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Lortqua la document att trop grand pour itra raproduit an un taul clich*. il att film* t partir da I'angla tuptriaur gaucha, da gaucha t droita, at da haut an bat. an pranant la nombra d'imagaa nicaataira. Laa diagrammat tuivantt illuitrant la mithoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 MKaoCOfY nSOlUTION ICSI CHAIT (*NSI and ISO TEST CHAIIT No. 2) I^N^I^ _^ APPLIED IM/IGE In ■^^ ^ 1653 East Main Slrael ^^B-jS RochesHf. New York UBOT USA .^^S (716) 482 -0300- Phcn- J^S-.^^S (716) 268 - 5909 - Fax A^Lt J> ,C»J 5b' l-i^ v_*\A^7-/ UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE WORKS B7 THE SAME AUTHOR. A Tragedy in Grey The Eleventh Commandment An Episode in Arcady A Man of the Moors Ricroft of Withens Shameless Wayne By Moor and Fell Willowdene Will Mistress Barbara Cunliffe - "I SAW HIS FACE GO WHITE.' \ UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE HALLIWELL SUTCLIFFE WITH EIGHT FULL-PAiiE ILLUSTRATIONS BY F. H. TOWNSEND TORONTO: THE COPP. CLARK CO., LIMITED LONDON: CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED All Rights Ressrved I! U^3>7 >l^ ^ ->(<= 310806 CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The Udy of thk Post-chaise CHAPTER II. A Duel in the Dawn CHAPTER HI. Three Jolly Jacobites CHAPTER IV. How DUOALD CAME TO PERTH CHAPTER V. Nell and the Gloaming-tide . /. Fair Recruit CHAPTER VI. chapter vii. Nell comes to me . CHAPTER VIII. A Fair Lady and a City Gate MOB I . 26 • 47 • 77 • 97 . 112 • "5 «S4 I 1 .^ CHAPTER IX. Thi Road across the Marsh 185 chapter x. How Johnnie went Running Home . . ju CHAPTER XI. Concerning a Laird and a White Hare . 230 CHAPTER XII. The Ladv of Kirtlebrae j^ CHAPTER XIII. The Miller's Daughter jgy CHAPTER XIV. A Last Glad Gallop 291 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. "I SAW HIS FACE GC *HITE " "' REMEMBER OUR OLD MOTTO '" "I KNOCKED UP HIS PISTOL WITH A WRIST- TURN OF THE BLADE" " MY LORD HER FATHER STOOD WITHIN THE DOORWAY" .... " ' WK THRE I NEED NONE OF US HAVE DOUBTS ' " "SIX GOWNS I HAD TO CHOOSE FROM " . "'THIS IS YOUR DAUGHTER, SIR?" "'SHE'S DONE!' GASPED ARCHIE SUDDENLY ' Froniis. . to fact f. 2 H U 60 68 386 306 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. CHAPTER I. THE LAD, OF THE POST-CHAISE. When I was two-and-twenty-in the yepr of 1745, that IS to say-my erratic father conceived the Idea that I was like to rust if he kept me over-close to his country seat and offered me no better schooling than the hunting-field, the card- afforded"'^ *^ companionship of rustic squires The rough life suited me well enough, it is true ; but I saw no cause for grumbling when I was told, upon my birthday night, that the moiTow would see me on the way to London. Sudden as the news was, I learned that all the details of my stay in the capital had been p anned out beforehand by that curious mixture of sternness, oddity, and rough tenderness, who stood to me in the relation of father and rigid guardian. My valise was already packed, ^d UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. one of the men-servants had been ordered to take it to the cross-roads at daybreak, there to await the mail-coach to London. All this my father told me as we drank our after-dinner port ; neither did he appear to think that there was any excuse for the surprise I showed on being informed so brusquely of his intentions with regard to me. " Pish ! " he cried, in answer to something I stammered as to the suddenness of it all. " Pish, lad ! Life is all sudden, and the sooner you learn to take it so, the better it will be for you. You've hobnobbed long enough with these country bumpkins, and enough is as good as a feast. See what they can teach you in London, and come home again when you have learned to kUl your man with grace and a mannerly sword-point." " I take the coach, then, to-morrow ? " I said, after a pause. I spoke quietly, for I would not let my father see how the blood raced through my veins at the prospect, lest his eccentricity should lead him to think better of the under- taking. " Take the coach, sirrah ? What, do you want to enter London like any pursy dowager ■REMEMBER OUR OLU MOTTO.' THE LADY OF THE POST-CHAISE 3 any able-bodied man should do " witlf mo!! •V*^''.^^"*^^. -nd I went to bed with more wme in my head and legs than I found co„venient-my father, indeed would -onjing. ate a marvellous hearty brIaJaTt washed down with a cup of wine anH ' into the saddle. ' "'^ '"'""8 "Good-bye, lad," said my father a trifl. T'r\'f -^'^ --e tendelnesst'l'sfae than I had yet seen there " R».^ u motto • K-iii „ V Remember our old motto, K.U your horse and break your neck but see that you're in at the death ' Off wifh" teach^;!!!..' *''" " "^"^''^ ''^« - duel for But I lost the end of his sentence, for my horse bolted on the sudden, and I had difficulty^ bnngmg him to reason. Down the carria" 1" we went at a gallop, and over the clo^^d^trat the bottom, and the last I hearc ,fl wasafaint, "Bravo, lad-cleared ..a'foot" from behind. And that was how / started to UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. seek manners in London town ; nor did I gtiess how strangely the duel, which my father had bequeathed to me as a sort of final blessing, was to teach me, not the rough taste of ad* venture only, but the road to Scotland and to honour. I pulled the curb after the first half-mile or so. Leaping five-barred gates was well enough, and a gallop was well enough ; but I had fifty miles to cover before London, and my beast would not last twenty unless I brou(,ht him to view the situation reasonably. A clear, crisp morning of summer it was, and, as I rode, the wiklness of the morning got into my blood. Thrush and merle and laverock were merry in the hedgerows and the meadows ; summer was at full ; aad I was two-and-twenty. London stroets, the rustics say, are paved with gold ; but I can answer fcr it that the road to town on this same morning was paved with air. I took dinner at St. Albans, a.\d aftcrwaras was drinking a measure in the bar while waiting for my horse to be brought round, v. hen a horse- man clattered up to the door, dismounted, and called for the landlord in a quick, high voice. THE LADY OF THE POST-CHAISE. 5 Boniface came bustling oat, and I could hear every word that passed between them. " How can I serve you, sir ? " asked the host. " I have urgent dispatches for Lord Strange. Has he reached St. Albans yet, or has he gone forward ? He set off for London from the North two nights ago in a post-chaise, and I have fol- lowed hell-for-leather." I took a lefaurely pinch of snuft and peeped through the open door of the bar at the new- comer, a thin, sallow rascal of five-and-thirty or so. The scene did not concern me over much —at least, I thought not at the time ; but any way of killing leisure was acceptable, ud to myself I feigned a deep interest in listening for question and for answer. " Loid Strange ? Lord Strange ? " muttered Boniface, with the true manner of his profes- sion, and the stock answer to all such questions. " So many gentlemen of quality put up at the Saracen's Head, sir— a very busy road, the Holyhead— that indeed I can scarce remember. Let me see." " Tut-tut, good host ! " interrupted the other impatiently. "We know all that by heart. Has my lord passed through, I say ? " 6 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. Boniface drew himself up with dignity. " A Royal Duke passed through yester-even and stayed for supper here." said he, with a touch of rougery in his voice, "so how should I keep these 'e.ier fry, in mind? Stay, though; there was sv-.iethmg about a special brew of punch for my lord— ay, that must have been Lord Strange. He had a comely maid in the post-chaise with him." I took another pinch of snuff, and felt my interest quicken. The sallow stranger was pacing up and down, stopping every now and then to check the host's garrulity. " Pish for the maid, and to the deuce with your special punch ! How long since " he began. " Ay, but the punch is second to none, sir craving your pardon. My lord did not alight' but drank it in the chaise. And, zooks, the longer I looked at his companion, the surer I felt that we could not match her in aU Hertfordshire- there, there! What time was it? Why. it might be an hour agone ; or again, it might be two. There have been so many traveUers on the road to-day." The stranger paused for no more, but launched THE LADY OF THE POST-CHAISE. 7 a parting oath at Boniface, then unhitched his horse and sprang to saddle again. My lord's pretty travelling companion was in my mind as i strolled out of the bar and accosted my host ; and I profited so far by the late discussion that I had wit to approach him civilly with regard to the information that I sought. "Come now," said I, laughingly, "pretty maids do not grow Uke blackberries, and I may haply snatch a peep at this one before I get to town. Who is this Lord Strange, host ? And how fast do his post-horses travel ? " He eyed me up and down, then nodded as if in approbation, then grinned from one full- blooded ear to the other. " Faster than warrants your overtaking them, sir, though you be as well mounted as the best," he answered slowly. " And it would seem a pity, that, for she was a sight one sees three times or so in a Hfetime. My Lord Strange ? He is well known on the Holyhead road, and well known enough in Lond ., though he is Scotch by birth." " I thought you disclaimed all remembrance of him ? " I put in drily. " Ay, that may be so ; for there's one face S UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE, to show to a civil question, and quite another when your man plays the bully. Ay. his name •s m men's mouths to-day-Lord Strange's, I mean-a Scotch lord he is, very zealous for the King now that this French-bred Prince begins to talk of landing with an c.rmy." " Prince Charlie .? " I hazarded. We were not accustomed to hear much gossip of the times at homp. and the Stuart enterprise so t^ked about in the capital, had scarcely ruffled our dinner-table talk as yet. "Ay, Prince Chariie. He is getting an army to- gether on the coast of France, so the gossips say • but whether it is aU an April mare's nest or no is more than I can teU. Let King George sit quiet upon his throne, say I, and keep our custom merry." But I was thinking of the fair maid in the post-chaise as I paid my score and got to horse agam. A face such as a man meets only thrice in a hfetime-and that on the word of one so seasoned to fair faces as a tavern-keeper-was weU worth the seeing; and for the first few miles I pressed hotly forward, with some vague, sense- less hope that I might overtake the chaise before It clattered into London streets. THE LADY OF THE POST-CHAISE. 9 The cool air of the road, however, and the fret of motion, soon brought me to my senses. I eased my pace, and httle by little my thoughts turned from s-ch shadowy food as a maid's h-auty, take, .n hearsay, and fastened them- selves instead upon the news that the host had given me of Prince Charlie's doings. Great news ,t was, and stirring ; and I felt my pulses Zt" TJ ''°"^'* °' ■*■ ^' ^-*^ »' the country had never been partial to the Gennan Kmg, though we were too bent on hunting and on gammg to trouble ourselves with thoughts of active partisanship of the Stuart cause ; but we Iked a hunt, a cock-fight, or a forlorn hope -any- thing, mdeed, that had a touch of sport in it • and I warrant there was scarce a squire in' Buckmgham, however i- .lent he were in politics who would not have clapped hands to see Prince Char he s desperate venture crowned with success, and the Stuarts safe upon the throne again As for me, long before I reached the White Hart Inn at Cranford that evening, loyalty to the Scots Pnnce was well assured-the vagueness of his personality, the chance of battle, the gaiety and freedom of rebellion against the King, ali had their charm for me ; and I got down from my 10 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. f horse at the door of the White Hart with a wish that Edinbur{;h, and not the capital of England, were my destination. As I was half-way through supper I heard a great cracking of whips and shouting of post- boys. Looking from the window I saw a ta'J, unsteady figure of a man just handing a cloaked figure into a chaise that stood ready at the door. The glare of the links shone full on the inn-yard ; the tall fellow showed for a moment as he half lurched, half stepped into the carriage ; the door was shut with a flourish by the driver ; whips cracked afresh, a handful of silver was thrown fromthe( haise window, and the postillion rose gaily to the trot. On a sudden I remembered the face of which the landlord had told me at St. Albans — the face such as only gladdens a man'a eyes three times or so in a whole lifetime. What if the unsteady figure were my Lord Strange's, and the maid in the brown cloak no other than his daughter ? They had had a long start of me, it was true ; but the x'ery unsteadiness of the girl's cavalier was proof that he had spent a longer time than need be at the supper board. One excuse is as good as another to lighten a THE LADY OF THE POST-CHAISE. 1 1 long ride. I would admit no doubt of my lord's identity, nor of the maid's ; and I said to myself that I would follow and claim a sight of what lay beneath that jealous hood of brown. My supper, which was something of the choicest, I despatched accordingly with a haste it little merited, and before long I was ready for the road once more. " Was that Lord Strange, sirrah ? " I said to the ostler, as he held my stirrup. " It was, sir. He travels from the North in haste." " In haste ? He seems to have had ample leisure for his supper." " He makes sure of that, sir, always," said the ostler, with a grin. " Ah ! And the lady with him ? " " His daughter, sir." I tossed a crown to him and laughed — though I could not have given a reason for my mirth— and cantered along the ill-kept streets of Cranford. The fairest face in England was speeding London- ward in front of me ; that was enough for my heedless mood, and I did not care to look beyond. It was well, maybe, I did not look beyond, nor guess, as I trotted hard and fast in the wake of UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. my lord's chaise and two, that the hours of this fancy-free, light boyhood of mine were numbered —that peril, and the fret of love, and knowledge of life's darker issues, lay scarce further ahead of me than my own horse's ears. What plan had I ? What project, when, if luck favoured me, I overtook my lord ? Nay, I had no plan ; my mood was too light to harbour one, and all I thought of was the distraction of the chase. The moon was free of clouds as I rode, ; id swam like a silver boat in the dark lake of the sky. The woods were mantled in night mist, and somewhere over the far meadows a bird was plaining to the stars. Never was night more friendly to such a tender all-fool's chase as mine ; and sometimes I thought of Charlie Stuart, but oftener of the stranger-maid whose beauty was the gossip of every roadside tavern. There was not a stiver to choose, in point of fact, between the two occupants of my brain — the one was a name, the other a face, hidden by a brown hood, which I had taken on hearsay. Small matter of that, however, so far as my gaiety went. We dipped over a hill-crest, my horse and I, and down below us showed a chaise and two, THE LADY OF THE POST-CHAISE. 13 bumping from side to side of the road as it swung on its way to London. Further beyond, at the end of a long sweep of level, a lonely heath spread open arms to the round, clear moon. Easy going it was, and pleasant, for on either side the road there stretched so wide a strip of smooth-shaven turf that a horseman could avoid altogether the rutty middle of the track. "Faster, lad! Art asleep?" I whispered into my nag's ear, and touched him with the spur. They had the start of me by a clear half-mile, and their cattle were more fresh than mine ; nor could all my persuasions of whip and spur bring me level with the chaise until we gained the confines of the heath. I looked ahead; they were passing a solitary clump of trees, and, unless the moonlight tricked my eyes for distance, not five-score yards lay now between us. As I strained my eyes ahead and counted the lessening yards, a mounted figure slid from out the fir shadows. I caught the glint of a pistol- barrel, and heard a scream as the post-horses came to a sudden halt ; and it grew clear to me that I was to become an actor in a drama such as I had least expected. I covered the intervening space of road as if all England had »l 14 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. raised the hue-and-cry behind me, making so little noise about it, by reason of the smooth grass beneath my horse's hoofs, that the high- wayman had scarcely time to turn before I was at his elbow. My sword was free of the scabbard by this time, and I knocked up his pistol with a wrist-turn of the blade that sent his weapon flying into a neighbouring clump of furze. " By your leave, I am interested in these travellers," I laughed, feeling pleased with the turn which the adventure had taken, and having no wish to hale the rogue to the gallows if he would but make good his escape. And escape he did without delay, but not before he had whipped a second pistol from the holster, and turned in the saddle and fired point- blank at me. I felt a red-hot stab in my bridle- arm, but had no time to think of that, for I had glanced at the post-chaise, and at the window of this same chaise, peeping anxiously out into the moonlight, I saw a face that beggared praise. AU pale the face was, with deep shadows of fear beneath the eyes ; yet neither fear nor pallor could rob it of a certain flower-like beauty which resembled nothing I had ever seen beneath a woman's hood. THE LADY OF THE POST-CHAISE. 15 We stood there, she and I, for a breathing space, like boy and girl who can find no words to break a needless silence. Then the girl's head disappeared as if by magic, and a wigged face, scarred where the razor had ill done its work that morning, was thrust out. A pair of cold grey eyes looked at me for a moment ; a harsh chuckle followed ; and then a thick voice, with a hiccough jagging all its broad Scots words, saluted me. "The de'il's not just discreeminating, I'm thinking," said Lord Strange, for I judged it could be no other. " I tak' it hard o' the deil to go robbing members o' the peerage i' this gait, when all the while I'm burdened wi' the Prince's papers " " Hush, father— hush ! " came a sweet voice from within the chaise. " And what for should I whisht ? Is it peaceable ? Is it nae just unchristiar and against the articles of the Kirk to put a pistol to the head of one who carries the bonnie Prince's " Agaui the warning voice came from behind, and a slim, gloved hand was laid on my lord's shoulder. But I was minded to learn what I i6 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. could, since my new acquaintance seemed in such a mighty confidential humour. " Prince Charlie, did you say ? " I put in, remembering suddenly the sallow-faced stranger who had ridden up to the tavern at St. Albans with despatches for this same Lord Strange. "Prince Charlie? Is he going to land then ? " The old man scowled at me. " What's that to ye, my man ? " he said, with sudden gruffness. " Is there nae room for the twa o' ye i' England, that ye'U forbid hU landing ? Prince Charlie ? I ne'er heard the chiel's na'-,:•. generous." That voice of his had never failed to set my teeth on edge ; nor was my anger smoothed by the consciousness that he spoke the truth, and that I had in a measure betrayed his hospitality. " I love your daughter, my lord, and ask your leave to marry her," I answered hotly. "Is there anything less than honourable in that ? " " My faith, no ! You do me honour, sir, to wish to wed her. Your birth is equal, doubtless, and your mean: are ample to support a daughter of Lord Strange's ? " " My means are less than my birth, but the last does not need lacquering, my lord." It was unwise ; but then, if we are wise at two-and-twenty, what solace is left us for old A DUEL IN THE DAWN. 27 age ? Lord Strange, as I knew, had earned his title by means of some unsavoury service he had rendered Government, and in birth I was his better ; yet for all that, when I thought about it afterwards, I was sorry for my lack of courtesy. As for Lord Strange, it roused him to an extreme pitch of anger ; he bade me quit his house upon the instant, and would, I fancy, have ordered his servants then and there to thrust me out, had not Nell checked him. " I will go, my lord, and I will come back," I said, bowing gravely to him. " There is a Prince whose name is in men's mouths. You have heard of him, perchance ? " Again it was unwise ; but at two-and-twenty the charm of playing heroics is apt to overweigh discretion. He saw my meaning, and for the first time I read cowardice beneath his blustering front ; and so, like the blind fool I was, I must needs follow up my advantage. " I ride to join the Prince," I said. " Shall I name you to him, my lord, or carry any message for you ? Shall I say, for instance, that you are very zealous for his Majesty of Hanover ? " " Maurice ' Maurice ! " pleaded Nell. 38 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. . JV"'"^"" '•'"' '°' ""= *° '^'"' t««:k my hasty P^ch and for awhile we stood there sile'nt " v manner. It was an effort to him, I thought, but Sorted hi" u- T' ^""^ ''" -''^^ i-t" deserted hm,. H.s face grew suave, he rubbed h« hands together and smiled at me "Mr. Anstruther," he said, "there are some thmg, dark to you as yet. Go to the Prince, and you w,U one day understand, perhaps, that he has well-w,shers who, for his very saLy's sake cannot proclaim themselves just yet. Zd sty, s r. You have spoken boldly to me-too boldly U may be-but I like that sort of quality in a' Tkade ;» "^ *""' °" P""'"« - *•«« ^'te "I am. my lord," I answered, astounded by the sudden change in him. whelT^'^s''"'.' °"* ' '°^""^ '"' y^""^^"' ^d When ,t ,s made come back and talk to my daughter and to me about it." „,i^**^Kf f ^ *"■' '^""^ °* °»^ *ho walks at midnight along an unknown road. Lad as I was I could not accept my lord's conversation as less han feigned, for I knew more than he wished me to do, and I was pressing a suit wluch could not A DUEL IN THE DAWN. j^ nn^'^'^ ■''"*,''" '"'"'""'' *° •"" '"''' f^°^ ^ Wndlv. and he sm.led so warmly when he spoke of my retun, to Nell, that I was hard put to it to main- tain the last spark of resentment. He would not et me go that day. moreover, as I was minded to do after what had passed ; pooh-poohin, mi my scruples, he left me no other course than to spend one more nipht beneath his roof I liv? 71 " '''"''^ dinner-party that night, as I live. Nell was puzzled and ill at ease ; I was m the position of a lover compelled to sit opposite the lady who was as yet forbidden him ; Lord Strange, mdeed. was the only one of us who seemed unembarrassed by the situation. It was < .wards the end of dinner that he turned to me as if carelessly. ' __ "My lad," he said, in his kindliest voice, rebellion is not so easy a matter, it may be as you count it. I think you were better of'an escort to-morrow until you find yourself well on your northward way." Again I was nonplussed. Was this the past ? Or had my lord again drained the wine- 30 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. cup a trifle over freely ? NeU, too. was eyeing him with some concern, and I could see that she understood him as little as did I. " It is not needful, my lord ; not needful at all," I stammered. " I should have said as much at your age ; but in this matter you wiU be wise, sir, to trust to a more ripe experience. The Government is alarmed by these tidings of the Prince's landing. A hint, a suspicion,' that your errand is what it is and you wiU see the Tower walls sooner than' Prince Charlie. No, I wiU do my utmost to set you safely on this venture ; and NeU here "—he glanced toward her teasingly— " will be the first to thank me, if I mistake not." " You are too kind," I munnured. " I risk more on your behalf, certainly, than you deserve, sir," he answered, with an air of blunt candour that infinitely became him ; " but it is my whim. You will start at daybreak— the roads will be quieter for your journey then— and I wiU engage a trustworthy escort. You are drinking nothing, Mr. Anstruther ; fiU your glass, and we will drink a toast we understand," he broke off, and passed his wine-cup over a carafe of water in token of the King beyond the seas. A DUEL IN THE DAWN. 3, We drank the toast with grave deUberation, and then a silence feU between us, while I for one was divided between shame and a sense of what was due from me to an older man whom I had so recently insulted. For a moment I fought against the truer impulse, but it con- qiiered me at last. " My lord," I said— and I knew that my face was crimson-"! was guilty of unpardonable rudeness this afternoon. I spoke of my birth and— and of yours— and— I am ashamed, mv lord." ^ " Tut-tut ! " cried he, passing the bottle once again. " If I were to regret so keenly aU my own little faults of temper, why, Mr. Anstruther, I should not find life bearable. Say no more of it, sir— say no more of it." He was generous in the matter; I felt as much, even while I sought for some explanation of his change of front. For he grew even warmer as the evening wore toward candle-time ; no host could have been more suave, more kindly, and I began to hate myself for doubting him. Yet, as I took my candle that night and went upstlirs betimes in readiness for to-morrow's early start, I could not rid myself of the suspicion that he 32 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE, encouraged me so heartily simply because he hoped that the chances of war would remove one who held a dangerous secret. I was at an age, I fancy, to think lightly of such chances save those which promised high renown ; and I feU asleep weU pleased with my own cleverness in guessing my lord's purpose, and weU satisfied that I should thwart the same by coming safe through all. I did weU, perhaps, to enjoy while I might my innofcent self-satisfaction, for the morrow was to show-and that in no doubtful terms-with what little skill I had probed Lord Mrange's wihness. NeU was down to give me break-ast, though the sun was barely quit of the horizon-mists as yet, and all the world was fresh still with the scents and music of the dawn. My lord too was down, and he left us Httle leisure for a good- bye, which, now that it showed so near at hand struck wondrous chill and drear. But NeU's glance as I kissed hSr hand and whispered " Wait " was something to remember through the days to come--something of which not Lord Strange himself could beggar me. Six solemn Lowlanders, belonging to my lord s retinue, awaited me outside the great main A DUEL IN THE DAWN. 33 door. They were weU horsed, and armed with t r T = '"' "^ °- -S ^*°°<1 ready for me w.th a scanty change of wearing-gear Lord Strange, a last glance from NeD, and I was off to seek my fortunes ; and I wondered, L^^ gay m keepmg with the mom, that my backward g ance at Nell, Just before we tumedVcor^ dUX ir:. f^r^ ^ '-^ ^^ « and I thought little of my companions for the first ew miles. Two rode ahead-to show the to foUow the one beaten highway-the rest foUowed at a score yards or so with a^Tt'"' ' "° "'" '"''' '°^'' I ™"«ered with a laugh, commg out of a long reverie. I looked about me-from the hedgerows pearl-beaded with the dew, to the pasturllands' ttrbaTf*"^'^' ''' ^^^'-™^ '^- ^--« their backs, from the pastures to the flaked blue It was aU wondrous sweet and crisp, and Nell's ace went dancing by me as I rode' And then I looked at the sun again, and felt a quick in stmctive doubt. ^ ' D 34 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " What is this ? " I cried, drawing rein on the sudden. " The sun is constantly on our left hand, and we should be faring north, not south." I thought a wrinkled smile passed from one to another of the Scotchmen— Lord Strange's sort of smile, so thin that it seemed they had but the one fuU grin among them, and must therefore use it sparingly. "There's mony a chiel gangs south who thinks he should gang north," said one of them, as if he were quoting from a godly psalm. I misliked their look, and I misliked this little-courteous speech. A hanging cloud of smoke, moreover, showed in the far distance of the road, and I knew at last— what only a lover or a fool would have failed to guess long since— that it was London we were bound for. What did it mean ? A score of suspicions came to me ; but there was nothing cle-... save that I had no mind to find myself in London. I wheeled about, but only to find that the four who rode behind me spread out across the road, and each of them laid a hand upon his claymore-hilt as though he loved it like a first-bom. My father's admirable training stood me in good stead, for I was able, remembering the many pleasant oaths which he A DUEL IN THE DAWN. 35 had taught me. to ease my feelings by such abuse of the SIX stout Lowlanders as only their own mot eMongue could have surpassed/ Yet at ti: less thev Tr" """'-^'^-dour, grim, relent- less they sat their saddles as if no force op th ecu r I move them. last'-' ".;"" "° "^'^'y ^^°™. laddie," said one at last , no badly sworn for a Southron. Hech mon, but it's a sinful waste o' breath, for we' had varra careful orders to see ye safe to yoT-r journey's end." ^^^ '' And whereis that?" I snapped. Nay, ye will ken a' i' euid tim» r «^..ddie,forit'nma.rirUr As I live, I relished those few moments not at sight of that m the bitterness of knowing that Pril cT ■• "^ ''' "'""^^'^ '"y -^°lve to join Pnnce Charhe ; and after this I had not scrupled to taunt one whose enmity I should at all costs have avoided. I saw it aU in a flash : my lor J abrupt change Of front, his eagerness «!:; should fare across the border, his kindly wish to see me safely escorted through the more d'angero,!; 36 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. country about London— they meant no more than that he had framed a plot which did credit to his mgenuity. I knew, as well as if I held the proof of it, that these six rascals were pledged to take me to the Tower, there to be handed over to Government as a rebel, and likely hanged as soon as Government foimd leisure to look after me. True, I might expose my knowledge of his lordship's " papers from the Prince " ; but my word would be discredited, and his own innocence would only show the clearer by reason of his zeal in securing my imprisonment. All this ran through my brain ; and when I turned my horse, wth no word said, and rode forward once again in the direction of that thick- ening cloud of smoke, I was so exquisitely alive with wrath that strength, resource, and cunning were strangely quickened. I would "come cannily " with my lord's men ; I would seem to throw up the sponge ; but the first chance that offered should find me more than ready. We journeyed for a matter of a mile, it may be, and still no loophole of escape had shown itself. My resolution faltered once or twice, I own ; but each time I took a firmer grip of the saddle, and set my teeth, and said to myself that A DUEL IN THL DAV'N. 37 I would find a way out of this, if the odds against me were twelve instead of six to one. And by- and-by, when I least looked for it, ray oppor- tunity showed plain, for in a pasture-field that lay on our right hand at the turning of the way we came upon a pretty scene. Two gentlemen were facing each other on the sward, stripped to their rufHed shirts, and the sun struck points of light from off their sword-blades as they settled into position. Behind each combatant his second stood, and under a great elm tree, not far re- moved, a couple of grave-faced leeches watched and waited. Between the duellists and us was a high wooden fence, with a little stream at the far side of it. I had glanced idly at the combatants at first ; and then a thrill ran through me— the thrill of blind impulse — and I took in every detail of the scene with one quick glance. My guards, seeing me so tame and well behaved, were riding in loose order. Before they guessed my aim, I had driven my horse back as far as the width of the road permitted, had given a piercing yeU as I drove my spurs well home, and was flying like a swallow over that ugly six-barred fence that would have unseated any but a madman. A 3« ^^^ER THE WHITE COCKADE madman I was at the moment • but I M, ■ gay. and I remember thini" ^"* ^ ^^^* P«smg topmost Of the leaped J^d T. ' "* '' ''^ dance . minuet beneath Te^l . '""^^ ^"^^ bidden me loam Tood dt^' ""^ ^""'^'^ ^^^ ;hese,entiem:rorirr;hrr teTtr,r™'"-^-'-r^ chance "/;4;''^« again -thout mis- saw the foremo? oV h^e S^ t^H ""' ' *""''"^' ' strange antics on the sword j"™ '^''°™'"« tance his horse lav fl ^ ' '"'' '' ^ ^'"^^ dis- Thisgavemel "^^ r""''""^ ^ the stream, warned by th mLh' """"' ^'^^^ ""^ ^^"°-. --rb;r;e;tdTt"'T '"'--- blades were ^bou^o t^ *"™!'