 Volume 2 Chapter 15 of Rob Roy. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 15. And be he safely stored there evening set, or if there's vengeance in an injured heart and power to wreak it in an armed hand, your land shall ache for it. Old Play I know not why it is that a single deed of violence and cruelty affects our nerves more than when these are exercised on a more extended scale. I had seen that day several of my brave countrymen fall in battle. It seemed to me that they met a lot appropriate to humanity, and my bosom, though thrilling with interest, was affected with nothing of that sickening horror with which I beheld the unfortunate Morris put to death without resistance, and in cold blood. I looked at my companion, Mr Javi, whose face reflected the feelings which were painted in mine. Indeed he could not so suppress his horror, but that their words escaped him in a low and broken whisper. I take up my protest against this deed as a bloody and cruel matter. It is a cursed deed, and God will avenge it in his dear way and time. Then you do not fear it to follow, said the Varago, bending on him a look of death, such as that with which a hawk looks at his prey ere he pounces. Cairnswoman, said the bailing, ne man would willingly cut short at his thread of life before the end of his parent was fairly measured off on yarn-winnels. And I am muckled to do, and I be spared in this wild, public and private business, as we are belonging to the magistracy, as to my own particular, and an eduta he assumed to depend on me as per Mati, her is an orphan. She is a far-away cousin of the Lear Diploma field, so is that, laying others together, skin-fear-skin, yea, all that a man hath when he give for his life. And we're ready to set ye at lip-a-tree, said the imperious dame. What name could ye give to the draining of that Saxon dog? Cairnswoman, said the bailing, clearing his throat as well as he could, is a study to say is little on that scorn as might be. Least said is seen as mended. But the viewer called on by the currents as ye turned them, of justice, she again demanded, what then would be your answer? The bailing looked this way and that way, like a person who meditates an escape, and then answered in the tone of one who, seeing no means of accomplishing a retreat, determines to stand the brunt of battle. I see why ye are driving me to the water-boat, but I'll tell ye at plain Cairnswoman, a be-whore, just to speak, according to my own conscience, and there, your own good man, that I wish I'd been here for his own sake and mine, as wool as the pure-heeled creature doogle, can't tell ye that nickel-jarve can wink as hard at a friend's feelings as on a body? Yet I shall tell ye, Cairnswoman, mine's ne'er be the tongue to be like my thwart, and sooner than say that yonder, pure a wretch, was lovely slaughtered, I would consent to be laid beside him, though I think ye are the first healing woman, what meant sick a doom to her husband's Cairnsman but four times removed? It is probable that the tone and firmness assumed by that Bailey in his last speech was better suited to make an impression on the hard heart of a skinswoman than the tone of supplication he had hitherto assumed, as gems can be cut with steel, though they resist softer metals. She commanded us both to be placed before her. Your name, she said to me, is Osbaldestone, the dead dog who's dear to her witness, cold ye soar? My name is Osbaldestone, was my answer. Rushley, then, I suppose, is your Christian name, she pursued? No, my name is Francis. But ye know Rushley Osbaldestone? She continued. Here is your brother, if ye mistake naught, at least your Cairnsman and ne'er friend. He is my Cairnsman, I replied, but not my friend. We were lately engaged together in a rencontre when we were separated by a person whom I understand to be your husband. My blood is hardly yet dried on his sword, and the wound on my side is yet green. I have little reason to acknowledge him as a friend. Then, she replied, if a stranger to his intrigues, you can go in safety to Garshatachin and his parity, without fear of being detained, and carry them a message from the Waif of the Macarrego. I answered that I knew no reasonable cause why the militia gentlemen should detain me, that I had no reason on my own account to fear being in their hands, and that if my going on her embassy would act as a protection to my friend and servant who were here prisoners, I was ready to set out directly. I took the opportunity to say that I had come into this country on her husband's invitation, and his assurance that he would aid me in some important matters in which I was interested, that my companion Mr Javi had accompanied me on the same errand. And I wish Mr Javi's boots had been full of boiling water, when he'd read them all for a sake of purpose, interrupted the baili. You may read your father, said Helen McGregor, turning to her sons, and what this young Saxon tells us, weighs only when the bonnet is on his head and the sword is in his hand. He never exchanges a tartan for the broodcloth, but he runs himself into the miserable intrigues of the lowlanders. Comes again after all he has suffered, they're agent, they're a tool, they're slave. Ed, madam, said I, and their benefactor, bet so, she said, for it is the most empty title of them all, since he has uniformly sworn benefits to reap the harvest of the most fallen gratitude. But enough of this, I shall call you to be guided to the enemy's outposts, ask for their commander, and deliver him this message from me, Helen McGregor. If they injure a hair of McGregor's head, and if they do not set him at liberty within the space of 12 hours, there is not the lady in the Lenox, but she'll be for Christmas, cry the coronacher, for them she will be loathed to use. There is not the farmer, but she'll sing willower over a burnt barnyard and an empty bire. There is not the lirt, nor hereto, she'll lay his head on the pillow at night, with the assurance of being alive man in the morning. And to begin as we are to end, so soon as the term is expired, I will send them this Glasgow belly, and this Saxon captain, and all the rest of my prisoners, each bundled in a plaid. Chopped into as many pieces as there are checks in the torrenton. As she paused in her denunciation, Captain Thornton, who was within hearing, added with great coolness, present my compliments, Captain Thornton's of the royals, compliments to the commanding officer, and tell him to do his duty, and secure his prisoner, and not waste a thought upon me. If I have been full enough to have been led into an ambush gate by these artful savages, I am wise enough to know how to die for it without disgracing the service. I am only sorry for my poor fellows, he said, that have fallen into such butchily hands. Whist! Whist! exclaimed the belly. Are you wary of your life? He'll give my service to the commanding officer, Mr Osbold is done. Belly-Nichol Jarvie's service, Magistrate of Glasgow, as his father the deacon was before him, and tell him, here are a few honest men in great trouble, and leak to come to mere, and the best thing he can do for the common good, will be just to let a rob-comer's wiles up the glen, and name made about it. There's been some ill-doon here already, but, as it is lighted chiefly on the gager, it will be muckl-worth making a stir about. With these very opposite injunctions from the parties chiefly interested in the success and with the reiterated charge of the wife of McGregor to remember and detail every word of her injunctions, I was at length suffered to depart. And Andrew Fair-Service, chiefly I believe, to get rid of his clamorous supplications, was permitted to attend me. Dartful, however, that I might use my horse as a means of escape for my guides, or desirous to retain a prize of some value, I was given to understand that I was to perform my journey on foot, escorted by Hamish McGregor, the older brother who, with two followers, attended, as well to show me the way as to reconnoitre the strength and position of the enemy. Durgall had been at first ordered on this party, but he contrived to elude the service, with the purpose as we afterwards understood of watching over Mr. Javi, whom, according to his wild principles of fidelity, he considered as entitled to his good offices from having once acted in some measure as his patron or master. After walking with great rapidity about an hour, we arrived at an eminence covered with brushwood, which gave us a commanding prospect down the valley, and a full view of the post which the militia occupied. Being chiefly cavalry they had judiciously avoided any attempt to penetrate the pass which had been so unsuccessfully essayed by Captain Thornton. They had taken up their situation with some military skill, on a rising ground in the centre of the little valley of Aberfoil, through which the river forth winds its earliest course, and which is formed by two ridges of hills, faced with barricades of limestone rock intermixed with huge masses of breccia, or pebbles, embedded in some softer substance which has hardened around them like mortar, and surrounded by the more lofty mountains in the distance. These ridges, however, left the valley of breadth enough to secure the cavalry from any sudden surprise by the mountaineers, and they had stationed sentinels and outposts at proper distances from this main body in every direction, so that they might secure full time to mount and get under arms upon the least alarm. It was not indeed expected at that time that Highlanders would attack cavalry in an open plain, though late events have shown that they may do so with success. When I first knew the Highlanders, they had almost a superstitious dread of a mounted trooper, the horse being so much more fierce and imposing in his appearance than the little shelters of their own hills, and more over being trained, as the more ignorant mountaineers believed, to fight with his feet and his teeth. The appearance of the picketed horses feeding in this little veil, the forms of the soldiers, as they say it, stood or walked in various groups in the vicinity of the beautiful river, and of the bare, yet romantic ranges of rock which hedge in the landscape