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diff --git a/59202-0.txt b/59202-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf50408 --- /dev/null +++ b/59202-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6128 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59202 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + + LEGENDARY + TALES OF THE HIGHLANDS. + + A SEQUEL TO + HIGHLAND RAMBLES. + + + BY + Sir THOMAS DICK LAUDER, Bart. + + AUTHOR OF "LOCHANDHU," "THE WOLFE OF BADENOCH," + "THE MORAY FLOODS," ETC. + + + IN THREE VOLUMES. + + VOLUME III. + + + LONDON: + HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, + GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. + M.DCCC.XLI. + + + + + + + + +CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME. + + + PAGE + + THE LEGEND OF SERJEANT JOHN SMITH'S ADVENTURES, 1 + + COMFORTS OF A LONDON CLUB-HOUSE, 67 + + THE LEGEND, &c.--Continued, 73 + + CRUELTY OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND AFTER THE BATTLE + OF CULLODEN, 189 + + ALISTER SHAW OF INCHRORY, 193 + + DRUM-HEAD COURT-MARTIAL AND SENTENCE ON INCHRORY, 210 + + THE LEGEND OF THE VISION OF CAMPBELL OF INVERAWE, 212 + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + JOHN SMITH EXHIBITS MILITARY GENIUS IN DEFENCE OF + THE KILLOGIE, 46 + + JOHN SMITH UNDER THE TURF, 145 + + + + + + + + +HIGHLAND RAMBLES. + +THE LEGEND OF SERJEANT JOHN SMITH'S ADVENTURES. + + +To understand my story the better, gentlemen, you must yemaygine +to yourselves a snug well-doing Nairnshire farmer's onstead, [1] +situated in the parish of Auldearn, with a comfortable dwelling-house, +of two low stories, accurately put down, so as mathematically +to face the twelve o'clock line,--with its crow-steppit gables, +small windows, little out-shot low addition behind, tall chimneys, +and grey-slated roof--just such a house, to wit, as a man of his +condition required in the middle of the last century--with two lines +of strange-looking thatched or sod-covered stables, byres, barns, +and other out-houses, projecting from its sides at right angles to +its front, with divers out-riders, and isolated straggling edifices, +of similar architecture and materials, dropped down here and there, as +the hand of chance might have sown them--the smoke coming furth from +some of their lumm-heads, and partly also from their low door-ways, +proving to you, almost against your conviction, that they actually +are the dwelling-places of human beings.--Fancy the whole grouped +(as Mr. Grant, the long painter lad of Grantown, would have said) +with sundry goodly rows of peat and turf stacks, a number of corn +ricks wonderfully formed, and bulging and hanging out of the centre +of gravity, each in a different direction, like a parcel of drunken +Dutch dancers;--in the midst of all a large midden--(query whether the +word midden may not be a mere corruption of the words middle-in,--the +midden being always in the middle of all rural premises in Scotland? so +that unlucky visitors not unfrequently walk up to the middle into the +middle of it.)--Then picture to yourselves, behind the biggins, sundry +kail-yards, with a few very ancient ash trees, sycamores, and rowan +trees, rising from among their bourtree fences, or from the sides of +their dilapidated dry-stone dikes. At a little distance below, a bog, +with its attendant pools of dark moss-water, which shine amidst the +black chaotic mass around them, and look blue by their reflection of +the sky--with a half-ruined and roofless killogie, or kiln for drying +corn and malt, standing on a sloping bank at no great distance from +them. Then people all this with the farmer himself, a stout, hale, +healthy-looking man, going bustling about from door to door among +his folk, his muck-carts, and his horses, with a hodden-grey coat +upon his back, a broad blue bonnet on his head, a hazle staff in his +hand, and a colley and one or two rough terriers and greyhounds at his +heels, shouting every now and then in Gaelic to his man, John Smith, +a tall, handsome, strong-built Highlander, whilst the gudeman's wife, +a very good-looking, round-formed, trigly-dressed Englishwoman, +is seen appearing and disappearing from under the wooden porch, +over which some attempts have been made to trail a plant or two of +rose and honeysuckle, but which attempts have been rendered abortive +by the epicurean taste of the browsing animals of the farm--her south +country tongue sounding quick and sharp in the ears of Morag, or Mary, +a clever, well-made, bare-footed, and short-gowned Highland lass, +with pleasing countenance, largish cheek bones, black snooded hair, +sparkling eyes, arched eyebrows, and rosy cheeks, busied in washing +out her milk cogues, with her coats kilted up to her knees. To which +add the herd of cows, oxen, queys, stirks, and calves of all sorts and +sizes, with a due mixture of sheep and lambs, and pownys, sprinkled all +about, feeding among the whinny pasture-hillocks and baulks, dividing +the queer-shaped patches of the surrounding arable land.--Above all, +I would have you particularly to remark a vurra large sow-beast, +with a numerous litter of pigs, grubbing up the ground about the old +killogie, amid the ruins of which her progeny first saw the light. In +addition thereto, fancy, in the words of our own Scottish pastoral +poet, Allan Ramsay, that + + + "Hens on the midden, ducks in dubbs are seen," + + +and you will be in full possession of the first scene of my tale, +as well as acquainted with some of its more important dramatis personæ. + +Mr. MacArthur, the farmer, though a Highlander, was a stanch Whig, +which made him, as you may well suppose, gentlemen, rather a + + + "Rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno" + + +among his brother Celts. He had acquired his principles during his +residence in England, where he had fallen in with and married his wife, +who was a woman of good condition for her rank of life, and of superior +yeddication. She was attached to the Hanoverian royal family, both +by principle and interest. Her brother was an officer in the Royal +Regiment; and as everything connected with England was dear to her, +because it was her country, so every thing connected with the English +army was especially dear to her on her brother's account. + +During the year 1745, when the recruiting for the army of the Prince +of the Stuarts was going on, many of Mr. MacArthur's servants, and +John Smith in particular, manifested a strong disposition to enlist +under his banners. But so powerful were the influence and eloquence of +this English lady, that she succeeded in dissuading them, one by one, +from following out the bent of their inclinations. This her zealous and +active opposition to the Prince's cause, soon began to attract public +attention, in a district where it was so generally favoured. She became +a marked object of dislike to the Jacobites, and this all the more so, +perhaps, that she was an Englishwoman. Oftener than once it happened, +that, whilst they spared some of her neighbours, whose politics were +dubious, and therefore obnoxious in their eyes, they plundered her +goodman's farm on her especial account. But these depredations were +comparatively trifling, and protected as she was by her husband's +fortitude, she bore these little evils with the magnanimity of a +martyr; nay, she even ventured to talk of them with contempt, and there +were many people who believed that she actually gloried in them. As +Mr. MacArthur was a Highlander, and spoke the Gaelic language fluently, +he might perhaps have been able, by modest behaviour, kind treatment, +and smooth words, in some degree to have mitigated the prejudice which +his countrymen had against his wife as a Pensassenach, or English wife, +as she was uniformly called by way of reproach. But husbands cannot +always restrain the political enthusiasm of their ladies--and so it +was with Mr. MacArthur. With or without his approbation she scrupled +not, at times, when a good opportunity offered, to set the Jacobites +at defiance, to give them all manner of opprobrious epithets, and, +with all a woman's rashness, but with more than feminine intrepidity, +she dared them to do their worst. + +It was after sunset on the evening of the 13th of April, 1745, that +the Pensassenach was seated in her elbow chair, by the fire in her +little parlour. She was alone, for her husband had been called away +from home, for some days, on very urgent business, and as she felt +herself slightly indisposed, she was prepared to take particular care +of herself for that night. A small tall-shaped chased silver vessel of +mulled elderberry wine, with a close top to it to keep its contents +warm, together with a very tiny silver cup, were placed beside her +on a little round walnut-tree table, supported on a single spiral +pillar with three claws. She was about to pour out a little of this +medicinal fluid, to be taken preparatory to retiring to bed for the +night, when she was startled by a noise in the kitchen, and immediately +afterwards she was alarmed by the abrupt entrance of her maid Morag. + +"Mem!--Mem!" cried the girl, breathless with the importance of her +intelligence, "tare's Wully Tallas, ta packman in ta kitchen!--He's +come a' ta way frae Speymouth sin yesterday. Ta Englishers are a' +comin' upon us horse and futs!--horse and futs an' mockell cannons, +an' we'll be a' mordered, an' waur!--fat wull we do?" + +"What say you, girl?" exclaimed the Pensassenach, starting from her +chair, and overturning all her meditated comforts in her hurry. "But +get out of my way, you senseless fool, I'll speak to the man +myself. Dallas! Will Dallas!" cried she, throwing her voice shrilly +along the passage, towards the kitchen. "Come this way, Will Dallas, +and let me hear your news from your own mouth!" + +"Comin' mem!" cried the travelling merchant, as he appeared limping +along the passage, by no means sorry to be thus called on to unbuckle +his budget of news, which he was always ready to dispose of at a much +cheaper rate than he generally sold his goods. + +"Where have you come from, Will Dallas?" cried the Pensassenach; +"and what news have ye got?" + +"Weel, ye see, mem, I hae come straught frae Speymooth, as fast as my +heavy pack and this happity lamiter leg o' mine wad let me," replied +Dallas. "And my pack's very heavy yee noo, for I've got a grand new +stock o' gudes in't." + +"Well, well! never mind your goods at present!" cried the impatient +Pensassenach; "quick! quick! what news have you?" + +"Od, mem, it wad at no rate do for me no to mind my goods at a' times +and at a' saisins," said Dallas. "But touching the news, mem,--the +Duke, mem--that is, the Duke o' Cummerland, I mean, crossed the Spey +yesterday wi' a' his airmy." + +"Is it possible?" cried the Pensassenach, her eyes sparkling with +delight. + +"It's quite true, mem, for I seed the whole tott o' them yefeck the +passage wi' my ain een," said Dallas. + +"Ha! tell me, good Dallas, how did they cross?" demanded the lady. + +"They just fuirded through the Spey, mem, in three grand deveesions, +at three different pairts, just for a' the warld as gin ye had been +rollin' aff three different pieces o' red ribban, like, at yae time," +replied Dallas. + +"A glorious sight!" cried the Pensassenach. + +"Aye, truly, ye wad hae said sae had ye seen't, mem," said Dallas; +"gin ye had seen them wi' the sun glancin' on their airms, and on +the flashin' faem o' the Spey! Every bone o' them got safe across, +exceppin yae dragoon that had taen a wee thoughty ower muckle liquor, +and fell fae his horse,--and four weemen fouk, wha were whamled out o' +a bit cairty, and wha were a' carried down, and a' drooned outright." + +"Poor wretches!" said the Pensassenach. "But it was well they were +not men: their lives were comparatively but little worth." + +"I daur swear that you're right there, mem," said Dallas; "little +worth followers of the camp they were, nae doot;--and yet the hizzies +were weel pit on. I followed the bodies as they soomed down the water, +and cleekit ane o' them ashore, and although her mutch was gane, she +had a gude goon and a daycent rocklay on, and ither things forbye; +but they ware a' sae spiled wi' the water, that I selt them till a +woman in Elgin for an auld sang. But I'll tell ye what it is, mem, +weemen--that is, daycent weemen--have nae business----" + +"You have no business with the women, Mr. Dallas," interrupted the +Pensassenach impatiently--"it is of the men--of the troops, and +of their noble and gallant leader that I would hear. All across, +said you? and what became of the other Duke?" continued she, in +a contemptuous tone. "I mean the rebel Duke--the Duke of Perth, +I mean? Where was he, and where were his heroes, that they did not +arrest the progress of the Royal army?" + +"Troth, mem, the Duke o' Perth and his men just came on their ways +wast the country, and left the English airmy to cross at their ain +wull," replied Willy. + +"Bravo! bravo!" shouted the lady, waving her hand around her head. "The +false knaves dared not to face them! Well, any more news, Dallas?" + +"I ken nae mair that I hae to tell ye," said Dallas, "exceppin' +that I was in the English camp yestreen mysel', and that I selled +a wheen caumrick pocket-napkins, and three yairds o' black ribban, +till yere brither, Captain John, and I promised to ca' in by this +way aince eerant to tell ye that he was weel, and to drink his health." + +"Thank ye, thank ye, good Bill Dallas!" cried the lady, clapping her +hands in an ecstasy of joy; "you shall not fail to do that; but why +did you not tell me this joyful news before? Stay, my good man--here +is for your happy tidings!" and, running to a corner cupboard, she +brought out a bottle of brandy, and filled him a tasse, that made +his eyes dance in his head after he had tossed it off. + +"My certy, that's prime stuff indeed," said Dallas, panting with the +very strength of it. "And noo, mem, will ye look at my pack.--I hae +some o' the grandest jewels, rings, chains, watches, and brooches--the +gayest ribbans--and, aboon a', the bonniest lace,--ye never saw +siccan lace. The captain said he was quite sure it wad tak your ee, +for that you had siccan a fine taste. Troth, says I till him, you're +no far wrang there, captain; Mistress MacArthur has the best taste and +joodgement in lace o' a' my customers, north or sooth--north or sooth, +said I. It's quite beautifou lace, mem, as ye'll say when ye see't; +and sae cheap, too! Od, I'm sellin' it for half nothin'. Shall I +bring the pack ben here, mem?--ye'll hae mair light here." + +"No--no--no!--not at present, Will," cried the Pensassenach, her +patience quite exhausted with his prolixity. "Another time Will--but +I have other fish to fry at present. Morag!--Morag, girl! run! call +out all the men! My stars, how unfortunate it is that MacArthur is +from home! How he would rejoice! Call all the men, I say!" + +"Fat vas she cryin' aboot?" said Morag, hurrying to answer her call. + +"Run and call all the men, I tell you, girl!" cried the Pensassenach, +bustling about, all life and activity, and her indisposition entirely +forgotten. "Call all the men I say; and John Smith in particular. I +want John Smith here immediately. What glorious news! There wont +be a rascally rebel knave of them left in the whole country. And my +brother John coming too! Who knows but we may have the honour of being +presented to his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland in person! How +provoking it is that MacArthur is from home!" + +"Fat wad ta leddy be wantin' wi' her?" said John Smith, at that +moment putting his head into the room, his Kilmarnock cowl, and the +disordered state of the covering of so much of the upper part of his +person as was visible, sufficiently indicating that he had been roused +from his bed. "Fat wad ta leddy be wantin'? We wus a' beddit." + +"Run, John!" cried the impatient lady, "run and make all the people +get out of their beds directly! collect every one, man and woman, +about the farm. Make them yoke all the carts, and drive a whole +peat-stack to the head of the knoll, and build up a large bonfire, +and see that you mix your layers of peats with layers of moss-fir, +and dry furze-bushes. I'll have a blaze that shall be seen from Forres +to Inverness. Have we any tar-barrels left?" + +"Ou aye!" replied John; "a tar barrels tat was ower mockell fan we +last tar ta sheeps." + +"Then put the whole tar-barrel in the midst of all," cried the +Pensassenach. "Come, John, why do you stand staring so? run, man, +and do as I bid you, without a moment's delay." + +"Ou aye, aye, she's runnin' fast," replied John, slowly moving +away. "Fod, but she's thinks tat ta Pensassenach be gaen taft +awtagedder." + +"Morag! bring a basket here directly," cried the Pensassenach, +as she hurried down stairs with the large key of the cellar in her +hand. "Now," said she, putting a number of bottles into the basket, +"take care of these; and make haste, and bring a cheese, and some +loaves of bread, and follow me quickly out to the knoll with the +basket." + +In a very little time, an enormous pile of fuel was built up on +the summit of the knoll, with the tar-barrel in the centre of it, +to which an opening was at first left from the external air, which +was afterwards partially filled with dry furze-bushes dipped in tar, +so as to afford the flame a ready communication inwards. When every +thing was prepared, the Pensassenach seized a lighted candle from a +lantern, and, as Dryden hath it, she + + + "Like another Helen, fired another Troy!" + + +that is to say, she set fire, not to a city, indeed, but to the +whin-bushes, and the flame running inwards, to the tar-barrel, the +whole mighty fabric of fuel was instantaneously in such a blaze, that +any one might have thought that it was Troy itself that was burning. + +"Now," said the Pensassenach, "draw me one of those stone bottles of +brandy, and fill me a tasse of it. I drink to those to whom I have +dedicated this bonfire--I drink, in the first place, to the health +of my brother John, captain in the Royal Regiment, whom I hope soon +to see here!" and, putting the cuach to her lips, she sipped a modest +lady's share of the contents. + +"Come, Bill Dallas," continued she, addressing the travelling merchant, +who, tired as he was with his long tramp, had yet sneaked out to +secure his share of the liquor, as well as of the fun. "Come, Bill, +you must drink next; you have the best right to do so, as the bearer +of the good news." + +"Weel, here's to Captain John, and wussin' him health, and muckle +happiness, and a gude wife till him, wi' plenty o' siller," said the +packman, tossing off the full contents of the tasse. "I'm sure there's +no a bonnier man, nor a better man, nor a gallanter sodger--eh, +beg his honor's pardon, I meant offisher--in the hail land o' the +British Isles, be the ither wha he may." + +"Well spoken, Bill," cried the lady. "Now, John Smith, come it is +your turn next." + +"Here's helss, an' mokel o't, to her broder Captain Shon, and mokel +gude wifes and gude sillers!" cried John Smith, draining the cuach +to the last drop.--"Oich, but she's goot trinks!" added he. + +The cup and the toast went round a large and encreasing party; for the +bonfire, sending up sharp pointed flames, as if it meditated piercing +the very clouds, spread wonder and speculation all over the country +far and wide, and brought all manner of idlers, like flies and moths, +about it. A considerable space of time, as well as a tolerable quantity +of brandy, was expended, before the health had been drank by every one. + +"Now," said the Pensassenach, filling the cuach again to the brim, "I +drink health and success to his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, +and confusion to all his enemies!"--and, kissing the cup merely, +she handed it to the packman. + +"Weel, mem, here's wussin' that same wi' a' my heart!" cried +Mr. Dallas, and off went every drop of his brimmer. + +"Now, John," said the Pensassenach, filling the cuach again to the lip, +"now, John Smith, it is your turn. Come, man, drink the toast--health +and success to the Duke and his brave fellows." + +"Na!" said John, turning away as if the cup had contained vinegar or +verjuice--"na!--Teel be on her an she do!" + +"What do you mean, John?" demanded the Pensassenach in a mingled tone +of surprise and displeasure. "Will you refuse to drink my toast?" + +"Hoot, man, dinna refuse to drink the leddy's toast," said the +packman. "That gude brandy wad wash down ony toast ava, let alane +siccan' a grand man, and a hero, like the Duke o' Cummerland.--Od, +man, an ye had seen him as I hae seen him, ridin' at the head o' +his men, wi' as muckle gold lace and reyal Genowa velvet aboot him +as might serve to cover a papish pupit wi', ye wad say he was the +grandest man that ever ye seed.--Come, man, drink success till him, +and confusion till a' his yennemies!" + +"Surely you will not refuse to drink success to that brave army in +which my brother John serves?" said the Pensassenach,--"and to that +noble and gallant Prince who commands it?" + +"She'll no grudge to trink hail bottals till ta helts o' Captain Shon, +because she's her broder," said Smith in a positive manner.--"But +fint ae drops wull she tak' to wuss ony helts to ta titter man an' +his fouks!" + +"Tuts, nonsense man," said the packman; "ye're just a reyal guse.--Come +awa! drink the Duke's health--the brandy's just parteeklar gude." + +"Why should you hesitate?" said his mistress.--"Come, drink the +Duke's health." + +"Tamm hersell an' she do ony siccan' a sing!" said John Smith doggedly, +and with powerful emphasis and action.--"She'll as soon eat ta cuach!" + +"What! are you a loyal subject, and refuse to drink the health of +the Duke of Cumberland!--the King's own brother!" exclaimed the +Pensassenach energetically. + +"Ou troth--ou aye,--she be loyals eneugh till her ain Kings," said +John, "an' she'll no grudge to trink gallons till her. But for ta +titter mans, fod but she's wussin' her nasins ava but a goot clink +on ta croon," and with that John walked off, with a countenance +so expressive of dissatisfaction and determination, as rendered it +evident that it would be quite hopeless to call him back. + +"He is an obstinate disloyal mule!" cried the Pensassenach, giving +full way to her anger. + +"A reyal dour ass as I ever cam' across," said the packman; "an' +siccan' reyal fine speerits too. The cheild thought naething +o' hammerin' awa' and keepin' a' huss loyal fouk frae our drap +drink.--It's weel that he's awa. My certy, I rauken that there's nae +ither body here that'll be sae dooms foolish as to refuse that gude +brandy, let what toast there may be soomin' on the tap o' the brimmer." + +"I trust that that fellow is the only disloyal man about the place," +said the Pensassenach.--"If it be otherwise I'll have all such Jacobite +knaves turned off this farm. We shall have none other but good loyal +subjects here, I promise you, now that the Duke and his gallant army +are coming among us." + +This hint was not lost on the rest of the company; for whatever +their private political opinions might have been, they preferred +swallowing the good brandy in peace, let the tasse be prefaced by +whatsoever toast the Pensassenach pleased, rather than be martyrs, +like John Smith, and risk the loss of the liquor and their places, +by any heroic and straightforward declaration of their sentiments. We +sometimes see such folk in common life, even at the present time, +gentlemen. Many, then, were the toasts of the same character that went +round.--Liberally did the Pensassenach make her enlivening eau-de-vie +to circulate. The huge bonfire was again and again supplied by the +willing revellers. They were wise enough to see that the endurance +of the joviality of the night must, in all probability, be measured +by that of the fire, and so they laboured and sweated like horses to +keep it going. Loud were the shouts, and many were the antic tricks +performed around its blazing circle, all of which were to be attributed +to the mirth-inspiring spirit. The packman was particularly joyous +and hilarious, and his loquacity increased as he became elevated with +the liquor. At last the Pensassenach, wishing gradually to wind up +the festivities of the night, proposed another toast. + +"Now, come," said she, filling the cuach, "Let us drink confusion to +the rebels!" + +"Hurrah! a capital toast!" cried the packman, whilst his cheer was +blindly echoed by the more than half-intoxicated crowd around him. + +"Then here I drink it as my most cordial wish," said the Pensassenach, +sipping a little of the liquor in token of her earnestness and +sincerity. + +"Tamm! but she'll rue tat wuss!" cried a hoarse voice, which came +from the shadow beyond the circle of the revellers. + +"Who spoke?" demanded the Pensassenach, in vain endeavouring to dart +her eyes into the impenetrable darkness, by which the bright field +of light was surrounded. + +"Tamm her, but she'll ken tat soon enough!" replied the same voice; +but the Pensassenach could see nothing but a pair of eyes, that, +for the fraction of an instant, caught a strong reflection of the red +light from the bonfire, glared fearfully at her, and then were gone. + +"Lord hae a care o' huss! I wuss that I had had naething ado wi' +this matter," exclaimed Mr. Dallas, very much fear-stricken. + +"Seize that man, whoever he may be!" cried the Pensassenach. But he +was nowhere to be found. All the feeble and unsteady attempts of the +drunken people to catch him were thrown away. The Pensassenach was +vexed and mortified. The voice was sterner than John Smith's. But +she could by no means banish the idea that it was his. She inquired +and found that he was no where about the place, and she retired home +to her chamber, filled with doubt regarding him, or rather more than +half convinced that she nourished a traitor in her house. + +Appearances on the following morning were by no means such as to +overcome these suspicions. + +"Is that you, Morag?" demanded the Pensassenach, as awakened at a later +hour than usual by her maid, she started up from that profound sleep, +which the extraordinary fatigue and excitement of the previous evening +had thrown her into, and began to huddle on such parts of her clothes +as lay nearest at hand. + +"Aye, Memm, it's me," replied Morag, "Fat wull she be doin' for +mulks? Shon Smiss has driven awa a' ta wholl kye lang or it was +skreichs o' tay." + +"What said you?" demanded the Pensassenach. "John Smith has driven +away all our cows! Traitorous thief and robber that he is, I thought +as much!" + +"Toot na! Shon's nae fiefs nor rubbers neither," replied Morag, +in anything but a pleased tone. + +"He is a thief and a traitor to boot," cried the enraged Pensassenach. + +"He is no fiefs!" rejoined Morag, with great energy, both of voice +and of action. "Not a bonn o' him but is as honest as yoursel'." + +"I tell you he is a thief, and a traitor; and, for aught I know, +an assassin too!" replied the Pensassenach; "and you are an impudent +baggage for daring to contradict me." + +"She canna stand and hear Shon Smiss misca'ed," exclaimed Morag, +bursting into tears of mingled grief and rage, excited by the +unextinguishable love for John, which had long secretly possessed +her; "an' war she no the mistress," continued Morag, with very +violent action, "war she no the mistress, Fod, but she wad pu' +tat cockernony aff her head for saying as mockell! But och mercy be +aboot huss a'!" cried the girl, darting a look out at the window, +and then hurrying away as she spoke; "mercy be aboot huss a'! yonder +comes Shon himsel', rinnin' like ony rae-buck!" + +"God be merciful to me, can the traitor mean murder!" cried the +Pensassenach, hastily shutting, locking, and bolting the chamber +door, and, with great exertion moving a chest of drawers against it, +whilst her very heart almost ceased to beat, from the terror that +fell upon her. + +"Far is she, Morag? Is she oot o' her bed? cried John, in a loud and +hurried voice, as he came flying up the stair, and began thundering +like a madman at the lady's bed-chamber door. "Come, come, let her +in direckly!" + +"No one can come here," said the lady trembling; "I am not half +dressed." + +"Dress be tamm!" cried John, furiously; "Come away fast--open ta toor +or she be killed!" + +"You shall find no entrance here, you murdering blood-thirsty villain, +whilst I have power to defend my life," cried the Pensassenach, driven +to desperation, and as, with immense labour, she was dragging a heavy +trunk of napery across the floor, which she reared on end against the +chest of drawers. "Oh, why did MacArthur leave me thus to be murdered?" + +"Let her in, or she see her sure murdered," cried John, in a voice +of thunder, and kicking terribly at the door. + +"God help me, I'm gone!" muttered the Pensassenach, in an agony of +fear. "Oh, why did my husband leave me? The door never can stand such +kicks as these. I see it yielding. Murder! murder! murder!" + +"Tamm her nane sel', but she has no more time for nonsense!" cried +John, in a voice that seemed to betoken the climax of fury, and +with that he drove the whole weight of his body, with the force of +a battering-ram, against the door, forcing it out from its hinges, +and tumbling it, and the chest of drawers, and the huge trunk, into +the very middle of the room, with a violence that burst them open, +and scattered their contents in all directions. + +"Villain!" cried the Pensassenach, now suddenly excited to an unnatural +boldness by despair of life, and standing with her back to the farther +wall, armed with her husband's broad-sword, which she had snatched +from the bed-head, and drawn in her own defence, and which she now +flourished with great activity and determined resolution, altogether +regardless of the imperfect state of her attire. "Villain that you +are, come but one step nearer to me, and this sword shall drink your +life's blood from your heart." + +"Ou fye! ou fye!" cried John, standing considerably abashed at this +spectacle; "far got she tat terrible swoord?" + +"Villain, you tremble!" cried the Pensassenach, roused still more, +and, advancing towards John Smith, step by step, as she spoke; +"fly villain, or I will put you to instant death!" + +"Fye, fye!" said John; "but Fod she mauna mind it noo; tere's nae +mair time for ceremonies. She maun e'en tak her as she is." + +"Attack me as I am!" cried the Pensassenach; "if you do, death, +instant death, shall be your portion." + +"We sall see tat," said John, lifting his hazle rung; "we sall soon +see tat," and springing suddenly over the obstructing obstacles, +John, with one blow of his stick, sent the sword spinning from the +feeble grasp of the delicate hand that held it. + +"Oh, mercy, mercy!" cried the Pensassenach, throwing herself on her +knees before him, with the horrible dread of impending death upon +her. "You would not murder your mistress, John, and all for asking +you to drink an idle toast? Oh, spare me! spare me! Do not murder me +in cold blood!" + +"Shon Smiss murder!" cried he, with horror and astonishment on +his countenance. "Foo! foo! fat could gars her sinks tat o' Shon +Smiss?--Shon wad fichts to ta last trop o' her blots for her, futher +she be King Charles's man, or futher she be ta titter bid body o' +a sham king's man. Foo! foo!--hoo could she sinks tat Shon Smiss wad +do ony ill to ta Pensassenach tat has aye been sae kind till her, aye, +and to Morag an a'," and the poor fellow began blubbering and crying. + +"God be praised that I am safe, then!" cried the lady, immeasurably +relieved. "But what is the meaning of all this violence, John? Are +you mad?" + +"Na," cried John, starting from the melting fit into which he had been +thrown. "She no mad a bit. But ta Hillantmens comin'!--Swarrants ta +Hillantmens no liket ta bonfires!" + +"The Highlanders!" cried the Pensassenach. "Heaven defend me, what +shall I do without the protection of my husband? What!--what shall I +do?" and she burst into a flood of tears, from the nervous excitement +to which she had been subjected. + +"Troth, she be sinkin' tat its as weel tat ta master's no at hame," +said he. "But fat need she fear as lang as Shon Smiss be here?" + +"Will you protect me?" cried the Pensassenach, eagerly. "Will you +really be true to me?" + +"Fat has Shon Smiss toon to mak ta Pensassenach sink tat she'll no +be true till her ain mistress?" cried Smith, in a whimpering tone, +betokening vexation, so sincere, as, in a great measure, to restore +the lady's confidence in him. + +"Why did you drive away the cattle this morning, and what have you +done with them?" demanded she. + +"Trots she was dootin', a' nicht, tat ta Hillantmen wad come after a' +yon mockel fires," replied John, "an' sae she just trave tem, coos, +cattal, sheeps, an' staigs, an' awtegitter, a' awa' ower to ta glen, +whaur she's sinking tat tey'll no be gettin' tem at 'tis turn." + +"Faithful creature, after all, then!" cried the Pensassenach. "How +can I sufficiently thank you?" + +"Did she no tell her tat Shon Smiss was nae feefs nor rubbers neither," +said Morag, entering triumphantly at that moment. "Is she no a prave +ponny man? But uve, uve, memm, fat way is tat to be stannin'? Fye, +Shon Smiss! hoo could ye stand glowerin' tere?--get oot, man, till +she gets ta leddy dressed." + +"Fod, she has nae time, noo!" cried John. "Fod, but she hears ta +pipes 'tis blesset moment. Hoot, toot!--Hurry, hurry!--Fod, but +ta Hillantmens comin' noo!" and snatching a blanket from the bed, +he threw it over his mistress, and whipping her up in his arms ere +she wist, he strode down stairs with her in a moment. + +"Where are you carrying me? Where are you carrying me to, John +Smith?" cried the Pensassenach, much alarmed. + +"Dis she no hear ta pipes?" cried John. "She be carrying her to hide +her in ta auld killogie to be sure. Dinna be fear. She mak' her safe +eneugh, she swarrants her o' tat." + +John accordingly ran with the Pensassenach to the old kiln, as fast +as his legs could carry him and his burden. He found it already +occupied by the great sow and her numerous progeny, who, from their +unwillingness to quit it, seemed to consider it, both by birthright, +and by long possession, as their own particular castle, from which no +one could lawfully remove them. John Smith used no great ceremony with +them, but serving them all with an instantaneous process of ejectment, +delivered by divers rapid and severe blows of his hazle cudgel, he +forthwith dislodged them from the pend, or fire-place of the kiln, +where they were used to find a dry and snug lair, and from which both +mother and children retreated with manifest dissatisfaction, and with +all manner of sounds and signs of extreme ire. To these John Smith gave +but small heed, but, shoving the Pensassenach, blanket and all, with +as much tenderness and delicacy as he could, into this their vacant +bed-chamber, he concealed her as much as possible by covering her +up with straw, and he had hardly accomplished all this, and made his +retreat good from the killogie, when a large body of armed Highlanders, +under the command of a certain Captain M'Taggart, appeared filing over +the neighbouring brow, and with what intent might easily be guessed, +from the numerous horses they brought with them, some harnessed +in rude carts, and some fitted with panniers or crooked saddles, +for carrying off plunder. The men themselves displayed infuriated +countenances, and ceased not, as they drew nearer, to give vent to +the most horrible denunciations of vengeance against the Pensassenach. + +"Ta Pensassenach! ta Pensassenach!" cried the same stern voice that had +spoken from amid the darkness that surrounded the blazing bonfire of +the preceding night. "She sall soon ken fat it is to trink confusion +to ta reypells! Far be ta Pensassenach?--ta Englis wife?" + +"Ta Pensassenach!--ta Pensassenach!--ta heart's blott o' ta +Pensassenach!--hang her!--purn her!--troon her!--far is she?--her +heart's blott!--her heart's blott!" vociferated some thirty or forty +rough and raging voices, coming from men that thirsted revengefully +for her blood. + +The poor woman's heart almost died within her through fear, as these +murderous sounds reached her, where she lay half suffocated under the +straw in the killogie. Most active and particular was the search which +the Highlanders then commenced. First of all, the captain and some +of them proceeded to examine the dwelling-house, and there they were +met at the very door by Mr. Dallas the packman. This worthy having +been altogether overpowered by his last night's debauch, had thrown +himself down in his clothes on the bed hospitably provided for him +by his hostess in the room, contained in the little out-shot behind, +and there he had slept, with his pack as usual under his head, until +awaked by the noise made by John Smith and the Pensassenach. He had +then witnessed enough to make him aware of the place where the lady +was secreted. Seeing that the Highlanders came so suddenly upon them +as to make it quite hopeless for him to attempt a retreat, with his +lame leg, he hurried away out to the kail-yard and hid his pack under +a goosberry bush, an operation which John Smith, as he was flying +with his mistress on his back, chanced, with the tail of his eye, to +observe him performing. After having done this, Mr. Dallas returned +into the house, and, making a virtue of necessity, he stepped boldly +forth to meet the leader, when the party came to the door. + +"Muckle prosperity till you and your cause, noble captain," said he, +making his reverence. "There's a bonny mornin'." + +"Who the devil are you, sir?" said Captain M'Taggart, sharply. + +"Troth, captain, I'm a poor travellin' chapman," replied Dallas. "I +chanced to come here last night, and the gudewife gied me ludgings +for charity's sake." + +"Where's your pack, sir?" demanded Captain M'Taggart. + +"Troth, I left it yesterday at Inverness to get some fresh gudes pit +intil't," replied Dallas. + +"You are rather a suspicious character, methinks," said the +captain. "See that you search every corner of the main house for +this woman," continued he, turning to his men, "and if you find this +fellow's pack bring it forth to me." + +"There's nae pack o' mine there, captain, an' that's as fack as death," +said Dallas. "But ye need hae nae jealousy o' me, for I'm a reyal +true and loyal subject o' the Prince." + +"Ta Prince!" cried the same man who had watched the last night's +proceedings at the bonfire. "Ta Prince!--ta Teevil;--tat is ta +vera chield tat wanted to mak' honest Shon Smiss trink ta helss o' +tat teevil ta Tuke o' Cummerlant. He's a reyal and blotty whugg, +and weel deserves till hae his craig raxit." + +"Hang up the villain directly, then," cried M'Taggart, carelessly. + +"Oh! spare my life, good captain, and I'll tell ye whaur the +P--p--p----." Pensassenach is hid, were the words that the villain +would have uttered, but they were arrested by the ready hand of John +Smith, who sprang upon him with the pounce of an eagle, and clutched +him up as that noble bird might clutch up a rat, his left arm being +half round his middle, and his right hand griping his throat, in such +a manner as to stop all utterance, and nearly to choke him. + +"Ta tamm scounrel would fain puy her life for tellin' her fare her +pack is," said John, laughing heartily. "But she need na mak' nae +siccan pargains wi' her, for her nane sell saw her hide it under +a perry-puss in ta kail-yaird, and a rich pack it is, she kens tat +weel eneugh. See, captain, tats ta way till ta yaird, an' Shon Smiss +'ill tak cair o' tis chiel, and pit her past tooin' ony mair harms, +she'll swarrants tat." + +Off went the captain and those about him, greedy upon the scent of +the pack, and caring little what became of its owner. John called to +Morag to bring him a sack and some bits of rope, and he had no sooner +got them under one arm than he ran off with the sprawling Mr. Dallas +under the other, who, having his wind-pipe still tightened by the +fearful grasp of him who bore him, was now kicking in the agonies +of death. John dived through among some peat-stalks, and so managed +to get clear off without observation, to the side of a deep pond or +pool, in a retired spot, where the Pensassenach was wont to steep +her flax.--There laying his, by this time, semianimate burden at +length upon the brink, he put some heavy stones into the bottom of +the sack, and then began to draw it on, like an under-garment, over +the limbs of the unfortunate Mr. Dallas, inserting his arms therein, +and tying the mouth of it tight round his neck, just as if he had been +preparing him for running in a sack race, though it must be premised, +that for such a purpose the heavy stones might have been well eneugh +left out of the bottom of the sack. + +"Hae mercy on my sowl, Maister Smith,--ye're no gawin' till droon +me!" groaned out Mr. Dallas, in a faint, hollow, and semi-suffocated +voice. "Oh, mercy! mercy! what a horrible death! I'm no fit till dee, +Maister Smith. I've been a horrible sinner. God forgee me for cheating +the puir fowk! Oh, hae mercy, Maister Smith--mercy!--mercy!