“ With the speed of frenzy away flew the maiden to the nearest cottage, and grasping a burning peat and a lapful of dried brushwood, she, with equal speed, retraced her steps to the shore. In an instant the beacon threw its crackling flame far over the loch, and in an instant more the small black craft at Shona had cut from her moorings and stood out to the entrance of the bay. Now rose the struggle in Mary’s mind. ”

“ When they arrived at the cave, the goat was standing at the entrance, evidently angry, and determined to oppose them. In vain the widow called her pet names, and held out sweet herbs; the stubborn animal would not budge an inch for all their entreaties or threats. ‘Well,’ said Kenneth, ‘its no use standing here all day; I’ll throw the rope over her, and drag her from the cave, and you shall go in mother, and see what she is hiding inside.’ No sooner said than done, and the poor goat was struggling on the ground, bleating loudly. ”

“ A very infant is the burnie as yet, and very much more like a sleeping than a waking infant; you might lay your ear down to it without hearing sounds greater than the murmurings through the roots of the grass, like the breathings of a baby in the cradle, and, like the baby, also giving an occasional flashing glance at the sun-ray which steals down to see how it is getting on. ”

“ Fifty years! alas for the mourner—spring succeeded winter, and summer [Pg 15] spring, but no change of season lightened May Macleod’s burden! Fifty years! year by year passing away only brought changes to those who lived under her gentle sway, and among the dependents of her home; youth passed into age, young men and maidens filled the places of the valued attendants of her girlhood; and the lady, solitary, still a mourner, in her feudal tower grew old and bent, thin and wan, but still in her heart the love of her youth bloomed fresh for her betrothed. ”

“ He, at the same time, called his clan together, absolved them from their allegiance, and implored them also to save themselves by flight; and to their honour be it said, one and all spurned the idea of leaving their chief in his old age alone to his fate, exclaiming—‘that death itself was preferable to shame and dishonour.’ To the surprise of all, however, the son, dressed in his best garb, and armed to the teeth, after taking a formal and affectionate farewell of his father, took to the hills amidst the contemptuous sneers of his brave retainers. ”

“ For ten years we knew every dell, and bank, and thicket, and, excepting the foresters and keepers, during the early part of that time, we can only remember to have met two or three old wives, who came to crack sticks or shear grass, and one old man to cut hazels for making baskets. If a new forester ventured in to the deep bosom of the wood alone, it was a chance that, like one of King Arthur’s errant-knights, he took a tree as his host for that night, unless he might hear the roar of the Findhorn, and, on reaching the banks, could follow its course out of the woods before the fail of light. ”

“ Allan Dubh, looking round on his pursuer and observing the agitation of the hazel bush, immediately guessed the cause, and returning with the ferocity of a demon who had succeeded in getting his victim into his fangs, hoarsely whispered, ‘I have given much to your race this day, I shall give them this also; surely now the debt is paid;’ then cutting the hazel twig with his sword, the intrepid youth was dashed from crag to crag until he reached the stream below, a bloody and misshapen mass. ”

“ Do you not know you are only living on my estate on sufferance, and if you don’t render me proper respect as your chief, I will soon pack you and your son off again.’ Then perceiving Flora, and being struck with her exceeding loveliness, he involuntarily altered his tone, and continued in a more gentle voice, ‘Ah! I now see the cause; you have a stranger with you. Who is she, Kenneth?’
Now this was a very puzzling question for poor Kenneth to answer, as he did not know himself, and being fearful of saying anything that might injure Flora. ”

“ Again she gazed into the shadow, and there leaning against a tree, growing on the edge of the crag, she saw a tall slender figure. Well she knew the outlines of that form, and fondly her heart throbbed at the sound of the voice which now addressed her.
“Dearest,” said the young Munro in a low tone, “I thought thou wouldst never come. I have been standing here like a statue against the trunk of this tree for the last half-hour watching for one blink of light from thy casement. But it seems that thou preferest darkness. Ah May, dear May, cease to indulge in gloomy forebodings.” ”