on either side, formed a noble foreground. While far to the eastward, the eye caught a glance at the Lake of Monteith and Sterling Castle, dimly seen along with the blue and distant line of the ochre mountains, closed the seam. After gazing on this landscape with great earnestness, young McGregor intimated to me that I was to descend to the station of the militia and execute my errand to their commander, and joining me at the same time, with a menacing gesture, neither to inform them who had guided me to that place, nor where I had parted from my escort. Thus stood it, I descended towards the military post, followed by Andrew, who, only retaining his breeches and stockings of the English costume, without a hat, bare-legged, with brogues on his feet, which Dougal had given him out of compassion, and having a tattered plaid to supply the want of all upper garments, looked as if he had been playing the part of a Highland tom of Bedlam. We had not proceeded far before we became visible to one of the vets, who, riding towards us, presented his caravine and commanded me to stand. I obeyed, and when the soldier came up, desired to be conducted to his commanding officer, I was immediately brought, where a circle of officers, sitting upon the grass, seemed in attendance upon one of superior rank. He wore a caress of polished steel, over which were drawn the insignia of the ancient Order of the Thistle. My friend Gara Shatterton, and many other gentlemen, some in uniform, others in their ordinary dress, but all armed and well attended, seemed to receive their orders from this person of distinction. Many servants in rich liveries, apparently a part of his household, were also in waiting. Having paid to this nobleman the respect which his rank appeared to demand, I acquainted him that I had been an involuntary witness to the king's soldiers having suffered at other feet from the Highlanders at the pass of Locke Ard. Such I had learned was the name of the place where Mr Thornton was made prisoner, and that the victors threatened every species of extremity to those who had fallen into their power, as well as to the low country in general, unless their chief, who had that morning been made prisoner, were returned to them uninjured. The duke, for he whom I addressed was of no lower rank, listened to me with great composure and then replied that he should be extremely sorry to expose the unfortunate gentleman who had been made prisoners to the cruelty of the barbarians into whose hands they had fallen, but that it was folly to suppose that he would deliver up the very author of all these disorders and offences, and so encourage his followers in their license. You may return to those who sent you, he proceeded, and inform them that I shall certainly cause Rob Roy Campbell, whom they call McGregor, to be executed by break of day as an outlaw taken in arms and deserving death by a thousand acts of violence, that I should be most justly held unworthy of my situation and commission did I act otherwise, that I shall know how to protect the country against their insolent threats of violence, and that if they injure a hair of the head of any of the unfortunate gentleman whom an unlucky accident has thrown into their power, I will take such ample vengeance that the very stones of their glens shall sing woe for it this hundred years to come. I humbly begged leave to remonstrate respecting the honourable mission imposed on me and touched upon the obvious danger attending it, when the noble commander replied that such being the case, I might send my servant. The deal be in my feet, said Andrew, without either having respect to the presence in which he stood, or waiting till I replied, the deal be in my feet if I gain my tears length. Did the folk think I had another thrupple in my pouch after John Helinman sneaked this one with his docked leg? Or that I can dive dune at the teeside of a Helin's lock and rise at that thudder like a shell break? No, no, he'll come for himself and God for us all. The folk may just make a page of their own edge and serve themselves to their barrens' career up, and gain their own errands for all three. Robbery never came near the parish of Threep daily to steal either pippin or pear from me or me. The silencing my follower with some difficulty. I represented to the jerk the great danger Captain Thornton and Mr Javi would certainly be exposed to and entreated he would make me the bearer of such modified terms as might be the means of saving their lives. I assured him I should decline no danger if I could be of service, but from what I had heard and seen, I had little doubt they would be instantly murdered should the chief of the outlaws suffer death. The jerk was obviously much affected. It was a hard case, he said, and he felt it as such, but he had a paramount duty to perform to the country. Robbery must die. I own it was not without emotion that I heard this threat of instant death to my acquaintance Campbell who had so often testified his goodwill towards me, nor was I singular in the feeling for many of those around the jerk ventured to express themselves in his favour. It would be more advisable, they said, to send him to Stirling Castle and there detain him a close prisoner as a pledge for the submission and dispersion of his gang. It were a great pity to expose the country to be plundered, which now that the long nights approached it would be found very difficult to prevent since it was impossible to guard every point and the Highlanders were sure to select those that were left exposed. They added that there was great hardship in leaving the unfortunate prisoners to the almost certain doom of massacre denounced against them, which no one doubted would be executed in the first burst of revenge. Gar Shatichin ventured yet farther, confiding in the honour of the nobleman whom he addressed, although he knew he had particular reasons for disliking their prisoner. Rob Roy, he said, though a kettle neighbour to the lower country and particularly obnoxious to his grace, and though he may be carried the Catherine's thread farther than Oniman or his dear, was an old foreign curl and there might be some means of making him hear reason, whereas his wife and sons were reckless fiends, without either fear or mercy about them, and at the head of his limelins, he would be a worse plague to the country than ever he had been. Huh, huh, replied his grace. It is the very sense and cunning of this fellow which has so long maintained his reign. A mere Highland robber would have been put down in as many weeks as he has flourished years. His gang, without him, is no more to be dreaded as a permanent annoyance. It will no longer exist than a wasp without its head, which may sting once perhaps, but is instantly crushed into annihilation. Gar Shatichin was not so easily silenced. I am sure, my Lord Dick, he replied, I have no favour for Robb, and he is little for me, seeing he has twice cleaned out my own barris besides scared among me tenants. But, however, Gar Shatichin said the Duke with a smile of peculiar expression, I fancy you think such a freedom may be pardoned in a friend's friend. And Robb's supposed to be no enemy to Major Gar Braith's friends over the water. If yet be so, my Lord, said Gar Shatichin, in the same tone of Chocularity, is nor the worst thing I have heard of him. But they wish we had it some news from the Clans, that we have wedded for a sale on a vow to God. They'll keep a healant month warrant with us. I never can't them better. It's ill-draying boots upon threes. I cannot believe it, said the Duke. These gentlemen are known to be men of honour, and I must necessarily suppose they are to keep their appointment. Send out two more horsemen to look for our friends. We cannot, till their arrival, pretend to attack the pass where Captain Thornton has suffered himself to be surprised, and which, to my knowledge, ten men on foot might make good against a regiment of the best horse in Europe. Meanwhile, let refreshments be given to the men. I had the benefit of this last order, the more necessary and acceptable, as I had tasted nothing since our hasty meal at Aberfoil the evening before. The vedets who had been dispatched returned without tidings of the expected auxiliaries, and Sunset was approaching, when a Highlander belonging to the Clans whose cooperation was expected appeared as the bearer of a letter which he delivered to the Duke with the most profound conge. Now will I ward the hugs he decreed, said Gareth Chatterton, that this is a message to tell us that these carousels said, Healand men whom we have fetched here at the expense of so much plague and fixation are again to draw off, and leave us to do our own business if we can. It is even so, gentlemen, said the Duke, reddening with indignation after having perused the letter, which was written upon a very dirty scrap of paper, but most punctiliously addressed, fair the much honoured hands of him he and made the Prince the Duke, etc. etc. etc. Our allies, continued the Duke, have deserted us, gentlemen, and have made a separate peace with the enemy. It's just the fate of all alliances, said Gareth Chatterton. The Duchess were gone to serve us, that same get, if we had not got the staff of them at Utrecht. You are facetious, sir, said the Duke, with a frown that showed how little he liked the pleasantry. But our business is rather of a grave cut just now. I suppose no gentlemen would advise our attempting to penetrate father into the country, unsupported either by friendly Highlanders or by infantry from Inversnad. A general answer announced that the attempt would be perfect madness. Nor would there be great wisdom, the Duke added, and remaining exposed to a night attack in this place. I therefore propose that we should retreat to the house of Ducré and that of Gareth Chatterton, and keep safe and sure watch and ward until morning. But before we separate I will examine Rob Roy before you all and make you sensible, by your own eyes and ears, of the extreme unfitness of leaving him space for further outrage. He gave orders accordingly, and the prisoner was brought before him, his arms belted down above the elbow, and secured to his body by a horse girth buckled tight