No sooner was he gone, than the heavy toll of the castle-bell summoned
its inhabitants together; and was answered by the shrill clamour of the
females, mixed with the deeper tones of the men, as, talking Earse at
the top of their throats, they hurried from different quarters by a long
but narrow gallery, which served as a communication to many rooms, and,
among others, to that in which Captain Dalgetty was stationed. There
they go as if they were beating to the roll-call, thought the soldier to
himself; if they all attend the parade, I will look out, take a mouthful
of fresh air, and make mine own observations on the practicabilities of
this place.

Accordingly, when all was quiet, he opened his chamber door, and
prepared to leave it, when he saw his friend with the axe advancing
towards him from the distant end of the gallery, half whistling, a
Gaelic tune. To have shown any want of confidence, would have been at
once impolitic, and unbecoming his military character; so the Captain,
putting the best face upon his situation he could, whistled a Swedish
retreat, in a tone still louder than the notes of his sentinel; and
retreating pace by pace, with an air of indifference, as if his only
purpose had been to breathe a little fresh air, he shut the door in the
face of his guard, when the fellow had approached within a few paces of
him.

It is very well, thought the Ritt-master to himself; he annuls my parole
by putting guards upon me, for, as we used to say at Mareschal-College,
FIDES ET FIDUCIA SUNT RELATIVA [See Note I]; and if he does not trust my
word, I do not see how I am bound to keep it, if any motive should occur
for my desiring to depart from it. Surely the moral obligation of the
parole is relaxed, in as far as physical force is substituted instead
thereof.

Thus comforting himself in the metaphysical immunities which he deduced
from the vigilance of his sentinel, Ritt-master Dalgetty retired to his
apartment, where, amid the theoretical calculations of tactics, and the
occasional more practical attacks on the flask and pasty, he consumed
the evening until it was time to go to repose. He was summoned by
Lorimer at break of day, who gave him to understand, that, when he had
broken his fast, for which he produced ample materials, his guide and
horse were in attendance for his journey to Inverary. After complying
with the hospitable hint of the chamberlain, the soldier proceeded
to take horse. In passing through the apartments, he observed that
domestics were busily employed in hanging the great hall with black
cloth, a ceremony which, he said, he had seen practised when the
immortal Gustavus Adolphus lay in state in the Castle of Wolgast, and
which, therefore, he opined, was a testimonial of the strictest and
deepest mourning.

When Dalgetty mounted his steed, he found himself attended, or perhaps
guarded, by five or six Campbells, well armed, commanded by one, who,
from the target at his shoulder, and the short cock's feather in his
bonnet, as well as from the state which he took upon himself, claimed
the rank of a Dunniewassel, or clansman of superior rank; and indeed,
from his dignity of deportment, could not stand in a more distant degree
of relationship to Sir Duncan, than that of tenth or twelfth cousin at
farthest. But it was impossible to extract positive information on this
or any other subject, inasmuch as neither this commander nor any of
his party spoke English. The Captain rode, and his military attendants
walked; but such was their activity, and so numerous the impediments
which the nature of the road presented to the equestrian mode of
travelling, that far from being retarded by the slowness of their pace,
his difficulty was rather in keeping up with his guides. He observed
that they occasionally watched him with a sharp eye, as if they were
jealous of some effort to escape; and once, as he lingered behind at
crossing a brook, one of the gillies began to blow the match of his
piece, giving him to understand that he would run some risk in case of
an attempt to part company. Dalgetty did not augur much good from the
close watch thus maintained upon his person; but there was no remedy,
for an attempt to escape from his attendants in an impervious and
unknown country, would have been little short of insanity. He therefore
plodded patiently on through a waste and savage wilderness, treading
paths which were only known to the shepherds and cattle-drivers, and
passing with much more of discomfort than satisfaction many of those
sublime combinations of mountainous scenery which now draw visitors from
every corner of England, to feast their eyes upon Highland grandeur, and
mortify their palates upon Highland fare.

At length they arrived on the southern verge of that noble lake upon
which Inverary is situated; and a bugle, which the Dunniewassel winded
till rock and greenwood rang, served as a signal to a well-manned
galley, which, starting from a creek where it lay concealed, received
the party on board, including Gustavus; which sagacious quadruped, an
experienced traveller both by water and land, walked in and out of the
boat with the discretion of a Christian.

Embarked on the bosom of Loch Fine, Captain Dalgetty might have admired
one of the grandest scenes which nature affords. He might have noticed
the rival rivers Aray and Shiray, which pay tribute to the lake, each
issuing from its own dark and wooded retreat. He might have marked, on
the soft and gentle slope that ascends from the shores, the noble old
Gothic castle, with its varied outline, embattled walls, towers, and
outer and inner courts, which, so far as the picturesque is concerned,
presented an aspect much more striking than the present massive and
uniform mansion. He might have admired those dark woods which for many
a mile surrounded this strong and princely dwelling, and his eye might
have dwelt on the picturesque peak of Duniquoich, starting abruptly from
the lake, and raising its scathed brow into the mists of middle sky,
while a solitary watch-tower, perched on its top like an eagle's nest,
gave dignity to the scene by awakening a sense of possible danger.
All these, and every other accompaniment of this noble scene, Captain
Dalgetty might have marked, if he had been so minded. But, to confess
the truth, the gallant Captain, who had eaten nothing since daybreak,
was chiefly interested by the smoke which ascended from the castle
chimneys, and the expectations which this seemed to warrant of his
encountering an abundant stock of provant, as he was wont to call
supplies of this nature.