^'J-' ^ ^^eir dear the fence A mo 1 ^""^ '^^° ">« drawn rein beside th '"°"' ^"'^ ^ •>-d ground. ^' *'''" ^"^ h-d slipped to " Gentlemen," I ea,H ^ ,- «-e. "it is ag ins ul J ' "''"^ ^* "^ between crossed blades but I TT *° ^""^ to show you." ^ ^^"^ '^"er sport I -de the request as if it had nothing more ing the rth ad lat ly A DUEL IN THE DAWN. 39 radettf!;"^"''^^'"^"^"-*- friend; made ,t, mdeed. so cooUy that they stared at me and one-a bullet-headed rogue, with a red fTc a.d^ devU-.ay-care bright eyes-laughed o"! sum'l'^""'*'' ''"■■" '' '"'"'• "y°"'^« '=°°1 « the summers mom itself. You come here like Old Nick astride a broom, and " through" z ::::X"T^-^^^' ^"'^^^ ^'^^ meadow come "Tile" '"' '""""^ *° ^''^ i-uraer. nme presses, sir, and if vou cannot let your duel wait, why, I must say good day and trust to my horse's heels again " one Jh'^ ^^"t you?" said the bullet-headed one, as he leaned his sword-point carelessly against the ground and bent the blade into a crescent Ay, sir, they want me," I rejoined. " And so does the Scotch lord who bade them see me sale to prison by trickery." " What, have you stolen his lordship's purse or^merely kissed his women-folk behind the' " The latter, to be canHiH '■ t „„, . , . ' " L-e canaid. I answered, echoing his own cheery laugh. I think my spirits were infectious, or they matched the temper of their own. At any rate! 40 JNDER THE WUrTE COCKADE barlf unft, J "ucjiist cjaj ped me on the with a bow to his .,-..d-„,-,. •'' °'^' '""'"'S The other responded with a salute as sweeping It W.U g,ve n,e the greatest pleasure, sir to ^youmaquarterofanhour-stimeins'teTd;; Again we all laughed merrily; and then tt L*. enemy's strength incr'ised now l' the add:t,on of the fallen man-who, wit! .is horse, seemed not much the worse fo, Lis a, .en ture-and seeing them all advance upon us\2th drawn blades, we looked at one anoL asW wh.ch way were best to meet the ho^et^ Our own horses, with the exception of mine' reach them, d m any case I think we aU pre- iTt f m f^ r ''"''• --^'""^ *» ^^ ^ashTn most famJiar to us. My bullet-headed friend und k"'n^ ' ''°''- °" '""^ *°P °^ -^-h wa^^a round knoU, covered thick with rocks and fur« A DUEL IN THE DAWN. 4, and prickly shrubs ; he pointed to it after a moment's thought, and soon we were following him to this vantage-ground with all the speed that we could muster. It was good, my faith, to see those dour Scotch faces as they learned our plan too late • they could have cut us to ribbons a moment since, but now we were so securely guarded against a cavalry attack that they had no re- source save to dismount. I could not but admire the fellows. I confess. They never halted nor thought, it seemed, of retreat ; they just came on with whirling broadswords, and before I had recovered from the surprise of my mad escapade we were fighting for our lives. The leeches would have thrown in their lot with ours, but we bade them keep whole skins against the time when most of us might need their services ; and so it was SIX against five-six canny devUs, with swords four times the weight of ours, and five laughter- shaken gentlemen who would not see any but the droll side of the matter. But of these five four were practised duellists ; and if my own sword were less tiicd, it was time I learned experience from my betters. We had, moreover, the advan- tage of the ground, and the game, aU points con- 4= UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE, sidered. was as fairly matcher' as if a kindly Provdence had made all due arrangements for us. We did not laugh ..ftc. ihe first clash of blades. We had no breath k, it, indeed, nor leisure, for the broadsword claims a respect peculiarly its own. Hotter the fight grew ; ou. breath began to come fitf.'ly, then in light sobs, till I, for one. could feel my heart come lumbering up against my ribs. Heavy strokes from the Scotchmen, and quick flashes from our own light blades, followed one the other ceaselesly. I was touched twice upon the body, and I heard the bullet- headed fellow, fighting on mv right, rap out a sudden oath i„ token that he. too. was hurt Swift, stubborn, and entrancing it all was • the world was shrunk to a patch of fur.y heath, and all the gladness in the worid was centred in the sunlit whirr of blades that never rested. I got my man at last high up toward his shoulder-blade; and at the same moment the bullet-headed duellist, for aU his wound, sent up a merry cry. "We have them, gentlemen!" he cried breathing hard between the words. "By the luck of Our Lady, charge ! " And charge we did. right down upon the Scots, ■ A DriEL IN THE DAWN. 43 who had momentarily given way before us. Before they could raUy we were through them ; we raised a wild, low cheer of victory, and circled round them with such quick turns and feints and shif tingsof our ground that they grewas bewildered as if a hive of bees were buzzing round them. Even their hard courage failed them ; again they wavered, then broke and fled for dear Ufe down the slope. Two of them, thrust through the thigh, dropped headlong as they ran, but the rest made for their horses which stood tethered to thp gate. " We must stop them t " I yelled, r.icing hot- foot after them. " Ay, marry," growled the bullet-headed one, "or they'll raise the hue and cry before we've settled our interrupted duel." With what little wind was left us we gave them a fast race to the gate, overtook them, turned them, dismayed yet and unable to rally for one last stand, and drove them in a scattered line up the steep hill again. This done, we cast an eye over their honses, and found that we should not benefit by the exchange ; so, unslipping their bridles, we gave them each a touch of the sword-point and sent 44 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. them racing weU beyond the reach of present capture. My own horse stood where I had left him, regarding the scene with pricked ears and wondrous eager eyes; I whistled to him, got to back, and sat for a moment looking down upon my comrades— friends now, though not long since they had been less even than acquaintances. "Gentlemen," 1 said, "it is something rude to leave in haste after having claimed your leisure ; but what would you, when there are four resourceful Scots still on their teet-and still bent on taking me, I warrant ? " "Sir," said the bullet-headed one, reaching up one hand and wiping a cheek-cut with the other, " we have to thank you for a frolic. We came a league from town this morning to seek a light, and, gad, we've found it ! " Each in turn reached up a hand— one his left, for the right was useless by his side. And a keen regret was with me as I bade farewell, that I must part from four such light-hearted blades as soon as I had tried their mettle. Thrice I turned about in the saddle after going through the gate, and the third glance showed me that the princi- pals had gravely taken their ground again, and A DUEL IN THE DAWN. 45 that the seconds, too hurt to stand unaided, were kneeUng each behind his man and ordering the conduct of their interrupted duel. I was to see life m Scotland ; but amongst the wannest of my recollections is that of my friendly, gay quartette, ready to fight with or against any man at any moment of the day. My northward road lay, of necessity, past Lord btrange's house, which I had left with less expenence an hour or so agone. It was still early and the close-barred look of doors and windows stirred a fresh frolic in my blood. It was a lad's tnck, I know; but I could not hold back from It. Glancing behind me to make sure that none of my late guard were on my track, I cantered up the smooth, broad drive and stopped beneath Lord Strange's window. My shouts brought forth a nightcapped head. " I come to bid farewell a second time, my lord," I cried. " My thanks for the guard, which IS trusty as your honour." He looked as if a ghost had serenaded him. and then he withdrew his head, and I, with a thought of pistols, turned my rein. As I did so a window opened over the main door, and the edge of the dearest face in England peered at me 46 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. slantwise from a Ufted comer of the curtain I stopped, although delay was risky. " Give me a gage, Nell ! " I cried, careless of all eavesdroppers. "A gage, dear lass! For there'U luck go with the gift." There was a pause, broken by a pistol-bullet which touched my ear; and then a kerchief light as thistledown and fragrant as Nell's self came floating from tjie window over the main door. I made a white cockade from that same kerchief; and aU the luck it brought me you shall read, if these rough-written memoirs lead you further on the road to Scotland. Ah, weU ! Time wags. But that summer's mom, which saw me win a fight and claim a ladys kerchief, shows crisp and merry to me as If stiU the dawn were breaking over Lord Strange s house, and 1 were watching Nell's face peep from the lifted blind. CHAPTER III. THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. YOUNG men and old have this trait in common - hey both regard their own fortunes, their own teehngs, as the keynote of the world. Old men disguise it better, even to themselves ; they lack the fresh, compelling candour of the boy, who looks all men in the face and says, " See me, I am a>mmg high, and there's nothing worthier than success— than my success." I was two-and-twenty when I left Lord Strange s house, with the daughter's kerchief in my breast and the father's pistol-bullet whistling past my ear ; I was two-and-twentv. and on my way to join Prince Charlie, whose name had magic m .t. SmaU wonder that I fancied every man must know my business and approve it and that I felt a something, quick and warm and notous, go singing through my blood The country was full of smouldering rumours as I went north ; news travelled slowly from far 48 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. Scotland, and every taphouse gossip-monger was free to give, with circumstantial detail, the plan of Charlie's route, the forces he had mustered, the number of the men he hoped to win in England. One thing was sure — that in every county the better sort of men, the squires and so forth, were hot for the Stuart cause ; no man could halt at so many taverns as did I, and listen to the tongue-wagging, and not be sure that Prince Charlie had more supporters than the reigning King. And this seemed natural ; for even I, who knew more of impulse than of sober pohtics, could understand that CharUe's cause was England's cause. The Stuarts were our own, of the same blood ; the Georges, with no grace of mind or body to recommend them, were alien to the soil. I have lived long since then, and times have changed, and they tell me that all has worked together for the best, now that we have a settled Throne and prosperous days. That may be, but to this hour it seems strange to me that all dignity, aU sense of God-sent privilege, has been removed from Royalty, leaving it a bare, wooden thing, carved in the image of what once had life. At any rate, there were thousands of generous THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. 49 hearts iu England here going out to Charhe in the North, and I met few who, lukewarm as they might be for the cause, could yet find aught to say for George's claims. The further north I got— I took the western route through Lan- cashire—the deeper grew the general unrest, the wilder the rumours of coming battle. Some said that aU the Highlands were up for the Stuarts, and that the Lowlands waited only for the Prince's coming to join his company. The Lancashire gentry, indeed, were fuller of zeal than any I had met with yet, and talked openly, in tavern and in market-place, of their readiness to take up arms for Charlie. It was. as if the ancient days were back, when Mary Stuart's name was like the breath of violets in the land, and men were moved to desperate hazards by chivalry alone. Ah, how that northward ride of mine comes back to me ! The busy streets of Ashbourne on a market day, the sunlit roofs of Macclesfield, the softened grimness of old Lancaster. They were to witness much, these streets, although I could not know it as I rode upon my eager quest. They were to see the wild Hielandmen come down, with strange weapons in their hands and the so UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. battle-hunger in their eyes, to conquer London ; they were to see the backward march, and strong men weeping for their shame, and bonnie Charlie riding, a figure of sorrow, on a jaded horse, a mile behind their rear. But this, thank God, was hid from us, and by the time I reached Carlisle I was assured that we had only to ride south to have all England with us. At Carlisle I was icompelled to he three days to rest my horse, and the city was full of a curious unrest. They were nearer than they liked to Scotland, and memories of the old-time raids were passed between the greybeards. Already they were making preparations in the Castle — that luckless Castle of Carlisle which seems to have been built only to be taken by the first enemy that came beneath its walls. There was surer news here of the Prince's doings ; and when I heard, on the third morning, that his army was marching upon Perth I got to saddle gaily, feeling that at last I was Hearing all that made life love-worthy. Through the Lowlands I went, with the glamour of the cause about me, and in my heart a gaining love for the Prince whom I had never seen. It was Hearing candle-time as I rode into THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. j, Dunblane, saddle-sore indeed, but fuU of the news wh.ch I had lately gleaned in Edinburgh-tri news, nan^ely, that Prince Charlie, whom I had ndden many a score miles to meet, was lying T K\r^ "° ''''''''' °ff *han Perth. M through the journey I had been picturing how my meetmg w^.th the Prince would come to pass -d what fashioned gaUant he would prove.'aTd Ma^ A rH' "-^"^^^ ^"^ ^-*^^"' that I. Maunce Anstruther, had ridden so far to place my sword-blade at his service. Truly 71 young for two-and-twenty i talked"v^S."h-"" kk' ''™^"*' ^"^ -'^h -- taJked w,th his neighbour of the Highlanders who lay so near the town. The folk seemed aU to be m a panic, and they were certainly in no good mood toward the Prinrp • J„^« a ^ ° sooa h,lf u .. ' '"'^^''^' ™y sword was half unsheathed three times or .so between the outskirts of the village and my tavern. Yet prudence was a growing quality with me-'tis in the air up here, I fancy-and I held back from demanding satisfaction for insults to a Prince who^ as yet was a name to me and nothLg Weary saddle-sore, unable to shake off my ^n at hearing a fair name fouled, I gave my spli 52 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. horse to the ostler and strode into the tavern with a brief and scarcely civil call for supper. " I have but the one room, sir, and two gentlemen are there already," said the host. " Have they the plague, that you should not wish me to share their company ? " I snapped. " Why, no ; but I thought you maybe looked for quiet." , " I look for supper and a bottle of wine, and after that ten hours of bed. And be speedy, host, lest I should forget my stomach in a nap, and wake the worse for it." He opened the door of a low, stuffy room, rich with the mingled odours of snuff, tobacco, and old ale-droppings. I entered, and by the light of the candles set upon the mantel I saw two gentlemen seated by the hearth, each with a pot of liquor in his hand. At lea."!, they wore the air of gentlemen, but. one of them was smoking a clay pipe so black and stunted that a hackney coachman would have looked askance at it. They tunned as I came in and bowed most civilly ; and I, on my part, bowed in response and muttered that the night was fine. The strangers courteously agreed, with the suggestion THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. 53 that the wind was softening for rain, and then they asked me if I had ridden far. "Stirling was my last i«sti„g.place on mv way from Edinburgh." I answered, availing my- self of the space they made for me before the hearth It was September, but the warmth of the peat fire was welcome. The one who smoked the unclean pipe turned qu.ldytome.andlnotedthathiseyerasthey rested for a moment upon mine, were curiously bnght, yet soft for all that. " What are they saying, sir, in the capital ' » he^asked. " It is long since I trod Edinburgh ^J,"^^7 ^'' '^^"® *''"* P™'^'' Charlie is a daft caUant-and that he is a rebel-and that he ,s the Lord's Anointed," I laughed. " My' irintdUurg^r^ "° ^^° ^'^^^ ^^^ i- oart'Lf ; ^?"' ^'""■"^ •' ^'^^y ''' ^ -«« thing man, a wide-shouldered, goodly looking Scot. Their talk, for the most part, does not suggest so much. They are strengthening the Castle garrison, moreover, and the city is look >ng to its guard. As for Dunblane here, the 54 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. think the Prince is brother to Old townsfolk Nick." My voice was testy, and I saw the two of them cross glances. " Your opinion differs, sir, if I may hazard a conjecture ? " said the man with the black pipe. I spread my hands above the peats with a mighty nonchalant air. "I'm but a plain Englishman, travelling for pleasure," I said. " Faith, what should I know of His Highness or his merits ? " " True," put in the wide-shouldered Scot, and I thought there was some dry laughter under- neath his words. " True ; His Highness's merits are not yet voiced upon the housetops. You choose an unlikely time, sir, as I live, for a visit to this country." Misgiving seized me. Had I allowed my tongue too loose a rein when speaking of the Dunblane folk ? It might be so, for I was a 'prentice hand at pnidence yet, and my two companions had exchanged more than one mean- ing glance. To cover my uneasiness, I put a thumb and forefinger into the snuff-box on the mantel and dusted each of my nostrils in their turn. THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. 55 " Indeed, sir," I answered slowly, " I find httle pleasure in my travels, unless there be danger here and there to salt the journey. And yet I scarcely think *he Government would on that account suspect me of any disaffection toward the reigning house." " Well, that may be ; but yet it is curious you should speak of this Pretender lad as His Highness, as you did awhile smce. It had a rebel ring with it, I thought." Do as I would, that tell-tale blush came mounting to my cheeks- -the blush for which my father had been wont to rail at me three times a day at least. The man w>h the black pipe was eyeing me gravely all this while ; and each time that I met his glance I was conscious of a feehng I could not explain-a compulsion and a charm in one. His next words altered that however. ' " Pardieu, sir," said he, using an oath that was not common on our side the English Channel, I trust that your wit is equal to your comeli- ness, and that you are not bent on following this mad Prince to the gallows." " I am bent, sir, on eating a good supper as soon as the] fool-host^will serve me>ith it." I 56 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. answered briefly. " As for the Prince, I have never yet set eyes on him." " You have not missed much," he went on, with an easy impudence that maddened me. " They say the yellow-haired laddie is well enough if a woman or a wine-flask is to be conquered, but that his talents scarcely go beyond." , His companion smiled drily, and I wondered that I still kept silence'. " Besides, I hear that he is apt to leave good comrades in the lurch when danger threatens," went on the first .nan, taking some tobacco from a purse as dirty as the pipe itself and slowly ramming it into the bowl. My temper, frayed too roughly, snapped on the sudden. New lessons were forgotten, and aU my old impulsiveness leaped out. "The next time you hear it, sir, give him that says it a cut across the cheek," I flashed. He only seemed amused, as i{ he had a chUd to deal with. "Indeed!" said he. "But why, I pray you ? " y f *y "Because he «es— because all lie who say that the Prince is less than his weU-wishers think him." THREE JOLLY JACOBITES, 57 My faith, I had no hear! f ,r strategy One swift regret I had. to have been trapped into self-betrayal so easUy ; and ilien regret went by the board. I cared not ; if they were spies- and I had no doubt of it In this-the- ni^-ht test the mettle of my -.word-blvJ.' I.ete and now Instmctively I glanced about nio, ,eekiig a place of vantage from which I might ke, p up a fi^ht against the double odds. The man seemed lacking in the least spark of passion ; he lit a tinder-stick at the fire before repiymg, and blew a cloud of evil-smelling sn.ol e from out his pipe. Tlien. "You are warm ma foi," he said, " and you have less prudence,' after all, than comeliness." " Hark ye, sir ! " I cried hotly. " r have heard enough of treason for one day. There was no huckster in Dunblane, as I passed through but had your sort of sneer upon his lips. The Prmce was this, and the Prince was that, accord- ing to the foul mind of his backbiters." He shrugged his shoulders, and smiled again. "The Pretender wears fine feathers; you'U age in time,"my lad," he said drily. That was the last touch. I turned and seized the ale-pot resting on the table at liis elbow, and 'Hi 58 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. was about to fling the contents in his face — when the broad-shouldered Scot, who had been laugh- ing at the quarrel rntil now, got sharply to his feet. " Hold, laddie ! " he cried, seizing my arm. " A jest's a jest, but I wadna carry it ower far if I were ye." His voice had dropped into the broad- est Scotch, though heretofore his English had been smooth and chiselled as his comrade's. I stared at him. " A jest, sir ? " I spluttered. " A jest ? I do not understand. I mean to sting this fellow into fight ; and, by th I ord Harry, I'll thrash him through the town if he refuses." But the Scot still kept his hand upon my sword-arm ; and a tighter grasp, or one that made me wince with pain more exquisite, I never have experienced. His comrade, not moving a hair's-breadth from his seat, puffed out another cloud of smoke. " I refuse your challenge, sir, and I deny your right to name me coward." " Indeed, and do you ? " I cried. " I'm grieved, sir, that you will find no gentleman of iionour to support your view of it." "Any gentleman would support me," he went on quietly. " There is in the imwritten IS II THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. 59 code, if you remember, a law to the effect that a Prince need not accept a duel with a subject." He was playing with me, this fellow with the queer brown eyes and self-assured demeanour Agam I felt a qualm, for the Scot had not released my arm, and I saw with sufficient clearness that they would not let me fight, but meant to appre- hend me by brute force. " Spare me further jests," I said sourly. " I mistook you for gentlemen, and find that you are spies. Pardon me the error." " I did not say I was a spy, but that I was a Prince," put in my enemy. ''One tale will serve as weU as another, doubt- less," said I, minded to be as ironical as he. " Of what country, sir, are you a Prince ? Of Newgate, may be, or the Kingdom of the Thieves ? " "Nay, of a fairer country. They call me Charlie Stuart, and some think that I'm a Prince of Scottish blood." The room spun round me. Was he mocking me still, or was it truth ? I recalled the charm, as of a kingliness suppressed, which had been broken by his rough handhng of the Prince's name. What did it mean? My companions were shaking with laughter all this while, and I 6o UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. could see that they were making the most of my bewilderment. Yet they laughed like honest men ; and when they bared their breasts to me, and showed me the white cockade close hidden there, I knew not what to think. "Forgive me, sir, if I tried your loyalty a trifle over far," said he with the black pipe. " Faith, your Highness, he knows not whether to believe you now ! " put in his friend. The other's glance met mine with friendly straightforwardness. " Laddie," he said, " we three need none of us have doubts. I am the Prince ; and you, as I live, are loyal to the point of recklessness. It is a temper that I like to meet with." I could not doubt him now. The mask was off, and I, who had ridden far to meet the Prince, was weU content to find him at the end— to find him as he was, black pipe and all. " Sire," I said, dropping to my knee, " I came to fight for ycu." " God give you fortune, lad," he said, and then he lifted me as a step sounded down the passage; for it was perilous in those days to be discovered kneeling to anyone who had brown eyes and a figure like the Prince's. Iiii> I ii \ ■ WE THREE NEEU NONE OF US HAVE DOUBTS. V THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. 6i It was the serving-maid bringing in my supper, and after she was gone His Highness would hear of nothing less than my sitting down forthwith to table. " But, sire," I cried, " I cannot sit at meat, and see you there without a dish before you." He got to his feet at once and placed a chair for himself at the comer next my own. " You have two plates there, I see ; I pray you, give me one," he said. " And now that I have robbed you of one coUop out of four, I pray you, sir, begir for you look sadly over-ridden." I fell to with a vigour that did me credit, while the Prince ate sparingly, and watched me as if it did him good to see a healthy appetite. It was not till I had finished that I fount, time to remember all that I had said to Prince Chariie during the late controversy; and I found no great comfort in the recollection. So seriously had I ridden in quest of him, and with such buoyant faith in the romance that led me on ; and at the end of aU I had sought to fasten a tap-room brawl upon the object of my loyalty. " Your Highness," I stammered, feeling vastly ill at ease, " I suspected you of being a spy just now." i^s^BS%^^'ist::iMjxsMxxiJ^nim mrAMMijmi]ii i imK B ma Km m ■J ii 'SMaraig'.'MM'iiBt ; i 62 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " True ; 'twas mighty ungenerous of you," said he with a mellow laugh. " I— I sought a duel with you." '' r faith you did, and that was treasonable." " I said you lied, sire, and offered to whip you through the town. Sire, I'm a fool— the first of all the Anstruthers who ever was, my father says." He laid a hand on mine. " Mr. Anstruther —that is your name. I take it— I would wish to meet more fools of your kidney ; and, if you need proof of my regard for you, I will tell vou why my friend MacGregor here and I find ourselves so far from Perth, where all my army lies." The broad-shouldered Scot who answered to the name MacGregor gave a dry cough. " Is it wise, your Highness ? " he muttered. "Perfectly wise. Look you, MacGregor, I never yet could trust a man by halves, and Mr. Anstruther has brought my boyhood back to me." It was left-handed praise, my faith, to one who began to think himself a man indeed ; but I cared not whether the Prince thought me a boy or not, so only he was pleased to give me appro- bation. l^^Mi:tSKii BS^^Uiii ■ .«K.:vj THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. 63 " A word in your ear, though, Mr. Anstruther," went on His Highness, turning to me quickly. " Our meeting here has been so unlocked for and so curious that when you said you had come to fight fa me I accepted your services at once. Yet thmk awhile. You are young, and the world's betore you. Will you not choose, while there is time, some enterprise less hazardous ? " What was ray happiness to him, that he should scruple to avail himself of one more sword-arm ' Nothing ; but I was to learn that another man's happmess was precious to him as his own— and this, I take it, is the kingliest weakness that a man can have. I lifted my head, and our eves met and chnched the matter. " Sire, I will go your way, not mine," I said. Captain MacGregor lost half his doumess on the sudden, and came and took my hand. " Mr Anstruther," said he, ' yc Iiae an unco' honest ring about ye, for a' tlie woild like guid steel rmging on a man's skull-bonr." This, as I afterwards tame to learn, was praise as fine as the big Scot had at his command ; and, after I had given him a hand-gnp that was some- wliat feebler than his own, we .settled, all three t/Kon . T" -^ rjj^jmma a i a m ^ sa 64 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. of us, about the hearth, and had fresh measures of liquor brought, while the Prince told me, in a few crisp words, the mission that brought him- self and Mi-Gregor so far from the quarters of his arm J His explanation enlightened me a little as to a matter which even to-day is some- what perplexing to my English mind — the laws, namely, that bind a Scottish clan and chief to- gether. For there was a great band of Camerons, it seemed, in this neighbourhood, and its chief, Dugald Cameron, lived scarce a league from Dunblane town. All the clan, and Dugald's wife, and Dugald's sons, were hot for the Prince, but the old fox himself would not imperil his pros- perity by joining the rebellion. The Prince had tried persuasion fruitlessly, and he and MacGregor had come to-night to the chief's wife privily in Dunblane, had learned from her that old Dugald was more than ever inclined toward the Govern- ment, but that she had one more card to play that night, and that she would send them instant word in case her suit should prosper. " And so we wait here, Mr. Anstruther," the Prince finished, " with little hope of the result. I have let you share our secrets — why, think you ? " THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. 65 " I cannot guess, sire." " Because I am a Scot in superstition, and because, from the first moment I set eyes upon your face to-night, a quiet voice whispered in my ear that you would bring me luck. That is why I drew you into talk, to try you ; that is why I ask you what were best to be done supposing-as is likely, seeing the hour grows late— that Lady Cameron has no word to send to us to-night." I shifted uneasily in my chair. His Highness's confidence in me was gratifying, doubtless ; but It was embarrassing as well, for I had not the smallest inkling of counsel or suggestion. " What were best to be done ? " I echnrd. " The intricacies, sire, of this clan system that you speak of are all so new and puzzling to me." " They would puzzle the deuce himself, I own," he laughed, "unless, indeed, the deuce were a native of the country, as our enemies assert. Yet, if one comes to think of it, Mr. Anstruther," he went on slowly, and with a meaning I tried hard to guess, ' its laws in some respects are very simple. Suppose Dugald Camero!!, by accident, were to be incapable of directing the m eU-being of the clan ? Hi.^ eldest f •?1 66 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. son would claim their fealty, and would bring the whole clan, as I know, straight to my camp at Perth." I began to understand him in a measure. " Some accident, your Highness ? " I echoed. " Yes ; the gravity of the situation war- rants accidents, since there are six hundred men in question. But I think Dugald has an eye to that. He never goes abroad without a guard ; and at home, his lady tells me, he lives as if an enemy were laying siege to him." " And you wish me to secure his person, sire ? " I said, as a light broke in on me. " You put it bluntly," laughed the Prince. " Let us suppose, now, you cotdd make him prisoner. It would be greatly to your credit, I own. Neither MacGregor nor myself, you see, could trick Dugald's canny eyes, or we should long ago have tried some strategy." " If I could only do it ! " I murmured, more to myself than to him. " All Scotchmen are objects of suspicion to Dugald now," he went on after a pause ; " and I, Mr. Anstruther, though I thank Our Lady that I cannot hide my birth, am somewhat incon- venienced by it at times." THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. «; My spirits rose at a bound. There were great ^akes to be played for here, and I was proud to be a pawn in this game where opposing kings and castles met upon a board that covered two wide countries. "This chief, sire, of the Camerons-what weakness has he ? '■ I asked. •• There's no rogue so canny but he's a fool on some one point " " vl' ^V^^Z J'^** "^^^ **'"'■"•" ^'""^'J Charles. Yes, Dugald has a weakness, and one that rides hmi-he cannot keep from sucking honey at a woman's lips." y ti a shall 5*''' * r" ^""^ ^"^ *'^"'''"S' ^"d ever shaUhave; buttherecametomenow. ina fr!^' T , °'' ^""'^ P'^"^ "'"^»' -«"" to frame themselves without our will or effort ' "You want this Dugald Cameron's person sire, without violence ? " said I. «h=.n ^ f ' ''"*■ "" ^ "^'' ^'- Anstruther. you shaU not move unless you tell me all your plans • and, 1 there's danger to yourself in the adventure,' 1 shall not let you go." " May I leave you awhile, your Highness ? I am country-bom. and only by walking in the night a,r can I cool my wits. When I have shaped my plan. I will return and teU you of it " "laoconr msoiution ibt chart (ANSI ond JSO ItST CHAUT t^o. 2) 1^ ; 1^ ■■ ■ 2.2 ii ■■i 4.0 fllmm l£ ^llll^l 1.6 /APPLIED IM/CE Ine 1S53 Eost Main StrMt Rocti«Ur, Niw York 14609 US* (716) 4B2- 0JOO-Phon« (716) 26a- 5989 -Fo» 68 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. He signed to me to go, and I heard MacGregor, who plainly had miscalculated the keenness of my ears, murmur to the Prince : " What ailed you, sire, to claim this laddie's help ? " And the Prince answered with a laugh : "What ailed me to land in Scotland, with seven men, to iight a kingdom ? What will always ail me, in qommon with Mr. Anstruther himself ? " I heard no more, as I turned down the passage and went as far as the open door of the kitchen, for my wish for fresh air was a ruse, and I was minded to try the success of my wild plan before I ventured into the maw of Dugald Cameron. Besides, His Highness had enjoyed considerable laughter at my expense, and perhaps I might return it in the same good- humoured kind. There was no one in the kitchen except the maid who had brought in my supper. By her appearance I judged she was the landlord's daughter, and it suited me well to find her thus alone. " There is a jest afoot," I said abruptly. " I want to play the lady for the benefit of my ■SIX DOWNS 1 HAD TO CHOOSE FROM," I' ' THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. 6, suit the delicacy of my shape ' " said she, .s weel eneuch, but I wadna change It for a lassie's if I were ye." ^ I knew myself in this guise, however as I She had been maid to a lady of quality in the ne^hbourhood. it seemed, and I her Card robe were many of her mistress's abandoned dearly and .t was .n outrageous spirits that I oUowed her upstairs. Six gowns I had to choos from, and none of the daintier sex had ever, surely. .ch hard work to cho^' between contrasting styles. I made my choke fuU-bottomed coat above, such as was then in heigh of fashion; and over my wigged heai to ma^e all trim. I slipped a hood of rufSt br' ^n' The servant-maid cried out as I stood before her m my bravery and took the floor with little minang steps, and she vowed that I looked the lady to the life. I thanked her gravely Ld gravely too I put my arms about h^r ; for' "' was bonme. and my spirits were at flood. ' " I 70 UNDER THE WHITE CCCKADE. " Surely a woman may kiss a woman," I said. She held away from me, yet with a look that bade me persevere. " Great ladies are not in the habit of kissing their tiring-maids," she murmured, with averted tace. " Great ladies condescend at times." " So it is a condescension, sir — to — to kiss me ? " she flashed. And then, remem,bering that the time was slipping by, I brought the matter to the proof ; and her lips were soft as rose petals, with a cling- ing trick about them that I had not known in England. " For a woman, you do it well," she murmured. And so, of coarse, I showed her I could do it better still ; and, when next I remembered the pressing nature of my business and glanced toward the door, I saw a lady standing on the threshold — a lady young and slim, who was regarding this odd scene in which a mistress and tiring-maid kissed with the fervour of sisters long separated. And the lady, young and slim, who stood there, was no other than Mistress Strange, and I was wearing her favour at that moment in my bosom. THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. 7, I have had many moments in my life when Hfe itself seemed doubtful, lost ; yet rarely have I been so moved by despair and heart-sickness as when I met the eyes of my dear mistress. You see, it is so light a matter for a man to kiss a woman— both knowing it is lightness— and yet so hard to explain the thing to any witness. Something of my perturbation must have found its way into my face. My coat, moreover, lay upon the floor, just as I had thrown it down when making preparadon for my change of gear. The tender scene between myself and my own tiring-woman, as I have said, must have worn an unusual air to Mistress Strange, and everything was calculated to arouse suspicion; yet what fixed this same suspicion was a trifle no man would ever think of twice— a trifle which to a woman's mind was proof beyond refutal. But I did not know of this same trifle, and so I set myself to make the be.=t of matters. I curtseyed graciously, and passed good-even with the lady; and she on her part returned my bow with an odd air of mimicry. " I came to seek you, giri," she said, turning to the tiring-maid. "I grew weary of calling for you, and now I know the cause." 72 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " This— this lady sought my help," said the maid, with a frolic in her eyes. " So it would seem. Indeed, she sought your kisses too — truly, a warm-hearted country this, in spite of all they say of it." I felt as foolish as a man uell could do, between the pair of them. A woman is enough at any time to try one's wits, but twa— and each of them with hidden mockery under dulcet tones— are past endurance. Yet the matter had to be faced out, and I did my best. "The country is warm-hearted, madam," I said ; " and this was once a maid of mine. She served me well, and I remember it." " Indeed ! " cried Mistress Strange again, with the same delicate, French lifting of the shoulders. " I will leave you, then, to show more of this rare gratitude." And with that she turned, and was gone before I could ask myself how far she had seen under my disguise. Then she was back in the doorway again, and her ey^ s were on my wearing-gear. " Madam," she said, " if a stranger might offer you advice, I should bir< you not wear spurs beneath a trailing gown ; the gown is a pretty one, and it will suffer." THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. 