behind him. Two non-commissioned officers had hold of him, one on each side, and two file of men with caribines and fixed bayonets attended for additional security. I had never seen this man in the dress of his country, which set in a striking point of view the peculiarities of his form, a shock head of red hair, which the hat and periwig of the lowland costume had in a great measure concealed, was seen beneath the Highland Bonnet and verified the epithet of Roy, or red, by which he was much better known in the low country than by any other, and is still, I suppose, best remembered. The justice of the appellation was also vindicated by the appearance of that part of his limbs, from the bottom of his kilt to the top of his short hose, which the fashion of his country dress left bare, and which was covered with a fell of thick short red hair, especially around his knees, which resembled, in this respect, as well as from their sinewy appearance of extreme strength, the limbs of a red-colored Highland ball. Upon the whole, betwixt the effect produced by the change of dress, and by my having become acquainted with his real and formidable character, his appearance had acquired to my eyes something so much wilder and more striking than it before presented, that I could scarce recognise him to be the same person. His manner was bold, unconstrained, a-nest by the actual bonds, haughty and even dignified. He bowed to the duke, nodded to Garshadachan and others, and showed some surprise at seeing me among the party. It's a long time since we have met, Mr Campbell, said the duke. It is so, my lord, duke, I could have wished it had been, looking at the fastening on his arms, when he could have bet the pair the compliments I owe to your grace, but there is a good time coming. No time like the time present, Mr Campbell, answered the duke, for the hours are fast flying that must settle your last account with all mortal affairs. I do not say this to insult your distress, but you must be aware yourself that you draw near the end of your career. I do not deny that you may sometimes have done less harm than others of your unhappy trade, and that you may occasionally have exhibited marks of talent, and even of a disposition which promised better things. But you are aware how long you have been the terror and the oppressor of a peaceful neighborhood, and by what acts of violence you have maintained and extended your usurped authority. You know, in short, that you have deserved death and that you must prepare for it. My lord, said my boy, although I may well lay my misfortunes at your grace's door, yet I will never say that you yourself have been the willful and witting author of them. My lord, if I had thought so, your grace would not this day have been sitting in judgment on me, for you have been three times within good rifle distance of me, when you were thinking but of the red deer, and fear people had came to me, miss my aim, but as for them that have abused your grace's ear and set you up against a man that was as peaceful a man as only in the land, and made your name the warrant for driving me to utter extremity. Thremity, I have had some amends of them, and for all that your grace knew says, I expect to live to hear mere. I know, said the duke in rising anger, that you are a determined and impudent villain who will keep his oath if he swears to mischief, but it shall be my care to prevent you. You have no enemies but your own wicked actions. Had I called myself Graham, instead of Comber, he meeteth, had less a boot of them, answered Rob Roy with dogged resolution. You will do well, sir, said the duke, to warn your wife and family and followers to beware how they use the gentlemen now in their hands, as I will be quite tenfold on them, and their kin and allies, the slightest injury done to any of his majesty's liege subjects. My lord, said Roy, in answer, none of my enemies will allege that I have been a bloodthirsty man, and where I know, we may fork a good little four or five hundred wheeled healers as easy as your grace, those eight or ten luckies and foots boys. But if your grace is bent to take the hit away from my house, you may lay your account there will be misreal among the members. However, come out what like, there's an honest man, a kinsman on my end, may come be nayscape. Is there anybody here who did a good deed for McCregor? He may repeat, though his hands be no tide. The Highlander, who had delivered the letter to the duke, replied, I will do your will for you, McCregor, and I'll gangbock up the glen on Paribus. He advanced and received from the prisoner a message to his wife, which being in Gallic I did not understand, but I had little doubt it related to some measures to be taken for the safety of Mr Javi. Do you hear the fellow's impedance? said the duke. He confides in his character of a messenger. His conduct is of a peace with his masters, who invited us to make common cause against these free booters, and have deserted us so soon as the McGregors have agreed to surrender the bulkwitter lands they were squabbling about. No truth in plaids, no faith in tartan truths, chameleon-like, they change a thousand hues. Your great ancestor never said so, my lord, answered Major Galbraith, and with submission, neither would your grace have occasion to say it, what you might be for beginning justice at the wellhead. Hear the honest man, his mere again. Let every head wear it then ban it, and the destruction to the Linux would be mended with them of the land. Hush, hush, gar-shatter-chin, said the duke. This is language dangerous for you to talk to anyone, and especially to me. But I presume you reckon yourself a privileged person. Pleased to draw off your party towards gar-tartan. I shall myself see the prisoner escorted to Takre and send you orders tomorrow. He will please grant no leave of absence to any of your troopers. Here's old odd-bidding and came to odd-bidding, my red-gar-shatter-chin between his teeth. But patience, patience, we may ere de plaid change, since the king's coming. The two troops of cavalry now formed and prepared to march off the ground, that they might avail themselves of the remainder of daylight to get to their evening quarters. I received an intimation rather than an invitation to attend the party, and I perceived that, though no longer considered as a prisoner, I was yet under some sort of suspicion. The times were indeed so dangerous. The great party-questions of Jacobite and Hanoverian divided the country so effectively, and the constant disputes and jealousies between the Highlanders and Flowlanders, and the number of inexplicable causes of feud which separated the great leading families in Scotland from each other, occasioned such general suspicion that a solitary and unprotected stranger was almost sure to meet with something disagreeable in the course of his travels. I acquiesced, however, in my destination with the best grace I could, consoling myself with the hope that I might obtain from the captive freebooter some information concerning Rachele and his machinations. I should do my self-injustice, did I not add, that my views were not merely selfish. I was too much interested in my singular acquaintance not to be desirous of rendering him such services as his unfortunate situation might demand or admit of his receiving. End of Volume 2, Chapter 15 Recording by Felicity Campbell Whanganui, New Zealand Volume 2, Chapter 16 of Rob Roy This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 16 And when he came to Broken Brig, he bent his bow and swam, and when he came to grass-growing, set down his feet and ran. Gil Morris The echoes of the rocks and ravines on either side now rang to the trumpets of the cavalry, which forming themselves into two distinct bodies began to move down the valley at a slow trot. That commanded by Major Galbraith soon took to the right-hand and crossed the fourth for the purpose of taking up the quarters assigned to them for the night, when they were to occupy, as I understood, an old castle in the vicinity. They formed a lively object while crossing the stream, but were soon lost in winding up the bank on the opposite side, which was clothed with wood. We continued our march with considerable good-order. To ensure the safe custody of the prisoner, one of his retainers called, as I was informed, Ewan of Briglands, one of the largest and strongest men who were present. A horse-belt passed round the bodies of both, and buckled before the yeoman's breast, rendered it impossible for Robroy to free himself from his keeper. I was directed to keep close beside them, and accommodated for the purpose with the troop horse. We were as closely surrounded by the soldiers as the width of the road would permit as at least one, if not two on each side, with pistol in hand. Andrew Fair's service, finished with a highland pony, of which they had made prey somewhere or other, was permitted to ride among the other domestics, of whom a great number attended the line of march, though without falling into the ranks of the more regularly trained troopers. In this manner we travelled for a certain distance until we arrived at a place where we also as being the outlet of a lake is of considerable depth, even where less important in point of width, and the descent to the forward was by a broken precipitous ravine, which only permitted one horseman to descend at once. The rear and centre of our small body halting on the bank, while the front files passed down in succession, produced a considerable delay, as is usual on such occasions, and even some confusion, for a number of those riders who made no proper part of the squadron, crowded to the forward without regularity, and to make the militia cavalry, although tolerably well-drilled, partake in some degree of their own disorder. It was while we were thus huddled together on the bank that I heard of Rob Roy whisper to the man behind whom he was placed on horseback, Yeah, Father Yann, when I had carried an ur-frain to the shambles like a calf, for I, the Jacks, and Carisindam, even returned no answer, but shrugged as one who would express by that sign that what he was doing was none of his own choice. And when my carriage is combed in the