The boat soon approached the rugged pier, which abutted into the loch
from the little town of Inverary, then a rude assemblage of huts, with a
very few stone mansions interspersed, stretching upwards from the banks
of Loch Fine to the principal gate of the castle, before which a scene
presented itself that might easily have quelled a less stout heart,
and turned a more delicate stomach, than those of Ritt-master Dugald
Dalgetty, titular of Drumthwacket.



CHAPTER XII.

     For close designs and crooked counsels fit,
     Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit,
     Restless, unfix'd in principle and place,
     In power unpleased, impatient in disgrace.
     --ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL.

The village of Inverary, now a neat country town, then partook of the
rudeness of the seventeenth century, in the miserable appearance of the
houses, and the irregularity of the unpaved street. But a stronger and
more terrible characteristic of the period appeared in the market-place,
which was a space of irregular width, half way betwixt the harbour, or
pier, and the frowning castle-gate, which terminated with its gloomy
archway, portcullis, and flankers, the upper end of the vista. Midway
this space was erected a rude gibbet, on which hung five dead bodies,
two of which from their dress seemed to have been Lowlanders, and the
other three corpses were muffled in their Highland plaids. Two or three
women sate under the gallows, who seemed to be mourning, and singing
the coronach of the deceased in a low voice. But the spectacle was
apparently of too ordinary occurrence to have much interest for the
inhabitants at large, who, while they thronged to look at the military
figure, the horse of an unusual size, and the burnished panoply of
Captain Dalgetty, seemed to bestow no attention whatever on the piteous
spectacle which their own market-place afforded.

The envoy of Montrose was not quite so indifferent; and, hearing a word
or two of English escape from a Highlander of decent appearance, he
immediately halted Gustavus and addressed him, "The Provost-Marshal has
been busy here, my friend. May I crave of you what these delinquents
have been justified for?"

He looked towards the gibbet as he spoke; and the Gael, comprehending
his meaning rather by his action than his words, immediately replied,
"Three gentlemen caterans,--God sain them," (crossing himself)--"twa
Sassenach bits o' bodies, that wadna do something that M'Callum More
bade them;" and turning from Dalgetty with an air of indifference, away
he walked, staying no farther question.

Dalgetty shrugged his shoulders and proceeded, for Sir Duncan Campbell's
tenth or twelfth cousin had already shown some signs of impatience.

At the gate of the castle another terrible spectacle of feudal power
awaited him. Within a stockade or palisade, which seemed lately to have
been added to the defences of the gate, and which was protected by two
pieces of light artillery, was a small enclosure, where stood a huge
block, on which lay an axe. Both were smeared with recent blood, and
a quantity of saw-dust strewed around, partly retained and partly
obliterated the marks of a very late execution.

As Dalgetty looked on this new object of terror, his principal guide
suddenly twitched him by the skirt of his jerkin, and having thus
attracted his attention, winked and pointed with his finger to a
pole fixed on the stockade, which supported a human head, being that,
doubtless, of the late sufferer. There was a leer on the Highlander's
face, as he pointed to this ghastly spectacle, which seemed to his
fellow-traveller ominous of nothing good.

Dalgetty dismounted from his horse at the gateway, and Gustavus was
taken from him without his being permitted to attend him to the stable,
according to his custom.

This gave the soldier a pang which the apparatus of death had not
conveyed.--"Poor Gustavus!" said he to himself, "if anything but good
happens to me, I had better have left him at Darnlinvarach than brought
him here among these Highland salvages, who scarce know the head of
a horse from his tail. But duty must part a man from his nearest and
dearest--

     "When the cannons are roaring, lads, and the colours are flying,
     The lads that seek honour must never fear dying;
     Then, stout cavaliers, let us toil our brave trade in,
     And fight for the Gospel and the bold King of Sweden."

Thus silencing his apprehensions with the but-end of a military ballad,
he followed his guide into a sort of guard-room filled with armed
Highlanders. It was intimated to him that he must remain here until his
arrival was communicated to the Marquis. To make this communication
the more intelligible, the doughty Captain gave to the Dunniewassel Sir
Duncan Campbell's packet, desiring, as well as he could, by signs, that
it should be delivered into the Marquis's own hand. His guide nodded,
and withdrew.

The Captain was left about half an hour in this place, to endure with
indifference, or return with scorn, the inquisitive, and, at the same
time, the inimical glances of the armed Gael, to whom his exterior and
equipage were as much subject of curiosity, as his person and country
seemed matter of dislike. All this he bore with military nonchalance,
until, at the expiration of the above period, a person dressed in black
velvet, and wearing a gold chain like a modern magistrate of Edinburgh,
but who was, in fact, steward of the household to the Marquis of Argyle,
entered the apartment, and invited, with solemn gravity, the Captain to
follow him to his master's presence.

The suite of apartments through which he passed, were filled with
attendants or visitors of various descriptions, disposed, perhaps, with
some ostentation, in order to impress the envoy of Montrose with an idea
of the superior power and magnificence belonging to the rival house of
Argyle. One ante-room was filled with lacqueys, arrayed in brown and
yellow, the colours of the family, who, ranged in double file, gazed in
silence upon Captain Dalgetty as he passed betwixt their ranks. Another
was occupied by Highland gentlemen and chiefs of small branches, who
were amusing themselves with chess, backgammon, and other games, which
they scarce intermitted to gaze with curiosity upon the stranger. A
third was filled with Lowland gentlemen and officers, who seemed also
in attendance; and, lastly, the presence-chamber of the Marquis himself
showed him attended by a levee which marked his high importance.