--for I'm +no fit till dee." + +"She no be gawn till mak' her dee," said John, coolly, "though she +wad pe weel wordy o't. But she only be gawn ta hide her in ta watter +tat ta Hillantmen mayna hangit her." + +"Hide me in the water? and is na that droonin'?" cried the terrified +wretch. "Oh, mercy! mercy!" + +"Foots, na, man!" said John. "Hidin's no troonin' ava, ava. She'll +come back an tak' her oot again fan a' is dune, an' she'll no be a +hair ta waur o't. But she maun stop her gab frae speakin' about ta +Pensassenach; an' trots an' she had been hangit or droonit either, +aye, or baith tagedder, she had been weel wordy o't a', for fat she +was gaein' to hae tell't on ta puir Pensassenach." + +By this time John had prepared an effectual gag for his patient's +mouth, which he made him gape and receive between his jaws, and then +he secured it firmly by tying it behind his neck. He then lifted him +up bodily, and whilst the poor man "aw awed" and "yaw yawed," from the +dreadful fear that still possessed him that John's intention, after +all, was certainly to drown him, he gradually let down Mr. Dallas's +feet into a part of the water, the exact depth of which he perfectly +knew would just admit of his immersion up to the neck, he left him, +with his head resting safely against the bank on the side of the pool, +with some dry rushes and sedges and flax scattered carelessly both over +the bank and the water where he was, so as perfectly to conceal him. + +Great as was the time that all this occupied, John found, on his +return to the farm-house, that it had not been more than sufficient +to satisfy Captain M'Taggart and his friends, in their examination +of Mr. Dallas's pack, and in the division of the rich booty it +contained. Meanwhile, the search for the Pensassenach was going on +keenly and most unremittingly, and John was relieved to find that +it was so, since he was thereby satisfied that, as yet at least, +her place of concealment had not been discovered. They opened +every door, and looked into every corner, for the unfortunate lady, +still swearing all the time the bloodiest oaths of vengeance against +her. Not a house upon the premises, not a hole nor crevice about the +whole place did they pass unexamined, save and except only the eye of +the ruined killogie itself, where the object of their search was in +reality concealed. Frequently, to the almost complete annihilation of +the action of the pulses of her heart, did she hear the footsteps of +some of them passing close beside the place where she lay, as well as +their curses, as they went. But so completely were they deceived by +the ruined appearance of the roofless killogie, that they never once +thought of the possibility of any one being concealed there. Wearied +at length with their ineffectual search, and believing that the +Pensassenach had fled, they began to wreak their rage, and to glut +their rapacity, by plundering her effects. Meal, butter, cheese, beef, +and bacon, were crammed indiscriminately into sacks, with articles +of wearing apparel, and the blankets, and the webs of cloth and linen +which the thrifty housewife had prepared for her household. Articles +of silver plate were not forgotten, as well as all other valuables +upon which they could lay their rapacious hands. The cellar was broken +open and ransacked, and its contents, as well as many other pieces +of plunder of a bulky nature, were stowed away to be carried off in +the carts belonging to the farm. A general assault then commenced +upon the live-stock. John Smith's zealous precaution had secured the +greater part of the larger animals from their clutches, but the attack +on the poultry was simultaneous and terrific. Loud was the cackling, +gobbling, and quacking of the fowls, turkeys, ducks, and geese, as +they were caught, one after another; and fearful was it to hear their +music suddenly silenced, by their necks being drawn, and melancholy to +behold their exanimate bodies thrown into the hampers that hung on the +crook-saddled horses. The good Morag's heart was rent, as she beheld +these ruthless murders committed upon the innocent creatures whom +she had delighted to rear. But honest John Smith comforted himself +with the reflection, that he had saved all the weightier and more +valuable stock, and therefore he witnessed all these ravages among the +feathered folk with tolerable composure, until a circumstance occurred +which renewed all his apprehensions for the safety of his mistress, +and again excited him to the full exertion of all his energies. + +War had not been long commenced against the poultry, when the large +sow, alarmed by the murders she beheld going on around her, and +terrified by the loud hurrahs of the plunderers, as well as scared +by the sudden striking up of the bagpipes, took to flight in good +time, and made straight for the eye of the killogie, at the head of +her troop. The quick-sighted John Smith at once perceived the risk +which his mistress, the Pensassenach, ran, of being discovered, by +the animals making this attempt to find shelter there. Off he flew +like the wind to intercept them; and cutting in before them with great +adroitness, he turned them right away towards the fragment of meadow, +which lay in the close vicinity of the black bog. John played his part +so well, that this manoeuvre of his had all the appearance as if he +had been merely making a dash at them for the purpose of catching some +of them, and that the creatures had for the present foiled him. There +they were accordingly left at peace for a time, during which John's +mind also remained in some degree tranquil and at ease. + +But the sow and her inviting family were not long in being descried +by the Highlanders, after every other living thing had been sacked by +them, and a most eventful, hazardous, and very ludicrous chase after +them immediately took place. Full of the most anxious apprehensions +as to the result, John planted himself in front of the killogie, and +between it and the scene of action; and as all the old sow's efforts +were directed towards her stronghold in the kiln, it was with the +greatest difficulty that he repeatedly succeeded in driving her from +the dangerous post. At length, by one exertion, greater than the rest, +he had the good fortune to force the sow once more fairly a-field +again, with all her grunting young ones running scattering after her, +whilst the Highlanders, deceived by his shouting to them in Gaelic, +and encouraging them to the pursuit, believed that he had no other +object in view than honestly to aid them in catching her. To blind +them still more, he now started off full tilt at the head of them, +and soon outran the swiftest of them. With amazing dexterity, he first +clutched up one pig, and then another, until he had one in each hand, +swinging by the tail, and squeaking so fearfully, as to excite the +maternal anxiety and rage of the sow mother, to so great an extent, +that she followed him, fast and furiously grunting, wheresoever he +turned. John inwardly chuckled at the thought of having thus got +so easily and so perfectly the command of her motions. But a sudden +onset from the Highlanders speedily dispersed the remainder of her +progeny; and the pursuers naturally scattered themselves to follow +after individual grunters, so that the race was seen to rage over all +parts of the field. This distracted the attention of the old sow, and +she went cantering about, hither and thither, like a frantic creature, +until, by degrees, she found herself at the very farthest end of +the bog. There, seized by a panic, she suddenly turned, and bolted +desperately back again, with her snout pointed directly towards the +kiln. Winged by terror, she pushed wildly on at a bickering pace, +and running her head right between John's legs, ere ever he wist, +she carried him off for several yards, horsed upon her back, with his +face to the tail; and in the blindness of her alarm, she ran headlong +with him into a great peat-pot, where he was instantly launched all +his length among the black chaotic fluid which it contained. John +scrambled out of the hole with some difficulty, and, starting to his +legs, and shaking his ears like a water-spaniel, and clearing the dirt +from his eyes, he, to his great horror, beheld the sow scouring away +as hard as she could gallop, in a direct course for that chamber in +the killogie, which prescriptive right had so long made her believe to +be her own. John saw her hurrying thither, pursued by one or two of +the Highlanders. It was evident that she must soon reach it; and he +felt certain that she would instantly dart in among the straw where +the Pensassenach was lying, and that so the lady must be exposed to +certain discovery, and consequently to instant death. What was to +be done? Not a moment was to be lost. Taking advantage of a double +which the sow was compelled to make, in consequence of some one having +headed her course, and which forced her to swerve considerably from +the straight line of the chase, John seized a gun from the hand of a +Highlander near him, and aiming at the animal as she thus presented +her great broadside to him, he fired at her, and rolled her over and +over, by a bullet that passed through her very heart. There she lay +dead before her pursuers, within some thirty or forty yards of her +perilous place of refuge. A shout of applause at so wonderful a shot +arose from all who witnessed it. + +"Tat's ta learn her, mockel fusome beast tat she is, for tummelin +Shon Smiss inta ta peat-hole!" cried John, infinitely relieved from +all his terrors. + +The pigs were now very speedily secured in detail, and the great sow +was dragged up to the farm-house, and quietly deposited, with her +slaughtered family, in one of the carts. + +"My brave fellow!" said Captain M'Taggart, the leader of the party, +now advancing towards John, and shaking him heartily by the hand, +"you must come along with us. A young man, so handsome, so active, +so spirited, and so soldierly-looking,--and, above all, so capital a +shot as you are,--was never intended by nature to hold the stilts of a +plough, or to fill dung-carts. You were born to be an officer at the +very least, and, for aught I know, to be a colonel or a general. We +are already aware that you are stanch to the righteous cause of the +true Prince. Now is the time for you to raise yourself in the world, +by joining his royal standard. Come, then, and lend us your powerful +aid in placing our lawful King upon the throne of his ancestors!--Come +along with us, and I shall forthwith introduce you to Prince Charles, +who may yet make a lord of you before you die." + +John Smith was, in truth, all that M'Taggart had called him, +being a handsome, good looking man, as brave as a lion, and not +altogether devoid of a certain natural ambition. But he was ignorant, +thoughtless, and credulous, owing to his having been, up to that +day, entirely without experience. He had never before seen anything +like military array, and irregular and deficient, in many respects, +as that was which he now beheld, still it was enough to captivate +his unpractised eye. John had a strong attachment to his master and +mistress, who had always been very kind to him. But his devotion +to the Prince, whom he had never seen, was of a higher and holier +order. Bestowing a few moments of reflection on the ceaseless and +profitless plodding, and slavish drudgery of his present duties, +all, in themselves, absolutely repugnant to the very nature of a +Highlander, and comparing them with the ideal picture he had drawn to +himself, of the gallant, gentlemanlike service of the Prince, whose +soldiers, he believed, had not only daily opportunities of enriching +themselves with honourable plunder,--a small specimen of which he +had just witnessed--but who had the prospect opened to them of one +day becoming great men, the contrast was by far too flattering in +favour of the latter not to dazzle him. But if it had not had that +effect, the promise which M'Taggart made him of introducing him to +Prince Charles, the son of the true and legitimate King of Scotland, +was enough of itself to have gained John's consent in a moment. + +"Ou, troth, she'll no be lang o' gangin' wi' her," said John, +"an she'll but stop till she clean hersel' a wee frae ta durt o' ta +fulthy bog, tat ta soo beast pat her intill,--and syne bids fereweel +to ta leddy." + +"Whoo!" exclaimed M'Taggart.--"The lady! What, then, the Pensassenach +is somewhere about the place after all, and you know where she +is?--By holy St. Mary, but I will burn every house here, and force +the rancorous whig she-devil to unkennel out of her hiding place!" + +"Teel purn her nane sell's fooliss tongue for namin' ta leddy ava +ava!" said John bitterly. "But she may e'en purn ta hale toon gin +she likes--fint a bit o' ta leddy can she purn." + +"Ha, my good fellow," said M'Taggart, "since you have the secret +knowledge of her place of concealment locked up in your bosom, what +is to hinder me to use a thumbikin as a key to unlock it.--I have a +great mind to try." + +"She may e'en puts ta toomkin on her nanesell's neck, and she'll no +tell after a'," said John resolutely. "And ponny pounties tat wad be +surely for Shon Smiss to serve ta Prince." + +"Nay, my good fellow, I was only joking," said M'Taggart, afraid to +lose so good a volunteer; "trust me I meant you no harm." + +"Gin she purns ta toon, or gin she do ony mair ill aboot ta place, +fouk wull be sayin' tat Shon Smiss bid her do it," continued John--"an +tat wad be doin' Shon mockell harm. Teevil ae stap wull Shon be gangin' +wi' her at a' at a', an she do ony mair bad sings here." + +"Well well," said M'Taggart, soothing him, "go in and dress yourself, +and make your mind easy; and the sooner we are away from here the +better." + +John thought so too. He ran to the stable for his breachcan; [2] +put on his best coat, kilt, and hose; tied up his only two shirts, +and a spare pair of hose, in a napkin, and placed the bundle into the +fold of his plaid; and then seizing a trusty old broad-sword, he put on +his new Sunday's bonnet, smartly cocked up,--and he strode so erectly +forth to M'Taggart, and with so martial an air, that, added to the +wonderful change created in his personal appearance by his dress, made +the captain hesitate for a moment in believing him to be the same man. + +"She be ready noo," said John; "put fare be ta rest o' ta men, +Captain!" + +"They are hunting the Pensassenach," replied M'Taggart with a +careless laugh. + +"She pe verra idle loons tan," said John, "for gin she wad seek a' +tay she wad na' find her." And then, by way of diverting the Captain's +attention from the search by a joke, he pointed to Morag, who stood +at the door, weeping bitterly at the prospect of his departure, +and added,--"see, tat pe ta Pensassenach." + +"That the Pensassenach!" said M'Taggart.--"That's a good joke truly. I +know well enough that's not the Pensassenach that we are after." + +"She pe a verra ponny Pensassenach," said John, going up to Morag, +and hastily delivering to her, in a Gaelic whisper, directions how +and when she should relieve her mistress from her confinement, and +also where she was to look for the packman, that she might get him +taken out of the water. + +"That Pensassenach seems to be a favourite of yours, John," said +the Captain. + +"She wunna say put she is," replied John, his heart filling a +little with sympathy for Morag's tears, and at the prospect of +leaving her.--"Petter tak tiss Pensassenach wi' huss,"--and then, +rather as a parting word of kindness than anything else, he added, +"will she go, Morag?" + +This was too much for poor Morag. Her heart was too full for her to +command words to reply. She rushed forward, and threw her arms around +John. She fixed her hands into the folds of that breachcan, in which, +in their days of herding, when she was but a lassie, and he but a boy, +she had been so often wrapped by her lover as a shelter from the stormy +elements, and she gave way to a burst of grief that at length enabled +her to find utterance for her feelings. She implored him, in all the +anguish of despair, not to leave her. John's heart was softened by +her words, and her tears, and he blubbered like a child. M'Taggart, +fearing that the martial influence in John's soul might be overpowered +and extinguished by that of love, and setting a much greater value on +him as a recruit, than on the capture of the Pensassenach, he thought +it advisable to put an end to this tender interview as speedily as +might be. He ordered the piper to play up therefore, and the men, +abandoning their fruitless search after the English wife, were speedily +gathered around him. The train of carts and horses, with the plunder, +were driven on--the order of march was formed. John, after a severe +struggle with his heart, rent himself away from the arms of Morag, +and followed M'Taggart, without daring to speak, or to look behind him; +whilst the poor girl, bereft of her support, fell upon the green--where +she lay beating her breast and tearing her hair in utter despair, +till the sound of the distant pipe died away, and the presence of +some of her fellow-servants brought her back to her reason. + +Morag was no sooner sufficiently calm and collected, than she hastened +to execute John Smith's last injunctions. The poor Pensassenach was +taken from the killogie more dead than alive. Morag would have had +her to go to bed, but, having recovered herself a little, she became +too much excited to rest; and, having arranged her dress, she began to +bustle about her affairs, and to take a full note of her loss. It was, +indeed, severe. But she felt that she endured it for a glorious cause, +and that reflection made her bear it with wonderful philosophy. She +was grieved, and even angry to learn that John Smith had enlisted +with the Prince's men, but she felt deeply grateful to him for having +saved her life; and especially so, when she heard from Morag the story +of the packman's treachery, and John's ingenuity in defeating it, +as well as of the whole of his exertions for her preservation. + +"Where has John bestowed the villain?" demanded the Pensassenach. + +"Toon in ta lint pot, memm," replied Morag; "I maun gang toon an get +him oot o' ta holl noo." + +"I'll go with you, Morag," said the Pensassenach; and so mistress and +maid proceeded together towards the pond. "What noise is that?" cried +the Pensassenach, as they drew near to it. + +"Aw--yaw!--yaw--aw!" cried the packman from the pool. + +"Where are you, wretched man?" cried the Pensassenach. + +"Yaw--aw!--yaw--aw!" replied Mr. Dallas. + +"Why don't you speak distinctly?" demanded the lady. + +"Aw--aw!--yaw--aw!" replied Dallas again. + +"The sound would seem to come from under that loose heap of rushes +at the margin of the pool yonder," said the Pensassenach. + +"Oich aye, she's here memm," cried Morag, removing the covering from +the packman's head. + +"Ya--aw!--aw--aw!" cried Dallas, raising his eyes with an expression +of intense agony. + +"Ah, I see how it is," said the Pensassenach; "John has gagged him, +to prevent his vile tongue from betraying me. Loosen that string, +Morag, and take out the gag." + +"Oh, Heeven be praised that I hae fand freends at last," cried the +packman in a hoarse voice. "Hech, my jaws are stiff, stiff, and sair, +sair, wi' that plaguit bit o' a rung that John Smith pat into my +mooth. Hech me! kind souls that ye are, pu' me oot, pu' me oot o' +this, or I maun e'en drap awthegither owerhead into the pool, for +I haena mair poor to stand on this ae leg o' mine, and I canna rest +ony at a' on the short ane, mind ye, without sinkin' my mooth below +the water. Och, memm, pu' me out!" + +"How can you ask me to assist you, base wretch that you are?" cried +the Pensassenach; "you who would have sold my life to have saved your +own. I shall push you as gently under the water as I can, but drowned +you must be." + +"Oh, for the love o' Heeven hae mair charity!" cried the packman +most piteously. "I'm a sad sinner, nae doot. But I'm a puir, wake, +nervish craytur,--and fan that deevil incarnate, Captain M'Taggart, +spak o' hangin' me, my brains whurled sae i' my head, that I didna +ken what I was sayin'. But I'm sure I never thocht o' doin' harm till +you or ony o' your hoose. Pu' me oot, memm; pu' me oot for the love o' +Heeven, or the very life'll leave my legs wi' cauld." + +"Pull you out," exclaimed the Pensassenach; "pull you out,--you +who would have helped the Highlanders to my murder: pull you out, +who wilfully spoke treason, to aid, abet, and comfort the rebel +Captain. My loyalty to my King and my country forbids me to assist +you, and compels me to make a sacrifice of you immediately. So, +prepare for instant death." + +"Och, hae mercy on my puir sowl," cried the packman in despair; +"surely, surely, ye're no gawin' till droon me?" + +"What can you say in exculpation of your treason?" demanded the +Pensassenach, laying hold of the upper part of the sack with both +her hands, and giving Mr. Dallas a gentle shake. + +"Och, naething--naething ava," cried Mr. Dallas. "Oh, I'm a dead man--a +dead man: hae mercy--hae mercy upon me. I'm a great sinner--a wicked, +and hardened sinner." + +"Perhaps it were well to allow you a few moments, wretch that you are, +to confess your sins and repent, before you are sent into the other +world," said the Pensassenach. "So make haste--lose not the fleeting +space of time which I thus mercifully grant to you, and lighten your +soul of as much load as you can." + +"Oh, hae mercy--hae mercy on me!" cried Dallas. + +"I'll have no mercy on you, more than this," cried the Pensassenach, +in a terrible voice. "If you will not confess yourself, your last +moment is at hand;" and so saying, she ducked Mr. Dallas's head under +the water. + +"O! O! O! Oh!--hech! ech!" cried Mr. Dallas, panting for breath; +"I'm a dead man! I'm a dead man! Oh, Lord forgie me for sellin' +pastes for precious stanes." + +"Come! is that all?" cried the Pensassenach, shaking him again. + +"Hae mercy on me for sellin' rock crystal for diamunts," cried Dallas. + +"Come! out with it all!" said the Pensassenach. + +"Oh! Och! Forgie me for sellin' bits o' ayster shells for pearls," +cried Dallas again, "and pinchbeck for gold; and watches wi' worn +out auld warks for new anes." + +"Come! nothing else to confess?" said the Pensassenach. + +"Oh, yes. Heaven help me, and hae mercy on me, for keepin' fause +weights and a fause ell-wand," cried Dallas. + +"Are these all your sins, villain?" exclaimed the Pensassenach. + +"Oh, hey, aye, aye," said Dallas piteously, "and ower muckle, +gude kens." + +"Well, then," said the Pensassenach, taking a more determined grasp +of the sack; "now, that you have duly confessed, here goes." + +"Oh, stop, stop!" cried Dallas, in great fear. "Stop, stop! no yet! no +yet! I hae mair to tell o' yet. I hae noo an' than picked up an odd +silver spoon, or sae, or ony siccan wee article whan it cam in my way, +just tempin' me like, in ony o' the hooses whaur I had quarters. But +I never was a great fief--no, no." + +"'Twas you belike who stole my silver punch-ladle," said the +Pensassenach. "I missed it immediately after you were last here." + +"I canna just charge my memory wi' the punch-ladle," said Mr. Dallas, +unwilling to admit that he had in any way wronged the Pensassenach. + +"Nay, then, your thefts must have been too numerous for you to note +such a trifling item as that," said the Pensassenach; "but it is +clear you did steal my punch-ladle, so now you shall die for not +confessing. Now!" + +"Oh, stop, stop, for mercy's sake!" cried Dallas, in livid +apprehension. "I mind noo! I mind noo! I did tak' it--I did tak' +the ladle! It shined sae tempin' through the glass door o' the bit +corner cupboard, and the door was open, sae that I may amaist say +that the deevil himsel' handed it oot till me, and pat it intil my +very pack. But I'll never wrang you ony mair." + +"I'll take good care you shall not," said the lady; "you shall never +wrong me, nor any one else more. So now, prepare, for this is your +last moment." + +"Oh, mercy, mercy," cried the packman again. "I hae mair yet to +confess! Oh, dinna droun me just yet!" + +"Well, be quick," said the Pensassenach; "what more have ye to tell?" + +"Oh, mercy, mercy!" cried Dallas. "That woman that I telled ye o' +yestreen; that woman that I clippit out o' the Spey, was na just +awthegither dead--" + +"What!" exclaimed the Pensassenach, in horror; "wretch that you are, +did you murder the woman?" + +"Eh, na, na!" cried Dallas; "ill as I am, I didna do that. I just +took her roklay and her gown, an some ither wee things aperteenin' +till her, and syne I gade aff wi' mysel', leaving her to come roond +to life at her nain leisure and convenience." + +"Leaving her to die without help you mean, you murdering thief!" said +the Pensassenach, shrinking back with horror from the very touch +of him. "Wretch, you are unworthy of life! But I shall not be your +executioner. You will grace a gallows yet, I'll warrant you. I shall +now leave Morag to pull you out of the water. But hark ye, Mr. Dallas, +before I leave you, I may as well tell you, that though I have spared +your life, as indeed I never had the least intention of taking it, +I advise you never to darken my door again; for, if you do, I promise +you that you shall have another and a deeper taste of this lint-pot." + +"Oh, bless you, memm!" cried Mr. Dallas, with an earnestness which +showed how much he was relieved by her words; "I'll never come +within five miles o' your farm. Noo, Morag, my dawty," continued he, +addressing the maid after the mistress was gone; "gudesake, woman, be +quick an' pu' me oot; or, as sure as death, I'll dee o't awthegither." + +"Fawse loons tat she is," said Morag, looking terribly at him. "She +will no pu' her oot; she wull pit her toon in ta holl, an' troon +her! She is a wicked vullian--she wull pit her toon in ta holl an' +troon her wissout nae mercy at a' at a'." + +"Oh!" cried the terrified Dallas, with his eye-balls again starting +from his head with apprehension. "Oh, dinna droon me, noo that your +mistress has spared me! I wus ragin' fu' wi' brandy last nicht, and +I didna ken what I wus doin'; and maybe I wus a wee unceevil till ye, +or the like. But oh, hae mercy, hae mercy on me!" + +"She'll no be ta waur o' a gude tooky tan," said Morag, seizing +the sack, and plunging the gasping Mr. Dallas two or three times +successively under the water; "tat'll cool ta hot speerits in her +stamick, or she pe far mistane." + +"Oh! O! O! Och! hech! och! oh!--O!" cried Dallas, gasping and +panting. "O, mercy, mercy! an' I hadna drucken a' yon oceans o' brandy +yester nicht, I had assuredly been a dead man this day, just frae very +cauld itsel'. But the brandy o' yestreen has saved me frae a' the water +that my body has imbibit frae this nasty lint-pot, by actuwully makin' +a kind o' wake punch o' me. Oh, gude lassie that ye are, pu' me oot, +pu me oot!" + +"Its mair nor she's weel deservan'," said Morag, now putting forth all +her strength to pull the sack and its contents up out of the water; +"but Morag canna let a man be trooned an she can help it, pad man so +she pe." + +Having hauled up the sack, she laid it upon the grass, undid the +fastenings of its mouth, and, with some difficulty, extricated +Mr. Dallas from its durance vile. The worthy packman arose to his feet, +and, shaking himself heartily, and stretching out first his short, +and then his long leg, two or three times alternately, to relieve +that killing cold cramp which possessed them, he hobbled off without +uttering a word of thanks, and shivering so, that his teeth were +rattling in his head, as if his jaws had contained a corps of drummers, +beating the rogue's march. Morag looked after him with a hearty laugh, +and then picking up the wet sack, she hastened to join her mistress. + +Let us now follow the march of John Smith. + + + + + + + + +COMFORTS OF A LONDON CLUB-HOUSE. + + +Author.--Pray, stop for one moment, Mr. Macpherson, if you please. Let +me throw a few more peats on the fire. With the rain still beating +thus without, and the picture of the half-drowned shivering chapman +brought so vividly before our mind's eyes by your description, +we shall have our teeth rattling in our jaws from very sympathy, +if we don't keep up the caloric we have already generated. + +Grant.--It is right not to allow it to be too much reduced, +certainly. But I declare I am as comfortable here in Inchrory, as if +I were in my club-house in London. + +Clifford.--Much more so, my good fellow, take my word for it. Where +is the London club-house in which we could have been so quiet as we +are here, especially in such weather as this. Think of the noise in +the streets; think, I say, of the eternal thunder of the carriages of +all kinds, the hackney-coaches, stage-coaches, omnibusses, and cabs, +with the Cherokee yelling, and whooping of the drivers, uttering +strange and horrible oaths; and, to complete the instrumental part of +this mechanical concert, to have it grounded with the grating double +bass of the huge carts, drays, and waggons. The mellow roar of the +Aven is like the soft music of a flute, compared to so terrific a +combination of ear-rending sounds. Then think of the crowd of dull +and damp fellows, dry to talk to, but wet enough to the touch, who are +continually coming in and going out, restless and unhappy--miserable +when condemned to the house, and yet more wretched when out in the +rain--giving you hopes of enjoying a glimpse of the fire at one moment, +and then shutting you out entirely from it at the next, with persons +so steeped, as to make the very evaporation from their bodies, by the +heat, fill the room with clouds of steam,--talking, and chattering, +and recognizing each other--disputing about politics, or the merits +of the last opera, or opera singer, or ballet, or dancer. In vain +you try to have some rational talk with some sensible man, or to +listen to something of the greatest possible interest, which he has +to tell you--for you have hardly begun so to do, when up comes some +fool of a fellow, who, at some unfortunate time or another, has sworn +eternal friendship to you, and who now, to your great discomfiture, +as well as to the imminent peril of your good temper and manners, +breaks boisterously in upon your tête-a-tête, to prove to you how +well he keeps his oath, by nearly shaking your hand off, or perhaps +dislocating your shoulder, by loudly protesting how rejoiced he is +to see you, and by most heroically sacrificing himself, and his own +valuable time, in kindly bestowing his fullest tediousness upon you, +that he may give you the whole history of his life since he last saw +you. Then, suppose you sit down to read some important speech, or +leading article, in your favourite newspaper, or something which you +wish to devour out of some much-talked-of pamphlet or review of the +day, it is ten to one but you experience a similar interruption from +some such kind and much attached friend. But the height of your misery +is only attained, when you come to take refuge in the writing-room, +in order to write a letter of more than ordinary importance, and +requiring great care in the arrangement of its subject, as well +as in the choice of its expressions. Then it is, that among those +employed at the different tables, you are certain to find some two +or more idle scribblers, who go not there really to write, but who, +notwithstanding, waste more of the writing materials belonging to +the club, than all the rest of its members put together, in order +to give themselves importance, by an affectation of much business, +and high correspondence. Amongst these there is probably one, who, +after allowing you to get down to the bottom of your first page, and +fairly into your subject, suddenly, and as if accidentally descries +you, and rushing across to salute you, rivets himself on the floor +close to your chair, and goes on ear-wigging you with his important +secrets, whilst he is all the time curiously drinking in your's, +from your half-written letter, which lies open before him. Or, if you +should have the good fortune to escape from such a jackal as this, +then you will find the other men of his kidney, who may be sitting +at the different tables with the affectation of writing, carrying +on such a battery of loud talk across the room, as altogether to +distract your attention. In vain do you try to control your thoughts +within their proper current. They are continually jostled aside by +some half-caught sentence, which sets your mind working in some wrong +direction, merely to have it again driven off at a tangent into some +other, which is equally foreign to that subject to which you would +confine it. In vain do you rub your brow, cover your eyes, and gnaw +your pen; every thought but the right thought is forced upon you, +until at last, in utter despair, you start to your feet, snatch up +your blotted and often corrected letter, tear it into shreds, commit +it to the flames, and, seizing your hat, you abruptly hurry homewards, +duly execrating, as you go, all club-houses, and those many men of +annoyance with which clubs are so universally afflicted. + +Grant.--Your picture is a lively one, Clifford, and in its general +features most just. Though our London clubs have many advantages, this +lonely house of Inchrory is certainly better for our present purpose. + +Author.--Gentlemen, unless you mean to enact here the part of some +of those London club-annoyance-givers, which you, Clifford, have +so well described, I think you had better drop your conversation, +and allow Mr. Macpherson to proceed with his story. + +Clifford.--I stand corrected;--then allow me to light a fresh cigar; +and now, Mr. Macpherson, pray go on with Serjeant John Smith. + + + + + + + + +THE LEGEND OF SERJEANT JOHN SMITH'S ADVENTURES CONTINUED. + + +You will remember, gentlemen, that when I was interrupted, I was about +to follow John Smith on his march with Captain M'Taggart. Well, you +see, Prince Charles Edward chanced to be at this time at Kilravock +Castle, the ancient seat of the Roses. Thither the sagacious captain +thought it good policy to present himself, with the motley company, +the greater number of the individuals of which he had himself +collected. There he received his due meed of praise for his zeal, +with large promises of future preferment for his energetic exertions +in the Prince's cause. But although the Captain thus took especial +care to serve himself in the first place, he made a point of strictly +keeping his own promise to John Smith, for he did present him to +the Prince, along with some five or six other recruits, whom he had +cajoled to follow him, somewhat in the way he had cajoled John. But +this their presentation was more with a view of enhancing the value +of his own zeal and services, for his own private ends, than for the +purpose, or with the hope of benefiting them in any way. The Prince +came out to the lawn with M'Taggart, and some of his own immediate +attendants. The men were presented to him by name; and John Smith was +especially noticed by him. He spoke to each of them in succession; +and then, clapping John familiarly on the shoulder,-- + +"My brave fellows," said he, "you have a glorious career before +you. The enemy advances into our very hands. I trust we shall soon +have an opportunity of fighting together, side by side. Meanwhile, go, +join the gallant army which I have so lately left at Culloden, eagerly +waiting the approach of our foes. I shall see you very soon, and I +shall not forget you." So saying, he took off his Highland bonnet; +and, whilst a gentle zephyr sported and played with his fair curls, +he bowed gracefully to the men, and then retired into the house. + +"She's fichts to ta last trap o' her bluids for ta ponny +Princey!" cried John, with an enthusiasm which was cordially responded +to by shouts from all present. + +M'Taggart then gave the word, and the party wheeled off on their +march in the direction of Inverness, in the vicinity of which town +the Prince's army was encamped. Their way lay down through the parish +of Petty, and past Castle-Stuart. As they moved on, they were every +where loudly cheered by the populace--men, women, and children, who +turned out to meet them, and showered praises and blessings upon them; +and this friendly welcome seemed to await them all along their route, +till they joined the main body of their forces, which lay about and +above the mansion house of Culloden. + +John Smith would have much preferred to have placed himself under the +standard of the Mackintosh, whom the Smiths or Gowe, the descendants of +the celebrated Gowin Cromb, who fought on the Inch of Perth, held to be +their chief, as head of the Clan-Chattan. But M'Taggart was unwilling +to lose the personal support of so promising a soldier. Perhaps +also he began to feel a certain interest in the young man; and he +accordingly advised him to stick close to him at all times. + +"Stick you by me, John," said he--"stick close by my side; I shall +then be able to see what you do, as well as to give a fair and +honest, and I trust not unfavourable report of the gallant deeds +which your brave spirit may prompt you to perform. Depend upon it, +with my frequent opportunities of obtaining access to the Prince, +I can do as much good for you, at least, as any Mackintosh." + +On the night of the 14th of April then, John Smith lay with M'Taggart +and his company, among the whin and juniper bushes in the wood of +Culloden, where the greater part of the Jacobite army that night +disposed of themselves. Whatever might have been the ill-provided +state of the other portions of the Prince's troops, that with which +John was now consorted, had no reason to complain of any want of those +refreshments which human nature requires, and which are so important +to soldiers. Large fires were speedily kindled; and the Pensassenach's +great sow, with all her little pigs, and the poor woman's poultry +of all kinds, together with some few similar delicacies which had +elsewhere been picked up here and there, were soon divided, and +prepared to undergo such rude cookery as each individual could command; +and these, with the bread and cheese, and other such provisions, +which they had carried off from the Pensassenach, as well as from +some other houses, enabled them to spread for themselves what might +be called a vurra liberal table in the wilderness. But the savoury +odour which their culinary operations diffused around, brought hungry +Highlanders from every quarter of the wood, like wolves upon them, +so that each man of their party was fain to gobble up as much as +he could swallow in haste, lest he should fail to secure to himself +enough to satisfy his hunger, ere the whole feast should disappear +under the active jaws of those intruders. The liquor was more under +their own control. The flask was allowed to circulate through the +hands of those only to whom it most properly belonged by the right of +capture. John, for his part, had a good tasse of the Pensassenach's +brandy; and the smack did not seem to savour the worse within his lips, +because it was prefaced with the toast of--"Success to the Prince, +and confusion to the Duke of Cumberland!" + +After this their refreshment, the men and officers disposed themselves +to sleep around the fires of their bivouac, each in a natural bed +of his own selection, John Smith, being a pious young man, retired +under the shelter of a large juniper bush, and having there offered +up his evening prayer to God, he wrapped himself up in his plaid, +and consigned himself to sleep. How long he had slept he knew not; +when, as he turned in his lair to change his position, his eye caught +a dim human figure, which floated, as it were, in the air, stiff +and erect, immediately under the high projecting limb of a great fir +tree, that grew at some twenty paces distant from the spot where he +lay. The figure seemed to have a preternatural power of supporting +itself; and as the breeze wailed and moaned through the boughs, +it appeared alternately to advance and to recede again with a slow +tremulous motion. John's heart, stout as it was against every thing +of earthly mould, began to beat quick, and finally to thump against +his very ribs, with all manner of superstitious fears. He gazed and +trembled, without the power of rising, which he would have fain done, +not for the purpose of investigating the mystery, but to take the +wiser course of looking out for some other place of repose, where +he might hope to escape from the appalling contemplation of this +strange and most unaccountable apparition. He lay staring then at it +in a cold sweat of fright, whilst the faint glimmering light from the +nearest fire, as it rose or fell, now made it somewhat more visible, +and now again somewhat more dim. At length, an accidental fall of +some of the half burnt fuel, sent up a transient gleam that fully +illuminated the ghastly countenance of the spectre, when, to John's +horror, he recognised the pale and corpse-like features of Mr. William +Dallas, the packman, whom he had left so ingeniously inserted into +the sack, and deposited in the Pensassenach's lint-pot. Though the +gag was gone, the mouth was wide open, and the large, protruded, +and glazed eye-balls, glared fearfully upon him. Though the light +was not sufficient to display the figure correctly, John's fancy +made him vividly behold the sack. He would have spoken if he could; +but he felt that the apparition of a murdered man was floating before +him. His throat grew dry of a sudden. He gasped--but could not utter a +word. He doubted not that the packman had been forgotten by Morag, and +that, having fallen down into the water through cold and exhaustion, +the wretch had at last miserably perished; and he came very naturally +to the conclusion, that he who had put the unfortunate man there, was +now doomed to be henceforth continually haunted by his ghost. Fain +would he have shut out this horrible sight, by closing his eyes, or +by drawing his plaid over them; but this he was afraid to do, lest +the object of his dread should swim towards him through the air, and +congeal his very life's-blood by its freezing touch. Much as he loved +Morag, he had some difficulty in refraining from inwardly cursing +her, for her supposed neglect of his express injunctions to relieve +the packman from the pool. As he stared on this dreadful apparition, +the flickering gleam from the faggot sunk again, and the countenance +again grew dim; but John seemed still to see it in all its intensity +of illumination. No more rest had he that night. Still, as he gazed +on the figure, he again and again fancied that he saw it gradually +and silently gliding nearer and nearer to him. The only relief he had +was in fervent and earnest prayers, which he confusedly murmured, +from time to time, in Gaelic. He eagerly petitioned for daylight, +hoping that the morning air might remove all such unrealities from +the earth. At length, the eastern horizon began to give forth