claim, I knew he see tomb falls, a bloody hast on, and the fire flashing out between the rafters of your house. You may be thinking then, Yann, that where your fran rubbed to the far, you would have had that saff, which it will make your heart sad to lose. You and our brigands again shrugged and groaned, but remained silent. It's a seer thing, continued Rob, sliding his insinuation so gently into you and the ear that they reached no other but mine, who certainly saw myself in no shape called upon to destroy his prospects of escape. It's a seer thing, that Yann, a brigands, has helped with hand, sword, and Paris. Silt mine to gleam from a great man mere than a friend's life. You and seem sorely agitated, but be silent. We heard the Duke's voice from the opposite bank call, bring over the prisoner. You and put his horse into motion, and just as I heard Roy say, never wear a Macarena's blurt against a baroque and huanga leather, fare there will be a nither acuntin'd gie ferre, beeth here and hereafter. They passed me hastily, and, dashing forward rather precipitately, entered the water. Not yet, sir, not yet, said some of the troopers to me as I was about to follow, and others pressed forward into the stream. I saw the Duke on the other side by the waning light, engaged in commanding his people to get into order, as they landed dispersedly, some higher, some lower. Many had crossed, some were in the water, and the rest were preparing to follow. When a sudden splash warned me that McGregor's eloquence had prevailed on you and to give him freedom and a chance for life, the Duke also heard the sound and certainly guessed its meaning. Dog, he exclaimed to you and as he landed, where is your prisoner? And without waiting to hear the apology which the terrified facile began to fall to forth, he fired a pistol at his head, whether fatally I know not, and exclaimed, gentlemen, disperse and pursue the villain, and hundred guineas for him that secures Rob Roy. All became an instant scene of the most lively confusion Rob Roy, disengaged from his bonds, doubtless by Ewan's slipping the buckle of his belt, had dropped off at the horse's tail and instantly dived, passing onto the belly of the troop horse which was on his left hand. But as he was obliged to come to the surface and instant for air, the glimpse of his tartan plate drew the attention of the troopers, some of whom plunged into the river with a total disregard to their own safety, rushing according to the expression through pool and stream, sometimes swimming their horses, sometimes losing them and struggling for their own life. Others, less zealous or more prudent, broke off in different directions and galloped up and down the banks to watch the places at which the fugitive might possibly land. The hollowing, the hooping, the calls for aid at different points where they saw or conceived they saw, some vestige of him they were seeking, the frequent report of pistols and the signs fired at every object which excited the least suspicion, the sight of so many horsemen riding about in and out of the river and striking with their long broadswords at whatever excited their attention joined to the vain exertions used by their officers to restore order and regularity and all this in so wild a scene and visible only by the imperfect twilight of an autumn evening made the most extraordinary hubbub I had had to witness. I was indeed left alone to observe it for our whole cavalcade had dispersed in pursuit or at least to see the event of the search. Indeed, as I partly suspected at the time and afterwards learned with certainty many of those who seemed most active in their attempts to waylay and recover the fugitive were in actual truth least desirous that he should be taken and only joined in the cry to increase the general confusion and to give Robroy a better opportunity of escaping. Escape, indeed, was not difficult for a swimmer so expert as the free booter as soon as he had eluded the first burst of pursuit. At one time he was closely pressed and several blows were made which flashed in the water around him. The scene much resembling one of the otter hunts which I had seen at a spoiled stone hall where the animal is detected by the hunts from his being necessitated to put a snows above the stream to vent or breathe and to elude them by getting under water again so soon as he has refreshed himself by respiration. McGregor, however, had a trick beyond the otter for he contrived when very closely pursued to disengage himself unobserved from his plate and suffer it to float down the stream where in its progress it quickly attracted general attention. Many of the horsemen with us put upon a false scent and several shots or stabs for whom they were designed. Once fairly out of view the recovery of the prisoner became almost impossible since in so many places the river was rendered inaccessible by the steepness of its banks or the thickets of elders poplars and birch which overhanging its banks prevented the approach of horsemen. Errors and accidents had also happened among the pursuers whose task the approaching knight rendered every moment more hopeless. Some got themselves involved in the eddies of the stream and required their assistance of their companions to save them from drowning. Others, hurt by shots or blows in the confused melee implored help or threatened vengeance and in one or two instances such accidents led to actual strife. The trumpets, therefore, sounded the retreat announcing that the commanding officer with whatsoever unwillingness had for the present relinquished hopes an important prize which had thus unexpectedly escaped his grasp and the troopers began slowly reluctantly and brawling with each other as they returned again to assume their ranks. I could see them darkening as they formed on the southern bank of the river whose murmurs, long drowned by the louder cries of enteral pursuit were now heard hoarsely mingling with the deep discontented and reproachful voices that horsemen. Hitherto I had been as it were a mere spectator though far from an uninterested one of the singular scene which had passed. But now I heard a voice suddenly exclaim, Why is the English sparranger? He gave Rob Roy the knife to cut the belt. Clev the pock put into the chaffs, cried one voice. Where's a brace of balls for there is Hanpun? said another. And I heard several horses galloping to and fro with the kind purpose doubtless of executing these denunciations. I was immediately awakened to the sense of my situation and to the certainty that armed men, having no restraint whatever on their irritated and inflamed passions would probably begin by shooting or cutting me down and afterwards investigate the justice of the action. Impressed by this belief getting him loose plunged into a bush of alder trees where, considering the advancing obscurity of the night I thought there was little chance of me being discovered. Had I been there enough to the duke to have invoked his personal protection I would have done so. But he had already commenced his retreat and I saw no officer on the left bank of the river of authority sufficient to have afforded protection in case of my surrendering myself. Which could require in such circumstances an unnecessary exposure of my life. My first idea when a tumult began to be appeased and the clatter of the horses feet was heard less frequently in the immediate vicinity of my hiding place was to seek out the duke's quarters when all should be quiet and to give myself up to him as a leash subject who had nothing to fear from his justice and a stranger who had every right with this purpose I crept out of my hiding place and looked around me. The twilight had now melted nearly into darkness a few or none of the troopers were left on my side of the fourth and of those who were already across it I only heard the distant trample of the horses feet and the wailing and prolonged sound of their trumpets which rung through the woods to recall stragglers. Here therefore there were no horses and to the deep and wailing stream of the river rendered turbid by the late tumult of which its channel had been the scene and seeming yet more so under the doubtful influence of an imperfect moonlight had no inviting influence for a pedestrian by no means accustomed to wade rivers and who had lately seen horsemen welltering in this dangerous passage up to the very saddle laps. At the same time who then stood could be no other than of concluding the various fatigues of this day and to the preceding night by passing that which was now closing in Alfresco on the side of a highland hill. After a moment's reflection I began to consider that fair service who had doubtless crossed the river with the other domestics according to his forward and impertinent to customer putting himself always amongst the foremost could not fail to satisfy the duke or at ease respecting my rank and situation and that therefore my character did not require my immediate appearance at the risk of being drowned in the river or being unable to trace the march of the squadron in case of my reaching the other in safety or finally have been cut down right or wrong by some straggler who might think such a piece of good service a convenient excuse for not sooner rejoining his ranks I therefore resolved to measure my steps back to the little inn past the preceding night I had nothing to apprehend from Roboy he was now at liberty and I was certain in case of my falling in with any of his people the news of his escape would ensure me protection I might thus also show that I had no intention to desert Mr. Javi in the delicate situation in which he had engaged himself chiefly on my account and lastly it was only in this quarter that I could hope to learn tidings of the meeting rashly and to my father's papers which had been the original cause of an expedition so fraught with perilous adventure I therefore abandoned all thoughts of crossing the forth that evening and turning my back on the forwards of Fru began to retrace my steps towards the little village of Aberfoil a sharp frost wind which made itself heard and felt from time to time remove the clouds of mist and a gentle morning on the valley and though it could not totally