This apartment, the folding doors of which were opened for the reception
of Captain Dalgetty, was a long gallery, decorated with tapestry and
family portraits, and having a vaulted ceiling of open wood-work, the
extreme projections of the beams being richly carved and gilded. The
gallery was lighted by long lanceolated Gothic casements, divided
by heavy shafts, and filled with painted glass, where the sunbeams
glimmered dimly through boars'-heads, and galleys, and batons, and
swords, armorial bearings of the powerful house of Argyle, and emblems
of the high hereditary offices of Justiciary of Scotland, and Master of
the Royal Household, which they long enjoyed. At the upper end of this
magnificent gallery stood the Marquis himself, the centre of a splendid
circle of Highland and Lowland gentlemen, all richly dressed, among whom
were two or three of the clergy, called in, perhaps, to be witnesses of
his lordship's zeal for the Covenant.

The Marquis himself was dressed in the fashion of the period, which
Vandyke has so often painted, but his habit was sober and uniform
in colour, and rather rich than gay. His dark complexion, furrowed
forehead, and downcast look, gave him the appearance of one frequently
engaged in the consideration of important affairs, and who has acquired,
by long habit, an air of gravity and mystery, which he cannot shake off
even where there is nothing to be concealed. The cast with his eyes,
which had procured him in the Highlands the nickname of Gillespie
Grumach (or the grim), was less perceptible when he looked downward,
which perhaps was one cause of his having adopted that habit. In person,
he was tall and thin, but not without that dignity of deportment and
manners, which became his high rank. Something there was cold in his
address, and sinister in his look, although he spoke and behaved with
the usual grace of a man of such quality. He was adored by his own clan,
whose advancement he had greatly studied, although he was in proportion
disliked by the Highlanders of other septs, some of whom he had already
stripped of their possessions, while others conceived themselves in
danger from his future schemes, and all dreaded the height to which he
was elevated.

We have already noticed, that in displaying himself amidst his
councillors, his officers of the household, and his train of vassals,
allies, and dependents, the Marquis of Argyle probably wished to make
an impression on the nervous system of Captain Dugald Dalgetty. But that
doughty person had fought his way, in one department or another, through
the greater part of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, a period when a
brave and successful soldier was a companion for princes. The King of
Sweden, and, after his example, even the haughty Princes of the Empire,
had found themselves fain, frequently to compound with their dignity,
and silence, when they could not satisfy the pecuniary claims of their
soldiers, by admitting them to unusual privileges and familiarity.
Captain Dugald Dalgetty had it to boast, that he had sate with princes
at feasts made for monarchs, and therefore was not a person to be
brow-beat even by the dignity which surrounded M'Callum More. Indeed, he
was naturally by no means the most modest man in the world, but, on the
contrary, had so good an opinion of himself, that into whatever company
he chanced to be thrown, he was always proportionally elevated in his
own conceit; so that he felt as much at ease in the most exalted society
as among his own ordinary companions. In this high opinion of his own
rank, he was greatly fortified by his ideas of the military profession,
which, in his phrase, made a valiant cavalier a camarade to an emperor.

When introduced, therefore, into the Marquis's presence-chamber, he
advanced to the upper end with an air of more confidence than grace, and
would have gone close up to Argyle's person before speaking, had not
the latter waved his hand, as a signal to him to stop short. Captain
Dalgetty did so accordingly, and having made his military congee with
easy confidence, he thus accosted the Marquis: "Give you good morrow, my
lord--or rather I should say, good even; BESO A USTED LOS MANOS, as the
Spaniard says."

"Who are you, sir, and what is your business?" demanded the Marquis, in
a tone which was intended to interrupt the offensive familiarity of the
soldier.

"That is a fair interrogative, my lord," answered Dalgetty, "which I
shall forthwith answer as becomes a cavalier, and that PEREMPTORIE, as
we used to say at Mareschal-College."

"See who or what he is, Neal," said the Marquis sternly, to a gentleman
who stood near him.

"I will save the honourable gentleman the labour of investigation,"
continued the Captain. "I am Dugald Dalgetty, of Drumthwacket, that
should be, late Ritt-master in various services, and now Major of I
know not what or whose regiment of Irishes; and I am come with a flag of
truce from a high and powerful lord, James Earl of Montrose, and
other noble persons now in arms for his Majesty. And so, God save King
Charles!"

"Do you know where you are, and the danger of dallying with us, sir,"
again demanded the Marquis, "that you reply to me as if I were a child
or a fool? The Earl of Montrose is with the English malignants; and I
suspect you are one of those Irish runagates, who are come into this
country to burn and slay, as they did under Sir Phelim O'Neale."

"My lord," replied Captain Dalgetty, "I am no renegade, though a Major
of Irishes, for which I might refer your lordship to the invincible
Gustavus Adolphus the Lion of the North, to Bannier, to Oxenstiern, to
the warlike Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Tilly, Wallenstein, Piccolomini, and
other great captains, both dead and living; and touching the noble Earl
of Montrose, I pray your lordship to peruse these my full powers for
treating with you in the name of that right honourable commander."

The Marquis looked slightingly at the signed and sealed paper which
Captain Dalgetty handed to him, and, throwing it with contempt upon a
table, asked those around him what he deserved who came as the avowed
envoy and agent of malignant traitors, in arms against the state?

"A high gallows and a short shrift," was the ready answer of one of the
bystanders.

