting more rooms built: but
+then there entered in a vague hope that the widow's house might be
+obtained, which would be everything pleasant and convenient.  At those
+times she was thought of, but more and more as an obstruction--almost an
+intruder.  Now and then, when she startled them by some little act of
+kindness, they remarked that she was a good creature, they believed,
+though they considered that there was usually something dangerous about
+people so very reserved and unsociable.
+
+One day this reserved and unsociable person volunteered a visit to her
+astonished neighbours.  She walked in, in the afternoon, looking rather
+paler than usual, and somewhat exhausted.  Mr Ruthven was outside the
+door, smoking his pipe after dinner.  He came in with the widow, and
+placed a stool for her.  His wife was not in the room.  Lady Carse was
+lying on the settle, flushed and apparently drowsy.  She opened her eyes
+as Annie and the minister entered, and then half-closed them again,
+without stirring.
+
+"Yes, I have been walking," said the widow, in answer to Mr Ruthven's
+observation.  "But it is not that that has tired me.  I have been only
+as far as Macdonald's.  But, sir, I must go further to-night, unless I
+can interest you to do what must be done without loss of time."
+
+The minister raised his eyebrows, and looked inquiringly.  "I have
+learned, sir, that from this house invitations have been sent to
+smugglers to begin a trade with these islands, and that it is about to
+begin; and that this has been done by corrupting my son.  I see well
+enough the object of this.  I see that Lady Carse hopes to escape to the
+main by a smuggling vessel coming to this coast.  I can enter into this.
+I do not wonder at any effort the poor lady makes--"
+
+"You insufferable woman!" cried Lady Carse, starting up from her
+half-sleep with a glowing face and a clenched hand.  "Do you dare to
+pity me?"
+
+"I do, madam: and I ask of you in return--I implore you to pity me.
+This is the bitterest day to me since that which made my boy fatherless.
+I have this day discovered that my fatherless boy has been corrupted by
+those who--"
+
+"I do not approve of innuendo," declared Mr Ruthven.  "I recommend you
+to name names."
+
+"Certainly, sir.  My son has been made a smuggler by the persuasion and
+management of Lady Carse; and, as I have reason to believe, sir, with
+your knowledge."
+
+"Here is treachery!" cried Lady Carse.  "We must make our part good.  I
+will--I know how--"
+
+She was hastening out, when the minister stopped her at the door.  She
+made some resistance, and Annie heard her say something about a pistol
+on the top of the bed, and the wonder if her father's daughter did not
+know how to use it.
+
+Even in the midst of her own grief, Annie could not but remark to
+herself how the lady's passions seemed to grow more violent, instead of
+calming down.
+
+"You had better go, Mrs Fleming," said Mr Ruthven.  "Make no
+disturbance here, but go, and I will come in and speak to you."
+
+"How soon?"  Annie anxiously enquired.
+
+"As soon as possible--immediately.  Go now, for Lady Carse is very
+angry."
+
+"I will, sir.  But I owe it to you to tell you that the adventure is put
+an end to.  I have been to Macdonald's and told him, speaking as Rollo's
+mother, of the danger my son was in; and Macdonald will take care that
+no smuggling vessel reaches this coast to-night or in future."
+
+"Go instantly!" exclaimed Mr Ruthven, and, seeing Lady Carse's
+countenance, Annie was glad to hasten out of her reach.
+
+The widow sat down on the threshold of her cottage awaiting the
+minister.  Her heart throbbed.  A blessing might be in store at the end
+of this weary day.  Good might come out of evil.  She might now have an
+opportunity of appealing to her minister--of opening her heart to him
+about the cares which she needed to share with him, and which should
+have been his cares as pastor.  She trusted she should be enabled to
+speak freely and calmly.
+
+She prayed that she might; but her body was exhausted, so that she could
+not overcome to her satisfaction the agitation of her mind.  It did not
+mend the matter that she was kept waiting very long; and when Mr
+Ruthven came out at his own door, it was with some difficulty that Annie
+rose to make respectful way for him.
+
+"Be seated," said Mr Ruthven, in a tone of severity; "I have much to
+say to you."
+
+Both seated themselves.  Mr Ruthven cleared his throat, and said--
+
+"It is the most painful part of a pastor's duty to administer reproof,
+and more especially to members of his flock whose years should have
+brought them wisdom and self-control."
+
+Annie clasped her hands on her knees, and looked meekly in his face.
+
+"I should have hoped," Mr Ruthven went on, "that a Christian woman of
+your standing, and one who is blest, as you yourself have been known to
+acknowledge, with a life of peace, would have had compassion on a most
+suffering sister, and have rather striven to alleviate her sorrows, and
+to soften her occasional self-reproach for what she amiably calls her
+infirmities of sensibility, than have wounded and upbraided her, and
+treacherously cut off her frail chance of release from a most unjust
+captivity."
+
+"I!--I wound and upbraid Lady Carse!"
+
+"Now, do not compel me to remind you of what you ought to know full
+well--the deceitfulness of the human heart.  Listen to me."
+
+Again Annie looked gently in his face.
+
+"I left that poor lady, already overwhelmed with misfortune, prostrated
+anew by your attack of this afternoon.  I left her dissolved in tears--
+shaken by agitation; and I resolved that my first act of duty should be
+to remonstrate privately--observe, I say privately--against the
+heartlessness which could pour in drops of bitterness to make the
+already brimming cup overflow.  Now, what have you to say?"
+
+"I should wish to know, sir, what part of my conduct it is that is
+wrong.  If I knew this, I am sure--"
+
+"If you knew!  My good woman, this blindness and self-satisfaction
+appear to show that this life of peace, which you yourself acknowledge
+yours has been, has gone somewhat too far--has not been altogether
+blessed to you.  If you are really so satisfied with yourself as to be
+unable to see any sin within you--"
+
+"Oh, sir!  Do not think me impatient if I make haste to say that I never
+harboured such a thought.  It makes me sink with shame to think of my
+ever having possibly such a thought.  What I asked for, sir, was to know
+my sin towards Lady Carse, that I might make reparation if I could,
+and--will it please you, sir, to tell me--"
+
+"Tell me, rather, what sin you are conscious of; and we shall then get
+at the bottom of this last offence.  Come, let me hear!"
+
+Annie looked down, hesitated, blushed deeply, and said she supposed it
+was owing to her not being accustomed to the blessing of having a pastor
+that she found it so difficult to open her heart now that the blessing
+was given for which she had so often prayed.  She would strive to
+overcome the difficulty.  After a pause she said her chief trouble about
+her state of mind was that some of her trust and peace seemed to have
+left her.
+
+"Ah! the moment it is put to the test!" said Mr Ruthven.
+
+"Just so, sir; that is what I said to myself.  As long as I lived alone,
+out of the sound of any voice but Rollo's, I thought my peace was
+settled, and that I was only waiting for the better peace which is to
+come hereafter.  Then, when Rollo was away, and my mind was searching
+doubtfully after him, where he might be, and whether safe or killed, I
+could always find rest, and say to myself that he was in God's hand, to
+die _now_ or to live to close my eyes.  But now, sir, there is a sadness
+come over me; though I am obliged to your dear children for many
+cheerful hours--I would not forget that.  But as for my own child, when
+I hear his voice merry from behind your garden wall, when I have been
+longing for days to see his face--or when your children tell me things
+that he has said, just while my ear is pining for his voice, I find
+myself less settled in mind than I was--much less settled, sir, than I
+think a Christian woman ought to be."
+
+"And this indicates more than you tell me," observed Mr Ruthven.  "What
+can you have done to drive your son from his home and from his mother's
+side?  Some mistake there must be, to say the very least--some fatal
+mistake, I will call it, for I would not be severe--some awful mistake.
+Eh?"
+
+"Perhaps so, sir."  And she smothered a sigh.
+
+The minister then gave her, at some length, his views on education,
+insisting much on the duty of making young people happy at home; ending
+with saying that no young man could, he thought, expect much comfort in
+the society of a mother who could be so reckless of anybody's peace as
+she had shewn herself that afternoon.  He hoped she would take what he
+said in good part.  It was not pleasant to him to deal rebuke but he
+must not shrink from it; and he rose to go.
+
+"Certainly, sir," said Annie, rising too, and holding by the bed to
+steady herself.  "But, sir, if you would please to tell me particularly
+what you think I have done so wrong to-day--Sir, you would not have me
+let my son be made a smuggler?"
+
+"You should--Nothing can be clearer than that you should--I wonder you
+need to be told that you should have spoken to me.  Instead of which,
+you went quietly and told Macdonald."
+
+"I am sure, sir, I thought you knew all about it."
+
+"What of that?  I am here at hand, to be your adviser--not to be treated
+with disrespect.  I leave you now to think over what I have said.  I
+trust the result will be that you will make what reparation you can to
+Lady Carse: though it is foolish to talk of reparation; for the mischief
+done is, I fear, irreparable.  I leave you to think of this.  Good
+evening!"
+
+Annie thought of all that had passed; and of a few other things.  She
+thought that while it was clear that a pastor might take a wrong view of
+the state of mind and conduct of one of his flock, it was a privilege to
+know, at least, what view he took.  He was faithful, as far as plain
+speaking went: and that was much.  And then, it is so rarely that any
+censure is uttered for which there is absolutely no foundation, that it
+is usually profitable to receive it.  While feeling that "it is a small
+thing to be judged of man's judgment," it may be a great thing to know a
+man's unfavourable opinion of us.  She would soon recover from this
+conversation; and then, if she had obtained any wisdom from it, it would
+be, after all, the marking blessing of this day.  She was not aware of
+another: that Mr Ruthven had been somewhat touched by what she had said
+of Rollo--his eyes somewhat opened.
+
+Once more her mind rested on the idea now become so prominent with her.
+"The sabbath is coming round again," she thought.  "It pleases God to
+give us a complete blessing then.  It is His word that is spoken then--
+His judgment that we are judged by.  Nothing comes between us and Him
+then.  There is always the sabbath now to think of."
+
+Tired as she was, or as she thought herself till she found herself
+enjoying the repose of the moonlight shore, there was one more walk
+necessary before Annie could try to sleep.
+
+The sea was calm, and there was scarcely any wind.  If the smuggling
+vessel had approached the island in any part, it could hardly have got
+away again.  She had not seen it from her hill-side; but she must be
+satisfied that it was not on the northern shore.  The western was safe
+enough, from its being overlooked from Macdonald's farm.
+
+Annie had just reached the longest and widest stretch of beach when the
+large moon rose out of the still waters.  There was not even the
+slightest veil of mist obscuring the horizon; and the fluctuation of the
+water-line was distinct upon the clear disk of the moon.  The gush of
+quivering light which instantaneously reached from the horizon to her
+feet illumined Annie's heart no less than the scene around her.  The
+ripple of the little waves which played upon the pebbles was music to
+her ear.  In a tranquil and hopeful spirit she thought of her errand,
+and looked steadily over the whole expanse of the sea, where, under the
+broad moonlight, and a sky which had at this season no darkness in it,
+there was certainly no vessel in sight.
+
+Pursuing her walk northwards, she perceived a small dark object lying on
+the silvery sands.  When she reached it, she found it was a little cask,
+which the smell declared to contain rum.  By the smell, and the cask
+being light, it was clear that some of the spirit had been spilled.
+Annie found a small hole, beside which lay a quill.  She feared that
+this told too plainly of the neighbourhood of smugglers, and her heart
+sunk.  She went on, and immediately saw another dark object lying on the
+beach--a person, as she thought.  It was a woman, in the common country
+clothing, sound asleep.  Annie hastened to wake her, thinking it unsafe
+to sleep under the moon's rays.  To her extreme surprise she found it
+was Lady Carse.
+
+She could imagine the lady to have come down in hope of meeting a
+smuggling vessel.  She would not have wondered to meet her wandering
+among the coves; but that on such an errand, at such a time, she should
+be asleep, was surprising.