disperse the clouds of Aberfoil yet through them and confused and changed for masses now hovering among the heads of mountains now felling as with a dense and voluminous stream of smoke the various deep gullies where masses of the composite rock or bridge here tumbling in fragments from the cliffs have rushed to the valley leaving each behind its course light and torn ravine resembling a deserted watercourse the moon which was now high and twinkled with all the vivacity of a frosty atmosphere silvered the windings of the river and of the peaks and precipices which the mist left visible while her beams seemed as it were absorbed by the fleshy whiteness of the mist where it lay thick and condensed and gave to the more light and vapoury specks which were elsewhere visible still me transparency resembling the lightest veil of silver gauze despite the uncertainty of my situation a view so romantic joined to the active and inspiring influence of the frosty atmosphere elevated my spirits while it braced my nerves I felt an inclination to cast care away and to bid defiance to danger and involuntarily whistled by way of cadence to my steps which my feeling of the cold led me to accelerate and I felt the pulse of existence beat prouder and higher in proportion as I felt confidence in my own strength courage and resources I was so much lost in these thoughts and in the feelings which they excited that two horsemen came up behind me without my hearing their approach until one was on each side of me when the left hand rider pulling up his horse addressed me in the English tongue so ho friend with a so late to my supper and bed at Aberfoil I replied are the passes open he required with the same commanding tone of voice I did not know I replied I shall learn when I get there but I added the fate of Morris recurring to my recollection if you are an English stranger I advise you to turn back till daylight there has been some disturbance in this neighbourhood and I should hesitate to say it is perfectly safe for strangers the soldiers had the worst had they not was the reply they had indeed and an officers party were destroyed or made prisoners are you sure of that replied the horseman as sure as that I hear you speak I replied I was an unwilling spectator of the skirmish unwilling continued the interrogator were you not engaged in it then certainly no I replied I was detained by the king's officer on what suspicion and who are you and what is your name he continued I really do not know sir why I should answer so many questions to an unknown stranger I have told you enough to convince you that you are going into a dangerous and distraighted country if you choose to proceed it is your own affair but as I ask you no questions respecting your name and business you will oblige me by making no inquiries after mine Mr. Francis is bald as stone said the other rider and avoids the tones of which little through every nerve of my body should not whistle his favourite airs when he wishes to remain undiscovered and Diana Vernon for she wrapped in a horseman's cloak was the last beaker whistled in playful mimicry the second part of the tune which was on my lips when they came up good God I explained like one thunderstruck can it be you Miss Vernon on such a spot at such an hour in such a lawless country in such a masculine dress you would say but what would you have the philosophy of the excellent corporal nim is the best after all things must be as they may while she was thus speaking I eagerly took advantage of an unusually bright gleam of moonshine to study the appearance of her companion for it may be easily supposed that finding Miss Vernon in a place so solitary engaged in a journey so dangerous and under the protection of one gentleman only with circumstances to excite every feeling of jealousy as well as surprise the rider did not speak with a deep melody of rashly's voice his tones were more high and commanding he was taller moreover as excite on horseback than that first-rate object of my hate and suspicion neither did the strangers address resembled that of any of my other cousins it had that indescribable tone and manner by which we recognize a man of sense and breathing even in the first few sentences he speaks the object of my insight he seemed a czarist to get rid of my investigation Diana he said in a tone of mingled kindness and authority give your cousin his property and let's not spend time here Miss Vernon had in the meantime taken out a small case and leaning down from her horse towards me she said in a tone in which an effort at her usual quaint lightness of expression contended with deeper and more grave tone of sentiment you see my deacons I was born to be your better angel rashly has been compelled to yield up his spoil and had we reached this same village of Abofoil last night as we proposed I should have found some highland self to have wafted to you all these representatives of commercial wealth but there were giants and dragons in the way and errant knights and damsels of modern times bold though they be must not as of your run into useless danger do not you do so either my deacons Diana said to her companion let me once more warn you that the evening waxes late and we are still distant from our home I am coming sir I am coming consider she added with a sigh how lately I have been subjected to control besides I have not yet given my cousin the packet and bit him farewell forever yes Frank she said forever for there is a gulf between us a gulf of absolute perdition where we go you must not follow what we do you must not share in farewell be happy in the attitude in which she bent from her horse which was a highland pony her face not perhaps altogether unwillingly touched mine she pressed my hand while the tear that trembled in her eye found its way to my cheek instead of her own it was a moment never to be forgotten inexpressibly bitter yet mixed with the sensation of pleasure so deeply soothing and affecting as at once to unlock all the floodgates of the heart it was but a moment however for instantly recovering from the feeling to which she had involuntarily given way she intimated to her companion she was ready to attend him and putting their horses to a brisk pace they were soon far distant from the place where I stood heaven knows it was not apathy which loaded my frame and my tongue so much that I could neither return Miss Vernon's half embrace nor answer her farewell the word though it rose to my tongue seemed to choke in my throat like the fatal guilty which the delinquent who makes it his plea knows must be followed by the doom of death the surprise the sorrow almost stupefied me I remained motionless with a packet in my hand gazing after them as if endeavouring to count the sparkles which flew from the horse's hoofs I continued to look after even these had ceased to be visible and to listen for their footsteps long after the last distant trembling had died in my ears at length tears rushed to my eyes glazed as they were by the exertion of straining after what was no longer to be seen I wiped them mechanically and almost without being aware that they were flowing but they came thicker and thicker I felt the tightening of the throat and breast the hysteric apatio of poor Leah and sitting down by the wayside I shared a flood of the first and most bitter tears which had flowed from my eyes since childhood End of Volume 2, Chapter 16 of Rob Roy Recording by Felicity Campbell, Whanganui, New Zealand Volume 2, Chapter 17 of Rob Roy This is the LibriVox Recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 17 Dangle Yigad, I think the interpreter is the harder to be understood of the two Critic I had scarce given vent to my feelings in this paroxysm, air was ashamed of my weakness I remembered that I had been for some time endeavouring to regard Diana Vernon when her idea intruded itself on my remembrance as a friend for whose welfare I should indeed always be anxious but with whom I could have little further communication But the almost unrepressed tenderness of her manner joined to the romance of our sudden meeting where it was so little to have been expected with circumstances which threw me entirely off my guard I recovered however sooner than might have been expected and without giving myself time accurately to examine my motives I resumed the path in which I had been travelling when overtaken by this strange and unexpected apparition I am not, was my reflection, transgressing her injunction so pathetically given since I am but pursuing my own journey by the only open route If I have succeeded in recovering my father's property it still remains incumbent on me to see my Glasgow friend delivered from the situation in which he has involved himself on my account Besides, what other place of rest can I obtain for the night excepting at the little inn of Aberfoil? They must also stop there since it is impossible for travellers on horseback to go farther Well then, we shall meet again Meet for the last time perhaps, but I shall see and hear her I shall learn who this happy man is who exercises over her the authority of a husband I shall learn of their remains in the difficult course in which she seems engaged any difficulties which my efforts may remove or ought that I can do to express my gratitude for her generosity, for her disinterested friendship As I reasoned thus with myself, colouring with every plausible pretext which occurred to my ingenuity my passionate desire once more to see and converse with my cousin I was suddenly hailed by a touch on the shoulder and the deep voice of a Highlander who, walking still faster than I though I was proceeding at a smart pace, accosted me with A broad night, Mr Osboldestorn, we have met at the mark over before now There was no mistaking the tone of McGregor He had escaped the pursuit of his enemies and was in full retreat to his own wild and to his adherents He had also contrived to arm himself, probably at the house of some secret adherent for he had a musket on his shoulder and the usual Highland weapons by his side To have found myself alone with such a character in such a situation and at this late hour in the evening might not have been pleasant to me in any ordinary mood of