"I will crave of that honourable cavalier who hath last spoken," said
Dalgetty, "to be less hasty in forming his conclusions, and also of your
lordship to be cautelous in adopting the same, in respect such threats
are to be held out only to base bisognos, and not to men of spirit and
action, who are bound to peril themselves as freely in services of this
nature, as upon sieges, battles, or onslaughts of any sort. And albeit I
have not with me a trumpet, or a white flag, in respect our army is not
yet equipped with its full appointments, yet the honourable cavaliers
and your lordship must concede unto me, that the sanctity of an envoy
who cometh on matter of truth or parle, consisteth not in the fanfare of
a trumpet, whilk is but a sound, or in the flap of a white flag, whilk
is but an old rag in itself, but in the confidence reposed by the party
sending, and the party sent, in the honour of those to whom the message
is to be carried, and their full reliance that they will respect the
JUS GENTIUM, as weel as the law of arms, in the person of the
commissionate."

"You are not come hither to lecture us upon the law of arms, sir," said
the Marquis, "which neither does nor can apply to rebels and insurgents;
but to suffer the penalty of your insolence and folly for bringing a
traitorous message to the Lord Justice General of Scotland, whose duty
calls upon him to punish such an offence with death."

"Gentlemen," said the Captain, who began much to dislike the turn which
his mission seemed about to take, "I pray you to remember, that the
Earl of Montrose will hold you and your possessions liable for
whatever injury my person, or my horse, shall sustain by these unseemly
proceedings, and that he will be justified in executing retributive
vengeance on your persons and possessions."

This menace was received with a scornful laugh, while one of the
Campbells replied, "It is a far cry to Lochow;" proverbial expression of
the tribe, meaning that their ancient hereditary domains lay beyond
the reach of an invading enemy. "But, gentlemen," further urged the
unfortunate Captain, who was unwilling to be condemned, without at least
the benefit of a full hearing, "although it is not for me to say how
far it may be to Lochow, in respect I am a stranger to these parts,
yet, what is more to the purpose, I trust you will admit that I have
the guarantee of an honourable gentleman of your own name, Sir Duncan
Campbell of Ardenvohr, for my safety on this mission; and I pray you
to observe, that in breaking the truce towards me, you will highly
prejudicate his honour and fair fame."

This seemed to be new information to many of the gentlemen, for they
spoke aside with each other, and the Marquis's face, notwithstanding
his power of suppressing all external signs of his passions, showed
impatience and vexation.

"Does Sir Duncan of Ardenvohr pledge his honour for this person's
safety, my lord?" said one of the company, addressing the Marquis.

"I do not believe it," answered the Marquis; "but I have not yet had
time to read his letter."

"We will pray your lordship to do so," said another of the Campbells;
"our name must not suffer discredit through the means of such a fellow
as this."

"A dead fly," said a clergyman, "maketh the ointment of the apothecary
to stink."

"Reverend sir," said Captain Dalgetty, "in respect of the use to be
derived, I forgive you the unsavouriness of your comparison; and also
remit to the gentleman in the red bonnet, the disparaging epithet of
FELLOW, which he has discourteously applied to me, who am no way to
be distinguished by the same, unless in so far as I have been called
fellow-soldier by the great Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion of the North,
and other choice commanders, both in Germany and the Low Countries. But,
touching Sir Duncan Campbell's guarantee of my safety, I will gage my
life upon his making my words good thereanent, when he comes hither
to-morrow."

"If Sir Duncan be soon expected, my Lord," said one of the intercessors,
"it would be a pity to anticipate matters with this poor man."

"Besides that," said another, "your lordship--I speak with
reverence--should, at least, consult the Knight of Ardenvohr's letter,
and learn the terms on which this Major Dalgetty, as he calls himself,
has been sent hither by him."

They closed around the Marquis, and conversed together in a low tone,
both in Gaelic and English. The patriarchal power of the Chiefs was very
great, and that of the Marquis of Argyle, armed with all his grants of
hereditary jurisdiction, was particularly absolute. But there interferes
some check of one kind or other even in the most despotic government.
That which mitigated the power of the Celtic Chiefs, was the necessity
which they lay under of conciliating the kinsmen who, under them, led
out the lower orders to battle, and who formed a sort of council of the
tribe in time of peace. The Marquis on this occasion thought himself
under the necessity of attending to the remonstrances of this senate, or
more properly COUROULTAI, of the name of Campbell, and, slipping out
of the circle, gave orders for the prisoner to be removed to a place of
security.

"Prisoner!" exclaimed Dalgetty, exerting himself with such force as
wellnigh to shake off two Highlanders, who for some minutes past had
waited the signal to seize him, and kept for that purpose close at his
back. Indeed the soldier had so nearly attained his liberty, that the
Marquis of Argyle changed colour, and stepped back two paces, laying,
however, his hand on his sword, while several of his clan, with ready
devotion, threw themselves betwixt him and the apprehended vengeance of
the prisoner. But the Highland guards were too strong to be shaken off,
and the unlucky Captain, after having had his offensive weapons taken
from him, was dragged off and conducted through several gloomy passages
to a small side-door grated with iron, within which was another of wood.
These were opened by a grim old Highlander with a long white beard, and
displayed a very steep and narrow flight of steps leading downward. The
Captain's guards pushed him down two or three steps, then, unloosing his
arms, left him to grope his way to the bottom as he could; a task
which became difficult and even dangerous, when the two doors being
successively locked left the prisoner in total darkness.




CHAPTER XIII.