the +partial glimmer of dawn; but John was somewhat surprised to find, +that, instead of the apparition fading away before it, the outlines +of its horrible figure became gradually more and more distinct as it +advanced, until even the features were by degrees rendered visible. But +although John, by this time, began to discover that his fancy had +supplied the sack, he now perceived something which he had not been +able to see before, and that was, a thin rope which hung down from the +horizontal limb of the fir tree, and suspended, by its lower extremity, +the body of the poor packman by the neck. John was much shocked by +this discovery. But he could not help thanking God that he was thus +acquitted of the wretched man's death; and after the misery that he +had suffered from the supposed presence of the apparition of a man who +had been drowned through his means, however innocently, the relief +he now experienced was immense. He called up some of his comrades +to explain the mystery; and from them he learned, that Mr. Dallas +had been caught in the early part of the night, in the very act of +attempting to carry off Captain M'Taggart's horse from its piquet, +and that he had been instantly tucked up to the bough of the fir tree, +without even the ceremony of a trial. + +The young Prince Charley was in the field by an early hour on the +morning of the 15th, and being all alive to the critical nature of +his circumstances, and by no means certain as yet how near the enemy +might by this time be to him, he judged it important to collect, +and to draw up his army on the most favourable ground he could find +in the neighbourhood. He therefore marched them up the high, partly +flattish, and partly sloping ridge, which, though commonly called +Culloden Moor, from its being situated immediately above the house and +grounds of that place, has in reality the name of Drummossie. He led +them to a part of this ground, a little to the south eastward of their +previous position in the wood of Culloden, and there he drew them up +in order of battle. There they were most injudiciously kept lying on +their arms the whole day, and if Captain M'Taggart's men had feasted +tolerably well the previous night, their commons were any thing but +plentiful during the time they occupied that position. It was not in +the nature of things, that subordination could be so strictly preserved +in the Prince's army, as it was in that of the Duke of Cumberland. I, +who am well practeesed in the discipline of boys, gentlemen, know +very well that it would be impossible to bring a regiment of them +under immediate command, if the individuals composing it were to +be collected together all at once, raw and untaught, from different +parts of the district. It is only by bringing one or two at a time, +into the already great disciplined mass, that either a schoolmaster, +or a field-marischal can promise to have his troops always well +under control. By the time evening came, the officers, as well as +the men of the Prince's army, began to suffer under the resistless +orders of a commander to whom no human being can say nay. Hunger, +I may say, was rugging at their vurra hearts, and as they all saw, +or supposed that they saw, reason to believe that there was no chance +of the enemy coming upon them that night, many of them went off to +Inverness and elsewhere, in search of food. M'Taggart himself could +not resist those internal admonitions, which his stomach was so +urgently giving him from time to time, and accordingly, John Smith +conceived he was guilty of no great dereliction of duty, in strictly +following the first order which his captain had given him, viz., to +"stick by his side," which he at once resolved to do, as he saw him +go off to look for something to support nature. + +But the captain and his man had hardly got a quarter of a mile on +the road to Inverness, when they, with other stragglers, were called +back by a mounted officer, who was sent, with all speed, after them, +to tell them that they must return, in order to march immediately. The +object of their march was that ill-conceived, worse managed, and most +unlucky expedition for a night attack on the Duke of Cumberland's +camp at Nairn, which had that evening been so hastily planned. Hungry +as they were they had no choice but to obey, and accordingly they +hurried to their standards. The word was given, and after having been +harassed by marching all night, without food or refreshment of any +kind, they at last got only near enough to Nairn just to enable them +to discover that day must infallibly break before they could reach +the enemy's camp, and that consequently no surprise could possibly +take place. Disheartened by this failure, they were led back to their +ground, where they arrived in so very faint and jaded a condition, +that even to go in search of food was beyond their strength, so that +they sank down in irregular groups over the field, and fell asleep for +a time. Awakened by hunger after a very brief slumber, they arose to +forage. M'Taggart, and some of his party, and John Smith amongst the +rest, went prowling across the river Nairn, which ran to the south of +their position, and there they caught and killed a sheep. They soon +managed to kindle a fire, and to subdivide the animal into fragments, +but ere each man had time to broil his morsel, an alarm was given +from their camp. Like ravenous savages they tore up and devoured +as much of the half raw flesh as haste would allow them to swallow, +and hurrying back, they reached their post about eight o'clock in the +morning, when they found that the Duke of Cumberland was approaching +with his army in full march. + +The position chosen by the Prince as that where he was to make his +stand on that memorable day, the 16th of April, was by no means very +wisely or very well selected. It was a little way to the westward +of that which his army had occupied on the previous day. Somewhat +in advance, and to the right of his ground, there stood the walls +of an enclosure, which the experienced eye of Lord George Murray +soon enabled him to perceive, and he was at once so convinced that +they presented too advantageous a cover to the assailing enemy, +to be neglected by them, that he would fain have moved forward with +a party to have broken them down, had time remained to have enabled +him to have effected his purpose. But the Duke of Cumberland's army +was already in sight, advancing in three columns, steadily over the +heath, from Dalcross Castle, the tower of which was seen rising +towards its eastern extremity. The Highlanders were at this time +dwindled to a mere handful, and some of the best friends of the cause +of the Stewarts who were present, and perhaps even the young Prince +himself, began to believe that he had been traitorously deserted. But +the alarm had no sooner been fully spread by the clang of the pipes, +and the shrill notes of the bugles, than small and irregular streams +of armed men, in various coloured tartans, were seen rushing towards +their common position, like mountain rills towards some Highland lake, +and filling up the vacant ranks with all manner of expedition. Many a +brave fellow, who had gone to look for something to satisfy the craving +of an empty stomach, came hurrying back with as great a void as he had +carried away with him, because he preferred fighting for him whom he +conscientiously believed to be his king, to remaining ingloriously +to subdue that hunger which was absolutely consuming him. No one +was wilfully absent who could possibly contrive to be present, but +yet the urgent demands of the demon of starvation, to which many of +them had yielded, had very considerably thinned their numbers, and, +in addition to this source of weakness, there was another obvious one, +arising from the physical strength of those who were present being +wofully diminished by the want they had endured, and the fatigue they +had undergone. But with all these disadvantages the heroic souls of +those who were on the field remained firm and resolute. + +John Smith's military knowledge was then too small to allow him to form +any judgment of the state of affairs, far less to enable him to carry +off, or to describe, any thing like the general arrangement of the +order of battle on both sides. He could not even tell very well what +regiments his corps was posted with: he only knew this, that according +to the order he had received he stuck close to Captain M'Taggart. He +always remembered with enthusiasm, indeed, that the Prince rode through +the ranks with his attendants, doing all that he could to encourage +his men, and that when he passed by where John himself stood, he +smiled on him like an angel, and bid him do his duty like a man. + +"Och, hoch!" cried John, with an exultation, which arose from the +circumstance of his not being in the least aware that every individual +near him had, like him, flattered himself that he was the person +so distinguished.--"Fa wad hae soughts tat ta ponny Princey wad hae +mindit on poor Shon Smiss? Fod, but she wad fichts for her till she +was cut to collops!" + +But John had little opportunity of fighting, though he appears to have +borne plenty of the brunt of the battle. There were two cannons placed +in each space between the battalions composing the first line of the +Duke of Cumberland's army, and these were so well served as to create a +fearful carnage among the Highland ranks. To this dreadful discharge +John Smith stood exposed, with men falling by dozens around him, +mutilated and mashed, and exhibiting death in all his most horrible +forms, till, to use his own very expressive words,--"She was bitin' +her ain lips for angher tat she could not get at tem." But before John +could get at them, the English dragoons, who, under cover of the walls +of the enclosure I have mentioned, had advanced by the right of the +Highland army, finally broke through the fence, and getting in behind +their first line, came cutting and slashing on their backs, whilst +the Campbells were attacking them in front, and mowing them down like +grass. Then, indeed, did the melée become desperate, and then was it +that John began to bestir himself in earnest. Throwing away his plaid, +and the little bundle that it contained, he dealt deadly blows with +his broad-sword, everywhere around him. He fought with the bravery +and the perseverance of a hero. At length his bonnet was knocked from +his head, and although he was still possessed with the most anxious +desire to obey Captain M'Taggart's order to stick to his side, he was +surprised on looking about him to find that there was no M'Taggart, +no, nor any one else left near him to stick to but enemies. + +John Smith's spirit was undaunted, so that, seeing he had no one else +to stick to, he now resolved to stick to his foes, to the last drop +of life's blood that was within him. Furiously and fatally did he cut +and thrust, and turn and cut and thrust again, at all who opposed him; +but he was so overwhelmed by opponents, that in the midst of the blood, +and wounds, and death which he was thus dealing in all directions, he +received a desperate sabre cut, which, descending on him from above, +entirely across the crown of his bared head, felled him instantaneously +to the ground, and stretched him senseless among the heather, whilst +a deluge of blood poured from the wound over both his eyes. + +When John began partially to recover, he rubbed the half-congealed +blood from his eyelids with the back of his left hand, and looking up +and seeing that the ground was somewhat clear around him, he griped his +claymore firmly with his right hand, and raising himself to his feet, +he began to run as fast as his weak state would allow him. He thought +that he ran in the direction of Strath Nairn, and he ran whilst he had +the least strength to run, or the least power remaining in him. But +his ideas soon became confused, and the blood from the terrible +gash athwart his head trickled so fast into his eyes, that it was +continually obscuring his vision. At length he came to a large, deep +irregular hollow hag, or ditch, in a piece of moss ground, which had +been cut out for peats, and there, his brain beginning to spin round, +he sank down into the moist bottom of it to die, and as the tide of +life flowed fast from him, he was soon lost to all consciousness of +the things or events of this world. + +Whilst John was lying in this senseless state, he was recognised by one +of the fugitives, who, in making his own escape, chanced to pass by +the edge of the ditch in the moss where the poor man lay. This was a +certain Donald Murdoch, who had long burned with a hopeless flame for +black-eyed Morag. With a satisfaction that seemed to make him forget +his present jeopardy in the contemplation of the death of his rival, +he looked down from the edge of the peat hag upon the pale and bloody +corpse, and grinned with a fiendish joy. + +"Ha! there you lie!" cried he in bitter Gaelic soliloquy.--"The +fiend a bit sorry am I to see you so. You'll fling or dance no more, +else I'm mistaken.--Stay!--is not that the bit of blue ribbon that +Morag tied round his neck, the last time that we had a dance in the +barn? I'll secure that, it may be of some use to me;" and so saying +he let himself down into the peat hag, hastily undid the piece of +ribbon,--and then continued his flight with all manner of expedition. + +Following the downward course of the river Nairn, running at one time, +and ducking and diving into bushes, and behind walls at another, to +avoid the stragglers who were in pursuit, he by degrees gained some +miles of distance from the fatal field, and coming to a little brook, +he ventured to halt for a moment, to quench his raging thirst. As he +lay gulping down the crystal fluid, he was startled by hearing his +own name, and by being addressed in Gaelic. + +"Donald Murdoch!--Oh, Donald Murdoch, can you tell me is John Smith +safe? Oh, those fearful cannons how they thundered!--Oh, tell me, +is John Smith safe?--Oh, tell me! tell me!" + +"Morag!" cried Donald, much surprised, but very much relieved +to find that it was no one whom he had any cause to be afraid +of,--"Morag!--What brought you so far from home on such a day as this?" + +"Oh Donald!" replied Morag, "I came to look after John Smith;--oh, +grant that he be safe!" + +"Safe enough, Morag," replied Donald, galled by jealousy. "I'll +warrant nothing in this world will harm him now." + +"What say you?" cried Morag. "Oh, tell me! tell me truly if he +be safe?" + +"I saw John Smith lying dead in a moss hole, his skull cleft by a +dragoon's sword," replied Donald with malicious coolness. + +"What?" cried Morag, wringing her hands, "John Smith dead! But no! it +is impossible!--and you are a lying loon, that would try to deceive me, +by telling me what I well enough know you would wish to be true. God +forgive you, Donald, for such cruel knavery!" + +"Thanks to ye, Morag, for your civility," replied Donald Murdoch +calmly; "but if you wont believe me, believe that bit of ribbon--see, +the very bit of blue ribbon you tied round John Smith's neck, the +night you last so slighted me at the dance in the barn. See, it is +partly died red in his life's blood." + +"It is the ribbon!" cried Morag, snatching it from his hand with +excessive agitation, and kissing it over and over again, and then +bursting into tears. "Alas! alas! it must be too true! What will become +of poor Morag!--why did I not go with him! What is this world to poor +desolate Morag now?--And yet--he may be but wounded after all. It +must be so--he cannot be killed. Where did you leave him?--quick, +tell me!--oh, tell me, Donald. Why do we tarry here? let us forward +and seek him!--there may be life in him yet, and whilst there is life +there is hope. Let me pass, Donald; I will fly to seek him!" + +"I love you too well to let you pass on so foolish and dangerous an +errand," said Donald, endeavouring to detain her. "I tell you that +John Smith is dead; but you know, Morag, you will always find a friend +and a lover in me. So think no more----" + +"I will pass, Donald," cried Morag, interrupting him, and making a +determined attempt to rush past him. + +"That you shall not," replied Donald, catching her in his arms. + +"Help, help!" cried Morag, struggling with all her might, and with +great vigour too, against his exertions to hold her. + +At this moment the trampling of a horse was heard, and a mounted +dragoon came cantering down into the hollow. His sabre gleamed in the +air--and Donald Murdoch fell headlong down the bank into the little +rill, his skull nearly cleft in two, and perfectly bereft of life. + +"A plague on the lousy Scot!" said the trooper, scanning the corpse +of his victim with a searching eye. "His life was not worth the +taking, had it not been, that the more of the rascally race that +are put out of this world, the better for the honest men that are +to remain in it, and therefore it was in the way of my duty to cut +him down. There is nought on his beggarly carcase to benefit any one +but the crows.--And so the knave would have kissed thee against thy +will, my bonny black-eyed wench. Well, 'tis no wonder thou shouldst +have scorned that carotty-pated fellow; you showed your taste in so +doing, my dear: and now you shall be rewarded by having a somewhat +better sweetheart.--Come!" continued he, alighting from his charger, +and approaching the agitated and panting girl--"Come, a kiss from +the lips of beauty is the best reward for brave deeds; and no one +deserves this reward better than I do, for brave deeds have I this +day performed. Why do you not speak, my dear? Have you no Christian +language to give me? Can it be possible that these pretty pouting +lips have no language but that of the savages of this country?--Come, +then, we must try the kissing language; I have always found that to +be well understood in all parts of the world." + +"Petter tak' Tonald's pig puss o' money first," said Morag, pointing +down to the corpse in the hollow. + +"Ha! money saidst thou, my gay girl?" cried the trooper. "Who would +have thought of a purse of money being in the pouch of such a miserable +rascally savage as that? But the best apple may sometimes have the +coarsest and most unpromising rhind; and so that fellow, unseemly and +wretched as he appears, may perchance have a well-lined purse after +all. If it be so, girl, I shall say that thy language is like the talk +of an angel. Then do you hold the rein of this bridle, do you see, +till I make sure of the coin in the first place--best secure that, +for no one can say what mischance may come; or whether some comrade +may not appear with a claim to go snacks with me. So lay hold of the +bridle, do you hear, and dont be afraid of old Canterbury, for the +brute is as quiet as a lamb." + +Morag took the bridle. The trooper descended the bank, and he had +scarcely stooped over the body to commence his search for the dead +man's supposed purse, when the active girl, well accustomed to ride +horses in all manner of ways, vaulted into the saddle, and kicking +her heels into Canterbury's side, she was out of the hollow in a +moment. Looking over her shoulder, after she had gone some distance, +she beheld the raging dragoon puffing, storming, and swearing, and +striding after her, with, what might be called, that dignified sort +of agility, to which he was enforced by the weighty thraldom of his +immense jack-boots. Bewildered by the terror and the anxiety of her +escape, she flew over the country, for some time, without knowing +which way she fled. At length she began to recover her recollection, +so far as to enable her to recur to the object which had prompted her +to leave home. On the summit of a knoll she checked her steed--surveyed +the country,--and the whole tide of her feelings returning upon her; +she urged the animal furiously forward in the direction of the fatal +field of Culloden. + +She had not proceeded far, when, on coming suddenly to the edge of a +rough little stoney ravine, she discovered five troopers refreshing +themselves and their horses from the little brook that had its course +through the bottom. She reined back her horse, with the intention of +stealing round to some other point of passage; but as she did so, a +shout arose from the hollow of the dell.--She had been perceived. In +an instant the mounted riders rushed, one after another, out of the +ravine, and she had no chance of escape left her, but to ride as +hard as the beast that carried her could fly, in the very opposite +direction to that which she had hitherto pursued, for there was no +other course of flight left open to her. + +The five troopers were now in full chase after Morag, shouting out as +they rode, and urging on their horses to the top of their speed. The +ground, though rough, stony, and furzy, was for the most part firm +enough, and the poor girl, now driven from that purpose to which her +strong attachment to John Smith had so powerfully impelled her, and +being distracted by her griefs and her fears, spared not the animal +she rode, but forced him, by every means she could employ, either by +hands, limbs, or voice, to the utmost exertion of every muscle. + +"Lord, how she does ride!" said one trooper to the others; "I wish +that she beant some of them witches, as, they say, be bred in this +here uncanny country of Scotland." + +"Bless you no, man," said another; "them devils as you speak of ride +on broomsticks. Now, I'se much mistaken an' that be not Tom Dickenson's +horse Canterbury." + +"Zounds, I believe you are right, Hall," said another man; "but that +beant no proof that she aint a witch, for nothing but a she-devil, +wot can ride on a broom, could ride ould Canterbury in that 'ere +fashion, I say." + +"Witch or devil, my boys, let us ketch her if we can," shouted +another.--"Hurrah! hurrah!" + +"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" re-echoed the others, burying their spurs +in their horses' sides, and bending forward, and grinning with very +eagerness. + +For several miles Morag kept the full distance she had at first +gained on her pursuers, but having got into a road, fenced by a +rough stone wall upon one side, and a broad and very deep ditch on +the other, the troopers, if possible, doubled their speed, in the +full conviction that they must now very soon come up with her, and +capture her. Still Morag flew,--but as she every moment cast her eyes +over one or other of her shoulders, she was terrified to see that the +troopers were visibly gaining upon her. The road before her turned +suddenly at an angle,--and she had no sooner doubled it, than, there, +to her unspeakable horror--in the very midst of the way--stood Tom +Dickenson, the dismounted dragoon from whom she had taken the very +charger, called Canterbury, which she then rode. The time of the +action of what followed was very brief. For an instant she reined up +her horse till he was thrown back on his haunches.--Tom Dickenson's +sword-blade glittered in the sun. + +"By the god of war, but I have you now!" cried he in a fury. + +The triumphant shouts of Morag's pursuers increased, as they neared +her, and beheld the position in which she was now placed. No weapon +had she, but the large pair of scissors that hung dangling from her +side, in company with her pincushion. In desperation she grasped the +sharp-pointed implement dagger fashion, and directed old Canterbury's +head towards the ditch. Dickenson saw her intention, and wishing +to counteract it, he rushed to the edge of the ditch. The hand of +Morag which held the scissors descended on the flank of the horse, +and in defiance of his master, who stood in his way, and the gleaming +weapon with which he threatened him, old Canterbury, goaded by the +pain of the sharp wound inflicted on him, sprang towards the leap +with a wild energy, and despite of the cut, which deprived him of an +ear, and sheared a large slice of the skin off one side of his neck, +he plunged the unlucky Tom Dickenson backwards, swash into the water, +and carried his burden fairly over the ditch. + +Morag tarried not to look behind her, until she had scoured across +a piece of moorish pasture land, and then casting her eyes over one +shoulder, she perceived that only two of the troopers had cleared +the ditch, and that the others had either failed in doing so, or +were engaged in hauling their half-drowned comrade out of it. The +two men who had taken the leap, however, were again hard after her, +shouting as before, and evidently gaining upon her. The moment she +perceived this, she dashed into a wide piece of mossy, boggy ground, +a description of soil with which she was well acquainted. There the +chase became intricate and complicated. Now her pursuers were so near +to her, as to believe that they were on the very point of seizing her, +and again some impassable obstacle would throw them quite out, and give +her the advantage of them. Various were the slips and plunges which +the horses made; but ere she had threaded through three-fourths of the +snares which she met with, she had the satisfaction of beholding one +of the riders who followed her, fairly unhorsed, and hauling at the +bridle of his beast, the head and neck of which alone appeared from +the slough, in which the rest of the poor animal was engulfed. The +man called loudly to his comrade, but he was too keenly intent on the +pursuit, to give heed to him. The hard ground was near at hand, and +he pushed on after Morag, who was now making towards it. She reached +it, and again she plied the points of her scissors on the heaving +flanks of old Canterbury. But she became sensible that his pace was +fast flagging,--and that the trooper was rapidly gaining on her. In +despair she made towards a small patch of natural wood.--She was +already within a short distance of it. But the blowing and snorting +of the horse behind her, and the blaspheming of his rider, came +every instant more distinctly upon her ear. Some fifty or an hundred +yards only now lay between her and the wood. Again, in desperation, +she gave the point of the scissors to her steed--when, all at once +he stopped--staggered--and, faint with fatigue and loss of blood, +old Canterbury fell forward headlong on the grass. + +"Hurrah!" cried the trooper, who was close at his heels, "witch or +no witch, I think I'll grapple with thee now." + +He threw himself from his heaving horse, and rushed towards Morag. But +she was already on her legs, and scouring away like a hare for the +covert. Jack-booted, and otherwise encumbered as he was, the bulky +trooper strode after her like a second Goliah of Gath, devouring the +way with as much expedition as he could possibly use. But Morag's +speed was like that of the wind, and he beheld her dive in among the +underwood before he had covered half the distance. + +"A very witch in rayal arnest!" exclaimed the trooper, slackening +his pace in dismay and disappointment. And then turning towards +his comrade, who, having by this time succeeded in extricating his +horse from the slough, was now coming cantering towards him, "Hollo, +Bill!" shouted he, "I've run the blasted witch home here.--Come away, +man, do; for if so be that she dont arth like a badger, or furnish +herself with a new horse to her own fancy out of one of 'em 'ere +broom bushes, this covert aint so large but we must sartinly find +her. So come along, man, and be active." + +But we must now return to poor John Smith, whom we have too long +left for dead in the bottom of a peat-hag. The cold and astringent +moss-water flowing about his head, by degrees checked the effusion +of his blood, and at length he began to revive. + +When his senses returned to him, he gathered himself up, and leaning +his back against the perpendicular face of the peat bank above him, +he drank a little water from the hollow of his hand, and then washed +away the clotted blood from his eyes. The first object that broke upon +his newly recovered vision was an English trooper riding furiously +up to him, with his brandished sword. John was immediately persuaded +that he was a doomed man, for he felt that, in his case, resistance +was altogether out of the question. He threw himself on his back in +the bottom of the broad deep cut in the peat-hag. The trooper came +up, and having no time to dismount, he stooped from his saddle and +made one or two ineffectual cuts at the poor man. The horse shyed at +John's bloody head as it was raised in terror from the peat-hag, and +then the animal reared back as he felt the soft mossy ground sinking +under him. The trooper was determined,--got angry, and spurred the +beast forward, but the horse became obstinate and restive. At length +the trooper succeeded in bringing him up again to the edge of the +peat-hag; but just as he was craning his neck over its brink, John, +roused by desperation, pricked the creature's nose with the point of +his claymore. It so happened that he accidentally did this, at the +very instant that the irascible trooper was giving his horse a dig +with his spurs, and the consequence of these double, though antagonist +stimulis, was, that the brute made a desperate spring, and carried +himself and his rider clean over the hag-ditch, John Smith and all, +and then he ran off with his master through the broken moss-ground, +scattering the heaps of drying peats to right and left, until horse +and man were rolled over and over into the plashy bog. + +Uninjured, except as to his gay clothes and accoutrements, which were +speedily dyed of a rich chocolate hue, the trooper arose in a rage, +and could he have by any means safely left his horse so as to have +secured his not running away, he would have charged the dying man on +foot, and so he would have very speedily sacrificed him; but dreading +to lose his charger if he should abandon him, he mounted him again, +and was in the act of returning to the attack, with the determination +of putting John to death, at all hazards, either by steel or by lead, +when he was arrested by the voice of his officer, who was then passing +along a road tract, at some little distance, with a few of his troop, +and who called out to him in a loud authoritative tone, "Come away +you, Jem Barnard! Why dont you follow the living? Why waste time by +cutting at the dying or dead?" + +On hearing this command, the trooper uttered a half-smothered curse, +and unwillingly turned to ride after his comrades, throwing back bitter +execrations on John Smith as he went. John's tongue was otherwise +employed. He used it for the better purpose of returning thanks to +that Almighty Providence who had thus so wonderfully protected him. + +After this pious mental exercise, John thought that he felt himself +somewhat better. He made a feeble effort to rise, but it was altogether +abortive. The blood still continued to flow from his head--he began +to feel very faint, and a raging thirst attacked him. Turning himself +round in the peat-hag, he contrived to lap up a considerable quantity +of the moss water, which, however muddy and distasteful it might be, +refreshed him so much as to give him strength sufficient to raise +himself up a little, so as to enable him to extend the circuit of his +view. He had now a moment's leisure to look about him, and to consider, +as well as the confusion of his ideas would allow him, what he had +best to do. But what was his surprise and dismay to see, that although +many were yet flying in all directions, and many more pursuing after +them, whole battalions of the enemy still remained unbroken in the +vicinity of the field of battle, and that some were marching up, in +close order, both to the right and left of him. There was but little +time left him for farther consideration, as one of these battalions +was so near to him, that he saw, from the course it was holding, that +it must soon march directly over the spot where he was. The first +thought that struck him was that his best plan would be to lie down +and feign that he was dead. But it immediately afterwards occurred to +him that a thrust from some curious or malicious person, who might be +the bearer of one of those bayonets, which already glittered in his +eyes, might do his business even more effectually than the sword of +the trooper might have done. He became convinced that he had nothing +left for it but to run. But although he was now somewhat revived, and +that the dread of death gave new strength to exhausted nature, he felt +persuaded of the truth, that if his wound should continue to bleed, +as it had already again began to do, his race could not be a long one +in any sense of the word, even if he should have the wonderful luck +to escape the chance of its being shortened by the sword, bayonet, +or bullet of an enemy. To give himself some small chance of life, +John, though he was no surgeon, would have fain tried some means of +stanching the blood, but he lacked all manner of materials for any such +operation, and he could only try to cover the wound very ineffectually +with both hands, whilst the red stream continued to run down through +his fingers. At length, necessity, that great mother of invention, +and wisest of all teachers, enabled him to hit off in a moment, +a remedy, which, as it was the best he could have possibly adopted in +his present difficult and distressing situation, might perhaps, even on +an occasion where no such embarrassment exists, be found as valuable +and effective as any other which the most favourable circumstances +could afford, or the most consummate skill devise. Stooping down, +he picked up a large mass of peaty turf, of nearly a foot square, +and two or three inches thick. This had been regularly cut by the +peat-diggers, but having tumbled by chance into the bottom of the +peat-hag, it had been there lying soaking till the soft unctuous matter +of which it was composed was completely saturated with water like a +sponge. John proceeded upon no certain ratio medicandi, except this, +that as his life's blood was manifestly welling fast away from him, +he thought that the wet peat would stop the flow of it, and as his +head was in a burning fever, every fibre of his scalp seemed to call +out for the immediate application of its cold and moist surface. John +seized it then with avidity, and clapping it instantly on his head, +with the black soft oleaginous side of it next to the wound, and +the heathery top of it outwards, he pressed it down with great care +all over his skull, and then quickly secured it fast, by tying a +coarse red handkerchief over it, the ends of which he fastened very +carefully under his chin. The outward appearance of this strange +uncouth head-gear may be easily imagined, with the heather-bush rising +everywhere around his head over the red tier that bound it on, and +surmounting a countenance so rueful and bloody; but the effect within +was so wonderfully refreshing and invigorating, that he felt himself +almost immediately restored to comparative strength. He started to +his feet; and, being yet uncertain as to which way he should run, +he raised his head slowly over the peat-hag to reconnoitre. + +Now, it happened, that, at this very moment, a couple of English +foot soldiers came straggling along, thirsting for more slaughter, +and prowling about for prey and plunder. Ere John was aware of their +proximity to him, they were within a few yards of the peat-hag. As +he raised his head, he beheld them approaching with their muskets +and their bayonets reeking with gore. Believing himself to be now +utterly lost, a deep groan of despair escaped from him. The soldiers +had halted suddenly on beholding the bloody face and neck of what +scarcely seemed to be a human being, with a huge overgrown forest of +heather on the head instead of hair, appearing, as it were by magic, +out of the very earth. They started back, and stood for an instant +transfixed to the spot by superstitious fear. + +"Waunds, Gilbert, wot is that?" cried one, his eyes staring at John +with horror. + +Seeing, that as he was now discovered, his only chance lay in working +upon that dread which he saw that he had already excited, John first +gradually drew down his head below the bank, and then again raised +it slowly and portentously, and uttered another groan more deep and +ghostly and prolonged than the first. The effect was instantaneous. + +"Oh Lord! oh Lord! one of them Highland warlocks of the bog, wot +dewours men, women, and children!" cried Gilbert. "Fly--fly, Warner, +for dear life!" + +Off he ran, and his comrade staid not to question farther, but darted +away after him, and John had the satisfaction to see the two heroes, +from whom he had looked for nothing but sudden death, scouring away +over the field, and hardly daring to look behind them. + +John Smith was considerably emboldened by the discovery that his +appearance was so formidable to his foes. He again applied himself +to the consideration of the question as to which way it was best for +him to fly. He cast his eyes all over the field of action around him; +and, much to his satisfaction, he perceived that the officer at the +head of the red regiment of Englishmen, which had previously given +him so much alarm, had been so very obliging as to determine this +difficult question for him. Some movement of the flying clans, who +had retreated on Strath Nairn, had induced the officer to alter his +line of march; and, in a very short time, John had the happiness of +seeing himself very much in the rear of the red battalion, instead of +being immediately in its front, as he had formerly been. Looking to +the north-eastward, he perceived that all was comparatively clear and +quiet, so far as he could see. There were now no longer any regular +masses of men on the field, neither were there any signs of flight or +pursuit in that direction. A few stragglers were to be seen, it is +true, moving about, like evil spirits among the killed, and perhaps +performing the office of messengers of death to the wounded. Strange, +indeed, was the change that had taken place, upon that which had +been so lately a scene of stormy and desperate conflict. A few large +birds of prey were soaring high in air, in eager contemplation of that +banquet which had been so liberally spread for them on the plain by +ferocious man. But, in the immediate neighbourhood of the spot where +John Smith was, the terrified pewit had already settled down again +with confidence on her nest, the robin had again begun to chirp, +and to direct his sharp eye towards the earth in search of worms; +and the lark was again heaving herself up into the sky, giving forth +her innocent song as she rose,--all apparently utterly unconscious +that any such terrible and bloody turmoil had taken place between +different sections of the human race. John therefore made up his mind +at once; and, scrambling out of the peat-hag, he darted away over +the moor, and flying like a ghost across the very middle of the field +of battle, through the heaps of dead and dying, to the utter terror +and discomfiture of those wolves and hyenas in the shape of men--aye, +and of women too--who were preying, as well upon those who had life, +as upon those who were lifeless, he scattered them to right and left +in terror at his appalling appearance, and dived amid the thick woods +of Culloden. + +Having once found shelter among the trees, John stopped to breathe +awhile, and then he again set forward to unravel his way. It so +happened, that, as he proceeded, he chanced to come upon the very spot +where he had feasted with MacTaggart and his comrades on his mistress +the Pensassenach's sow, and the other good things which the Highlanders +had taken from her. The gnawing demon of hunger that possessed him, +inserted his fell fangs more furiously into his stomach, from very +association with the scene. What would he not have now given for +the smallest morsel of that goodly beast, the long and ample side of +which arose upon his mind's eyes, as he had beheld her carcase hanging +from the bough of a tree, previous to the rapid subdivision which it +underwent. Alas! the very thought of it was now an unreal mockery. Yet +he could not help looking anxiously around, though in vain, among the +extinguished remains of the fires of the bivouacs; and he figured to +himself the joy and comfort and refreshment he would have experienced, +if his eyes could have lighted even on a half-broiled fragment of one +of the pettitoes, which he might have picked at as he fled. John's eyes +were so intently turned to the ground, that he saw not the unfortunate +Mr. Dallas, who still dangled from the bough of the fir tree above him. + +Whilst John was poking about in this manner, earnestly turning over the +ashes, and looking amongst them as if he had been in search of a pin, +he suddenly heard the tramp of horses at some little distance. The +sound was evidently coming towards him; and he could distinguish +men's voices. He cast his eyes eagerly around him, to discover +some ready place of concealment; and now, for the first time, he +caught sight of the wasted figure of Mr. Dallas, swinging at some +distance above him, with the dull glassy eyeballs apparently fixed +upon him. His heart sank within him; for the corpse of the wretched +man seemed to typify his own immediate fate. He was paralyzed for a +moment. But the sound drew nearer; and, spying a holly-tree with a +reasonably tall stem, and a very thick and bushy head, which happened +to grow most fortunately near him, he ran towards it, reached up his +hands, seized hold of its lower branches, and, weak though he was, +the energy of self-preservation enabled him very quickly to coil +himself up amongst its dense foliage, where he sat as still as death, +and scarcely allowing himself to breathe. The holly-tree stood by the +side of a horse-track that led through the wood, and which crossed the +small open space where most of the fires of Captain M'Taggart's bivouac +had been kindled. Two troopers came riding leisurely up through the +wood along it, their horses considerably jaded by the work of the day. + +"Ha!" said one of them to the other, reining up his steed as he spoke, +just on entering the open space,--"What have we here, Jack?" + +"I should not wonder now if 'em 'ere should be the remains of the +fires of some of them rebel rascals," said Jack, with wonderful +acuteness. "Them is a proper set of waggabones, to be sure. How we +did lick the rascals! Didn't we, Bob?" + +"To be sure we did, Jack," replied Bob. + +"But you and I aint made much on it, arter all. I wish the captain +at the devil--so I do--for sendin' us a unting arter that officer he +was a wanting to ketch." + +"Aye," said Jack; "so do I, from the bottom of my soul. But if we +had ketcht him, I think we should 'a gained a prize, seeing that he +wur walued at twenty golden pieces by his Highness the Duke. Whoy, +who the plague could he be? Not the chap they calls Prince Charles +Stuart himself surelye? I should think that his carcase would fetch +a deal more money." + +"A deal more money indeed!" said Bob. + +"Lord bless thee, I would not sell my share of him for an underd. But +why may we not ketch him yet, Jack? Look sharp; do--and see if you +can spy ere an oak in this wood, with a head so royal as to hide this +Prince Charles Stuart in it, as that 'ere one did King Charley the +Second arter the great battle of Worcester. Zounds! what a fortin +you and I should make, an' we could only ketch him!" + +"Pooh!" replied Jack, moving so close to the little holly, that his +head and that of John Smith were within two yards of each other--"Pooh +man! there beant no oaks bigger than this here holly, in all this +blasted, cold, and wretched country." And, at the same time, he gave +its bushy head a thwack with the flat of his sword that set every +leaf of it in motion, and John's heart, body, muscles, and nerves, +shaking in sympathy with them. + +"Beg your pardon," said Bob. "I was in a great big wood yesterday--that +same, I mean, that spreads abroad all over the country, above that +'ere ould castle wot they calls Cawdor Castle. And sitch oak trees +as I seed there! My heyes, some on 'em had heads as would cover half +a troop! But, hark ye, Jack! Is there no tree, think ye, fit to have +a man in't but an oak? Dost not think that a good stout fir-tree now +might support a man?" + +"Oh," replied Jack, "surelye, surelye. This here holly, for instance, +might hide a man in its head;"--and, as he said so, he gave the holly +another thwack, that, for a few moments, banished every drop of blood +from the heart of John Smith. "But your oak is your only tree for +concealing your King or your Prince; for, as the old rhyme has it, + + + 'The royal oak is not a joke.' + + +As for your firs, they may be well enough for affording a refuge to +your men of smaller mark." + +"Then you don't think that 'ere feller, wot hangs from yonder fir +tree, can be a King or a Prince, do you, Jack?" demanded Bob, laughing +heartily at his own joke. + +"My heyes!" exclaimed Jack, rubbing his optics, and looking +earnestly for some time at the corpse of Mr. Dallas; "sure I cannot +be mistaken? As I'm a soldier, that 'ere is the very face, figure, +clothes, and, above all, short leg and queer shoe, of the identical +feller wot sould me an ould watch, wot was of no use, because you know +it never went, and therefore it stands to reason that it could only +tell the hour twice in the twenty-four. I say surelye, surelye, that +'ere is the very feller as sould me this here ould useless watch, +for a bran new great goer. Well, if it be'ant some satisfaction to +see the feller hanging there, my name aint Jack Blunt!" + +"Them rascally rebels has robbed and murdered the poor wretch," +said Bob. + +"Well," replied Jack, "I am a right soft arted Christine; and therefore +most surelye do I forgive 'em for that same hact, if they'd never ha' +done no worse. But come Bob, my boy; an' we would be ketching kings +or princes, I doubt we mun be stirrin'." + +"Aye, aye, that's true--let's be joggin'," replied Bob. + +You may believe, gentlemen, that it was with no small satisfaction +that John Smith beheld them apply their spurs to the sides of their +weary animals. He listened to their departing footsteps until they +were beyond the reach of his hearing; and then, conscious as he felt +himself, that he was in much too weak a state to have maintained +an unequal combat against two fresh and vigorous men, with the +most distant chance of success, he put up a fervent ejaculation of +thankfulness for their departure, and his own safety. + +He was in the act of preparing himself to drop from the tree, that +he might continue his flight, and was just putting down his legs from +amid the thick foliage, when he met with a new alarm, that compelled +him to draw them up again with great expedition. Some one on foot +now came singing along up the path, and John had hardly more than +time to conceal himself again, when he beheld the person enter upon +the open space, near the holly tree where he was perched. And a very +remarkable and striking personage he was. He wore an old, soiled, +torn, and tarnished regimental coat, which, though now divested of +every shred of the lace that had once adorned it, seemed to have once +belonged to an English officer; and this was put on over a tattered +Highland kilt, from beneath which his raw-boned limbs and long horny +feet appeared uncased by any covering. A dirty canvas shirt was all +that showed itself where a waistcoat should have been, and that was +all loose at the collar, fully exhibiting a thin, long, scraggy neck, +that supported a head of extraordinary dimensions, and of the strangest +malconformation, having a countenance, in which the appearance of the +goggle eyes alone, would have been enough to have satisfied the most +transient observer of the insanity of the individual to whom they +belonged. An old worn-out drummer's cap completed his costume. He +came dancing along, with a large piece of cheese held up before him +with both hands, and he went on, singing, hoarsely and vehemently,-- + + + "Troll de roll loll--troll de loll lay; + If I could catch a reybell, I would him flay-- + Troll de roll lay--troll de roll lum-- + And out of his skin I wud make a big drum. + + +Ho! ho; ho; that wud be foine. But stay; I mun halt here, and sit +doon, and munch up mye cheese that I took so cleverly from that ould +woman.