mind for though habituated to think of Rob Roy in rather a friendly point of view I will confess frankly that I never heard him speak but that it seemed to thrill my blood The intonation of the mountaineers gives a habitual depth and hollowness to the sound of their words owing to the guttural expression so common in their native language and they usually speak with a good deal of emphasis To these national peculiarities Rob Roy added a sort of hard indifference of accent and manner expressive of a mind neither to be daunted nor surprised nor affected by what passed before him however dreadful, however sudden, however afflicting Habitual danger with unbounded confidence in his own strength and sagacity had rendered him indifferent to fear and the lawless and precarious life he led had blunted though its dangers and errors had not destroyed his feelings for others and it was to be remembered that I had very lately seen the followers of this man commit a cruel slaughter on an unarmed and supple individual Yet such was the state of my mind that I welcomed the company of the outlaw leader as a relief to my own overstrained and painful thoughts and it was not without hopes that through his means I might obtain some clue of guidance through the maze in which my fate had involved me I therefore answered his greeting cordially and congratulated him on his late escape and circumstances when escape seemed impossible I, he replied, there is as much between the craig and the woody as there is between the cup and the lip but my peril was lessen you may think being a stranger to this country of those that were summoned to take me and to keep me and to retake me again there was a moiety as cousin Nicol Jarvis calls it that had me will that I shall be ear taken or kept fast or retain and of other moiety there was as half was feared to stir me and so I had only like the fourth part of fifty or sixty men in to deal with all and enough too I should think, replied I I didn't care not, said he, but I care that to turn every ill will that I had amending them oot upon a green before the clucken of Arbifoil they would feign to then play with broads, and target, one dude and another, come on he now inquired into my adventures since we entered his country and laughed heartily at my account of the battle we had in the inn and at the exploits of the Bailey with the red hot poker let glass go flourish, he exclaimed the carousel crumbled on me if I would have wished better sport than to see cousin Nicol Jarvis since infrared like his sheep's head between a pair of tongs but my cousin Jarvis, he added more gravely has some gentlemen's blood in his veins although he has been unhappily bred up to a peaceful and pecanica craft which could not but blunt any pretty man's spirit you may estimate of the reason why he could not receive you at the clucken of Arbifoil as I proposed they had made a fine horse net for me when I was absent to a three desert glass go upon the king's business but I think I broke up the leak about their lungs and nor be able to hone one clan against another as they had done I hope soon to see the day when our healing man will stun Shilpa to shiver but what he joins to next I gave him an account of the arrival of Captain Thornton and his party and the arrest of the Bailey and myself under pretext of our being suspicious persons and upon his more special inquiry I recollected the officer had mentioned that besides my name sounding suspicious in his ears he had orders to secure an old and young person resembling our description this again moved the outlaws' visibility ah, this man lives by bread he said the buzzards have missed you and my friend the Bailey for his excellency and yeah, put you on a vermin ugh, the most egregious Nate Halitz Miss Vernon said I with hesitation and trembling for the answer does she still bear that name? she passed but now along with a gentleman who seemed to use a style of authority ay, ay, answered Robb she's under lawful authority now and full time for she was a daft tempé but she's a metal quen it's pity his excellency is a thorough teledaine the lake of Yeriseth, or my son Hermes would be marisought the billion point of years here then was a complete downfall of those castles of cards which my fancy had and despite of my reason so often amused herself with building although in truth I had scarcity anything else to expect since I could not suppose that Diana could be travelling in such a country at such an hour with any but one who had a legal title to protect her I did not feel the blow less severely when it came and McGregor's voice urging me to pursue my story sounded in my ears without conveying any exact import to my mind ye are ill, he said at length after he had spoken twice without receiving an answer this day's warak has been or a makkel for and doodless unused sysic things the tone of kindness in which this was spoken recalling me to myself and to the necessities of my situation I continued my narrative as well as I could Robroy expressed a great exultation at the successful skirmish in the past they say, he observed, that king's charef is better than other folk's corn but I think that cannot be said though king's soldiers if they let themselves be beaten with the wean old carls that are past fighting and barons that are no-come-tilt and waves with their rocks and distuffs the very wolly draggles of the countryside and doogle McGregor too what I thought there had been as muggle scents in his tatipau had ne'er had a better covering than his own shaggy hossack of hair but say away, though I dread what's to come next what are my hairlins and in kind of devil when her blood's up poor thing, she has or a makkel reason I observed as much delicacy as I could in communicating to him the usage we had received but I obviously saw the detail, gave him great pain I would rather than a thousand medics he said, that I had been at him to misguide strangers and for by all they ain't not a little cousin that had short me sick-kindness I would rather they had baroned half the lynox in their foley but this comes of trusting women and their bands that have neither measure nor reason in their dealings however, it's all owing to that dog of a gage who betrayed me by pretending a message from your cousin Harashly to meet him on the king's affairs well, I thought it was very like to be an endgar shatigin and a party of the lynox declaring themselves to King James Feth, but I kind of was clean beguiled when I heard the deac was there and when I strapped the horus gath over my errands I made to George what was biding me for I can't your a kensman being we pardon a slippery loon himself is prone to employ those of his own kidney I wish he may not have been at the bottom of the ploy himself I thought the child morris looked devilish queer when I deterred him he should remain a wud or hostage for a massive buck coming but a arm come back knee thanks to him or them that employed him and the question is how the collected loon is to inbuck himself I promised him it will not be without a ransom morris said I has already paid the last ransom which mortal man can owe eh what he exclaimed my companion hastily what do you say I thrust it was in the skirmish he was gild he was slain in cold blood after the fight was over Mr Campbell cold blood damnation he said muttering betwixt his teeth I felt that sir speak out sir and did not master or a Campbell me may reach is on my native heath unto my name is Macarega his passions were obviously irritated but without noticing the rudeness of his tone I gave him a short and distinct account of the death of morris he struck the butt of his gun with great vehemence against the ground and broke out I vowed to God such a deed might make one far swear to kin, clan, country, wife and parents and yet the villain d'orot long for it and what is the difference between warisling below the water with a stain about yer neck and a wavering in the wind where a tether rend it it's butt choken after all and he drizzed the doom he idled for me a kid I wished though they had a rather puttin' a burlch through him but a dark, yet the fashion of removing him will give rise to money idle clavus but every white has his weird and we mourn aah dee when aah dee comes and nobody will deny the Helen Macarega has deeper wrongs to avenge so saying he seemed to dismiss the theme altogether from his mind and proceeded to inquire how I got free from the party in whose hands he had seen me my story was soon told and I added the episode of my having recovered the papers of my father though I did not trust my voice to name the name of Diana I was sure it you ought to get them said Macarega the letter you brought me contained his excellency's pleasure to that effect and a need due to it was my will to have added in it and I asked ye up into this glen on the very addend but his lake his excellency has far regarded with rushly seener than I expected the first part of this answer was what most forcibly struck me was the letter I brought you then from this person you call his excellency who is he and what is his rank and proper name I am thinking said Macarega that since ye didn't gain them already they cannot be unbuckle consequence to ye and say I should see Nathan on the art score but will ye what the letter was for his ear in hand or having I sought the business of me in on my hands then as ye will may see just as much as I can fairly manage I cannot say it would have fashioned myself to see Macarega the matter I now recollected the lights seen in the library the various circumstances which had excited my jealousy the glove, the agitation of the tapestry which covered the secret passage from Rache's apartment and above all I recollected that Diana retired in order to write as I then thought the billet to which I was to have recourse in case of the last necessity her hours then were not spent in solitude but in listening to the addresses of some desperate agent of Jacobitical treason who was a secret resident within the mansion of her uncle other young women have sold themselves for gold or suffered themselves to be seduced from their first love from vanity but Diana had sacrificed my affections and her own to partake the fortunes of