     Whatever stranger visits here,
     We pity his sad case,
     Unless to worship he draw near
     The King of Kings--his Grace.
     --BURNS'S  EPIGRAM ON A VISIT TO INVERARY.

The Captain, finding himself deprived of light in the manner we have
described, and placed in a very uncertain situation, proceeded to
descend the narrow and broken stair with all the caution in his power,
hoping that he might find at the bottom some place to repose himself.
But with all his care he could not finally avoid making a false step,
which brought him down the four or five last steps too hastily to
preserve his equilibrium. At the bottom he stumbled over a bundle of
something soft, which stirred and uttered a groan, so deranging the
Captain's descent, that he floundered forward, and finally fell upon his
hands and knees on the floor of a damp and stone-paved dungeon.

When Dalgetty had recovered, his first demand was to know over whom he
had stumbled.

"He was a man a month since," answered a hollow and broken voice.

"And what is he now, then," said Dalgetty, "that he thinks it fitting
to lie upon the lowest step of the stairs, and clew'd up like a hurchin,
that honourable cavaliers, who chance to be in trouble, may break their
noses over him?"

"What is he now?" replied the same voice; "he is a wretched trunk,
from which the boughs have one by one been lopped away, and which cares
little how soon it is torn up and hewed into billets for the furnace."

"Friend," said Dalgetty, "I am sorry for you; but PATIENZA, as the
Spaniard says. If you had but been as quiet as a log, as you call
yourself, I should have saved some excoriations on my hands and knees."

"You are a soldier," replied his fellow-prisoner; "do you complain on
account of a fall for which a boy would not bemoan himself?"

"A soldier?" said the Captain; "and how do you know, in this cursed dark
cavern, that I am a soldier?"

"I heard your armour clash as you fell," replied the prisoner, "and now
I see it glimmer. When you have remained as long as I in this darkness,
your eyes will distinguish the smallest eft that crawls on the floor."

"I had rather the devil picked them out!" said Dalgetty; "if this be the
case, I shall wish for a short turn of the rope, a soldier's prayer, and
a leap from a ladder. But what sort of provant have you got here--what
food, I mean, brother in affliction?"

"Bread and water once a day," replied the voice.

"Prithee, friend, let me taste your loaf," said Dalgetty; "I hope we
shall play good comrades while we dwell together in this abominable
pit."

"The loaf and jar of water," answered the other prisoner, "stand in
the corner, two steps to your right hand. Take them, and welcome. With
earthly food I have wellnigh done."

Dalgetty did not wait for a second invitation, but, groping out the
provisions, began to munch at the stale black oaten loaf with as much
heartiness as we have seen him play his part at better viands.

"This bread," he said, muttering (with his mouth full at the same time),
"is not very savoury; nevertheless, it is not much worse than that which
we ate at the famous leaguer at Werben, where the valorous Gustavus
foiled all the efforts of the celebrated Tilly, that terrible old hero,
who had driven two kings out of the field--namely, Ferdinand of Bohemia
and Christian of Denmark. And anent this water, which is none of the
most sweet, I drink in the same to your speedy deliverance, comrade,
not forgetting mine own, and devoutly wishing it were Rhenish wine, or
humming Lubeck beer, at the least, were it but in honour of the pledge."

While Dalgetty ran on in this way, his teeth kept time with his tongue,
and he speedily finished the provisions which the benevolence or
indifference of his companion in misfortune had abandoned to his
voracity. When this task was accomplished, he wrapped himself in his
cloak, and seating himself in a corner of the dungeon in which he could
obtain a support on each side (for he had always been an admirer of
elbow-chairs, he remarked, even from his youth upward), he began to
question his fellow-captive.

"Mine honest friend," said he, "you and I, being comrades at bed
and board, should be better acquainted. I am Dugald Dalgetty of
Drumthwacket, and so forth, Major in a regiment of loyal Irishes,
and Envoy Extraordinary of a High and Mighty Lord, James Earl of
Montrose.--Pray, what may your name be?"

"It will avail you little to know," replied his more taciturn companion.

"Let me judge of that matter," answered the soldier.

"Well, then--Ranald MacEagh is my name--that is, Ranald Son of the
Mist."

"Son of the Mist!" ejaculated Dalgetty. "Son of utter darkness, say I.
But, Ranald, since that is your name, how came you in possession of the
provost's court of guard? what the devil brought you here, that is to
say?"

"My misfortunes and my crimes," answered Ranald. "Know ye the Knight of
Ardenvohr?"

"I do know that honourable person," replied Dalgetty.

"But know ye where he now is?" replied Ranald.

"Fasting this day at Ardenvohr," answered the Envoy, "that he may feast
to-morrow at Inverary; in which last purpose if he chance to fail, my
lease of human service will be something precarious."

"Then let him know, one claims his intercession, who is his worst foe
and his best friend," answered Ranald.

"Truly I shall desire to carry a less questionable message," answered
Dalgetty, "Sir Duncan is not a person to play at reading riddles with."

"Craven Saxon," said the prisoner, "tell him I am the raven that,
fifteen years since, stooped on his tower of strength and the pledges
he had left there--I am the hunter that found out the wolfs den on the
rock, and destroyed his offspring--I am the leader of the band which
surprised Ardenvohr yesterday was fifteen years, and gave his four
children to the sword."

"Truly, my honest friend," said Dalgetty, "if that is your best
recommendation to Sir Duncan's favour, I would pretermit my pleading
thereupon, in respect I have observed that even the animal creation are
incensed against those who intromit with their offspring forcibly, much
more any rational and Christian creatures, who have had violence done
upon their small family. But I pray you in courtesy to tell me, whether
you assailed the castle from the hillock called Drumsnab, whilk I uphold
to be the true point of attack, unless it were to be protected by a
sconce."