73 I looked at the tiring-maid. and she laughed as If, my faith, the jest were a richer one than I was finding it. " Damme 1" I muttered, and took a step toward the door, not knowing whether I should teU my lady who I was and trust to her forgive- ness, or whether I had best say nothing until I had resumed my ordinary gear. It was impossi- ble, I told myself, that she should have known me for Maurice Anstruther, her accepted lover though It was very plain that she knew me for a man. My doubts were quickly solved, however for there was no one in the doorway ; only the rustle of skirts far up the stair and the echo of a low disdainful laugh were left to tell me that Mis' tress Strange was here in the same inn with me There is a philosophy in all matters, and no man need be sad for long. So I slipped my arm about the yielding waist of the tiring-maid, and Sweet," I said, " a. weU be hung for a kingdom as a sheep. Let me show you once again how a great lady kisses when her heart is in it." The moments passed pleasantly enough until I remembered what had brought me into this The Pnnce, hard by us in the taproom, was wait- mg all this time untU I should return and tell him 74 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. of .1 plan to secure Dugald Cameron ; and so I gave the tiring-maid a last caress — they .all it " bussing " up in Scotland here, and it is mighty pleasant — and then stood off from her. " Great ladies weary soon," said she, with a glint of her bonnie browr een. " Great ladies have great woik on hand at times, ' said I. "Oh, ay," said she- -and her voice was strangely like Nell Strange's- -" another lass to kiss in the next town, or " What was a man to do, with the girl standing there, slim, inviting, her mouth rounded into a pout of invitation ? There was but the one thing a man could do, and the road of duty was, for once, not rough at all. Indeed, it was wrong to forget the Prince's business, and wrong to let Mistress Strange steal into the cold background of my mind ; but the Scotch air, I think, has some queer influence on a man, and all seemed natural. At any rate, 1 was lecalled to duty by a second interruption — this time from the land- lord, who came in hurriedly to pive some order to his daughter. He entered too hurriedly, in fact, and I put the girl away from me, and felt exceedingly foolish, and cast about for some THREE JOLLY JACOBITES. „ excuse or explanation. The Scotch are tolerant in these matters, it would seem ; for when I looked at the host's face I saw a quiet, sardonic grin upon It, in place of the anger I had looked for " Aweel, aweel," he said, in the midst of my vam stammerings, "I'll „o be saying there's harm in a wee bit buss ; an again I'll no be saying there mightn't be. Jean, lass, ye should hae clouted him ower the lugs ; but ye'U be learn- ing by-and-by.'" For my part, I was busy with my spurs ; f. ■ If the Prince's business was to be forwarded to- night, it was time I set about it. The land- lord watched me as I took off the spurs and shook my gowi.. into its place with a little woman's gesture I had learned from stae«;-craft. "Hoots," he said, still with the same drv quiet smile ; " there's been a wheen o' haverings sm' Pnnce Chariie came back to Perth. Lasses an' lads they've a' run wild, an' now a lad mun don a lass's claes. I'm thinking, sir, ye are just ai> o' the wild Charlie's men-an' guid luck to him for a canty callant." I answered nothing, but laughed to think how near to the Prince was this loyal host, and how little inkling he ha., of it. t6 under the white cockade. " This is a posting house ? " I asked. He said it was, and I ordered a chaise to be ready at the door without delay; and, while I waited for it, I went over in my mind what I should say to the gentlemen who thought that all this whUe I was taking the night air to cool my rustic wit. Remembering, too, how easily I had been discovered, I doffed my boots. My feet are something small for a man's, and the lady's— if I may say it without lack of gallantry —had patently been large. At any rate, I got me, with some hardship, into a pair of buckled shoes, and the landlord laughed his quiet, slow laugh to see me try my paces. "I've seen mony a more ill-favoured lass," he said. CHAPTER IV. HOW DUGALD CAME TO PERTH. When the chaise came, at last. I bade the driver takemeahalfmiledown the road, and then return and dr.- up with a great flourish at the mn-door; for f saw that my chances were far greater of hoodwinking his Highness and Mac- Gregor ,f I seemed to step t of a chaise into the tavern than if I came • hout preamble of any sort^ I had no time to ask for news of Mistress Strange, or to leam how long her stay would be; but it seemed out of question that she would leave that night, and I reckoned con- fidenUy upon another meeting with her AU went smoothly. My driver, though puzzled by the nature of my commands, obeyed them implicitly, and. as the chaise drew up a second time before the door. I stepped UghUy out and tnpped across the passage. Then, after knockmg timidly at the door of the room where my new friends were sitting. I turned the handle 78 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. and went in. On seeing them, I glanced round the chamber and took a backward step or two, as if dismayed, keeping my hood close wrapped. " Your pardon," I said, in a voice as slender as a blackbird's. " I— I looked to find a friend here." The Prince and Mai,Gregor both rose, and each bowed low. " Can I assist you, madam ? " said his High- ness. "There was a gentleman here not long ago " " Was it Mr. Anstruther ? " I asked, still in my dulcet blackbiid voice, and still with trepi- dation. " Yes ; that was his name. He has just left us, and is returning by-and-by." "Ah I I am glad. The roads are lonely— so lonely, and I dread them. You are sure he will return ? " MacGregor laid hs hand upon his heart, and heaven is my witness what self-command it needed to hold my laughter back. " Madam," he said, " I think that Mr. Anstruther will return, knowing who it is awaits him here." " You do not know him," I said sadly, and as if the words slipped from me against my will. HOW DUGALD CAME TO PERTH. 79 "He is a man with men, but with women-oh ! Our Lady pity aU of us who pin their faith to mm 1 " I saw a dark look cross the Prince's face. I Jd not know then that Ughtness in matter of the heart was to him a grave offence. " I should not have thought as much of Mr Anstruther," he said. "Nor I, until it was too late," I murmured, with a sob in the rearward of my voice. " What am I saying ? " I broke off. " You are strangers, and my private interests are less than nothing to you." * Again MacGregor laid his hand upon his heart and bowed bewitchingly. " That we are stranger^ cannot but be a matter of regret to me," he said. Beheve me, madam, my sword is wholly devoted to your service." " Ah, no ! " I shuddered. " Granted he has done me wrong-granted that he will leave me to bear my foUy as I may-I could not see him hurt Besides, they say he has great skill, sir m the duel, and the risk would be too great for yoU." The daft MacGregor bent like a reed which- ever way I chose to blow on him ; and this last 4 |< BJ|i'; [ill 80 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. suggestion, as I knew it would, brought all his fighting temper to the front. " The risk too great ! " said he. " Madam, I may one day find my match, but, by the Lord, 'twill not be this lad Anstruther. Give me your quarrel, and I will right it for you." I still professed reluctance, yet made it plain that I was asking for his help ; and at the last I gave my quarrel to ^im, and he breathed fire and slaughter on my absent self. It was a pleasant moment, such as I like to look back upon. " You shall not regret your kindness, sir," I said softly, and threw my hood back and kissed my gauntlet to him. I have ever admiied MacGregor for his be- haviour under a situation most embarrassing. He looked hard at me awhile, and then he dropped into his chair, with his face as stony as the wall he stared at ; and the one tribute he gave me was a muttered : " Deil tak' the chiel ! I'd like to roast him ower a slow fire ! " As for the Prince, he was speechless for awhile with wonderment, and then he laughed as I have never heard a man, before or since that date, give way to merriment: and after that I ex- HOW DUGALD CAME TO PERTH 8, plained that the jest was equal now on both sides challenge MacGregor to a Your wit ,s pretty, sir." said Charles ".n^ now that we shaU hear fro. La^^cler. '"^^ A chaise is ready at the door I will ,,„ . tioningglance ' • '^^ P"^ '"• with a ques- Gregor'tr'sol"' ^°" "'' ""^ "*^ *^^- «- road- """^ """^"'^"* -nier of the They took my „.eaning. and I left them in i-^€- 82 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. order to get through the business as soon as might be, for the night was wearing on. Another delay awaited me, however; for, as I passed out, the Isiss who had played the part of tiring-maid was coming down the stair. She stopped on seeing me, and set a shapely hand on either shapely hip, and laughed provokingly. " It was a pity you forgot the spurs," said she. I crossed the passage with a freer stride than my garb warranted, wishing to close the laugh in a fashion I had learned already ; but she would none of it, and mounted with me, step by step, till she was at the stair-head and I half-way toward the top. " It seems she knew your face, in spite of all," she said. " Why, how should that be ? " I stammered. " Nay, when a woman loves she can see through any daintiness of garb. Besidet, there was your voice. She had heard it closer to her ear, I warrant, than -" Again I turned to quiet her mockery, but she eluded me. " Oh, it was plain," she said. " I read it in your face at first, and then in hers. And after HOW DUGALD CAME TO PERTH. 83 you were gone she rated me as if— as if I too loved you, which is not true." This was alluring, I confess. To know that a woman busies herself to deny her love for you is always pleasant, just as a gallop behind a willing fox is healthy for the blood; and I know not what she and I would have made of it, had not the landlord's heavy tread sounded on the floor below. " One word," I said. '• How long does she stay here ? " She left a half-hour since. It may be she does not love you very much, when all is said." Again the tempting laugh; but I was in no mood for laughter, now that I knew my mistress was lost— lost, when I had made sure of seeing her again. Perhaps my trouble showed too plainly in my face, for the lass forgot her mockery on the sudden. " Ye'll meet again, laddie, never fear," said she, coming nearer to me by a step or two and lookmg at me with her bonnie, honest eyes. "A lad that can kiss as you do need never go whistling long for a pretty lass." " Which road did they travel ? " said I, all 84 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. eagerness now that my mistress seemed slipping out of reach. " The road to the Laird's. Her father—eh, but the ugly face of hirw !— just paid their reckon- ing and got into I chaise, and I heard him name the house of Dugald Cameron." I laughed for sheer relief. It seemed that my Lord Strange, his daughter, and myself were to meet once again, and that at the very house to which the Prince's mission took me. I was sure that once I met my lady face to face there should be an end of our late misunderstanding. The tiring-maid had come down another step, and from the fulness of my heart— the landlord's step was coming nearer — I snatched a farewell kiss, and tripped down to my chaise, and gave the order that Lord Strange had given half an hour before, " To the Laird's house." While I was rattling fast along the road that led to Dugald Cameron's, my mind was in a state of odd confusion. In my ears was MacGregor's parting murmur, " The chiel ! I'll hae his bluid for this." In my ears, too, was the disdainful laugh of Mistress Strange as she had climbed the tavern stair and left me to the warm company of the tiring-maid. HOW DUGALD CAME TO PERTH. 85 What was she doing here in Scotland > I asked myself. What strange chance had brought her to the same tavern on this far northern road > Above all. What should her father have come to seek at the Laird's house ? The truth was plain to me on the sudden Lord Strange could have come only on business con- nected with the rising; and from what I knew of Strange, and had heard of wilyDugald Cameron, it was likely they would pull in the same boat. Per- haj^s even now they were deep in plot and counter- plot, and all those crafty speculations as to the likelihood of Charles or George being King which disgraced a certain party of the Scottish lairds Ay, and NeU had been brought, I doubted not, to play upon those same amorous tendenci- of Dugald's to which I hoped myself to ministt My rehearsal of the play before I started gave courage and assurance to me as I neared my destination. I felt that I need not fail, and was determmed that I would not. Yet on reaching the house I was dismayed a little-though I had looked to see it there-to find Lord Strange's chaise drawn up before the door; and, though I went up the great steps of stone and knocked with a commanding briskness, I could not but 86 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. wonder how the presence of this other guest would alter my position. Would he recognise me under my disguise ? That was the one question in my mind. Then once again I re- membered my success with MacGregor and the Prince, and I took heart of grace. The door wa:5 opened promptly by a man- servant, but not, as I soon discovered, entirely in answer to my knock. Two men and a lady stood near the door and one of them — old Dugald Cameron himself, if the Prince's description went for anything— was ready to bow out his guests. And these same guests were no other than Lord Strange and his daughter. My lord looked hard at me as he passed me on the stairs ; not with the hardness of recognition or distrust, I noticed, but with that glint of admiration— an ugly glint— which comes to old men's eyes when they are still young enough to covet women. The daughter, from the safe shelter of the father's back, gave me a glance I could not penetrate. There was mirth in it, and there was cold disdain, and something that seemed warmer than I merited. Then they were gone ; and as I listened to the rumbling of their chaise I realised that once HOW TJUGALD CAME TO PERTH. 87 again I had lost my dearest lady. The tavern- maid had told me that their reckoning was paid, and now they were gone upon a journey which might take them back to England for aupht I knew. Another thing I realised— that my sur- mise as to Strange's policy held good, for Dugald had bidden him a warm farewell, a farewell with unction in it, and it was clear that their unholy counsels were prosperiiig. Dugald himself, mean- while, was waiting on the steps ; and when I came out of my abstraction I found his eyes fixed on me, with the look in them that I had seen in Strange's. "Your errand, madam?" said he, with a fine bow. " I am completely at your service." "It is a private one, and very urgent," I answered, with a long upward glance. He ushered me into a lean, bare room, which somehow fitted with the picture my friends had given me of the master. For old Dugald himself was dry as a November leaf, and only at the half-hidden rearward of his eyes was there a hint of that ill passion for the sex which was his weak- ness. " You are Mr. Cameron ? " I said, with twice the sweetness 1 had shown MacGregor. 88 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. His glance was ugly, now that a rising warmth ILT. "•, "•' .''" ''"'' honour."' said he smoothly, for ,t .s an honour when I am privi- leged to entertain so fair a guest. How can I serve you, madam?" He wished, I could see, to learn more of the fashion of my face than the jealousy of my brown hood permitted; and by-and-by I showed the half of a smooth cheek to him, and glanced at him as I have seen light-headed lasses do It was shameful in a man with whitered hair but as I live, the old rogue came a full two yards nearer me, and smiled in quick anticipation of a conquest. ^.uL^"" '" *''""''^''" ^ ''^'^- '"'''^ing fonvard With the tale I had repeated a score times on mv journey hither. " I am in trouble, and I-I came to you because they say you are zealous for the King." " More zealous, maybe, than the Pretender and his friends at Perth quite relish," answered he with a grim chuckle. " I have-I have a brother, Mr. Cameron " I went on, very low and pitifully ; " he has had access to the Prince, and aU the worid knows what foUows in these cases. He is enthraUed HOW n,;GALD CAME TO PERTH. ,, can,patPenh.'src\7;uV„X^ri'^ own sake, to keep him back ? » ^' '"' *"' He looked at me curious] v anH t,- hi«h and tiun When next ^etpoke'^^"'^^-' cases. ISnTe:;::/!?^ ^-3. in these hin. to General Cope foith toTu '° """' martial Ian." '"""""th. to be hanged by My anguish was extreme. " But. sir. they said you were so kind Tu told me you would i,c» L • ''^''^y -r he is but a ad ^r"''"" "''''*'''' '=>'^- world. Mr cleron i "° '"P*"^"" «' 'he have come ht?;2nf """ *''"'' ^ ^''-'d told you this if^"^ ^ °" y""'- ''°"°"^ and " I only said it was mv dutv >• i,« • * softening suddenly. "^Lr i^'n " ""''''^• Sd^stLrr^-^"--^^^^^^^^^^ wards relel^™.tCa.^-^-. and a.^^^ cretion was overpast." '"**" I saw old Dugald's tactirc n sternness at the fi.'t >- idleant f '"'"'"^ that he held the rein '/,'"',^"*.to assure me '" ' ''y relenting he looked 90 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. to claim much favour from me. Such tricks of sorrow and long glances as I had learned from play-actmg I was using to the fuU ; and, faith, I rarely saw a man look sillier than this beau of sixty, as he unmasked his amorous batteries for my benefit. " Oh, sir, how shall I thank you ? " I mur- mured, holding out my hand to him. " I knew you would be good— I knew you would be go^u." He took the proffered hand and kissed it twice ; and then, after another gla I with- drew it timidly. All this, of cours. was not done in a moment. I had led on Mr. Cameron from less to more by scarce perceptible degrees of coquetry ; and, though he grew warm in his de- meanour toward me, I will do him so much justice as to say that it was not without encouragement. I was on needles all the time, being afraid in the first place of giving way to merriment, and in the second of betraying myself by some full- blooded oath or other Jropjjed inadvertently. " I have a cha-se in waiting," I said, after a silence. " Will you come with me now, sir ? There is little time to lose." He hesitated, caught another lingering glance from me, and, " It does not suit my health to go HOW DUGALD CAME TO PERTH. 91 abroad at night, madam," he answered. " There W danger of Scots thieves, they say, since the Pretender marched this way." " Then you cannot come, sir ? " I murmured and sighed like a shepherdess upon a porcelain vase. " I may take my guard with me ? " said he perplexed between pnidence and my charms. " It would be our undoing, Mr. Cameron," I put m hastily. " AU depends upon our making a quiet approach. My brother wUl be even now busy with his preparations, and the least stir of armed men about the hou - would put him on his guard. Sir, do thb for me, and you shall not regret it." Another glance I gave him ; and how the matter would have ended I scarce can say-for prudence was an ancient ally of his, not readily to be forsworn even for a lady's eyes-had not I remembered how to weep. I think those tears were worth six hundred men to Prince Charlie since Mr. Cameron, not being able to withstand them, made up his mind upon the sudden. " How far is it ? " he asked. " Not a league, sir. But I will not persuade you against your better judgment. Heaven m 92 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. knows my brother's life is dear "—I sobbed afresh in quiet fashion—" but you shall not risk your own for it." " Foi you, madam, I would nsk much," said he, and kissed my hand again, and led me to the chaise. My faith, it was a pleasant drive, though Dugald Cameron alarmed me once or twice by his attentions. I let him press my hand without demur; but when the fancy took him, after we had gone two miles or so, to set an arm about my waist, I had to quench his growing ardour, being diffident as to my shape and fearful lest all my acting up to now should go for nothing. " Not that, sir, I pray you," I pleaded, forcing his arm away with a gentleness that could mean no reproach. " My thoughts ar« all of the brother who is .laply gone by this time, and " A big round voice— MacGregor's, if memory served me right— rang out into the stillness of the night. " Stand, there ! Deuce take ye, driver, d'ye want a pistol-bullet i' your lug ? " The chaise pulled up, and Dugald Cameron dropped my hand as if it were molten to the touch ; and never have I seen such terror on HOW DUGALD CAME TO PERTH. 93 man's face as showed in his when he pushed his head f o„, ,,, ^.„,^^ ^^ falteringly d answered h,m, .n quiet, good-tempered tones. My name is Stuart," he said, "and I wish you a fair good-even, Mr. Cameron. The St^rt and^Cameron clans were aye friendly one to the "What would you with me'" saiH nU ^"fffr1^-"^<^-t'^elegsofhim;:l as he leaned against the door. " No harm, to be sure. There's nn^ ,„ at Perth would speak with yotl7:V:iT escort you thither. Nay. I know what you would say. The times are troublous, eh Z nat too, has been foreseen, sir, and we have Chan ab^ arranged that all your clan shall follow you to Perth. We look for them in two days" t™e at furthest, under conduct of your eldSt Mr. Cameron feU back into his seat, and I no longer havmg a cue. went merrily where fancy' "Gentlemen, I know not what this tale means." I said, thrusting my head in turLflm I 94 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. out the chaise, " but I beg you let this brave companion of mine go free. He comes with me to save my brother from death, or worse." It would be scarce fitting, perhaps, to say that His Highness winked at me, and the uncer- tain ligh' might well have played me false. At any rate, his voice was grave enough as he replied that for no cause whatsoever could he allow Mr. Cameron to increase an already tiring journey. " But, sire, have you no brother, no sister ? Are the claims of kin so light ? " I pleaded. " My answer is final, madam, much as I regret it." " Then at least permit me to get down. I wish to change my wearing-gear " " Impossible, I fear. I would not rob Mr. Cameron of so fair a travelling companion. For- ward, coachman, and drive with the knowledge that you'll get no halt from here to Perth." The chaise rumbled forward once again. I could b 5ar MacGregor ride to the front, while the hoof-beats of the Prince's horse sounded from the rear. Eight leagues or so it must have been to Perth, and for half the way old Dugald kept silence; only I fancied now and then that he was HOW DUGALD CAME TO PERTH. 55 looking very closely at me as if i,» I leaned forward at last " I ha'^e a'^rT'" ' '"''' '" "^^ ^^^^rest voice wi^r::sr?rf---e.a.d-: hand on his. °"' '^J""? a me, madam," he said "u'J ""^^ day live to mock the Prince t'u C 7' """^ I doubt not, but •. ^°''' '^"" "°^' let tor the rest of th^t i«„ -11 co.^.„, since it was c eTr'tlT'" ' "" old Du. .d did not doubt my sex I'^rr when we pulled up at lastTutSe the Prin quarters in the town of Perth " whi;is'trpt:Th?r 1 7"-"-^-' -dway;..but,faitrrra^htrnkTllir you jester to my camp " '"^''^ 96 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. \i'\i i Yet, as I watched his show of courtesy to old Dugald Cameron during the days that followed, I thought that Charlie Stuart himself might well be left to pla;' the part of jester, for throughout he treated him as if he were a welcome and an honoured guest, and averred, indeed, that he had him guarded day and night only because he feared lest harm of any sort should come to him. And two days latjer Cameron's eldest-bom came riding into camp, and took, along with all his clansmen, that oath of fealty which none can lightly break. Ah, well ! There have been tears shed since then by grown men who followed Prince Charlie through all the stress of fortune ; but there was heart-break in them. And I, for my part, choose rather to recall the tears, quick, light, and meaningless as \pril rain, by which I conquered Dugald Cameron's caution. CHAPTER V. NELL AND THE GLOAMING-TIDE. I HAD had difficulty enough to find the Prince, and I had met him under strange conditions ; but from the moment that we came to the camp at Perth— he, and MacGregor, and myself, with our unwilling guest— I knew that now at last I was free to foUow my ambition. AU was stir, and life, and bustle ; and, vivid as the scenes were which I had pictured throughout my north- ward ride, I had imagined no scene so full as this of picturesqueness, colour, and that sense of wild adventure which is the only freedom worth the name. It was my first sight of Highlanders gathered for the purposes of war ; and each hour I won- dered more at this strange race— at the simplicity of the men, their proneness to take quick offence and to forgive as quickly, their stature, their ragged hair and beards, and their complete H 98 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. devotion to their chiefs. It was Wonderland to me, and as in a dream I went about the camp, pleased, like the boy I was, with every fresh development of a life which I had never known till now. The Prince, soon after our arrival, had lodged me comfortably in the town, and late in the next afternoon he sent for me to his own quarters. " Good-day to you, Mr. Anstruther," he cried, in cheery fashion, as I entered and kissed his hand with due formality. Indeed, the formality was all upon my side, for on the table at his left there stood a glass of spirits, and in his mouth was the same black pipe with which I had first made acquaintance at Dunblane. Afterwards I learned that this was one of his peculiar traits — that he could be royal and distant to a fault when strangers or enemies were in case, but that it pleased him always to unbend to one whom he could trust. " Good-day, your Highness," I answered, my heart beating fast. " You were both droll and brave yesternight," he went on, " and they are the qualities I like best in a man. Now, you have come from England to I NELL AND T^-. GLOAMING-TIDE. 99 join my forces, and I take It you would wish to have a company." II Your Highness is too good," I stammered. " Faith, it is not often I am credited with too much virtue ! Men care only to find out one's faults, Mr. Anstruther, m this queer world. Now, as to this company of yours— it shall be as you' wish, but. for my part, I would prefer to keep you as my aide-de-camp. You could be of far greater service to me, I am sure, in that capacity." "I have no desires beyond your own," I said. "Nay, you're a courtier ready-made; and that I do not want just now. How do your wishes lie ? " " I would prefer personal service with your- self," I answered, truthfully enough, for the honour seemed as great as any he could give me. " Ah, that is weU. But I warn you that your duties wiU be wearisome. We are hard pressed for arms. You must have seen already how badly these poor friends of mine are furnished, and I shall look to you to devise expedients." I was protesting the greatness of my zeal for work when there came a gentle tapping at the door, and the Prince's body-servant entered. 100 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " Lord Murray would see you instantly, your Highness," he said. The Prince's face lit up. " Admit him," he answered briefly. " No, Mr. Anstruther, you need not leave us yet." Again the door opened, and a fine-standing man was ushered in — a man with dark eyes, dark hair, and an arrogant, unyielding face. He hastened to do obeisance to the Prince, who Ufted him in kindly fashion. " You are very welcome, my lord, especially If you bring your folk with you." " I do, your Highness ; and they are spoiling for a fight." " So is my friend here, if I mistake not. Mr. Anstruther, let me present you to Lord Murray. My lord, this gentleman has already done me one signal favour, and you and he should know each other." Lord Murray gave me a cold salute, and in his face I saw a flash of that same jealousy which was to endanger and ultimately to shipwreck our whole enterprise. He did not hke to hear another praised ; and from the first I conceived toward him an antipathy which proved to be equalled only by his own toward myself. • NELL AND THE GLOAMING-TIDE. loi After some idle t Uk I took my leave, and I was free to walk the streets and lanes, and muse on my good fortune. It was gloaming-tide, I remember, and the air was sweet with memories of the summer late gone by. September though it was, and apt at any minute to be as chill as winter, the night was almost balmy. Above the hills the stars were showing one by one, and the quiet stir of life that came from cityward seemed only part of all the restfulness. A grassy lane— they call it a loaning up here in Scotland, I believe-led from the camp into a by-way of the town ; and as I paced it, my snuff- box in one hand, I fell to thinking of all that might be waiting for me in the future. Surely it was strange that, amid preparations for a march that was to shake two countries, amid the con- stant strain oi work and of anxiety, I could yet snatch a little moment with the stars, and walk with a pinch of snuff between my fingers, and the gait of a lad who waits for his mistress to come over the next stile. I think these Scottish hills breed rest and unrest in a man ; unrest when there is work to do, and rest when the work is fairly done for the 102 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. one day. At any rate, I walked and thought of the Prince whose power it was to increase, not to lessen, the glamour of his name by daily inter- course. I thought, too, of the Cause whose aim it was to oust the German cuckoo from his nest ; of battles, and the witchery of the sword. And then a breath of kine came to me from a neighbouring byre ; and the scent, familiar and sweet, brought back to me my wooing, I can scarce say why. Twice had I met my mis- tress under strange auspices, twice she had escaped me ; and now, though lately she had been within a few leagues of my present resting- place, she seemed as far off as if all England lay between us. Perhaps I have said little of my love for her, though it is the fashion nowadays to talk much of feelings and the like. Yet, when I try to speak of what lies, will always lie, nearer to me than anything on earth, I feel a sense of shrinking from mere words. Nell was part of the starshine and the autumn scents, part of the purpling, dreamy hills, part of all things love- some, tender, pure ; and I was ready, as I thought of her to-night, to be as mad a lover as any maid was vexed with. I had my chance withal, for as I reached a NELL AND THE GLOAMING-TIDE. 103 turning of the lane a figure came from under a gateway on the left and showed against the strip of gloaming-light that topped the hill. I did not wait to ask how this goodly thing had come about ; I simply dropped my snuff-box and moved to her side, and caught her hand, and would have kibsed her. " NeU I NeU I " I cried. But she withdrew; and even in the first moment of rebuff I wondered that she showed no great surprise to see me there. "You forget, sir; and you presume," she said, with a queenly sort of distance in her tone. I was at a loss altogether. I wore her favour at the moment, and she had given it me. What had I done since then to excuse tiiis chance in her? " I remember that you pledged your faith to me," I answered hotly. "Yes, for I thought foolish things of you. Since then I have travelled in a tender-hearted country, where even tiring-maids " I remembered then, although she did not end her speech. " Why, I had forgotten it already ! " I said. «04 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. with wondrous clumsiness. " Surely you would not blame me for a usual piece of folly ! " " Indeed ! Is it so usual with you, then, to -to be warm-hearted in a tender-hearted country? Beheve me, sir, our sex is daintier than your own We do not care to drink from the same glass with any man or woman." " What of the glass, if only the wine be sweet ? • I said, with one of those daft impulses to say the worst thing possib!e-the impulses that come to a man when a maid is using her tongue as a stiletto. She swept her skirts aside, and honoured me with a grave curtsey, and, "Go dru:.your wine, Mr. Anstruther," she said. " I trust it wiU be for your health." I watched her disappear in the darkness of the lane, and felt exceeding foolish; and when at last I turned to go back to the camp I was sure that all was over with me in this world A kiss or two to stand between myself and her I It was a monstrous price to pay for folly. "^ ' As I came to the little bridge of stone that took the lane across a brook, I heard a curious sound ; and, following this, I found my lady her NELL AND THE GLOAMING-TIDE ,05 arms upon the parapet and her head half buried W them, weeping as if she meant the brook to bcmspafe. AH the dignity was gone, and i„ its place thero was a something childlike, winsome, mat moved me strangely. "Sweetheart," I said, " what ails you ? " She threw her head back bravely for 7?'"!'" '''''"'''• ^"'' ^'^^ t» vouch for her truthfulness. " That is, I was weeping because I feared that you would foUow me ; and -and, oh I how I hate you-hate you I " Yet somehow the matter seemed quite other- wise, and my arm was close about her now. " Is all forgotten, dear .' " I said. th.n'yTr~" ""'" ^ '°°"' ^"'J then-and hen I shaU not hate you any more, but just forget you." ' ni.hf "^"°* ^'"^ ^'' ''=°™- '"^^'^ ^^' the night, I went on eagerly, "when first I told you what you were to me-the roses were all ZlZ 1 *'' °^' garden-and the scent came through the casement as we kissed-and I knew tha there was none but you in all the world- well, do you remc.nber ? " othere~"°°" ^"^ ^"""^ *^^* ^^^"^ ""^'^ ""^"y 106 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " Hush ! That is treason. What ! Is a light kiss to come between us two ? " " Was it light, Maurice ? Are you sure ? " said she, with an upward glance. And then I knew that all was well, and I cajoled, explained, until at last she gave a happy sigh, and reached me up her face, and let me know myself forgiven. "Ah! I am in trouble, dear," she said ; "such trouble as I have never known till now. And then I found you — found you being warm-hearted, and all seemed gone." There was an April sort of look about her— sunshine and rain, and now and then a touch of keen, cold wind. But my arms were still about her, and she seemed happy there ; and I knew, past argument, that neither in England nor in Scotland was there any maid at all to be compared with Nell. " What is the trouble, sweet ? " I asked. "It is— it is about my father. I ought to honour him, Maurice, and I cannot ; I ought to stand by him, and I dare not." " Tell me," I said, my new-found pity for her growing deeper. I had seen little of Lord Strange as yet, but he had given me ample N'^.LL AND THE Gj^AMlNG-TIDE. 107 proof of h)s capacity to lose the respect of honest folk Sfte v,r.j silent awhile, looking at me with a wistful question in her eyes. Then, creeping closer to me, she put one hand upon my shoulder. " We are lodging in the great house yonder," she went on. " I slipped away from them, and came through the garden gate. I wanted to climb the hill-top there and think what I should do." "It is not wise," I interrupted. "Dear, it is late, and there is an army lying near." I saw the delicate, sweet face grow proud. " I am of the country," she said ; " and do you think I could fear anything from these good men who follow the Prince's fortunes ? " " But there are others— rogues and \'agabonds, who follow in our wake, and don the white cockade, and rob, and worse, under cover of our good repute." " That may be true ; but I needed room, Maurice— fresh air and space about me, while I decided what to do. And then— and then— why, you found me, and you would not let me go my own way, and— and I am glad, my dear." io8 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. Surely the Scottish nights have magic in them ! My lady, so chary of showing more than a little of her heart at any time, had made a frank confession, and for awhile I had no thought to asic her what her trouble was. " You will teach me what to do ? " she said at last, like a child whose dependence is com- plete. " My father is deep in treason. He talks wildly when— when he has dined or supped too well ; and I have learned more than he dreams of. Letters pass constantly between Lord Lovat and himself : and Lovat, as I know, has not an honest thought— he is sly and crafty, Maurice, and his aid, on which the Prince counts so much,' can do your cause no good. My father plays a Uke part, and he is here to make fair promises, and to find out your strength, and to advise Lord Lovat and the rest which policy will be the better likely to succeed." " Is Dugald Cameron in the plot ? " I asked. "Yes; it was he who urged my father to come here." "That was the reason, then, I found you quitting Dugald's house the night that you sur- prised me at the tavern ? " NELL AND THE GLOAMING-TIDE. ,09 " Yes ; and I wondered what could bring you to the house of such as Dugald Cameron." I told her briefly of my plot, of Dugald's foolishness, of my success ; and she laughed as if danger and suffering were leagues away. __ " Oh, it was droU to see you there," she cried, although I was so angry and so-so miserable. My father was as foolish as old Dugald, it would seem, for he talked of your beauty all through the northward drive." " He gave me a long glance, I noticed." " And he talked of making acquaintance with you soon through Dugald Cameron. He praised your eyes-think of it, Maurice !