+
+Annie tried gentle means to rouse her, which would enable her to slip
+away as the lady awoke, sparing her the pain of her presence.  She
+rattled the pebbles with her foot, coughed, and at last sang--but all
+without causing the lady to stir.  Then the widow was alarmed, and
+stooped to look closer.  The sleeper breathed heavily, her head was hot,
+and her breath told the secret of her unseasonable drowsiness.  Annie
+shrank back in horror.  At first she concluded that much of Lady Carse's
+violent passion was now accounted for.  But she presently considered it
+more probable that this was a single instance of intemperance, caused by
+the temptation of finding a leaking cask of spirit on the sands, just in
+a moment of disappointment, and perhaps of great exhaustion.  This
+thought made Annie clear what to do.
+
+She went back to the cask, made the hole larger with a stone, and poured
+out all the rum upon the sand.  The cask was now so light that she could
+easily roll it down to the margin of the tide, where she left it, half
+full of sea-water.  Having thus made all safe behind her, she proceeded
+to the coves, where she found, not any signs of a vessel, but one of
+Macdonald's men on the watch.  From him she learned that Macdonald had
+gone out to look for the smuggling boat; had seen it, and turned it
+back; and that the smuggling crew had been obliged to throw overboard
+some of their cargo to lighten their vessel for flight.  Macdonald
+thought they would hardly venture hither again for some time to come.
+This was good news; but there was better; Rollo was not with the
+smugglers.  He was out fowling this afternoon.  Perhaps by this time he
+might be at home.
+
+Annie's errand was finished; and she might now return and rest.
+Macdonald's man spoke of his hope of some goods being washed up by the
+next tide.  Annie told him nothing of the cask, nor of what she had done
+with the rum.  She commended him to his watch, and left him.
+
+Lady Carse was still sleeping, but less heavily.  She roused herself
+when spoken to, started up, and looked about her, somewhat bewildered.
+"I took the liberty, madam, of speaking to you, to waken you," said
+Annie; "because the moon is up, and was shining on your head, which is
+considered bad for the health."
+
+"Really," said Lady Carse, "it is very odd.  I don't know how I could
+think of falling asleep here.  I suppose I was very tired."
+
+"You look so now, madam.  Better finish your sleep at home.  And first,
+if I may advise you, you will throw some salt water on your head, and
+drink some fresh at the spring, when we come to it.  The people here say
+that bathing the head takes away the danger from sleeping under the
+moon's rays."
+
+Lady Carse had no objection to do this, as her head was hot; and now
+Annie hoped that she would escape detection by the Ruthvens, so that she
+alone would know the secret.  Both drank at the spring, and after that
+it might be hoped that there would be little more smell of spirits about
+the one than the other.
+
+When they passed the cask, now beginning to float in the rising tide,
+Lady Carse started.  It was clear that she now remembered what had made
+her sleep.  "There is a cask!" said she, in her hurry.
+
+"Yes, a cask of sea-water," Annie quietly observed.  "I emptied out the
+bad stuff that was in it, and--"
+
+"You did!  What right had you?"
+
+"It was contraband," said Annie.  "Macdonald saw the cargo thrown over:
+nobody would have claimed it, and plenty would have helped themselves to
+what is unfit to drink.  So I poured it out upon the sand."
+
+"Very free and easy, I must say," observed Lady Carse.
+
+"Very," Annie agreed; "but less of a liberty than some would have taken,
+if I had left it to tempt them.  I threw away only what is some man's
+unlawful property.  Others would have thrown away that which belongs to
+God, and is very precious in His eyes--the human reason, which he has
+made but a little lower than the glory of the angels."
+
+Lady Carse spoke no more--not even when they reached their own doors.
+Whether she was moody or conscience-stricken, Annie could not tell.  All
+the more anxious was she to do her part; and she went in to pray that
+the suffering lady might be saved from this new peril--the most fearful
+of the snares of her most perilous life.  Annie did not forget to pray
+that those who had driven the sufferer to such an extremity as that she
+could not resist even this means of forgetting her woes, might be struck
+with such a sense of their cruelty as to save their victim before it was
+too late.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+HELSA'S NEWS.
+
+One day when Annie was trimming her lamp, she observed Helsa, Lady
+Carse's maid, watching the process earnestly from the door, where she
+was looking in.  "Come in, Helsa," said the widow, in Gaelic, which was
+more familiar to the girl than English.  "Come in, if you have nothing
+better to do than to see me trim my lamp."
+
+"I am afraid about that lamp, and that is the truth," replied Helsa.  "I
+had charge of a lamp at Macdonald's once, when my mother went to the
+main for a week; but then, if it went out, nobody was much the worse.
+If this one goes out, and anybody drowns in the harbour, and the blame
+is mine, what shall I do?"
+
+"The blame yours!" said the widow, looking at her.
+
+"Yes; when you live at Macdonald's, and I have to keep the lamp.  I am
+not sure that I can keep awake all the night when winter comes: but they
+say I must."
+
+Helsa was surprised to find that the widow knew nothing of the plan that
+Lady Carse now talked of more than anything else: that Annie was to go
+and live at Macdonald's, that Lady Carse and her maid might have the
+widow's house, where Helsa was to do all the work in the day, and to
+keep the lamp at night.  The girl declared that the family never sat at
+meals without talking of the approaching time when they could all have
+more room and do whatever they pleased.  Adam had cried yesterday about
+the widow going away; but he had been forbidden to cry about what would
+make Lady Carse so much happier; and when Kate had whispered to him that
+Lady Carse would no longer live in their house, Adam had presently dried
+his tears, and began to plan how he would meet the widow sometimes on
+the western sands, to pick up the fine shells she had told him of.
+Helsa went on to say that she could have cried longer than the boy, for
+she was afraid to think of being alone with Lady Carse at times when--
+
+Annie interrupted her by saying, with a smile, "You need not have any
+dread of living in this house, Helsa.  I have no thought of leaving it.
+There is some mistake."
+
+Helsa was delighted with this assurance.  But she proved her point--that
+the mistake was not hers--that such a plan _was_ daily, almost hourly,
+spoken of next door as settled.  She was going on to tell how her
+mistress frightened her by her ways: her being sleepy in the afternoons,
+unless she was very merry or dreadfully passionate, and so low in the
+mornings that she often did little but cry; but the widow checked this.
+While at Mrs Ruthven's house Helsa should make no complaints to anybody
+else; or, if she had serious complaints to make, it should be to
+Macdonald.  Helsa pleaded that Macdonald would then perhaps take away
+the anker of spirits, as being at the bottom of the mischief; and then
+Lady Carse would kill her.  She had once shown her a pistol; but nobody
+could find that pistol now.  Helsa laughed, and looked us if she could
+have told where it was.  In a moment, however, she was grave enough,
+hearing herself called by her mistress.
+
+"I shall say I came to learn about the lamp," said she; "and that is
+true, you know."
+
+"Why do not you speak English, both of you?" demanded Lady Carse from
+the door.  "You both speak English.  I will have no mysteries.  I will
+know what you were saying."
+
+Helsa faltered out that she came to see how Widow Fleming managed her
+lamp.
+
+"Was it about the lamp that you were talking?  I will know."
+
+"If we had any objection, madam, to your knowing what we were saying,"
+interposed Annie, "we are by no means bound to tell.  But you are quite
+welcome to it.  I have been assuring Helsa that there is some mistake
+about my leaving this house.  Here have I lived, and here I hope to
+die."
+
+"We must talk that matter over," declared Lady Carse.  "We are so
+crowded next door that we can bear it no longer; and I _must_ live in
+sight of the harbour, you know."
+
+And she went over all the old arguments, while she sent Helsa to bring
+in Mr Ruthven, that he might add his pastoral authority to her claims.
+After having once declared herself immovable, Annie bore all in silence;
+the pleas that her lamp was so seldom wanted; that it would be well
+tended for her, while she could sleep all night, and every night; that
+it had become a passion with Lady Carse to obtain this house, and that
+anyone was an enemy who denied her the only thing she could enjoy.
+These pleas Annie listened to in silence, and then to reproaches on her
+selfishness, her obstinacy, her malice and cruelty.  When both her
+visitors had exhausted their arguments, she turned to Lady Carse, and
+intimated that now they had all spoken their minds on this subject, she
+wished to be alone in her own house.  Then she turned to Mr Ruthven,
+and told him that whatever he had to say as her pastor, she would gladly
+listen to.
+
+"In some other place than this," he declared with severity.  "I have
+tried rebuke and remonstrance here, beside your own hearth, with a
+perseverance which I fear has lowered the dignity of my office.  I have
+done.  I enter this house no more as your pastor."
+
+Annie bowed her head, and remained standing till they were gone; then
+she sank down, melting into tears.
+
+"This, then," and her heart swelled at the thought; "this, then, is the
+end of my hope--the brightest hope I ever had since my great earthly
+hope was extinguished!  I thought I could bear anything if there was
+only a pastor at hand.  And now--but there is my duty still; nothing can
+take that away.  And I am forgetting that at this very moment, when I
+have so little else left! crying in this way when I want better eyes
+than mine are now for watching the sea.  I have shed too many tears in
+my day; more than a trusting Christian woman should; and now I must keep
+my eyes dry and my heart firm for my duty.  And I cannot see that I have
+done any wrong in staying by the duty that God gave me, and the house
+that I must do it in.  With this house and God's house--" And her
+thoughts recurred, as usual, to the blessing of the sabbath.  She should
+still have a pastor in God's house, if not in her own.  And thus she
+cheered her heart while she bathed her eyes that they might serve for
+her evening gaze over the sea.
+
+She was destined, however, to be overtaken by dismay on the sabbath, and
+in that holy house where she had supposed her peace could never be
+disturbed.  The pastor read and preached from the passage in the 18th
+chapter of Matthew, which enjoins remonstrance with sinners, first in
+private, then in the presence of one or two witnesses, and at last
+before the church.  The passage was read so emphatically that Annie's
+heart beat thick and fast.  But this did not prepare her for what
+followed.  In his sermon the pastor explained that though the scriptural
+expression was, "If thy brother trespass," the exhortation was equally
+applicable to any Christian sister who should offend.  He declared that
+if any Christian sister was present who was conscious of having
+trespassed on the comfort and natural feelings of an afflicted and
+persecuted personage whom they had the honour to entertain among them,
+he besought the offending sister to enquire of herself whether she had
+not been rebuked first alone, then in the presence of a witness--alas!
+in vain; and whether, therefore, the time had not come for a rebuke
+before the Church.  He would, however, name no one, but leave yet some
+place for repentance; and so forth.
+
+Annie's natural dismay, terrible as it was, soon yielded before the
+appeal to her conscience, which the pastor supposed would appal her.
+She knew that she was right; and in this knowledge she raised her bowed
+head, and listened more calmly than many others.  If there had been any
+doubt among the small congregation as to who was meant, Lady Carse would
+have dispersed it.  She sat in the front row, with the minister's
+family.  Unable to restrain her vindictive satisfaction, she started up
+and pointed with her finger, and nodded at Annie.  The pitying calm gaze
+with which Annie returned the insult went to many hearts, and even to
+Mrs Ruthven's so far so that she pulled the lady by the skirt, and
+implored her to sit down.
+
+There are many precious things which remain always secrets to those who
+do not deserve to know them.  For instance, tyrants know nothing of the
+animating and delicious reaction which they cause in the souls of their
+victims.  The cheerfulness, sweetness and joy of their victims has ever
+been, and will ever be, a perplexity to oppressors.  It was so now to
+Mr Ruthven, after an act of tyranny perpetrated, as most acts of
+tyranny are, under a mistaken, an ignorant and arrogant sense of duty.
+Not only did the widow stand up with others for the closing psalm--her
+voice was the firmest, sweetest, clearest in the assembly--so sweet and
+clear that it came back even upon her own ear with a sort of surprise.