--Ho! ho! ho! ho!--How nice it is to follow the sodgers! Take +what we like--take what we like!--Ho! ho!--This is livin' like +a man! They ca'ed me daft Jock in the streets o' Perth; but our +sarjeant says as hoo that I'm to be made a captain noo.--Ho! ho!--A +captain! and to have a lang swurd by my side!--Ho! ho! ho!--I'll +be grand, very grand--and I'll fecht, and cut off the heads o' the +reybel loons!--Ho! ho! ho! + + + Troll de roll loll--troll de roll lay-- + If I could catch a reybell I wud him----" + + +"Hoch!"--roared out John Smith, his patience being now quite +exhausted, by the thought that his chance of escaping with life was +thus to be rendered doubly precarious, by the provoking delay of this +idiot.--"Hoch!" roared he again, in a yet more tremendous voice, whilst +at the same time he thrust his head--and nothing but his turf-covered +head--with his bloody countenance, partially streaked with the tiny +streams of the inky liquid that had oozed from the peat, and run down +here and there over his face;--this horrible head, I say, John thrust +forth from the foliage, and glared fearfully at the appalled songster, +who stopped dead in the midst of his stave. + +"Ah--a-ach--ha--a-ah--ha!" cried the poor idiot, in a prolonged scream +of terror that echoed through the wood, and off he flew, and was out +of sight in a moment. + +John Smith lost not another instant of time. Dropping down from the +tree, he hastily picked up a small fragment of the cheese which +the idiot had let fall in his terror and confusion, and this he +devoured with inconceivable rapacity. But although this refreshed +him a little, it stirred up his hunger to a most agonizing degree, +so that if he had had no other cause for running, he would have run +from the very internal torment he was enduring. Dashing down through +the thickest of the brakes of the wood, so as to avoid observation +as much as possible, he at last traversed the whole extent of it in +a north-easterly direction, and gained the low open country beyond +it, whence he urged on his way, until he fell into that very line of +road, in the parish of Petty, which he had so lately marched over in +an opposite direction, and under circumstances so different, with +Captain M'Taggart and his company, on the afternoon of the 14th, +just two days before. + +Remembering the whole particulars of that march, and the cheers +and the benedictions with which they had been every where greeted, +John Smith flattered himself that he had now got into a country of +friends, and that he had only to show himself at any of their doors, +wounded, weary, an' hungered and athirst, as he was, to ensure the +most charitable, compassionate, and hospitable reception. But, in so +calculating, John was ignorant of the versatility and worthlessness +of popular applause. He forgot that when he was passing to Culloden, +with the bold Captain M'Taggart and his company, they had been looked +upon as heroes marching to conquest; whilst he was now to be viewed +as a wretched runaway from a lost field. But he still more forgot, +that the same bloody, haggard countenance, and horrible head-gear, +which had been already so great a protection to him by terrifying +his enemies, could not have much chance of favourably recommending +him to his friends. + +John stumped on along the road, therefore, with comparative +cheerfulness, arising from the prospect which he now had of speedy +relief. At some little distance before him, he observed a nice, +trig-looking country girl, trudging away barefoot, in the same +direction he was travelling. He hurried on to overtake her, in order +to learn from her where he was most likely to have his raging hunger +relieved. The girl heard his footstep coming up behind her, whilst +she was yet some twenty paces a-head of him;--she turned suddenly +round to see who the person was that was about to join her, and +beholding the terrible spectre-looking figure which John presented, +she uttered a piercing shriek, and darted off along the highway, with +a speed that nothing but intense dread could have produced. Altogether +forgetful of the probable cause of her alarm, John imagined that it +must proceed from fear of the Duke of Cumberland's men, and, with +this idea in his head, he ran after her as fast as his weak state +of body would allow him, earnestly vociferating to her to stop. But +the more he ran, and the more he shouted, just so much the more ran +and screamed the terrified young woman. Another girl was seated, +with a boy, on the grassy slope of a broomy hillock, immediately +over the road, tending three cows and a few sheep. Seeing the first +girl running in the way she was doing, they hurried to the road side +to enquire the cause of her alarm, but ere they had time to ask, or +she to answer, she shot past them, and the hideous figure of John +Smith appeared. Horror-struck, and so bewildered that they hardly +knew what they were doing, both girl and boy leaped into the road, +and fled along it. A little farther on, two labourers were engaged +digging a ditch, in a mossy hollow below the road. Curiosity to know +what was the cause of all this shrieking and running, induced these +men to hasten up to the road-side. But ere they had half reached +it, they beheld John coming, and turning with sudden dismay, they +scampered off across the fields, never stopping to draw breath till +they reached their own homes. John minded them not,--but fancying +that he was gaining on the three fugitives before him, and perceiving +a small hamlet of cottages a little way on, he redoubled his exertions. + +Some dozen of persons, men, women, and children, were assembled about +a well, at what we in Scotland would call the town-end. They were +talking earnestly over the many, and most contradictory rumours, that +had reached them of the events of that day's battle, their rustic and +unwarlike souls having been so sunk, with the trepidation occasioned +by the distant sound of the heavy cannonade, that they as yet hardly +dared to speak but in whispers. Suddenly the shrieking of the three +young persons came upon their ears. They pricked them up in alarm, +and turned every eye along the road. The shrieking increased, and +the two girls and the boy appeared, with the formidable figure of +John Smith in pursuit of them. + +"The Duke's men! the Duke's men! with the devil at their head!" cried +the wise man of the hamlet in Gaelic. "Run! or we're all dead and +murdered!" + +In an instant every human head of them had disappeared, each having +burrowed under its own proper earthen hovel, with as much expedition +as would be displayed by the rabbits of a warren, when scared by a +Highland terrier. So instantaneously, and so securely, was every +little door fastened, that it was with some difficulty that the +three fugitives found places of shelter, and that too, not until +their shrieks had been multiplied ten-fold. When John Smith came up, +panting and blowing like a stranded porpus, all was snug, and the +little hamlet so silent, that if he had not caught a glimpse of the +people alive, he might have supposed that they were all dead. + +John knocked at the first door he came to.--Not a sound was returned +but the angry barking of a cur. He tried the next--and the next--and +the next--all with like success;--at last he knocked at one, whence +came a low, tremulous voice, more of ejaculation than intended for +the ear of any one without, and speaking in Gaelic. + +"Lord be about us!--Defend us from Satan, and from all his evil +spirits and works!" + +"Give me a morsel of bread, and a cup of water, for mercy's sake!" said +John, poking his head close against a small pane of dirty glass in +the mud wall, that served for a window. + +"Avoid thee, evil spirit!" said the same voice.--"Avoid thee, Satan!--O +deliver us from Satan!--Deliver us from the Prince of Darkness and +all his wicked angels!" + +"Have mercy upon me, and give me but a bit of bread, and a drop of +water, for the sake of Christ your Saviour!" cried John earnestly +again. + +"Avoid, I say, blasphemer!" replied the voice, with more energy than +before. "Name not vainly the name of my Saviour, enemy as thou art +to him and his. Begone, and tempt us not!" + +John Smith was preparing to answer and to explain, and to defend +himself from these absurd and unjust imputations against him, when +he heard the sound of a bolt drawn in the hovel immediately behind +him. Full of hope that some good and charitable Christian within, +melted by his pitiful petitions, had come to the resolution of opening +his door to relieve him, he turned hastily round. But what was his +mortification, when, instead of seeing the door opened, he beheld +the small wooden shutter of an unglazed hole in the wall, slowly and +silently pushed outwards on its hinges, until it fell aside, and then +the muzzle of a rusty fowling-piece was gradually projected, levelled, +and pointed at him. John waited not to allow him who held it to perfect +his aim. He sprang instantly aside towards the wall, and fortunately, +the tardy performance of the old and ill constructed lock enabled him +to do so, just in time to clear the way for the shower of swan-shot +which the gun discharged in a diagonal line across the way. Luckily +for John, he had thus no opportunity of judging of the weight of the +charge in his own person, but he was made sufficiently aware that it +was quite potent enough, by its effects on an unfortunate sheep-dog, +that happened to be at that moment lying peaceably gnawing a bone on +the top of a dunghill, some fifty yards down the road, on the opposite +side of the way to that where the hovel stood from which the shot had +been fired. The poor animal sprang up, and gave a loud and sharp yelp, +when he received the shot, and then followed a long and dismal howl, +after which he rolled over on his back and died. After such a hint as +this, John staid not to make farther experiments on the hospitality +of the little place, but, getting out at the farther end of its street +with all manner of expedition, he slowly proceeded on his way, weary, +faint, and heart-sunken. + +Just as sunset was approaching, he came to the door of a small single +cottage, hard by the way-side. There he knocked gently, without saying +a word. + +"Who is there?" asked a soft woman's voice in Gaelic, from within. + +"A poor man like to die with hunger and thirst," replied John in +the same language. "For the love of God give me a piece of bread, +and a drink of water." + +"You shant want that," said the good Samaritan woman within, who +promptly came to undo the door. + +"Heaven reward you!" said John fervently, as she was fumbling with the +key in the key-hole, and with an astonishing rapidity of movement in +his ideas, he felt, by anticipation, as if he was already devouring +the food he had asked for. + +"Preserve us, what's that?" cried the woman, the moment the half-opened +door had enabled her to catch a glimpse of his fearful head and +bloody features. + +The door was shut and locked in an instant; and whether it was that +the poor young lonely widow, for such she was, had fainted or not, or +whether she had felt so frightened for herself and her young child, +that she dared not to speak, all John's farther attempts to procure +an answer from her were fruitless. It was probably from the cruel +and unexpected disappointment that he here had met with, just at the +time when his hopes of relief had been highest, that his faintness +came more overpoweringly upon him. He tottered away from the widow's +door, with his head swimming strangely round, and he had not proceeded +above two or three dozen of steps, when he sank down on a green bank +by the side of the road, where he lay almost unconscious as to what +had befallen him. + +He had not lain long there, when the tender hearted widow, who +had reconnoitred him well through a single pane of glass in the +gable end of her house, began to have her fears overcome by her +compassion. Seeing that he was now at some distance from her dwelling, +she ventured again to open her door, and perceiving that he did not +stir, she retired for a minute, and then reappeared with a bottle +of milk and two barley cakes, with which she crept timorously, and +therefore slowly and cautiously, along the road. Her step became +slower and slower, as, with fear and trembling, she drew near to +John. At last, when within three or four yards of him, she halted, +and, looking back, as if to measure the distance that divided her +from her own door, she turned towards him, and ventured to address him. + +"Here, poor man," said she, setting down the cakes and the bottle of +milk on the bank. "Here is some refreshment for you." + +John Smith raised his eyes languidly as her words reached him, and +spying the food she had brought him, he started up and proceeded to +seize upon it with an energy which no one could have believed was +yet left in him; and, as the benevolent widow was flying back with a +beating heart to her cottage, she heard his thanks and benedictions +coming thickly and loudly after her. John devoured the barley cakes, +and drank the milk, and felt wonderfully refreshed, and then, placing +the bottle on the bank in view of the cottage, he knelt down and +offered up his thanks to God for his mercy, and prayed for blessings +on the head of her who had relieved him. He then arose, and having +waved his hand two or three times towards the cottage in token of his +gratitude, he proceeded with some degree of spirit on his journey. I +may here remark, gentlemen, that however those worthies who denied +John admittance to their houses may have passed the night, I may +venture to pronounce, and that with some probability of truth too, +that the sleep of that virtuous young widow, with her innocent child +in her arms, was as sweet and refreshing as the purity and balminess +of her previous reflections could make it. + +John Smith had not gone far on his way till the sun went down; +but, as the moon was up, and he knew his road sufficiently well, +he continued to trudge on without fear, until he approached the +old walls of an ancient church, the burying yard of which had an +ugly reputation for being haunted, and then he began to walk with +somewhat more circumspection. As he drew nearer to it, he halted +under the shadow of a bank, and stood for a time somewhat aghast, +for, in the open part of the grave-yard, between the church and the +high-road, he beheld three figures standing in the moonlight which +then prevailed. At first John quaked with fear, lest they should +prove to be some of the uncanny spirits which were said to frequent +the place. But he soon became reassured, by observing enough of them +and of their motions to convince him that they were men of flesh and +blood, yea, and Highlanders too, like himself. + +As John Smith had no fear of mortal man, he would have at once +advanced. But there was something so suspicious in the manner in which +the three fellows hung over the wall, as if they were watching the +public road, that he became at once convinced that they were lying +in wait for a prey; and although he had nothing to lose, he did not +feel quite assured as to the manner in which they might be disposed +to accost him; and in his present weak state, he felt prudence to be +the better part of valour. Availing himself of the concealment of the +bank, therefore, until he had entered a small opening in the churchyard +wall, he crept quietly across a dark part of the churchyard itself, +by which means he got into the deep shadow that fell with great +breadth all along the church wall, between the moon and the three +figures who were watching the road, and who consequently had their +backs to the old building. Having succeeded in accomplishing this, +John was stealing slowly and silently along the wall, with the hope of +passing by them, altogether unnoticed, when, as ill luck would have it, +one of them chanced to turn round, so as dimly to descry his figure. + +"What the devil is that gliding along yonder?" cried the man, in +Gaelic, and in a voice that betrayed considerable fear. + +"Halt you there!" cried another, who was somewhat bolder. "Halt, +I say, and give an account of yourself." + +John saw that there was now no mode of escaping the danger but by +boldly bearding it. He halted therefore, but still keeping deep within +the shade, he drew out his claymore, and placed his back to the church +wall to prepare for defence. + +"Ha! steel!" cried the third fellow; "I heard it clash on the +stones of the wall, and I saw it bring a flash of fire out of them +too. Come, come, goodman, whoever you are--come out here, and give +us your claymore." + +"He that will have it, must come and take it by the point," said John, +in Gaelic, and in a stern, hoarse, hollow voice; "and he had better +have iron gloves on, or he will find it too hot for his palms." + +"What the devil does he mean?" said the first. + +"We'll detain you as a runaway rebel," said the third. + +"The boldest of men could not detain me," replied John, now recognising +the last speaker, by the moonlight on his face, as well as by his +voice. "But for a base traitor like you, Neil MacCallum, better were +it for you to be lying dead, like your brave brother, among the slain +on Drummosie Moor, than to encounter me here in this churchyard, +at such an hour as this!" + +"In the name of wonder, how knows he my name?" exclaimed MacCallum +in a voice that quavered considerably. + +"Oh, Neil! Neil!" cried the first speaker, in great dismay, "it is +no man! it is something most uncanny: For the love of God, parley +with it no farther!" + +"Pshaw--nonsense!" exclaimed the second speaker. "Its a man, and +nothing else. Let us all rush upon him at once. Surely, if he were +the devil himself, three of us ought to be a match for him." + +"I am the devil himself!" cried John Smith in a terrible voice, and at +the same time stalking slowly forth from the shadow, with the bloody +blade of his claymore before him, he strode into the moonlight, which +at once fully disclosed his hideous head-gear and ghastly features, +to which at the same time it gave a tenfold effect of horror. + +"Oh, the devil!--the devil!--the devil!" cried the fellows, the moment +they thus beheld him; and, overpowered by their terror, they rushed +forward towards the churchyard wall, and threw themselves over it +pell-mell, tumbling higgledy-piggledy into the road, and scampering +out of sight and out of hearing in a moment, leaving John Smith sole +master of the field. + +In the midst of all his miseries, John could not help laughing +heartily at the suddenness of their retreat. But gravity of mood came +quickly over him again, when he heard his laugh re-echoed--he knew not +how, as it were in a tone of mockery, from the old church walls. He +began to recollect where he was, and he half repented that he had so +indiscreetly used the name of Satan in the manner he had done. + +"The Lord be about us!" ejaculated John most fervently, whilst his +knees smote against each other violently, and his jaws were stretched +to a fearful extent. + +He felt that the shorter time he tarried in that uncanny place the +better it would be for his comfort; and, accordingly, he began to +move forward as quickly as he could towards a wicket gate, which he +well knew gave exit to the footpath at the other end of the churchyard. + +John, now proceeding at what might rather be called an anxious +pace than a quick one, had very nearly reached the wicket, when his +eye caught a tall white figure, standing within a few yards of it, +and posted close by the path which he must necessarily pursue. The +moonshine enabled him to see a terrible face, with a huge mouth; and, +so far as his recollection of his own natural physiognomy went, derived +as it was from his shavings on Saturday nights ever since his chin had +required a razor, he felt persuaded that the countenance before him +was a fac-simile of his own. It was, moreover, very ghastly, and very +bloody. His eyes fixed themselves upon it with unconquerable dismay, +and he shook throughout every nerve, like the trembling poplar. But +that which most astonished and terrified him, as he gazed on this +apparition, was, the strange circumstance, that he could distinctly +perceive, that it had already assumed a head-gear precisely similar +to the very remarkable one which he had been so recently compelled +from necessity to adopt. On the summit of its crown appeared a huge +sod, with all its native plants upon it, and these waved to and fro +before him with something like portentous omen. John felt as if he +had only fled from the battle-field of Culloden to meet both death +and burial in this most unchancy churchyard, and if his knees smote +each other before, they now increased their reciprocal antagonist +action in a degree that was tenfold more striking. John felt persuaded +beyond a doubt, that the devil had been permitted thus to assume his +own appearance, and to come thus personally to reprove him for the +indiscreet use which he had made of his name. Sudden death seemed to +be about to fall on him. The grave appeared to be about to open to +receive his wounded and worn-out body. But these were evils which, +at that dreadful moment, John hardly recognized, for the jaws of the +Evil Spirit himself seemed to him to be slowly and terribly expanding +themselves to swallow up his sinful soul. Fain would John have fled, +but he was rivetted to the spot. No way suggested itself to his +distracted mind by which he could escape, and he well knew that he had +no way that led homewards to that spot where he looked for concealment +and safety, save that which went directly by the dreaded object before +him. For some time he stood trembling and staring, in a cold sweat, +until at length, overpowered by his feelings, he dropped upon his +knees, and began putting up such snatches of prayer to Heaven, for +help against the powers of darkness, as his fears allowed him to utter. + +As John thus sat on his knees, praying and quaking, his animal courage +so far returned to him as to permit him to observe that the object +of his terror remained unchanged and immovable. At length his mind +recovered itself to such an extent, as to enable him to revert to that +night of misery which he had so recently experienced, in beholding +that which he had believed to be the spirit of Dallas the packman, +and remembering how that matter had been cleared up by the appearance +of daylight, he began to reason with himself as to the possibility of +this being a somewhat similar case. Having thus so far reduced his +fears within the control of his reason, he summoned up resolution +to raise himself from his knees, and to advance one step nearer to +the phantom which had so long triumphed over the courage that was +within him. And, seeing that, notwithstanding this movement of his, +it still maintained its position, and uttered no sound, he ventured +to take a second step--and then a third step, until the truth, and +the whole truth, began gradually to dawn upon his eyes and his mind, +and then, at last, he discovered, to his very great relief, that the +horrible and much-dreaded demon whose appearance had so disturbed +and discomposed his nervous system, was no other than a tall old +tombstone, with a head so fearfully chisselled on the top of it, as +might have left it a very doubtful matter, even in the day-time, for +any one, however learned in such pieces of art, to have determined +whether the rustic sculptor had intended it for a death's-head or +a cherubim. Some idle artist of the brush, in passing by that way +with a pot full of red paint, prepared for giving a temporary glory +to a new cart about to be turned out from a neighbouring wright's +shop, had paused as he passed by, and exhausted the full extent of +his small talents in communicating to the countenance that bloody +appearance, the effect of which had so much appalled John Smith, +and some waggish schoolboy had finished the figure, by tearing up a +sod covered with plants of various kinds, and clapping it on its top, +so as thereby very much to augment its artificial terrors. John Smith +drew a long breath of inconceivable relief on making this discovery, +and then darting through the wicket, he pursued his journey with as +much expedition as his weakness and fatigue permitted him to use. + +John walked on for some hour or twain with very determined resolution, +but at length the great loss of blood he had experienced, brought on so +unconquerable a drowsiness, that he felt he must have a little rest, +were it but for a few minutes, even if his taking it should be at +the risk of his life. John was never wont to be very particular as +to the place where he made his bed, but on the present occasion it +happened, probably from the blood-vessels of his body having been +so much drained, that he had a most unpleasant chill upon him. He +felt as if ice itself was shooting and crystallizing through every +vein and artery within him. Then the night had become somewhat raw, +and he had left his plaid, which is a Highlander's second house, +on the fatal field of battle. Under all these circumstances, John +was seized with a resistless desire to enjoy the luxury of sleep for +a short time, under the shelter of a roof, and in the vicinity of a +good peat fire. Calling to mind that there was an humble turf-built +cottage in a hollow a little way farther on, by the side of a small +rushy, mossy stream, he made the best of his way towards it. + +The house consisted of three small apartments, one in the middle +of it, opposite to the outer door, and one at either end, which had +their entrances from that in the centre. When John came to the brow +of the bank that looked down upon this humble dwelling, he was by no +means sorry to perceive that the middle apartment had a good blazing +fire in it, as he could easily see through the window and outer door, +which last chanced to be invitingly open. John, altogether forgetful +of his uncouth and terrific appearance, lost not a moment in availing +himself of this lucky circumstance. But he had no sooner presented +his awful spectral form and visage within the threshold, than he +spread instantaneous terror over the group assembled within. + +"Oh, a ghost! a ghost!" cried out in Gaelic a pale-faced girl of some +eight or nine years of age, as she dropped on her knees, shaken by +terror in every limb and feature. + +"Oh, the devil! the devil!" roared an old man and woman, who also +sank down before John, bellowing out like frightened cattle. "Och, +och! we shall all be swallowed up quick by the Evil One!" + +"Fear nothing," said John Smith, in a mild tone, and in the same +tongue. "I am but a poor wounded and wearied man. I only want to lie +down and rest me a little, if you will be so charitable as to grant +me leave." + +"Wounded!" said the old man, rising from his knees, somewhat reassured; +"where were you wounded?" + +"In the head here," said John, with a stare that again somewhat +disconcerted the old man; "and if it had not been for this peat that +I clapped on my skull, I believe my very brains would have been all +out of me." + +"Mercy on us, where got ye such a mischance as that?" exclaimed the +old woman. + +"At Culloden, I'll be sworn," said the old man. + +"Aye, aye, it was at Culloden," replied John. "But, if ye be +Christians, give me a drink of warm milk and water, to put away this +shivering thirst that is on me, and let me lie down in a warm bed +for half an hour." + +"Och aye, poor man, ye shall not want a drop of warm milk and water, +and such a bed as we can give you," said the old woman, moving about +to prepare the drink for him. + +"Thank ye--thank ye!" said John, much refreshed and comforted by +swallowing the thin but hot potation. And then following the old +man into the inner apartment on the right hand, he sank down in a +darksome nook of it, on a pallet among straw, and covering himself up, +turf, nightcap and all, under a coarse blanket, he was sound asleep +before the old man had withdrawn the light, and shut the door of his +clay chamber. + +"Oh that our boys were back again safe and sound!" cried the old woman, +wringing her hands. + +"Safe and sound I fear we cannot expect them to be, Janet," replied +the old man. "But oh that we had them back again, though it was to +see them wounded as badly as that poor fellow! Much do I fear that +they are both corpses on Drummossie Moor." + +"What will become of us!" cried the old woman, weeping bitterly; "what +will become of this poor motherless lassie now, if her father be gone?" + +But, leaving this aged couple to complain, and John Smith to enjoy his +repose, we must now return to poor Morag, whom, as you may recollect, +gentlemen, we left hunted into covert by the two dragoons who had so +closely pursued her. The patch of natural wood into which she dived +was not large. It chiefly consisted of oaks and birches, which, though +they had grown to a considerable size in certain parts, so that their +wide-spreading heads had kept the knolls on which their stems stood, +altogether free from the incumbrance of any kind of brushwood,--had +yet in most places risen up thinner and smaller, leaving ample room +and air around them to support thickets of the tallest broom and +juniper bushes. + +It chanced that Morag was not altogether unacquainted with the +nature of the place, having at one time, in earlier life, been hired +to tend the cows of a farmer at no great distance from it. She was +well aware that a rill, which had its origin in the higher grounds +at some distance, came wimpling into the upper part of the wood, and +thence, during its descent over the sloping surface of the ground, +from its having met with certain obstructions, or from some other +cause, it had worn itself a channel through the soft soil, to the +depth of some six feet or so, but which was yet so narrow, that the +ferns and bushes growing out of the undermined sods that fringed the +edges of it, almost entirely covered it with one continued tangled +and matted arch. Towards this rill Morag endeavoured to make her +way through the tall broom, and, as she was doing so, she heard the +dismounted trooper, who had by this time entered the wood after her, +calling to his comrade, who sat mounted outside: + +"Bill! do you padderowl round the wood, and keep a sharp look out that +she don't bolt without your seeing her. I'll follow arter her here, +and try if I can't lay my hands on her; and if I do but chance to +light on her, be she witch or devil, I'll drag her out of her covert +by the scruff of the neck." + +Morag heard no more than this.--She pressed forward towards the bed of +the rill, and having reached it, she stopped, like a chased doe, one +moment to listen, and hearing that the curses, as well as the crashing +of the jack-boots of her pursuer, as yet indicated that he was still at +some distance behind her, and evidently much entangled in his progress, +she carefully shed the pendulous plants of the ferns asunder, and then +slid herself gently down into the hollow channel. There finding her +feet safely planted on the bottom, she cautiously and silently groped +her way along the downward course of the rill, through the dark and +confined passage which it had worn out for its tiny stream. In this +way she soon came to the lower edge of the wood, where the hollow +channel became deeper, and where it assumed more of the character +of a ravine, but where it was still skirted with occasional oaks, +mingled with thickets of birches, hazels, and furze bushes. + +Morag was about to emerge from the obscurity of this subterranean +arch, into the more open light, when, as she looked out, she beheld +the mounted trooper standing on his stirrups on the top of the bank, +eagerly gazing around him in all directions. The furze there grew too +thick and high for him to be able to force his way down to the bottom +of the ravine, even if he had accidently observed her. But his eyes +were directed to higher and more distant objects, and seeing that she +had been as yet unperceived, she instantly drew so far back, as to be +beyond all reach of his observation,--whilst she could perfectly well +watch him, so long as he maintained his present position. She listened +for the crashing strides of him who was engaged in searching the wood +for her. For a time they came faint and distant to her ear, but, by +degrees, they began to come nearer,--and then again the sound would +alternately diminish and increase, as he turned away in some other +direction, fighting through the opposing boughs, and then came beating +his way back again, in the same manner, with many a round oath. At +length she heard him raging forward in the direction of the rill, at +some forty yards above the place where she was, blaspheming as he went. + +"Ten thousand devils!" cried he; "such a place as this I never se'ed +in all my life afore. If my heyes beant nearly whipt out of my head +with them 'ere blasted broom shafts, my name aint Tom Wetherby! Dang +it, there again! that whip has peeled the very skin off my cheek, and +made both my heyes run over with water like mill-sluices--I wonder +at all where this she-devil can be hidden? Curse her! Do you think, +Bill, that she can raaly have ridden off through the hair, as they +do say they do? But for a matter of that, she may be here somewhere +after all, for my heyes be so dimmed, that, dang me an' I could see +her if she were to rise up afore my very face. How they do smart +with pain! Oh! Lord, where am I going?" cried he, as he went smack +down through the ferns and brush into the concealed bed of the rill, +and was laid prostrate on his back in the narrow clayey bottom of it, +in such a position that it defied him to rise. + +"Hollo Bill!" cried he, from the bowels of the earth, in a voice which +reached his comrade as if he had spoken with a pillow on his mouth, +but which rang with terrible distinctness down the hollow natural +tube to the spot where Morag was concealed. "Hollo!--help!--help!" + +"What a murrain is the matter with ye?" cried Bill, very much +astonished. + +"I've fallen plump into the witches' den!--into the very bottomless +pit!--Hollo!--hollo! Help!