-and your graceful, upright carriage Yes, it was droll, when I remembered how he had sent a pistol- bullet after you at your last meeting." We laughed awhile together-the low and tranquil laugh of lovers who meet at a warm gloaming-tide. " And you are here," I said, " and I am here ; and what else matters in the world .' " On the sudden she stood away from me. " This business of the Prince's matters." said she, "and it is I-I alone, who must decide it. At first I thought that you:could judge for me. no UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. but it is not so. Maurice, I am Lord Strange's daughter, but I have the old wild blood in me, and I would sooner die than let a Stuart Prince fall into danger." Again the note was sounded that I have heard, before and since, from many differing types of Scottish folk. Herdsman or laird, lassie of high degree or tiring-maid, if once the glamour of the Stuart has settled in their blood there is no holding them., The Stuart, in his strength or in his weakness, has surely been the greatest master of men's hearts that we have known. "I am on the Prince's staff," I said at last, for in truth I was troubled to see where duty lay in this vexed matter. "Will you come with me and be presented, and tell him all ? " For a moment her face lit up, as if the project pleased her ; then she shook her head. " Nt, dear," she said ; " I must think it over by myself, and decide for myself— and likely repent, whichever course I take," she added, with a touch of the whimsical, sweet air that she alone possessed. And when we parttd my heart was sore for NELL AND THE GLOAMING-TIDE, m her. It seemed a hopeless matter to decide which course made for the right, and I could give no help. Only, I was sure that Nell could do no wrong, and from the thought I drew great comfort. ° CHAPTER VI. A FAIR RECRUIT. Nell's judgment, once it was taken, was acted on with a promptness almost manlike, as I learned on the next morning. The sun was rising noonward when I entered the Prince's quarters in answer to a summons, and the warm hght came through and showed, with dazzhng clear- ness, the figure of my mistress. I bowed to her, and felt great sorrow that, however fair the lady, one dared not kiss her in the Presence. " This lady is a friend of yours, she tells me," said his Highness, smiling on us both, " and she has just done me a service at bitter cost to her own feelings." To my surprise she broke down utterly, and came and put both hand= in mine and laid her head upon my shoulder. Women — women as bonnie as my Nell— can do these things uu- chidden, whether Royalty be looking on or no. r 1 < hi A FAIR RECRUIT. ,,3 be s^'fr',' '': "'•"'' " ' '°'^ y- '*--w of a Jt / "^^ *° ""^ '^"^^^> '"^t-d I told Hs^H^r ''"""• «"*• °h, before wea tha ' f'^ '"^*''"^' ^ '"^'^'^ ''^ hZ » ""^ ''*'" ^'•""^^ ^"'"^ by no .ri.f ' ^f"'' ""^^ '"'"* ^"^ ^^hile, until her gnef was lessened. voiZwT'" ''' '"''• '" '''' "^'P- sympathetic voice that I was mor. than once to hear, "if only suffer hardship at my hands. I may come to mv own and, if I do so, my fi,.t effort will be to pTr- suade your father how far he wandered from the rue old f,.th. And now ther. is some busines :n the camp to see to. No, Anstruther, I do not need your services; I called you because-be- cause I am young myself, like you, and know that sometimes a stolen moment can be precious." U^^\ l''"V'^''''^'^''"^^y' ''"* kissed my ladyshand and left us there. It was but one -ore proof of what I soon had leamed-th^t ready mtuition and unfailing courtesy were mbred m this yourgest of a gmcious race Mistress Strange looked after him and sighed I know not why. =«K"ea, 114 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " There goes a man" she said ; " the court- liest I have ever known." The sentiment was loyal in a sense, but treasonable toward myself ; and so I closed all further argument upon the topic of the Prince- closed it by the easiest and the pleasantest of means. " I shall tell my father all," she said, as soon as she had recovered breath. " You will not ! " I cried, remembering Lord Strange's readiness to avenge an injury, _ad fearing for her safety. She read my thoughts, and laughed a trifle bitterly. " You need not fear for me. My father will not send his servants to carry me upon a treason- able charge to London, nor will he fire on me. He cares for me, Maurice ; he cares for me, and that's where lies the sting." Again I thought she would break down, but she recovered bravely. " I've not lived long, dear," she said wistfully, "and yet I find the world an odd, perplexing place. I used to think that duty was just duty, plain to be seen, and now — But I have chosen, and I will not let mv father think me other than I am." A FAIR RECRUIT. "5 • You will tell him that you saw the Prince th>s monung ? " J asked in wondennent. Yes for at least I did the best, so far as I could judge. IJere are these Highlander, thl s the p there's you, my dear, all fighting Jiave the Pnnce's word for that " '■But will you suffer? "I broke in. flinch"" ''°"'' ' ' ^* ^"^ '^'^' I «haU not Nor did she, for toward nightfall, on return- ng from a mission entrusted to me by the PrinS hadTVI'* L-d Strange and his daughS had already eft the camp. I was dumbfounded How -uld she go without one word of fareweU to Zr \ '*^"' "'"'^ ^"^^^ ^°''=«. and carried her away against her wiU ? My mind wasTn o conjecture, dread, and perturbation rd d^ i e tS r''\-'^-g vain questions of the suence that hung about the camp JiaSed 1 , ""'■ ^ "^^^^ ^"d tender- hearted a gentleman as any in our ranks. There f^nTmlSt^nt'ir'-:^*^-^^''^- ii6 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. li i and I had scarce wit enough to think of anything but bed ; yet under all was the dull ache of separation, and the sense that Nell had left me without word or token. As I pushed open the door of my room I was already un- buckling my sword-belt, so glad I was to be near my bed at last ; but I stopped upon the threshold, for a couple of candles were burning on the mantel- shelf, and a slim lad was standing with his back to the fire of wood and peats. He bowed to me ■ 'ightly, and looked, I thought, embarrassed. " Well, lad ? " I said, not over courteously, although his face wa^ pleasant. " What is your business with me, for I can scarcely keep my eyehds open." " You are Mr. Anstruther ? " he answered. " I come to you from the Prince." " Indeed ! I have been upon his business all the day." " My name is Strange, and I have joined your army here, and His Highness said I was to be undT your command." " Strange ? " I echoed. " Are you kin to Lord Strange, who was lately here ? " " His son. I did not know- " " Not know that I had met your father ? " I A FAIR RECRUIT. ,,7 Jaughed. "I'd good cause to know it. lad. Yet he never spoke to me of any son." When the Pnnce set foot in Scotland I was ^amng down in Edinburgh yonder. withouTa IT' ""'* "^ ''''-'■ ^"'^ ^^^^ -«id s,.: JShe can do much to oring comfort to a • An. ;f ' "'*'' " '""^^ ^* "'y °^n slyness And you'll allow me freedom to say tha^S; .s the bonmest maid from this to London." They say as much," he answered .-care- lessly, as brothers will. "And so the Prince has sent you to me P I TaTSV°"^"^'^°^^'^^^----nd- Hi:H;h:2t-"'"''*"^^'^°"^'^"™'»--on His face fell. " Then-then why did he send me here P " he asked. " It must be that he means to give you Jt^ command, and I am to be your earhest h. "I *™'!.^°'" I ^'"swered, turning to the Sv^a^d ?^" ^^ ^ *"«« °^ Highland whiskey and a glass or two. "Let us drink Scotch fashion, to our better acquaintance." 118 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. He withdrew a little, and I wondered at his bash fulness. " I thank you, no," he said. " I— I have abjured all liquor since — since my wild days in Edinburgh." I thought him mawkish, and I was brittle- tempered owing to my weariness. " You'll see wilder days," I snapped, " if you mean to follow us to England. Ay, and you'll be glad of an honest glass or two to oust the cold." " It may be so," he said ; " and even now I would not keep you from pledging our success." I wondered how long he meant to stay, and groaned for weariness. There seemed no reason, indeed, why he should ever go, and his errand to a tired man seemed needless and unreasonable. I filled a goodly bumper, however, and drank the toast, and speedily felt the warm glow of charity and all forbearance go creeping through my veins. After all, he was NeU's brother, and something like her in the face, and it might be that he would give me news of her. " When did you last see your sister ? " I asked abruptly, as I mixed myself a second kindly measure. A FAIR RECRUIT. lly He laughed and stroked his beardless face. " When did r see her last ? I have no head for counting days and hours-indecd. I've been too busy lately." " In what way ? " I asked, annoyed by his light tone. ' " Why. I could not shake off the old habits at once, and when I h;Uted at Dunblane " •'^ Well ? " said I. to fill a lengthy paus... '* I fell in with a pretty tavern-maid " " Had she grey eyes and yellow hair ? " 1 asked, to ail another paijse. " Yes. deep grey eyes and wondrous hair • and I found her in the kitchen aU alone, and I- weU. you know how sweet a woman's lips are." I clapped him on the back. " I know how sweet .\cr lips are, for I kissed them sooner than yourself." " I shall return that way as soon as I am able," said he, with a long sigh. " And so shaU 1 1 For good wine improves with keeping." And then I remembered what my lady had said about drinking from other people's glasses, and I grew sorrowful and half ashamed. The' lad himself was frowning at me, and this I took 120 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. as a reproach well merited, though he was guilty as myself. " You often taste good wine — of that sort ? " said he. " Always, when it is offered. How could a man do otherwise ? " " Nay, but he has ties sometimes— a woman who has pledged troth with him, or " " Pish ! It is no matter either way," I answered, uneasily I milst confess. " I never heard a kiss could kill, and lips were made for it." " They preach strange sermons in your High- land camps," he answered curtly. I began to wonder if the reaction from high living had turned his thoughts toward the ministry, and I answered with a yawn as deep as the bed of Loch Lomond, for fear lest he should try his 'prentice hand upon me with a sermon. " You are weary," said he. " I am very weary,". I answered. " I have been in saddle since the first cock crew." "Then I will leave you. But before I go I will answer your first question. When did I last see Helen Strange ? Ten moments since." ■ i A FAIR RECRUIT. 121 tips^ *'' ^^"^^ '^*^"' ^""^^^eer to my finger where ? My anx.ety was plain enough to warrant his guessing the truth, but I cared not •fo^y I could find my lady once again, room.' ^'"''^ *° " '"'"•°'- ^t the far end of the " ^ saw her there," he said. I stared at him. Was he in liquor, or had remorse and a wild life together turned his brain ? went on.""" ''" "'" ""' "' *^' ^''^'"P'^'" ^^^ " I set you the example ? Go home to bed, laddie .f you can reach it, and sleep the madness Snh t ^°" "° '^^P^" °* ^^ living in Edmburgh or any other town." " y^t y°" put on a woman's garments, and I have done no more than don a man's. You see my dearest, / am Helen Strange." These things are plain as soon as one is privi- leg d to know the answer to the riddle. How could the Pnnce and MacGregor have faUed to recopuse me when I played the lady to them at the tavern.. I was too glad to have her here i2a UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. r^'' ^'il to question much, but took her, willy-nilly, into safe-keeping. She seemed content, moreover, until she lifted her head and gave me a quick, dangerous smile. " Tou are going back to Dunblane, so I under- stand," she said. " I trust the tiring-maid will have no new gallant in the kitchen." Explanation, as I ^ave said, is difficult in these matters ; but I won through somehow, and saw the old, glad light of happiness shine fair and steady in her eyes. And this it is, I think — this happiness a man can bring into a maid's ey^ — that makes him te der toward her welfare. " You will wonder how I came ? " she said at last. " You will wonder, just £is you wondered — ah, I know you did 1 — ^how I could leave you without word of any sort. Dear, you should have known me better. My father, when I told him all, said I was no longer a child of his, and I took him at his word ; and ' when we stopped at our first lodging-place — he did not wait to see the Prince again — I found means to change my wearing-gear, and — and here I am, Maurice, and nothing in this world shall ever part us again. I — I fear to leave you free to kiss too many tiring-maids." A FAIR RECRUIT. ,33 I was glad, and I was sorry. What would this dehcate, slim girl make of the hardships of a campaign ? " You cannot march with us," I said. " Ah I cannot I ? " she answered. " I am under the Prince's orders, sir, not youre." " Then you have se i him ? " " Did I not say as much ? I came to him soon as I reached the camp, and told him what had chanced; and he, like you, spoke of the hardships of the march. I told him I had known greater hardships than any march could offer and I was mean enough to speak of the service I had rendered him. And at the last he laughed, and said my plan was as wild as his own venture, and gave me leave to do as I best pleased." " I fear for you," I muttered. It was all that I could find to say. She came across to me and laid her hands upon my shoulders. "When you are with me, dear. I have no fear," she said. Neither had I, for I knew that love like hers and rame must win its way through somehow. And I told her so in speech that none but she 124 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. and I could understand, and then she bade me take her back to her own quarters. " Soldiers are not in need of escort home," I laughed. " Then you need not trouble, sir. I think you said that you were weary." I had overtaken her, of course, before she gained the door ; and the stars were kindly over camp and moor as we trod the dream- wrapt streets. i CHAPTEj v'II. nell comes to me. We stayed a week or so in camp at Perth, and left It with an army which, though smaU, was palpably increased since that first night when I had joined it as a lady. Not only had Murray and the Duke of Perth with many foUowers come m. but Dugald's six hundred Camerons also and many of the smaller lairds. It seemed but a fitting comedy that, just as I had entered Perth in woman's garb, so my lady had entered it in man's appat^l. Yet I had the easier part to play in this same comedy, for while she was compeUed to maintain her unwonted gear I was privileged-and a mighty pleasant pnvilege it was— to doff my skirt. Nor have I since that day found heart to be truly angry with a woman, when I remember that fate has con- demned her to the hardship of a petticoat. Yet, for all that, I was troubled in my mind. 126 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. The Prince knew of Nell's disguise, and the more I pondered on the sacrifice that she had made for me, the more clearly I saw that some means must be found to rob scandal of its sting. I approached my friend MacGregor, therefore. And in calling him my friend I use the word in no loose sense, for comedy and peril joined hand in hand I have always found to be a quick and certain road to comradeship ; and since the night when I had fooled the doughty Scot into bowing his heart out in my service he had shown a grim, unswerving partiality toward myself. " MacGregor," I said suddenly, as we walked beneath the star-shine and chatted of Lord Lovat's policy toward the Prince, "MacGregor, I'm in a difficulty." " Hoot awa ! " cried he, with an alarming drop into the broadest Scotch. " Hoot awa, laddie. Ye're meaning , there's a woman i' the case. Na, na ! It's a safe guide through life to ken that a man wi' a long face an' a deeficulty is just getting wrapped up i' some saft lassie's petticoat." " Well, there is a lady in the case," I said, a trifle angered by his tone. " I want help, Mac- Gregor. You see, a lady has come into the camp. ** NELL COMES TO ME. she has enlisted under the White "7 and — and Cockade." "What's this? Enlisted? WeU, it's all of a piece wi- Jennie Cameron-Colonel Cameron, as Chairhe likes to call her-who brought the whole clan out to meet us on the road." " Yes, but-but she is dressed as a man, you see, and— and I love her." He laid a hand upon my shoulder, and his voice grew softer. " Ye say that as if ye kenned the meaning of a heartsome word, laddie. Ye love her. An' she lo'es ye, I'm thinking, or she'd not doff her kirtle for the breeches." " She loves me, and I fear lest " I did not finish, and MacGregor lost his new- found tenderness of voice. " What do yt fear, ye witless caUant ? If she lo'es ye, an' ye lo'e her, an' ye're together, what power on earth can frichten ye ' Gin I were-Awell, that's no muckle matter. Ye want advice ? Well, ye can do ain o' two things-ye can marry her, or " "MacGregor," I interrupted, "you're a fool to doubt me. Haven't you such a word as ' lady ' up in Scotland here ? " % 138 UNDER THE WHITE 'COCkADE. He understood me perfectly, as I had under- stood what he had left unsaid. But he seemed unruffled — pleased, even — by my temper, and again he patted me on the shoulder. " Look, laddie, I'm in love mysel'— an' yet I didna think to mention it ; an' I ken weel how it maks a man long sairly to fecht without just provocation. So we'll just say nae mair about your naming me a fool, ^n' I'll gie ye a bit o' guid advice. Powder an' sparks are not just neigh- bourly, an' ye'd be wise, for both your sakes, to wed her now. It's easy, laddie, as falling out of a birchen tree to wed a lassie up in Scotland here, an' shell mrrch wi' a livelier step if her callant's her ain." "The Prince knows of her diaguise, Mac- Gregor, and so do you. I look,*D j»u to keep our secret." -^^ " I keep what I get, la^dlt V this hard Ufe, an' youi secret's safe wi' me. Lad Anstruther," he broke off, his voice softoiing again, " I wad gie the world to be i' your place. There's a lassie now i' Edinburgh toun ; an' first she thocht ^e'd hae me, an' then she thocht she wadna, an' last of a' I just ran awa' to Chairlie, to see if I could drive the madness oot by fechting. An' NELL COMES TO ME. „, my heart is sair the nicht. for her face is printed plain on aU yon wheen o' winking stars " own" J""'" "^ ^" y^'" ^ ^'^^ «^"^«d of my own^happiness, and ready to be sure of all the "Ay, when there's summer heat i' winter Now. nn awa' hame to your bed. laddie, for I've told ye mair than ever I meant to tell " For a half-hour after he had left me I paced beneath the stars. MacGregor gave me pleasa^J adv.ce. and I was glad to know that, for ^r own sake, I must many NeU before another sun had set Yet. under all the gladness, there was a small, msistent voice that mocked at me for pvmg up what men have at their birth-their freedom. Men camiot help the feeling, I imagine, though separation from their mistress seems an agony. Tis but another witness to the one deep tnath of hfe that there's no paradise so green but we would have it greener. One thing was clear, however. The Prince had been a true friend to us both-to Nell and to myself-and I could not many without his leave and sanction. When I presented myself on the mon-ow, accordingly, I took occasion to speak of what was in my mind ; and, so far from Ni'' 130 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. presenting any obstacles, he smiled — the quiet, warm-hearted smile which afterwards led men to live brave lives and die brave deaths for love of him. " To be sure, my lad," he said, with a whifl of the black pipe, which already, with its cracks and seams and odd deformities, was familiar to me as my own face. " To be sure it would be better so. The minister here shall marry you, and I will give the bride away." He seemed determined to load me with honours greater than my desert, and I could only answer diffidently, foolishly, because the sense of his great kindliness was strong on r ?. " Tut ! iut ! " he put in ly. Ay. " You have both done me services, and >t is a pleasure to repay them in any coin, however light. Women are full of whimsies, Anstruther. Can you per- suade her, think you, to return with you to my quarter^ in one hour's time ? I must see Lord Murray for a half-hour or so, and then I shall be entirely at your service. I will send for the minister meanwhile, and you shall find all in order." I thanked him warmly, and set off in quest of Nell. I found her down by the brook which watered the low meadows, and learned, when I ♦ NELL COMES TO ME. ,3, not Jwt r ^ ^ '^ ""^'^^ whimsies. She did twelvemonth^^me S "'' ""'" '' at Dunblane ton K ""^^ ^''^ tiring-maid andsootuur;rrd:tr-"^-^-- your td':/irwe'''r^ '''■"-" *°^^V courtesy to him.Mcrier " "' ^'°" '^'^■ not li^'^^'l""' ■ ^'"' ''^^ discourtesy is yours nl^" ' "■ ""'■ ""^"^ -^•^ P-™- in her "for ^r ^'" '^«°"''" ^ ^a''*' -n a great rage n>"ei"e::Xt:-!:?..-^-^°-^"-"' weli^to be sure beforehand that yo. can keep the "You may begone," she answered calmly I am very sure that I can win my way to for^ rir."^^^^-''--'^«-oLoftL \ i! I'l lit I3» UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " Yet I fancied that you loved me," I said, ftill in a white heat. She shruggec' iier shoulders in a fashion that the Scotch have learned from ♦'^sir French neigi;t.>ouis. " Love you ? Oh, yes ; as much as I love many folk '"ho bring me trouble." " When did I bring you trouble ? " I muttered. I think— for since those days I have learned much — I think she saw that my patience was like to break its tether, for on the sudden she came to me, and stroked my face, and finally laid her cool cheek to mine. " Dear," she said, " it is hard for a woman to surrender altogether ; the cost is great. And yet — and yet — you may take me to the Prince." I was reminded of how I myself had felt last night, when I had thought on the surrender of my freedom ; and in some misty fashion I under- stood th^'t surrender, to a maid, means more than the mere loss of liberty. My anger seemed a year away, and she was crying softly in my arms, and I knew myself the happiest man from London to the Ness of Sutherland. " The Prince warned me that you might be NELL COMES TO v. ,„ whimsical." I said at last, minded to be teasing m ri'v turn. ' "Warned you ? " she repeated, with a little g^U^e^of disdain. " What does he know of " That, sweet, is a delicate question, and one I cannot ^swer readily. On,y, jt i, time we went to the Pnnce's quarters, for he ha, made all arrangements there." "So you counted on my coming with you ? Whistle an- ru ,ome to ye. my lad.' as they say m this warm-hearted country." "No ; I counted on nothing, for I knew you could not change your sex's failings with your raiment." ' "Your wits grow sharper, sir." she cried. Then with a laughable fall from her manner of high dignity. " Maurice," whispered she. " I can- not be married in these clothes." " I care not what your clothes are, Nell so only It is you I marry." "But 'tis unheard of; and the minister-he will be shocked ! " "Scotch ministers are not by way of K.„r. shocked. I fancy. They know their flocks too 134 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. II " Oh, Maurice, I am ashamed ! At what time does the Prince expect us ? " "Why, at once, since a certain wilful maid has wasted a good hour in argument." " She must waste more time, then, Maurice — just a little more, for marry in this garb I will not." I did not press the question, for I was growing wise before my time where women were concerned, and I saw that argument would but deepen her resolve. " Then we must keep His Highness waiting," I said. " But where will you find change of gear ? " " At my own lodging. There's a dear Scotch goodwife there, with a daughter nearly my own height. You'll laugh, Maurice, but anything is better than these — oh, Maurice, what I have given up for you ! " There was a sudden blush as she surveyed herself, and I understood — again in a dim way — the primeval truth that ever since Eve's day our women measure life, its passions, sins, and fears, by clothes. Perhaps they measure it rightly, all the same ; for it matters not of what you make your two-foot rule, if only it be true to scale. NELL COMES TO ME. ,35 She was gone before I knew it, and by-and-by returned in a brave homespun dress that suited her to admiration. But then my lady-and I have lived with her through many springs since then-has that queer quality of looking at her best m any garb. It may be that is why I think so httle of a lady's dress, and so much of her face. " You are sweeter that way, Nell," I said when <=he came back in the bravery of her land- lady's daughter. " I feel so, dear," she murmured, with a happy laugh. And then I knew that she no longer feared the ceremony that awaited us. We reached the Prince's quarters, contrary to expectation, within the hour appointed ; but he was ready for us, as was the minister. "You will present Miss Strange to me afresh ? " said His Highness, smiling on us both. I did so in due form, and he bowed in a style that made me fearful of my right in her. As for NeU, she curtseyed bewitchingly-as bewitchingly as my friend MacGregor had bowed upon a certain evenmg in Dunblane-and kissed his hand, and flushed as red as any peony in May. " Oh, your Highness, will you forgive me ? " she whispered. 136 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " For anything, I promise you. But what is your offence ? " " I— I could get nothing to wear within the time — the clothes were borrowed from my land- lady." •Again the Prince smiled — an enigmatic smile this time. "Miss Strange," he said, "you forget your mirror when you think about your wearing gear." " So I thought just now," I blurted out, like the raw, love-sick lad I was. " When she came tripping to the waterside and asked my pardon for her wearing gear, I thought " "Ay, you thought a sweet lass and a love- some had given you more than you deserved," put in the Prince. "I can well believe it. Anstruther, this is Mr. Cameron, the minister, and the sooner he performs his duty by you, the happier you will be." The minister proved deft at the business, and before we well knew what was going forward, Nell and I were pledged to a life-joumey that afterwards, we confessed, we neither of us would have missed for sake of the crown for which Prince Charlie fought. NELL COMES TO ME. ,37 When aU was over, and we haa shaken hands with the grey-headed, courteous Mr. Cameron— I believe he kissed NeU, but my eyes were quite elsewhere-the Prince claimed also a kiss upon the cheek. " Madam," he said, " brave men and bonnie women should always mate together. I am glad that you two came together here, and all that superstition means by 'luck '-and / am super- stitious-I wish to you. And now, Anstruther. It IS hard to give a man work upon his wedding morning, but there's a hard day's ride before you." He took me aside, with an apology to Nell, and gave me instructions for the day. They were such as promised saddle-soreness, but I welcomed them because by cheerfully performing them I could show my sense of the Prince's kindness. " Tut ! tut ! " he answered, when I said as much. " You're a good lad, and a willing, and your wife shall be proud of you when we come into action." When we come into action. The words were characteristic. That itch for battle was ever with the Prince ; it seemed his faith was absolute in an appeal to arms, and when from time to 138 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. time news came of the enemy's movements, I could see his eyes light up, and he wotild throw back his head as if he scented powder from afar. After Nell had taken her leave, and I also, we went out together into the crisp sunlight of the street. The first person that we saw was no other than Captain MacGregor, who came up the street with the jaunty i swing that would have suited a kilt to perfection, but which looked something odd in legs which were breeched and booted after our English fashion. But then this jauntiness was part of MacGregor. He always walked a road as if he owned the adjacent countryside; and the same manner when he met a lady was apt to carry all before it, as a two-handed sword would, or a ball from out a cannon. He lifted his hat to us, and bowed. " MacGregor," I said, stopping him as he would have passed by, " allow me to present you to my wife." Again the bow, which tickled my memory of a certain recent comedy. " This, Nell, is a dear friend of mine," I went on, in a sober voice ; " so dear that a few nights NELL COMES TO ME. ,39 ago he offered to take up my quarrel and fight for me. I told you of that escapade, if you remember." MacGregor eyed me sideways, as if to say I owed my safety only to a lady's presence ; and Nell laughed outright, for she too. I fancy, had noted the elaboration of the bow, and was seeing in imagination the scene in the Dunblane tavern. "Aweel, ye'll never rest, I see, till the whole world kens the tale," said he, with a near approach to a smile. " I wish ye joy o' the chiel, madam ; for, gin he can fool Archie MacGregor, what chance at a' wi' him has a wee bit slip of a lassie like yoursel' .> " "I must trust to fortune, sir," said she, demurely. " Ye'll find her tricksy ; she's a won n," he answered, with sobriety. He left us then, and we strolled on toward the meadows where I had found her eariier in the morning. " Only an hour ago," she whispered, seating herself on the stone bridge, "only an hour ago, and now we're man and wife, Maurice." "And now we're man and wife," I echoed, catching her hands and holding them. I40 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. She nestled to me as a child might. " Maurice, I must not keep you here, for you have much to do. Tell me, this business of the Prince's that you go on, will it lead you into danger ? " " Why, no, sweet. It will lead me into danger of great weariness, but nothing else." " Ah, that is good to hear, Maurice. Already I begin — to be afraid, dear." Yes, she had begun to be afraid ; and so had I. For the first time in my life I knew that sickening depth of fear which is not for one's own safety, but for the separation which would come through death. I was to know more of that fear by-and-by, and was to learn that, if a man would enjoy the lust of battle to the full, he must remain unwedded or fail to love his mis- tress as a lover should. To-day, however, I put my fears aside, and answered lightly, and left her, tearful and smiling both, at the bridge that spanned the stream. And when at last I reached the camp, long after dusk had fallen, I was too weary to have room for fear of any sort, except that I might miss my bed. At least, I thought I was too weary, until I NELL COMES TO ME. 141 rode past the comfortable lodging which His Highness had allotted to a certain private soldier in his army. For the private soldier was my wife, and she was pacing up and down the road- way as if she waited for some friend. She turned quickly at the sound of my horse's hoofs, and ran to meet me ; and in a moment I was out of the saddle and had her in my arms. " I waited for you, dear ; and you were so long in coming," she said. " Nell, it is good— good to have you here and to know that you're my wife. Think of it, Nell — my wife." Already she was learning how to cross that dreaded threshold which lies between girlhood and womanhood, for her lips were warm on mine, and she seemed to creep closer to my arms than she had known the way of once. And a great longing seized me— a great longing, and with it a great fear of parting, even for the few hours that lay 'twixt now and morning. " Nell ! " I cried. She looked up, with fear and wonder and a sort of gladness in her eyes, and I could feel her tremble in my grasp. " Ah, no, my dear," she said at last. " Be m m i4» UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. kind to me, Maurice, for I feel— how shall I tell you ? It has been so hurried and so strange. See, dear, I do not like this masquerading. I know that it is needful now, that a woman would only hamper you, and so I am dressed like this for sake of being near you. But but " My sudden longing was cnished out of sight. I only knew that what Nell wished I wished, because her happiness was mine ; and, much as I have thought about it Since, with experience to guide me, I cannot find a better test of love. " Dear lass, I understand," I said ; " and we shall be in Edinburgh soon, and that will mean a change of gear for you." " Maurice, will it ? " she cried eagerly. " I have a kinswoman there, a Mrs. Cameron, and— and I shall be glad to find womenfolk again. Is it true, Maurice ? It seems too good." " I've been thinking about it all the day, for I cannot bear to rte you sharing all our hard- ships." "'Tis for you, dear. I do nc -nd them hardships." " Yet I cannot bear them — for you. When Edinburgh is reached, all will be different. The t.'. IJ NELL COMES TO ME. 143 roads are better that lead south, and you can travel in a chaise from place to place " " And leave you ? " she interrupted. "Why, no," I laughed. "I shall ride up every now and then and laugh your fears to scorn." " It will be good to get to Edinburgh," she said, with the curious, sweet air of frankness that was her own. And so we parted on the starlit road, and I regretted nothing— not even our few hours of separation— after she had whispered in my ear that I was good to her. On the morrow— it was late when I got abroad —the whole army was astir, and word was going round from mouth to mouth that our route was to be taken without delay. The Prince, when I presented mvself, con- firmed the report. " You are late, sir," he cried in his merriest voice ; " but then the work I gave you yesterday was two men's work, and you performed it weU. And then a new-made wife is troublesome, I take it— and, on the top of all, I have fresh work for you. Our route is to be taken in an hour's time, as doubtless you have heard. You will ride be- ■44 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. Si"-'! m n side me, Mr. Anstruther, if you can consent to part so soon from a wife and a well-earned holiday." " She is but a private in your army, sire. I have no choice." He laughed, and so dismissed me. And first I went to find out Nell at her own lodging, and when I told her of the march her face lit up. " Dear, we shall be in Edinburgh soon," she cried, " and I can put these men's things off for ever." i Clothes were the ruling passion still, I could see ; yet I was glad that she felt so eager toward the journey, which might entail some hardships on her. I need not tell all the details of our march on Edinburgh, although it was studded thick with adventure and surprises. Enough that we passed through Dunblane, where I had to en- counter once again the pretty serving-maid, and to hear some irony from Nell ; across the Fords of Frew, so narrowed now by extreme drought that we covld cross with ease where, thirty years before, the ill-starred Earl of Mar had failed to make a passage ; through Stirling, Gardiner's dragoons still falling two steps back for every for- ward stride we took ; on to the camping-ground at Duddingstone, which was to prove the last iS'i NELL COMES TO ME. ,45 halt before our Prince secured command of his own capital. As aide-de-camp in personal attendance on His Highness. I was to witness many tragic many pathetic, sights in the course of this most strange and picturesque campaign ; but there were scenes as well, as I have said, that had in more pure comedy them than either tragedy or pathos. Indeed, the one characteristic of our hot march into England which stands out to me the most clearly, as Hook back upon the Forty-Five with the spectacles of age, is the mixture of high purpose and broadest merriment that ruled our enterpriser. One of us kissed a woman lightly, say, when sun and autumn warmth were on the braeside. and the issue of a battle was decided by It. as at Prestonpans. Or a laird's wife upset a kettle of boiling water over her goodman's knees-a tale I may have to teU before I finish these light memoirs— and thereby saved the Pnnce from certain death, as when we rode together, he and L to Kirtlebrae. It was these laughable, small incidents of war, I think, that added to the wild campaign the last touch of carelessness; and it was these. I am sure, that helped to keep my own spirits from despair «'■ f 146 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. when the dark days of Derby and the backward march came on us all. The incident, however, which more than any other moved my laughter — which makes me smile even now as I put quill to paper — was the manner of our taking the good city of Edinburgh. I had looV.ed, with all the fine expectation of two-and-twenty, for danger in the assault, for the cries of stricken men, for flare of gunpowder and fall of shattered masonry ; and these things I found, it may be, at another date, but not at Edinburgh. I am glad that it falls to me just now to tell the story of the capture of Edinburgh by the Jacobite laddies, for it is heartsome weather as I write — although the season is late autumn, as on the day we played the pipes in Edinburgh — and the mind turns with kindliness to that side of warfare on which love and laughter intermingle. The love interest, as not infrequently occurred, was supplied by Archie MacGregor, now a trusted officer of the Prince and a firm friend of my own. MacGregor, who commanded a company of Highlanders as devil-may-care as himself, had chosen to cement his intimacy ..ith me, though in all respects he was as different from myself as NELL COMES TO ME ,4; weU could be. Frolic or fight he took with a queer Scot's doumess of demeanour that was for ever clashing ulth my own tell-tale spirits, and fifty times a day we rubbed angles with each other, nut ,t was these very differences of temper, 1 fancy, that drew us close together. At any rr,tc, onr friendship hid already grown so strong t'.at 1 e ir i conhded to me the secret of his love affair, ui w,,.,h 1 e had hinted on the eve of my own weddn-g-day. The lady, it seemed, was one Flora Maclvor, and her wit, to judge fn-n my friend's account of it, was as Uttle comfcr'ij.