+As for others, all were more or less moved.  But their emotion had the
+common effect of making them draw back from the object of it.  After the
+service, nobody spoke to Annie.  She heeded this but little, absorbed as
+she was in thankfulness in finding that the privileges of God's house
+were not disturbed--that her relation to Him and her rights of worship
+were not touched by any fallibility in His minister.  As she reached the
+entrance of the churchyard, Macdonald overtook her, and made her use his
+arm for the descent of the irregular steps.  A few words from Helsa had
+put him in possession of the case.  He desired the widow not to think
+for a moment of leaving her house.  Everybody wished to do what could be
+done to reconcile the stranger lady to her abode in the island; but
+there was a point beyond which he was sure Sir Alexander would not
+permit encroachment.  His advice was to serve and please her in small
+affairs, and leave it to Sir Alexander to deal with her in such an
+important one as her having a house to herself.  Annie smiled, and said
+this was exactly her plan.
+
+That evening was, to the inhabitants of the island, the most memorable
+one of the year--of the generation--of the century.  This was not fully
+known at the time.  The most memorable days often appear just like other
+days till they are past; and though there was some excitement and bustle
+this evening, no one on the island saw the full meaning of what was
+before his eyes.
+
+A little before sunset, the widow plainly saw a larger vessel than often
+visited those seas approaching from the south-west.  It was larger than
+Macdonald's sloop.  She was straining her eyes to see whether it had two
+masts or three, when she heard the children's voices below.  She called
+them up to her platform for the help of their young eyes; but when they
+came, they could spare little attention for the distant vessel, so full
+were they of the news that their mother had run down to the harbour to
+try to speak to some sailors who had landed from a boat which had come
+up the harbour while everybody was at church.  It was such a pity that
+their father was gone, just at this time, to visit a sick person at
+Macdonald's farm!  But their mother went directly, as fast as she could
+run, and Lady Carse and Helsa were to follow her as soon as Helsa had
+put up a bundle.
+
+To recall Mr Ruthven was the first thing Annie thought of.  She did not
+venture to send the children over for him, lest their hurry and
+excitement, or any air of mystery, should give the alarm to Macdonald.
+She set out alone, doubtful as she was how and how soon she could
+accomplish the walk, and bitterly lamenting that her son was not within
+call.  With her best exertions, her progress was so slow that she met
+the pastor a quarter of a mile from Macdonald's house.
+
+Breathless as she was, Mr Ruthven would have from her a full, true, and
+particular account of all she knew, and many declarations that she did
+not know as much again, before he would walk on.  At last, however, he
+did set forth quickly on the shortest path to the harbour, while Annie
+turned slowly homewards over the ridge.
+
+She was on the hill-side, not far from home, when she saw the well-known
+group of neighbours--the pastor's family--coming homewards, slowly and
+with many delays.  She heard loud angry voices; and when she approached,
+she saw tokens of distress in them all.  Mr Ruthven was very pale, and
+Helsa very red.  Mrs Ruthven was in tears, and Lady Carse's clothes and
+hair were dripping wet.  It was clear that she had been in the water.
+
+"Alas! you have missed the boat!" exclaimed Annie.
+
+Lady Carse had just lost the chance of escape, as all believed; and all
+were now quarrelling as to whose fault it was.  Mrs Ruthven was turning
+back from the shore, breathless from haste and vexation, as Lady Carse
+and Helsa came down.  The boat, with several armed men in it, had pushed
+off when Mrs Ruthven appeared.  They made no reply to her signs, but
+lay on their oars at a little distance from the beach till Lady Carse
+and her maid came down.  After some delay, and many signals of entreaty
+from the ladies, the boat again approached, and the man in command of it
+was told that a lady of quality, wrongfully imprisoned in this island,
+desired to be carried to the main, and that, once among her friends in
+Edinburgh, she could give rewards for her escape to any amount.  There
+was a short consultation in the boat, a laugh, and a decisive pull to
+shore.  A sailor jumped out and seized the lady to carry her in.
+Whether it was the unaccountable shout of triumph that she set up, or
+something else that startled the sailor, he hastily set down his burden
+on the rock, looked her in the face, and then spoke to his comrades in
+the boat.  They laughed again, but beckoned him on.  He placed her in
+the boat, but she stumbled, swayed over, caught at the side of the boat
+as she went over, and very nearly upset it.  The men swore at her,
+declared her to be no lady in distress, but a tipsy gipsy, laid her down
+on the shore, and rowed away.  Mr Ruthven now declared that he could do
+nothing in such a case.  Lady Carse, now sobered from everything but
+passion, protested that if he had had any sense or presence of mind, he
+might have detained the strangers till she could produce from her
+package proof of her rank and quality.  If the wranglers could but have
+known who these strangers were, and whence came the distant vessel to
+which their boat belonged, all would have joined in thanksgiving for the
+lady's escape from their hands.
+
+Annie had no more suspicion of the truth than they.  She could only
+attempt to calm them, and make the best of matters by showing that
+possibly all might not be over yet.  It was now nearly dark.  If she
+could light two lamps for this once, it might bring back the boat.  If
+the people on board were familiar with her light and its purpose, the
+singular circumstance of its being double might attract their curiosity;
+if strangers, they might attend to the signal from prudence.
+
+Mr Ruthven, being extremely cross, could see nothing but nonsense in
+this plan.  Lady Carse, being offended with her friends, thought it the
+wisest and most promising scheme conceivable.  Mr Ruthven would not
+hear of spending a night down in the harbour, watching for a boat which
+would never come.  To ask such a thing of him after his sabbath-day's
+services, and all for a woman's freak, was such a thing as--as he would
+not describe.  He could not think of doing such a thing.  Lady Carse
+said he was no friend of hers if he did not.  While Mrs Ruthven
+trembled and wept, Annie said that if she could only learn where Rollo
+was, all would be easy.  Rollo would watch in the harbour, she was sure.
+
+Mr Ruthven caught at this suggestion for saving his night's rest, and
+went off to seek Rollo; not so rapidly, however, but that he heard the
+remark sent after him by Lady Carse, that it was a pretty thing for a
+man to stand up in his pulpit, where nobody could answer him, and
+lecture people about Christian duty, and then to be outdone in the first
+trial by the first of his flock that came into comparison with him.
+Annie could not bear to hear this.  She desired Helsa to assist Lady
+Carse to bed, that her clothes might be speedily dried, in readiness for
+any sudden chance of escape.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+ANNIE'S NEWS.
+
+Dull and sad was the first meal at the Ruthvens' the next morning.  Lady
+Carse could eat nothing, having cried herself ill, and being in feverish
+expectation still of some news--she did not know what.  Mr Ruthven
+found fault with the children so indefatigably, that they gulped down
+their porridge and slipped out under Helsa's arm as she opened the door,
+and away to the next house, where the voice of scolding was never heard.
+The pastor next began wondering whether Rollo was still playing the
+watchman in the harbour--tired and hungry; and he was proceeding to
+wonder how a clever lad like Rollo could let himself be made such a fool
+of by his mother, when Helsa cut short the soliloquy by telling that
+Rollo was at home.  He had come up just now with the steward.
+
+"The steward," cried Lady Carse, springing to her feet.  "I knew it!  I
+see it all!"  And she wrung her hands.
+
+"What is it? my dear love, my precious friend,--what _is_ the matter?
+Compose yourself!" said Mrs Ruthven, soothingly.
+
+But the lady would not hear of being soothed.  It was plain now that the
+distant vessel, the boat, the sailors, were sent by her friends.  If Mr
+Ruthven had only been quick enough to let them know who she was, she
+should by this time have been safe.  How could they suppose that she was
+Lady Carse, dressed as she was, agitated as she was!  A word from Mr
+Ruthven, the least readiness on his part, would have saved her.  And
+now, here was the steward come to baffle all.  Sir Alexander Macdonald
+had had eyes for her deliverers, though her nearest friends had none.
+Annie was her best friend after all.  It was Annie's ball of thread, no
+doubt, that had roused her friends, and made them send this vessel; and
+Annie alone had shown any sense last night.
+
+Mr Ruthven did not understand or approve of very sudden conversions;
+and this was really a sudden conversion, after pointing at the widow
+Fleming in church yesterday.  He ought to state too that he did not
+approve of pointing at individuals in church.  He should be sorry that
+his children should learn the habit; and--
+
+"You would?" interrupted Lady Carse.  "Then take care I do not point at
+her next sabbath as the only friend I have on this island."
+
+"My dear creature!" said Mrs Ruthven, "pray do not say such severe
+things: you will break my heart.  You do the greatest injustice to our
+affection.  Only let me show you!  If this wicked steward prevents your
+escape now, I will get away somehow, and tell your story to all the
+world; and they shall send another vessel for you; and I will come with
+it, and take you away.  I will indeed."
+
+"Nonsense, my dear," said Lady Carse.
+
+"Nonsense, my dear," said the pastor.
+
+Lady Carse laughed at this accord.  Mrs Ruthven cried.
+
+"If you get away," said Lady Carse, more gently, "you may be sure you
+will not leave me behind."
+
+"It is all nonsense, the whole of it, about this vessel and the
+steward," Mr Ruthven pronounced.  "The steward comes, as usual, for the
+feather-rent."
+
+"It is not the season for the feather-rent," declared Lady Carse.
+
+"The steward comes when it suits his convenience," decided the pastor;
+"the season is a matter of but secondary regard."
+
+"You are mistaken," said the lady.  "I have lived here longer than you;
+and I know that he comes at the regular seasons, and at no other time."
+
+"Oh, here are the children," observed Mrs Ruthven, hoping to break up
+the party.  "My dears, don't leave the room; I want you to stay beside
+me.  There now, you may each carry your own porridge-bowl into the
+kitchen, and then you may come back for papa's and mine."
+
+Mr Ruthven stalked out into the garden, to find fault with his
+cabbages, if they were not growing dutifully.  Lady Carse stood by the
+window, fretted at the thick seamy glass which prevented her seeing
+anything clearly.  Mrs Ruthven sat down to sew.
+
+"Mamma," said Adam, presently, "what is a Pretender?"
+
+"A what, my dear?--a Pretender?  I really scarcely know.  That is a
+question that you should ask your papa.  A Pretender?"
+
+"No, no, Adam.  It is Adventurer.  That was what the steward said.  I
+know it, because that is the name of one of papa's books.  I will show
+it you."
+
+"I know that," said Adam.  "But Widow Fleming called it Pretender, too."
+
+"What's that?" cried Lady Carse, turning hastily from the window.  "What
+are you talking about?"
+
+The children looked at each other, as they usually did when somebody
+must answer the lady.  "What are you talking about?"
+
+"The steward says the Pretender has come: and we do not know what that
+means."
+
+"The Pretender come!" cried Mrs Ruthven, letting fall her work.  "What
+shall we do for news?  Run, my dears, and ask Widow Fleming all about
+it.  I can't leave Lady Carse, you see."
+
+The children declared they dared not go.  Widow Fleming was busy; and
+she had sent them away.  "Then go and tell your father.  Ask him to come
+in."  Mr Ruthven was shocked into his usual manners when he saw Lady
+Carse unable to stand or speak.  His assurances that he did not believe
+her in any personal danger, if the report were ever so true, were thrown
+away.  Her consternation was about a different aspect of the matter.
+She at once concluded that the cause of the Stuarts would be triumphant.
+She saw in imagination all her enemies victorious--her husband and Lord
+Lovat successful in all their plottings, high in power and glory; while
+she, who could have given timely intimation of their schemes--she who
+could have saved the throne and kingdom--was confined to this island
+like an eagle in a cage.  For some time she sat paralysed by her
+emotions; then she rose and went in silence to Annie's dwelling.  The
+steward was just departing, and he seemed in the more haste for the
+lady's appearance; but Annie stopped him--gravely desired him to remain
+while she told the lady what it concerned her to know.  She then said,
+"I learn from the steward, madam, that it is known throughout Edinburgh
+that you are still in life, and that you are confined to some
+out-of-the-way place, though, the steward believes, the real place is
+not known."