--help!" cried the fallen trooper from +the abyss. + +"How the plague am I to get to ye if so be the pit be +bottomless?" cried Bill, in a drawling tone, that did not argue +much promise of any zealous exertion of effective aid on the part of +the speaker. + +"Curse ye, come along quickly, or I shall be smothered in this here +infernal, dark, outlandish place," cried Tom Wetherby. + +"Well,--well," replied Bill, with the same long-drawn tone of +philosophic indifference, "I'm a coming--I'm a coming. But you must +keep chaunting out from the bottom of that bottomless pit of yours, do +you hear, Tom, else I shall never find you in that 'ere wilderness. And +how the devil I am to get into it is more than I know." + +The dragoon turned his horse very leisurely away, to look for some +place where he could best quit his saddle, in order to make good his +entrance on foot into the thicket. The moment the quick eyes of Morag +perceived that he had disappeared from his station on the brow of the +bank, she crept forth from her concealment, and keeping her way down +through the shallow stream, that her footsteps might leave no prints +behind them, she stole off, until she was beyond all hearing of the +two dragoons. Then it was that Morag began to ply her utmost speed, +and, after following the ravine until it expanded into a small and +partially wooded glen, she hurried on through it, until at length she +found herself emerging on the lower and more open country. Afraid of +being seen, she made a long circuitous sweep through some rough broomy +waste ground of considerable extent, towards a distant hummock, with +the shape of which she was familiar, and having thus gained a part of +the country with which she was acquainted, though it was still very +distant from her present home, she hailed the descent of the shades +of night with great satisfaction. + +Under their protection she proceeded on her way with great alacrity, +and without apprehension, though with a torn heart, that made her +every now and then stop to give full vent to her grief for John +Smith, of whose death she had so little reason to doubt, from all the +circumstances she had heard. At length, fatigue came so powerfully upon +her, that she was not sorry to perceive, as she was about to descend +into a hollow, the light of a cheerful fire, that blazed through the +window of a turf-built cottage, and was reflected on the surface of +a rushy stream, that ran lazily through the bottom near to it. The +door was shut, but Morag descended the path that led towards it, +and knocked without scruple. + +An old man and woman came immediately to open it, and looked out +eagerly, as if for some one whose coming they had expected, and +disappointment seemed to cloud their brows, when they found only her +who was a stranger to them. Morag, addressing them in Gaelic, entreated +for leave to rest herself for half an hour by their fireside. She was +admitted, after some hesitation and whispering between them, after +which she craved a morsel of oaten cake, and a draught of water. A +little girl, of some eight or nine years old, waited not to know her +granny's will, but ran to a cupboard for the cake; and brought it +to her, and then hastened to fill a bowl with water from a pitcher +that stood in a corner. The old couple would have fain pumped out +of Morag something of her history, and they put many questions to +her for that purpose. But she was too shrewd for them, and all they +could gather from her was, that she had been away seeing her friends +a long way off, and that she had first rode, and then walked so far, +that she was glad of a little rest, and a morsel to allay her hunger, +after which she would be enabled to continue her journey, with many +thanks to them for their hospitality. + +Morag had not sat there for many minutes, when there came a rap to +the door. The old man sprang up to open it, and immediately three +Highlanders appeared, full armed with claymores and dirks, but very +much jaded and soiled with travel. Morag retired into a corner. + +"Och, Ian! Ian!"--"Och, Hamish! Hamish!" cried the old couple, +embracing two of them, who appeared to be their sons; and, "Oh, +father! father!" cried the little girl, springing into Ian's arms. + +"Tuts, don't be foolish, Kirstock!" cried Ian, in a surly tone, as +he shook off the little girl; "What's the use of all this nonsense, +father?--Better for you to be getting something for us and our comrade +MacCallum here to drink. We are almost famished for want;" and with +that he threw himself into the old man's wooden arm-chair. + +"Aye, aye, father," said Hamish, occupying the seat where his mother +had sat, and motioning to MacCallum to take that which Morag had just +left; "we have had a sad tramp away from the battle. Would we had +never gone near it! Aye, and we got such a fright into the bargain." + +"Fright!" cried the old man much excited; "Surely, surely, my sons +are not cowards!--Much as I love you, boys, I would rather that you +had both died than run away." + +"Oh!" said MacCallum, now joining in the conversation, "we all three +fought like lions in the battle. But it requires nerves harder than +steel to look upon the Devil, and if ever he was seen on earth, +we saw him this precious night." + +"Preserve us all!" said the old woman; "what was he like?" + +"Never mind what he was like, mother," said Ian gruffly; "let us have +some of your bread and cheese, and a drop of Uisge-beatha to put some +heart in us." + +"You shall have all that I have to give you, boys," said the old +man; "but that is not much. I would have fain given a sup out of the +bottle to the poor wounded man that came in here, a little time ago; +but I bethought me that you might want it all, and so we sent him to +his bed with a cup of warm milk and water." + +"Bed, did you say?" cried Ian. "What! one of Prince Charley's men?" + +"Surely, surely!" said the old man. "Troth, I should have been any +thing but fond of letting in any one else but a man who had fought +on the same side with yourselves." + +"Don't speak of our having fought on Charley's side, father," said +Ian; "that's not to be boasted of now. The fruits of fighting for +him have been nothing but danger and starvation, so far as we have +gathered them; and now we have no prospect before us but the risk of +hanging. Methinks you would have shewn more wisdom if you had sent +this fellow away from your door. To have us three hunted men here, +is enough to make the place too hot, without bringing in another to +add to the fire." + +"Never mind, Ian," said MacCallum; "why may we not make our own of +him? You know very well that John MacAllister told us that he could +make our peace, and save our lives, if we could only prove our loyalty +to the King, by bringing in a rebel or two." + +"Very true," said Hamish; "and an excellent advice it was." + +"Most excellent," said Ian; "and if we act wisely, and as I advise, +this fellow shall be our first peace-offering." + +"Oh, boys, boys!" cried the old man; "would you buy your own lives +by treachery of so black a die?" + +"Oh, life is sweet!" cried the old woman--"and the lives of my +bairns----" + +"Hold your foolish tongue, woman!" interrupted the old man. "No, no, +boys! I'll never consent to it." + +"Oh life is sweet! life is sweet!" cried the old woman again; "and +the lives of both my bonny boys--the life of Ian, the father of this +poor lassie!----" + +"Oh, my father's life!" whimpered the little girl. + +"This is no place to talk of such things," said the old man, leading +the way into the apartment at the opposite end of the house, to that +where John Smith was sleeping, and followed by all but Morag, who, +having slipped towards the door, to listen after he had closed it, +heard him say, "What made you speak that way before the stranger lass?" + +"Who and what is she at all?" demanded Ian. + +"A poor tired lass, weary with the long way she has been to see her +friends," said the old woman; "but she'll be gone very soon." + +"If she does not go of her own accord, we must take strong measures +with her too," said Ian. + +"God forgive you, boys, what would you do?" said the old man. "Let +not the Devil tempt you thus. Would you bring foul treason upon +this humble, but hitherto spotless shed of mine, by violating the +sacred rights of hospitality to a woman, and by giving up a man to an +ignominious death, who, upon the faith of it, is now soundly sleeping +under my roof, in the other end of the house? Fye, fye, boys! I tell +you plainly I will be a party to no such wickedness." + +"So you would rather be a party to assist in hanging Hamish and me, +your own flesh and blood?" said Ian. "But you need be no party to +either; for we shall take all the guilt of this fellow's death upon +ourselves." + +"You shall never do this foul treason, if I can prevent it," said +the old man, with determination. + +"Poof!" said Ian, "how could you prevent us?" + +"By rousing the man to defend himself," said the father rather +unguardedly. + +"Ha! say you so?" cried Ian. "What! would you rouse up an armed man +to fight against your own children? Then must we take means to prevent +your so doing." + +"Oh, Ian!" cried the old woman. "Oh, Hamish! Oh, boys! boys!" + +"What! what! what boys!" cried the old man with great excitement, +whilst there was a sound of feet as of a struggle. "Would you lay +your impious hands upon your own father?" + +"Oh, don't hurt poor granny!" cried the little girl, in the bitterest +tone of grief. + +"Be quiet, I tell you, Kirstock!" cried Ian, in an angry tone. "Hold +out of my way, mother! We'll do him no harm! we are only going to +bind him that he may not interfere." + +"Boys, boys!" cried the old man; "you have been tempted by the +Devil! There is no wonder that you should have seen him once to-night; +and I should not wonder if he was to appear to you again, for you +seem resolved to be his children, and not mine." + +"Sit down--sit down quietly in this chair," said Ian; "sit down, I +say quietly, and let MacCallum put the rope about you. By the great +oath you had better!" + +"Oh, boys!" cried the old woman; "Och, Hamish! Och, Ian." + +Morag hardly waited to hear so much of this dialogue as I have given, +when she resolved to be the means, if possible, of saving the life +of the poor wounded man, whom the wretches had thus determined +so traitorously to give up to the tender mercies of the Duke of +Cumberland. She had her hand upon the door of the chamber where he +slept, in order to go in and rouse him, when she remembered that, +in this way, her own safety was almost certain to be compromised. She +therefore immediately adopted a plan, which she considered might be +equally effectual for her purpose as regarded the stranger, whilst +it would leave to herself some chance of escape. Slipping on tiptoe +to the outer door, she quietly opened it, and, letting herself out, +she moved quickly round the house, towards a little window belonging +to the room at that end of it, where she knew the wounded man was +lying. It consisted of two small panes of glass, placed in a frame +that moved inwards upon hinges. She put her ear to it, but no sound +reached her save that of deep snoring. Morag pushed gently against +the frame, and it yielded to the pressure. Having inserted her head, +and looked eagerly about, in the hope of descrying the sleeper, by +the partial stream of moonlight that was admitted into the place, +she could discover nothing but the heap of straw in the bedstead in +a dark corner, where, wrapped in a blanket, he lay so buried as to be +altogether invisible. She called to him, at first in a low voice, and +afterwards in a somewhat louder tone, till at length she awaked him. + +"Who is there?" demanded he in Gaelic. + +"Rise! rise, and escape!" said she, in a low but distinct voice, +and in the same language; "Your liberty! your life is in danger! Up, +up, and fly from this house!" Having said this, she retreated her +head a little from the window, to watch the effect of her warning, +so that the moon shone brightly upon her countenance, and completely +illuminated every feature of it. + +There was a quick rustling noise among the straw, and then she heard +the slow heavy step of the man within. Suddenly a head was thrust +out of the window, and the moonbeam falling fully upon it, disclosed +to the terrified eyes of Morag, the features of John Smith--pale, +bloody, and death-like, with all the fearful appendages which he bore, +the whole combination being such as to leave not a doubt in her mind +that she beheld his ghost. With one shrill scream, which she could +not control, she vanished in a moment from before the window. John +Smith, filled in his turn with superstitious awe, as well as with +the strangeness of the manner in which he had been roused from the +deep sleep into which he had been plunged,--and struck by the well +known though hollow voice in which he had been addressed--the solemn +warning which he had received, and, above all, the distinct, though +most unaccountable appearance of Morag, with whose features he was +so perfectly acquainted--together with the wild and sudden manner in +which the vision had departed--all tended to convince him that the +whole was a supernatural visitation. For some moments his powers of +action were suspended; but steps and voices in the outer apartment +speedily recalled his presence of mind. He drew his claymore, summoned +up his resolution, and banging up the door with one kick of his foot, +he took a single stride into the middle of the floor. The fire was +still blazing, and it threw on his terrible figure the full benefit of +its light. The three villains having tied the old man into his chair, +and locked him and his wife and grandchild into the place where their +conference was held, had been at that moment preparing to steal in +upon the sleeping stranger. Suddenly they beheld the same apparition +which they had seen in the churchyard, burst from the very room which +they were about to enter. The threatening words of the old man recurred +to them all. + +"Oh, the devil! the devil! the devil!" cried the terrified group, +and bearing back upon one another, they tripped, and, in one moment, +all their heels were dancing the strangest possible figures in the +air, to the music of their own mingled screams and yells. You will +easily believe, gentlemen, that John Smith tarried not a moment +to inquire after their bruises, but pushing up the outer door, and +slapping it to after him, he again pursued his way towards the farm +of the Pensassenach. + +Winged by her fears, and in dreadful apprehension that the ghost +of John Smith was still following her, Morag flew with an unnatural +swiftness and impetus. She was quite unconscious of noticing any of +the familiar objects by the way; yet, by a species of instinct, she +reached home, in so short a time, that she could hardly believe her +own senses. But still in dreadful fear of the ghost, she thundered +at the door, and roared out to her mistress for admittance. The +kind-hearted Pensassenach had been sitting up in a state of the +cruellest anxiety regarding Morag, of whose intended expedition she +had received no inkling, nor had she been informed of her departure, +until long after she was gone. She no sooner heard her voice, and +her knock, than she hastened to admit her. + +"Foolish girl that you are!" said she, "I am thankful to see you +alive. My stars and garters, what a draggled figure you are!--But +come away into this room here, and let me hear all you have to tell me +about the battle. The rebels were defeated, were they not?--eh?--Why, +what is the matter with the girl? she pants as if she was dying. Sit +down, sit down, child, and compose yourself; you look for all the +world as if you had seen a ghost." + +"Och, och, memm!--och, hoch!" replied the girl very much appalled, +that her mistress should thus, as she thought, so immediately see +the truth written in her very face. "Och, hoch! an' a ghaist Morag +has surely seen. Has ta ghaist put her mark upon her face?--Och, +hoch! she'll ne'er won ower wi't!" + +"The poor girl's head has been turned by the horrible scenes of +carnage she has witnessed," said the Pensassenach. + +"Och, hoch!" said Morag, with her hands on her knees, and rocking to +and fro with nervous agitation; "terrible sights! terrible sights, +surely, surely!" + +"Here, my poor Morag," said the Pensassenach, after she had dropped +into a cup a small quantity of some liquid nostrum of her own, from +a phial, hastily taken from a little medicine chest, and added some +water to it, "drink this, my good girl!" + +"Och, hoch!" said Morag, after she had swallowed it; "she thinks she +sees ta ghaist yet." + +"What ghost did you see?" demanded the Pensassenach. + +"Och, hoch! Och, hoch, memm!" replied Morag, trembling more than ever; +"Shon Smiss ghaist; Shon Smiss, as sure as Morag is in life, an' +ta leddy stannin' in ta body tare afore her e'en." + +"John Smith's ghost!" cried the Pensassenach. "Pooh, nonsense! But +again I ask you, how went the battle? The rumour is, that the rebels +have been signally defeated, and all cut to pieces." + +"Och, hoch! is tat true?" said Morag, weeping. "Och, hoch, poor +Shon Smiss!" + +"Did you not see the rout?" demanded the Pensassenach. "Did you not +witness the battle, and behold the glorious triumph of the royal army?" + +"Och, hoch, no!" replied the girl. "Morag saw nae pattals, nor naesin' +but hearin' terrible shots o' guns, an' twa or sree red cotted sodgers +tat pursued her for her life." + +"Well, well!" replied the Pensassenach; "Come now! tell me your +whole history." + +Morag's nerves being now somewhat composed, she gave her mistress +as clear an outline as she could, of all that had befallen her. The +Pensassenach dropped some tears, to mingle with those which Morag +shed, when she recounted the evidence of John Smith's death, which +she felt to be but too probably true. But when she came to talk of +the ghost, she did all she could to laugh the girl out of her fears, +insisting with her that she had been deceived by terror and weakness, +and seeing how much the poor girl was worn out, she desired her to +take some refreshment, and to go to bed directly; and she had no +sooner retired, than the Pensassenach prepared to follow her example. + +Morag, overcome with the immense fatigue she had undergone, had not +strength left to undo much more than half her dress, when she dropped +down on her bed, and fell over into a slumber. She had been lying +in this state for fully half an hour or more, during part of which +she had been dreaming of John Smith, mixed up with many a strange +incident, with all of which his slaughter, and his pale countenance +and bloody figure were invariably connected, when she was awaked by +a tapping at the window of her apartment, which was upon the ground +floor. She looked up and stared, but the moon was by this time gone +down, and all without was dark as pitch. + +"Morag! Morag!" cried John Smith, who knowing well where she slept, +went naturally to her window to get her to come round and give him +admission to the house, and yet at the same time half doubting, +after the strange visitation which he had had, from what he +believed to be her wraith, that he could hardly expect to find her +alive. "Morag! Morag!" cried he again in his faint hollow voice. + +"Och, Lord have mercy upon me, there it is!" cried Morag, in her native +tongue, and shaking from head to foot with terror. "Who is there?" + +"Its me, your own Ian," cried John, in a tender tone. "Let me in, +Morag, for the love of God!" + +"Och, Ian, Ian!" cried Morag. "Och, Ian, my darling dear Ian! are you +sure that it is really yourself in real flesh and blood?--for I have +got such a fright already this night. But if it really and truly be +you, go round to the door and I'll be with you in a minute. Och, och, +the Lord be praised, if it really be him after all!" + +Trembling, and agitated with the numerous contrary emotions of hope, +fear, and joy, by which she was assailed, Morag sprang out of bed, +lighted her lamp, hurried on just enough of her clothes as might make +her decent in the eyes of her lover, and with her bosom heaving, and +her heart beating, as if it would have burst through her side, she +ran to unlock the outer door. Her lamp flashed on the fearful figure +without. She again beheld the horrible spectre which had so recently +terrified her, and believing that it was John Smith's ghost which +she saw, and that it had followed her home to corroborate the fatal +tidings she had heard regarding his death, which had been already so +much strengthened by her dreams, she uttered a piercing shriek, and +fainted away on the floor. The shriek alarmed the Pensassenach, who +was not yet in bed. Hastily throwing a wrapper over her deshabille, +she seized her candle, and proceeded down stairs with all speed, and +was led by John's voice of lamentation to the kitchen, whither he had +carried Morag in his arms, and where the lady found him tearing his +hair, or rather the heathery turf which then appeared to be doing +duty for it, in the very extremity of mental agony. It is strange +how the same things, seen under different aspects and circumstances, +will produce the most opposite effects. There being nothing now +about John Smith, or his actions, that did not savour of humanity, +but his extraordinary head-dress, the Pensassenach had no doubt that +it was the real bodily man that she saw before her, she perceived +nothing but what was powerfully ludicrous in his strange costume, +the absurdity of which was heightened by his agonizing motions and +attitudes, and exclamations of intense anxiety about Morag, whose +fainting-fit gave no uneasiness to a woman of her experience. The +Pensassenach laughed heartily, and then hurried away for a bunch +of feathers to burn under Morag's nose, by which means she quickly +brought her out of her swoon, and by a little explanation she speedily +restored her to the full possession of her reason. This accomplished, +the Pensassenach entirely forgot John Smith's wretched appearance, in +the eagerness of her inquiries regarding the result of the engagement. + +"How went the battle, John?" demanded she. "We heard the guns, +but the cannonade did not last long. The victory was soon gained, +and it was with the right cause, was it not?" + +"Woe, woe! Oich, oich!" cried John, in a melancholy tone, and shaking +his head in utter despair. "Oich, oich, her head is sore, sore." + +"Very true, very true!" cried the compassionate Pensassenach. "I had +forgotten you altogether, shame on me! Ah! poor fellow, how bloody +you are about the face! You must be grievously wounded." + +"Troth she be tat," said John Smith. "She has gotten a wicked slash +on ta croon, tat maist spleeted her skull. An' she wad hae peen dead +lang or noo an it had na peen for tiss ponny peat plaister tat she +putten tilt. Morag tak' her awa' noo, for she has toon her turn, +and somesing lighter may serve." + +"Och, hoch, hoch, tat is fearsome," said Morag, after she had removed +the clod from John's head. "She mak's Morag sick ta vera sight o't." + +"Oich, but tat be easy noo," said John. "Hech, she was joost like an +if she had been carryin' a' ta hill o' Lethen Bar on her head." + +"Poor fellow, poor fellow!" cried the Pensassenach, "that is a fearful +cut indeed. But I don't think the skull is fractured. How and where +did you get this fearful wound?" + +"Fare mony a petter man's got more," replied John, yielding up his +head into the affectionate hands of Morag, who was now so far recovered +as to be able to look more narrowly at it. + +"Oich, oich, fat a head!" cried the affectionate and feeling girl, +shuddering and growing pale, and then bursting into an agony of tears, +as she looked upon his gaping wound. "Oich, oich, she'll never do +good more! She canna leeve ava, ava!" + +"Tut, tut!" cried John, with a ghastly smile, that was meant to +reassure Morag. "Fat nonsense, tat Morag pe speak! An' she pe traivel +a' ta way hame so far, fat for wad she pe deein' noo tat she is +at hame?" + +"Alas, poor fellow!" said the Pensassenach, as she was directing +Morag to bind up his head, "I wish I may be able to make this your +home. After all our losses and sufferings for our loyalty by those +marauding rascals, three days ago, we shall next run the risk of +being punished for harbouring a rebel. But no matter. Happen what may, +you have large claims upon me, John, and as long as Morag can conceal +you here you shall be safe. You have been so short a time away that +few people can be aware of it, and still fewer can know the cause of +your absence." + +What the Pensassenach said was true, for as most of her people had run +away when the Highland party appeared, there were few who certainly +knew the cause of John Smith's absence, and those few who did know +were not very likely to tell any thing about it. Trusting to this, +she gave out that she had sent him after the rebels, to keep an eye on +her husband's horses, and to endeavour to recover them if he could, +and that, in making this attempt, he had received his wound. To give +the better colour to this story, she called her people together, and +offered a handsome reward to such of them as would go immediately and +try to find and bring back the horses, telling them that John Smith +could describe to them whereabouts they were most likely to fall in +with them, he having, at one time, actually got possession of most of +them, but that they had escaped from him, having been scared away by +the thundering of the artillery. But not a man of them would venture +upon such a search among the gibbets, where, as they were told, +so many of their murdered countrymen were still hanging, and where, +without much inquiry or ceremony, any one who might go on such an +errand might be tucked up to swing in company with them. Every hour +increased this terror, by bringing accounts of fresh executions, and +indeed the fears of the Pensassenach's men turned out to be by no means +groundless, for it is a truth but too well known, that many innocent +servants who were sent to seek their master's horses never returned. + +The Pensassenach did not suffer for her kindness in thus protecting +John Smith; and she and her husband were ultimately no losers from the +havoc which the Highlanders committed on their farm. Their damage was +reported to the Duke of Cumberland, and the lady's conduct having been +highly extolled, as that of a very loyal Englishwoman, who had been +thus persecuted for the open expression of her sentiments, the most +ample remuneration was assigned to her by the government. + +John Smith, nursed as he was by Morag, soon recovered. After he was +quite restored to health, he only waited until he could scrape a little +money together to enable him to furnish a cottage, ere he should make +her his wife. The penetration of the Pensassenach soon enabled her +to discover how matters stood between them, and she found means to +make all smooth for them in the manner which was most flattering to +John, that is, by presenting him with a very handsome purse of money, +as a reward for the eminent services he had rendered her. John was +so proud of the purse that he did not know whether most to value +it or the gold pieces it contained, and much as he loved Morag, +and eager as he was for their union, he had some doubt whether he +could ever bring himself to part, even with one of those pretty +pieces which he so respected for the Pensassenach's sake. And, +alas, as it so happened, he was never called upon to spend them as +it was intended they should have been spent. Fain would I have made +my story end happily, gentlemen; but, as I am narrating a piece of +actual history, I must be verawcious. John had made all preparation +for their marriage, when, alas, Morag was seized with some acute +complaint about the region of the heart and lungs, which all the +medical attendants that the Pensassenach could command could not +fathom or relieve. John watched her with the tenderest and most +unremitting solicitude. But it pleased God that his unwearied care +of her, should not be blessed with the same happy result, which hers +had been with regard to him, for after a long and lingering illness, +poor Morag died on the very day she should have been his bride. The +probability was, that the unheard of fatigue of body, and agitation +of mind, which she underwent during her heroic expedition in search +of her lover, had produced some fatal organic change within her. + +John Smith was inconsolable for the loss of Morag. For some time he +was more like a walking clod than a man. Even the kind attempts of +his master and mistress to rouse him were unavailing. When at length +he was able to go about his usual duties on the farm, to do which his +honest regard for his employer's interest stimulated him, he suffered +so much mental agony from the painful recollections which every object +around him suggested to his mind, that he felt he could no longer go +rationally about his master's affairs. Being at last convinced that he +was in danger of falling into utter and hopeless despair, he came to +the resolution of enlisting in the army, and having once formed this +determination, he went through a very touching scene of parting with +the kind Pensassenach and her husband, and shouldering his small kitt, +he went and joined the gallant Forty-Second, then the Black Watch. He +served with distinguished approbation in all the actions in which that +brave corps was in his time engaged. He was made a serjeant at Bunker's +Hill; and after time had in some degree assuaged his affliction, he +married a very active, intelligent, and economical woman, with whose +aid he undertook to keep the regimental mess. John could neither read +nor write, and he always spoke English imperfectly. But his clever wife +enabled him to carry on the business for so many years, with so much +credit to himself, and so successfully, that he ultimately retired with +her at an advanced period of life, with the enjoyment of his pension, +and such an accumulation of fortune as made him perfectly comfortable. + +I knew John well. He was a warm-hearted man, and always remarkable +for his uprightness and integrity, and especially for a strict +determination to keep his word, whatever it might cost him so to do. As +an instance of this, I may mention, that having on one occasion had +a serious illness, in which he was given up by the doctor, he made +a will, in which he left many small legacies to poor people. John +recovered, but he thought it his duty to keep his word, and he paid +the legacies. To me, and to my brother, who lived in one of his +houses while we were at the school of Nairn, he acted the part of a +kind friend and guardian. He was perhaps too kind and indulgent to +us, indeed. No one dared to him to impute a fault to us, even when +we were guilty. I remember that he had a large garden, well stocked +with fruit trees, and gooseberry bushes. Often has the good old man +sent me into it, to steal fruit for myself and brother, whilst he +watched at the door, lest his wife might surprise and detect me. Many +is the time that I have listened to him, with boyish wonder, as, with +lightning in his eye, he fought over again his battles of Culloden, +Bunker's Hill, and Ticonderoga. + +As John had no children, his intended heir was a nephew. His greatest +desire in life was to marry him to a grand-daughter of his old +departed benefactress, the Pensassenach. He offered to settle his +whole fortune, which was not small, on the young lady, if she would +only marry his nephew; and John's wife did all in her power to back +up the proposal. But although the nephew was a good, well-doing lad, +he was not the man to take the young woman's fancy; and so the match +never took place. + + + + + + + + +CRUELTY OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND AFTER THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. + + +Clifford.--Is it possible that the Duke of Cumberland could have +authorized such atrocities, as the hanging up innocent servants in +the way you describe, Mr. Macpherson? + +Dominie.--I am afraid that what I have asserted is but too true, sir. + +Author.--I am sorry to say, that I am in possession of a document +which but too satisfactorily proves, that he did give most cruel +orders. It is an orderly book of the thirty-seventh regiment, which +was called Cholmondeley's Regiment; and in that I find, in the +general orders, dated "The Camp at Enwerness, Aprill 17th, 1746," +the following entry:--"A captain and fifty foot to march directly, +and vizt all the cothidges in the naberhod of the field of batall, +and to search for rebbels, the officers and men will take notiss, +that the pubilick orders of the rabells yesterday was to give us no +quarters." This, I think, was a pretty broad hint to the men and the +officer commanding them, what it was that the Duke expected of them. + +Grant.--Very distinct, indeed. + +Author.--Not to be mistaken, I think. + +Clifford.--Is there anything existing to establish that any such +order was given by the Prince, previous to the battle, as that to +which the Duke here alludes? + +Author.--Not a vestige of any thing that I am aware of. But if +such orders had been given by the Prince, that circumstance would +have afforded no apology for him to have issued the order I have +now repeated to you, after the battle was over, and the enemy so +effectually cut to pieces in the field. Nothing, I think, could more +mark a sanguinary temper than his thus letting loose a body of men, +to visit all the neighbouring cottages, and to put to death, in cold +blood, all whom his ignorant and bloodthirsty myrmidons might choose +to consider as rebels. The slaughter in this way, of the innocent as +well as of the guilty, was said to have been immense. + +Clifford.--The picture is horrible! + +Grant.--It is horrible to think of it, even at this great distance +of time, seated comfortably, as I am at this moment, in this great +oaken arm-chair. + +Serjeant.--And a comfortable arm-chair that is, sir; and many a good +day and queer night has it seen. If I am not mistaken, that was old +Alister Shaw of Inchrory's very chair. + +Author.--Ay--who was Alister Shaw, Archy? + +Serjeant.--Faith, sir, he was a queer tough little fellow, +Inchrory--for by that name he was always best known in the country--as +proud as a bantam cock on his own midden-head. The body cared not +for the King. I have two or three curious little anecdotes about him, +which I can tell you and the gentlemen, if you have no objections. + +Clifford.--Objections, Mr Serjeant! I, the secretary, desire that +you shall tell them, without another moment's delay. + +Serjeant.--Aweel, aweel, sir! I'll do that at your bidding. I'm not +accustomed to disobey the adjutant. + + + + + + + + +ALISTER SHAW OF INCHRORY. + + +It happened one day, gentlemen, that the Earl of Fife was travelling +up this glen, on his way over to his house of Mar Lodge, in Braemar, +and having stopped at Caochan-Seirceag over by yonder, he sent one +of his people across the meadow here, to tell Inchrory that he meant +to honour him with a visit. The gentleman knocked at the door, was +admitted by the goodwife, and ushered into Inchrory's presence. He +found him seated in his arm-chair, in the position which he always +occupied, that is, on the most comfortable side of the fire. + +"Good day to you, Inchrory," said the gentleman, bowing. + +"The same to you sir," said Inchrory, bowing his head very grandly +and ceremoniously, but without stirring. + +"My Lord the Earl of Fife, who is halting at Caochan-Seirceag, on his +road to Braemar, has sent me over to tell you, that he means to step +aside from his way to visit you," said the gentleman. + +"Well, sir," said Inchrory, proudly, "what of that? Tell him he +is welcome." + +The gentleman, astonished with his reception, bowed and retired, +as an ambassador might have done from a royal presence. + +"Well, sir," said Lord Fife to him, after he had rejoined him, +"is Inchrory at home?" + +"He is at home, my Lord," replied the gentleman; "but he is the +surliest churl I ever came across." + +"As how?" demanded the Earl. + +"Why, my Lord, the little wretch never rose from his chair," replied +the gentleman; and then he repeated the conversation he had had with +Inchrory. "If your Lordship would take my council, you would e'en +continue your journey, and leave the bear to suck his own paws in +his own den." + +"Why do you not flit [3] that insolent fellow," said Lord Fife to +James MacGrigor of Pitiveach, his factor, who happened to be with him; +"you are tacksman of this farm, and so you have it in your power to +turn him out." + +"Why, my Lord," replied MacGrigor, "he and his forebears [4] have been +there for generations; and, though he certainly is a great original, +he is no bad fellow for all that." + +"So, so," replied the Earl, laughing, "the fellow is an original, +is he? Then I must see him. It is something to discover so great a +potentate, holding his undisputed reign in wilds like these, so many +miles from any other human dwelling. I must visit him directly." + +The fact was, that the Earl had but recently become possessed of +these Highland estates, and Inchrory looked upon him as a new man--a +Lowlander--whom it was his duty, as it was very much his inclination, +to despise; whilst the Earl, for his part, knowing that such was a +feeling which naturally enough pervaded the minds of the Highlanders, +even on his own newly acquired lands, was determined to do it away, +by using all manner of courtesy to every one with whom he might come +into contact. Above all things, he felt that the opportunity which he +now had of overcoming the prejudice of such a man as Inchrory, was by +no means to be lost. To Inchrory, therefore, he went without a moment's +delay, was admitted into the house, and ushered into the presence. + +"Good day to you, Inchrory," said the Earl, bowing. + +"Good day to you, Lord Fife," replied Inchrory, bowing with the +same formality as formerly, but still keeping his seat. "Sit down, +my Lord--sit down. Here is a chair beside me; for I always keep the +benmost [5] seat in my own house." + +"Very right, Inchrory," said the Earl, smiling, and seating himself +accordingly beside his host; "and a very comfortable seat it seems +to be." + +"Very comfortable," said Inchrory, setting himself more firmly into it; +"and I hope that one is easy for your Lordship." + +"Very easy indeed," said Lord Fife; "a long ride, such as I have had, +would make a hard stone feel easy, and much more this chair beneath +your hospitable roof of Inchrory, and before your good fire, in this +bitter cold day." + +"Well, well, my Lord," replied Inchrory, for the first time shaking +the Earl heartily by the hand, and very much pleased with the +familiar manner in which his visitor had so unexpectedly comported +himself,--"Well, all I can say is, that you are heartily welcome +to it.--Here, gudewife! Bring out the bottle. Lord Fife must taste +Inchrory's bottle; and bestir yourself, do you hear, and see what +you can give his Lordship to eat." + +The whisky bottle was brought, and Inchrory drank the Earl's health, +who, without any ceremony, hobernobbed with him in turn. Mutton, ham, +cheese, broiled kipper salmon, bannocks and butter, were produced, +and put down promiscuously. The Earl ate like a hill farmer, and +partook moderately of the whisky, which Inchrory swallowed in large +and repeated bumpers to his Lordship's good health. He talked loud and +joyously, and the Earl familiarly humoured him to his full bent. They +were the greatest friends in the world. The Earl particularly delighted +Inchrory by praising, caressing, and feeding a great rough deer-hound, +which, roused from his lair in front of the fire by the entrance of the +eatables, put his long snout and cold nose into his Lordship's hand, +and craved his attention. But this dog had very nearly ruined all; +for the Earl was so much taken with the animal, that having left the +house after a very warm parting with Inchrory, he sent back his factor +to him, to offer to purchase the animal at any price. + +"What!" cried Inchrory, drawing himself up in his chair, and looking +thunderbolts,--"What! does Lord Fife take me for a dog-dealer? I would +not sell my dog to any Lord in the land. I would not sell my dog to +the King on the throne. Tell his Lordship, I would as soon sell him +my wife!" + +"What a stupid fellow I am, Inchrory!" said the factor. "Did I say that +it was the Earl that sent me? If I did, I was quite wrong. No! no! his +Lordship did no such thing. He only admired the dog so much, that +he could speak of nothing else as he crossed the meadow to join his +people. It was my mistake altogether. Hearing him admire your dog so +much, I thought it would be a kind act from me to you, my old friend, +just to ride back quietly, and give you a hint of it. 'I thought I +had the best dogs in all Scotland,' said the Earl, 'but that dog of +Inchrory's beats them all clean. He is worth them all put together. He +is a prince among dogs, as his master is a prince among men. Where +could you find a master worthy of such a dog but Inchrory himself--the +best fellow I have met with in all this country.'" + +"Did the Earl of Fife say that?" cried Inchrory. "Here, bring me a +leash. Now," added he after having fastened it about the hound's neck, +"take hold of that, and lead the dog with you to the Earl, and tell +him that Inchrory begs he will accept of him as a present." + +The Earl was delighted with the dog, as well as with the able conduct +of his ambassador who brought him; and he was no sooner fairly +established in his own house at Mar Lodge, than he sent an especial +messenger over the hill to Inchrory, with a letter from himself, +thanking him for his noble present, and requesting him to come and +pay him a visit. Inchrory most graciously accepted the invitation; +and the Earl took care to be prepared to give him a proper reception. + +Inchrory, dressed in his best Highland costume, accoutred with sword, +dirk, and pistols complete, mounted his long tailed garron, and +rode over to Mar Lodge. When he arrived at the door, two grooms of +the Earl's were ready, one to hold his horse's head, and the other +his stirrup whilst he dismounted, and he was ushered into the house +by the house-steward, and through an alley of footmen, all richly +attired in the Earl's livery, till he was shewn into the room where +his Lordship was seated. Inchrory had never seen anything the least +like this before. But he was too proud to manifest the smallest +surprise--and holding up his head, he strode in with a dignified air, +and took all this pomp as if it had belonged to him of course. The +Earl was seated, amidst all his magnificence, in a great arm-chair +next the fire, with an empty one placed at his left hand. + +"Good day to you, Inchrory," said the Earl to him as he entered, +and at the same time nodding his head familiarly as he spoke, but +without rising from his seat. + +"Good day to you, my Lord," said Inchrory, strutting forward like a +turkey cock. + +"Come away, and sit down beside me here, Inchrory," said the Earl, +"for I always keep the benmost seat in my own house." + +"Right!