^- as the edge of a skean-dhu. She wo: '-! ,-,. neither "No" nor "Yes,' moreove' *o 'll dogged love-making, but kept him. -.'. v.,n„.. have a pretty knack of doing, swing^.g ak-, pendulum between extreme hope and eviii.ilv extreme despair. She had played a trifle too long with him at last, and it was her willy-nilly mood, no less than his own love of adventure that had sent him from Edinburgh-where Miss Maclvor chanced to be staying for awhile when the RebeUion broke out-to seek distraction in the wake of the White Cockade. This had all happened in the early summer, and now, as our southward march brought us' 148 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. nearer Edinburgh, I could see Archie's restlessness grow with each mile we travelled, until, indeed, I began to fancy he would run amuck among us all, unless a battle came to draw his thoughts from the lady who to him was Edinburgh town and Edinburgh castle both in one. His face was hke a fiddle out of tune when we finished the last stage but one of our march, and went into camp at a spot some twelve miles from the city ; and I watched him as he stood and glowered upon the murky haze, touched here and there with a stonry sunset, which showed him the dwelling- place of a disdain • lady. " Are you gauging to-morrow's weather, Archie ? " I said, linking an arm through his. " Ay, gauging the weather, lad," he muttered. " An' what's that to ye, I'm wondering ? Canna an honest man tak' a peep at the sky, but raw bit laddies maun come smirking, an' " " You are too careful to excuse yourself," I laughed. " Well, we shall see the streets of Edinburgh before the next two days are out ; and they're pleasant streets to walk along, they tell me, Archie." I spoke a true word, as it fell out ; but I did not guess, while I stood there and bantered dour im/il NELL COMES TO ME. ,49 MacGregor, that our entry was to be largely du» to himself-and to Miss Flora Maclvor too. in a remote degree. We struck camp at an early hour on the monow, and started in the best of spirits for the capital ; and now, after a couple of leagues or so had been covered, I was riding by the Prince's side, in advance of the main body, while he gave me his instructions for the day. " Look yonder ! They mean to check us in good time!" he cried, drawing rein upon the sudden and pointing to the low roofs of the village of Corstorphine, which showed just ahead of its I followed the direction of his finger, and saw a band of dragoons— some fifty, more or less there seemed to be-drawn up across the road at the comer where it turned round to the village. "Ride forward, Mr. Anstruther," said His Highness, preparing to return to the main body of his army, with the intention, as I guessed, of leading them promptly forward. " Ride forward and reconnoitre these feUows who grudge nje admittance to my capital." Some members of his staff, with Archie Mac- Gregor among them, joined us at this moment. w ISO UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. and he motioned them to ride forward with me toward Corstorphine. " Anstruther," whispered MacGregor, as we drew near the dragoons, " they have a michty saft look about them, as if they feared the de'il was somewhere near and they didna ken just where to look for him." I, too, had been observing the city soldiers narrowly, and so ready they seemed to break that I for one could not resist the temptation. I just yelled, " Let's ride at them," and set spurs to my horse. MacGregor, not to be outdone in folly, followed me, and after us our Httle company of eight came galloping. We were within ten paces of them now, and I could see them look at one another with very doubtful faces. Then Archie raised a Gaelic howl, than which there is no more strident nor more fearsome thing on earth. We fired our pistols point-blank at the enemy, swung our swords free to the accompaniment of a second howl from MacGregor, and galloped forward for the charge. But there are two sides to a charge, as to a bargain, and we found ourselves, when we had gained the corner, riding only at an empty stretch of road. For the dragoons had wavered, NELL COMES TO ME. ,5, had made a half-attempt toraUy, and had broken, without so much as a gun-shot fired. We struck our spurs well home and off we set, each trying to outstrip the other in the race; and with what little breath was left us we laughed, and laughed again, to see the dragoons gallop, down over their horses- manes, across the meadows and away. Thev rode finely, I admit, so far as speed went and we were still behind them after a hard run had brought us to the fields that flank Colt Bridge. Here, to our surprise, we found a larger body, of which the dragoons had onlv been an outpost, drawn up in battle array and" evidently waiting for the Prince's army. A curious figure stood m the foreground of the crescent formed by the troops-a thin, tall figure, wrapped in a great surcoat, his hat tied underneath his chin by a white kerchief. This, as we learned after- wards, was Colonel Gardiner, the one brave man among them. The ride and the excitement of the chase had gone to our heads by this time, and, had the Usurper's entire army stood across our path I thmk that we should still have gone forward with the same unconcern. There were eight of i! 152 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. us against two regiments of dragoons, the city guard, and all the volunteers that Edinburgh could muster; and they must have thought, hear- ing our yell of " Claymore ! " and seeing us advance so hotly, either that we were mad or that we had a strong reserve of force following close behind us. The latter supposition se°med to find more favour with them; and the fifty troopers whom we had first dislodged, as they galloped between the lines of their own comrades and on toward the city, increased yet further the growing panic and confusion. In vain the man with the strange head-gear strove to rally them ; in vain he struck right and left with the flat of his sword, and upbraided the runaways with fierce invective. Our clan-cries were too much for them, and for the second time that morning we found ourselves pursuing, with bared blades, as silly a flock of sheep as ever cropped green herbage. We stopped at last, for lack of breath, and because the fugitives would soon be under shelter of the Castle guns ; and when we got back to the Prince, who had brought up the army in time to see us go galloping down the distant road in hot pursuit, we found big tears of laughter rolling down his cheeks. NELL COMES TO ME. ,53 "My thanks, gentlemen, my thanks!" he cried. " Yon have gained me the first victory of the campaign." It was seldom that Prince Charlie laughed whole-heartedly; but when he did, there was a strange infection in his mirth. Even Archie MacGregor joined in our laughter, as we lifted hats and bonnets to the sky in token of our victory. CHAPTER VIII. A FAIR LADY AND A CITY GATE. Yet this first attempt to check our entry into Edinburgh, absurd as was its climax, was serious enough in one respect, for it showed us there was great opposition to our cause within the city waUs. Until now we had had no certainty on this head, one way or the other ; and the more sanguine of us— of whom the Prince himself was one— had good hopes that our supporters would outnumber the disaffected, and th it we should be welcomed rather than resisted. Our meeting with the dragoons disposed of that hope effectuaUy, and the Prince and his officers in council decided to halt for the remainder of the day at Corstorphine, until we had gleaned further knowledge of the strength of our oppo- nents. With this object in view, His Highness despatched me after dinner with orders to ride out as far from camp as was politic, to reconnoitre the walls, if possible, and to learn from chance A LADY AND A CITY GATE. 155 acquaintances on the road all that was to be known for the asking. I had just finished saddling when Nell looking mighty slim and fair in her boy's gear' came up and rested one hand on my horee's neck. " You'll break my heart, Maurice." was her astonishing prelude to what promised to be tearful talk. " Indeed ! " I ventured laughin^y. " Then 'tis brittle, if a puff of wind will shatter it.-' Then I saw that the tears were reaJly in her eyes, and I laid a hand upon her own. " Dear lass," I said, " the march is trying you too much, and you are fanciful." " But I saw you ride against the dragoons— I saw you, Maurice. And I said to myself that you must be very tired of hfe to risk it wantonly. And— and I was ^orry I had wearied you in these few days." I w.is amazed. Marriage had scarcely shown Itself in such a serious light before. I had been ready to fight for Nell, to love her, to know her sweeter than all other women ; but I had never thought to be put on my defence with subtleties of thislkind. 156 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " You do not answer. Ah I I knew that it was true," she murmured with a sob. " It is true that you are wearied out, Nell. See, we shall be in Edinburgh soon, and we shall halt there for awhile, and these discom- forts will be over. 'Tis just that you long for a gown again, and a home that we can share." Luckily we were out of sight of any passing busybody, for NeU came to me with the red of sunset in her face and a wondrous softness in her eyes. " Dear lad, I am ashamed to say it, but 'tis true," she whispered. "I'm lonely, and— and when I saw you ride against those men, and fancied that I saw you lying dead, I felt a great darkness, dear, come over me. I wish I loved you less," she added with a sob. "Then you'U unwish it, sweet, for no man in the world could love you more than I." "Say it again, dear. I want to be quite sure." I made it sure beyond dispute, and she turned a happy, tearful face to me. " And I'm glad, too, that I saw you ride so foolishly,.because— Ah ! but I like a man to be brave, Maurice." e^rr:' >^^ A LADY AND A CITY GATE. 15; My laughter was in no way feigned, for I remembered how the enemy had fled. " Then there are many valiant folk in Scot- land," I answered. " Every cowherd who drives his kme to pasture is a hero, and " " I saw you, and you cannot make your bravery seem less," she interrupted. And this was fortunate ; an older man would have garnished up his exploits for a wife's ear knowing how difficult it is for any husband to' maintam a reputation at his own fireside. But I was young to the matter yet, and to lift the monimg's comedy to the high level of heroism seemed out of reason. " Well, dear, I'm away to Edinburgh," I said, kBsmg her before I got to saddle. • Nay there's no danger," I added, soeing in her eves the question I was, beginning to Itam. "Just a ride about the walls, and home again. V\isli me luck, NeU, for I'm fain to see you safe in Edinburgh." I turned in the saddle as I reached the bending of the road, and she ki-s^d her hand to me ; and then I rode in great content, thinking more of Nell and of the happiness to come, I fear, than of the Prince's business, until I neared the out- skirts of the city. IS8 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. I met with no opposition of any sort upon the road, and after taking a leisurely survey of the Netherbow Port I was about to pass on, when the gates opened and three riders came out— two ladies and a man-servant. The younger lady arrested my attention, for the scornful face, with the brown hair piled above it, under a three- cornered hat set rakishly a-tilt, seemed in some way familiar to me. They took tl.c Corstorphine road, no little to my surprise, and I heard the younger say to her companion as they passed me : " Do us harm ? Is it likely that Highlanders would do a Highland lassie harm ? " " But to ride into the midst of a whole army ? " put in the other timidly. " Besides, they are rough and wild, they say." " They say, they say ! " echoed the first speaker sharply. "What do they know of my countrymen down here in the Lowlands ? I tell you it's a twelvemonth and a day since last I saw a Highland face, and I sicken for the sight of one." Now, Miss Flora Maclvor was Highland bom, and I put two and two together, and guessed why I had found the girl's face so familiar. It A LADY AND A CITY GATE. 159 was not for nothing that MacGregor had dinned his lady's praises into my ears o' nights. This scornful beauty, then, with the temper that promised merry times for Archie in the days to come, was riding to Corstorphine with the express purpose of seeing our camp ; and I had a shrewd suspicion that the Highland face which she had expressed such strong desire to see, was owned by one of the clan MacGregor. I wished him joy of her, and so went forward with the reconnoitring of the waUs. They were frail beyond belief- scarce an embrasure or a bastion worth the name and all the walls from the Netherbow Port to the Cowgate Port huddled thick with houses, big and little. " " This will be good news for the Prince," I thought, as I set off for the camp again. '" A litUe powder and a few of us to scale the breach and Edinburgh is ours." ' I was half-way to Corstorphine when I heard the same voice that had attracted my attention not long ago. Then a deep, stolid bass, no less familiar to me, came round the sharp bend of the road, and presently my disdainful lady appeared m sight, with Archie walking by her stirrup; and following them were the other riders whom I MKXOCOrr tlSOlUTION TEST CHART (ANSI tiw ISO TEST CHART No. 2) I.I 123 m ill 1.8 L25 i 1.4 1.6 ^ /APPLIED IN/MGE In ^^ 1653 Eoit Main Street ^S Rochester, N«w York 14609 USA S ('16> *fl2 - 0300 - Phon. = (716) 288 - 5989 -fat 1i i their gunpowder and » .eir sea .ng-,n,n, and what not ; but they'll find r Z°' !?""■ '■'" *'*"'''"«' °"" I've talked w. BaUhe Hamilton. And now. laddie.- he broke off .3 our walk brought us to the tent again. "IVe a n,i„d to lay me doon and sleep a jee before yon hackrey-coach comes rumbling f„,."':lT'^'"^ °" *''* **'^^ °* t"^ tent, and I followed h.s example, for by 'his time each of u, had learned to sleep with both ears open. Mac- Grego. was asleep at once, and the music of .im mied the tent for Archie snorea in Scotch, and ieLnT^ r "'' "'' "°*''"« ^'- that I had hea^d before I shared a couch with him. To- n.ght. mdeed, he kept me waking for two mortal hours ; and so. as I could not find my way to sfeep. I went over aU the doings of the day. ard thought o Baillie Hamilton, and wondeL ' MacGregor-s specious plan would come to any- thmg^ Then, remembering onr wager. I began to ask myself, by way of passing tU if the^ w«-e no way by whid. I could outwit MacGrego hnnself, just as he proposed to outwit the Baillk • HTd then i saw my way dear on the sudden, and I thmk an exdamation must have slipped from i;o ITNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. \l' mc, for Archie leaped to hisi (eet and reached out one hand for hin dirk. " Wha gangs there ? " lie cried. " It is only I, MacGregor. I was thinking of the keg of whiskey we had wagered, and the thought somehow made me laugh." "They're lang on the way, these chiels fro' Edinburgh," said MacGregor, yawning. " Have we o'ersleepit their coming ? " I cocked my ears toward the road. " We have waked just in time, if I know the sound of a hackney-coach," I answered. And so it proved, for when Archie and 1 got out on to the highway we saw Baillie Hamilton and his brethren of the City Council going in at the door of Gray's Mill for the second time that night. Archie's surmise, after all, had proved correct, and he could not lose the opportunity now of playing the part he had set himself. " Do you wait for them at the mill door," I said, " and leave me to wet the driver's throat in here. I may learn something from him of the way the world WEigs in Edinburgh." Archie glanced at me, for he was always a man of suspicions. But my face, I fancy, showed A LADY AND A CITY GATE. 171 guileless as his own. and he could see little harm in my offering whiske- ti a hackney-coachman on so chUly a night as < hi. , He went and lurked in the darkness that lay between the coach and the Prince's door, while I enticed the driver from his seat— a matter of smaU difficulty, indeed— and led him to our tent and poured him out a liberal quantity of whiskey. " The night is fine, driver," I said. " Fine and bricht, sir, but a wee thing cauld the noo," said he, as he drank my health. "The sort of night when it is pleasa-t to ride in arch of gallantry." I went on. helping him aft „i. " Oh. ay. when ye are in that time o' life." I leaned toward him confidentially. " There's discord in the city, so I hear, and they do not welcome visitors from our camp. And that is awkward for me, driver, if the truth must out, for I want to visit a lady in the town, and I see no chance at aU of getting through the gates. Will you take me up beside you, and never a man the wiser .' " He finished the measure before answering, and I filled up the pause by thrusting a guinea into^his palm. 172 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " Aweel," he said gravely, " if ye choose to climb up while I'm no just looking— ay, the thing might varra weel be done, I'm thinking. J wadna go agen releegion, ye ken. I'm a member o' the Kirk, an' pledged to honesty; but gin I dinna see ye mount the blame will no be mine." Bright as the stars were overhead, the coach lay deep in shadow of the trees that overhung Gray's Mill, so that once I was on the box there was little risk of Arci.ie seeing me. I waited till the door of the mill opened, and the three members of the deputation were bowed out into the night. " I wish you a pleasant journey, gentlemen, and your townsfolk more level minds," I heard Princp Charlie say. Then the mill door was closed, and I saw Archie come out of the shadows and follow the deputation into the middle of the road. Word for word, almost gesture for gesture, the scene was pla3'ed out as MacGregor had rehearsed it earlier in the evening; and his slow, broad speech, as he confided to them his love of Edin- burgh and his desire for its security, had in it something persuasive to the last degree. The delegates, good folk, were so perplexed by all A LADY AND A CITY GATE. 173 this to-and-fromg between Corstorphine and the town that they were ready to snatch at an> offer of assistance; and in a few minutes Eaillie Hanulton was bowing my friend into the hackney- coach. " Ye ken weel, maybe, that an honest man is putting his life in your hands for sake o' the auld toun ? " said Archie, adding a last deft touch to his play-acting as he halted on the step of the coach. " Ye'U no regret it, Captain MacGregor, ye'll no regret it," the Baillie answered. The four of them got up into the coach, and, judging that it was time for me to join the game' I sUd up by the left fore wheel to my place beside the driver— the driver who was a member of the Kirk. The horses were whipped into a show of spirit, the coach started forward, and there was no halt until we stood outside the Nether- bow Port and clamoured for admission. The gates were iiung open and shut behind us again, and I wondered what our eight hundred comrades were doing outside the walls, and how we should fare if they chose just this moment for blowing up the gate. AU was quiet, however, except for the folk who thronged the streets, talking in 174 UNDER Tip: WHITE COCKADE. loud tones together. Here and there a knot of them would recognise Baillie Hanulton as we rode through the town, and it was plain from their eager glances at us that the object of his journey to Corstorphine was known to everyone. We stopped at last in front of the Baillie's house, and I sheltered myself behind the coachman's burly figure as Archie and his new companions stepped out into the road. I " Ye'U hae to bide for me, for I maim get hame again to Corstorphine," said Archie to the driver, who, not relishing this third journey, asked if he were to spend the remainder of his days in driving between Corstorphine and Auld Reekie. " I dinna ken aboot your da5rs, man, but an hour or two mair o' this same nicht ye'll hae to gi'e me," cried MacGregor, in a tone which admitted no dispute. While the driver muttered his complaints, and while Archie followed Baillie Hamilton in- doors, I slipped down unnoticed from the box, opened the coach door noiselessly and took my seat inside, there to await my friend's return. Stray items from the crowds that hugged the A LADY AND A CITY GATE. 175 Canongate, the Cowgate, and the Lawnraarket. passed by me, saying this and that of the Prince according to the complexion of their loyalty. Then Archie came out again from Baillie Hamil- ton's house, and walked up the street with him— to carry through the farce, so I judged, by seeming to convince himself of the good faith of the town. The minutes dragged along; I yawned and fidgeted ; but at last I heard Archie's step once more, as he stopped in the roadway just outside the coach and gave a soft good-night to the Baillie. " Ye'U persuade the Prince, then, think ye ? " said the BaiUie, for the seventh time, as MacGregor opened the coach door. " Oh, ay, I'll persuade His Highness. Guid- nicht, Baillie, and guid luck to the auld toun." There was a pause, and then, " Wake up, ye daft auld wife ! Corstorphine ! " I heard him cry to the member of the Kirk who sat upon the box. The coachman roused himself with a start, and whipped up his cattle, and soon we were re- traversing the crowded thoroughfare that led us to the gate. I shrank into the comer of the coach, nigh ;:'r,Ug 176 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. split with laughter to hear Archie mutter, with grave complacency : " Bonnily done I Hech ! It's bonnily done. And Miss Flora Maclvor " " Is to wed the first man into Edinburgh," I broke in ; " and the first man in was myself, friend MacGregor." MacGregor ripped out his dirk at the first shock of surprise, then upbraided me in his sweet mother tongi^e as soon as he learned who shared the coach with him; and he only stormed the more when I told him that by riding on the box I had come well first into the town. " I wadna so muckle mind your laughter, laddie," he groaned, "but it's the whiskey I grudge — for, man, the price of a keg of whiskey will leave me with a lean purse." " Not to mention the lady," I put in, as we pulled up at the Netherbow Port, and heard our driver shouting for the guard. " On whose orders ? " said the guard gruffly. " Baillie Hamilton's. We're for Corstorphine," answered the coachman. The gates were unlocked, and the guard stood back to let us pass. It was the moment we bad A LADY AND A CITY GATE. i-„ schemed for. Archie gave a yeU Uke the crack of doom as he leaped from the bowels of the coach and two quick "strakes" of his skean-dhu brought the guards to ground before I had time to foUow him. His shout of " Claymore ! " went nngmg up and down the street. There was an answering call from without and a rush of feet and Archie and I fell i„to line together.' presentmg bare blades and a front of sur- passing gravity to our comrades, who. eight hundred strong, were lurking on the far side of the gate. Cameron of Lochiel was the first of them to enter. He stopped amazed to see us standing there so quieUy. Then he began to laugh, and : ^ "Captain MacGregor," said he. "how comes |t that you and Mr. Anstruther must needs have the cream of every jest ? We were but just settmg fire to a fuse when you called us to the gate. "Come in. ye braw ts laddies," said Archie suavely, "for the toun is all agog to see ye." 6 5 i" Lord Harry, what a night it was ! Up we marched through the town in the gaining dawn. and the knots of idlers, wrangling as to whether % 178 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. old Edinburgh could or could not hold out against the Prince, were scattered right and left by the Prince's soldiery. The nevs spread. Casements were flung open ; men with nightcapped heads and lassies all in disarray peeped forth to learn the cause of the tumult ; the pipes struck up "The King shall enjoy his own again," and eight hundred Scottish bonnets went roof-high toward the clouds. Two of us rode to Corstorphine to tell the Prince of our success, and found him seated at the supper-board. " Well, gentlemen," he said, glancing quickly up as we entered, " these deputations make a man hungry, as you see, and I am supping for the second time to-night. Do you bring any news ? " " We do, your Highness. Edinburgh is ours." And then I told him all the way of it, and he would have us pledge the bloodless victory in a glass of the strongest whiskey it had ever been my lot to taste. " It is boot and saddle now ! " he cried. " Anstruther, do you go give my orders that we must march as soon as the men can breakfast and stri e camp. Yes, they must breakfast first, ;!| 4 A LADY AND A CITY GATE. ,79 poor feUows," he added, as if to himself. " They nave been sorely tried of late." As soon as I had passed on the orders I went in search of Nell, and I had long to stand beneath her window before my calls could rouse her. Poor child ! The constant bustle was sadly wearying to her and she slept. I fancy, with the same dreamless somidness that I enjoyed myself when worn out by hard riding. She came at last, however, and the sun shone full upon her face, dreamy and half surprised, as she flung the casement wide. "I seemed to be dreaming. Maurice." she S T r 1° ^'^' ^°" "^""S- ''^S to me. And I thought you were in danger, and then I woke, and Are you really safe, dear ' " " ^"l^'^y '^^^•" I '^"ghed. " but I have con- quered Edinburgh. 1 t on your boy's gear for the last time. NeU. We are on the point of marching now." She did not stay to question me, for the up- roar m the camp was witness to the fact that we were just about to march, and sooner than I had hoped for she was at my side. '' TeU me what has chanced," she said. " Nay, there's not time enough. I'U tell you i8o UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. when — when you don a kirtle, lassie, and come to me in Edinburgh as my own true wife." And then, of course, I kissed her — as who would not, seeing the glamour and the softness of her face when that word " wife " was spoken ? And all seemed very wel' with the Prince's cause and with my own. The army took some hours to get finally into marching order ; but after that it was a quick march and a joyous to Edinburgh, and when the sun got up toward the noonv ard sky it found us massed in arms about the Market Cross. Fore- most of all was Lochiel, the handsomest figure in all our army ; behuid him were his own picked cavalry, and behind the cavalry again as wild and picturesque a crowd of infantry as Edinburgh, surely, ever saw — lean, sinewy fellows, with faces chiselled ont of oak, and tattered tartans blowing loosely jn the wind of mom. The townsfolk would never get done with their gazing at us, so it seemed, and by their looks I fancied that they liked us better in the flesh than they had done in imagination. Among the crowd I saw a horse\voman come riding through the press ; she had brown hair, breeze-blown into A LADY AND A CITY GATE. ,8, disarray, and a three-cornered hat set rakishly abo. a scornful face, and a «,. not to Z I was not the only one. indeed, who recognised M«s Mac vor. for I stole a ,.ance at A?chTe and saw that he was edging his horse out o the pr^s He drew rein beside her. and raised h.s linnet as .Miss Flora wer. a second Queen she"'^°R"'"T'''/'P'''" MacGregor." said sne. It 13 a fair day that brings •■ she;f^sed'^*'''"^^"'^^'^-^«'^-«-lyas ,hp7''K?""*^ ^""" ^^^'^'^ •"*<> Edinburgh." she finished with great demureness. "Miss Maclvor." said Archie, after a discon- c^rtingsUence. "who first set foot in the aTd toiin this morning, think ye ' " horsl\Ir'^'^'°"*'^^^^**''^-">'*'>-gof ^el^ir'^' ""'P!"" ''^^'^'Sor. I couldn't toC,. ^° """"y "^ y°" ^^^^ ^«t foot within the '■ Ay but there's a bargain, if ye call to mind." her H r^^ ■ " '''" "=^°'^'^' "**^g the tip of her^damty nose and the curve of two da^ty 182 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. iil'lji!; i^ " Ay, a bargain," he repeated stolidly. " Miss Flora Maclvor weds the first wha steppit through the Netherbow Port." " But, sir, I cannot wed a whole r mpany of horse," she cried, glancing abotrt her once again. " Nae, nae, I wadna ask it of ye," said he very seriously. " Just wed the ane of us. Miss Flora, an' I'll no press ye further." I had in mind, hearing Archie so shamefully claim credit for being first into the city, to ride to Miss Maclvor's other hand and t^ll her it was I who had earned the distinction ; but I forbore. What followed I could not catch, owing to a fresh outbreak of cheering and a fresh throwing up of Highland bonnets as the Prince rode down the lines; but Archie seemed to have made the most of his opportunities, for when Prince Charlie passed him he stepped forward and begged that His Highness would allow him to present Miss Flora Maclvor, whom he hoped soon to make his wife. The Prince glanced at her with the keen and kindly glance which he gave to all new acquain- tances, and then he bowed in a fashion I would give three years of my life to learn. " I value Captain MacGregor as much as any A LADY AND A CITY GATE. 183 officer in my amy," said he, " but I doubt if he merits the fairest lady I have seen since setting foot in Scotland." Miss Flora laughed a little, and flushed, and looked so soft and womanly that I wondered where all her scorn was gone. " Are we so little well-favoured as that, your Highness ? " she murmured. " Or is vour expe- rience of our country less intimate as yet than we would have it be ? " she added, wth a pretty exchange for his own compliment. MacGregor was delighted, I could see ; and he was just turning, after the Prince had passed on, to whisper some foUy into Miss Maclvor's ear, when BaiUie Hamilton came shouldering through the press. The Baillie's keen grey eyes sought Archie, and found him. " Captain MacGregor, I tak' it this is no just kind o' ye," said he reproachfully. " Man, a's fair in love and war; and I've won a wife as weel," cried Archie. "Hoots!" said the BaiUie, and his face was sour as whey. "A wife's easy come by; but what of a man's self-respect, an' a' that?" "Easy come by.'" laughed MacGregor. '«4 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " Aweel, I wadna just say that." And then he glanced at Miss Maclvor. But I heard him murmur, in a subdued and passionate aside : "I've won a wife-oh, ay. I've won a wife; but I m fashed to hae lost the full price of a kee of whiskey I " r *cg CHAPTER IX. THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH. X£Lh ^<^ here, at last. I was able to pve Nell the home she craved for. Indeed I t at^::?, °r "r r "^ '-' ^^- ^•'^'i taat crov led round the market-cross before sh^ .<-n- bes.de me as I sat i„ saddle, watc J^" 1 «conce.vable uproar and unrest aro„n7me X looked at the dimpLng face beneath the laced Wcomered hat. I wondered how my f^d MacGregor could waste his thoughts on any other woman m the world but this. "yotner "You have been speedy. Nell." I laughed bendmg to touch her hand •' a '""Snta, you were a boy. and no:!^.. ^ '"°'"^"' -« " Dear. I am happy again ! I have a kin., woman, as I told you. who lives at the sSTet' i 1 86 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. comer yonder, and I went to her and tcld her all, and begged one of her grand-daughter's gowns. She wants me to present you to her, Maurice ; and 'tis the one dream of her life, remember, to see Prince Charlie and to kiss his hand," " She should be here, then," I laughed ; " for every woman in the city seems running to per- form that service. Nell, sweetheart, I never saw you look so bonnie." " 'Tis the change' of wearing-gear ; and I'm not half so bonnie as that lady talking there with Captain MacGregor." " If you'll not retract, Nell, I'll ask the Prince himself, for no man can deny his taste." " Who is she, Maurice ? " said she, neglecting my pleasant rendering of the truth. "She's his promised wife, and not so sparing of her tongue as you, if all I hear be true." " Wait, sir, awhile. Now that I am free to wear a gown again, it may be I shall find a woman's tongue. Come, will you ride to my kinswoman's— 'tis but a step from here— and be presented ? " "I'm sadly travel-stained; but if you dare present me in this guise, I will ask the Prince's ':!'TS THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH. 187 leave. See him there, Nell ! How straight and bonnily he sits his horse ! " I edged my way to the Prince's side, not with- out difficulty, and readily secured permission to be absent for an hour or so. "Your excuse is yonder, I take it," he laughed following the direction of my eyes, which would not keep away irom Nefl's trim figure. " Well, 'tis a fair excuse, and I am puzzled to know why MacGregor and yourself are permitted to rob Scotland of its bonniest women." I repeated his words to Nell as we went down the crowded street, and added that it was some- thmg of a doubtful compliment, to my thinking, that he should name Mistress Maclvor in the same breath with her. At which she laughed disdamfuUy, though-perhaps because-I spoke plain truth. We had arrived at her kinswoman's door by this, and Mrs. Cameron received me very kindly. She was a homely, shrewd-faced body, with all a Scotchwoman's love for a romance. This, and doubUess the little-merited character that' Nell had given me, seemed to have opened both her house and heart to me ; and nothing would do but NeU and I must make our lodging with her 188 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE, so long as we were resting in the town. I was glad of the offer, for it meant that NeU would find comfort and the sort of care which only women can give to women ; and it was pleasant to thmk that she had done with the shifts ai, ] changes of our southward march at any ra- for some few da)^. I learned that Mrs. Cameron was related to the minister who had married NeU and myself at Perth, and more distantly to old Dugald^ne of those Scotch relationships that are not dimmed by any remoteness-and that she entertained a cheerful hatred toward his poUcy. I told her then the tale of how I went by night and tempted Dugald to his own undoing ; and with the old dame's laughter in my ears I hurried off to learn if there were any orders from the Prince. Ah, how those days at Edinburgh come back to me ! From the moment of our entry to the moment of our leavmg, aU was a quick succession of acclamations, gaiety, and pomp. It seemed that in truth our Prince was come to his own again, and no words of mine can picture the great baU at Holyrood which the Prince gave on the evening of this same day. For Holyrood seems THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH. ,89 to have gathered to itself the charm of Edinburgh -grey Edinburgh, whose memories are like a Seat upon an autumn gloaming-tide. Blood-red of brawl and battle, purple of royal splendour v:olet of woman's witchery-aU the'e hang rou^d the Scottish capital, and shine through every X dow of its forsaken Palace ^ soofr"''"^ """^ ''"" "" "°^' ^"d would be soon agam ; but meanwhile we brought back the ancient splendour. And the ghosts 'retu^tlt: watch us. and strange, unnoticed figures crept amongst us. to whisper in our ear. that chi^ was not yet dead, and that a Stuart was toS back t, us the Stuart days. ^ Not aU the folk of quality about the town came to the ball; but. as I live. I think that i; he men^est d-d. for the wit and grace of Scot- land seemed gathered to the rout. I was close bes.de the Prince as he stood to welcome tl .nconung guests, and I thought the hand-kisses would never cease. I have married a Scotch ^sie^ and It may be I am prejudiced .-but never our eL r """^ "'"' ' ^^" ''^^^ "'Sht, that our English women are fairer than their sisters of the North. "Douce and sonsy." was ArcS 190 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. I 'li MacGregor's^muttered comment, oft repeated, as this lady of quality or that came to offer homage ; and douce and sonsy best expresses them. And last of all, despite infirmities, came Mis. Cameron, my hostess, hobbling on two sticks and chattering to Nell, whose beauty drew all eyes toward her. I was a"iazed to see her here, but more amazed to hear the homely greeting which she gave the Prince. ■, ' "Aweel, laddie, we've waited sair an' lang for ye," said she, kissing his hand ; " an' whiles we've greeted i' the nicht-time, to think o' ye beyond the seas." The Prince laughed, his merriest and softest laugh. " They say that a woman's tears are prayers, and surely I must thank you for the help you have given the Cause. Madam, will you dance the minuet with mi ? " Her keen old eyes began to twinkle. " An' me wi' goiit i' both my legs, your High- ness ? Nay, 'tis just my heart that's dancing to see ye here, an' ye mauna ask too muckle o' my legs." So he claimed Nell's hand for the minuet, though she was of less consequence than a score THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH. ,9, of tiUed ladies eager for the honour ; and I saw the gladness .n her face, and caught the glance Z S:."