+
+"It is not known," the steward declared; "and it is anything but kind of
+you, in my opinion, Mrs Fleming, to delude Lady Carse with any hope of
+escape.  Her escape is, and will always be, impossible."
+
+"I think it my business," said Annie, "to inform the lady of whatever I
+hear of her affairs.  I think she ought to have the comfort of knowing
+that her friends are alarmed: and I am sure I have no right to conceal
+it from her."
+
+The steward walked away, while the lady stood lost in reverie.  One set
+of ideas had driven out the other.  She had forgotten all about the
+Jacobite news, and she stood staring with wide open eyes, as the vision
+of her escape and triumph once more intoxicated her imagination.
+
+Annie gently drew her attention to the facts, telling her that it was
+clear that the ball of thread had done its duty well.  The alarm had
+begun with Mr Hope, the advocate.  He had demanded that the coffin
+supposed to contain the remains of Lady Carse should be taken up and
+searched.  When he appeared likely to obtain his demand, Lord Carse had
+avoided the scandal of the proceeding by acknowledging that it had been
+a sham funeral.  Annie believed that now the lady had only to wait as
+patiently as she could, in the reasonable hope that her friends would
+not rest until they had rescued her.
+
+At this moment Lady Carse's quick sense was caught by Adam's pulling the
+widow's gown and asking in a whisper, "What is a Pretender?" and by
+Annie's soft reply, "Hush, my dear!"
+
+"Hush! do you say?" exclaimed Lady Carse, with a start.  "What do you
+mean by saying `hush'?  Is the Pretender come?  Answer me.  Has the
+Pretender landed in Scotland?"
+
+"He has not landed, madam.  He is in yonder vessel.  You had a great
+deliverance, madam, in not being taken away by his boat last night."
+
+"Deliverance!  There is no deliverance for me," said the lady.  "Every
+hope is dashed.  There is no kindness in holding out new hopes to me.
+My enemies will not let me stay here now my friends know where to find
+me.  I shall be carried to Saint Kilda, or some other horrible place;
+or, if they have not time to take care of me while they are setting up
+their new king, they will murder me.  Oh, I shall never live to see
+Edinburgh again: and my husband and Lovat will be lording it there, and
+laughing at me and my vain struggles during all these years, while I lie
+helpless in my grave, or tossing like a weed in these cruel seas.  If
+God will but grant my prayer, and let me haunt them!  Stop, stop: do not
+go away."
+
+"I must, madam, if you talk so."
+
+"Stop.  I want to know about this Pretender.  Why did you not tell us
+sooner?  Why not the moment you knew?"
+
+"I considered it was the steward's business to tell what he thought
+proper: but I have no objection to give all the particulars.  I know he
+whom they call Prince Charlie is in yonder vessel, which carries
+eighteen guns.  It cannot hold many soldiers; and Sir Alexander does not
+believe that he will be joined by any from his islands.  He is thought
+to have a good many officers with him--"
+
+"How many?"
+
+"Some say twenty; some say forty.  It is pretty sure that Glengarry will
+join him--"
+
+"Glengarry!  Then all is lost."
+
+"Sir Alexander thinks not.  He and Macleod have written to the Lord
+President, that not a man from these islands will join."
+
+"They have written to Duncan Forbes!  Now, if they were wise, they would
+send me to him--You need not look so surprised.  He is a friend of mine;
+and glad enough he would be at this moment to know what I could tell him
+of the Edinburgh Jacobites.  Where is the Lord President at this time?"
+
+"In the north, I think, preparing against the rising."
+
+"Ay; at his own place near Inverness.  If I could but get a letter to
+him--Perhaps he knows already that I am not dead.  If I could see Sir
+Alexander!  Oh! there are so many ways opening, if I had but the least
+help from anybody to use the opportunity!  Sir Alexander ought to know
+that I am a loyal subject of King George; and that my enemies are not."
+
+"True," said Annie.  "I will endeavour to speak to the steward again
+before he sails, and tell him that."
+
+"I will speak to him, myself.  Ah!  I see your unwillingness; but I have
+learnt--it would be strange if I had not--to trust nobody with my
+business.  With Prince Charlie so near, there is no saying who is a
+Jacobite, and who is not.  I will see the steward myself."
+
+Annie knew that this would fail; and so it did.  The steward's
+dispositions were not improved by the lady's method of pleading.  He
+told her that Sir Alexander's loyalty to King George had nothing to do
+with his pledge that Lord Carse should never more be troubled by her.
+He had pledged his honour that she should cause no more disturbance, and
+no political difficulties would make him forfeit his word.  The steward
+grew dogged during the interview.
+
+Did her friends in Edinburgh know that she was alive? she demanded.
+"Perhaps so."
+
+Did they know where she was?  "Perhaps so."
+
+Then, should she be carried somewhere else?  "Perhaps so."
+
+To some wretched, outlandish place, further in the ocean?  "Perhaps so."
+
+Would they murder her rather than yield her up?  "Perhaps so."
+
+The steward's heart smote him as he said this, but he forgave himself on
+the plea that the vixen brought it all upon herself.  So, when she asked
+the further question--
+
+"Is there any chance for the Pretender?--any danger that he may
+succeed?" the answer still was "Perhaps so."
+
+Mr Ruthven, who was prowling about in search of news, heard these last
+words, and they produced a great effect upon him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+TIMELY EVASION.
+
+Mr Ruthven was walking up and down his garden that afternoon in a
+disturbed state of mind, when his wife came to him and asked him what he
+thought Lady Carse could be in want of.  She was searching among his
+books and boxes as if she wanted something.  He hastened in.
+
+"Yes," Lady Carse replied, in answer to his question; "I want that
+pistol that used to be kept on the top of your bed.  You need not look
+so frightened.  I am not going to shoot you, nor anybody you ought to
+care for."
+
+"I should like to understand, however," observed the pastor.  "It is
+unusual for ladies to employ fire-arms, I believe, except in
+apprehension of the midnight thief: and I am not aware of any danger
+from burglars in these islands."
+
+"Why no," replied the lady.  "We have no great temptation to offer to
+burglars; and nothing to lose worth the waste of powder and bullet."
+
+"Then, if I may ask--"
+
+"O yes; you may ask what I want the pistol for.  It strikes me that the
+boat from yonder vessel may possibly be sent back for me yet.  They may
+think me a prize worth having, if the stupid people carried my story
+right.  I would go with them--I would go joyfully--for the chance of
+shooting that young gentleman through the head."
+
+"Young gentleman!" repeated Mr Ruthven, aghast.
+
+"Yes, the young Pretender.  My father lost his life for shooting a Lord
+President.  His daughter is the one to go beyond him, by getting rid of
+a Prince Charlie.  It would be a tale for history, that he was disposed
+of among these islands by the bravery of a woman.  Why, you look so
+aghast," she continued, turning from the husband to the wife, "that--
+Yes, yes.  Oh, ho!  I have found you out!--you are Jacobites!  I see it
+in your faces.  I see it.  There now, don't deny it Jacobites you are--
+and henceforth my enemies."
+
+With stammering eagerness, both husband and wife denied the charge.  The
+fact was, they were not Jacobites; neither had they any sustaining
+loyalty on the other side.  They understood very little of the matter,
+either way; and dreaded, above everything, being pressed to take any
+part.  They thought it very hard to have their lot cast in precisely
+that corner of the empire where it was first necessary to take some part
+before knowing what the nation, or the majority, meant to do.  First,
+they prevented the lady's finding the pistol, as the safest proceeding
+on the whole; next, they wished themselves a thousand miles off, so
+earnestly and so often, that it occurred to them to consider whether
+they could not accomplish a part of this desire, and get a hundred miles
+away, or fifty, or twenty--somewhere, at least, out of sight of the
+Pretender's privateer.
+
+In a few hours the privateer was out of sight--"Gone about north," the
+steward declared, "for supplies:" as nobody was willing to give them any
+help while under the shadow of Macdonald and Macleod.  In the evening,
+little Kate rushed into Annie's cottage, silently threw her arms about
+the widow's neck, and almost strangled her with a tight hug.  Adam
+followed, and struggled to do the same.  When he wanted to speak, he
+began to cry; and grievously he cried, sobbing out, "What will you do
+without me?  You can't see the boats at sea well now; and soon, perhaps,
+you will hardly be able to see them at all.  And I was to have helped
+you: and now what will you do?"
+
+"And papa would not let us come sooner," said the weeping Kate, "because
+we had to pack all our things in such a hurry.  He said we need not come
+to you till he came to bid you good-bye.  But I made haste, and then I
+came."
+
+"But, my dears, when are you going? where are you going?"
+
+"Oh, we are going directly: the steward is in such a hurry!  And papa
+says we are not to cry; and we are not to come back any more.  And we
+shall never get any of those beautiful shells on the long sands, that
+you promised me; and--"
+
+Here Mr Ruthven entered.  He had no time to sit down.  He told the
+children that they must not cry; but that they might kiss their friend,
+and thank her for her kindness to them, and tell her that they should
+never see her any more.  There was so much difficulty with the sobbing
+children on this last point, that he gave it up for want of time,
+threatening to see about making them more obedient when he was settled
+on the mainland.  While they clung to Annie, and hid their faces in her
+gown, he explained to her that his residence in this island had not
+answered to his expectation; that he did not find it a congenial sphere;
+that he was a man of peace, to whom neither domestic discord, nor the
+prospect of war and difficulty without, were agreeable; and that he was,
+therefore, taking advantage of the steward's vessel to remove himself to
+some quiet retreat, where the pastoral authority might be exercised
+without disturbance, and a man like himself might be placed in a more
+congenial sphere.  He was then careful to explain that, in speaking of
+domestic discord, he was far from referring to Mrs Ruthven, who, he
+thought he might say, however liable to the failings of humanity, was
+not particularly open to blame on the ground of conjugal obedience.  She
+was, in fact, an excellent wife; and he should be grieved to cause the
+most transient impression to the contrary.  It was, in truth, another
+person--a casual inmate of his family--whom he had in his eye; a lady
+who--
+
+"I understand, sir.  If you will allow me to go home with you--"
+
+"Permit me to conclude what I was saying, Mrs Fleming.  That unhappy
+lady, in favour of whose temper it is impossible to say anything, has
+caused us equal uneasiness by another tendency of late--a tendency to
+indulge--"
+
+But Annie did not, at such a moment, stand upon ceremony.  She was by
+this time leading the children home, one in each hand.
+
+"So you are really going away, and immediately?" said she to Mrs
+Ruthven.
+
+"Immediately," replied the heated, anxious Mrs Ruthven.
+
+"Where is Lady Carse?"
+
+The question again brought tears into Mrs Ruthven's swollen eyes.
+
+"I do not know.  Mr Ruthven wishes to be gone before she returns from
+her walk."
+
+"We leave her the entire house to herself," declared the pastor, now
+entering.  "Will you bear our farewell message to her, and wish her joy
+from us of being possessor of the whole house; and of--"
+
+"Here she comes," said Annie, quietly.  "Lady Carse," she said, "this is
+a remarkable day.  Here is another way opening for your deliverance--a
+way which appears to me so clear that you have only to be patient for a
+few weeks or months before your best wishes are fulfilled.  Mrs Ruthven
+will now be able to do for you what she has so often longed to do.  She
+is going to the main--perhaps to Edinburgh; she will see Mr Hope, and
+others of your friends; and tell your story.  She will--"
+
+"She will not have anything of the sort to do," interrupted Lady Carse.
+"I shall go and do it myself.  I told her, some time since, that
+whenever she quitted this island I would not be left behind.  I shall do
+my own business myself, if you please."
+
+"That is well," interposed the pastor; "because I promised the steward,
+passed my solemn word to him, as a condition of my departure, that it
+should never become known through me or mine that Lady Carse had ever
+been seen by any of us.  I entirely approve of Lady Carse managing her
+own affairs."
+
+Annie found means to declare solemnly to Mrs Ruthven her conviction
+that no such promise could be binding on her, and that it was her
+bounden duty to spare no effort for the poor lady's release.