“ To those who are not oppressed by anxiety the look-out from this headland is of surpassing beauty. Few scenes are equal to that presented in a midnight walk by moonlight along the sea beach, the glossy sea sending from its surface a long stream of dancing and dazzling light, no sound to be heard save the small ripple of the idle wavelets or the scream of a sea bird watching the fry that swarms along the shores! ”

“ The chief refused to believe the story of her being the wife of Kenneth, and insisted in no very measured terms on her at once accompanying him to the Castle of Islandonain.
Finding all her appeals and supplications of no avail, Flora began to grow desperate. Drawing the child to her, she faced the chief with a look as haughty as his own, and producing a small, richly ornamented dirk, which she had concealed about her dress, vowed she would rather kill herself and the boy, too, than that they should be taken prisoners. ”

“ Regardless of these changes, the burnie goes on in many windings and turnings among the hills, quite happy in its companionless journey, hopping and jumping as it goes, and occasionally breaking out into a little song, though there is not a single bird to reply by an answering carrol—for we are yet far above the regions of birds and bushes—shining bright in the sunshine; there is not a single speck to dim its purity—the very pebbles are purely clean along its margin. How well happiness and purity go together. ”

“ On hearing this, the poor gauger smiled gratefully on Eachainn, and pressed his hand between both his own.
‘Sir!’ exclaimed the doctor, hoarse with passion, ‘what is the meaning of this? Am I to perform the operation or not?’
‘No, sir,’ replied the sick man in a scarcely articulate voice. ‘I throw myself upon the mercy of God. I can but die.’
‘Then die, sir,’ said the enraged doctor, ‘and your blood be upon your own head;’ and hastily packing up his instruments, he turned to leave the room just as Eachainn’s mother (a descendant of Fearchair Lighiche) entered. ”

“ There are, indeed, many lovely spots along the course of the river, and by the little rills among the hills, unknown now, save to the shepherd and the gamekeeper, servants of the sportsman who rents the district. There are the natural wood trees, ‘the oak and the ash, and the bonnie elm tree,’ the alder and the birch, the lady of the wood, and then the rivulets which drop from pool to pool, and anon hiding themselves among sandstone ledges deeply bedded in dark sedge and broad, bright burdoch leaves, and tall angelica, and tufts of king and crown and lady fern. ”

“ By this time some of the crew lay helplessly in the bottom of the boat, when one of the most courageous proposed that, to lighten the craft, the ‘knocked up’ men should be thrown overboard. ‘Not one,’ replied an elderly man, ‘of the living shall be put out, till the dead is put out first.’ He had hardly finished speaking, when a huge sea rolled over the boat, which almost swamped her, and the coffin, which was then floating in the boat, striking Kenneth Campbell on the chest, had almost pitched him overboard. ”

“ Young Glengarry released his hold on Mackenzie’s throat sheathed his dirk and prepared to take his departure, but was, curious to relate, prevailed upon to remain at the feast and spend the night with the sworn enemies of his race and kindred, and the following morning they parted the best of friends. And thus, by the daring of a stripling, was Glengarry saved the fearful doom that awaited him. The youth ultimately became famous as one of the most courageous warriors of his race. He fought many a single combat with powerful combatants, and invariably came off victorious. ”

“ She muffled herself in a dark plaid, moved towards the door, opened it cautiously, and listening with dread, timidly ventured down to meet her lover.
“I must and will beg him to-night to stay away in future,” continued she, as she tripped cautiously down the narrow winding stair; “and yet to stay away? Ah me! it is to leave me to my misery; but it must be done, unkind as it may be, otherwise he will assuredly be captured and slain, for I fear Macrae suspects our meetings are not confined to the day and my father’s presence.” ”

“ The time of the wild rose is past, but the hips and haws will soon put on their red, red coats, the coral beads are even now in cluster on the rowan tree, while the bramble trails over every ditch with its delicious load of juicy, purpling fruit. ”

“ This was welcome news to the fiery youth, longing ‘to flesh his maiden sword,’ and he exerted himself with right good will in making the necessary preparations for the forthcoming foray.
When Flora married Kenneth, she, like a true wife, concealed no secret from him, but told him all her history—a strange and romantic one. She was of high birth, but, being an orphan, lived with her only sister, who had married and become the queen of the chief or king of a powerful neighbouring kingdom. ”