"We ascended the cliff by ladders of withies or saplings," said the
prisoner, "drawn up by an accomplice and clansman, who had served six
months in the castle to enjoy that one night of unlimited vengeance.
The owl whooped around us as we hung betwixt heaven and earth; the tide
roared against the foot of the rock, and dashed asunder our skiff, yet
no man's heart failed him. In the morning there was blood and ashes,
where there had been peace and joy at the sunset."

"It was a pretty camisade, I doubt not, Ranald MacEagh, a very
sufficient onslaught, and not unworthily discharged. Nevertheless, I
would have pressed the house from that little hillock called Drumsnab.
But yours is a pretty irregular Scythian fashion of warfare, Ranald,
much resembling that of Turks, Tartars, and other Asiatic people.--But
the reason, my friend, the cause of this war--the TETERRIMA CAUSA, as I
may say? Deliver me that, Ranald."

"We had been pushed at by the M'Aulays, and other western tribes," said
Ranald, "till our possessions became unsafe for us."

"Ah ha!" said Dalgetty; "I have faint remembrance of having heard of
that matter. Did you not put bread and cheese into a man's mouth, when
he had never a stomach whereunto to transmit the same?"

"You have heard, then," said Ranald, "the tale of our revenge on the
haughty forester?"

"I bethink me that I have," said Dalgetty, "and that not of an old date.
It was a merry jest that, of cramming the bread into the dead man's
mouth, but somewhat too wild and salvage for civilized acceptation,
besides wasting the good victuals. I have seen when at a siege or a
leaguer, Ranald, a living soldier would have been the better, Ranald,
for that crust of bread, whilk you threw away on a dead pow."

"We were attacked by Sir Duncan," continued MacEagh, "and my brother
was slain--his head was withering on the battlements which we scaled--I
vowed revenge, and it is a vow I have never broken."

"It may be so," said Dalgetty; "and every thorough-bred soldier will
confess that revenge is a sweet morsel; but in what manner this story
will interest Sir Duncan in your justification, unless it should move
him to intercede with the Marquis to change the manner thereof from
hanging, or simple suspension, to breaking your limbs on the roue or
wheel, with the coulter of a plough, or otherwise putting you to death
by torture, surpasses my comprehension. Were I you, Ranald, I would be
for miskenning Sir Duncan, keeping my own secret, and departing quietly
by suffocation, like your ancestors before you."

"Yet hearken, stranger," said the Highlander. "Sir Duncan of Ardenvohr
had four children. Three died under our dirks, but the fourth survives;
and more would he give to dandle on his knee the fourth child which
remains, than to rack these old bones, which care little for the utmost
indulgence of his wrath. One word, if I list to speak it, could turn his
day of humiliation and fasting into a day of thankfulness and rejoicing,
and breaking of bread. O, I know it by my own heart? Dearer to me is the
child Kenneth, who chaseth the butterfly on the banks of the Aven, than
ten sons who are mouldering in earth, or are preyed on by the fowls of
the air."

"I presume, Ranald," continued Dalgetty, "that the three pretty fellows
whom I saw yonder in the market-place, strung up by the head like
rizzer'd haddocks, claimed some interest in you?"

There was a brief pause ere the Highlander replied, in a tone of strong
emotion,--"They were my sons, stranger--they were my sons!--blood of my
blood--bone of my bone!--fleet of foot--unerring in aim--unvanquished by
foemen till the sons of Diarmid overcame them by numbers! Why do I wish
to survive them? The old trunk will less feel the rending up of its
roots, than it has felt the lopping off of its graceful boughs. But
Kenneth must be trained to revenge--the young eagle must learn from the
old how to stoop on his foes. I will purchase for his sake my life and
my freedom, by discovering my secret to the Knight of Ardenvohr."

"You may attain your end more easily," said a third voice, mingling in
the conference, "by entrusting it to me."

All Highlanders are superstitious. "The Enemy of Mankind is among us!"
said Ranald MacEagh, springing to his feet. His chains clattered as he
rose, while he drew himself as far as they permitted from the
quarter whence the voice appeared to proceed. His fear in some degree
communicated itself to Captain Dalgetty, who began to repeat, in a sort
of polyglot gibberish, all the exorcisms he had ever heard of, without
being able to remember more than a word or two of each.

"IN NOMINE DOMINI, as we said at Mareschal-College--SANTISSMA MADRE DI
DIOS, as the Spaniard has it--ALLE GUTEN GEISTER LOBEN DEN HERRN, saith
the blessed Psalmist, in Dr. Luther's translation--"

"A truce with your exorcisms," said the voice they had heard before;
"though I come strangely among you, I am mortal like yourselves, and my
assistance may avail you in your present streight, if you are not too
proud to be counselled."

While the stranger thus spoke, he withdrew the shade of a dark lantern,
by whose feeble light Dalgetty could only discern that the speaker who
had thus mysteriously united himself to their company, and mixed in
their conversation, was a tall man, dressed in a livery cloak of the
Marquis. His first glance was to his feet, but he saw neither the cloven
foot which Scottish legends assign to the foul fiend, nor the horse's
hoof by which he is distinguished in Germany. His first enquiry was, how
the stranger had come among them?