+
+She was persuaded that Mrs Ruthven thought and felt with her; and that
+something effectual would at last be done.
+
+The children now most needed her consolations.
+
+"Do not be afraid," she said cheerfully to them.  "I shall never forget
+you.  I shall think of you every day.  Whenever you see a sea-bird
+winging over this way, send me your love: and when I see our birds go
+south, I will send my love to you."
+
+"And whenever," said Helsa, "you see a light over the sea, you will
+think of Widow Fleming's lamp, won't you?"
+
+"And whenever," said Lady Carse, with a solemnity which froze up the
+children's tears, and made them look in her face, "whenever, in this
+world or the next, you see a quiet angel keeping watch over a sinful,
+unhappy mortal, you may think of Widow Fleming and me.  Will you?"
+
+The awe-struck children promised, with a sincerity and warmth which
+touched Lady Carse with a keen sense of humiliation; not the less keen
+because she had brought it upon herself by a good impulse.
+
+The pastor and his family were presently gone; and without Lady Carse.
+The steward guarded against that by bringing Macdonald to fasten her
+into her house, and guard it, till the boat should be out of reach.
+
+Annie did not intrude upon her unhappy neighbour for the first few
+hours.  She thought it better to wait till she was wished for.
+
+"Our pastor gone!" thought she, as she sat alone.  "No more children's
+voices in this dwelling!  No more worship in the church on sabbaths!
+Thus is our Father always giving and taking away, that we may fix our
+expectations on Him alone.  But He always leaves us enough.  He leaves
+us our duty and our sabbaths, whether the church be open or in ruins.
+And He has left me also an afflicted neighbour to comfort and
+strengthen.  Now that she thinks she depends on me alone, I may be the
+better able to lead her to depend on Him."
+
+And she was presently absorbed in meditating how best to do this most
+needful work.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+THE LAMP BURNS.
+
+Annie had supposed that her life would be almost as quiet an one as it
+used to be when the minister and his family were gone.  Lady Carse was
+her neighbour, to be sure; but every day showed more and more that even
+to such restless beings as Lady Carse, a time of quiet must come.  Her
+health and strength had been wasting for some months, and now a change
+came over her visibly from week to week.  She rarely moved many yards
+from the house, spending hours of fine weather in lying on the grass
+looking over the sea; and when confined to the house by the cold, in
+dozing on the settle.
+
+This happened just when her prison was, as it were, thrown open, or, at
+least, much less carefully guarded than ever before.  Prince Charlie's
+successes were so great as to engross all minds in this region, and
+almost throughout the whole of the kingdom.  Wherever the Macdonalds and
+the Macleods had influence, there was activity, day and night.  Every
+man in either clan, every youth capable of bearing arms, was raised and
+drilled, and held in readiness to march, as soon as arms should be
+provided by the government.
+
+Annie had many anxieties about Rollo,--many feelings of longing and
+dread to hear where he was, and what he was doing.  The first good news
+she had was that of the whole population of Skye and the neighbouring
+islands, not one man had joined the Pretender.  The news was carefully
+spread, in order that it might produce its effect on any waverers, that
+Sir Alexander Macdonald had written to Lord President Forbes that not
+one man under him or Macleod had joined the Pretender's army; and that
+he should soon be ready to march a force of several hundred men, if arms
+could be sent or provided for them against their arrival at Inverness.
+Meantime, no day passed without the men being collected in parties, and
+exercised with batons, in the absence of fire-arms.  Rollo came to the
+very first drill which took place on the island; and great was his
+mother's relief; and great the satisfaction with which she made haste to
+equip him, according to her small means, for a march to Inverness.
+
+Here was an object too for Lady Carse.  She fretted sadly, but not quite
+idly, about her strength failing just now when boats came to the island
+so often that she might have had many chances of escape if she could now
+have borne night watching, and exposure to weather and fatigue.  She
+complained and wept much; but all the time she worked as hard as Annie
+to prepare Rollo for military service; for her very best chance now
+appeared to be his seeing Lord President Forbes, and telling him her
+story.  The widow quite agreed in this; and it became the most earnest
+desire of the whole party,--Helsa's sympathies being drawn in,--that the
+summons to march might arrive.  Somebody was always looking over towards
+Skye; and there was so much traffic on these seas at present, that some
+new excitement was perpetually arising.  Now a meal bark arrived,
+telling of the capture of others by the prince's privateer: and next
+there was a seizure of fish for the king's service.  Now all eyes were
+engaged, for days together, in watching the man-of-war which hovered
+round the coasts to prevent the rebels being reinforced by water, and
+arms being landed from foreign vessels: and then there were rumours, and
+sometimes visions, of suspicious boats skulking among the islands, or a
+strange sail being visible on the horizon.  Such excitements made the
+island appear a new place, and changed entirely the life of the
+inhabitants.  The brave enjoyed all this: the timid sickened at it; and
+Lady Carse wept over it as coming too late for her.
+
+"The lady looks ill," the steward observed to the Widow Fleming, one day
+when, as often happened now, he came without notice.  "She is so shrunk,
+she is not like the same person."
+
+Annie told how she had lost strength and spirits of late.  She had not
+been down even to the harbour for two months.
+
+"Ay, it is a change," said the steward.  "I was saying to Macdonald just
+now that we have been rather careless of late, having had our heads so
+full of other matters.  I almost wondered that she had not slipped
+through our fingers in the hurry and bustle: but I see now how that is.
+However, Macdonald will keep a somewhat stricter watch; for, as I told
+him, it concerns Sir Alexander's honour all the more that she should not
+get loose, now that those who committed her to his charge are under
+suspicion about their politics--Ah! you see the secret is getting out
+now,--the reason of her punishment.  She wanted to ruin them, no doubt,
+by telling what she knew; and they put her out of the way for safety."
+
+"Is her husband with the Pretender then?  And is Lord Lovat on that
+side?  They are the two she is most angry with."
+
+"Lord Carse is safe enough.  He is a prudent man.  He could not get into
+favour with the king and the minister:--they knew two much harm of him
+for that.  So he has made himself a courtier of the Prince of Wales.  He
+has no idea of being thrust upon the dangers of rebellion while the
+event is uncertain; so he attaches himself in a useless way to the
+reigning family.  And if Prince Charlie should succeed, Lord Carse can
+easily show that he never favoured King George or his minister, or did
+them any good.--As for Lovat, he is ill and quiet at home."
+
+"Which side is he on?"
+
+"He complains bitterly of his son being disobedient to him, and put upon
+his disobedience by his Jacobite acquaintance.  If the young man joins
+Prince Charlie, it is thought that his father will stand by King George,
+that the family estates may be safe whichever way the war ends,--Bless
+me! what a sigh!  One would think--Come now, what's the matter?"
+
+"The wickedness of it!" said Annie.
+
+"Oh! is that all?  Lovat's wickedness is nothing new; and what better
+could you expect from his son?  By the same rule, I have great
+expectations of your son.  As you are sound, he will be sound too, and
+do his king and country good service.  You are both on the same side,
+and not like the master of Lovat and his father."
+
+"We have no estates to corrupt our minds," observed Annie.  "We have
+only our duty to care for."
+
+"Ay, then, you are on the same side."
+
+"Rollo is ready to march with the men of these islands.  I am on no
+side, sir.  I do not understand the matter, and I have nothing to do
+with it.  There is no occasion for me to take any side."
+
+"Why yes; as it happens, there is, Mrs Fleming: and that is one of the
+things that brought me here to-day.  Sir Alexander Macdonald desires
+that you will oblige him by not burning your lamp in the night till the
+troubles are over."
+
+"I am sorry that there is anything in which I cannot oblige Sir
+Alexander Macdonald: but I must burn my lamp."
+
+"But hear: you do not know his reasons.  There are some suspicious
+vessels skulking about among these islands; and you ought to show them
+no favour till they show what they are."
+
+"You do not think, sir, you cannot surely think that anybody on this
+island is in danger from the enemy.  There is nothing to bring them
+here,--no arms, nor wealth of any kind;--nothing that it would be worth
+the trouble of coming to take."
+
+"Oh no: you are all safe enough.  No enemy would lose their time here.
+But that is no reason why you should give them help and comfort with
+your beacon-light."
+
+"You mean, sir, that if a storm drives them hither, or they lose their
+way, you would have them perish.  Yes; that is what you mean, and that I
+cannot do.  I must burn my lamp."
+
+"But my good friend, consider what you are doing.  Consider the
+responsibility if you should succour the king's enemies!"
+
+"I did consider it well, sir, some years ago, and made up my mind.  That
+was when the pirates were on the coast."
+
+"You don't mean that you would have lighted pirates to shore?"
+
+"I could not refuse to save them from drowning: and He who set me my
+duty blessed the deed."
+
+"I remember hearing something of that.  But if the pirates did no
+mischief, your neighbours owe you nothing for that.  You may thank the
+poverty of the island."
+
+"Perhaps so," said Annie, smiling.  "And if so, I am sure we may thank
+God for the poverty of the island which permits us to save men's lives,
+instead of letting them drown.  And now you see, sir--"
+
+"I see you are as wilful on this point as I heard you were.  I would not
+believe it, because I always thought you a superior woman.  But now--I
+wish I could persuade you to see your duty better, Mrs Fleming."
+
+"As my duty appears to me, sir, it is to save people's lives without
+regard to who they are, and what their business is."
+
+"If the Pretender should come--"
+
+"He would go as he came," said Annie, quietly.  "He would get nothing
+here that could hurt the king, while the men of the island are gone to
+Inverness."
+
+"Well, to be sure, if you would succour and comfort pirates, there is
+nobody whom you would not help."
+
+"That is true, sir."
+
+"But it is very dangerous, Mrs Fleming.  Do you know the consequences
+of aiding the enemy?"
+
+"I know the consequences of there being no light above the harbour,"
+said Annie, in a low voice.
+
+The steward knew it was useless to say more.  He thought it better to
+put into her hand some newspapers which contained a startling account of
+the progress of the rebels, embellished with many terrifying fictions of
+their barbarity, such as were greedily received by the alarmists of the
+time.
+
+"Here," said he.  "You can look these over while I go to speak to
+Macdonald about removing the lady to some remoter place while we have
+only women on the island.  Pray look over these papers, and then you
+will see what sort of people you may chance to bring upon your
+neighbours, if you persist in burning your lamp.  But Sir Alexander must
+put forth his authority--even use force, if necessary.  What do you say
+to that?"
+
+"Some old words," said Annie, smiling, "given to those who are brought
+before governors.  It shall be given me in that same hour what I shall
+speak."
+
+"I will look in for the papers as I return," said the steward.  "You are
+as wilful on your own points as your neighbour.  But you must give way,
+as you preach that she ought--"
+
+"I do not preach that, sir, I assure you.  I wish, for her own peace,
+that she would yield herself to God's disposal; but I would have her, in
+the strength of law and justice, resist the oppression of man."
+
+The steward smiled, nodded, and left Annie to read the newspapers.
+
+The time was short.  Lady Carse was asleep; but Annie woke her, and left
+one paper with her while she went home to read the other.  She was
+absorbed in the narrative of the march of the rebels southwards, and
+their intention of proceeding to London, eating children, as the
+newspaper said, after the manner of Highlanders, all the way as they
+went, when Lady Carse burst in, trembling from head to foot, and unable
+to speak.  She showed to Annie a short paragraph, which told that a
+vessel chartered by Mr Hope, advocate, of Edinburgh, and bound to the
+Western Islands, had put into the Horseshoe harbour in Lorn, to land a
+lady whom the captain refused to carry to her destination through a
+quarrel on the ground of difference of political sentiment.  The lady,
+wife of a minister of the kirk, had sought the aid of the resident
+tenant to be escorted home through the disturbed districts in Argyle,
+while the vessel proceeded on its way--not unwatched, however, as Mr
+Hope's attachment to the house of Stuart was no secret, etcetera,
+etcetera.