some desperate adventurer to seek the haunts of free booters through midnight deserts with no better hopes of rank or fortune than that mimicry of both which the mock courts of the stewards at Saint-Germain had in their power to bestow I will see her, I said internally, if it be possible once more I will argue with her as a friend, as a kinsman on the risk she is incurring and I will facilitate her retreat to France where she may with more comfort and propriety as well as safety abide the issue of the turmoil which the political trapanneur to whom she has united her fate is doubtless busy in putting into motion I conclude then, I said to McGregor after about five minutes' silence on both sides that is excellency, since you give me no other name for him was residing in a sport of stone hall at the same time with myself to be sure, to be sure and in the young lady's apartment as best reason was this gratuitous information was adding gall to bitterness but if you, Eric McGregor, came he was daring to their save a rashly and so held a brand for you were out of the question and the young lads, hen a wee enough to call the cat free the cream but it's a bit of old fashioned house and what I especially admire is the abundance of holes and burrows and concealments you could put twenty author to many coroner and a family might live a week without finding them out if you can do it may on occasion be a special convenience I wish we had the like of a smaller stone hall and the burrows of McGregor-Eston but we more than garwoods and caves save the lake of us per a heel and bodies I suppose as excellency said I was privy to the first accident which befell I could not help hesitating a moment you were going to say Morris said Rob Roy Cooley for he was too much accustomed to deeds of violence for the agitation he had at first expressed to be of long continuance I used to laugh hard to let that wreak but I had hardly had the heart to do it again since the ill-fated accident at the lork nah nah, his accidently came to no other ploy it was all managed between Arashly and myself but the sport that came after and Arashly's shift of turning the suspicion of himself upon you that he had a negrite faviti for either beginning and then mis die shame on high as sweep up all a spider's web again and set you out to the drustus's claws and then the frightened Craven Morris that was scared out to the seven senses by seeing the real man when he was charging the innocence the ranger and the gawk of a clark and the drunken carl of a drustus ahonuhun many a laugh that job's gained me and knew ah I can't do for the pure a devil let's get some message said for his sir may I ask said I how miss Vernon came to have so much influence over rashly into the complices as to derange your projected plan main it was none of mine nor man can say I ever let me burden on other folk's shoulders it was Arashly's doings but indutedly she had great influence we as Beth and it came to this excellence's affection as well as the she can't far over money secrets to be late lead in a matter of that kind deal take him ejaculated by way of summing up that gives women either secret to keep or a power to abuse fuel should not hire chaping sticks we were now within a quarter of a mile from the village when three Highlanders springing upon us with presented arms commanded us to stand and tell our business the single word in the deep and commanding voice of my companion was answered by a shout or rather yell of joyful recognition one throwing down his firelock clasped his leaders so fast around the knees that he was unable to extricate himself muttering at the same time a torrent of Gallic graduation which every now and then rose into a sort of scream of gladness the two others after the first howling was over set off literally with a speed of dears contending which should first carry to the village which a strong party of the McGregors now occupied the joyful news of Rob Roy's escape in return the intelligence excited such shouts of jubilation that the very hills rung again and young and old women and children without distinction of sex or age came running down the veil to Metis with all the tumultuous speed and clamour of a mountain torrent when I heard the rushing noise and yells of this joyful multitude approaches I thought it a fitting precaution to remind McGregor that I was a stranger and under his protection he accordingly held me fast by the hand while the assemblage crowded around him with such shouts of devoted attachment and joy at his return as for really affecting nor did he extend to his followers what all eagerly sought the grasp namely of his hand until he had made them understand that I was to be kindly and carefully used the mandate of the Sultan of Delhi could not have been more promptly obeyed indeed I now sustained nearly as much inconvenience from their well-meant attentions as formerly from their rudeness they would hardly allow the friend of their leader to walk upon his own legs so earnest were they in affording me support and assistance upon the way and at length taking advantage of a slight stumble which I made over a stone which the priest did not permit me to avoid they fairly seized upon me and bore me in their arms and triumphed towards Mrs. McAlpine's on arrival before her hospitable wig bomb I found power and popularity had its inconveniences in the Highlands as everywhere else for before McGregor could be permitted to enter the house where he was to obtain rest and refreshment he was obliged to relate the story of his escape at least a dozen times over as I was told by an officious old man who chose to translate it at least as often for my edification and to whom I was in policy obliged to seem to pay a decent degree of attention the audience being at length satisfied group after group departed to take their bed upon the heath or in the neighbouring huts some cursing the Duke in Gar-Shatterton some lamenting the probable danger of Ewan of Briglands incurred by his friendship to McGregor meaning that the escape of Rogboy himself lost nothing in comparison with the exploit of any one of their chiefs since the days of Dougal Chair, the founder of his line the friendly outlaw, now taking me by the arm conducted me into the interior of the hut my eyes roved round its smoky recesses in quest of Diana and her companion but they were nowhere to be seen as if to make inquiries might betray some secret motives which were best concealed the only known countenance upon which my eyes rested was that of the Bailey who, seated on a stool by the fireside received with a sort of reserved indignity the welcomes of Rogboy, the apologies which he made for his indifferent accommodation and his inquiries after his health I am pretty well Keensman, said the Bailey in different wheel I thank you and for accommodations and can expect to carry weight the sight market at his tail as a snail does his cape and a blade that he goten out of the hands of your unfreens wheel, wheel then, answered Roy what is the deal, shaman I'lls wheel that ends wheel the world will last our day come, take a copper brandy your father the dakin could take a hen at an oratane it might be he might do say robin after fatigue because being my lot merriways an hen this day but he continued slowly filling up a little wooden stoop which might hold about three glasses he was a moderate man of his beaker as I am a sail here's what's in heath tea robin a sip and your wheel fare here and hereafter another taste and also to my cousin Helen and teeter hopful lads of whom meri anon so saying he drank up the contents of the cup with great gravity and deliberation while McGregor winked aside to me as if in ridicule of the air of wisdom and superior authority which the Bailey assumed towards him in the intercourse in which he exercised when rob was at the head of his armed clan in full as great or a greater degree than when he was at the Bailey's moosey in the toll booth of Glasgow it seemed to me that McGregor wished me as a stranger to understand that if he submitted to the tone which his kinsmen assumed it was partly out of deference to the rights of hospitality but still more for the jest's sake as the Bailey set down his cup he recognized me and giving me a cordial welcome on my return he waved farther communication with me for the present I will speak to your matters anon and more and begin as an reason with those of my kinsmen I presume Robin there's nobody here will carry out what I'm going to say to the tone consul or elsewhere to my prejudice or to yours make yourself easy on that head cousin Nickel answered McGregor the tie half of the guillie's winner came what he said and the other winner came besides that I would store the tongue out of the head of any of them that should be resumed to say or again any speech held with me in their presence ah well it is sick being the case and Mr Osbold is done here being a prudent heath and a safe friend as he plainly tell you you are breeding up your family to gong in Elegate then clearing his voice with a preliminary hymn he addressed his kinsmen checking as Malvolio proposed to do when seated in his state his familiar style with an austere regard of control you can yourself you hold it late be the law Aunt Feremaic was inhaling for by the harry reception of me this blessed day little cake skews on account of perturbation of maind was Nickel on the north side a friendly I say out putting this personal reason of complaint I heard that to say are you wife say nothing of harry kinsmen said rob in a grave in stern voice she is fitting a friend to say and her husband to hear of me you are welcome to say your full pleasure ah well ah well said the belly somewhat disconcerted we shall let that be a pass over I didn't approve in making mischief in families but here are your sons Hermish and Robin will signifies as I am going to understand I trust you will call them say in future there it comes ne good Hermish's and Ereshen's and Angus's except that they are the names and a chances to see in the indictments that the western surrogates for cold lifting are the instance of his majesty's advocate for his majesty's interest ah well but the tall lords as I was saying the hen is in