“ There the worthy man stood panting and blowing for about a minute, when some yards below him, at a shallower part of the burn, kneeling at the water’s edge, and gulping in the pure element, he beheld the runaway Highlander.
The gauger’s anger was, however, considerably mollified on seeing no effort on the part of Eachainn to continue his flight, and also by seeing his gun lying safely on a dried part of the bank. ”

“ Munro, struck to the heart with Macrae’s dagger, fell with May’s loved name on his lips, while Macrae, staggering over the height, in the act of falling so wounded himself by his own weapon as to render his future life one of helpless manhood and bitter mental regret.
Macleod was soon after slain in one of the many quarrels of the time, while his daughter May, the sorrowing heiress of the broad lands of Cadboll, lived on for fifty years one long unrelieved day of suffering. ”

“ East, west, north, and south looked Allan Dubh Macranuil. Not a living soul met his eye. The fire he kindled had destroyed, like the spirit of desolation. Not a sound met his ear, and his own tiger soul sunk within him in dismay. The parish of Cilliechriost seemed swept of every living thing. The fearful silence that prevailed, in a quarter lately [Pg 79] so thickly peopled, struck his followers with dread: for they had given in one hour the inhabitants of a whole parish one terrible grave. ”

“ Far, far and high upon those mountains, on the side of one of its vast slopes, in a hollow more green than brown, a little burnie commences its existence in a spongy bit of brown ground, covered over with plants bearing white flowers—the Cannach of similar scenes. At first, says one of the best of word painters of his day, you can see nothing of a rill—it is only a slyke. ”

“ Macpherson, who had grown in beauty, strength, and stature rarely equalled, then took his place in the clan, with the chief’s blood flowing in his veins, as a young Highland freebooter, who, in descending from the mountains with his followers, believed he was only asserting the independence of his tribe, and when they harried the Lowlands was only taking a lawful prey. ”

“ Had it fortuned to an Englishman, twenty-five or thirty years ago, to visit the county of Elgin, he could not have failed to hear of the Earl of Moray’s forest of Tarnaway, which then stretched for miles along the banks of this grand Highland stream—the Findhorn—in all the untrimmed luxuriance which he could have expected in going to wait on the Duke of Arden. ”

“ The remainder, with all the speed they could make, held on for miles, lighted by a splendid and cloudless moon, and when the rays of the morning burst upon them, Allan Dubh Macranuil and his party were seen ascending the southern ridge of Glen-Urquhart, with the Mackenzies close in their rear. Allan, casting an eye behind him and observing the superior numbers and determination of his pursuers, called upon his band to disperse, in order to confuse his pursuers, and so divert the chase from himself. ”

“ Eoghainn having covered the only entrance to the cave with their plaids, struck a light and introduced to his astonished friends his betrothed, young Mary Maclauchlan. The poor girl had understood by the garter which bound the terrier’s neck, and which she herself had woven, that her Eoghainn was in the neighbourhood, and hastened to his relief with all the ready provisions she could procure; and not least, in the estimation of at least two of the fugitives, the feeling maiden had brought them a sip of unblemished whisky. ”

“ The gauger, greatly disconcerted, threw himself from his steed with such alacrity that he almost overturned the gearran, as well as himself. ‘What?’ he exclaimed: ‘Hoot, toot, man, never give way; ’tis but a dwam, puir fellow! His jaw drops just like Fraser, the supervisor, when Red Chisholm, the smuggler, stuck his dirk into his doup. If the lad should die here, and no one but me with him, why, what would folk say? Gude save us! how swelled his leg is, and all black and green; ’tis fearsome ”

“ Kenneth was the only one of the small circle who was not perfectly at ease. He who used to be one of the most happy and careless of mortals, with no higher ambition than to be a good sportsman, now became dissatisfied with himself and discontented with his lot in life. When out on the hills alone he would fall into moods of abstraction, building castles in the air, wishing he were a soldier—ah! ”