--right, my Lord!" said Inchrory, seating himself beside +the Earl, and taking his hand and shaking it heartily, without any +sort of ceremony; "you are quite right, my Lord; that is exactly my +rule. Every man should have the benmost seat in his own house." + +"You see that Luath hath not forgotten you," said the Earl, as the +great dog was manifesting his joy at seeing his old master. + +"By my faith you have him in good quarters here!" said Inchrory, +observing that a quadruple fold of carpet had been spread for the +animal close in front of the fire. + +"The best I can give him, Inchrory," said the Earl; "as, next to +his late master, he deserves the best at my hands. Here, bring the +bottle! Inchrory must taste the Earl of Fife's bottle! And, do you +hear, bring something for Inchrory to stay his hunger with after his +long ride!" + +Immediately, as if by magic, several footmen entered with a table +covered with the richest viands and wines, which was placed close to +Inchrory's chair and that of the Earl. By especial order a bottle of +whisky appeared among the other liquors. + +"Here's to ye, Inchrory!" said the Earl, after filling himself a +glass of whisky, and drinking to his guest with a hearty shake of +his hand. And,-- + +"Here's to you, my Lord," cried Inchrory, following his example in +a bumper of the same liquor. + +Inchrory had no reason to complain of his entertainment during the +time he was at Mar Lodge. The Earl gave orders that every thing +should be done to please him; and the little man was highly pleased, +and as proud as a peacock. Amongst other things, hunting parties +were made in all directions through the neighbouring forests; and +although these were by no means expressly got up for him, yet he was +always brought so prominently forward on all such occasions, that, +in his pride, he believed, like the fly on the pillar, that the very +world was moving for him, and for him alone. + +It happened that a Tenchil, or a driving of the woods for game of all +kinds, was one day held at Alnac. Inchrory was posted in a pass with +Farquharson of Allargue and Grant of Burnside in Cromdale, who was +one of Lord Fife's factors. This last mentioned gentleman, having +only arrived at Mar Lodge that morning, knew nothing of Inchrory +personally, though Inchrory knew something of him. So that, whilst +Farquharson, who was by this time well acquainted with Inchrory +and all his peculiarities, was treating him with all that respect, +which was at all times paid him by a universal agreement among Lord +Fife's friends then assembled as his guests, the little man was left +quite unnoticed by Burnside, and treated by him as nobody. Inchrory +was severely nettled at this apparently marked neglect on the part +of Burnside towards him. As usual on such occasions, the people who +had surrounded a large portion of the forest, gradually contracted +their circle, and their shouts increasing, and the dogs beginning to +range through the coverts, and to give tongue, game of all kinds came +popping singly out through the different passes where the hunters were +stationed. A short-legged, long-bodied, rough, cabbage-worm-looking +terrier, of the true Highland breed, came yelping along towards the +point where Burnside, Allargue, and Inchrory were posted near to +each other. All was anxiety and eager anticipation. A hart of the +first head was the least thing that was looked for. When,--lo, and +behold, out came an enormous wild-cat, the very tigger of our Highland +woods. Burnside had a capital chance of him, but fired at him, and +missed him. Inchrory immediately levelled his piece, and shot him dead. + +"There's at you, clowns of Cromdale!" cried Inchrory, leering most +triumphantly and provokingly over his shoulder at Burnside. + +"What do you mean by that, you rascal?" cried Burnside, firing up at +this insult, and at the same time striding towards Inchrory with every +possible demonstration of active hostility. "What do you mean by that, +you little shrimp?" + +"Sir," said Inchrory, standing his ground boldly and proudly, "what +do you mean? I know nothing of you; and, it appears by your insolent +manners, that you know nothing of me." + +"Stop, stop, gentlemen!" cried Allargue, running in between them; +"the fault is mine for having neglected to introduce you to each +other. Burnside, this is Inchrory, the particular friend of the Earl +of Fife;--and, Inchrory, this is Burnside, also a particular friend +of your friend, the Earl. This, I hope, is enough to put a stop to +any thing unpleasant between you." + +"Oh!" said Burnside, who had caught the intelligent wink of the eye +which Allargue had secretly conveyed to him, whilst going through this +pompous introduction, and who had heard enough of Inchrory to enable +him to guess at the case and the character of the animal he had to +deal with, as well as to pick up his cue as to the proper way in which +he should treat him. "Oh, that is altogether another affair! Had I +only known the person in whose company I had the good fortune to be, +I should not have presumed to have fired a shot before him. But if I +have said any thing amiss, I am sure Inchrory will have the magnanimity +to forgive me, seeing that I have been already sufficiently punished +by the exhibition of bad gunning which I have unwittingly ventured +to make in presence of him, who is by all acknowledged to be the best +marksman in Scotland." + +"Sir," said Inchrory, rising full a couple of inches higher in his +brogues, and coming forward to Burnside with extended palm, and with +a manner full of dignified condescension. "You are a gentleman of the +first water! I beg you will forget and forgive any expression which +in my ignorance I may have let fall, that may by chance have given +you offence." + +"Sir, I am proud to shake hands with you," said Burnside, advancing +to give him a cordial squeeze. + +"Sir," said Inchrory with a proud air, but at the same time shaking +him heartily by the hand, "any friend of my friend the Earl of Fife, +is my friend. Henceforth, sir, I am your sworn friend." + +I daresay, gentlemen, I have given you enough of Inchrory to make you +sufficiently well acquainted with his character. But I have yet one +more anecdote of him, which I think brings it out more than all the +others. His wife, Ealsach, was one morning occupied in tending the +cattle at the shieling of Altanarroch. Lonely as you already know this +place of Inchrory to be, its loneliness was nothing when compared to +that of the shieling of Altanarroch, where even the cattle themselves +could only exist for a month or two during the finest part of the +year. Now, it happened that Ealsach, being in the family way, became +extremely anxious and unhappy as her time of confinement approached, +and her anxiety went on increasing daily, till at last she began +to think it very expedient to go home to Inchrory. The distance was +considerable, and the way rough enough in all conscience. But, having +the spirit of a Highland woman within her, she set out boldly on foot, +and arrived at Inchrory at an early hour in the morning. Her husband +met her at the door of the house, where she looked for a kind welcome +from him, and modestly signified the cause of her coming. + +"Ha!" exclaimed he proudly, and with anger in his eye. "How is this +that you come on foot? How dared you to come home till I sent a horse +for you, that you might travel as Inchrory's wife ought to do?" + +"No one saw how I came," replied his wife meekly. "I met nothing but +the moor-cocks and the pease-weeps on the hill." + +"No matter," said Inchrory, "even the moor-cocks and the pease-weeps +should not have it to say, that they saw the wife of Inchrory tramping +home a-foot through the heather. Get thee back this moment every foot +of the way to Altanarroch, that I may send for thee as Inchrory's +wife ought to be sent for." + +The poor woman knew that argument with him was useless. Without +entering the house, therefore, she was compelled to turn her weary +steps back to Altanarroch; and she was no sooner there, than a servant +appeared, leading by the bridle a horse, having a saddle on its back +covered with a green cloth, on which she was compelled to mount +forthwith, in order to ride home over the barren and desert moors +and mosses, in such style, as might satisfy the moor-cocks and the +pease-weeps, that she was the wife of Inchrory. + + + + + + + + +DRUM-HEAD COURT-MARTIAL AND SENTENCE ON INCHRORY. + + +Dominie.--What a vain windy-wallets of a body the creature must have +been! My humble opinion is, that he would have been much benefited +by a gentle tasting of my tawse. + +Clifford.--Or the drummer's cat-o-nine-tails, Mr. Macpherson. But come, +gentlemen, who tells the next tale? I have nothing now on my book but +Old Stachcan, and Turfearabrad, both, as I understand, adjourned to +time and place more fitting. Come, I must beat up for a volunteer. + +Author.--The circumstance of Mr. Macpherson having incidentally +mentioned Ticonderoga, towards the end of his account of the adventures +of Serjeant John Smith, has brought to my mind a legend of the family +of Campbell of Inverawe, which I had from a friend of mine, the story +of which is intimately connected with that most disastrous affair. If +you like I shall be happy to give it to you. + +Clifford.--Andiamo dunque, Signore mio!--let's have it without +more delay. + + + + + + + + +THE LEGEND OF THE VISION OF CAMPBELL OF INVERAWE. + + +Perhaps you are all acquainted with the history of the Black Watch, +which, as Mr. Macpherson has already told you, was afterwards +formed into that gallant corps now immortalized by its actions as the +Forty-Second Highlanders? General Stewart of Garth, in his interesting +account of the Highland Regiments, tells us that it was originally +composed of independent companies, which were raised about 1725 or +1730. These were stationed in small bodies in different parts of the +country, in order to preserve the peace of the Highlands. It was, +in some sort, a great National Guard, and it was considered so great +an honour to belong to it, that most of the privates were the sons of +gentlemen or tenants. Most of them generally rode on horseback, and +had gillies to carry their arms at all times, except when they were +on parade or on duty. They were called Freiceadan Dubh, or the Black +Watch, from the dark colour of their well-known regimental tartan, +in opposition to the Seider-Deargg, or Red Soldiers, who were so +named from the colour of their coats. You may probably remember the +circumstance of their having been most unfairly marched to London, +under the pretence that they were to be reviewed by the King,--of +their having been ordered abroad,--of their refusal to go,--of their +having been moved, as if by one impulse pervading every indignant bosom +among them, to make that most extraordinary and interesting march of +retreat which they effected to Northampton,--of their having been +ultimately brought under subjection,--and, finally, of their brave +conduct in Flanders, from which country they returned in October 1745. + +After their return to Great Britain, the Black Watch were ordered +into Kent, instead of being sent into Scotland with the other +troops under General Hawley, to act against those who had risen +for Prince Charles. This arrangement probably arose entirely from +great consideration and delicacy on the part of the government, +who, fully aware of the high honour of the individuals of the corps, +never entertained the smallest doubt of their loyalty, but who felt +the cruelty of exposing men to the dreadful alternative of fighting +against their friends and relatives, many of whom were necessarily to +be found in the ranks of the insurgents. There were, however, three +additional companies raised in the Highlands, a little time before +the return of the regiment from abroad. These were kept in Scotland, +and however distressing to their feelings the duty was which they were +called upon to perform, on the side for which they were enlisted, +they did that duty most honourably. One of these was recruited and +commanded by Duncan Campbell, laird of Inverawe. + +After various services in their own country during the period that +the rest of the corps was abroad for the second time, these three +companies were ordered to embark, in March 1748, to join the regiment +in Flanders. But the preliminaries of peace having been soon afterwards +signed, the order was countermanded, and they were reduced. + +During the time that Campbell of Inverawe's company was occupied in the +unpleasant duty to which I have alluded, he had been on one occasion +compelled to march into the district of Lorn, and to burn and destroy +the houses and effects of a few small gentlemen, who were of that +resolute description that they would have sacrificed all they had, +and even life itself, rather than yield to what they held to be the +government of an usurper. Having been thus led to pursue his route, +in a certain direction, for many a mile, he happened, on his return, +to be detained behind his men by some accidental circumstance, and +having lost his way after night-fall, he wandered about alone for +several hours, until he became considerably oppressed with hunger and +fatigue. With the expectation of gathering some better knowledge of +his way, he left the lower grounds, where the darkness of night had +settled more deeply and decidedly down, and he climbed the side of a +hill with the hope of benefiting, in some degree, by the half twilight +which lingers longer upon these elevations, continuing to rest upon +them sometimes for hours after it has altogether deserted their lower +regions. With the dogged perseverance of one who labours on because he +has no other alternative, he blindly pursued his hap-hazard course in +a diagonal line along the abrupt face, always rising as he proceeded, +until his way became every moment more and more difficult. The side +of the hill became steeper and steeper at every step, until he began +to be satisfied that he had no chance of reaching its brow, except +by retracing his steps, in order to discover some other means of +ascending to it. To any such alternative as this he could by no means +make up his mind. He cursed his own folly for allowing his company to +march on without him. He uttered many a wish that he was with them. He +felt sufficiently convinced that he had acted imprudently in having +thus exposed himself alone, in the midst of a district which was +yet reeking with the vengeance which his duty had compelled him so +unwillingly to pour out upon it. But his courage was indomitable, and +his way lay onwards, and onwards he without hesitation resolved to go. + +He had not proceeded far, until high cliffs began to rear themselves +over his head, whilst, from his very feet, perpendicular precipices +shot down into the deep night that prevailed below. The goat or deer +track that he followed became every moment more and more blocked +up with stony fragments, until at length it offered one continuous +series of dangerous steps, requiring his utmost care and attention +to preserve him from a slip or fall that might have been fatal. + +Whilst he was thus proceeding, with his whole attention occupied in +self-preservation, he was suddenly challenged in Gaelic by a rough +voice in his front. + +"Who comes there?" + +"A friend," replied Inverawe, in the same language in which he was +addressed. + +"I am not sure of that," said the same voice hoarsely and bitterly. "Is +he alone?" + +"He is alone," said a voice a little way behind Inverawe; "We are +quite safe." + +"Come on then, sir," said the voice in front, "you have nothing +to fear." + +"Fear!" cried Inverawe, in a tone which implied that any such feeling +had ever been a stranger to him; "I fear nothing." + +"I know you to be a brave man, Inverawe!" said the man who now appeared +in front of him. "Come on then without apprehension. You need not put +your hand into the guard of your claymore, for no one here will harm +you. But what strange chance has brought you here?" + +"The loss of my way," replied Inverawe. "But how do you come to know +me so well?" + +"It is no matter how I know you," replied the other. "It is sufficient +that I do know you, and know you to be a brave man, to whom, as such, +I am prepared to do what kindness I can. What are your wants then, +and what can I do for you?" + +"My wants are, simply to find my lost way, and then to procure some +food, of which I stand much in need," replied Inverawe. + +"Be at ease then, for I shall help you to both," replied the person +with whom he was conversing; "but methinks your last want requires +to be first attended to, as the most urgent; so follow me, and look +sharply to your footing." Then, speaking in a louder tone to some +individuals, who, though unseen, were posted somewhere in the obscurity +to the rear of Inverawe, he said, "Look well to your post, lads, I +shall be with you by and bye." And then again turning to Inverawe, +he added--"Come on, sir, you must climb up this way; the ascent is +steep, and you will require to use hands as well as feet. Goats were +wont to be the only travellers here, and even they must have been +hardy ones. But troublous times will often people the desert cliffs +themselves with human beings, and scare the very eagle from her aerie, +that she may yield her lodging to weary man." + +Inverawe now began to clamber after his guide up a steep, tortuous, +and dangerous ascent, where in some places they were compelled to pull +up their bodies by the strength of their hands and arms. It lasted +for some time; and he of the Black Watch, albeit well accustomed to +such work, was beginning to be very weary of it, when at length they +landed on a tolerably wide natural ledge, where Inverawe perceived that +the cliffs that arose from the inner angle of it so overhung their +base as to render it self-evident that all farther ascent in this +direction was cut off by them. Rounding a huge fallen mass of rock, +which lay poised on the very edge of the precipice, they came suddenly +on a ravine, or rift, in the face of the cliff above, on climbing a +few paces up which, they discovered the low, arched mouth of a cave, +whence issued a faint gleam of light, and an odour of smoke. His +guide stooped under the projection of the cliff that hung over it, and +let himself down through the narrow entrance. Inverawe followed his +example without fear, and found himself in a cavern of an irregular +form, from ten to twenty feet in diameter. This he discovered partly +by the light of a fire of peats that smouldered near the entrance, +and partially filled the place with smoke, but more perfectly by a +torch of bog-fir which his guide immediately lighted. But he felt no +curiosity about this, in comparison with that which he experienced +in regard to the figure and features of his guide, with which he was +intensely anxious to make himself acquainted. + +He was a tall and remarkably fine looking man, considerably below +middle age. He was dressed in a grey plaid and kilt, betokening +disguise, but with the full complement of Highland armour about +him. His hair hung in long black curls around his head. His face was +very handsome, his nose aquiline, his mouth small and well formed, +having its upper lip graced by a dark and well-trimmed moustache. His +eyes, and his whole general expression, were extremely benignant. After +scanning his face with great attention, Inverawe was satisfied +that he never had seen him before, and he had ample opportunity of +ascertaining the reverse, if it had been otherwise, for the man stood +with the bog-fir torch blazing in his hand, as if he wished to give +his guest the fullest advantage of it in his scrutiny of him, and then, +as if guessing the conclusion to which that scrutiny had brought him, +he at last began to speak. + +"Aye," said he calmly, "you are right, Inverawe. Your eyes have +never beheld me until this moment. But I have seen you to my cost. I +was looking on all the while that you and your men were burning and +destroying my house, goods, and gear, this blessed morning, and I +can never forget you." + +"I know you not, that is certain," replied Inverawe; "and the cruel +duty we were on to-day was so extensive in its operation, that I +cannot even guess whom you are." + +"You shall never know it from me, Inverawe," replied the other. + +"And why not?" demanded Inverawe. + +"From no fear for myself," replied the stranger; "but because I would +not add to that remorse, which you must feel, from being compelled +to execute deeds which are as unworthy of you, as I know they are +contrary to your generous and kindly nature. I have suffered from +you deeply--deeply indeed have I suffered. But I look upon you but +as an involuntary minister of the vengeance of a cruel Government, +and perhaps as an agent in the hand of a just God, who would punish me +for those sins and frailties which are inherent in my human nature. I +blame not you, and I can have no feeling of anger against you, far +less of revenge. Give me, then, the right hand of fellowship." + +"Willingly, most willingly!" said Inverawe, cordially shaking hands +with him. "You are a noble high-minded man; for certainly I can +imagine what your feelings might have very naturally been against me, +and I know that I am now in your power." + +"All I ask, Inverawe, is this," continued the stranger; "that as I +have been, and will continue to be honourable towards you, you will +be the same to me; and in asking that, I know that I am asking what +is sure to be granted. The confidence in your honour which I have +shown by bringing you here, will not be betrayed." + +"Never!" said Inverawe, with energy. "Never while I have life!" + +"I know I can rely upon you," said the stranger; "and now let me +hasten to give you such refreshment as I possess. Sit down, I pray +you, as near to the ground as possible, you will find that the smoke +will annoy you less." + +Inverawe did as his host had recommended, and, seating himself on some +heather which lay on the floor of the place, the stranger opened a +wicker pannier that stood in a low recess, and speedily produced from +it various articles of food, of no mean description, together with a +bottle of French wine, and, spreading the viands before his guest, he +seated himself by him, and they ate and drank together. They had little +conversation; and the stranger no sooner saw that Inverawe's hunger +was satisfied, than he arose, and proposed that he should now guide +him on his journey. Creeping from the hole, therefore, they descended +the crags together, with all that care which the steepness of the +declivity rendered necessary, until they came to the spot where they +had first encountered each other, and then the stranger began to guide +Inverawe onwards in the same direction he had been formerly pursuing. + +They had not proceeded far, until they were challenged by voices among +the rocks, showing that his host's place of retreat was protected +by sentinels in all quarters. His guide answered the challenge, and +they then went on without molestation. After about an hour's walk +over very rugged ground, during which they wound over the mountain, +and threaded their way through various bogs and woods, that completely +bewildered Inverawe, his guide suddenly brought him out upon a road +which he well knew, and then shaking hands with him, and bidding him +farewell, he dived again into the wood, and disappeared. + +Inverawe rejoined his company at their night's quarters. They had +spent an anxious time, regarding him, during his absence, and they +were clamorous in their enquiries as to what had become of him. He +gave them an account of the circumstance of his losing his way; but he +told them not a syllable of his adventure with the stranger, resolving +that it should be for ever buried in his own bosom. There, however, +it produced many a thought; and often did he earnestly hope, that +chance might again bring him into contact with the man who had taken +so noble a revenge of him--to whom he felt as an honest bankrupt might +do towards his generous and forgiving creditor; and whose person and +features he had engraven so deeply on his recollection, to be embalmed +there amidst the warmest and kindliest affections of his heart. + +It was soon after the disbanding of his company, that Campbell of +Inverawe returned to his own romantic territory, and to his ancient +castle, standing in the midst of beautiful natural lawns, surrounded +by wooded banks and knolls, lying at the north-western base of the +mighty Ben-Cruachan. Speaking in a general way, the country around +was thickly covered with oak and birch woods, giving double value, +both in point of beauty and utility, to the rich, glady pastures, +which were seen to spread their verdant surface to the sun, along +the course of the river Awe. Behind the grey towers of the building, +broken rocks arose here and there, in bare masses, in the direction of +the mountain,--whilst the blue expanse of Loch Etive stretched away +from the eye towards the north-east, as well as to the west. To the +south-west, the groves, and grassy slopes, were abruptly broken off +by the perpendicular crags of the romantic ravine through which the +river makes its way, to pour itself across the open haughs of Bunawe, +and into Loch Etive. To sketch out the remainder of the neighbourhood, +so that you may be fully aware of the nature of the country, which was +the scene, where one of the most important circumstances of my tale +took place, I may add, that about a mile above the ravine, the river +has its origin from a long narrow arm of Loch Awe, which presents one +of the most romantic ranges of scenery in Scotland. The lake in the +bottom, is there every where about eighty or an hundred yards wide +only; and whilst a bare, rocky mountain front, furrowed by many a +misty cataract, rises sheer up out of the water on its western side, +the steep, lofty, and rugged face of Cruachan shuts it in on the +eastern side, forming the grand and wild pass of Brandera. Here the +mountain exhibits every variety of picturesque form,--of prominent +crag, and half-concealed hollow, among which the grey mists are +continually playing and producing magical effects; together with +deep torrent beds, and innumerable waterfalls, thundering downwards +unseen, save in glimpses, amid the thick copse which, generation +after generation, has sprung from the stools of those giant oaks, +which were once permitted to rear their spreading heads, and to throw +their bold arms freely abroad, athwart the rocky steeps that rear +themselves so high up above, as to be softened by distance and air, +till they almost melt from human vision. + +Having thus put you in possession of the scenery, I shall now proceed +to tell you, that Campbell of Inverawe, after his long absence from +home on military duty, felt all the luxury of enjoyment which these +his own quiet scenes could bestow, and his mind expanding to all +his old friendships, he largely exercised all the hospitalities of +life. Frequently did he fill the hall of his fathers with gay and +merry feasters, and his own hilarious disposition, always made him +the very soul of the mirth that prevailed among them. + +On one occasion, it happened that he had congregated a large party +together. The wine circulated freely. The fire bickered on the hearth, +and threw a cheerful blaze over the walls of the hall, reddening the +very roof, and gleaming on the warlike weapons that hung around. The +wine was good,--the jests were merry,--and the conversation sparkling, +so that the guests were as loath to depart as their kind host was +unwilling to let them go. His lady had retired to her chamber--but +still they sat on, making the old building ring again with their jocund +laughter. But all things must have an end. The parting cup, to their +host's rooftree, was proposed by a certain young man called George +Campbell, and it was filled to the brim. But as all were on their +legs to drain it, with heart and good will, to the bottom,--a rattling +peal of thunder rolled directly over their heads. There was not a man +of them that did not feel that the omen was appalling. Some hardy +ones tried to laugh it off, as a salvo from heaven in homologation +of their good wishes to the house of Inverawe. But the pleasantry +went ill down with the rest. Servants were called for,--horses were +ordered, and out poured their owners to mount them,--when they were +all surprised to see the heavens quite serene and tranquil. But not +a word of remark was ventured by any one on this so very strange a +circumstance. Their hospitable entertainer saw every man of them take +his stirrup cup; and they galloped away, one after the other. + +After they were all gone, Inverawe paced about in the court-yard for +some time, in sombre thought, which stole involuntarily upon him. He +then sought his way up stairs, and lifting an oaken chair towards +the great hearth, where the billets had by this time begun to burn +red, and without flame, he sat down in it for a while, listlessly to +ponder over the events of the evening. The weary servants had gladly +stolen away to bed, and the whole castle was soon as silent as the +grave. Not a sound was to be heard within the walls, but the dull, +drowsy buzzing of a large fly, which the flickering light of a solitary +lamp, left on the table, had prevented from retiring to some cranny of +repose. The master of the mansion smiled for a moment, as the whimsical +idea crossed him, that this tiny insect was perhaps the only thing +of life, which, at that time, kept watch with him within the castle. + +Inverawe's thoughts reverted to the last toast which had been given by +his young friend Campbell, and the strange circumstances by which it +had been accompanied. He had an only son, called Donald, a promising +young man, who was the prop of his house, and to whose future career +in life he looked forward with all a father's anxiety. He had been +long accustomed to weave a silken tissue of anticipated happiness, +and honours, for the young man, and to view him, in his mind's eye, as +the father of many generations to come. The youth was at that time from +home; and this was the very first moment of his life that the notion +of there being any chance of his being one day left childless, had ever +occurred to him. He tried to shake off these gloomy presentiments, but +still they returned, and clung to him, with a force and pertinacity +that no reason could conquer. He would fain have risen to go to his +chamber, but he felt as if some powerful, though unseen hand, had +held him down to his chair,--and he continued to sit on, absorbed in +contemplative musings on these gloomy and painful dreams, till the +billets on the hearth had consumed themselves to their red embers. + +Suddenly all such thoughts were put to flight from his mind. He +distinctly heard the great outer door of the castle creak upon its +hinges. He remembered, that although he had not locked it, he had shut +it behind him when he came in. It now banged against its doorway, and +sent a hollow sound echoing up the long turnpike stair. Faint, quick, +and stealthy footsteps, were then heard ascending. One or two other +doors were moved in succession. The footsteps approached with cautious +expedition. And as Inverawe listened with breathless attention, +the door of the hall was thrust open,--a human countenance appeared +for an instant in the dusky aperture--and then a man, with a naked +dirk in his hand,--his clothes dripping wet--his long hair hanging +streaming over his shoulders, and half veiling his glaring eyes, and +pale and haggard countenance, rushed in, and made straight up to him. + +Inverawe started to his feet, drew his dirk, and prepared to defend +himself from this unlooked for attempt at assassination. But ere he +had well plucked it forth from its sheath, the intruder assumed the +attitude of a suppliant. + +"For mercy's sake pardon my unceremonious entrance, Inverawe!" said +the stranger, in a hollow, husky, and exhausted voice. "And be +not alarmed, for I come with no hostile intention against you or +yours. I am an unfortunate wretch, who, in a sudden quarrel, have +shed the blood of a fellow-creature. He was a man of Lorn. I have been +hotly pursued by his friends, and though I have thrown those who are +after me considerably out, during the long chase they have kept up, +yet they are still pressing like blood-hounds on my track. To baffle +them, if possible, I threw myself into the river, and swam across it, +and I now claim that protection, and that hospitality, which no one +ever failed to find within the house of Inverawe." + +"By Cruachan!" cried Inverawe, sheathing his dirk, and slapping it +smartly with the open palm of his hand. "By Cruachan, I swear that +you shall have both!" + +Now, I must tell you, that this was considered as the most solemn +pledge that a Campbell of Inverawe could give. Their war-cry was, +"Coar-a-Cruachan," that is, "Help from Cruachan." And this expression +had a double meaning, inasmuch as the word Cruachan had reference both +to the mountain of that name, and to the hip where the dirk hung. To +swear by Cruachan, therefore, and to strengthen the oath by slapping +the dirk with the open palm, was to utter an oath, which must, under +all circumstances, be for ever held inviolable. + +"But tell me," said Inverawe, "how happened this unlucky affair?" + +"We were all met to make merry at a wedding," replied the stranger, +"when, as I was dancing with---- But hold!--I hear voices! They +approach the castle! I am lost if you do not hide me immediately." + +"This way," said Inverawe, leading him to a certain obscure part of +the hall. "Aid me to lift this trap.--Now, down with ye and crouch +there.--They come." + +Inverawe had barely time to drop the trap-door into its place, +to resume his seat at the fire, and to affect to be in a deep +sleep, when the voices and the sound of human footsteps were +heard ascending the stairs. Three men entered the hall in reeking +haste--claymores in hand. They rushed towards the fire-place, where +he was sitting. Inverawe started up as if just awaked by the noise +they made, and drew his dirk, as if to defend himself from their +meditated attack. + +"Ha!" cried he, with well-feigned surprise. "Assassins: Then must I +sell my life as dearly as I can." + +"Not assassins!" cried they. "We are not assassins, Inverawe. We +crave your pardon for this apparently rude intrusion, but we are in +pursuit of an assassin. We come to look for a man who has murdered +another. Have we your permission to search for him?" + +"Certainly," said Inverawe, "wherever you please." + +"He cannot be here," said one of the men. "I told you that he could +not be here. Don't you see plainly that he could not have come in +here without awaking Inverawe. We lose time here. We had better on +after our friends." + +"Depend on't he has run up Loch Etive side," said another of them. + +"What are all these wet foot-steps on the floor?" said the first +of them that spoke. "He might have been here without Inverawe's +knowledge." + +"Don't you see that Inverawe has had a feast, and that wine, and water, +and whisky too, have been flowing in gallons in all directions?" said +the second man. "See there is a large pool of lost liquor. I verily +believe that some of these footsteps are my own, made this moment, +by walking accidentally through it. I tell you he never could have +come here." + +"It is true that I have had a feast," said Inverawe, carelessly, +"as you may see from the wrecks of it that still remain on the table." + +"I told you so," said the second man. "We only lose time here. If +you had only been guided by my counsel we might have been hard at +his heels by this time, as well as the rest." + +"Haste, then, let us go!" said the first man. + +"Away! away!" cried his companions, and, without waiting for farther +parley, they rushed out of the hall, and Inverawe heard with some +satisfaction, their footsteps hurrying down stairs, and the shouts +which they yelled forth after their companions, growing fainter +and fainter, until they were altogether lost in the direction of +Loch Etive. + +Inverawe was no sooner certain that they were fairly gone, without +all risk of returning, than he proceeded, in the first place, to +secure the outer door of the castle, and then returning to the hall, +he went to the trap-door, and calling softly to the man concealed +below it, he desired him to aid him in raising it, by applying his +strength to force it upwards, and thus their united strength enabled +them speedily to open it, and to lift it up. + +"Come forth now, unfortunate man," said Inverawe; "your pursuers +are gone." + +"I come," said the stranger, in his husky hoarse voice, and as he +raised himself from the trap-door, his haggard countenance, and his +blood-shot eyes, that glared with the horror of his situation, half +seen as they were through his long moist locks, chilled Inverawe's +very heart as he looked upon him. + +"Now, sir," said Inverawe, "you are safe for the present, your pursuers +have passed on." + +"Thanks! thanks!" replied the man; "I know not how sufficiently to +thank you." + +"Aye--all is so far well for you," said Inverawe; "but concealment for +you here is impossible. You must remove into a place of more certain +safety, and no time is to be lost. At present you may remove without +observation or suspicion; but no one can say how soon the search for +you hereabouts may be renewed. Here," continued he, setting before +him some of the remains of the feast, which the tired servants had +not removed from the sideboard; "take what refreshment circumstances +may allow, whilst I go for a basket, in which to carry food enough +to last you during to-morrow. We must go to Ben-Cruachan, with as +much secrecy and expedition as we can." + +The stranger, thus left for a few minutes by himself, hastily devoured +some of the viands, of which he had so much need, and having swallowed +a full cup of wine, he was rejoined by Inverawe with a basket, into +which he hastily packed some provisions, and, without a moment's +delay, they quietly and stealthily quitted the hall, and the castle, +and the moment they found themselves in the open air, Inverawe led +the way diagonally up the slope, on the western side of Ben-Cruachan. + +Their way was long, and their path rough, and they moved on through +woods, and over rocks, without uttering a word. Many a half expressed +exclamation, indeed, burst involuntarily from the stranger, betraying +a mind ill at ease with itself, and many a start did he give, as +if he apprehended surprise from some lurking pursuer; and Inverawe +shuddered to think, that the haggard appearance of the man, and +these his guilty-like apprehensions, were more in accordance with the +accusation of murder, or unfair slaughter, which seemed to have been +made against him, by the expressions of some of those who had come +into the hall in search of him, than with the chance-medley killing +of a man in an affray, which was the complexion he had himself wished +to put on the matter. Be this as it might, however, his most solemn +pledge had been given for his security, and accordingly he determined +honourably to fulfil it, at all hazards to himself. His reflections, +as he went with this man, were of any thing but a pleasing nature. + +After a long and painful walk, or rather race, for their pace had +been more like that, than walking, Inverawe began to climb up the +abrupt face of Cruachan, till he came to that part of it which hangs +over the northern entrance of the Pass of Brandera, where the river +Awe breaks away from the end of the narrow branch of the lake, and +there, after some scrambling, he led the stranger high up the face of +the mountain, to a cave that yawned in the perpendicular cliff. The +concealment here was perfect, for its mouth was masked in front by a +cairn of large stones, which might have been accidentally accumulated +by falling during successive ages from the rocks above, or perhaps +artificially piled up there in memory of some person or event long +since forgotten. It was moreover surrounded by trees of all sorts +of growth; indeed, the universal wooding which prevailed over the +surrounding features of nature, of itself rendered any object on the +ground of the mountain side difficult to be discovered by any creature +that did not, like an eagle, mount into the sky. In addition to this, +the great elevation of the position, added to the security of the +place, and the ravine-seamed front of the perpendicular mountain of +rock that guarded the western side of the pass, immediately opposite +to the face of Cruachan, precluded all chance of observation from +that quarter. + +"This is not exactly the place where Campbell of Inverawe would +wish to exercise his hospitality, to any one who deigns to ask for +his protection," said the Laird, whilst he was engaged in striking +a light; "but in your circumstances it is the best retreat in which +I can extend it towards you. Here is a lamp; and I will leave this +tinder-box, and this flask of oil with you. The cave is dry enough, +and there is abundance of heather to be had around you. Use your lamp +only when you may find it absolutely necessary so to do; for its light +might betray you; and take care to show yourself as little as possible +during the daylight of to-morrow. I have promised you protection by +Cruachan, and by Cruachan you shall have it. You must be contented +with this my assurance for the present, for your safety demands that +I shall not see you again, until I can do so without observation, +under the veil of to-morrow-night's darkness. Till then, you must +e'en do with such provisions as this basket contains, and you may +reckon on my bringing a fresh supply with me when I return. Farewell, +for I must hurry back, so as to escape discovery." + +"Thanks! thanks! kind Inverawe!" said the man, in a state of extreme +agitation and excitement,--"a thousand thanks! But, must you--must you +leave me thus alone? Alone, for a whole night, on this wild mountain +side, with that yawning hole for my place of rest, and with nothing +but the roar of these eternal cataracts, mingled with the wild howl of +the wind through the pass to lull me to repose! That cairn, too!