^' '"' '"^" *'^* ^'^^ -- P-<1 ^or As often as was possible I claimed Nell's hand, though the callants swarmed about her like bee about a clover field. And it was sweet, when we had danced our fill, to wander through the haunted chambers of the Palace, each chamber with Us drwe.'^^^ °' ''''''''''' ^"'^ «^'^^-'*^^- o^ "Yonder is Rizzio's stair." I said, as we passed a darksome stairway, "and above" Mary's bedchamber." "Oh, Maurice!" she whispered, her ungers t:ghtenmg on my arm. " Did they drag him Strst^'r-^'^^^^"^^-" went from fa„cr,?''''r'""''"'^'''''*'^°"g'^I-">notofa anc.ful turn of mind at most times ; yet here in he dusky corridor, alone with the ghosts, it was wWch h "if;? '" ''"" ""'^^PP^'- gulden days which held aUure.aent in one hand and in th^ other a sword-blade dripping red. "Come away, sweet," I said at last. i ' Mil! ^^t^^^^H III! ^^^^^^^^^1 If 192 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. "Come away to the lights and music. I'd rather hear the pipes than all this stir of ghosts." And so we got us back again to the great hall, and there was the Prince, laughing with a knot of bystanders, and showing nothing of that sad look of eyes and mouth which gave him now and then a curious likeness to his ancestress. This ball at Holyrood, for all its splendour, proved to be but the beginning of our gaieties, for Prince Chailie, watchful as he had to be lest a sortie from the Castle should surprise us, kept as high revel here at Holyrood as the daintiest lady of his hne had done close upon two hundred years ago. We danced the minuet, we made light love-vows — those of us, that is, who were free to do so, and some, I fear, who were not free— according to the French traditions that Mary Stuart herself had loved ; and over the least of all our doings— a breakfast party or a reception— there hung that subtle, undefinable romance which the Stuarts never failed to conjure up. And all the time we were embarked upon a venture full as desperate, surely, as any that Edinburgh's wildest days had seen. We had all England and no small THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH ,93 part of Scotland against us ; we were ill , ^ an^s by day and dancld by TJ ;\r,t;?^ ^* spinas high unta the battleL^ho^ col?" thos?Zysitt;:s.rtr"""^*-- us. I think, but fi is , ' Tetir rr nobler for the.-none of us but fS tSt h: marches, counter-marches, and the sword dni which was our constant care. ^^"'•d-dnll .o,,^ *°,'u^"''; ^""'™"' '^' ^^"-"'gh forgot her Nell and I returned from rout or banquet. JMow. barnis. ye'll just sif ,» ^ would begin, as soon as we a;peaf:d Tn t tell an old body what muckk'fSt there^ een th „, ,, j^„^^_ ^^ grand-daJghtZi,^,^ m::"e5ir:^r;:t^--^atth^ ^beenaw.Wtheauld^rn':L"^?,°^^^^ in It. The Pnnce. now-did he carry the kHf as brawly as when I kissed his hand a7 tdd hi 0' my gouty legs ? " wia him And then would follow a f.,ii ^ u louow a tuii account of all 'm 194 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. r that had happened, of all that gossip said and rumour credited as to our movements. "Ay, ay," the old lady would put in from time to time, " it taks me back to the Fifteen. I lost a husband i' that rising; an' would I had sons and a husband now, that they micht fecht for Chairlie ! " And last of all she would let fall a gentle tear or two, and her lips would move. We knew that she was praying for our laddie with the yellow hair ; and Nell and I would slip away in search of the rest that we had earned. While we were in the midst of our revels, however, news came that Cope, the English general, had landed with his army at Dunbar, then that he had marched as far west as Hadding- ton, some score miles or so from Edinburgh ; and at once the gaieties were forgotten, and we prepared ourselves in earnest to meet the enemy. This General Cope — better known as Joh.inie Cope to us rebels, whom he wa« sent northward to chastise — enjoys, I believe, a unique place in history. Other leaders have suffered crushing defeats at the hands of an inferior army, other leaders have fled with zealous haste from the field of battle ; but only one, to my know- THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH .95 ledge has been the first to bring tidings of his o^vn defeat to the King whose uniform he wore. And the causes of his discomfiture were, first, my goodfnend Archie MacGregor, and secondly-if I may say it with all modesty-myself After the first news had reached us of Cope's nearness to our camp, there was no question, as I have said, of anything but battle. It was of the greatest moment that we should gain such prestige for our arms as a swift attack and a sweepmg victory would give us. We had en- thusiasm on our side, and high spirits, and care- lessness of odds ; and we doubted little but that our fifteen hundred men would give a good account of the three thousand hirelings of the German Kmg who were under General Cope's command. As the days went by. and the Prince moved in and out between Holyrood and the camp at Duddmgston, where the bulk of his army lay I could see his step grow firmer, his shoulders quarer; and the underlying melancholy of his ace was smoothed out more and more, until at last we rnarched in search of fight, with the brave Highland pipes before us, and behind us the waving of kerchiefs from every lattice on the m Mil 196 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. Before the boot-and-saddle trumpet sounded I had taken my farewell of Nf-U — a parting that I do not care to dwell upon, for the sight of her troubled, half-reproachful face, and the trem- bling of her hands in mine, made me for the moment more soft of heart than is fitting in one who goes to battle. " Courage, sweet," I whispered. " See this white cockade thou gav'st me — 'tis a talisman to keep the sword-cuts off." " Why, yes, laddie," added Mrs. Cameron, embracing me with kindly vehemence, " I hae the second sight, ye ken, an' all last nicht I couldna sleep for hearing the pipes play ChairUe hame again fro' victory." Nell brightened at the last enough to give me a wan smile, and I galloped off to join our friends who were already making last preparations for the march. General Cope was at Prestonpans by this time, and we reached the hill overlooking his camp at two in the afternoon. A rare fine day of September it was. The bracken was golden- brown, the wind crisp with a thought of frost in it, the sky a clear green-blue. It was a '^y for victory, wd told ourselves — bei-.j, prone, as soldiers THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH ,97 7:u°r^ '^ superstitious price upon the faiiTiess of the day When we had climbed the hiU. how- InT^nf .""'""'^ *'^ "'"^«^ °^ Prestonpans. and had taken a clear view of the enemy's camp Sp':a;e;;""'"''^'^^'°^-°-«-<^^p^rit' General Cope has suffered in his reputation owing to the doings of the night that foUowed • but at least, he had chosen his position with masterly regard to the necessities of war. Flanked on the one side by the sea, on the other by a broad mar^h, a ditch, and a lake-hemmed in to nght and left by the high stone walls that bounded the road to the village of Prestonpans- h.s safety seemed as assured as if he had taken refuge m Edinburgh Castle itself. "We have set ourselves a pretty task, Mr. Vnstruther," said the Prince to me, ^s I drew rem bes.de him and watched the scene below We looked to meet them in the open, and they have stolen a march upon us. I think we under- rated General Cope's ability, after all." " This is the first sign that he has shown us, and even yet he may undo it by some false step or other, I answered, anxious to believe that it would happen so. Hiv-f »-\ir III rill 198 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. The Prince was quiet for awhile, as he tof»k in every detail of the enemy's position. Then he turned to me with one of his quick, impulsive movements. "Mr. Anstruther," he said, "you once, I remember, trapped old Dugald Cameron for me. Cannot you bring as good a wit to bear on General Cope yonder ? " " If we could but lure them into the open " I began. " Ay," the Prince broke in drily, " if we could but salt the tail of Johnny Cope ! Come ; are you ready with a plan for that ? " "i wu' find one, «irc," I replied, ,il! my high spirits returning to me when met by so direct a challenge. Lord Murray, riding up at this moment, cut short our talk, and I fell back a few paces to the rear, with ears wide open for what Murray had to say of the chances of a battle. The Prince eyed him a shade coldly. "What think you of the prospects, Lord Murray ? " he said. Murray did not turn his head. " I think, your Highness," he answered, keep- ing his eyes fixed on the glinting uniforms and THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH. 199 weapons of the enemy, " I think it would be well to retreat at once— «< once— on Edirburgh." " Indeed I Your point of view has, at least, the merit of singxilarity." " You know the temper of the Highlanders, sire, as weU as I do," went on the other doggedly. " If they scent a fight, nothing less will please them. They have set a trap for us down there, and, if we stay, impulse will lead us into it." The Prince was never patient for long in Murray's company. " Impulse, my lord ! " he flashed. " That is the first word of our motto-the first word and the last. It is impulse that will lead us into London, or kill us by the way." " Or kill us by the way," repeated the other, dour and hard. " There is no inlet for us yonder ? " said the Prince, after a pause. " No way of getting be- tween the waUs that shelter them, so that we can fight on equal terms ? " " On equal terms ? They number close on four thousand, your Highness, while we " " Are Highlanders," put in the Prince, with his quiet. unswprvMf faith in those who foUowed him. 200 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. "Cope's men have fought at Fontenoy an' Dettingen ; they are the pick of ah ^he EiigHsL troops," went on Murray, still coldly obstinate. " Pride is well, your Highness, and I know what Highlanders can do; but— why, only half of them are armed," he broke off, frowning heavily. " What service will clubs and hedge-stakes do us when we come to meet sword and bayonet and musket .' We are not ready to fight, your High- ness, and that is the^ plain truth." The Prince turned to me. "Mr. Anstruther, you have been zealous in procuring arms. TeU Lord Murray here that we have done our best." His voice was testy a little, as if patience played the indifferent hand- maid to his courtesy. "Captain MacGregor and myself, sire, have done what we could," I said, vastly enjoying Murray's glance of chill disdain. " I was about to ask leave of absence for Captain MacGregor and myself, so that we might pursue our search for weapons." " It is granted ; but return before nightfall, for I shall have need of you. Lord Murray, we are going to attack the English before to-morrow's sun sinks," he added, but I could not catch what THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH. 201 foUowed, being already down the steep slope of the hill and out of hearing. I went at once in search of Archie MacGregor and found him grinding his dirk against a stone' and singing the " Reiver's Neck Verse," all with an air of great content. "Archie," I said, taking the dirk from him and running my linger along it to test the edge, " the Prince means to fight to-raorrow." He lifted his big head, with the sword-cuts on It, and eyed me gravely for awhile. "Man, that's grand news," he said, and clutched at the dirk and went on sharpening it. " But first we are to seek more weapons. I have just secured leave of absence for the two of us, on the promise of finding tools of some sort." " Oh ! and have ye .' " cried MacGregor with fine irony. " Promise awa', but dinna forget that weapons are no like lassies-they never lilt ' Whistle and I'll come to ye, my lad.' " " We must do what we can. There must be houses, Archie, where they have weapons of a sort," I began ; but he checked me. "Awa wi' your havers! Haena I gi'en earnest thocht to it ? " he cried, with the air n '! ff ! i tl < 202 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. of a master rebuking a mere 'prentice hand. Archie was never so grave as when the earnest topic of arms was in question— unless, indeed, he were discussing a lady or the merits of the Shorter Catechism. " The farms, I'm thinking— they should gi'e us some braw fichting tools," he went on, after a long silence. " Mattocks and the like ? " "Ay, and scythes— scythes, my lad, that would lop an arm, or a leg, or a head, as saft as clover-grass." When he had finished sharpening his dirk he untethered his horse, which was browsing close at hand, and got to saddle. One last look he gave at Johnnie Cope's army down below, then laughed in sober fashion, and set oft up the hill- side at a canter. We drew rein at the door of a white-walled farm that stood atop the slope, and MacGregor dismounted. A pretty, arms-akimbo lass an- swered to his knocking, and Archie gave her a grave Scots kiss by way of prologue; but he handled the maid, I noticed, a shade less tenderly than he had done the dirk. Then he said that we had come in search of THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH. 203 scythes, that she must open the outhouses to us and show where the farm tools were kept, that there were no weU-favoured maids in Lanark- shire who grudged the gift to douce Prince Charlie Whereat she blushed an honest red, and ogled the pair of us, and called to one Peter to come out. Peter came slowly— a big, loose-jointed feUow, whose way of looking at the lassie showed plain enough that there was more than brotherliness m his regard. And after some demur— a great display of Lowland caution on his part, and a hint from my friend that cold steel was the only judge of the matter in dispute— he led us to a roomy outhouse that backed the farmstead. There was no lack of prowling rogues who hung upon the outskirts of our army ; so, for safety's sake, we took our horses with us, and tethered them within the outbuilding. The giri followed us, and I was a good deal put about, I own, to decide whether her glances were for MacGregor or for mc. Archie had clean forgotten her by now, how- ever, and I saw that his eyes were moving from one to another of the heavy farming tools which surrounded us. A half-score of scythes hung upon the waUs, and by-and-by he took down one of these, and made rough play with it. 14 204 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. "Ay, they wad lop a limb," he muttered, with the old droll tenderness in his voice. " Ay, they'll danc3 bonnily amang yon chiels o' Johnnie Cope's." He unfastened the blade from the crooked shaft, and asked if they had any six-foot poles about the farm. Peter, grudging and slow, made shift to find the poles, and after these some twine , and MacGregor set to work without delay. ' I had lost my mterest a little in the errand that had brought me here, for the farm lass was still watching us from the door, and she was bonnier than I had thought her ; and so, to make quite sure whether her glances were meant for me, I went across to her, and left MacGregor humming blithely over his task. Peter stood in the yard a few paces off ; and he did not like the English evidently, for he glowered at me with deep and laughable resentment. The lass looked at me, her hands on her hips, with a frank mixture of challenge and defiance that was eminently characteristic of her country- women. " You come from the Prince's camp ? " said she to me. THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH. 205 " I do, and am like to return to it the richer " I laughed. " Hoots ! " said she. " Ye've a sma' idea o' riches. I'm thinking, if ye find them here." " Nay, for I count a trim shape and a pair of saucy eyes " I did not finish, for some- how I thought of NeU, and was ashamed. " Awa' wi- your daft talk," said she, with an air that I mistook for modesty until she spoilt it all by adding : " Can ye no see Peter keeking at us ? " It takes a Scot to flatter his own womenfolk I fancy. At any rate, they make short work of our smooth English speeches. Now I did no more than ask her, very gravely, what day I could come here again with the certainty that Peter would not be " keeking at us." I was to return, indeed, sooner than I thought, and her next words gave me likelier occupation than any idle gallantry. She had been watching Archie, who was still busy with his scythes, and I was wondering what was in her mind when she turned sharply to me and asked, pointing to the weapons, "gin the yellow-haired laddie was like to win the day wi' siccan puir tools ? " 2o6 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. I h m " The Prince will win with any fighting tools," I said, " and if your face be anything to go by," I added, tickled by her eagerness, " you would right well like to run a bodkin on your own account into his enemies." " Ye're Enghsh," she said, as if it were a taunt ; " ye'U never rightly ken what a Scots lassie wad do for the lad frae ower the seas ; and if our men were o' the like mind " — again she glanced at Peter and glanced away — "he'd hae all Scotland at his back. And it's no just love for the Prince," she went on after awhile. " There's been a saucy band o' General Cope's men here the day frae Prestonpans. They're English, same as ye, and they steal wi' a puir grace." " They have had less practice than you Scots," I murmured. She tossed her head. " The Prince's chiels are braw," she answered with great seriousness. " Wha wad say them nay when they tak' a poke o' meal or a bit beast or Iwa ? " " Or what my friend MacGregor took not long since," I put in, thinkirig of the grave kiss he had given her. THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH. 207 She blushed at that, and, "When do ye fecht ? " said she, to turn the talk. " As soon as we can find a way to Johnnie Cope's encampment, or as soon as we can lure him cut." It was a foolish thing to say, and an aide-de- camp of the Prince should have known better than to go babbling of such matters to the first rustic beauty who chanced to cross his path. Yet, foolish or no, this idle talk of mine brought me, by great good luck, a piece of knowledge which neither Lord Murray's wisdom nor lean Pitsligo's caution could have secured us. For my companion feU very silent, and then she glanced up quickly at me. " There's a path across the marsh," she said. " A path ? " I echoed. " A path across the marsh ? Lassie, are you daft, that you did not tell me this before ? " " I haena the second sight," she answered drily, " so how should I ken ye were thinking o' the marsh at all ? " And then she told me that this track across the marsh was very narrow, that few of those who lived on the braeside knew of it, and that she herself had only learned its whereabouts on In! I 208 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. a day of the past winter when she chanced to be taking butter to the great house in the valley, and saw a horseman riding straight over • 'h&t she had thought to be a pathless bog. " Mr. Anderson it was," she finished. " He lives in the big house, ye ken, and he w^ riding home frae the hunt." " Mr. Anderson ! " I echoed, scarcely credit- ing her information. " Why, he has lately joined the Prince, if I mstake not. In all soberness, does he know a way that will take us over the bogland to the camp of General Cope ? " " Ay, he kens fine, for I marked the spot where he rode through, wi' the water up to his horse's hocks, an' the spot where he came to dry ground. I ken the way fro' one end to the other, and I could tak' ye ower it i' the dark." I could scarcely master my excitement. The Prince was eager above all things for a speedy battle, and here, by a stroke of rare good fortune, I had found a way to take our army right under the nose of Johnnie Cope while he slept tran- quilly between his walls. I began to dance fan- tastic measures up and down the floor. I drove my hand so warmly between MacGregor's shoulder- THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH. ,09 blades that I all but sliced off his le.t hand with fthttdt^ ^^^°"^ '-'- i^ad'tai^rr; :: turned to go in search If her b„ theTr' '"' bered that M. Anderson. so .rSLT^d o 1 rf " •^^"P = '^^ ' --•« guidance o my tbnkzng, was more to our advantage Tan a woman's in this affair ^ weap^nf 7^''"'" "" ^"" ''"^^ ^^^^ •>- -w SIX foot poles which Peter had lately brought from some outbuilding. ^ ^ * " We can cross the matsh ! " I cried '• A r. v we can cross the marsh t " '"''"' He took down a fresh scythe from its peg. And wha told ye that, laddie ? " he Sed I repeated all that I had heard iust now She knows the path," I fin^hed. "And Mr. Anderson knows it, and before to-morrow we shall see what Johnnie Cope is made of " Aweel, there's more lies to one lass's head 210 Uf.DER THK WHITE COCKADE. than blades to an acre o' wheat. I doot, man Anstnither, there's no sic path at a'," said Mac- Gregor, with the stoUd air that threatened a score times a day to break our friendship. But I could see his fingers work more merrily at the twine, and presently he had fallen to singing the " Reiver's Neck Verse "—a sure sign that Archie was in good temper with the world. He bade me fall to and help him with the work ; which I did, my mind altogether occupied with the gooa news that I had to bring the Prince. " Ye see," said MacGregor, as we were binding the last of the blades to their poles, " my company cannot fecht without arms— but wi' these I'm making they wad meet the de'il and fricht him. So, lad, my work is better than yours, when all is said, even if this tale of the marsh holds good. Man Anstruther, I shall live to fame, I tell ye, as he who framed the bonniest weapon " He stopped, aiid both of us glanced quickly at the door. For a noisy clattering of hoofs and horse's gear came from the farmyard, and grufi EngUsh voices sounded high above the clamour. "We found such good provender here when tiirts. ■m^-'h THE ROAD ACROSS THE MARSH. ,„ last we called, that we have come for a second helping, mistress," said the voice. "An- ye took sae rauckle awa' wi' ye that there s none left ower for the second helping." retorted our friendly lassie, standing wide of the nouse door. CHAPTER X. HOW JOHNNIE WENT RUNNING HOME. I LOOKED at Archie MacGregor, and he at me, and we both crept quietly to the door, finishing the wrapping of our scythe-blades as we went. In the yard were a dozen or so of Johnnie Cope's troopers, just dismounting from their horses. Facing them stood the girl, with her sweetheart Peter close beside her. Peter's face had an ugly look on it, and there was a red spot of colour in either of the girl's cheek'? liat boned ill to the swaggering captain of horse wlio was laughing his way across the yard. " What, saucy ? " said the captain. " There's but one way, now,' with a saucy maid." It had all happened before Archie and I, watching the scene from our half-hidden door- way, could stir a finger. The captain tried to put his arms about the girl, and honest Peter sprang at him and drove half his teeth well down his HOW JOHNNIE WENT HOME. 2,3 throat with the one straight blow. The soldier went down like a ninepin, and his comrades raised a storm of cnrses ; and in a moment Peter had snatched the fallen man's sword from its scab- bard and set himself against the house wall, and had begun his uphill fight with death " ^^: "^ ' " ""'"ered Archie, as he ran across the yard With me behind him. " Na, na 1 Ane agamst twelve. That mayna be." We never thought to draw our swords, but grasped the weapons already in our hands, and swHng them high as we ran forward. A second more and we should have been beside young Peter- but the troopers had recovered from their aston- ishment, and while we were a full six yards awav they made at him from all sides, and we saw him drop as suddenly as the captain had done a while ago. It was our turn then. Johnnie Cope's men- of whom ten were still left standing-had been so fuU of the matter in hand, and so enraged by the clumsy vigour of their adversary's strokes that they neither saw us nor heard our wild rush across the yard. Archie MacGregor's fiery bass It was that first told them we were there "A Stuart! A Stuart!" he roared, and I ;'; m 214 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. ill sprang like a madman high into the air and brought down his scythe-blade on the skull-top of the man nearest him. I claimed the next, and after that the fray began in earnest, and a hot foretaste it proved of what was to follow down there at Prestonpans. They were ten to two, and they had never a chance, thanks to the length and weight of Archie's tools. We roared with glee as the scythe-blades swept up and down, and I for one can liken the matter to no loftier thing than cutting butter. Muscle or bone or flesh, it was all one to these uncanny, heavy-handled weapons. Six of the ten troopers fell, and the remaining four waited for no more, but fled, as fast as heavy riding-boots would let them, through the garden gate and out into the meadows. We let them go, and made no attempt at pursuit, being well content with matters as they stood. " It is a wee thing hard on the dragoons ; but, man, did I not tell ye they would prove braw weapons ? " said Archie, sitting on an upturned barrel and wiping his curved blade with his hand- kerchief. There came a sound of sobbing from the door- way, and, looking up, I saw the farm lass kneeling HOW JOHNNIE WENT HOME. 215 over Peter's body. I crossed to her side, and handled him to find how far the mischief went. "It is nothing— a clean thrust through the side and a cut across his cheek," I muttered, wishing to ease her fears. " Show us a bedroom,' and we'll bind the wounds, and in a week's time there'll be naught amiss with him." She was full of disquiet, however, when Archie and I, after doing all we could, made shift to say good-bye. Her folk were from home, it seemed, until the evening, and Peter had stolen to the farm to improve a golden opportunity ; and it was gey dreary, said she, that now, all in a moment, he should be lying ready for his shroud. De'il tak' your shrouds, and throtUe himself wi' them," said Archie, with what stood for gaiety with him. " The lad's no gaun to the kirkyard yet, unless ye droon him wi' your tears, maybe." " Ay, but if they English come in search o' yon fallen men ? " said she, pointing out of the window to where the bodies lay. " True ; we had forgotten that," I muttered. , Archie glowered at her, for there was work 2i6 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. to be done before nightfall, and he little relished delay of any sort. " Have ye no friends at hand ? " he asked. "There's more than one farm, I tak' it, on the braeside, and Johnnie Cope will nae find his sheep just yet awhile. Get the lad carried to a place of shelter, and do ye gae wi' him." She was hard to persuade, but we quieted her at last, and left with lighter hearts when we learned from her that the farmer who lived over the next hill, a mile away, had seven stout sons to lend her aid. " Now, laddie, I've a' my company to arm," said MacGregor briskly. "There'll be a sad dearth of scythes i' the country, I'm thinking, before the stars shine out." But my thoughts were of Johnnie Cope lying snugly behind a marsh he thought impassable. Leaving MacGregor to beat up his company, and send them in search of the scythes which now were proved weapons, I rode in and about our army until I chanced on Mr. Anderson, whose acquaintance with the marsh was like to be of such signal service to the Cause. I found him at last, standing on a little spur of hill in company HOW JOHNNIE WENT HOME. 217 with Lo-d Pitsligo, and chatting of the numbers and situation of General Cope's army. " Mr. Anderson," I said, breaking in with Httle ceremony upon their talk, "they tell me you know a way across the marsh. Is it so ? " " Oh, yes, there is a narrow path." "Then, by the Lord, why have you not acnuainted His Highness of the fact ? " He raised his brows, just as my Lord Murray would have done. " Why should I acquaint him of it ? " said he. " It seems to me that a way out for Cope is what we want to find, for if the path across the marsh were wide as a turnpike road it would but lead us into a patent trap." " The Prince, it may be, will think otherwise," I said, with a quietness I was far from feeling. ' Pitsligo gave me a glance from under his grey brows; he had the wariness of age, and he liked us madcap youngsters not at all. " His Highness and yourself, Mr. Anstruther, have youth in common," he said-" youth, and a tendency to underrate the risks of battle." " And a tendency, my lord, to think more of Highland valour than Lowlanders are wont to do." I flashed. 2i8 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. It was not over courteous, I own, from a young man to an old, but -^here was something in Pit- sligo's smooth, unalterable caution that maddened me, though he was as brave and clean-lived a gentleman as ever fought a battle. Like Munay, he was all for tactics and well-considered plans modelled on the usages of warfare, forgetting that our whole enterprise was conceived in rashness, and could succeed alone by a series of wild attacks and imexpected victories. "Well, well, Mr. Anstruther," struck in Anderson sharply ; " we have dissensions enough as it is, and I see not how you further the Cause by harping on the Highland and the Lowland feud. Of what use is my knowledge of the marsh ? " "Come with me to the Prince, and he will tell you. Nay, you may smile, but at least it will do no harm." Anderson was in two minds about the matter, and I could see that he thought an attack on the English camp was httle better than stark mad- ness. But I took him by the arm and would listen to no refusal, and we presented ourselves at the Prince's tent just as the sun went down behind the distant cloud-line. ti^., HOW JOHNNIE WENT HOME. 219 " Your Highness, you were good enough this morning to ask me for a plan of attack," I said, coming directly to my point. " I am not disposed to withdraw my request. What is ycur plan ? " the Prince answered, smil.'- " iJr. Anderson here knows how to cross the marsh in safety. The night bids fair to be dark, sire, and they will scarce expect us." The Prince was aU attention on the moment. He put a score of eager questions to myself, to Mr. Anderson, and last of all he sent for Murray, Pitsligo, and the other leaders. What passed between them I can only (, but when I returned some hours later from ful- filling certain commands of His Highness I learned that the attack was fixed for daybreak. The Prince, it seemed, had had his own way in the matter ; and his own way proved throughout the march to be the road to victory. All was silent bustle in the camp. Grim gaiety was on the faces of the Highlanders as they got their arms in readiness ; and Archie MacGregor, for aU the need of silence, could not help breaking out into his favourite song as he hastened on the preparations of his company, one- «T- 220 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. half of which were already armed with scythe- blades. The most part of the army lay down for a few hours before dawn, and slept as if there were no chance of life and death to be settled on awaken- ing. But I could not sleep. This was my first battle, and as the hour of it came nearer I own that a certain breathless dread took hold of me. It shamed me then, this dread, but I have since learned that it is common to all men, brave or womanish, when they have leisure to think out in silence what battle means. There was Nell, moreover, to think of— NeU, who had made my life a thing to cherish and to love. So restless was I, and so ashamed, that I feU to walking up and down the grass until the Prince and his officers came forth, an hour before dawn, to make sure that all was in readiness for the attack. Mr. Anderson was with them, and His Highness ordered me to accompany them down the marsh that we might know beforehand which way the path led that was to take us to Johnnie Cope; for, hot-headed as our plan of attack was, the Prince was not minded to forego such reconnaissance as the prudence^ of a general demanded. HOW JOHNNIE WENT HOME. 221 Saently we went down the hill, until we reached a troublesome thickset hedge, with a bank on the further side, at the foot of which was the dry, pebbly bed of what had evidently been a water- course. It was in climbing down this bank that Mr. Anderson lost his footing and fell headlong to the bottom. The mischance seemed slight enough, and some of us, I remember, laughed soberly to see our guide take such a headlong flight ; but we could not see in the darkness ho>v deep the fall was nor of what nature was the bottom, and our consternation was extreme when, after much waiting for Anderson to join us, and much running to and fro in search of him, we found him lying prone in the streamway, with his head on a sharp edge of stone. Some among us were leeches enough to know that the hurt, though it might not prove mortal, was yet dis- astrous to our enterprise, and that the dawn would be red above Prestonpans before our guide re- turned to consciousness. A buzz of anxiety arose. I heard Pitsligo whisper in Lord Murray's ear that the mischance was fortunate enough if only it held back the Prince from his mad enterprise. As for His High- ness, he was speechless for awhile, between rage w 223 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. and sorrow ; then he shook Anderson roughly by the shoulders. " Wake, you fool ! " he cried in a strained voice. " Wake for one little moment, and tell us where to find the path." Humane to a fault His Highness was at most times, and I knew by his wild outburst how dearly he had counted on this night attack. I stood there for a nioment, sick at heart that all my brave plan had been tangled out of shape by one chance tumble down a hedge-bank. And then it flashed across me that there was one other who knew of the marsh path— the girl who lived at the white-walled farm above. What followed is something vague at this date. I have a blurred recollection of telling the Prince that I would yet find the path, if he would get the men under arms and wait for me at the camp above ; of running up the hill slope and leaping to the back of the first horse I found, of galloping my hardest until I reached the farm, and struck into the road that led over the next hill to the house which she had named as a refuge for her sweet- heart and herself. A yell at the house door brought the farm lass's head from an upper window. I bade her come down to me, as I had HOW JOHNNIE WENT HOME. 223 urgent business ; and after a twelvemonth's wait- ing, as it seemed, she stood beside me on the pavestones of the yard. " Up behind ! There is no time for questions," I cried. She stood just out of arm's reach and eyed me wonderingly, and for the first time I saw that my meaning needed explanation. So I told her in what case I stood, spoke of the devotion she had boasted toward the Prince, and urged her to ride with me at once. She shook her head, how- ever, and muttered that her sweetheart Peter was too ill to be left. " This Peter would be dead by now," I put in roughly, " if two of us had not given him help this afternoon. You owe us that much." " Aweel ! " she answered, with annoying slow- ness. " Ye want a way across the marsh, ye say ? " "We do, and quickly. The yellow-haired laddie is dear to you, you said. Well, prove it, and get up behind me, and lead us into battle. It's not Peter's Ufe, but the hves of all our men that are at stake." She halted still, and I could see she was loth to leave the wounded man ; so, wasting no time "4 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. in niceUes of scruple, I brought my horse close up to her on the sudden, slipped an arm about her waist, and hoisted her to my saddle-bow. Fast down the hill we gaUoped, and ever as we rode I saw the dawn-fingers spreading grey and wan across the hill-tops. But all was dark as yet, and would be in the valley for a full half-hour, and I told m\self the while we galloped that all should yet be very well at Prestonpans. I found all in readiness at the camp, and Archie MacGregor with difficulty held back his men from cheering when they saw me ride down the slop", and stop when I reached the Prince, and pc to the lass who clung behind me on the sT'i.Je. The girl had lost her doubts during the hot ride, and Prince Charlie's courteous greeting sealed the matter. Without haste, with- out noise, yet with a speed that told their hearts were in it, the men moved down the hill. Avoid- in,^ the treacherous place where Anderson had slipped, we found another inlet to the meadows below, and soon we were marching stealthily forward along the margin of the marsh, the girl's figure, seen dimly through the night-mists, leading us step by step until we came to where two httle streams joined their currents and fell into the bog. HOW JOHNNIE WENT HOME ,,5 "The crossing is here, your Highness," whis- pered ^the girl, when we had gone a score yards „n ^\^?'