"For," said he, "the creak of these rusty bars would have been heard had
the door been made patent; and if you passed through the keyhole, truly,
sir, put what face you will on it, you are not fit to be enrolled in a
regiment of living men."

"I reserve my secret," answered the stranger, "until you shall merit the
discovery by communicating to me some of yours. It may be that I shall
be moved to let you out where I myself came in."

"It cannot be through the keyhole, then," said Captain Dalgetty, "for my
corslet would stick in the passage, were it possible that my head-piece
could get through. As for secrets, I have none of my own, and but few
appertaining to others. But impart to us what secrets you desire
to know; or, as Professor Snufflegreek used to say at the
Mareschal-College, Aberdeen, speak that I may know thee."

"It is not with you I have first to do," replied the stranger, turning
his light full on the mild and wasted features, and the large limbs of
the Highlander, Ranald MacEagh, who, close drawn up against the walls of
the dungeon, seemed yet uncertain whether his guest was a living being.

"I have brought you something, my friend," said the stranger, in a more
soothing tone, "to mend your fare; if you are to die to-morrow, it is no
reason wherefore you should not live to-night."

"None at all--no reason in the creation," replied the ready Captain
Dalgetty, who forthwith began to unpack the contents of a small basket
which the stranger had brought under his cloak, while the Highlander,
either in suspicion or disdain, paid no attention to the good cheer.

"Here's to thee, my friend," said the Captain, who, having already
dispatched a huge piece of roasted kid, was now taking a pull at the
wine-flask. "What is thy name, my good friend?"

"Murdoch Campbell, sir," answered the servant, "a lackey of the Marquis
of Argyle, and occasionally acting as under-warden."

"Then here is to thee once more, Murdoch," said Dalgetty, "drinking to
you by your proper name for the better luck sake. This wine I take to be
Calcavella. Well, honest Murdoch, I take it on me to say, thou deservest
to be upper-warden, since thou showest thyself twenty times better
acquainted with the way of victualling honest gentlemen that are under
misfortune, than thy principal. Bread and water? out upon him! It was
enough, Murdoch, to destroy the credit of the Marquis's dungeon. But I
see you would converse with my friend, Ranald MacEagh here. Never mind
my presence; I'll get me into this corner with the basket, and I will
warrant my jaws make noise enough to prevent my ears from hearing you."

Notwithstanding this promise, however, the veteran listened with all
the attention he could to gather their discourse, or, as he described it
himself, "laid his ears back in his neck, like Gustavus, when he heard
the key turn in the girnell-kist." He could, therefore, owing to the
narrowness of the dungeon, easily overhear the following dialogue.

"Are you aware, Son of the Mist," said the Campbell, "that you will
never leave this place excepting for the gibbet?"

"Those who are dearest to me," answered MacEagh, "have trode that path
before me."

"Then you would do nothing," asked the visitor, "to shun following
them?"

The prisoner writhed himself in his chains before returning an answer.

"I would do much," at length he said; "not for my own life, but for the
sake of the pledge in the glen of Strath-Aven."

"And what would you do to turn away the bitterness of the hour?" again
demanded Murdoch; "I care not for what cause ye mean to shun it."

"I would do what a man might do, and still call himself a man."

"Do you call yourself a man," said the interrogator, "who have done the
deeds of a wolf?"

"I do," answered the outlaw; "I am a man like my forefathers--while
wrapt in the mantle of peace, we were lambs--it was rent from us, and ye
now call us wolves. Give us the huts ye have burned, our children whom
ye have murdered, our widows whom ye have starved--collect from the
gibbet and the pole the mangled carcasses, and whitened skulls of our
kinsmen--bid them live and bless us, and we will be your vassals and
brothers--till then, let death, and blood, and mutual wrong, draw a dark
veil of division between us."

"You will then do nothing for your liberty," said the Campbell.

"Anything--but call myself the friend of your tribe," answered MacEagh.

"We scorn the friendship of banditti and caterans," retorted Murdoch,
"and would not stoop to accept it.--What I demand to know from you, in
exchange for your liberty, is, where the daughter and heiress of the
Knight of Ardenvohr is now to be found?"

"That you may wed her to some beggarly kinsman of your great master,"
said Ranald, "after the fashion of the Children of Diarmid! Does not
the valley of Glenorquhy, to this very hour, cry shame on the violence
offered to a helpless infant whom her kinsmen were conveying to the
court of the Sovereign? Were not her escort compelled to hide her
beneath a cauldron, round which they fought till not one remained to
tell the tale? and was not the girl brought to this fatal castle, and
afterwards wedded to the brother of M'Callum More, and all for the sake
of her broad lands?" [Such a story is told of the heiress of the clan
of Calder, who was made prisoner in the manner described, and afterwards
wedded to Sir Duncan Campbell, from which union the Campbells of Cawdor
have their descent.]

"And if the tale be true," said Murdoch, "she had a preferment beyond
what the King of Scots would have conferred on her. But this is far
from the purpose. The daughter of Sir Duncan of Ardenvohr is of our own
blood, not a stranger; and who has so good a right to know her fate as
M'Callum More, the chief of her clan?"

"It is on his part, then, that you demand it!" said the outlaw. The
domestic of the Marquis assented.

"And you will practise no evil against the maiden?--I have done her
wrong enough already."

"No evil, upon the word of a Christian man," replied Murdoch.

"And my guerdon is to be life and liberty?" said the Child of the Mist.

"Such is our paction," replied the Campbell.