--may +not that be a cairn which marks the spot where--where--where some +murder has been done? Can you assure me that no ghosts ever haunt +this wild place?" + +"The soul that is free from all consciousness of guilt may hold +patient, solitary, and fearless converse with ghost or goblin, +even on such a wild mountain side as this," said Inverawe, somewhat +impatiently. "But surely you cannot expect that my hospitality to +you should require my sharing this mountain concealment with you? If +you do, I must tell you, what common prudence ought to teach you, +that if I were disposed to do so, nothing could be more unwise, +as nothing could more certainly lead to your detection. My absence +from home would create so much surprise and anxiety, that the whole +country would turn out to seek for me, and their search for me, could +not fail to produce your discovery. Even now, I may be risking it by +thus delaying to return." + +"True, true, Inverawe!" said the stranger, in a desponding tone, and +apparently making a strong effort to command his feelings. "There +is too much truth in what you say. I must steel myself up to this +night. My safety, as you say, demands it. Yet, 'tis a terrible +trial! Would that the dawn were come! Is it far from day?" + +"I hope it is, indeed," replied Inverawe, "else might my absence and +all be discovered. It cannot, as yet, as I suppose, be much after +midnight; but even that is late enough for me. I must borrow the +swiftness of the roebuck to carry me back. So again I say farewell +till to-morrow-night." + +Inverawe tarried not for an answer, but, darting off through the wood, +he rapidly descended among the rocks, and then bounded over all the +obstacles in his way, with a swiftness almost rivaling that of the +animal he had alluded to; and so he reached his own door, in a space +of time so short, as to be almost incredible. The fire in the hall +had now sunk into white ashes. The lamp, which he had left burning, +was now flickering in its last expiring efforts. He swallowed a single +draught of wine to restore his exhausted strength, and then he stole to +his chamber, and crept into bed, happy in the conviction that his lady, +who was in a deep sleep, had never discovered that he had been absent. + +The sleep that immediately fell upon Inverawe himself was that of the +most perfect unconsciousness of existence. He knew not, of course, +how long it had lasted, nor was he, in the least degree, sensible of +the cause or manner of its interruption. But he did awake, somehow +or other; and then it was that he discovered, to his great wonder and +astonishment, that the chamber which, on going to bed, he had left as +dark as the most impenetrable night could make it, was now illuminated +with a lambent light, of a bluish cast, which shone through the very +curtains of his bed. A certain feeling of awe crept chillingly over +him; for he was at once convinced that the light was something very +different from the dawn of morning. It became gradually more and +more intense, till, through the thick drapery that surrounded him, +he distinctly beheld the shadow of a human figure approaching his +bed. He was a brave man; but he felt that every nerve and muscle of +his frame was paralysed, he knew not how. He watched the slow advance +of the figure with motionless awe. The shadowy arm was extended, and +the curtain was slowly and silently raised. The bluish light that so +miraculously pervaded the chamber, then suddenly arose to a degree +of splendour, that was dazzling to his sight, and clearly defined +the appalling object that now presented itself to his eyes. The face +and figure were those of the very man who had formerly entertained +him in the hole in the cliff on the mountain side, in Lorn. He was +wrapped in the same grey plaid, too. But those handsome features, +which had made so deep an impression on the recollection of Inverawe, +were now pale and fixed, as if all the pulses of life had ceased, and +the raven locks, which hung curling around them, and the moustaches +which once gave so much expression to his upper lip, now only served +to increase the ghastliness of the hue of death that overspread his +countenance, as well as that of the glaze of those immoveable eyes, +which had then exhibited so much generous intelligence. Inverawe lay +petrified, his expanded orbs devouring the spectacle before them. With +noiseless action, the figure dropped one corner of the shadowy plaid +in which it was enveloped, and displayed a gaping wound in its bosom, +which appeared to pour out rivers of blood. Its lips moved not; +yet it spoke--slowly, and in a hollow and sepulchral tone. + +"Inverawe!--blood must flow for blood! Shield not the murderer!" + +Slowly did the spectre drop the curtain; and its shadow, seen through +it, gradually faded away in the waning light, ere Inverawe could +well gather together his routed faculties to his aid. He rubbed his +eyes, started up in bed, leaned on his pillow, and brushed the curtain +hastily aside. All was again dark and silent. Again he rubbed his eyes, +and looked; but again he looked into impenetrable night. + +"It was a dream," thought, rather than said, Inverawe; "a horrible +dream--but nevertheless it was a dream--curious in its coincidences, +but not unnatural. Nay, it was most natural, that the strangest +adventure of my past life, should be recalled by the yet stranger +occurrences of this night, and that both should thus link themselves +confusedly and irrationally together during sleep. Pshaw! It is +absurd for a rational man to think of this illusion more. I'll to +sleep again." + +But sleep is one of those blessed conditions of human nature, which +cannot be controlled or commanded by the mere will. On the contrary, +the very resolution to command it, is almost certain to put it to +flight. The vision, or whatever else it might have been, haunted his +imagination, and kept his thoughts so busily occupied, that he could +not sleep. When his lady awaked in the morning, she found him lying +fevered, restless, and unrefreshed. Her inquiries were anxious and +affectionate; but, by carelessly attributing his indisposition to the +prolonged revelry of the previous evening, he at last succeeded in +ridding himself of farther question, and springing from his couch, he +tried to banish all thought of the unpleasant dilemma into which he had +been brought, by occupying himself actively in the business of the day. + +He was so far successful for a time; but, as night approached, his +uncomfortable reflections and anticipations began again to crowd +into his mind. He must fulfil his promise of visiting his guest +of the cave, a guest whom he now could not help looking upon with +horror as a foul murderer; and yet, if he disbelieved the reality of +the previous night's visitation, there was no reason that he should +so regard him more now, than he had done before. The difficulty of +contriving the means of managing his visit, so that it should escape +observation or suspicion on the part of his lady, or his domestics, +was very considerable. His lady was that evening more than ordinarily +solicitous about him, from the conviction that pressed upon her, +that he had had little or no sleep the previous night, and remarking +his jaded appearance, she eagerly urged him to retire to bed at an +early hour. + +"My dearest," said he affectionately, "I shall; but before I can do so, +I have some otter-traps to set. Perhaps I had better go and finish +that business now, while there is yet some twilight. Go you to your +chamber, and retire to rest. I shall sleep all the sounder by and bye, +after breathing the fresh air of this balmy evening for an hour or so." + +The lady yielded to his persuasion, and she had no sooner left +him, than he took an opportunity of filling his basket, with such +provisions as he could appropriate for the stranger, with the least +possible chance of detection; and putting a few of his otter-traps +over all, by way of a blind, he sallied forth in the direction of +the river. There he first most conscientiously made good his word, +by planting his traps, and then, as it was by that time dark, he +turned his steps up the side of Ben-Cruachan, and made the best of his +way towards the cliffs where the cave was situated. As he drew near +to its mouth, he was, in some degree, alarmed by observing a light +proceeding from it. He approached it with caution, and, on entering +it, he beheld the stranger sitting in the farthest corner of it, on +the bed of heather, with his figure drawn up and compressed together, +and his features painfully distorted, whilst his eyes were intently +fixed on vacancy. For a moment Inverawe doubted whether some fit had +not seized upon him; but he started at the noise made by the entrance +of his protector, and sprang up to meet him. + +"Oh, Inverawe," said he, "what a relief it is to behold you! Oh what +a wretched weary time I have passed since you left me!" + +"I have brought you something to comfort you," said Inverawe, so +shocked with his haggard appearance, and conscience-worn countenance, +as almost to recoil from him. "You know that I could not come +sooner. You seem to be exhausted with watching. You had better take +some of this wine." + +"Oh, yes, yes, give me wine--a large cup of wine!" cried the stranger, +wildly seizing the vessel which Inverawe had filled, and swallowing +its contents with avidity. "Oh, such a time as I have spent!" + +"This place is quite secure," said Inverawe. "You have no cause +for such anxiety, if you will only be prudent. But why do you keep +this light burning? Did I not tell you it was most dangerous to do +so. Some wandering or belated shepherd or huntsman might be guided +hither by it, and if your retreat should be once discovered, your +certain destruction must follow." + +"I could not remain in darkness," replied the stranger, with a cold +shudder; "it was agonizing to do so! Horrid shapes continually haunted +me,--horrid, horrid shapes!--Even the shutting of my eyes could not +exclude them. Oh, such a night as last! never have I before endured +any thing so horrible." + +"You must take your own way then," said Inverawe, as he spread out the +contents of the basket before him; "I am sorry that I can do nothing +better for you, but this is the best fare I could provide for you, +without exciting suspicion in my own house. Stay--here is a blanket +to help to make your bed somewhat more comfortable. And now, I must +hurry away.--Yet, before I go, let me once more caution you about +the light. Perhaps I had better make all secure, by taking the lamp +with me." + +"Oh no! no! no! no!" cried the stranger, his eyes glaring like those +of a maniac, whilst he rushed towards the lamp and seized it up, and +clasped it within his arms. "No, nothing shall rend it from me! I +will sacrifice my life to preserve it. What! would you leave me to +another long, long, and dreadful night? Would you leave me to utter +darkness and despair?" + +"Leave you I must," replied Inverawe; "and if you will keep the lamp, +you must do so at your own risk. But your thoughts must be dreadful +thoughts indeed, so to disturb you. If conscious guilt be the cause +of them, I can only advise you to confess yourself humbly to your +Creator, and to pray for his forgiveness." + +Without waiting for a reply, Inverawe left the cave, and made the best +of his way home. On reaching his apartment, he found his lady awake. + +"You have been a long time absent, Inverawe," said she anxiously. + +"I have, my love," replied he carelessly; "the delicious air of this +night induced me to stay out longer than I had intended; but I hope +I shall sleep all the better for it." + +Exhausted as he was by fatigue of body and mind, as well as worn out +by want of rest, Inverawe did fall asleep immediately, and his sleep +was sound and deep. For aught he knew, it might have lasted for some +hours, when again, as on the previous night, he was awaked, he could +not tell how. The curtains of his bed were drawn close, but the same +uncouth blue light which pervaded the apartment on the former night, +now again rendered them quite transparent. To convince himself that +he was awake, Inverawe looked round upon his wife. Even at this early +stage, the light was sufficiently bright to enable him distinctly to +see his lady's features as her head lay in calm repose on the pillow +beside him. He turned again towards the side of the bed, and his eyes +were dazzled by the sudden increase of light, produced by the curtain +being raised as before, by the extended hand of the spectre. The same +well remembered features were there, pale, fixed, and corpse-like, +but the expression of the brow, and bloodless lips, was more stern +than it was on the previous night. Again the spectre dropped the fold +of the filmy plaid that covered the bosom, and displayed the yawning +gash, which continued to pour out rivers of blood. The spectacle was +horrible, and Inverawe's very arteries were frozen up. Again it spoke +in a deep hollow tone, whilst its lips moved not. + +"Inverawe! My first visit has been fruitless!--Once more I come +to warn you that blood must flow for blood. No longer shield the +murderer! Force me not to appear again, when all warning will be vain!" + +Inverawe made an effort to question it. His parched mouth, and dried +and stiffened tongue, refused to do their office. The curtain fell, +and the light in the room, as well as the shadow of the figure, +began to wane away. He struggled to spring out of bed, but his nerves +and muscles refused to obey his will, until it was gone, and all was +again darkness. The moment that his powers returned to him, he dashed +back the curtain, threw himself from the bed, and searched through +the room, with outstretched arms, yet, bold and desperate as he was, +he almost feared that they might embrace the cold and bloody figure +which he had beheld. His search, however, was vain, and, utterly +confused and confounded, he returned to bed with his very heart as +cold as ice. Fortunately, his lady had lain perfectly undisturbed, and +amidst his own horror, and amidst all his own agonizing agitation of +thought, he felt thankful that she had escaped sharing in the terrors +to which he had been subjected. As on the former night, he tried to +persuade himself that all that had passed was nothing more than a +dream,--but all the reasoning powers he possessed were ineffectual +in removing from his mind the conviction that now laid hold of it, +that it really was a spirit that had appeared to him. Sleep was +banished from his eyelids for the remainder of the night; and never +before had he so anxiously longed for day-break. It came at last; +and soon afterwards his lady awaked. + +"Inverawe," said she, tenderly and anxiously addressing him, "you are +ill--very ill. What, in the name of all goodness, is the matter with +you? Your worn out looks tell me that something terrible has occurred +to you. Your late excursion of last night has something mysterious +about it. You were not wont thus to have concealment from me--from +me your affectionate wife!--What is it that preys upon your mind?--I +must know it." + +"Promise me, upon the honour of Inverawe's wife," said he, now seeing +that concealment from her was no longer practicable; "promise me +on that honour which is pure and unsullied as the snow, that you +will not divulge what I have to tell you, and your curiosity shall +be satisfied." + +With a look of intense and apprehensive interest, the lady +promised what he desired, and then Inverawe communicated to her +every circumstance that had occurred to him. She was struck dumb and +petrified by the narration; but she had no sooner gathered sufficient +nerve to speak, than she earnestly entreated him to have nothing to +do in concealing the guilty stranger. + +"Let not this awful warning, now given you for the second time, +be neglected," said she. "Send for the officers of justice without +delay, and give up the murderer to be tried by the offended laws +of his country. You know not what curse may fall upon you, for thus +trying to arrest Heaven's judgment on the guilty man. Oh, Inverawe, +it is dreadful to think of it!" + +"All this earnestness on your part, my love, is natural," said Inverawe +calmly. "But think of the solemn oath I have sworn;--you would not +have Inverawe--you would not have your husband--break a pledge so +solemnly given? Whatever may befal me here, I cannot so dishonour +myself. Besides," added he, "whilst, on the one hand, I know that +he to whom I am so pledged is like myself, a man of flesh and blood, +who, for anything I know to the contrary, may, after all, be really +less guilty than unfortunate; I cannot even yet say with certainty, +that I have not been the sport of dreams, naturally enough arising +out of the strange circumstances to which I have been exposed. But +were it otherwise, and that, contrary to all our accustomed rational +belief, I have indeed been visited by a spirit, what proof have I +that it is a spirit of health? What proof have I that it may not be a +spirit wickedly commissioned by the Father of lies to take this form, +in order to seduce me into that breach of my pledge, which would for +ever blacken the high name of Campbell of Inverawe, and doom myself +to ceaseless remorse during the rest of my days?--No, no, lady!--I +must keep my solemn vow, whatever may befal me." + +The lady was silenced by these words from her husband, but her +anxiety was not thereby allayed. It increased as night approached; and +especially when Inverawe told her that he must again visit the man in +the cave. During that day, various rumours had reached him, of people +being afoot in search of a murderer, who was supposed to have found a +place of concealment somewhere in that neighbourhood; and it was with +some difficulty that he could suppress a hope that unconsciously arose +within him, that he might be relieved from his pledge, and from his +present most distressing and embarrassing position, by the accidental +capture of him for whom they were searching. The duty of visiting the +wretched man had now become oppressively painful to Inverawe,--and the +painfulness of it was not decreased by the additional risk which he +now ran of being detected. But Inverawe was not a man to abandon any +duty for any such reasons. Having again privately made up his basket +of provisions therefore, and put his otter-traps over its contents, +as formerly, he left the castle as twilight came on, and making +his circuit by the river side with yet more care and caution than +before, he climbed along the side of Cruachan, and in due course of +time reached the mouth of the cave. The light was burning as before, +and on entering the place, its inmate was sitting with a countenance +and expression if possible more haggard and terrific than he had +exhibited on the previous night. + +"Welcome!--welcome!" cried he, starting wildly up, and speaking +in a frantic tone, as he rushed forward to seize Inverawe's cold +hand in both of his, that felt like heated iron,--"welcome, my +guardian angel! All other good angels have fled from me now!--And the +bad!--Oh!--But you will not leave me to-night?--Oh, say that you will +not leave me to-night!" + +"I grieve to say, that, for your own sake, I cannot gratify you," +replied Inverawe, withdrawing his hand involuntarily from the +contamination of his touch, and shrinking back with horror from +the glare of his phrenzied and blood-shot eyes, though with a heart +almost moved to pity for the wretch before him, whose very manhood +seemed to have abandoned him. "It is vain to ask me to stay with you, +as I have already frequently explained to you; but much more so now, +that I have learned that there are men out searching for you in +this neighbourhood, brought hither by the strong conviction that +you are concealed somewhere hereabouts. This circumstance renders +it imperatively necessary that you should no longer persevere in +the perilous practice of burning your lamp, which exposes you to +tenfold danger." + +"Talk not to me of danger!" exclaimed the man, in a dreadful +state of excitement, and in a tone and words that seemed more like +those of a raving madman than anything else--"I must have light--I +should go distracted if I had not light. Darkness would drive me to +self-destruction! I tell you it is filled with horrible shapes. Even +when I shut my eyes the horrible spectre appears. Have pity!--have +mercy on me, and stay with me but this one single night!--for even +the light of the lamp itself cannot always banish the terrific spectre +from before me!" + +"Spectre!" cried Inverawe, shuddering with horror,--"what spectre?" + +"Aye, the horrible spectre," replied the man. And then suddenly +starting back, with his hands stretched forth, as if to keep off some +terrific shape that had instantaneously risen before him, and with his +eye-balls glaring towards the dark opening of the cave, he shrieked +out--"Hell and torments! 'tis there again,--there--there--see there!" + +"I see nothing," said Inverawe, with some difficulty retaining a proper +command of himself. "But this is madness--absolute insanity. See, +here is your food;--I must leave you immediately." + +"Oh, do not go!" said the stranger, following Inverawe for a few steps +towards the mouth of the cave, and entreating him in a subdued and +abject tone. And then, just as his protector was about to make his +exit, he again started back, and stood as if he had been transfixed, +whilst, with his hands stretched out before him, and his eyes fearfully +staring on the vacancy of the darkness that was beyond the cavern's +mouth, he again yelled out--"There! there!--see there!" + +It must be honestly confessed, that it was with no very imperturbed +state of nerves, that Inverawe committed himself to the obscurity of +that night, to hurry homewards, and though no spectre appeared before +his visual orbs, yet the harrowing spectacle which the guilty man had +exhibited, and the allusion which he had made to the supposed spectre +which he had seen in his imagination, kept that which he had himself +beheld constantly floating before his mind's eye, during the whole +of his way home; and he was not sorry, when he reached his own hall, +to find his lady sitting by the fire waiting for his return. She was +lonely, and cheerless, and full of anxious thoughts regarding him; +but her eye brightened up at his entrance, and she filled him a goblet +of wine. Inverawe swallowed it greedily down,--gave her a brief and +bare account of his evening's expedition,--and then they retired to +their chamber. + +On this occasion Inverawe silently took the precaution of bolting the +door of the apartment; and, on going to bed, the lady, with great +resolution of mind, determined within herself to keep off sleep, +and to watch, so that she too might behold whatever apparition might +appear; hoping that if the spectre which had so disturbed Inverawe, +should, after all, prove to be nothing but a dream, she might be able, +from her own observation, to disabuse him of his phantasy. But it +so happened, that, notwithstanding all her precautions, and all her +mental exertions to prevent it, she fell immediately into a most +unaccountably deep sleep; and Inverawe himself, in spite of all +his harassing and distressing thoughts, was speedily plunged into a +similar state of utter unconsciousness. + +Again, for this the third night, he was awaked by the same light +streaming through the apartment, and rendering the curtain of his +bed transparent by its wonderful illumination.--Again he looked round +on his wife, and beheld every feature of her face clearly displayed +by its influence. She lay in the soundest and sweetest repose. His +first impulse was to awake her,--but he instantly checked himself, and +felt grateful that she was thus to be saved from the contemplation of +the terrific spectral appearance, the shadow of which he now observed +gliding slowly towards the bed. The curtain was again raised.--The same +well-remembered figure and face appeared under the usual increased +intensity of light. Again the filmy plaid was partially dropped, and +the fearful gash in the bosom was exposed, as before, pouring out +blood. Again the deep, hollow voice came from the motionless lips, +but it was accompanied by a yet sterner expression of the eyes, +and of the pale countenance. + +"Inverawe!--My warnings have been vain.--The time is now past.--Yet +blood must flow for blood!--The blood of the murderer might have +been offered up--now your blood must flow for his!--We meet once more +at Ticonderoga!" + +This last visitation of the apparition, accompanied as it was by a +denunciation so terrible, had a yet more overwhelming effect upon +Inverawe than either of those that preceded it. Bereft of all power +over himself, he lay, conscious of existence it is true, but utterly +incapable of commanding thought, much less of exercising action. Ere +he could rally his intellect, or his nervous energy, the spectre was +gone; and the apartment was dark. When his thoughts began to arise +within him, they were of a more agonizing character than any which +he had formerly experienced--"Your blood must flow for his."--These +dreadful words still sounded in his ears, in the same deep, sepulchral +tone in which they had been uttered. Do not suppose that one thought +of himself ever crossed his mind. He thought of his son--that son, +for whose welfare every desire of his life was concentrated,--that +was his blood, against which he conceived this dread prophecy to +be directed--that was his blood which he dreaded might flow. He +shivered at the very thought. He recalled the strange circumstances +which had attended the drinking of the toast to his roof-tree. His +anxiety about his son was raised to a pitch, that converted his bed, +for that night at least, into a bed of thorns. He slept not,--yet all +his tossings failed to awaken his lady, who slept as if she had been +drenched with some soporiferous drug. The sun had no sooner darted his +first rays through the casement, however, than she awaked as if from +a most refreshing sleep. She looked round upon her husband--observed +his haggard and tortured expression--and the whole recollection of +what she previously knew having come upon her at once, she began +vehemently to upbraid herself. + +"I have slept," said she, in a tone of vexed self-reprehension.--"After +all my determination to the contrary, I have slept throughout the +whole night; and you have been again disturbed.--Say!--what has +happened? Have you seen him again?" + +"I have seen him," replied Inverawe in a subdued tone and manner--"I +have seen him, and his appearance was terrible." + +"Say--tell me!--what passed?" exclaimed the lady earnestly. "Inverawe, +I must know all." + +Inverawe would have fain eaten in his words. He would have especially +wished to have left his wife in ignorance of the denunciation to +which the apparition had given utterance. But he had not as yet +recovered sufficient mastery over himself, to enable him to baffle +the questioning of an acute woman. In a short time the whole truth +was extracted from him; and now the lady, in a state of agitation +that very much exceeded his, began to press upon him the necessity of +giving up the criminal to justice. Her argument was long and energetic; +and during the time that it occupied, he gradually resumed the full +possession of himself. + +"I have heard you, my love," replied he calmly; "yet you have urged, +and you can urge nothing which can persuade me to break my solemn +pledge. The hitherto spotless honour of Inverawe shall never be +tarnished in my person. Dreadful as is the curse which has been +denounced upon me, I am still resolved to act as an honourable man. Yet +I will do this much. I will again visit the man in the cave, and insist +with him that he shall seek some other place of refuge. I have done +enough for him. I have suffered enough on his account. He must go +elsewhere. Perhaps I should have come to this resolve yesterday--the +time, alas! may now be past. But, come what come may, I am determined +that the visit of this night shall be the last that I shall pay to +him. He must go elsewhere. Even his own safety requires that he shall +do so--and mine! But no matter, he must seek some other asylum." + +Even this resolve--late though it might be, was, for the time, some +consolation to the afflicted mind of his wife. Nay, it was in some +degree matter of alleviation to his own sufferings. The broad sunlight +of Heaven, and the bustling action of the creatures of this world while +all creation is awake, produces a wonderful effect upon the human mind, +in relieving it from all those phantoms of anticipated evil which the +silent shades of night are so apt to conjure up within it. Inverawe +and his lady were less oppressed with gloomy thoughts during that +day than might have been supposed possible. It is true, that he often +secretly repeated over the denunciation of the apparition, but even +yet he would have fain persuaded himself, as he tried to persuade +his wife, that he had been the sport of dreams, resulting from some +morbid state of his system. + +"Ticonderoga!" said he, "where is Ticonderoga? I know of no such +place; nay, I never heard of any such place; and, in truth, I do +not believe that any such place really exists on the face of this +earth. Ticonderoga! A name so utterly unknown to me, and so strangely +uncouth in itself, would lead me to believe that it is the coinage +of my own distempered brain; and, if so, then the whole must have +been an illusion. Yet it is altogether unaccountable and inexplicable." + +Thus it was that Inverawe reasoned during that day; but as night +again approached, it brought all its phantoms of the imagination +along with it. + +Inverawe, however, wound himself up to go through with that which he +now considered as his last trial. Having filled his basket as before, +he set off on his wonted circuitous route to the cave. As he went +thither, he endeavoured to steel up his mind to assume that resolute +tone with the stranger which he now felt to be absolutely necessary +to rid himself of so troublesome and distressing a charge. Much as it +did violence to his innate feelings of hospitality to come to any such +determination, he resolved to insist on his departure from the cave +that very night, and he had no difficulty in persuading himself that +his doing this would be the best line of safety he could prescribe +for the stranger, seeing that, by the active use of his limbs during +the remaining portion of it, he might well enough reach some distant +place of concealment before day-break. Full of such ideas, he pressed +on towards the cave, that he might get him off with as little delay +as possible. The light which had shone from its mouth upon former +occasions was now absent, and Inverawe hailed the circumstance as +a proof that the wretched man had at last become more rational. He +approached the orifice in the cliff, and gently called him. His +own voice alone was returned to him from the hollow bowels of the +rock. All was so mysteriously silent, that an involuntary chill fell +upon Inverawe. He repeated his call in a louder voice, but still there +was no reply--no stir from within. A cold shudder crept over him, +and for a moment he half expected to see issue from the black void +before him, that appalling apparition which had now three several times +appeared by his bedside. A little thought enabled him to get rid of +this temporary weakness. He recalled the last words of the spectre, +and the strange uncouth name of Ticonderoga. If such a place had +existence at all, it was there, and there only, that he could expect +to behold him again. He became reassured, and all his wonted manliness +returned to him. He struck a light, and crept into the cave. A short +survey of its interior satisfied him that the stranger was gone. The +blanket, the extinguished lamp, and some other things lay there, but +no other vestige of its recent inmate was to be seen. Inverawe felt +relieved; he was saved from even the semblance of inhospitality. But +the recollection of the apparition's last words recurred to him, +and then every thing around him seemed to whisper him that indeed +the time might now be past. He began, most inconsistently, to wish +that the stranger had still been there--nay, he almost hoped that he +might yet be lingering about the neighbouring rocks or thickets. He +sallied forth from the cave, and abandoning all his former caution, +he shouted twice or thrice in succession, at the very top of his +voice, but without obtaining any response, except that which came +from the echoes of the cliffs, muffled as they were by the roar of +the numerous cataracts of the mountain side, and the howling blast +that swept downward through the pass far below. For a moment he felt +that if the stranger had been still in his power, he could have given +him up to justice, to be dealt with as a murderer; but reason made him +blush, by bringing back to him his high and chivalric sense of honour +in its fullest force, so that he turned to go homewards possessed +with a very different train of thought. When his lady met him, she +was eager in her enquiries, and deeply depressed when she learned +that Inverawe had now lost all chance of delivering up the murderer. + +"Alas!" said she, in an agony of tears, "the time is now past." + +"Do not allow this matter to distress you so, my love," said Inverawe, +endeavouring to sooth her into a calm, which he could by no means +command for himself. "The more I think of it, the more I am persuaded +that the whole has been a phantasm of the brain. Let us have a cup of +wine, and laugh all such foolish fancies away ere we go to bed. This +perplexing and distressing adventure has now passed by, and this +night I hope to shake off all such vapours of the imagination." + +Inverawe had little sleep that night, but he was undisturbed by +any re-appearance of the apparition. Unknown to his wife, he made a +circuitous excursion next day to Ben-Cruachan, where a more accurate +examination of the cave and its environs satisfied him that the +stranger was indeed gone. And he was gone for ever, for Inverawe +never afterwards saw him,--nor, indeed, did he ever again hear the +slightest intelligence regarding him. + +Days, weeks, and months rolled away, and by degrees the gloom which +these extraordinary and portentous events had brought upon Inverawe, +as well as upon his lady, began to be in a great degree dissipated. His +son had long since returned home in full health and vigour, and things +fell gradually into their natural and usual course. + +Inverawe was one night sitting in social converse with his wife and +his son, and their friend, young George Campbell--the same individual +who, as you may remember, was the giver of the toast of the roof-tree +of Inverawe--when a packet of letters was brought in, and handed to +the laird. + +"What is all this?" exclaimed he, quickly breaking the seal, and +hastily examining the contents. "Ha! the old Black Watch again! this +is news indeed!" + +"What?--What is it?" cried his lady. + +"Glorious news!" cried Inverawe, rubbing his hands. "I am appointed to +the majority of the Highlanders; and here is an ensign's commission +for you, young gentleman," said he, addressing George Campbell. "And +my friend Grant, who writes to me, tells me that he has got the +lieutenant-colonelcy. What can be more delightful than the prospect +of serving in such a corps, under the command of so old a friend?" + +"Glorious!--glorious!" cried young George Campbell, jumping from his +chair, and dancing through the room with joy. + +"A bumper to the gallant Highlanders, and their brave commander!" cried +Inverawe, filling the cups. + +The toast was quaffed with enthusiasm. Young Inverawe alone seemed +to feel that there was no joy in the cup for him. + +"Would I had a commission too!" said he, in a tone of extreme vexation. + +"Boy," said Inverawe, gravely, "Your time is coming. It will be well +for you to stay at home to look after your mother. One of us two is +enough in the field at once." + +"Am I then to be doomed to sloth and idleness at home?" said Donald, +pettishly; "better put petticoats on me at once, and give me a distaff +to wield." + +"Speak not so, Donald," said his mother, in a trembling voice. "You +are hardly old enough for such warlike undertakings; and, indeed, +your father says what is but too true--for what could I do, were both +of you to be torn from me?" + +Donald said no more. The cup circulated. George Campbell was in high +spirits, and full of happy anticipations. + +"I hope we may soon be sent on service," said he, exultingly. + +"You may have service sooner than you dream of," said Inverawe, going +on to gather the remainder of the contents of his packet. "Grant writes +me here, that in consequence of the turn which matters are taking +in America, he hopes every day for the arrival of an order for the +regiment to embark. George, you and I must lose no time in making up +our kitts, for we must join the corps with all manner of expedition." + +The parting between Inverawe and his lady was tender and +touching. Donald bid his father farewell with less appearance of +regret than his known affection for him would have led any one +to have anticipated. There was even a certain smile of triumph on +his countenance as he saw them depart. But his mother was too much +overwhelmed by her own feelings, to notice any thing regarding those +of her son. + +The meeting between Inverawe and his old brother officers was naturally +a joyous one, and nothing could be more delightful than the warmth of +the reception he met with from his long-tried friend Colonel Grant, +now the commanding-officer of the corps. + +"My dear fellow, Inverawe!" said he, cordially shaking him by the hand, +"This happy circumstance of having got you amongst us again, is even +more gratifying to me than my own promotion, and yet, let me tell you, +the peculiar circumstances attending that were gratifying enough." + +"I need not assure you that the news of it were most gratifying to +me," replied Inverawe. "It doubled the happiness I felt, in getting +the majority, to find that I was to serve under so old and so much +valued a friend. But to what particular circumstances do you allude?" + +"When the step was opened to me, by the promotion of Colonel Campbell +to the command of the fifty-fourth regiment," replied Colonel Grant, +in a trembling voice, and with the tears beginning to swell in his +eyes, "I was not a little surprised, and, as you will readily believe, +pleased also, to be waited on by a deputation from the non-commissioned +officers and privates of the corps, to make offer to me of a purse +containing the sum necessary to purchase the lieutenant-colonelcy, +which they had subscribed among themselves, and proposed to present +to me, with the selfish view, as the noble fellows declared to me, +of securing to themselves as commanding-officer a man whom they all +so much loved and respected! Campbell!