^ "*' °"' ^°°* ^"'^ *'"'" the other on the track, and found it firm. "Let me venture first, sire-it was almost a promise you gave me," I said impulsively He d.d not check me as he might have done. The credit is yours, Mr. Anstruther." he said. Lord Murray claims to lead the van, and you shall be his guide." I waited no second order, but ran across ; =ind after me came Lord Murray and a thousand of our men, each treading upon the other's heels in tte anxiety to be first to bid good-morrow to Johnnie Cope. I would rather, indeed, have had the Pnnce for leader; b„t Murray, I must ^.cknowledge, showed the true temper of his character-stubborn to move, but heart-whole when he stood with the enemy before him. The dawn was purpling fast as we drew up in line after gaming the firm ground beyond the marsh • and we learned afterwards that the EngUsh sentnes mistook us for tree-stumps in the un- certain, misty light. There was a second's suspense, while each man marked his neighbour's 326 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. breathing and the soft tread of our rear-guard as it crossed the marsh. Archie MacGregor was close on my right hand, and I could hear him muttering, ar -.' it were a charm : " Johnnie Cope will find them bonnie weapons. Oh, ay, he'll find them bonnie tools to fecht wi'." And I laughed as I gripped my sword-hilt tighter. The silence, still unbroken, was deep as the hush that goes before a storm. Quiet and still we stood, like so many statues, watching the outposts of the enemy and waiting for the signal. And then the pipes belched out their music, and the cry rang out upon the sudden, " Clay- more ! Claymore ! " and we were on them like the storm. MacGregor's scythesmen grew in stature, so it seemed, as they let loose their battle- cry and swung their blades up to the free, dawn- crimsoned sky. Cope's army woke from sleep. The drifting skirl of the pipes was in their ears to tell them what was going forward, and as they reached out for sword and musket and stumbled to their feet the wild MacGregor clan-cry brought such terror to their faces as I for one had never wit- nessed. They stood up to us in the mirk of the rising HO'- 'OHNNIE WENT HOME. 2*7 dawn, and the crimson spots of light danced up and down before me as I swept forward with the rest. The/ might as well have tried to check Tay River at its flood. Claymore and scythe rained down upon them. We were through the first line— through the second now— and still our speed was scarcely slackened. I found a big fellow opposite to me, with a red blade lifted high above my crown. I cut at him with the brute fury that sets all one's hard-learned tricks of fence at naught ; and somehow he went down, I knew not how, and I was driven forward by the mad, deep-throated Highlanders behind me. And that was all I knew of the hottest of the fight, save that a moment after Cope's men were scattering far as the confined battle-ground would let them, and that a shriek of " Quarter ! Quarter ! " went up into the dawn-red sky. But quarter was out of question, once the Highlanders had tasted blood ; and flight was, useless, for they were crippled by what had been the very strength of their position— the high walls, namely, and the marsh that shut them in. Between the walli ■'.■ ran, seeking an outlet, and trying, some d ....em, to climb wherever there was an inch of foothold. My own hand !2S UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE, wearied on the hilt at last, and I was passing glad that they were Dutch and Hessians, not Englishmen, who for the most part met me in this narrow road of death. I found Archie MacGregor when all was done •' Archie," I said. " 'twas well we helped yon Scotch lassie this afternoon. She has won us Prestonpans." " She ! » growled Archie. " It was my .oythe- blades did it, lad." His eyes roamed over the scene of our late battle-over that small and dreadful space, sur- rounded by three waUs. where the Highlanders had had their will. For myself. I was franUy sick, I confess it, now that the heat and clamour had died down ; but I saw that Archie's glance was soft-nay, almost dreamy-as he marked the clean-lopped limbs and heads that littered every foot of ground-the limbs which witnessed to the force of the new weapon, and which made the field of Prestonpans more terrible than any other battle-field of our own times. " I never saw the like ! " he muttered. •Never! There's nae doubt I've given the world a braw new fechting tool." It was Archie's way. Some men there are HOW JOHNNIE WENT HONfE 229 who fret and labour to give the world a new song, a love poem, or a book of pious discourses The same spirit was in Archie, only his ambition was to mvent new ways of slaving men. How skilled he was in invention the field of Prestonpans bears witness; and even now when I am sitting by the hearth, may be, and thmkmg of the summertide and aU quiet things the thought of what the field looked like comes back to me, and I put my hands before my eyes And then I remember Johnnie Cope, and how he fled by chaise to Newcastle. And I laugh with heart-whole merriment. Truly we have no such generals now ! CHAPTER XI. CONCERNING A LAIRD AND A WHITE HARE If Edinburgh, the loyal part of it. had run wild we Zu^LT' f ^^'^ ""^'"^ *^--^ves wl s^TZT, r ^^*°"P-- The Prince had struck, and his first blow bad scattered the Usuiper's „,en like chaff ; and he, who a day ago had been lovable and kingly, had now the addfd glo^ of battle and of victory to grace his caul It was with some hardship, indeed, that I led to^Mrs. Cameron's, to find NeU waging at "My dear, my dear ! " was all she said, with ;:itd;r""^'^"'^'^^°-^-"^^^p'^n« .J ""1 "^^t""^ *° " ""« '" *he house-wall -dwentwithm; and there, in the shadowed nail, she came to me as n<.«, ™oj UK as new-made wives will heed the blood-streaks, mud, and rain upon my A LAIRD AND A WHITE HARE. 23, clothes, though her gown was like to suffer from them ; and I believe-but am not sure-that she named me every foolish name that lover thought of. and cned upon my shoulder, and then laughed like a throstle in a hawthorn-brake. "Dear lad, and you're not hurt ? " she said at last, holding me off to scan my face and limbs. Not a scratch, save where the skin is off my sword-hand. NeU, 'twas terrible ! You must not ask me yet to tell you of it." th flZ^!^ ^" ^™' ^^°"* '»^' I ^^ again that field of stricken men, and smelt the blood- reek as It mounted; and when Mrs. Cameron came hobbling out, a brimful tankard in her hand and a welcome on her lips. I was glad to drain the wine in two big gulps and let it steal a little sharpness from my memories. a _^ " Did I no teU ye, lad ? " cried the old lady. Should I be hearing the pipes come playing Chairhe m, aU through a long, wake nicht. gin he waumagauntowin? Guid go wi' him ! We'll see a Stuart yet upon the throne." " And now you will be leaving Edinburgh ' " said NeU. Wives, truly, have a sad cleverness m fmdmg causes for their fears. " I cannot teU. We may stay on untU the •2.52 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. quite contenurot/t-ir^'-'^^^-nd waJp t ^ ^'"""^ knowledge o' men's your ie;i„;. Tt's tLnrx V"* *^"'^ forye„besa:ra„:ea^'r^^^''^''--' yesterdav Th7 T ^'^ ^^"^^ ^^^ her She ^astifo^^SX' ; '''' '''' ^°"°-'' A LAIRD AND A WHITE HARE. .33 woufn ^"^ '° ''^ " "^ """^-^ how long mers were coldly anxious to conduct on lines of prudence a campaign which had no touch of L wi Lr' "h ''""^^' ^* "" «- care;;:i o r; Tex 5 Tat '' °"'' "" ''^^'""-^ ^-^T -ee^cS!^— ---^-u^nthe paign went on. Mv InrH m clever soldier as h. '^^' "P"^''* ^"^ old M^fr„7 ^' ^^ P-'-'^^g himself the whold °" '=°""^^^^-^ old wife, moreover who had a consummate gift for nagging as tirr^uT:? °' t""*^ ^""^ ■"' — '>«^. J^:n-:;:.^naS:L-^^^^^ Z '"'"^^ P^°°^ ^S--* -action ; and h^ 00k was careworn, as it had not been before he found h own officers at variance with his ^h^ Inaction was ruin to us, and only the PrinTe seemed to realise as much ; but at Lt when ! was plain that few more, if any, Of 1"':;;: li 234 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. I 1 bouring clans would come in, Lord Murray and the rest agreed that we should march on England — not against Wade, but by Carlisle, and on through Lancashire, where we had promise of support. I broke the news to Nell, and told her that it would be best for her to stay with Mrs. Cameron until the Prince's fortunes were determined one way or the other. She was vehement in protest, and, faith, 'twas a little Prestonpans had to be won and lost before the matter was decided. But I had thought too long about it to yield lightly, and seen too clearly the hardships, needless hard- ships, that would attach to her, though the roads were suited to a chaise and she might travel with some degree of comfort. Mrs. Cameron, more- over, was on my side, and between us we per- suaded Nell. Ah, but it was bitter when the parting came I Revels and love and gaiety were over, and before us lay a road that led no man knew whither ; and in my heart I knew that it would be long before I saw my wife again. Almost, at the very last, I was minded to bid her come ; and then again I remembered that her safety and her com- fort were my first care, and I kissed her tears A LAIRD AND A WHITE HARE. 235 away, and promised soon to come, under safe conduct from King James, to claim her once again. The last I saw of her for many a year was at the Netherbow Port, as we rode out for England. A dainty figure in a gown of white, a face of tears and roses, a waving kerchief. And now my road was a lonely one again ; and there lay before me, had I known it, long months of flight through England and the Scottish wilds, long years of living over seas, until weighty family influence purchased me a pardon— a pardon for the sin of loyalty, which I accepted for Nell's sake and with indifferent grace. Truly, I feel again the loneliness that beset me at Edinburgh gate now that I have to finish my tale without NeU's company. My very pen seems to drowse above the paper, and to stir it I can think of nothing better than to tell the story of what chanced at Kirtlebrae. Many stories of the R. ;ig have been written, and many details of the march narrated ; but there is one adventure, shared only by Prince CharUe and myself, which has not been glanced at, to my knowledge, in any history of the times. In one way it is a difficult story for me to teU, 236 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE, lor I run risk, if I give the true name of a certain chief actor in the drama, to bring public discredit and contempt upon other members of his family, who are upright gentlemen for the most part, and men who would as lief cut off their sword-hand as violate the laws of hospitality. So for kind- ness' sake I will call him the Laird of Kirtlebrae, and I must give no clearer indication as to the situation of his house than to say that it lay some two Idagues off our line of march between Edinburgh and Carlisle town. The whole country- side about Kirtlebrae was markedly disaffected toward the Stuart cause, and the Laird, whose mfluence was paramount in the district, was him- self a hot advocate of the House of Hanover. Knowing this, and having already proved how deft a tongue he had for converting the dourest Scots to his cause. Prince Charlie determined to nde privily to the Laird's house, to use every effort at persuasion, and to bring back him and all hi« friends, if possible, to sweU the numbers of oii ttle army. I W..S still acting as Prince Charlie's aide-de- camp, and it pleased him to make me his com- panion on the journey ; for he would ride with no more than one friend at his back, lest by seeming A LAIRD AND A WHITE HARE. ,3; to bring armed pressure to bear upon the Laird he should lose al, chance of exercising th so tr art of persuasmn which he possessed in such strange degree. We set off, therefore, from th^ camp .n the middle of an October momi " h Pnnce leavmg orders with the army to pursue >ts march as if he himself were present "^ We will join them at the next halting-r,lace borrhe?;rt;f«s-;-^^^^^^^-- Yet my own spirits did not keep stride S h d I W°" "°* "'=^* '^^ -' ^"" think trat a touch^f" -P«f "'ous, r should have named U a touch of second sight. brae''^T'v"'"'''™''^^"^"^^-'^K'rtk- brae. I vow no man ever had a sadder com- panon for a morning ride. What ails you Mr ;orr:p^*--^'-^^---;'h:f " I cannot say, sire. It may be that I nm h-bng what a thing of price you a e tru Z to the Laird of Kirtlebrae." ^ m 338 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. Tlie Prince laughed, and eyed me curiously. " My liberty, you mean ? Mr. Anstruther, your dreads show more than I had guessed ; you bear me, I think, not loyalty alone, but love." His sentence ended a shade wistfully, as if affection were very dear to him. " Yes, sire," I answered, and I meant it ; " a deeper love than I have ever known, save one." His passing seriousness was gone, however. " Oh, I do not attempt rivalry with a lady," he laughed. " No wise man ever does, especially when she is as fair as yours. Ah ! there is the Laird's house down yonder among the trees, if t mistake not. Mr. Anstruther, it is a sad pity that you should be in love. Confess, now, that your heart is travelUng post to Edinburgh while your body jogs along beside me here ? Some- times I fancy you're too young to be so deep in love." I tried to keep down my rising colour, and could not ; , and he, quizzing me with his bonnie brown eyes, would not spare my diffidence one single glance. "A man is never too young for that, your Highness," I responded. " True ; nor too old. Heaven pity us ! So you A LAIRD AND A WHITE HARE. ,3, think my undertaking a rash one ? Well I nothing o,,y„^^^^^^^^^^^^^W^^^ most men ? " '""« * *""« ^ We had reached the boundary wall of th. Laird's park by this time, and I stoppTdLL' m my answer to the Prince it„, i'i"^" "ait way deed, there was not in all Scotland T superstitious as its Prince ' """" *° laugh''''" m''\'1^. "* ''"«**•• ^th a forced not" \L? " '""^''^'^^ '^ -'»'«. « it not ? And honour ,s white, and chastity ? " «rie,"i;:;?'^^''^-''-''-wntocome.to He laughed whole-heartedly at that. that 2t V/ '^'"'' °' ''^^"'^'^ -* to salt "lat jest, Mr. Anstruther TpII m» brought up within earshot of I L"'p "" '"" ?{i' 240 UNDER THi. WHITE COCKADE. But a great drrad was growing on me, and I could not keep up the banter. " Your Highness, will you ride back before it is too late ? " I stammered. " No— and no I " he cried, with sudden petu- lance, and I saw that it needed all his resolution to go forward in the face of what had crossed \.k path just now. " Precede me, sir," he added, " and tell ^e Laird who it is that waits upon his pleasure. I will not dismount until he comes out to bid me welcome." I had no choice but to obey, Uttle as I relished the affair. A man-servant took my horse, a second left me standing in the hall while he went to inform the Laird that a gentleman who refused his name had called upon some urgent business of the State. I had been bidden to send in this message, and, indeed, it secured me a speedier audience of the Laird than I had hoped for. The man-servant returned in a few minutes with the intimation' that his master would see me at once, and I followed him without more ado into the dining-haU, where a spare man, with ferret eyes ard a distorted mouth, sat looking over some pajjers. " The Laird of KirUebrae ? " I asked. A LAIRD AND A WHITE HARE. ,„ ■' The same. Your business with me ' " ear. He started at the Princ'. „ame. and before he could control his features I had noti«d a m^hty cunous expression on his face. Keen dehght was mixed with craft, and craft with the purposefuUoolc of one who is holding fasT^ he fin. threads of a plot. But aU thft was gon -hen he next spoke; the wrinkles smoofhed ' '^^ ^^re some oracle 01 olden time. " Winds shift your Hi.h -.and wrong views so.eti.es grow'°;;t:t I 044 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. I would crave your pardon if I ask time to think well upon the matter." The Prince pursued the topic no further, and seemed well content with the turn that things had taken. But I was not content, for as the meal went forward, and I noted the Laird's quiet filling of his neighbour's glass, I read his meaning as plainly as if I saw it written in a plain round hand upon his face. True, he need fill until the sun went down if he thought to trick the Prince into drunkenness ; but the purpose was there, and I had hard work to keep silence. His wife, too, showed signs of great uneasiness, and an- swered all amiss to Prince Charlie's chatter. " I pray you, sir, sit on and drink to the good cause," said the Laird smoothly, as he rose from table. " I have a matter of pressing moment to despatch. Have I your Highness's permission to be absent for awhile ? " " Indeed, yes. A self-invited guest must not stand too nicely upon ceremony, and if your heart, sir, is as good as your wine, I shall see much of you within the next few weeks." " I have heard that men cannot resist the Prince when once he stoops to plead," said the Laird, and crept softly out into the hall. A LAIRD AND A WHITE HARE. 245 In vain the Prince tried to draw the Laird's The talk dragged drearily, and she sat there sUent, a frown across her pretty brows. My compamon, I think, was nonplussed, being httle used to have his courtesies fall on idle ears'; ^ d It seemed strange to me that he could not guess what was passing through the mind of Tady Kn^ebrae-strange that he should suspect so Lttle when there was such grave cause torfear Cause for fear? Ay. that there was, and deeper even than I guessed. CHAPTER XII. THE LADY OF KIRTLEBRAE. The Laird was back anon, and I alone marked how soon after his return there came a somid of horses' hoofs pounding the hard gravel of the road. Nay, though ! I was not the only one who marked, for the Laird's wife turned her head toward the window suddenly, and I saw that she had much ado to keep her self-possession. " His Highness must taste our punch," she murmured. "There is no better, they say, in Scotland, and it is but once in a lifetime we enter- tain such company. I crave your leave, sire," she added, turning to the Prince ; " I must go unlock the cupboard where I keep my spices." She wis gone longer than the Laird— so long, in fact, that we began to wonder. Her face was white when she returned, but she set down her spices, her lemons, and what not, with a merry laugh. " There were no lemons in the house, and I M '■MMW^WB^MM^mmlA^- A'«5::^£:!/'i:-'.v' • '.*'' THE LADY OF KIRTLEBRAE. ,47 had to send a-borrowing." sa.d she. " Was it not a stroke of good fortune, your Highness, that I was able to borrow from the villager p - StJl talking briskly, she crossed to the hearth where the kettle was already bubbling over o^' to the cheery fire of logs. The Laird reached down a punch-bowl from the shelf, set it on his ngM hand, and poured into it a liberal measure of n,«k andwh^key. His wife reached down for the kettle, brought it to him, stumbled against a f ootstoo , and upset the boiling water ovef Kirlle! Draes thm knees and shadowy legs. The LairH roared out with pain, h.s wife w2 aU dis^'^ and tender helpfulness ; the Prince started to hL feet muttering his regrets that so untoward an accident should have occurred. But I sZ nothmg-only sat still and watched the turmoil aad wondered what the Lady of K^rtlebrae would have found agamst which to stumble, had not the footstool stood convenient in her way We got the Laird to bed at last, for his wife was unwilling to let the servants have the hand ling of hnn, and the Prince was very ready to give What help he could. It was no ijht buinesn prorru^ you. for he writhed so in our hands, and twsted with the pain, that more than once on 248 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. our way up the oaken stair we all but let him drop upon the polished oak. Once we had laid him on the bed, however, the Lady of Kirtlebrae pulled us from the room and locked the door on him, and turned and faced us. " Your Highness, do you know that two score men are at this moment nding to take your person ? " she said. " It was a rough device of mine "—pointing to the room behind her— " but had I shown more scruple the little chance of safety that remains would have been gone." The Prince stared open-eyed at her. " What mean you ? " he asked. " Why, the business which called my husband from the table was the despatching of a messenger to our kinsfolk. I feared as much, and when I urged the punch as an excuse for shpping away, I ran up to the conning-tower and looked across the meadows, and saw horseman after horse- man come riding toward Kirtlebrae." The Prince laughed, for danger always made him gay. " If that is so, madam," said he, " the sooner we get to horse the better it will be for the army that waits me on the road to Edinburgh." mmr ^:V' THE LADY OF KIRTLEBRAE. 249 "Stay, stay! It may already be too late. Wait here until I see how near they are." "So the white hare, Mr. Anstruther, knew more about the Laird than we," said the Prince as we stood upon the landing awaiting our hostess's return from the conning-tower. " Lord Murray tells me that superstition should never enter mto military bu.siness ; but, faith, it enters into all affairs of life, I think " I answered nothing, for the case seemed desperate, and there was a better life than my own at stake. I„ a moment our hostess was down again, breathless and dismayed "Too late!" she cried. "They are scarce half a mile away, and they are approaching the house m three separate companies." " Why do they leave the fourth unguarded ' " the Prince asked quickly. She shook her head. "It is useless on that side. There are no wmdows low enough to allow escape, as tliey know ; and, even if you escaped that way how would you secure your horses ? The stables are m front, and at least fifty of them ride that way " Faith, but good luck befriends a man at tunes ! It aU came to me as I stood there and 250 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE, l^tened to the talk of that one unguarded side. The Pnnce could not weU escape that way, with no horse to depend upon. True ; but I could make it seem as if he had escaped. " Which is the unguarded side ? " I asked abruptly. Our hostess pointed along the corridor to our left. 1 nodded. " Will your Highness leave me to face the matter out ? " I went on. He glanced in some surprise at me. " I am not likely to leave you in such a pass " he answered briefly. "What is your meaning, Mr. Anstruther ? " " I want you to seek a place of safety—to hide," I answered breathlessly. ■■ Our kinsmen know every comer of the house ■ that, too, is useless," put in our hostess. " The garrets, the wine-ceUar-anywhere so long as he. is out of sight," I cried. "Your Highness, will you let me have a free hand in this? I swear to bring you through ,n safety." There was a touch of resentment in his bearine now. "A comrade is not less a co;nn,de, Mr. ^f^mimmak i^^MOki 'iiuiP'^»4' THE LADY OF KIRTLEBRAE. 25, Anstnither, when danger presses. I wiU not leave you. but I wiU stand at the stair-top here and fight out the issue to the last." I grew frantic with impatience. " What is my liie ? And what is your own ? " I cried. " My own, I think, is less than honour to me " he answered, stiU with the same accent of re- proach. " But it is not yours— it is your army's," I pleaded. " Will you give over all your High- landers to death when I can save both you and them ? " The look he gave me, as he moved nearer to mv side, was not one to be lightly forgotten, for I read m it full measure of that personal love which I myself had giv,n uir«--(pven without return, as I had fancied unci now " Mr. Anstruther," he said. ' my Highlanders know how to appraise a ina., Womi t ey wel- come back a leader, think yof. who soji..^ t shelter while another gave his lift for him r " ' Time was slipping by. "There is no danger to myself," T cried. " Trust me. I have a plan, and if you'll .„liow Jt your army will share your safety and my own." "7fJM^ Pi'lii 25* UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. ^^JMVhat is your plan, then ? Tell it me, and " There is no time," I broke in. " You must beheve me sire, when I say there's no danger to myself." ° I was wide of the truth, perhaps. It did not trouble me; what I said was for friendship's sake, and without some such assurance the I'l-jnce as I knew, would never be persuaded to seek ^uelter,- but, indeed, I should have known him better than to think that any words of mine couJd move him in such a case. " I am not accustomed to play the part you give me," he said coldly. As for the Lady ot K.rUetrae, she wished for two contrary things at once, as women will. She longed to see the Prince in a safe place, and she onged to see him play the man of impulse, not the man ot prudence. "Do you remember, sire," I cried, ao a last appeal 'how once I played tl,e lady for old Dugald Cameron, and brought him into camp P 1 ran no nsk on that occasion." "They will be here by now! Oh. hasten- h^sten. pleaded the Laird's pretty wife. And first her glance was toward a hiding-place, and THE LADY OF KIRTLEBKAE. 253 then it fell upon the Prince's sword and rested there. " Why figlit a battle already lost, when I tan outwit theso rogues ? " I persisted. For a moment the Prince looked grim and hard, as if I had insulted him ; then his face softened, and he laid a hand upon my arm "Dear lad." he said, "you would give your life for mine, and I'll not take it. Come, we will set a price, a price of sword-play, on our lives." I glanced about me in desperation. Our one slender chance was gone if he persisted, and it was plain I could not turn him. I saw the dim and empty corridor, the oaken stair 1 p which our t-nemies would soon be running ; last I saw the closed door of the Laird's room, with the key upon the outside of it. " Then will you help me with my plan ? " I said, as a sudden flash of hope came to me. " Ah ! that is another matter. Yes, I will help you in anything so long as we are side by side." ^ I turned the key and opened the Laird's door and bowed in token that I wished liim to precede me. He gave a puzzled glance at me, as if asking to what purpose we were returning to this room ««C»OC0fY USOUITION IBI CHAIT (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) /APPLIED IIVMGE Inc )65J East Main Street Rocfl«t«f, New York M609 USA (716) 482 - 0300 - Phono (716) 288-5989 -fay \IT 254 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. which we had only lately left; then, with a shrug, as of one who had watched other forlorn hopes of mine and found them prosper, he crossed the threshold. In a moment I had closed and locked the door upon him— upon him and upon the Laird, who was still cursing freely in his pain. "Your pardon, sire," I cried through the closed door, " but it is your life I play for." Already there were shouts and hoof-beats from belo^^r, and I had to measure time by seconds. With one droU thought that I had left two strange companions together— both prisoners, both full of anger, each hostile to the other— I ran along the passage until I gained a low, wide bed-chamber whose window looked out on to the unguarded side. I snatched the sheets from off the bed and tore them feverishly into strips, and made a long rope of them. One end of the rope I fixed to a crossbar of the window, the other I threw out, letting down the twisted sheet until it touched the ground. Already I could hear the trampling of horses' feet outside the great main door below. As a last after-thought I took the white cockade —my lady's gift— from my hat and flung it through the open window ; and I felt a strange qualm, as if my luck had fallen with it, when I THE LADY OF KIRTLEBRAE. 255 saw the wind snatch ?.t it and whirl it out of sight. I turned then, and shut the door of the bed- chamber behind me, and stood before it with my drawn sword in my hand, waiting for the next move in a desperate game. Nor had I long to wait. Some eight or ten men burst suddenly into the hall, and a deep voice, mingled with the tramp of feet, came up to me as I waited at the chamber door. " Where is your unfledged king, Laird ? Where is the laddie that's bom to swing high ? " Rude laughter applauded the fellow's wit- laughter which I brought to an abrupt end. " The Prince is in this room behind me, gentle- men," I said. " Step forward." I marvelled at my own voice, to hear how cool it was and unconcerned, for God knows my heart was beating fast enough, and somewhere in my throat there was a little lump— a tribute, maybe, to the enjoyment life had given me, and to the thought that Nell and I might never meet again. The men were pressing up the stair by this time ; but they fell back on seeing me and stopped a full half-minute, looking one at another, until he who had first spoken was now again the first to find his tongue. 256 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. Do you look to fight " Stand aside, laddie, ten men and win ? " " I look to fight ten men, sir, certainly. As for the winning, I have not tasted the flavour of your sword-play yet." " Then, by the Lord, you shall ! " roared the other, and started to come up the stair. There was another check, however, for KirUe- brae's wife came hurrying into the hall and ran in front of my would-be adversary, and clung to him. " Shame on you ! " she cried. " Ten men to fight one helpless laddie ! Shame on you, Geordie Armstrong ! And may you never call yourself ■dn to me while the world lasts ! " " We have no wish to fight him," said he who Was named Geordie Armstrong, and who seemed to be a kinsman of her own. " Let him stand hack, say I, and let us through the door, and after- wards we'll trust him to the hangman." She glanced at me in perplexed entreaty. But I shook my head, and, seeing I was firm, a relief that was half pity came into her face. The Prince's safety was more to her than mine, I saw, and that was fitting. " The Lady o' Kirtlebrae is mair concerned. THE LADY OF KIRTLEBRAE. 257 I'm thinking, wi' the lad who stands ahint the door than the lad who stands afore it," said one at the rear of the company. "There's nae man but kens the yeUow-haired laddie's way wi' women." ' She turned to him with a quick word on her tongue; then she saw her opportunity-saw what was in my mind, and how she could strengthen their delusion that Prince Charlie was in the room behind me. " Will nothing turn you, gentlemen ? » she said beseechingly. "The Prince is not there I give you my word. He is-hc is fled. Go see'- him m the woods ; Y , anywhere but here." Her mcoherence s.as well feigned. Had I known less of the matter I could have sworn that she hed most clumsily. So, too, the enemy thought, for a shout of mockery went up, and Geordie Armstrong thrust her rudely from the stair. " Have at ye, lad ! " said he, and came at me "Ke a hurricane. The rest pressed up behind him, but it was one at a time up the narrow stair, and I had a chance of life so long as I could keep my wind. I he end was sure, and I think the certainty of 258 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. this gave me a courage not my own, for it is only hope that keeps our fears awake. Parrying Armstrong's first wild cut, I made a feint, and all but had him through the breast; and after that our swords rang swift and gay as sleigh-bells on a frosty night. When Armstrong fell, and I ripped my sword clear for parley with the next man up, the blood was racing through me. I saw the keen eyes of my adversary, I felt my good Andrew Ferrara answer to my wrist; I knew myself to be most exquisitely alive. Well, all men are long-winded when they fall to telling how this cross-cut was countered, how that struck home, and all the dainty catalogue of thrust and parry. None but a swordsman cares for such talk, 1 fancy, and it is not for me to praise the cut which sent my second adversary reeling down the stair. I claimed another by- and-by, and then my arm grew dead for weari- ness, and, seeing that all was over, I made at the next up the stair and dashed my sword-hilt full against his face. His blade dropped from his hand, he stumbled hard against me, and we came to grips upon the stone floor of the passage. Over and over we rolled, seeking each to free his dirk. THE LADV or KIRTLEBRAE ,„ were wet, and therP „,, ^^^ '^'"th^s but this, found ;" r "°'''"" °" "^ '"^^^^ ■' from n>; enel wW """^ V'"" ' ''^'^ ^^*h^-d When lLvel;Tr;°;! ^ -.-* ''^ broken sat up, a littleZ h f ^^^'"'' ^'^ f^-^^- I then Lw h7w "had ; "° "'"* '"^ "°^- '• -"d band had pSt^t^--^'^^* the upcoming gether on the eronnH . ^ "" '^^^^'^^^ to- stair-head nto?dal , '°''^^ ^^-^ of the guessed toTh/ ^'de-passage, leading, as I guessed, to the servants' quarters Tf,» Mg men, their minds set nn ?,, '■^'"^"'- Prince, had left us to it an A / """''•''' °' *^« the closed door beh nH ^ u '^ '"" ^°^^^'d to tbeir pri.e. Tndtw, TTsl^TT. " ^"^ ear toward the room lluW l '' "' '"^ loud to hear how well mv t rickhad ""''' °"* " Deil tak> him ! " one If th ^"°"^''^- "How did he ken h.r [ "" ""^^ '''°"ti„g. '''° ^^^ ^« bad left but the one j6o under the white COCKADE. side unguarded ? And now he's awa', and we may hunt till the day o' doom for him." " It was a' through yon bit laddie wha held the stair," said another. " I'd fnin hae my dirk in him." " Hoots-toots ! " broke in the first gruffly. " The laddie can bide until we've clappit an inch o' the dirk into t'other ane. Wha'll follow me doun the rope ? " I crept on tiptoe to the door and peeped in, for I was mighty curious to know how that frail rope of twisted sheets would bear a strong man's weight. The Scotsman was already climbing on to the window-sill, and as I pushed my face round the corner of the door he grasped the rope tight in both hands and swung himself clear out into the sunlight. There was a snap, and one broken end of the rope leaped high above the sill. A hush fell upon his companions, who were waiting to follow the leader of the chase ; then they turned in a sort of panic, and I had scarcely time to shrink back into my passage befoie the first of them brushed past me. Across the passage they ran, and down the stair, and out through the wide door of the hall, before I was well aware of what had happened. THE LADY OF KIRTLEBRAE. ,6, Contented with my share of the day's work sore andstiff,and filled with the after-joyofbrtte' I ran up to the conning-tower to watch';he m t' men s ,, .^ose who had stayed without to guard the three sides of the house. Here I fo„nH il Lr '""' "•' '°°' ^^^^ -y ''-nds in "Laddie, I little thought to see you again " S-Ia.d here; hut. firVLss-r^I: Siirof"r-^"^^— -'-t™ sudit'pit;;'"'""'°""'^''''^''^'="^'^'-*'> ras ed by her compassion than her tenderness Jl; -other's blood that stains me. not my " Well, then, His Highness will have good need ^o pra.se, our sword-play. See .- they L ridSg th J WK P'""'" '^^ ^""^^ °ff. pointing through the window of the tower. frnJ,'"^"? u^' '' ""^'' ^'^^ ^"^°^ of the room from wh.ch the Prince escaped." I ,.ughe^ 262 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. watching all that were left of my late adversaries, with a dozen others, spurring round the comer of the house. " Come ; shall we watch their mo»fe- ments ? " I led the \*'ay along the passage, and Kirtle- brae's wife would have stopped to aid thewounded, who were crying piteously, uad not I forced her past ther-. The frayed end of the rope still hung fluttering in the breeze, a storm of muttered cries came from below. I hugged myself with a lad's glee to hear them pounce upon the white cockade which I had thrown, and hugged myself the more when I learned the bait was swallowed, and they thought it dropped by the Prince him- self. " We'll catch him yet ! " cried one. " Split into companies, my lads, and scour the country- side. He can have no horse under him, for we held the stables at the moment he escaped." " Your pardon, sir, but he can have a horse of the fleetest imder him," I laughed, as I heard them ride away. " his own being thoroughbred." " Yes, but you must not start just yet ; you must hide here awhile," pleaded the Lady of Kirtlebrae. " It is our opportunity," I put in eagerly. THE LADY OF KIRTLEBRAE. .63 A m !h! • "''"■'^*' ^'^"' 'h« house." ...» .ft.