+
+The widow was perplexed; but Lady Carse knew that Mr Hope, her lawyer
+and her friend, was a Jacobite--the only fault he had, she declared.
+She was persuaded that the lady was Mrs Ruthven, and that the vessel
+was on its way to rescue her--might arrive at any hour of the day or
+night.
+
+"But," said Annie, "this lady is loyal to King George, and you
+reproached the Ruthvens for being on the other side."
+
+"O!  I was wrong about her, no doubt.  I detest him; but she is a good
+creature; and I was quite wrong ever to suspect her."
+
+"And you think your loyalty to the king would do you no harm with Mr
+Hope?  You think he would exert himself for you without thinking of your
+politics?"
+
+"Why, don't you see what is before your eyes?" cried Lady Carse.  "Is it
+not there, as plain as black and white can make it?"
+
+The fact was so, though the lady's reasoning was not good.  The vessel,
+with armed men in it, was sent by Mr Hope to rescue Lady Carse; and
+Mrs Ruthven was to act as guide.  In consequence of a quarrel between
+the captain and her, she was set ashore at the place where the little
+town of Oban has since arisen; and the vessel sailed on out of sight.
+It was an illegal proceeding of Mr Hope's, and resorted to only when
+his attempts to obtain a warrant from the proper authority to search for
+and liberate Lady Carse were frustrated by the influence of her husband
+and his friends.
+
+"He will be coming!  Burn the paper!" cried Lady Carse impatiently,
+looking from the door.
+
+"Better not.  Indeed we had better not," said Annie quietly.  "They have
+no suspicion, or they would not have let us see the paper.  They do not
+know that Mr Hope is your agent; and Mrs Ruthven's name is not
+mentioned.  If we do not return both the papers, there will be
+suspicion; and you will be carried to Saint Kilda.  If we quietly return
+both papers, the danger may pass."
+
+"O! burn it, and say it was accident.  How slow you are!"
+
+"I cannot tell a lie," said Annie.  "And the steward would only get
+another copy of the paper, and look over it carefully,--No, we have only
+to give him back the papers, and thank him, without agitation."
+
+"I cannot do that," exclaimed Lady Carse.  "If you will not tell a lie
+in such a case, I shall act one.  I shall go and pretend to be asleep.
+I could not contain myself to speak to that man, with my deliverers
+almost within hearing perhaps, and that detestable Saint Kilda within
+sight."
+
+She commanded herself so far as to appear asleep, when the steward
+looked in, on his return.  Annie remarked on the news of the rebels, and
+saw him depart evidently unaware of the weighty nature of what he
+carried in his pocket.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+OPENINGS.
+
+The autumn of this year is even now held in memory in the island as the
+dearest ever known.  The men were all gone to Inverness, to act under
+the orders of President Forbes in defending the king's cause; and the
+women they left behind pined for news which seldom or never came.  As
+the days grew short and dark, there was none of the activity and mirth
+within doors which in northern climates usually meet the advances of
+winter.  In the cluster of houses about Macdonald's farm, there was
+dulness and silence in the evenings, and anxious thoughts about fathers,
+husbands, and brothers, with dread of the daylight which would bring
+round the perpetual ineffectual watch for a boat on the waters, bearing
+news of the brave companies of the Macdonalds and Macleods.  Sir
+Alexander remained in Skye, to watch against treason and danger there,
+while Macleod had gone with the two companies.  Such a thing as
+murmuring against the chief was never heard of; but there were few of
+the women who did not silently think, now and then, that Sir Alexander
+might let them have a little more news--might consider their anxiety,
+and send a messenger when he had tidings from Inverness.  This was
+unjust to Sir Alexander, who was no better off for news than themselves.
+The rebels were so far successful that messengers could not carry
+letters with any security by land or sea.  It was only by folding his
+notes so small as to admit of their being hidden in corners of the dress
+that the President could get them conveyed to the authorities at
+Edinburgh; and his correspondence with the Government was managed by
+sending messengers in open boats to Berwick, whence the garrison officer
+forwarded the despatches to London.  In such a state of things, the
+inhabitants of remote western islands must bear suspense as well as they
+could.
+
+No one bore it so well as the Widow Fleming.  Her only son was in one of
+the absent companies; she had no other near relation in the world; and
+she had on her hands a sinking and heart-sick neighbour, whose pains of
+suspense were added to her own.  Yet Annie was the most cheerful person
+now on the island.  When Helsa was fatigued and dispirited by her
+attendance on Lady Carse, and was sent home for a day's holiday, she
+always came back with alacrity, saying that after all, the Macdonalds'
+side of the island was the most dismal of the two.  Nobody there cared
+to sing, whereas Annie would always sing when asked, and often was heard
+to do so when alone.  And she had such a store of tales about the old
+sea-kings, and the heroes of these islands, and of Scotch history, that
+some of the younger women came night after night to listen.  As they
+knitted or spun, or let fall their work, while their eyes were fixed on
+Annie, they forget the troubles of their own time, and the blasts and
+rains through which they should have to find their way home.
+
+At the end of these evenings, Lady Carse often declared herself growing
+better; and she then went to sleep on the imagination that she would
+soon be restored to Edinburgh life by Mr Hope's means, and be happy at
+last.  In the morning, she always declared herself sinking, and fretted
+over the hardship of dying just when her release was drawing near.
+Annie thought she was sinking, and never contradicted her when she said
+so; but yet she tried to bring some of the cheerfulness of the evenings
+into the morning.  She sympathised in the pain of suspense, and of
+increasing weakness when life was brightening; but she steadily spoke of
+hope.
+
+She was sincerely convinced that efforts which could not fail were
+making for Lady Carse's release, and she thought it likely that the
+mother and children would meet on earth, though it were only to exchange
+a hope that they might meet in heaven.  Sincerely expecting some great
+and speedy change in the poor lady's fortunes, she could dwell upon the
+prospect from day to day with a sympathy which did not disappoint even
+Lady Carse.  Every morning she rose with the feeling that great things
+might happen before night; and every night she assured her eager
+neighbour that no doubt somebody had been busy on her behalf during the
+day.  Whether Lady Carse owned it to herself or not, this was certainly
+the least miserable winter she had passed since she had left Edinburgh.
+
+"I am better, I am sure," she joyfully declared one night: "better in
+every way.  How do I look?  Tell me how I look."
+
+"Sadly thin; not so as to do justice to the good food the steward sent
+you," said Annie, cheerfully.  "I should like to see these little hands
+not quite so thin."
+
+"Ah! that is nothing.  Everybody is thin and smoke-dried at the end of a
+stormy winter," declared Lady Carse.  "But I feel so much better!  You
+say it is hope; but you see how well I bear suspense."
+
+"I always have thought," said Annie, "that nothing is so good for us all
+as happiness and peace.  Your happiness in hoping to see your children
+soon, and in obtaining justice, has done you a great deal of good; and I
+trust there is much more in store yet."
+
+"O yes; and when I get back to my friends again, I shall be happier than
+I was.  We learn some things as we go on in life.  I sometimes think
+that I should in some respects act differently if I had to live my life
+over again."
+
+"We all feel that," said Annie.
+
+"You know that feeling?  Well, there have been some things in myself
+which I rather wonder at now; some things that I would not do now.  I
+once struck my husband."
+
+"Once!" thought Annie in amazement.
+
+"And I think I may have been too peremptory with the children.  There
+was nobody then to lead me to discover such things as I do when I am
+with you; and I believe now that if I were at home again--I hope--I
+think--"
+
+"What will you do if it pleases God to restore you to your home?"
+
+"Why, I _have_ been told that they were afraid of me at home.  Heaven
+knows why! for I should have thought that pompous, heartless, rigid,
+tyrannical wretch, my husband, was the one to be afraid of; and not a
+warm-hearted creature like me."
+
+"Perhaps they were afraid of him too."
+
+"O yes, to be sure; and that is why I am here.  But they need not have
+cared for anything I say under an impulse.  They might have known that I
+love people when they do me justice.  That, I own, I cannot dispense
+with.  I must have justice.  But if people give me my due, I am ready
+enough to love them."
+
+"And how will you do differently now, if you get home?"
+
+"I think I would be more dignified than I sometimes have been.  I would
+rely more upon myself.  I may have encouraged my enemies by letting them
+see how they could wound my sensitive feelings.  I should not have been
+so ill-treated by the whole world if I had not made some mistake of that
+kind.  I would rely more on myself, and let them see that they could not
+touch my peace.  Would not that be right?"
+
+"Certainly; by your having a peace which they could not touch."
+
+There was a short pause; after which Lady Carse said, in no unamiable
+tone, "I do not say these things by way of asking your advice.  I know
+my own feelings and circumstances, and the behaviour of my family to me,
+better than you can do.  I may be left to judge for myself; but it is
+natural, when a summons may come any day, to tell you what I think of
+the past; and of how I shall act in the time to come."
+
+"I quite understand that," said Annie.  "And I like to hear all you like
+to tell me without judging or advising, unless you ask me."
+
+"Well, I fairly own to you--and you may take the confession for what it
+is worth--if I had to live the last twenty years over again, I should in
+some respects act differently, I now believe that I have said and done
+some things that I had better not.  But I was driven to it.  I have been
+most cruelly treated."
+
+"You have."
+
+"And if they had only known how to treat me!  Why, you are not afraid of
+me, are you?"
+
+"Not in the least."
+
+"And you never were?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Why, there now!  But you are a woman of sense."
+
+"I am not afraid of you, and never was," said Annie looking calmly in
+her face; "but I can understand how some people might be."
+
+"Not people of sense," exclaimed Lady Carse quickly.
+
+"Perhaps not; but we do not expect all that we have dealings with to be
+people of sense."
+
+"No, indeed!  Nobody need ever look for sense in Lord Carse, for one.
+Well!  I am so glad you never were afraid of me; and I am sure,
+moreover, that you love me: you are so kind to me!"
+
+"I do," said Annie, smiling in reply to the wistful gaze.
+
+Lady Carse's eyes filled with tears.
+
+"Good night!  God bless you!" said she.
+
+"She says," thought Annie, "that I may take her confession for what it
+is worth.  How little she knows the worth of that confession!--a
+confession that any acquaintance she has would blush or mock at, and
+that any pastor in Scotland would rebuke! but to one who knows her as I
+do, how precious it is!  I like to be called to rejoice with the
+neighbours when a child is born into the world: but it is a greater
+thing to sit here alone and rejoice over the birth of a new soul in this
+poor lady.  It is but a feeble thing, this new born soul--born so much
+too late; it is little better than blind and helpless, and with hard
+struggles coming on before it has strength to meet them.  But still it
+is breathing with God's breath; and it may come freely to Christ.
+Christ always spoke to souls; and what were the years of man's life to
+Him?  So I take it as an invitation in such a case as this, when He
+says, `Suffer the little children to come unto Me.'  O may the way be
+kept clear for this infant soul to come to Him!"
+
+Annie had all the kindly and cheerful instincts which simple hearts have
+everywhere; and among them the wish to welcome the newly born with
+music.  With the same feeling which make the people of many a heathen
+island and Christian country pour out their music round the dwelling
+which is gladdened by a new birth, Annie now sang a cheerful religious
+welcome to the young conscience which she trusted must henceforth live
+and grow for ever.  Her voice was heard next door, just so as to be
+favourable to rest.  Without knowing the occasion of the song, the lady
+reposed upon it; and without knowing it, Annie sang her charge to sleep,
+as she had often done when Rollo was an infant on her knee.
+
+When at daylight she rose to put out her lamp, and observe the weather,
+she saw what made her dress quickly, instead of going to bed for her
+needful morning hour of sleep.  A boat was making for the harbour
+through the difficulties of the wintry sea.  It rose and was borne on
+the long swell so fast and so fearfully, that it appeared as if nothing
+could save it from dashing on the ledges of projecting rock; and then,
+before it reached them, it sank out of sight, to be lifted up and borne
+along as before.  There were four rowers, a steersman, and two others,
+muffled in cloaks.  Annie watched them till the boat disappeared in the
+windings of the harbour; and she was out on the hill-side, in the cold
+February wind, when she saw the whole party ascending from the shore,
+and taking the road to Macdonald's.