--Inverawe!" continued he, with +his voice faultering still more from the swelling of his emotions, +"I can never forget this, were I to live to the age of Methuselah--I +can never deserve it all--but--but--phsaw! my heart is too full to +give utterance to my feelings--and I must e'en play the woman." + +"Noble fellows indeed!" cried Inverawe, fully sympathizing with him +in all he felt; "but by my faith they looked at the matter in its +true light, when moved by selfish considerations, they were led so +to act--for they well knew that you would be as a father to them." + +"I shall ever be as a father to them whilst it pleases God to spare +me," said the Colonel warmly, "and if ever I desert them while life +remains, may I be blown from the mouth of a cannon!" + +"What was the result of this matter then?" demanded Inverawe. + +"Why, as it happened," replied the Colonel, "the promotion went in +the regiment without purchase, so that I enjoyed all the pleasure of +receiving this kind demonstration from my children, without taxing +their pockets, or laying myself under an unpleasant pecuniary +obligation to them, which might at times have had a tendency in +some degree to paralyze me in the wholesome exercise of strict +discipline. And we shall require to stick the more rigidly to that now, +seeing that we are going on service." + +"We are going on service then?" said Inverawe. + +"We have this very evening received our orders for America," replied +Colonel Grant; "and never did commanding-officer go on service with +more confidence in his men and officers than I do." + +"And I may safely say that never did officers or men go on service +with greater confidence in their commander than we shall do," replied +Inverawe, again shaking the Colonel heartily by the hand. + +George Campbell was introduced by Inverawe to the particular notice +of Colonel Grant, and by him to the rest of the officers, among whom +he soon found himself at his ease. The time for their embarkation +approached, and all was bustle and preparation amongst them. George +had much to do, and it was with some difficulty, but with great inward +delight, that he at last found himself complete in all his arms, +trappings, and necessaries. The night previous to their going on board +of the ships appointed to convey them to their place of destination, +was a busy one for him, and he was still occupied, at a late hour, +in his quarters, when he was surprised by a knock at his door. + +"Come in!" cried George Campbell. + +The door opened, and a young man entered, whose fatigued and soiled +appearance showed that he had come off a long journey. + +"Donald Campbell of Inverawe!" cried George, in utter astonishment; +and the young men were instantly in one another's arms. "My dear +fellow, what strange chance has brought you hither?" + +"I come to throw myself on your honour," said Donald. "I come to throw +myself on the honour of him whom I have ever held to be my dearest +friend;--on the honour of one who has never failed me hitherto, +and who, if I mistake not, will not fail me now. Give me your solemn +promise that you will keep my counsel, and do your best to assist me +in my present undertaking." + +"Methinks you need hardly ask for my solemn promise," replied George +Campbell; "for you might safely count on my best exertions to oblige +you at all times. But what can I do for you? It would need to be +something that may be quickly and immediately gone about, else cannot +I stay to effect it. We embark to-morrow morning." + +"You will not require to stay behind the rest, in order to do what +I require of you," said Donald of Inverawe. + +"I could not if I would," replied George Campbell. + +"Do you go in the same ship with my father?" demanded young Inverawe. + +"I wish I did," replied George Campbell; "but I regret to say that +I go in a different vessel." + +"So much the better for my purpose," replied young Inverawe +eagerly. "You will be the better able to take me with you without my +being discovered." + +"Take you with me!" cried George Campbell, in great astonishment. "What +in the name of wonder would you propose?" + +"That which is perfectly reasonable," replied young Inverawe. "Do you +think that I could sit quietly at home, whilst my father, and you, +and so many of my friends, are earning honour and glory abroad? Ask +yourself, George, what would you have done under my circumstances?" + +"I have never thought as to how I might have acted, had I been so +placed," replied George Campbell, much perplexed. "But I have no relish +for having any hand in aiding you to oppose the will of your father." + +"No matter now, George, whether you have any relish for it or not," +replied young Inverawe, smiling. "You have given me your promise +that you will aid me, and you must now make the best of it. So come +away. Let me see how you can best manage to get me aboard. I must +not be seen by my father till we land in America, and then I shall +enter as a volunteer." + +"What will your father say then?" demanded George Campbell. + +"Why, that the blood of Inverawe was too strong in me to be +restrained," replied Donald. "Why man, it is just what he would have +done himself. He will be too proud of the spirit inherent in his +house, which has impelled me to this act, ever to think of blaming +me for it. Come, come, you have given me your word." + +"I have given you my word," said George Campbell; "and I must honestly +tell you that I wish I had been less precipitate. But having given it, +I must in truth abide by it. It may be as you say, that your father +will have more pride than pain in this matter, when he comes to know +it. And then, as for myself, I shall be too happy to have you as my +companion in so long a voyage. But come, let us have some refreshment, +and then we can talk over the matter, and consider how your scheme +may be best carried into effect." + +The thing was easily enough arranged. Many of the privates of the corps +were gentlemen who had attendants of their own. There was nothing +extraordinary, therefore, in an officer being so provided. A slight +disguise was employed to alter Donald's appearance, so that he might +escape detection from any one who had seen him before. Next morning he +went on board in charge of some of Ensign George Campbell's baggage, +and there he remained snugly, until the expedition sailed. + +The Highland regiment embarked full of enthusiasm, and it +was ultimately landed at New York in the highest health and +spirits. Colonel Stewart of Garth, in his interesting work, tells +us, that they were caressed by all ranks and orders of men, but more +particularly by the Indians. Those inhabitants of the wilds flocked +from all quarters to see the strangers, as they were on their march to +Albany, and the resemblance which they discovered between the Celtic +dress and their own, inclining them to believe that they were of the +same extraction as themselves, they hailed them as brothers. Orders +were issued to treat the Indians kindly; but, although these were +most generally and most cheerfully obeyed, instances did occur, where +gross acts of impropriety and harshness were exhibited towards them, +and one of these I shall now mention. + +A young Indian, of tall and handsome proportions, with that conscious +air of equality which they all possess, came up to a group of the +Highlanders who were resting themselves round a fire. An ignorant and +mischievous fellow of the party, who much more merited the name of +savage than him of the woods, having heated the end of the stalk of +a tobacco-pipe, handed it, full of tobacco, with much mock solemnity, +to the young Indian,--who, in ignorance of the trick, was just about +to take it into his hand, and to apply the heated end of it to his +lips, when a young Highlander who was present, dashed it to the +ground. The Indian started--looked tomahawks at the Highland youth, +and might have used one too, had not he, with his glove on, taken up +a portion of the broken pipe-stalk, and signing to the Indian to feel +it, made him sensible of the kind and friendly service he had rendered +him. The ferocious rage that lightened in the eye of the Red Man was +at once extinguished. A mild and benignant sunshine succeeded it. He +took the hand of the young Highlander, and pressed it to his heart; +and then, darting a look of dignified contempt upon the poor creature +who had been the author of this base and childish piece of knavery +against him, he slowly, solemnly, and silently withdrew. + +Whilst Major Campbell of Inverawe was on the march, his noble +appearance seemed to make a strong impression on their Indian +followers. For his part, he was peculiarly struck with the fine figure +and graceful mien of a heroic-looking young warrior of the woods, +who seemed to keep near to him, as if earnestly intent on holding +intercourse with him. He encouraged his approach; and, conversing +with him, as well as the young man's imperfect knowledge of English +permitted him to do, he invited him, when they halted for refreshment, +to partake of his hasty meal. The young Eagle Eye--for such was the +Indian's name in his own tribe--carried a rifle; and Major Campbell +having put some questions to him as to his skill in using it, his +curiosity was so excited by all that the red man said of himself, +that he resolved to put it to the proof. Having loaded his own piece, +therefore, he proposed to his new Indian ally, to take a short circuit, +to look for game, during the brief time that the men were allowed for +rest, and one or two of the officers arose to accompany them. The Eagle +Eye moved on before them with that silence, and with that dignified +air, which marked the confidence which he had in his own powers. A walk +of a few hundred yards from their line of march, brought them into a +small open space of grassy ground, surrounded by thickets. Inverawe +stopped by chance to adjust the buckle of his bandoleer, when the Eagle +Eye, who happened at that moment to be some paces to the right of him, +sprang on him like a falcon, and threw him to the ground. As he was +in the very act of doing so, an arrow from the thicket in front of +them pierced the Indian's shoulder, whilst he, almost at the same +moment, levelled his rifle, fired it in the direction from whence +the arrow came, and, rushing forward with a yell, plunged among the +bushes. The whole of these circumstances passed so instantaneously, +that Major Campbell's brother officers were confounded. But having +assisted him to rise from the ground, they congratulated him on his +escape from a danger which neither he nor they could as yet very well +comprehend or explain. They were not long left in suspense however, +for the Eagle Eye soon reappeared, dragging from the thicket the +body of an Indian belonging to a hostile tribe. In an instant, the +Eagle Eye exercised his scalping-knife, and possessed himself of the +bloody trophy of his enemy. On examination, the ball from his rifle +was discovered to have perforated the brain through the forehead +of his victim. The mystery was explained. The young Eagle Eye had +suddenly descried the lurking foe, deeply nestled among the bushes, +and in the act of taking a deliberate aim at Inverawe. He had saved +the Major's life at the imminent risk of his own, and that quick +sight from which he had his name, had enabled his ready hand to take +prompt and deadly vengeance for the wound he had received in doing +so. The grateful Inverawe felt beggared in expressions of thanks to +his Indian preserver. He and his friends extracted the arrow from the +shoulder of the hero, poured spirits into the wound, and bound it up; +and then, as they hastened back to join the troops, he entreated the +Eagle Eye to tell him how he could recompense him. + +"It is enough for me," replied the young Indian warrior, with dignified +gravity of manner, mingled with becoming modesty, and in his broken +language, the imperfections of which I shall not attempt to give you, +though I shall endeavour to preserve the finer peculiarities of its +poetical conceptions,--"it is enough for my youth to be suffered to +live within the shadow of a chief, broad as that which the great rock +spreads over the grassy surface of the Prairie. A chief among those +who have come over the waters of the great salt lake, in number like +that of the beavers of the mohawk, whose fathers were the brethren of +our fathers, though their hunting grounds are now so far apart. The +tribe of the Eagle Eye has been broken. The pride of the foes of the +Eagle Eye is swelled by a thousand scalps of his kindred. He is like a +solitary tree that has escaped from the whirlwind that has levelled the +forest. The Eagle Eye has no father--he is alone--make him thy son." + +"You shall be as a son to me!" said Inverawe, deeply affected by the +many tender recollections of home which this appeal had awakened +in his mind. "You shall never want such fatherly protection as I +can give you. But I would fain have you ask some more instant and +direct recompense from me, for having thus so nobly saved my life at +the peril of your own. Is there nothing immediate that I can do for +you? Gratify me by asking something." + +"The Eagle Eye will obey his father," replied the Indian, calmly. "One +of your pale-faced tribe has deeply insulted your red son." + +"Ha!" exclaimed Inverawe, "find him out for me, and you shall forthwith +see him punished to your heart's content." + +"The cunning and cowardly kite is beneath the vengeance of the Eagle," +replied the Indian. "But there was a youth among your pale faces, +who stood the red man's friend. Him would I hold as my brother. Him +would I bring with me beneath the shelter of my father, the great +chief, that he may grow green and lofty under his protection." + +"You shall search me out that youth," replied Inverawe, "and be +assured he shall find a friend in me for your sake." + +The Eagle Eye, with great dignity, took the right hand of Inverawe +between both of his, and pressed it forcibly to his heart. When they +reached the ground where the men were halting, the major despatched a +non-commissioned officer with the Indian, to find out the young man, +and to bring him immediately before him. They soon reappeared with +him; and what was Inverawe's astonishment, when he lifted up his eyes, +and beheld--his son! + +It was exactly as Donald had himself prognosticated. Inverawe's +heart was so filled with joy, in thus so unexpectedly beholding and +embracing his boy, at the very moment when he had been dreaming that he +was so far from him; and with pride in thinking of that brave spirit +which had impelled him to follow him to America; as well as with deep +gratification at the kind-hearted act which had thus caused him to be +so strangely brought before him, that no room was left within it for +those gloomy thoughts which might have otherwise arisen there. He +clasped him again and again to his bosom, whilst the Indian stood +by as a calm spectator of the scene, his countenance unmoved by the +feelings of sympathy that were working within him. Their first emotions +were no sooner over, than Inverawe hurried Donald away to introduce +him to the commanding-officer, and he was speedily admitted into the +corps as a gentleman volunteer, with the promise of the first vacant +ensigncy. It will easily be believed, that the strict ties which +were thus formed between the Campbells of Inverawe and the noble +Eagle Eye, were destined to increase every day. Under the direction +of his European friends, his wound was treated with the most tender +care, and he was soon perfectly cured. The Eagle Eye deeply felt the +kindness of his Highland father and brother; but, whether in happiness +or in pain, in joy or in grief, his lofty countenance never betrayed +those feelings which are so readily yielded to in civilized life. It +was in vain that they tried to induce him to adopt European habits, +or to domesticate him so far as to make him regularly participate +in those comforts, which are the fruits of civilization. He adhered +with pertinacity to his own customs, and looked down with barbarian +dignity upon those of his hosts, which so widely differed from them; +and when at any time he was induced to partake of them, it was with +a lofty native politeness, which seemed to indicate that he did so +more in compliment to those with whom he was associated, than from +any gratification he received in his own person. + +Circumstances, with which they or their commanding-officer had nothing +to do, had kept the Highlanders altogether out of action during the +campaign of 1757, which had done so little for the glory of the British +arms. But in the autumn of this year, Lord Loudon was recalled, and +Lieutenant-General Abercromby succeeded to the command of the army. By +this time, the Highlanders had received an accession of strength, +by the arrival of seven hundred recruits from their native mountains; +and the corps now numbered no less than thirteen hundred men, of size, +figure, strength, and courage, not easily to be matched. The British +army in America now consisted altogether of above twenty-two thousand +regulars, and thirty thousand provincial troops, which last could +not be classed under that character. The hopes of all were high, +therefore, and active operations were immediately contemplated. + +It was some little time before this, that Inverawe was spending an +evening, tête-a-tête, with his friend, Colonel Grant. The bottle was +passing slowly but regularly between them, when, by some unaccountable +change in their conversation, the subject of supernatural appearances +came to be introduced. Colonel Grant protested against all belief +in them. The recollection of the apparition which had three several +times visited Inverawe, came back upon his mind, in form and colours +so strong and forcible, that his cheeks grew pale, and a deep gloom +overspread his brow; so much so, indeed, that it did not escape the +observation of his friend. Colonel Grant rallied him, and asked him, +jocularly, if he had ever seen a ghost. + +"I declare I could almost fancy that you saw some spectre at this +moment, Inverawe," said he. + +"Where?--how?--what?" cried Inverawe, darting his eyes into every +corner of the room, with a degree of perturbation which the Colonel +had never seen him display before. + +"Nay," said the Colonel, surprised into sudden gravity, "I cannot say +either where or what; but I must confess that you seem to me as much +disturbed at present as if you saw a spectre." + +"I cannot see him here," said Inverawe, with an abstracted solemnity of +tone and manner, that greatly increased his friend's astonishment--"I +cannot see him here. This is not the place where I am fated to +behold him." + +"Him!" exclaimed Colonel Grant, with growing anxiety--"him!--whom, +I pray you? For heaven's sake, tell me whom it is that you are fated +to behold!" + +"Pardon me," replied Inverawe, at length in some degree collecting his +ideas, but speaking in a solemn tone. "An intense remembrance which +came suddenly upon me, regarding strange circumstances which happened +to myself, has betrayed me to talk of that which I would have rather +avoided, and--and which cannot interest you, incredulous as you have +declared yourself to be regarding all such supernatural visitations." + +"Nay, you will pardon me, if you please," said the Colonel, eagerly; +"for you have so wonderfully excited my curiosity, that I must e'en +entreat you to satisfy me. What were these circumstances that happened +to you?--tell me, I conjure you." + +"It is with great pain," said Inverawe gravely, "that I enter upon +them at all; for, although they still remain as fresh upon my mind as +if they had happened yesterday, I would fain bury them, not only from +all mankind, but from myself. And yet, perhaps, it may be as well that +you should know them,--for strange as they are in themselves, they +would yet be stranger in their fulfilment. Listen then attentively, +and I shall tell you every thing, even to the very minutest thought +that possessed me." And so he proceeded to narrate all that I have +already told. + +"Strange!" said the Colonel, after devouring the narrative with +breathless attention--"wonderfully strange indeed! But these are airy +phantoms of the brain, which we must not--nay, cannot allow to weigh +with us, or to dwell upon our minds--else might we be bereft of reason +itself, by permitting them to get mastery over us, and so might we +unwittingly aid them in working out their own accomplishment. Help +yourself to another cup of wine, Inverawe, and then let us change +the subject for something of a more cheerful nature." + +But all cheerfulness had fled from Inverawe for that night, and the +friends soon afterwards separated, to seek a repose, which he at +least in vain tried to court to his pillow for many hours; and when +sleep did come at last, the figure of the murdered man floated to +and fro in his dreams. But it did so, only the more to convince him +of the wonderful difference between such faint visions of slumber, +and that vivid spectral appearance, which had formerly so terribly and +deeply impressed itself upon his waking senses, in his own bed-chamber +at Inverawe. + +The conversation I have just repeated, together with Inverawe's +narrative, remained strongly engraven upon the recollection of +Colonel Grant. The whole circumstances adhered to him so powerfully, +that he almost felt as if he too had seen the apparition, and heard +him utter his fatal words. He could not divest himself of a most +intense solicitude about his friend's future fate, which he could +in no manner of way explain to his own rational satisfaction. But +the active and bustling duties which now called for his attention, +in consequence of the approaching campaign, very speedily banished +all such thoughts from his mind. + +It was not long after this, that Colonel Grant was summoned by General +Abercromby to meet the other commanding-officers of corps in a council +of war. The council lasted for many hours, and when the Colonel came +forth from it after it had broken up, he was observed to have a cloud +upon his brow, and a certain air of serious anxiety about him, which +was very much augmented by his meeting with his friend Inverawe. + +"Well," said Inverawe cheerfully to him, as Colonel Grant joined him +and his other officers at mess. "I hope you have good news for us, +Colonel, and that at last you can tell us that we are to march out +of quarters on some piece of active service." + +"We are to march to-morrow," replied the Colonel, with unusual gravity. + +"Whither?" cried Inverawe eagerly. "Whither, if I may be permitted +to ask?" + +"We march to Lake George," replied the Colonel, with a very manifest +disposition to taciturnity. + +"Pardon me," said Inverawe; "perhaps I push my questions +indiscreetly,--if so, forgive me." + +"No," replied the Colonel, with assumed carelessness. "I have nothing +which the good of the service requires me to conceal from you, +Inverawe, nor, indeed, from any one here present. We march for Lake +George, as I have already said; and there we are to be embarked in +boats to proceed up the lake. Our object," added he, in a deeper and +somewhat melancholy tone,--"our object is to attack Fort Defiance." + +"What sort of a place is it?" demanded one of the officers. + +"A strong place, as I understand from the engineer who reconnoitred +it," replied the Colonel. "But these American fastnesses are so beset +with forests, that no one can well judge of them till he is fairly +within their entrenchments." + +"Then let us pledge this cup to our speedy possession of +them!" exclaimed Inverawe joyously. + +"With all my heart," said the Colonel, filling his to the brim,--but +with a solemnity of countenance that sorted but ill with the cheerful +shouts of mutual interchange of congratulation, that arose around +the table. "With all my heart, I drink the toast, and may we all be +there alive to drink a cup of thanks for our success." + +"Father," cried young Inverawe, in his keenness overlooking the +Colonel's ominous addition to the toast; "now father, these Frenchmen +shall see what stuff Highlanders are made of!" + +"They shall, my boy," replied Inverawe.--"Come, then, as I am master +of the revels to-night, I call on you all to fill a brimmer.--I give +you Highlanders shoulder to shoulder!" + +"Hurrah!--hurrah!--hurrah!" vociferated the whole officers present. + +This was but the commencement of an evening of more than usual +jollity. The spirits of all were up,--and of all, none were so +high in glee as those of Inverawe and his son. There was something, +indeed, which might have been almost said to have been strangely wild +in the unwonted revelry of the father. Colonel Grant was the only +individual present, who did not seem to keep pace with the rest. The +flask circulated with more than ordinary rapidity and frequency,--but +as the mirth which it created rose higher and higher, and especially +with Inverawe and young Donald, Colonel Grant's thoughts seemed to sink +deeper and deeper into gloomy speculation. If any one chanced so far +to forget his own hilarity for a moment, as to observe this strange +anomaly in his commanding-officer, it is probable that he attributed +it to those cares, which must necessarily arise in the mind of one, +with whom so much of the responsibility of the approaching contest +must rest. He retired from the festive board at an early hour, leaving +the others, who kept up their night's enjoyment as long as they could +do so with decency. Inverawe and his son sat with them to the last; +and all agreed, at parting, that they had been the life and soul of +that evening's revel. + +The next morning, the officers of the Highlanders were early astir, +to get their men into order of march. Major Campbell of Inverawe was +the most active man among them. General Abercromby's force upon this +occasion consisted of about six thousand regulars, and nine thousand +provincial troops, together with a small train of artillery. Before +they moved off, the General rode along the line of troops, giving his +directions to the field officers of each battalion in succession. When +he came up to the Highlanders, he courteously accosted Colonel Grant +and Major Campbell. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "we shall have toughish work of it; for though +the enemy have not had time to complete their defences, yet, I am +told, that, even in its present state, there are few places which +are naturally likely to be of more troublesome entrance than we +shall find----" + +"Than we shall find Fort Defiance," somewhat strangely interrupted +Colonel Grant, with an emphasis which not a little surprised Inverawe, +as coming from a man usually so polite.--"Aye, I have heard, indeed, +that Fort Defiance is naturally a strong place, General. But what +will not Highlanders accomplish!--You may rely on it you shall have +no cause to complain of the Black Watch!" + +"I have no fear that I shall," replied the General, betraying +no symptom of having taken offence at the Colonel's apparently +unaccountable interruption. "I know that both you and your men will +do your duty against Fort Defiance, or any other fort in America." + +"Fort Defiance is a bold name, General," said Major Campbell, laughing. + +"It is a bold name," said the Colonel gravely. + +"It is a vaunting name enough," replied the General.--"Yet I +hope to meet you both alive and merry as conquerors within its +works. Meanwhile, gentlemen, pray get your Highlanders under march +for the boats with as little delay as possible." + +Not another word but the necessary words of command were now +uttered. The regiment moved off steadily, and the embarkation on Lake +George was speedily effected, with the most perfect regularity and +order, on the 5th of July, 1758. + +It must have been a beautiful sight indeed, to have beheld that +immense flotilla of boats moving over the pellucid surface of that +lovely sheet of water--not a sound proceeding from them save that of +the oars,--the unruffled bosom of the lake every where reflecting the +serene sky of a July evening, together with all the charms of its bold +and varied shores, and its romantic islands;--its stillness affording +a strange prelude to that tempest of mortal contest which was about +to ensue. Its breadth is about two miles--so that the boats nearly +covered it from side to side. As they moved on, they were occasionally +lost to the eyes of those who looked upon them from the shores, as they +disappeared into the numerous channels formed by its islands, or were +again discovered, as they emerged from these narrow straits. There were +snatches of scenery, and many little circumstances in the features +of nature around them, that called up the remembrance of their own +Loch Awe to both the Laird of Inverawe and young Donald, as the sun +went down; and the pensiveness arising from these home recollections, +at such a time, kept both of them silent. At length, after a safe, +and easy, and, on the part of the enemy, an unobserved navigation, +the boats reached the northern end of the lake early on the ensuing +morning; and the landing having been effected without opposition, +the troops were formed by General Abercromby into two parallel columns. + +The order was given to advance; and the troops speedily came to an +outpost of the enemy, which was abandoned without a shot. But as they +proceeded, the nature of the ground, encumbered as it was with trees, +rendered the march of both lines uncertain and wavering, so that the +columns soon began to interfere with each other; and great confusion +ensued. Whilst endeavouring to extend themselves, the right column, +composed of the Highlanders, and the Fifty-fifth Regiment, under +the command of Lord Howe, fell in with a detachment of the enemy, +which had got bewildered in the wood, just as they themselves +had done. The British attacked them briskly, and a sharp contest +followed. The enemy behaved gallantly; and the Highlanders especially +distinguished themselves. Young Donald of Inverawe, his bosom bounding +with excitement, from the shouts of those engaged in the skirmish, +rushed into the thickest part of the irregular melée, and performed +such feats of prowess with his maiden claymore, that they might have +done honour to an old and well-tried soldier. Excited yet more by +his success, he became rash and unguarded, and being too forward in +the pursuit among the trees--which had already broken the troops on +both sides into small handfulls--he found himself suddenly engaged +with three enemies at once. As he was just about to be overpowered +by their united pressure upon him, a ball from a rifle stretched +one of them lifeless before him, and in an instant afterwards, the +Eagle Eye, whose accurate aim had directed it to its deadly errand, +was flourishing his tomahawk over the head of another of his foes. It +fell upon him--the skull was split open--the man rolled down on the +ground a ghastly corpse; and the third, that was left opposed to young +Inverawe, began to give way in terror before him. Urging fiercely upon +this last foe, however, the youth ran him through with one tremendous +thrust, and he too dropped dead. + +Flushed with success, Donald Campbell was now about to continue the +pursuit, after some fugitives of the enemy, who came rushing past him, +when, turning to call on his red brother and preserver, the Eagle Eye, +to follow him, he beheld him stooping over one of his dead foes, in +the act of scalping him. At that very moment, he saw a French soldier +approaching his Indian brother unperceived, with sword uplifted, and +with the fell intent of hewing him down. Springing before the Eagle +Eye, the young Inverawe prepared himself to receive the meditated +stroke--warded it skilfully off,--and then following in on his foe +with a thrust, he penetrated him right through the breast, with +a wound that was instantaneously mortal. The Eagle Eye was now as +sensible that he owed his life to young Donald, as Donald could have +been that his had been preserved by the Indian warrior. They stood +for a moment gazing at each other,--and then they embraced, with +an affection, which the stern Eagle Eye had difficulty in veiling, +and which young Inverawe could not conceal. + +By this time the enemy were all cut to pieces, or put to flight. The +joy of this unexpected victory was turned into mourning, by the death +of Lord Howe, who had been unfortunately killed in the early part of +this random engagement. His loss, at such a time, was greater than +anything they had gained by this partial overthrow of the enemy. And +you will easily understand this, when I tell you, that it was said of +this young nobleman, that he particularly distinguished himself by his +courage, activity, and rigid observance of military discipline; and +that he had so acquired the esteem and affection of the soldiers, by +his generosity, sweetness of manners, and engaging address, that they +assembled in groups around the hurried grave to which his venerated +remains were consigned, and wept over it in deep and silent grief. + +The troops having been much harassed by this engagement, as well +as by the troublesome nature of their march, General Abercromby, +in consideration of the lateness of the hour, deemed it prudent, to +deliver them from the embarrassment of the woods, to march them back to +the landing-place; which they reached early in the morning. They were +then allowed the whole of the ensuing day and night for repose. But +on the morning of the 8th of July, he rode up to the lines of the +Highlanders, and saluting Colonel Grant and Major Campbell of Inverawe, + +"Gentlemen," said he, "I have just obtained information from some of +the prisoners, that General Levi is advancing with three thousand men +to reinforce, or succour,--a--a--a--to succour, I say,--the garrison +I wish to attack." + +"What!" exclaimed Colonel Grant,--"to succour Fort Defiance, +General? Then I presume you will move on directly, to strike the blow +before they can arrive." + +"That is exactly my intention," replied General Abercromby. "And now +I must tell you, confidentially, Gentlemen, that the present garrison +consists of fully five thousand men, of whom the greater part are said +to be French troops of the line; who, as I am informed, are stationed +behind the traverses, with large trees lying every where felled in +front of them. But I have sent forward an engineer to reconnoitre +more strictly, and I trust I shall have his report before we shall +have advanced as far as--as--" + +"As Fort Defiance," interrupted Colonel Grant. "Well, General, are +we to be in the advance?" + +"No," replied the General. "As you and the Fifty-fifth have had all +the fighting that has as yet fallen to our lot, I mean that you shall +be in the reserve upon this occasion. The picquets will commence the +assault, and they will be followed by the grenadiers,--which will be +in their turn supported by the battalions of the reserve.--Nay, do +not look mortified, Colonel;--you and your men will have a bellyfull +of it before all is done, I promise you." + +With these words the General left them, and the columns moved +on through the wood, in the order he had signified to them. They +had now possessed themselves of better guides, and they were thus +enabled to make their march more direct, and as they had already +cleared their front of enemies, the leading troops were soon up at the +entrenchments. Here they were surprised to find a regular breast work, +nine or ten feet high, strongly defended with wall-pieces, and having +a very impregnable chevaux de frise, whilst the whole ground in front +was every where strewed thickly over with huge newly felled oak trees, +for the distance of about a cannon-shot from the walls. From behind +the chevaux de frise, the enemy, in strong force, commenced a most +galling and destructive fire upon the assailants, so as to render the +works almost unapproachable, without certain destruction, especially +without the artillery, which, from some accident, had not as yet +been brought up. But the very danger they had to encounter seemed +to give the British troops a more than human courage. Regardless of +the hail-storm of bullets discharged on them, with deliberate aim, +from behind the abattis, whilst they were fighting their laborious +and painful way through the labyrinth of fallen trunks and branches +that opposed their passage, they continued, column after column, +to advance, dropping and thinning fearfully as they went. + +The Highlanders beheld this slaughter that the enemy was making of +their friends--their blood boiled within them. In vain Colonel Grant +and Major Campbell galloped backwards and forwards, along the line, +using every command and every argument that official authority or +reason could employ to restrain and to sooth them, till their time for +action should arrive. With one tremendous shout, they rushed forward +from the reserve, and cutting their way through the trees with their +claymores, they were soon shewing their plumed crests among the very +foremost ranks of the assailants. But so murderous was the fire that +fell upon them, that their black tufted bonnets were seen dropping in +all directions, never to be again raised by the brave heads that bore +them. Their loss, before they gained the outward defences of the fort, +was fearful; but the onset of those who survived was so overwhelming, +that it drove the enemy from these outworks, and compelled them to +retreat within the body of the fort itself. + +Now came the most dreadful part of this work of death. The garrison, +protected by the works of the fort, mowed down the ranks of the +besiegers with a yet more certain and unerring aim. Under the false +report that these works were as yet incomplete, scaling ladders had +been considered as unnecessary. The Highlanders, gnashing their teeth +like raging tigers caught in the toils, endeavoured to clamber up +the front of them, by rearing themselves on each other's shoulders, +and by digging holes with their swords and bayonets in the face of the +intrenchments. Some few succeeded, by such means, in gaining a footing +on the top. But it was only to make themselves more conspicuous, and +more certain marks for destruction; and they were no sooner seen, than +their lifeless bodies, perforated by showers of bullets, were swept +down upon their struggling comrades below. By repeated and multiplied +exertions of this kind, Captain John Campbell succeeded in forcing +his way entirely over the breastwork, at the head of a handful of men; +but they also were instantly despatched by the multitude of bayonets by +which they were assailed. Four hours did these gallant men persevere +in the repetition of such daring attempts as I have described--all, +alas! with equal want of success, and with increasing slaughter, till +General Abercromby ordered the retreat to be sounded. To this call, +however, the Highlanders were deaf; and it was not until Colonel Grant, +after receiving three successive orders from the General, which he had +failed in enforcing, threw himself among them, and literally drove +them back from the works with his sword, that he could collect and +bring away the small moiety that yet remained alive, of that splendid +regiment with which he had marched to the attack. More than one-half +of the men, and two-thirds of the officers, were lying killed or +wounded on that bloody field. + +Colonel Grant had hardly gathered this remnant of his men together, +when he hastened back over the ground where the contest had raged, +to search eagerly for some of those whom he most dearly loved, and +for the cause of whose absence from this hasty muster he trembled +to inquire or investigate. The enemy, though victorious, had been +too roughly handled to be tempted to a sally, for the mere purpose of +annoying those who were peacefully engaged in the sad duty of carrying +off their wounded or dying comrades. The Colonel was therefore enabled +to make his way over the encumbered field without molestation, and +with no other interruption than that which was presented to him by +the prostrate trees, which, however, seemed to him to offer greater +obstruction to his present impatience, than they had done during +his advance with his corps to the attack. The scene was strangely +terrible! It might have been imagined by any one who looked upon +that field, that all Nature, even the elements themselves, had been +at strife. Slaughtered, and mutilated, and dying men lay in confused +heaps, or scattered singly among the overthrown giants of the forest, +those enormous trees which had been so recently rooted in the primeval +soil, where they had stood for ages. Colonel Grant looked everywhere +anxiously around him. Many were the familiar faces that he recognized, +but their features were now so fixed by the last agonizing pang of +a violent death, as cruelly, yet certainly, to assure him, that they +could never again in this world recognize him. The last spirited words +of high and courageous hope, so recently uttered by many of them to +him in their anticipation of triumph, still rang in his recollection, +and as he tore his eyes away from them, the tears would burst over his +manly cheeks as the thought arose in his mind, that words of theirs +would never again reach his ears. He moved hurriedly on, endeavouring +to suppress his feelings, but every now and then compelled to give way +to them, till his attention was absorbingly attracted by descrying +the dark form of an Indian, who was seated on his hams, beneath the +arched trunk and boughs of a huge felled oak. It was the Eagle Eye. + +He sat motionless as a bronze statue, with the drapery of his blanket, +hanging in deep folds from his shoulders. His features were grave +and still, and apparently devoid of feeling; but his eyes were +turned downward, and they were immovably fixed on the countenance +of a young man, who lay stretched out a corpse before him. His head +was supported between the knees of the red man, whilst the cold and +stiffened fingers of him who was dead, were firmly clasped between +both his hands. The body was that of young Donald Campbell of Inverawe. + +"God help me!" cried the Colonel, clasping his hands, and weeping +bitterly. "God help me, what a spectacle!" + +"Why should you weep, old man?" said the Eagle Eye, with imperturbable +calmness. "My young brother has gone to the Great Spirit, like a great +warrior as he was. Who among his tribe shall be ashamed of him? Who +among warriors shall call him a woman? I could weep for him too, +did I not know that the Great Spirit has taken him to happiness, +from which it were wicked in me to wish to have detained him for my +own miserable gratification. But he is happy! He has gone to those +fair, boundless, and plentiful hunting-grounds that lie beyond the +great lake, where he will never know want, and where we, if our deeds +be like his, will surely follow him. But till then, the sunshine of +the Eagle Eye has departed, and night must surround his footsteps, +since the light of his pale-faced brother has departed!" + +"This is too much!" said the Colonel, quite overwhelmed by his +feelings. "Help him to bear off the body. It must not be left here." + +The Eagle Eye arose in silence, and gravely and solemnly assisted +the Highlander, who attended the Colonel, to lift and bear away +the body, and they had not thus proceeded more than a few paces in +their retreat from the works, when the weeping eyes of the Highland +commanding-officer, and the eagle gaze of the red warrior, were equally +arrested, at the same moment, by one and the same object. This was +the manly and heroic form of Major Campbell of Inverawe. He sat on the +ground, desperately wounded, with his back partially supported against +the body of his horse, which had been killed under him. His eye-balls +were stretched from their sockets, and fixed upon vacancy, with an +expression of terror, greater than that with which death himself, +riding triumphant as he was over that field of the slain, could have +filled those of so brave a man. Colonel Grant was so overcome, that +he could not utter a word. He was convulsed by his emotions. The +Eagle Eye laid down the body of Donald opposite to his father, and +silently resumed his former position, with the youth's head between +his knees. The father's eyes caught the motionless features of his son, +and he started from his strange state of abstraction. + +"My son!" murmured the wounded Inverawe. "So, it is as I supposed,--he +is gone! But I shall soon be with you, boy. God in his mercy help +and protect your poor mother!" + +"Speak not thus, my dearest friend!" said Colonel Grant, making an +effort to command himself, and hastening to support and comfort the +wounded man; "trust me you will yet do well. You must live for your +poor wife's sake." + +"No!" replied Inverawe, with deep solemnity. "My hour is come. In vain +was it that your kind friendship, and that of the brave Abercromby, +succeeded in deceiving me,--for I have seen him--I have seen him +terribly,--and this is Ticonderoga!" + +"Pardon me, my dear Inverawe, for a deception which was so well +intended," said the Colonel, much agitated. "It is indeed Ticonderoga +as you say, but--but--believe me,--that which now disturbs you was +only some phantom of your brain, arising from loss of blood and +weakness. Cheer up!--Come, man!--Come!--Inverawe!--Merciful Heaven, +he is gone!" + + + + END OF VOLUME THIRD. + + + + + + + + +NOTES + +[1] A Scottish farmer's house and offices. + +[2] Plaid. + +[3] Remove. + +[4] Ancestors. + +[5] Innermost. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Legendary Tales of the Highlands +(Volume 3 of 3), by Thomas Dick Lauder + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59202 *** |