™a,d,. a„„rf," "X "'f fS""- «' stopped and gnpped him by the collar of his coat. " Your business, sir ? " I asked. He made no answer, nor could I extort any speech from him by threats of rough usage. So I inade hm. show my horse the way to the nearest S h T"""- ' P^*°' "^""'^ *»» "«>• ^d *hen we had r^gamed the highroad I p:^„ted him to Lord Elcho with much ceremony. Elcho looked hard at him The man changed colour; and, —ng him shnnk from the word ■' spy ■■ so daintily, I took LoT'h !,T7 °* '^'" "^^ ^""^'^ «^*t «°t long ago he had had pretensions to the rank of gentle. .: i: i 276 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. man. But still he did not open his mouth, nor could we get a single word from him until a rope had been fixed to the nearest bough and my delicate rascal's neck fitted snugly to the noose. "Our time is precious," said Lord Elcho briefly. " Either you tell us all yon know, or— ' He shrugged his shoulders. " Do you vouch for my life if I play— play traitor ? " said the man— and again he shrank from the last word " traitor." " I cannot. His Highness must be the judge of that. But this I promise— I will take you safely into camp and use my utmost persuasions for your hfe. Come, your answer." He gave up the game then, and once he had determined to accept the situation he answered Elcho's questions in a clear, straightforward fashion. We had thought him a common spy only, and our glee may be imagined when we found that he was no other than Mr. Weir, the chief agent of the Duke of Cumberland, a gentle- man by birth, and closely intimate with all that concerned the plans of the English army. We learned, in fine, that the Duke's retreat to Lichfield was in pursuance of his resolve to wait until Marsha! Wade joined him before giving THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER. ^^^ battle to us, for in that case he would have two armies under him, and his attack could scarcely fail to be successful. " This Duke of Cumberland must be a varra valiant chiel," muttered MacGregor. " Has nae he gotten ten thou.sand under him as it is, and is he flichtered by five thousand Hieland laddies ? " " Captain MacGregor, you have less prudence than I am wont to look for in my countrymen," chided Lord Elcho. "Why furnish Mr Weir with details of our numbers ? " Weir smiled, for the first time since I had captured him. " We know to a hair's-breadth your numbers and your plans," he said. Elcho turned sharply on him. " How, sir ? " he flashed. " Well, perhaps it is no matter to boast about, but I have been in and out among your men a score times since Carlisle." Lord Elcho bit his lip, for he had prided him- self upon the secrecy of all our movements. To cover his annoyance he turned and pointed to the narrower of the two trampled paths that climbed the hill-side on our right. " The whole army, it w- ' =eem, did not go i! I fl 27i UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. on to Lichfield," he said. " A smaller force has been detached from the main column. What was its purpose, Mr. Weir ? " "Just this," he said mrlijy. "Sir Peter Talbot lives over yonder hills, a half-league «w»y, and it came to the Duke's knowledge that Sir Peter was zealously arming his friends on the Pretender's behalf." I tapped him smartly on the arm. " The Prince's, sir," I corrected. " As you will," he said with a shrut Two hundred dragoons were despatched this . .ming to sack the house and bring Sir Peter a d his friends as prisoners to the camp." Lord Elcho glanced at me, and I at him. We understood now what was the meaning of the musketry that we had heard awhile since. " What can we do ? " said he. " We are too few to ride to the rescue of this Sir Peter Talbot." " Shalll gallop back to the army ? " I put in eagerly. "The Prince, I think, would let me have a cavalry detachment." " No, no : He could not spare them, and it would delay our march too much. It seems a pity, Mr. Anstruther, but there is nothmg what- ever to be done." THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER. tjg It did seem a pity, and more than a pity, that a loyal gentleman should be lying undet arrest almost within musket-shot of us, and yet we could not move a step to help him. There would be a brief trial for Sir Peter Talbot by- and-by. and a short shrift at Cumberland's hands ; and we, his fellow Jacobites, were well aware of it. Was it the fact that we could do nothing ? As I asked myself the question I glanced at my friend MacGregor, to see if he could throw any light upon the situation ; and somehow I was struck by the curious likeness that he boi« to Prince Chariie—not in face, irdeed, but in shoulder-width and poise of body. " Aweel, laddie, and hae I anither face this morning fro' that which ye're acquaint wi' ? " said Archie, catching my keen glance. " Maybe ye'll tell us what ye're thinking Oi the noo ? " " I was thinking," I answered slowly, " that if you hid your face, or if the light was over dim to show it plainly, there's many a man even in our own army might mistake you for the Prince." " Hoots ! dinna tickle my vanity. Is that a' ye mean by yon fine rapt gaze o' yours." " 1 was thinking, too, that there's a heavy price upon the Prince's head, and that these two I 280 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. hundred dragoons would go far on the chance of capturing him. I was feeling my way dimly. I had a glim- mering of my plan, but its details all escaped me ; and I think I should have yielded tr^ Elcho's impatient summons and have ridden quietly to camp with him had Archie himself not given me the hint I needed. " Dinna be hard on the chief," he said, with a slow glance at Elcho. " I ken fine what ails him. He's looking over at Newcastle, ye'U mark, an' I'll wager a crown to a bawbee that his thochts are wi' yon miller's daughter we saw as we came by." " Come, gentlemen ; a truce to all this jest- ing," cried Elcho, gathering up his reins. " His Highness will be growing impatient for our return." But my plan was ripening now. I, too, had remembered the miller's daughter, and wondered why I had not thought of her tiU now. " Lord Elcho," I said, without waiting to see anything more clearly, " will you give leave of absence to MacGregor and myself till midnight ? " " Leave of absence ? " he repeated. " We know your taste for long odds, Mr. Anstruther, but surely you do not mean to " THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER. 281 " Indeed, but I do," I interrupted, laughing. " And if you see me back in camp at all, it will be with the best part of those ten-score dragoons." " But what is your plan, sir ? Two men against two hundred does not sound promising." " Your pardon, but if I told you you'd never credit its achievement. I have made witless requests before, my lord," I added, laughing still, "and it is the fashion nowadays to humour me." " That is true, sir," said Elcho, with a puzzled smile. " In fart, since we took Edinburgh the Prince has almost given carte blanche to MacGregor and yourself ; and if you're bent on it, I have no more to say. Captain MacGregor, do you wish to join him ? " " Where the chiel gangs, there maun I gang too, for fear he comes to harm," said Archie slowly. " And can you spare four of the troopers who rode with us this morning ? " I asked, as Elcho, still puzzled, was turning to bid us both farewell and wish us luck " Take them, sir. It is useless giving my consent by halves," growled Elcho, motioning half his guard to join us. Iii I' 282 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. After I had asked him to inform the Prince of what was going forward, and to prepare our camp for a sudden bugle-call to boot and saddle— all which he promised with an air that spoke little for his faith in our wild venture— Lord Elcho headed straight for Congleton, with the remainder of his guard and Weir, the spy. Archie and I were left standing in the middle of the road, while the four troopers waited at a little distance for their orders ! and for awhile we looked gravely at each other in perfect silence. " Aweel, ye ken best, laddie ; but I'm think- ing we wad look fine and naked if yon ten thoiisand English came marching back to Newcastle," said MacGregor presently. " There's a miU, Archie, at the bottom of the village, and a big house beside it," I said. " I think you marked it as we passed through." " I wilna hearken to your gibes, lad. Mark it ? And weel I micht, for there was as braw a lassie on the doorstep as I've seen i' this dour, waefu' England. I..ad Anstruther, it's sad to leave a wedded wife behind ye, when ye canna find other lips as sweet as hers." " Yes, there was a lass upon the doorstep," I answered softly ; " and the miller's daughter is THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER. 283 going to prove the mainstay of our plot. You'll foUow me. Archie, if I tell the miUer some queer facts about you ? " I put in by-and-by. " Tell him what you like, laddie, except that I ha i '-o' the Lowlands— but, gin ye tell him that, I'll I'.'K. ye, as sure as I'm a MacGregor." Archie was ever sore on this point, for he had been bred in the Lowlands, and it was a great affliction to him that even his speech played false to his Highland birth. But I had no thought, indeed, of wronging him so far, and meant to present him to the miller in quite another guise ; so, after sending the four troopers to get bite and sup at the village tavern, I beckoned MacGregor t, foUow me down the street in the opposite direction. Arrived at the house abutting on the mill, we knocked at the street dr , claimed audience of th- miller, and were ushered forthwith into the chamber where he sat drinking a mug of old October. I hastened to him, a world of anxiety in my demeanour. Sir," said I, " you have strange company under your roof to-day." " What say you, young man ? " he answered, glancing from one to the other of us stolidly. K !(!!!; ,.,1*1 284 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " My friend and I are in dire peril," I went on. " We asked in the viUage where Mved the honest- est man in it, and were sent to you. Can you keep a secret, miliar ? " " As well as most men." " Ay, I would swear you could. Well, then, our need is urgent, and it is no time for mincing words. My friend here is "—I lowered my voice — " who, think ye ? " " Nay. how should I know ? By his wearing- gear I warrant he's one of the Scots that are marching close by here, they say. Come, my masters, is it a jest ye play on me ? " " Yes, the jest of life and death," I answered grimly. "The Scotch are beat-n, and their leader has sought flight with the miller of New- castle. Get to your feet and bow, man, for this is no less than Prince Charlie who has come to honour your poor roof." The miller was a hard man to move, it seemed ; yet even he got up from his chair as the name passed my lips. He stood regarding Archie attentively, then : "I had heard teU he was a handsome lad to look at," said he, with evident dis- appointment. f.S,' ' m THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER. 285 I laughed out of aU moderation, so quaintly it was put, and so honestly. "It is plain speaking that," I said, "and plain speaking leads us to expect plain dealing from you, miller." " Ay, it was plain eneuch," muttered Archie ruefully. " Well, sirs, what do you want of me } " asked our host. " Just this. The troops are up and after the Prince here, and he must hide tiU nightfall. Will you give him shelter ? " The miUer pondered, and the miller frowned, and not for full five minutes would he venture " yes " or " no." " Ay, I'U do it," he said at last. Seeing that his mind was fixed, I thought that it would do no harm to carry the mummery a little further. " Think weU," I urged him. " It is a hanging matter, as you know, if King George's troopers catch you at it." "I've said my say. He can hide here if he will," said the miller stubbornly. "It shaU never be said of me that I let a fine, upstanding lad like yon be kiUed while I could help it." 286 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. "Good. They said weU, mUler, when they told me you were passing honest." " I wiU not forget your honesty, sir, when I come to my own again," put in MacGregor, with such admirable mimicry of the Prince's manner —nay, of his very words-that I was fain to look out of the window for awhile and smile my When next I turned about I saw that a comely lass had stepped into the room, and that she stood regarding MacGregor and myself with mterest and surprise. It was the maid we had seen standing at the street door earlier in the day, and I was struck for a second time with the fresh- ness of her beauty and the modest way she wore It. Indeed, I began to be sorry that Ihad given MacGregor so fair a part to play in what was next to happen. " This is your daughter, sir ? " I said, bowing first to the maid and then to the dusty miller. " I guessed as much, and I am glad that she has come, for His Highness here had never anything to fear from women." The miller seemed m doubt as to the wisdom of such frankness, but MacGregor, taking his cue from me, insisted on her knowing all his secret ; m in m THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER. 287 and the girl went pink and white by turns as she curtseyed prettily. "Your Highness," I said, bowing low to Archie, " I must see to some matters that we know of, but I will be here by nightfall without faU." MacGregor responded without a blush. "Be expeditious, sir," he answered loftily. " Remember that even a Prince has but the one life, nor is he one whit more willing to lose it than a common man." He dropped his English speech as soon as we were alone together on the road without. "Laddie," he whispered, with a twang you could have buttered bannocks with, "I aye thocht ye had a bee i' your bonnet, and now I've no doubt at a' aboot the matter. De'U kens what this last devilry o' yours may mean." I told him in a lew words what I meant to do, and Archie grew thoughtful for awhile. Then he *ook me by the button-hole and quizzed me with his keen grey eyes. "Man Anstruther, ye've a head on your shoulders!" he cried. "Gang your ain gait, laddie, and trust me to empty a measure or two while I'm biding for ye, a' i' the Prince's easy fashion." 288 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. " Ay, but you've not the Prince's head for liquor, and I'd rather find you sober when I come back again," said I. " Well, then, you'll remember that thu lane leads past the mill- garden ? Have your horse ready saddled under- neath the window that overlooks the lane, and gallop when the signal comes." " I ken fine," said Archie softly, fingering his dirk. " Ap' the wee bit lassie, Anstruther ? Think ye now I should deal saft wi' her, just to make the foolery seem more real ? " " If there's a lass in it, Archie MacGregor will deal saft with her," I laughed, and left him to while away the time as best he could. A quick ride brought me to the tavern at the far end of the village, where my troopers lay, and, after bidding them hold themselves in readiness to fulfil certain commands of mine, I set off at a gallop up the road. The sun was close on setting by this time, and a silver moon was brightening the first edge of nightfall; the roads, though heavy in places, were drying under a crisp north wind. The night seemed made for me and for my purpose. A mile's ride brought me to the spot where the narrow, tanglea path, which we had noticed earlier in the day, led off at right THE MILLERS DAUGHTER. 289 angles from the main road. I foUowed this, and by-and-by came in sight of a high, turreted house perched upon the topmost of the slope, which I judged could be no other than Sir Peter Talbot's Any doubts I might have felt upon the point were settled long before I reached the house itself for there were troopers m the grounds, and I had scarcely ridden through the outer gate when a loud " Who goes there ? " came down the slope to me. " A friend," I answered jauntily. The sentry waited till I drew rein at the gate then asked me for the password. I carried the matter with a high hand, told him that I had left the rebel army too lately to be acquainted with the password, and said that I must see the officer in command without delay. " You come here from the rebel army, and liave the face to own it ? " he growled, staring at me in amazement. " Well," I answered, " do you think I'm the hrst to exchange a bad penny for a good ? I must see the captain, I tell you. Take him the tale I've given you, and say that I have certain information of the Prince's whereabouts." T ^ i<)0 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. He hesitated, glanced at me again, then called to a comrade near at hand and passed me forward under his escort to the house. The second trooper left me standing in the hiU while he took in my message, and presently I was ushered ii to a dark, oak-panelled room. A well-favoured man of five- and-thirty years or so sat writing at a table. The trooper who had brought me in stood close behind me, with pistol cocked, and for a quick moment I felt my heart beat foolishly as I realised how completely I had burnt ray bridges. CHAPTER XIV. A LAST GtAD GALLOP nervtaS: Z.T^ ^TT' ''^^"^ "^^ into icy water. ' ^ '''''' '^«" ^ P'"nge and now a „7giT "" ''^ "'•'*^ '^^''^'^e. bJack." * ^'' ^ ^"^ ""'nded to wear the «>eZt"orturarnt ^"^7^"-^*-^^« ^or •'nife-ed.e to ~ • e.'^Si T,*'^ ^^^ affair, not mine Yo„ ' ' '''^* '* Vo^r -nts Of the ^iende; "' '" '"°" ^''^ ">-- wei^itirirenrcrtrT'^-^^^^- answered. looidn,,,,^™^-- much,. I A .MS" .-tTk. ,1 it 292 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. '■ Mr. Weir ? " he snapp(!d. " How come you to know anything of Mr. Weir ? " " Because, sir, I rode out this morning with Lord Elcho to reconnoitre, and we trapped Mr. Weir upon the road. It was he who told me you were here, and I little thought at the time that I should so soon be seeking your assistance." Again he eyed me keenly, but my information as to Mr. Weir ,was patently so accurate, and my danger in coming here for any other purpose than to play the traitor so pressing, that I saw he was growing ripe to credit all I told him. " In what way do you seek my help ? " he asked, cold as ever. " The Prince was with Lord Elcho and my- self this morning," I went on. " Ah, sir ! you grow warmer on the sudden ! " " The Pretender ! How near was he ? And did he bring no guard ? " " Only the two of us ; the rest of his guard he left in a little coppice, two miles from New- castle, while he himself went on into the village." The captain sprang to his feet. " Why make so long a tale of it ? " he cried. " The Pretender in Newcastle, unguarded ? Take me^to him, sirrah " A LA.Sr GLAD GALLOP < . , ^•' ■ ""," T iutemipted. "The Prince is .Im Pery. and if we huny i„ this n,at"er h, 't "' ''•"• y™ !~. *«re were lhi,ty a,„,,I. S"',' " .°'"'-'' "'-'• ■»" '. wh. 1 Tot "-h to g.,n lhe„. had m .he better ot 2 He seated himself af rv.,. «.«.„e.,-,.<.h;h.^-:r.t;,^"' What IS his business in Newcastle > •' he asked abruptly. ' ""^ "What is his usual business in the intervals of marching ' " T answpr^.^ vu '"icrvais " Thp n, 11 . XT ^''^^^'^'^' "''th a careless shrug. The mUle^ of Newcastle has a daughter •• came through this morning." .. Th'Jp" ''''''^ '" S°°'^ '^"'"Pany. sir," I laughed The Pnnce. .f I mistake not, is foUowing your 294 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. example at this moment." And then I scowled, and, " Curse his gallantry ! " I flashed, as if the words slipped out before I knew. Again the other smiled. " I begin to understand," he murmured. " It is jealousy, then, that brings you here to-day ? " " Yes, though I did not mean to own it. He has robbed me, I tell you ; the girl was mine before he came, and he took her from me by a trick." I regretted so to take away the character of the miller's daughter, but there seemed no help for it. "You shall repay him," said the captain quietly. And then I heard him mutter, "The tale fits well with what we have heard of the Pre- tender. It is just what they are saying all through England— flutter a woman's gown before his eyes, and there'll be no army needed to take him in a trap." . The taunt stung me, but I checked my impulse to defend the Prince. " Sir," I answered, " we will prove within the hour that he has followed once too often his passion for the sex." The captain got to his feet again, and I could A LAST GLAD GALLOP. 255 see that he was counting over the tale of those thirty thousand pounds. *' Your visit is weU-timed, sir. Can you ride with me to the miUer's, and help to make the capture sure ? " "You could not well do without me" I answered coolly, "since there are by-ways from the house that you know nothing of. Besides I airn at vengeance, and that will not be satisfied unless I see him taken." " True ; I only aim at honour, and revenge is a more potent spur, they say." "You only aim at honour, Jr ; there is no pnce upon the Prince's head," I put in. with an irony which was not over safe. He only glanced at me, however, as if he found unsuspected depths in one whom he had rated lightly. " WiU a score men make it safe ? " he asked "They will not. The Prince's guard, fifty s rong, lie hidden, as I told you, two miles from Newcastle. They have orders, to my positive knowledge, to creep nearer in toward nightfall and It may well be that we stumble on them' either at the mill or after we have captured 296 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. "How far away is the main body of the army ? " said he, after a long pause. " They lie at Leek to-night," I murmured dishkmg more than I had thought possible the need to speak other than the truth. " At Leek ! Our advices told us Congleton." He glanced sharply at me. "Mr. Weir would doubtless have brought you tidings of, our change of plan, had we not discourteously prevented him," I answered drily. " How many men have you at your command ' " " Two hundred." " All mounted ? " " Yes." " Then bring them aU," I went on. " I teU you. there shaU be no miscarriage in this matter If we take too few. and meet the Prince's guard and lose him, I'll Your pardon, sir. I had m mmd to threaten you. and that would mean death, would it not. seeing what our positions are ? " " Your good faith is sure enough, at any rate, and th .t IS all I care about," he said. " Besides sir, d'ye think I'm one whit less eager than your- self ? But take all mj' men I cannot, for Sir Peter Talbot is a prisoner worth the keeping." A LAST GLAD GALLOP. ,^^ " But Sir Peter is bound, I take it ? i. a satety. Look you, sir, they're devils to fi„>.f these fifty Highlanders of the P^es, an te shall need all our force " My credit wa. established one ,„, .j, ,„. --r/r-eft^r:ZdTsLr' and as I followed him out into the garden I smi-eci to th.„k that four of our own picked troops eft with n,e by Lord Elcho earlier in the day ll " dready ly,„g in ambush near at hand-accorZ to the orders I had given them-and were waiS :«L:;LSt"^^^^^^«^^'----e and saddle call rang echoing up the hills, and Thalf IT '^T' '"' '°-'^'' '"^^ v;ilage A half-mJe from the miller's we called a halt and j'l 298 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. made forward cautiously ; and as I rode at the left hand of the captain I saw that he was vastly restless. " We are all but there," I muttered. " Will you let me take the conduct of this matter, sir ? I know every loophole of escape, for I studied them well before I left the Prince here earlier in the day ? " " Ay, you shall have the conduct of it, and remember that \ve play for no light stakes. Dead or alive, the warrant ran, if you recall." " Dead or alive," I answered, and knew that Archie MacGregor was willing to share in that grim alternative. Grace of our Lady, how that scene comes back to me ! The dry road, with the north wind fleeting down it, the frosted hedgerows, the round, bright moon, and the httle stars that hung like lanterns from the blue-black of the sky. And here was I, with two hundred troopers of the Usurper behind me, leading them into as fair a trap as ever moon or stars or frosted landscape looked upon. " Yonder is the mill," I saia, pointing to a star of light that flickered out on to the roadway. " Give me half the men, sir, and I will guard the A LAST GLAD GALLOP. 299 lane that goes along the garden wall. Do you -nake attack upon the front, and one way or the other we will have him safe. The Highlanders, I warrant, are nowhere within pistol-range." The captain, seeing how clearly I had planned It out, consented, and I took my men some score yards down the road to the comer where the lane came into it, and edged my horse so well across the narrow way that those behind me could see nothing of what chanced in that direction. " So ! There is a saddled horse just round the bend," I whispered-and it was the truth I spoke. " I hear it champing at the bit, and it is ten to one that we on this side of the house will get the credit of the capture." The men began to cock their pistols, but I was rough with them. " Ye fools, d'ye want to spoil it all ? " I snapped. " Put up your pistols, for he's more use to us alive than dead." The men obeyed me without protest, and a moment later I heard the captain knocking loudly at the mill door. The angle of the house forbade my seemg anything that passed, but each word ill 300 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. came crisp and clear enough through the frost- sharpened air. " Open, in the King's name ! " sounded the captain's voice. There was no answer, and a sudden misgiving seized me. Archie was to have watched against my coming, and to have had all in readiness. Why did he delay ? " Open, I say ! It is ' One, two, three ! ' and the door . come3 ' down if there is no answer." Still all was quiet within the mill, and I grew feverish. I recalled how Archie had talked of " dealing saft " with the miller's bonnie daughter. Was he even now throwing all away for the sake of dalliance ? " One ! " said the captain grimly, " two ' three 1 " And then I heard a casement flung back so sharply that the glass fell down in fragments, and Archie's voice came round the comer of the mill. "What would you, disturbing the peace of honest folk ? " he cried. " We want one Charlie Stuart, rebel and Pre- tender," answered the captain. " To be brief, A LAST GLAD GALLOP. 30, sir w. want you, for may I rot if you are any other than the Pretender. Come down to us or we jre upon the instant." " Sir I-I am not the Prince. What would you with me ? " quavered Archie MacGregor had never reckoned Archie at his proper worth. He spoke plain truth when he denSd h.s royalty, yet his denial was so clumsy and so fnghtened that you could not have found a man m England to have thought it less than "Time presses, and we'll waste none of 1 ■ "^A".' ■' P'^^^^^ y°-'" --red the capta.. J.Q„,ek! Will you come, or shall Archie's voice changed upon the sudden, and I knew that the frolic had begun in earnest. Fire, ye havering loons !■' he cried. " Hae ye no heard that there's neither sword nor pistol can touch Charlie Stuart ? " ^ " Fire ! " cried the captain, and I could hear that anger was putting his judgment all at fault There was a roar of firearms, a further shatter - 'ng of glass, and down the wind a blue-white ha^e of smoke trailed lightly. This did not trouW me. for Arch.e MacGregor was not the man to li III «*■!« ;■ 302 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. draw an enemy's fire on him before he was well ready to escape it. I edged my horse more squarely across the narrow lane-top, and pointed toward the mill. " Have they shot him ? " I cried. " Go to the bend, some of you, and see if help is needed at the front, while the rest of us keep watch upon the lane here." Accustomed to obey without using their wits over much, they turned their eyes away from the Ian- and some of them rode slowly toward the mih. But I, for my part, looked down into the miller's garden, and saw a figure, in plaid and Highland bonnet, steal shadowy between the box shrubs and the orchard trees. To my surprise, another figure followed, and, as I live, daft Archie halted at the very edge of peril to put an arm about the miller's daughter and to stoop his lips to hers. Not five yards from him, at the turning of the lane, I could hear his horse neigh fret- fully ; and when he showed not content with the one embrace, but tarried foi a dozen at the least, I cursed him by every dulcet oath I had acquired in camp and field. My men had seen nothing as yet, for I blocked their view, and they were trusting altogether to A LAST GLAD GALLOP. 303 my eyes ; but from the miU there came a shouting and a trampling of feet, and I knew that our game was up if Archie lost one single minute more. The half of that, priceless as it was he wasted on the miller's daughter, and then he leaped the hedge and sprang to saddle, and I drew breath again. It was a nice opportunity for judgment, this. It I led my troopers forward too soon, Archie would have but an indifferent start of us ; if too late, pursuit would be out of question, and Prince Charhe would never see those ten-score soldiers I had promised him. As I halted, knowing that MacGregor was in the saddle and away, yet wshful to secure him a better advantage, the captam and a score or so of his fellows came running out into the garden, and so decided me. " He has got the better of us," I cried, turning 7 *:?P'"- " ^" ^th your spu:^. men, and we 11 catch hm, if we have to foUow till the dawn comes up." I started forward at the gaUop ; they foUowed and by-and-by I heard another band of men com^ thundering after us, and knew-as I had guessed .t wouid be-that the captain was not minded to 304 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. forego all credit of this enterprise. And as we rode I thanked his Majesty of Hanover for laying those thirty thousand pounds upon the Prince's head, since without such lucre I think the captain would have led the one-half of his men back to Sir Peter Talbot's, and have left me to secure the Prince's person. The lane led us shortly into the main road to Congleton, and two furlongs off at furthest we saw MacGregor gaUoping like the wind. My faith I it was pretty; and, though I say it, we played this game as well as need be. Our horses, Archie's and mine, were less heavy in the build and less weighed down with accoutrements than our enemies'. We could either of us have dis- tanced them outright within a mile had it been our interest. But it was not our interest. Each time that the pursuit seemed like to lose its interest MacGregor slackened, and I spurred forward with a shout, and there was not one man among the troopers who thought of anything e-xcept the fever of the chase. Ah, me ! to live those few wild minutes once again ! The two of us against ten score, and we the masters of them, if we could but keep their zest at fever-point. The moonlit raeadowlands of A LAST GLAD GALLOP. 305 Staffordslmc. swirled past us down th. wind; through Hanlcy village. Burslem. Tunstall. we duR he rowels in, and roused the heavv-sleeping n^t, s from the.r beds. On till we gained the Cheshae flats, and the sparks flew up from tlK. frost-bound road like hre from stricken smithy " We shall lose him ! He will gain his army ! " panted the captain, riding on my left ,* T ^^" ^^t" f^-t'ongleton, and his army sle,.ps at Leek." I laughed. "See, see! He faiM We have him ! " I lifted myself i„ the stirrups and yelled till I was hoarse. MacCiregor bided till we we,., all but on h.m, and a pistol-bullet whispered in his ear m passing. Then he plucked at the curb agam. and again the stormy chase began But two miles now to camp-a mile; and Arch.e s mare was swaying like a drunkard as she I gathered the reins more tightly. I glanced at the captain and the ten-score men behind us And then I drove my spurs in with a will, and shoumg..F„ , follow." I gained on them, stride over stnde, until I was level with Mac- i^regor s staggering mare. 3o6 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. "Another half-mile, if she dies for it," I panted, and snatched the bugle that was slung at my back and set my lips to it. Clear as a bell, and loud as a thunder-clap amid the night, the caU to boot and saddle rang down the dizzy wind. And those behind saw how the matter lay at last, and Archie and I were galloping under a bullet-hail toward the roughly wakened camp. " She's done ! " gasped Archie suddenly, and slipped from the good mare's back and clutched my stirrup. And so we came into camp. The High- landers, roused by my bugle-call and by the musketry, were up and running forward with bared blades ; and only in the nick of time I jerked the password out, and panted " Foes be- hind ! " and turned my over-ridden beast to meet the enemy. We took them to a man. Their headlong pace had driven them ahnost on to the claymores of the Highlanders ; and when they sought to return, their horses, spent with the long ride, refused to move a footpace further. "No slaughter; make them prisoners," a voice rang out. A LAST GLAD GALLOP. 307 when the dragoons had been escorted into canip with much skThng of the bagpipes. His Highness came to where MacGregor and myself were stand- mg-standing and watching the sweat nm off in nvers from each other's faces. "That was a hazardous vent -re, Mr. Anstru- tner, he said. "I've known but one equal to it for jollity your Highness." I answered, still panting in my speech "and that was when I kept tL stair against the men of Kirtlebrae. But Captain MacGregor here should have a full half of the credit. "Nae. nae." muttered Archie. "I did but kiss the miller's daughter aince or twice." kin?^ ^""''^ ^"^ *^^'"^ ^^^ ^^" °^ "" ^^'J' "The de'il fathered both of you, I fancy" said he smiling. "Mr. Anstruther. what request have you to make ? Any you wish, so long as it be great enough." "To go with you to London, sire, and set you on the throne," I answered. But the Prince turned aside, and I thought the tears were in his eyes as I spoke of London 3o8 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. and the crown. And well they might! But that does not concern my present tale, for we had not then begun that drear retreat from Derby. I have been garrulous, perhaps. I crave your paHon. But that moonlit ride to Congle- ton has stirred my pulses all afresh, and they say the pen should keep the memory of the sword al've. I And now the tale is done, just as my fighting days are done ; and I sit idly, and nibble at tlie feathers of my quill, and let the glamour of old days steal over me. It is Nell's hand upon my shoulder that dis- turbs me, and Nell's voice— which I have always likened in my mind to the sound of water running between primrose banks— that comes as if from the past, when she and I rode through the Scottish roads together. " Is't finished, dear ? " she asks. " Ay, every word ; and I am sorry, for I have lived my fights again." Even yet Nell has not lost her trick of pouting, though I tell her it ill becomes the mother of great lads, and lasses old enough themselves to pout a man's heart out of his body. A LAST GLAD GALLOP. 309 " Is't only your fights that you have lived again ? " says she. "Why, no, but the love-makings, too Be sure I have not forgotten a word or look of thine dear lass." ' " And the finish ? " she persists,. " Have you said anywhere toward the end that you love me full as well as when I sent you up to Scot- land with a white cockade ? " "I have not said that," I answer soberly for ,n tnth I love you better-how much better only I can know." And so she kisses me with the sweetness of a girl, and I am well content to sit there, with her hand m mine, and watch the sunset deepen over vale and mead and stream. I am content to listen to the rooks, and hear the merle sit piping m her bush. Yet now and always there's a shadow on my life, for, whether my own days move in trouble or in joy, there is ever the thought with me of one who is dying yonder across the seas-dying in a land of sun and bluest skies, where wine comes over-ready to his hand. And my eyes grow thick with tears as I recall the look of Royal Charlie when he led us south, and remember how 310 UNDER THE WHITE COCKADE. they broke his heart for good and all at Derby. Lost to himself and to the world is Charlie, and wine hides him as deep as the kirkyard mould could do. But love can find no word of blame, for heart-break kills as surely as the sword, though with a slower hand. And some day, when men's lives stand plain to read, it will be found that one man's heart, whUe it was whole and fit for the batOes that God sends to us, was full of courage, modesty and faith. And even now, could the silver cord be tightened once again, and our Prince come to us with the old look in his eyes and the sword-sheath swinging at his side, there would be some of us who would recall our failing strength. For love of Charlie is a thing that, known once, can never in any way be dimmed or tarnished. Nell, dear. wife, I love you as it is given to few men to love their wives. Yet, I wonder, do you blame me that my heart is aching now toward the Scottish glens, toward the skirl of bagpipes cutting through the mountain mists, toward a sad, heroic figure who swings, the kilt above his bare brown A LAST GLAD GALLOP. 3,, knees, across my quiet pictures of content and well-being ? You'U not be jealous of him, NeU ? For surely there is none like Royal Charlie, nor wiU be again. THE END. p.«T.D ., ca..,u. » co.i;;:;;7in;;;i;n: BiLtE Sauvaqi, Lonixjii.