+
+Here was news!  There must be news.  Better not tell even Helsa till she
+had heard the news.  So the widow made what haste she could by the
+nearer road; but her best haste could not compare with the ordinary pace
+of the strangers.  They had arrived long before she reached Macdonald's
+gate.
+
+She walked straight in: and as she did so, one of the gentlemen who was
+standing before the fire glanced at another who was walking up and down.
+
+"We need no sentinels here, my lord," said the latter in reply to the
+glance.  "There are none but women and children on the island, and they
+are all loyally disposed."
+
+"This is Sir Alexander Macdonald," said the hostess to Annie.  And then
+she told the chief that this was the Widow Fleming, who had no doubt
+come to obtain tidings of her son, who had gone with the company under
+Macleod.
+
+"The Lord President will give you more exact news of the company than I
+can," said Sir Alexander.  "I only know that my people are marched to
+Aberdeen to protect that city from the insolence of the rebels."
+
+The President, who was sitting by the fire, looked up kindly, and
+cheerfully told the widow that he had good news to give of the company
+from these islands.  They had not been in any engagement, and were all
+in good health when they marched for Aberdeen, a fortnight before.  "And
+are they all in their duty, my lord?"
+
+"You remind me, friend, that I ought to have put that before my account
+of their health and safety.  They are in their duty, being proof, so
+far, against both threat and seduction from the rebels."
+
+"Thus far?"
+
+"Why, yes; I used those words because their loyalty to the king is
+likely to be tried to the utmost at the present time.  The king's cause
+is in adversity, we will hope only for a short time.  The rebels have
+won a battle at Falkirk, and dispersed the king's troops; and this
+gentleman, the Earl of Loudon," pointing to the one who was standing by
+the fire, "and I have had to run away from my house at Culloden, and
+throw ourselves on the hospitality of Sir Alexander Macdonald."
+
+"And what will become of your house, my lord?"
+
+"I have thrown my house and fortune into the cause, as you have thrown
+something much more important--your son.  If you can wait God's disposal
+cheerfully, much more should I.  I cannot bestow a thought on my house."
+
+"Except," said Sir Alexander, "that you have nothing else to think about
+here; and nothing to do but to think, for this day, at least.  We must
+remain here.  So safe as it is, in comparison with any part of Skye, or
+even Barra, I should recommend your staying here till we have some
+assurance of safety elsewhere."
+
+"I will venture to offer something for the Lord President to think of
+and to do," said the widow, coming forward with an earnestness which
+fixed everybody's attention at once, and made Sir Alexander stop in his
+walk.  He was about to command silence on Annie's part, but a glance at
+her face showed him that this would be useless.
+
+"Let me first be sure that I am right," said Annie.  "Is the Lord
+President whom I speak to named Duncan Forbes?  And is he a friend of
+Lord Carse?"
+
+"I am Duncan Forbes, and Lord Carse is an acquaintance of mine."
+
+"Has he ever told you that his unhappy wife is not dead, as he
+pretended, but living in miserable banishment on this island?"
+
+"On this island!  Nonsense!" cried Sir Alexander.
+
+When assured by the hostess and Annie that it was so, he swore at his
+steward, his tenant, and himself.  On first hearing of the alarm being
+taken by the lady's friends at Edinburgh, he had ordered her removal to
+Saint Kilda, and had supposed it effected long ago.  The troubles of the
+time, which left no boat or men disposable, had caused the delay; and
+now, between his rage at any command of his having been disregarded, and
+his sense of his absurdity in bringing a friend of his prisoner to her
+very door, he was perfectly exasperated.  He muttered curses as he
+strode up and down.
+
+Meantime the Lord President was quietly preparing himself for a walk.
+Everybody but Annie entreated him to stay till he had breakfasted, and
+warmed himself, Lord Loudon adding that the lady would not fly away in
+the course of the next hour if she had been detained so many years.  It
+did not escape the President's observant eye that these words struck Sir
+Alexander, and that he made a movement towards the door.  There being a
+boat and rowers at hand, she might be found to have flown within the
+hour, if he stayed to breakfast.
+
+He approached Sir Alexander, and laid his hand on his arm, saying--
+
+"My good friend, I advise you to yield up this affair into my hands as
+the first law officer of Scotland.  All chance of concealment of this
+lady's case has been over for some time.  Measures have been taken for
+some months to compel you to resign the charge which you surely cannot
+wish to retain--"
+
+Sir Alexander broke in with curses on himself for having ever been
+persuaded into involving himself in such a business.
+
+"By the desire, I presume, of Lord Carse, Lord Lovat, Mr Forster, and
+others, not now particularly distinguished for their loyalty."
+
+"That is the cursed part of it," muttered Sir Alexander.  "It was to
+further their Jacobite plots that they put this vixen out of the way,
+because she had some secrets in her power, and they laid it all on her
+temper, which, they told me, caused my lord to go in fear of his
+reputation and his life."
+
+"There was truth in that, to my knowledge," observed the President; "and
+there were considerations connected with the daughters--natural
+considerations, though leading to unnatural cruelty."
+
+"Politics were at the bottom, for all that," said the chief, "And now,
+as she has been my prisoner for so long, I suppose they will throw the
+whole responsibility upon me.  The rebel leaders hate me for my loyalty
+as they hate the devil.  They hate me--"
+
+"As they hate Lord Loudon and myself," interposed the President, "which
+they do, I take it, much more bitterly than they ever did the devil.
+But, Sir Alexander, let me point out to you that your course in regard
+to this lady is now clear.  If the rebellion succeeds, let the leaders
+find that you have taken out of their hands this weapon, which they
+might otherwise use for your destruction.  Let them find you acting with
+me in restoring the lady to her rights.  If, as I anticipate, the
+rebellion is yet to fail, this is still your only safe course.  It will
+afford you the best chance of impunity--which impunity, however, it is
+not for me to promise--for the illegality and the guilt of your past
+conduct to the victim.  There is something in our friend's countenance
+here," he continued, turning to the widow with a smile, "which I should
+like to understand.  I fear I have not her good opinion, as I could
+wish."
+
+Annie told exactly what she was thinking: that all this reasoning was
+wrong, because wasteful of the right.  Surely it was the shortest and
+clearest thing to say that, late as it was, it was better for Sir
+Alexander to begin doing right than persist in the wrong.
+
+"I quite agree with you," said the President, "and if people generally
+were like you, we should be saved most of the argumentation of our law
+courts--if, indeed, we should need the courts at all, or, perhaps, even
+any human law.  Come, Sir Alexander, let me beg your company to call on
+Lady Carse.  One needs the countenance of the chief, who is always and
+everywhere welcome in his own territory, to excuse so early a visit."
+
+Sir Alexander positively declined going.  He was, in truth, afraid of
+the lady's tongue in the presence of a legal functionary, before whom he
+could neither order nor threaten violence.
+
+It was a great relief to Annie that he did not go.  She needed the
+opportunity of the walk to prepare the President to meet his old
+acquaintance, and to speak wisely to her.
+
+Even the President, with his habitual self-possession, could not conceal
+his embarrassment at the change in Lady Carse.  The light from the
+window shone upon her face; yet he glanced at the widow, as in doubt
+whether this could be the right person, before he made his complaints.
+In the midst of her agitation at the meeting, Lady Carse said to herself
+that the good man was losing his memory; and, indeed, it was time; for
+he must be above sixty.  She wondered whether it was a sign that her
+husband might be losing his faculties too: but she feared Duncan Forbes
+was a good deal the older of the two.
+
+It would have astonished those who did not know Duncan Forbes to see him
+now.  He was a fugitive from the rebels, who might at the moment be
+burning his house, and impoverishing his tenants; he had been wandering
+in the mountains for many days, and had spent the last night upon the
+sea; his clothes were weather-stained, his periwig damp, and his buckles
+rusted; he was at the moment weary and aching with cold and hunger; he
+was in the presence of a lady whom he had for years supposed dead and
+buried; and he was under the shock of seeing a face once full of health
+and animation now not only wasted, but alive with misery in every fibre:
+yet he sat on a bench in this island dwelling--in his eyes a hovel--with
+his gold-headed cane between his knees, talking with all the courtesy,
+calmness, and measured cheerfulness, which Edinburgh knew so well.
+Nothing could be better for Lady Carse than his manner.  It actually
+took away the sense of wonder at their meeting, and meeting thus.  While
+he had stood at the threshold, and she heard whom she was to see, her
+brain had reeled, and her countenance had become such as it might well
+dismay him to see; but such was the influence of his composure, and of
+the associations which his presence revived, that she soon appeared in
+Annie's eyes a totally altered person.  As the two sat at breakfast,
+Annie saw before her the gentleman and lady complete, in spite of every
+disguise of dress and circumstance.
+
+At the close of the meal, Annie slipped away to her own house: but it
+was not long before she was sent for, at the desire, not of Lady Carse,
+but of the President.  He wished her to hear what he had to relate.  He
+told of Mr Hope's exertions in Edinburgh, and of his having at length
+ventured upon an illegal proceeding for which only the disturbance of
+the times could be pleaded in excuse.  He had sent out a vessel,
+containing a few armed men, and Mrs Ruthven, who had undertaken to act
+as guide to Lady Carse's residence.  It was understood that the captain
+had set Mrs Ruthven ashore in Lorn, through some disagreement between
+them; and that the vessel had proceeded as far as Barra, when the
+captain was so certainly informed that the lady had been removed to the
+mainland that he turned back; pleading, further, that there was such
+evident want of sense in Mrs Ruthven, and such contradictory testimony
+between her and her husband, that he doubted whether any portion of
+their story was true.  It was next believed that a commission of enquiry
+would be soon sent to this and other islands: but this could not take
+place until the public tranquillity should be in some degree restored.
+
+"Before that, I shall be dead," sighed Lady Carse, impatiently.
+
+"There is no need now to wait for the commission," said the President.
+"Where I am, all violations of the law must cease.  Your captivity is
+now at an end, except in so far as you are subject to ill health, or,
+like myself, to winter weather and most wintry fortunes."
+
+"The day is come, then," said Annie, through shining tears.  "You are
+now delivered out of the hand of man, and have to wait only God's
+pleasure."
+
+"What matters it," murmured Lady Carse, "how you call my misfortunes?
+Here I sit, a shivering exile--"
+
+"So far like myself," observed the President, moving nearer the scanty
+fire.
+
+"You have not been heart-sick for years under insufferable wrongs,"
+declared Lady Carse.  "And you have not the grave open at your feet
+while everything you care for is beckoning to you to come away.  You--"
+
+"Pardon me, my old friend," said he, mildly.  "That is exactly my case.
+I am old: the grave is open at my feet; and beyond it stands she who,
+though early lost, has been the constant passion of my life.  Perhaps my
+heart may have pined under the privation of her society as sensibly as
+yours under afflictions more strange in the eyes of the world.  But it
+is not wise--it does not give strength, but impair it--thus to compare
+human afflictions.  I should prefer cheerfully encouraging each other to
+wait for release; I see little prospect of any release this day for us
+exiles; so let me see what my memory is worth in my old age--let me see
+what I can recall of our Janet.  You know I always consider Janet my own
+by favouritism; and she called me grandfather the last time we met, as
+she used to do before she was able to spell so long a word."
+
+He told so much of Janet, that Lady Carse changed her opinion about his
+loss of memory.  Again Annie stole home: and there did the President
+seek her, after a long conversation with her neighbour.
+
+"I wish to know," said he, "whether the great change that I observe in
+this lady is recent."
+
+"She is greatly changed within a few months," replied the widow: "and I
+think she has sunk within a few days.  I see, sir, that you look for her
+release soon."
+
+"If the change has been rapid of late," he replied, "it is my opinion
+that she is dying."