necklace the ordinary grants one of a liberal education they didn't can the very multiplication table itself will cause a writ of all the useful knowledge and they did nothing but laugh and flier at me when I told them my mind on their ignorance it's my belief they can neither read write nor cipher if sick a thing could be believed or ends in connections in a Christian land if they could kensman said McGregor with great indifference their learning must have come a free will for where the deal was I to get them a teacher would ye I had me put on the gate of your divinity harlot glasscore college wanted a tutor for roboroy's barons nor kensman replied Mr Javi but ye might have seen the lads while they could I learned the fear of God and the usages of civilised creatures they are as ignorant as the gay laws you used to thrive to market with the very English chairs that you sold them to and can do nothing whatever to parapost uff answered Robb Hermes can bring doing a black cock when he's on the wing with a single bullet and a rob can drive a dirrick to a two inch bird said muggle the wearer for them a cousin said muggle the wearer for them both answered the Glasgow merchant in a town of great decision and they care nothing better than that they had better not care that neither tell me you said Robb what has all these cutting and stopping and shooting and driving of dirricks whether the human flesh or the deals doing for yourself and when are you a happier man a detail of your night best deal when you were in an honest carling and ever you have been since at the head of your head and cannons and garlic glasses I observed that McGregor while his well-meaning kinsman spoke to him in this manner turned and writhed his body like a man who indeed suffers pain but has determined no groan shall escape his lips and I longed for an opportunity to interrupt the well-meant but as it was obvious to me quite a mistake and strain in which Javi addressed this extraordinary person the dialogue however came to an end without my interference and say said the belly I have been thinking Robb that as it may be you are over the deep in the black book to win a pyrton and over all to mend yourself that it would be a pity to bring up to hopeful lads to seek a godless trade as your an and I would blithely take them for printises at the loom as I began myself and may feather the dick in a farrow me though praised to the giver a only trade new as wholesale dealer and he saw a storm gathering on Robb's brow which probably induced him to throw in as a sweetener of an obnoxious proposition what he had reserved to crown his own generosity had it been embraced as an acceptable one and Robin Ludd you needn't a look say gloom for I lay the print as fair and never plague you for the thousand marics of neither dead melly diowel hundred thousand devils exclaimed Robb rising and striding through the hut with sons of weavers melly a molly cut but I would see every loom in Glasgow beam truddles and shutters a barrent and hellfire sooner with some difficulty I made the Bailey who was preparing a reply comprehend the risk and impropriety of pressing our host on this topic and in a minute he recovered or re-assumed his serenity of temper but you mean well you mean well said he so give me your hand, Nikol and if ever I put my son's apprentice I will give you the refusal or them and as you say there is a thousand marics to be settled between us here you're asking my canalisty bringing me my sporting the person he addressed who seemed to act as McGregor's lieutenant brought from some place of safety a large leathern pouch such as highlanders of rank wear before them when in full dress made of the skin of the sea otter richly garnished with silver ornaments and studs I advised Norman to attempt opening this spot until he asked my secret said Robbroy and then twisting one button in one direction and another in another pulling one stud upward and pressing another downward the mouth of the purse which is bound with massive silver plate opened and gave admittance to his hand he made me remark as if to break short the subject on which Bailey Javi had spoken that a small steel pistol was concealed within the purse the trigger of which was connected with the mounting and made part of the machinery so that the weapon would certainly be discharged so that the pistol probability its contents lodged in the person of anyone who, being unacquainted with the secret should tamper with the lock which secured his treasure this said he touching the pistol this is the keeper of my privy Paris the simplicity of the contrivance to secure a furred pouch which could have been ripped open without any attempt on the spring reminded me of the verses in the Odyssey where Ulysses in a yet ruder age is content to secure his property by casting a curious and involved complication of cordage around the sea chest in which it was deposited the Bailey put on his spectacles to examine the mechanism and when he had done returned it with a smile and a sigh observing what other folk's past has been his wheel guided I do, if you're a spurn would I have been as wheel filled as it guides to be by the weight never mind kensman said rob laughing it will I open for a friend's necessity or to pay a just due and here he added pulling out a roll out of gold here is your ten hundred marix count them and say that you are full and justly paid Mr Javi took the money in silence and weighing it in his hand for an instant laid it on the table and replied rob I cannot take it I don't know how to admit it they can near good come on I have seen over wheeled the day what sort of a gate your gold is made in it'll got gear near prosper and to be plain with you and when in middle width it leaks as there might be blue dawn through sure said the outlaw affecting an indifference which perhaps he did not altogether feel it's good French goat and near it was in Scorchman's pouch before remain look at them man they are are but right in warning as the day they were count the wha see Mbuckle the wha robin replied the belly avoiding his eyes from the money though like Caesar on the loop of Cal his fingers seemed to itch for it the rebellion is worse than witchcraft or robbery either this gospel warrant for it never mind the warrant Cairnsman said the free booter you come by the gold honestly and in payment of a just debt it came from the one king ye may gear it to the other if you like and it will just serve for a weakening of the enemy and in the point where poor King James is weakest too for god knows he has hands and hearts you know but he dirty wants the silver he'll no get money how even does there no robin said Mr Javi and having his spectacles on his nose he undid the rule low and began to count its contents nor law land is neither said McGregor arching his eyebrow and as he looked at me directing a glance towards Mr Javi who all unconscious of the ridicule weighed each piece with habitual scrupulosity and having told twice over the sum but amounted to the discharge of his debt principle and interest he turned to three pieces to buy his kinswoman a gown as he expressed himself and a brace more for the tar barons as he called them requesting they might buy anything they liked with them except gunpowder the Highlander stared at his kinsman's unexpected generosity but courteously accepted his gift which he deposited for the time in his well secured pouch the baili next produced the original bond for the debt which he had written a formal discharge which having subscribed himself he requested me to sign as a witness I did so and baili Javi was looking anxiously around for another the Scottish law requiring the subscription of two witnesses to validate either a bond or a quittance you will hardly find a man that can write said who selves within these are three miles said Robb to settle the matter as easily and taking the paper from before his kinsman he threw it in the fire baili Javi stared in his turn but his kinsman continued that's a healing settlement of accounts the time made calm Cawson where I to keep all these charges on discharges that friends might be brought into trouble for having dealt with me the baili attempted no reply to the argument and our supper now appeared in a style of abundance and even delicacy which for the place might be considered as extraordinary the greater part of the provisions were cold intimating they had been prepared at some distance and there were some bottles of good French wine to relish pasties of various sorts of game as well as other dishes I remarked that McGregor must to excuse the circumstance that some particular dish or pasty had been infringed on before it was presented to us you must know he said me to Mr Javi but without looking towards me you are not the only guest this night in the McGregor's country will you doubtless ye will believe since my wife and the talads would otherwise have been messed already to a tanger Libby seems them Bayley Javi looked as if he felt glad at any circumstance which occasioned to their absence and I should have been entirely of his opinion had it not been that the outlaws Apotogy seemed to imply they were in attendance on Diana and her companion whom even in my thoughts I could not bear to designate as her husband while the unpleasant ideas arising but effects of appetite welcome and good cheer I remarked that Rob Roy's attention had extended itself to providing us better bedding than we had enjoyed the night before two of the least fragile of the bedsteads which stood by the wall of the hut had been stuffed with heath then in full flower so artificially arranged that the flowers being uppermost afforded a mattress at once elastic and fragrant stretched over this vegetable couch made it both soft and warm the bayley seemed exhausted by fatigue I resolved to adjourn my communication to him until next morning and therefore suffered him to be take himself to bed so soon as he had finished a plentiful supper though tired and harassed I did not myself feel the same disposition to sleep but rather a restless and feverish anxiety which led to some father discourse between me and McGregor End of Volume 2, Chapter 17 Recording by Felicity Campbell Whanganui, New Zealand