"Then know, that the child whom I saved our of compassion at the
spoiling of her father's tower of strength, was bred as an adopted
daughter of our tribe, until we were worsted at the pass of
Ballenduthil, by the fiend incarnate and mortal enemy of our tribe,
Allan M'Aulay of the Bloody hand, and by the horsemen of Lennox, under
the heir of Menteith."

"Fell she into the power of Allan of the Bloody hand," said Murdoch,
"and she a reputed daughter of thy tribe? Then her blood has gilded the
dirk, and thou hast said nothing to rescue thine own forfeited life."

"If my life rest on hers," answered the outlaw, "it is secure, for she
still survives; but it has a more insecure reliance--the frail promise
of a son of Diarmid."

"That promise shall not fail you," said the Campbell, "if you can assure
me that she survives, and where she is to be found."

"In the Castle of Darlinvarach," said Ranald MacEagh, "under the name
of Annot Lyle. I have often heard of her from my kinsmen, who have again
approached their native woods, and it is not long since mine old eyes
beheld her."

"You!" said Murdoch, in astonishment, "you, a chief among the Children
of the Mist, and ventured so near your mortal foe?"

"Son of Diarmid, I did more," replied the outlaw; "I was in the hall of
the castle, disguised as a harper from the wild shores of Skianach. My
purpose was to have plunged my dirk in the body of the M'Aulay with the
Bloody hand, before whom our race trembles, and to have taken thereafter
what fate God should send me. But I saw Annot Lyle, even when my hand
was on the hilt of my dagger. She touched her clairshach [Harp] to
a song of the Children of the Mist, which she had learned when her
dwelling was amongst us. The woods in which we had dwelt pleasantly,
rustled their green leaves in the song, and our streams were there with
the sound of all their waters. My hand forsook the dagger; the fountains
of mine eyes were opened, and the hour of revenge passed away.--And now,
Son of Diarmid, have I not paid the ransom of my head?"

"Ay," replied Murdoch, "if your tale be true; but what proof can you
assign for it?"

"Bear witness, heaven and earth," exclaimed the outlaw, "he already
looks how he may step over his word!"

"Not so," replied Murdoch; "every promise shall be kept to you when I am
assured you have told me the truth.--But I must speak a few words with
your companion in captivity."

"Fair and false--ever fair and false," muttered the prisoner, as he
threw himself once more on the floor of his dungeon.

Meanwhile, Captain Dalgetty, who had attended to every word of this
dialogue, was making his own remarks on it in private. "What the HENKER
can this sly fellow have to say to me? I have no child, either of my
own, so far as I know, or of any other person, to tell him a tale about.
But let him come on--he will have some manoeuvring ere he turn the flank
of the old soldier."

Accordingly, as if he had stood pike in hand to defend a breach, he
waited with caution, but without fear, the commencement of the attack.

"You are a citizen of the world, Captain Dalgetty," said Murdoch
Campbell, "and cannot be ignorant of our old Scotch proverb, GIF-GAF,
[In old English, KA ME KA THEE, i.e. mutually serving each other.] which
goes through all nations and all services."

"Then I should know something of it," said Dalgetty; "for, except the
Turks, there are few powers in Europe whom I have not served; and I have
sometimes thought of taking a turn either with Bethlem Gabor, or with
the Janizaries."

"A man of your experience and unprejudiced ideas, then, will understand
me at once," said Murdoch, "when I say, I mean that your freedom shall
depend on your true and up right answer to a few trifling questions
respecting the gentlemen you have left; their state of preparation; the
number of their men, and nature of their appointments; and as much as
you chance to know about their plan of operations."

"Just to satisfy your curiosity," said Dalgetty, "and without any
farther purpose?"

"None in the world," replied Murdoch; "what interest should a poor devil
like me take in their operations?"

"Make your interrogations, then," said the Captain, "and I will answer
them PREREMTORIE."

"How many Irish may be on their march to join James Graham the
delinquent?"

"Probably ten thousand," said Captain Dalgetty.

"Ten thousand!" replied Murdoch angrily; "we know that scarce two
thousand landed at Ardnamurchan."

"Then you know more about them than I do," answered Captain Dalgetty,
with great composure. "I never saw them mustered yet, or even under
arms."

"And how many men of the clans may be expected?" demanded Murdoch.

"As many as they can make," replied the Captain.

"You are answering from the purpose, sir," said Murdoch "speak plainly,
will there be five thousand men?"

"There and thereabouts," answered Dalgetty.

"You are playing with your life, sir, if you trifle with me," replied
the catechist; "one whistle of mine, and in less than ten minutes your
head hangs on the drawbridge."

"But to speak candidly, Mr. Murdoch," replied the Captain "do you think
it is a reasonable thing to ask me after the secrets of our army, and I
engaged to serve for the whole campaign? If I taught you how to defeat
Montrose, what becomes of my pay, arrears, and chance of booty?"

"I tell you," said Campbell, "that if you be stubborn, your campaign
shall begin and end in a march to the block at the castle-gate, which
stands ready for such land-laufers; but if you answer my questions
faithfully, I will receive you into my--into the service of M'Callum
More."

"Does the service afford good pay?" said Captain Dalgetty.

"He will double yours, if you will return to Montrose and act under his
direction."

"I wish I had seen you, sir, before taking on with him," said Dalgetty,
appearing to meditate.

"On the contrary, I can afford you more advantageous terms now," said
the Campbell; "always supposing that you are faithful."

"Faithful, that is, to you, and a traitor to Montrose," answered the
Captain.

"Faithful to the cause of religion and good order," answered Murdoch,
"which sanctifies any deception you may employ to serve it."