+
+"Is there anything that you would wish done?" asked Annie.
+
+"What can we do?  I perceive that she is in possession of what is
+perhaps the only aid her case admits of--a friend who can at once soothe
+her earthly life, and feed her heavenly one."
+
+Annie bowed her head, and then said--
+
+"You would not have me conceal her state from herself, I think, sir."
+
+"I would not.  I believe she is aware that I think her very ill--
+decisively ill."
+
+"I hope she is.  I have seen in her of late that which makes me desire
+for her the happy knowledge that she is going home to a place where she
+may find more peace than near her enemies in a city of the earth."
+Fancying that the President shook his head, Annie went on--
+
+"I would not be presumptuous, sir, for another any more than for myself:
+but when a better life is permitted to begin, ever so feebly, here,
+surely God sends death, not to put it out, but to remove it to a safer
+place."
+
+The President smiled kindly, and walked away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+FREE AT LAST!
+
+Sir Alexander and his guests remained on the island only a few days; but
+during that time the President gave Lady Carse many hours of his
+society.  Full as his mind was of public and private affairs--charged as
+he was with the defence of Scotland against the treason of the Pretender
+and his followers--grieved as he was by the heart-sorrows which attend
+civil war--and now a fugitive, destitute of means, and in peril of his
+life--he still had cheerfulness and patience to minister to Lady Carse.
+From his deliberate and courteous entrance, his air of leisure, his
+quiet humour in conversation, and his clear remembrance of small
+incidents relating to the lady's family and acquaintance, anyone would
+have supposed that he had not a care in the world.  For the hour, Lady
+Carse almost felt as if she had none.  She declared herself getting
+quite well; and she did strive, by a self-command and prudence such as
+astonished even Annie, to gain such ground as should enable her to leave
+the island when the President did--that is, as she and others supposed,
+when the spring should favour the sending an English army to contest the
+empire once more with the still successful Pretender.
+
+But, in four days, there was a sudden break up.  A faithful boatman of
+Sir Alexander's came over from Skye to give warning of danger.  There
+were no three men in Scotland so hated by the rebels as the three
+gentlemen now on the island; and no expense or pains were to be spared
+in capturing them.  They must not remain, from any mere hope of secrecy,
+in a place which contained only women and children.  They must go where
+they could not only hide, but be guarded by fighting men.  It was
+decided to be off that very moment.  The President desired one
+half-hour, that he might see Lady Carse, and assure her of his care and
+protection, and of relief, as soon as he could command the means.  He
+entered as deliberately as usual, and merely looked at his watch and
+said that he had ten minutes, and no more.
+
+"You must not go," said she.  "We cannot spare you.  Oh, you need not
+fear any danger!  We have admirable hiding-places in our rock, where, to
+my knowledge, you can have good fires, and a soft bed of warm sand.  You
+are better here.  You must not go."
+
+Of course the President said he must, and civilly stopped the
+remonstrance.  Then she declared, with a forced quietness, "If you will
+go, I must go with you.  Do not say a word against it.  I have your
+promise, and I will hold you to it.  Oh, yes, I am fit to go--fitter
+than to stay.  If I stay, I shall die this night.  If I go, I shall live
+to keep a certain promise of mine--to go and see my Lord Lovat's head
+fall.  I will not detain you; we have five minutes of your ten yet I
+will be across the threshold before your ten minutes are up.  Helsa!
+Helsa, come with me."
+
+"What is to be done?" asked the President of Annie.  "You know her best.
+What if I compel her to stay?  Would there be danger?"
+
+"I think she would probably die to-night, as she says.  If she could
+convince herself of her weakness, that would be best.  She cannot walk
+to the shore.  She cannot sit in an open boat in winter weather."
+
+"You are right.  I will let her try.  She may endure conviction by such
+means."
+
+"I will go with you to help her home."
+
+"That is well; but you are feeble yourself."
+
+"I am, sir; but I must try what I can do."  Lady Carse was over the
+threshold within the ten minutes, followed by Helsa with a bundle of
+clothes.  She cast a glance of fiery triumph back at the dwelling, and
+round the whole desolate scene.  For a few steps she walked firmly, then
+she silently accepted the President's arm.  Further on, she was glad to
+have Helsa's on the other side.
+
+"Let me advise you to return," said the President, pausing when the
+descent became steeper.  "By recruiting here till the spring, you--"
+
+"I will recruit elsewhere, thank you.  When I once get into the boat I
+shall do very well.  It is only this steep descent, and the treacherous
+footing."
+
+She could not speak further.  All her strength was required to keep
+herself from falling between her two supporters.  "You will not do
+better in the boat.  You mistake your condition," said the President.
+"Plainly, my conviction is, that if you proceed you will die."
+
+"I shall not.  I will not.  If I stay, I shall not see another day.  If
+I go, I may live to seventy.  You do not know me, my lord.  You are not
+entitled to speak of the power of my will."
+
+The President and the widow exchanged glances, and no further opposition
+was offered.
+
+"We may as well spare your strength, however," said the President.  "The
+boatmen shall carry you.  I will call them.  Oh!  I see.  You are afraid
+I should give you the slip.  But you may release my skirts.  Your
+servants will do us the favour to go forward and send us help."
+
+The boatmen looked gloomy about conveying two women--one of them
+evidently very ill; and Sir Alexander would have refused in any other
+case whatever.  But he had vowed to interfere no more in Lady Carse's
+affairs, but to consider her wholly the President's charge.
+
+"I see your opinion in your face," said the President to him, "and I
+entirely agree with you.  But she is just about to die, at all events;
+and if it is an indulgence to her to die in the exercise of a freedom
+from which she has been debarred so long, I am not disposed to deny it
+to her.  I assume the responsibility."
+
+"My doubt is about the men," observed Sir Alexander; "but I will do what
+I can."
+
+He did what he could by showing an interest in the embarkation of the
+lady.  He laid the cloaks and plaids for her in the bottom of the boat,
+and spoke cheerfully to her--almost jokingly--of the uncertainty of
+their destination.  He lifted her in himself, and placed Helsa beside
+her; and then his men dared not show further unwillingness but by
+silence.
+
+Lady Carse raised herself and beckoned to Annie.  Annie leaned over to
+her, and said, "Dear Lady Carse, you look very pale.  It is not too late
+to say you will come home with me."
+
+Lady Carse tried to laugh; but it was no laugh, but a convulsion.  She
+struggled to say, "I shall do very well presently, when I feel I am
+free.  It is only the last prison airs that poison me.  If we never meet
+again--"
+
+"We shall not meet in life, Lady Carse.  I shall pray for you."
+
+"I know you will.  And I--I wished to say--but I cannot--"
+
+"I know what you would say.  Lie down and rest.  God be with you!"
+
+All appeared calm and right on board the boat, as long as Annie could
+watch its course in the harbour.  When it disappeared behind a headland,
+she returned home to look for it again.  She saw it soon, and for some
+time, for it coasted the island to the northernmost point for the chance
+of being unseen to the last possible moment.  It was evidently
+proceeding steadily on its course, and Annie hoped that the sense of
+freedom might be acting as a restorative for the hour to the dying
+woman.  Those on board hoped the same; for the lady, when she had
+covered her face with a handkerchief, lay very still.
+
+"She looks comfortable," whispered the President to Sir Alexander.  "Can
+you suggest anything more that we can do?"
+
+"Better let her sleep while she can, my lord.  She appears comfortable
+at present."
+
+Three more hours passed without anything being observable in Lady Carse,
+but such slight movements now and then as showed that she was not
+asleep.  She then drew the handkerchief from her face and looked up at
+Helsa, who exclaimed at the change in the countenance.  The President
+bent over her, and caught her words--
+
+"It is not your fault--but I am dying.  But I am sure I should have died
+on land, and before this.  And I have escaped!  Tell my husband so."
+
+"I will.  Shall I raise you?"
+
+"No; take no notice.  I cannot bear to be pitied.  I will not be pitied;
+as this was my own act.  But it is hard--"
+
+"It _is_ hard: but you have only to pass one other threshold
+courageously, and then you are free indeed.  Man cannot harm you there."
+
+"But, to-day, of all seasons--"
+
+"It _is_ hard: but you have done with captivity.  No more captivity!  My
+dear Lady Carse, what remains!  What is it you would have?  You would
+not wish for vengeance!  No! it is pain!--you are in pain.  Shall I
+raise you?"
+
+"No, no: never mind the pain!  But I did hope to see my husband again."
+
+"To forgive him.  You mean, to forgive him?"
+
+"No: I meant--"
+
+"But you mean it now?  He had something to pardon in you."
+
+"True.  But I cannot--Do not ask me."
+
+"Then you hope that God will.  I may tell him that you hope that God
+will forgive him."
+
+"That is not my affair.  Kiss my Janet for me."
+
+"I will; and all your children--What?  `Is it growing dark?'  Yes, it
+is, to us as well as to you.  What is that she says?" he inquired of
+Helsa, who had a younger and quicker ear.
+
+"She says the widow is about lighting her lamp.  Yes, my lady; but we
+are too far off to see it."
+
+"Is she wandering?" asked the President.
+
+"No, sir: quite sensible, I think.  Did you speak, my lady?"
+
+"My love!"
+
+"To Annie, my lady?  I will not forget."
+
+She spoke no more.  Sir Alexander contrived to keep from the knowledge
+of the boatmen for some hours that there was a corpse on board.  When
+they could conceal it no longer, they forgot their fatigue in their
+superstition, and rowed, as for their lives, to the nearest point of
+land.  This happened, fortunately, to be within the territories of Sir
+Alexander Macdonald.
+
+In the early dawn the boat touched at Vaternish Point, and there landed
+the body, which, with Helsa for its attendant, was committed by Sir
+Alexander to a clansman who was to summon a distant minister, and see
+the remains interred in the church at Trunban, where they now lie.
+
+When the President returned to his estate at Culloden; in the ensuing
+spring, on the final overthrow of the Jacobite cause, his first use of
+the re-established post was to write to Lord Carse, in London, tidings
+of his wife's death, promising all particulars if he found that his
+letter reached its destination in safety.  The reply he received was
+this:--
+
+"I most heartily thank you, my dear friend, for the notice you have
+given me of the death of _that person_.  It would be a ridiculous
+untruth to pretend grief for it; but as it brings to my mind a train of
+various things for many years back, it gives me concern.  Her retaining
+wit and facetiousness to the last surprises me.  These qualities none
+found in her, no more than common sense or good nature, before she went
+to those parts; and of the reverse of all which if she had not been
+irrecoverably possessed, in an extraordinary and insufferable degree,
+after many years' fruitless endeavours to reclaim her, she had never
+seen those parts.  I long for the particulars of her death, which, you
+are pleased to tell me, I am to have by next post."
+
+"Hers was a singular death, at last," observed Lord Carse, when he put
+the President's second letter into the hands of his sister.  "I almost
+wonder that they did not slip the body overboard, rather than expose
+themselves to danger for the sake of giving Christian burial to such a
+person."
+
+"Dust to dust," said Lady Rachel, thoughtfully.  "Those were the words
+said over her.  I am glad it was so, rather than that one more was added
+to the tossing billows.  For what was she but a billow, driven by the
+winds and tossed?"
+
+When, some few years after, the steward approached the island on an
+autumn night, in honour of Rollo's invitation to attend the funeral of
+the Widow Fleming, his eye unconsciously sought the guiding light on the
+hill-side.
+
+"Ah!" said he, recollecting himself, "it is gone, and we shall see it no
+more.  Rollo will live on the main, and this side of the island will be
+deserted.  Her light gone!  We should almost as soon thought of losing a
+star.  And she herself gone!  We shall miss her, as if one of our lofty
+old rocks had crumbled down into the sea.  She was truly, though one
+would not have dared to tell her so, an anchorage to people feebler than
+herself.  She had a faith which made her spirit, tender as it was, as
+firm as any rock."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Billow and the Rock, by Harriet Martineau
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