ALTU RLI E 
 
 ROBSWOOD COOKE
 
 Alturlie
 
 THE SAME BEING SOME PASSAGES IN THE 
 LIFE OF SIMON STUART OF ALTURLIE, SOME- 
 TIME OFFICER IN KING LOUIS OF FRANCE 
 HIS REGIMENT OF PICARDY, AND LATER 
 MAJOR OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S 
 REGIMENT OF FRASER HIGHLANDERS 
 
 THESE NOW EDITED BY 
 
 H. ROBSWOOD COOKE 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 MUSSON BOOK COMPANY 
 LIMITED
 
 Made and Printed in Great Britain, 
 HauU, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Ayltsbury.
 
 TO 
 
 SIR COLIN MACRAE 
 
 CHIEF OF THE CLAN MACRAE 
 
 2134759
 
 Contents 
 
 MM 
 I. IN WHICH SOMETHING IS TOLD OF AL- 
 
 TURLIE AND HOW I CAME TO LEAVE IT II 
 II. HOW I CAME TO PARIS AND WHAT BEFELL 
 
 ME THERE ONE NIGHT ... 33 
 
 III. TELLS OF A GENTLEMAN NAMED KER . 50 
 
 IV. I SAY FAREWELL TO PARIS ... 65 
 
 V. TELLS OF CERTAIN GENTLEMEN INTER- 
 ESTED IN OUR RIDE TO THE SEA . 73 
 
 VI. AT THE SIGN OF THE TETE DE BOEUF . 80 
 
 VII. I MEET JOAN AGAIN .... 98 
 
 VIII. JANET HAS NEWS FOR ME . . . Il6 
 
 IX. JOAN SENDS ME AN INVITATION WHICH 
 
 I ACCEPT 131 
 
 X. TELLS OF THE ROUT AT CASTLE STUART 
 
 AND WHAT HAPPENED TO ME THERE. 146 
 
 XI. " THEY SET A COMBAT THEM BETWEEN 
 
 TO FIGHT IT IN THE DAWNING " . I5Q 
 
 XII. I TAKE WINE WITH MY LORD LOUDON. 17!
 
 IO Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XIII. I FALL IN WITH SOME GENTLEMEN WHO 
 
 HAVE BUSINESS WITH THE LORD PRESI- 
 DENT 185 
 
 XIV. HOW. I CARRIED THE NEWS TO THE LORD 
 
 PRESIDENT 197 
 
 XV. I BREAKFAST WITH MY LORD LOUDON AND 
 THE PRESIDENT, AND MAKE A POOR 
 MEAL OF IT 211 
 
 XVI. I RIDE TO MAKE MY PEACE WITH JOAN 
 
 AND FAIL THEREIN . . . .221 
 
 XVH. I AM OF SOME ASSISTANCE TO SIMON, 
 
 LORD LOVAT 22Q 
 
 XVIIL TELLS, WITH OTHER MATTERS, OF A VISIT 
 
 FROM AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE . . 251 
 
 XIX. JAMES KER REPAYS AN OBLIGATION . 268 
 
 XX. TELLS OF WHAT I HEARD ON THE MORNING 
 
 OF THE I6TH APRIL, 1746 . . 277 
 
 XXI. TELLS OF AN ESCAPE AND A CAPTURE . 2QI 
 XXII. AND THE LAST . . . .306
 
 / In which Something is Told of Alturlie and. 
 How I Came to Leave It 
 
 IN all that I have read or heard men say 
 in talking about the late civil war in the 
 land, nothing is more remarkable to observe 
 than the way the simple truth can become 
 twisted about, with here and there some- 
 thing added out of the invention of each 
 teller, so that in the end, men with diffi- 
 culty recognise either themselves or what 
 they did in hearing the latest telling of it. 
 
 There is the part played by my lord the 
 President of the Court of Session in that 
 woeful and ill-advised adventure. And the 
 construction placed by certain people in 
 the North here upon his work. Some 
 going so far as to say my lord was a traitor 
 to his own countrymen and to his rightful 
 sovereign. 
 
 I have had the honour to persuade 
 several gentlemen who should have known
 
 12 Something is 'Told of Alturlie 
 
 better, to see his labour in the true light ; 
 yet a man cannot be everywhere, neither 
 can he go through life ramming the lie 
 down the throats of all who give it out. 
 
 This has been borne in upon me by my 
 recent affair with Malcolm Chisholm of 
 Clunes, Major of His Majesty's regiment 
 of Fraser Highlanders. It would appear 
 that the honourable and gallant major 
 only repeated a piece of information of 
 which he had no personal cognisance, but 
 had received in all good faith from others. 
 To my infinite regret Major Chisholm 
 being a brother officer, and a pretty gentle- 
 man who acquitted himself very well 
 this information only came to me after I 
 had ran him through the ribs following a 
 parry in tierce. 
 
 Pondering over the dilemma, I perceive, 
 except I fling away the scabbard of my 
 rapier, there is only one other, and that 
 perhaps the best way, of countering a 
 cruel slander on the memory of a fine 
 gentleman, a true patriot, generous and
 
 And How I Came to Leave It 13 
 
 far-sighted beyond his day and genera- 
 tion. 
 
 So, having taken some personal and 
 active share in matters connected with the 
 uprising, more especially as regards events 
 in the North, besides having the good 
 fortune to render my lord a small service 
 for which I was later handsomely repaid 
 and earning moreover, on one or two 
 occasions, his recommendation,, for certain 
 commissions I had carried out to his 
 approval I have, agreeably to the desire 
 of several gentlemen, set myself the task 
 of putting down in writing my own per- 
 sonal knowledge of, and humble share in, 
 these doings. That all may know the 
 right of it, and so, it may be, help to keep 
 the truth and the memory of brave men 
 green in the hearts of those who come 
 after us. 
 
 I confess at the outset a thing that will 
 be readily observed I am an ignoramus 
 with the goose-quill. As for book-learning 
 my library is made up of my mother's
 
 14 Something is 'Told of Alturlie 
 
 Bible, the Plays, very handy and neatly 
 bound in brown morocco leather, of Will 
 Shakespeare, wherein that man has set 
 forth in the most pleasant manner all that 
 can be said of all things. Marechal Saxe, 
 under whom I made two campaigns, his 
 treatises on infantry in attack and defence, 
 one or two more books of the same nature, 
 and Caesar, his Commentaries, done in 
 English. Which last is just as well, seeing 
 that " Veni, vidi, vici ! Via a way, mensa 
 a table, and A mo Amas, I loved a lass," 
 is about all that remains in my memory 
 of the Latin drummed into it with many's 
 the sore leathering by Mclntyre, the 
 domini of the school at Petty ; as hard a 
 man as ever laid urchin face down across 
 a form. 
 
 I have often thought a book commanding 
 the interest of all thinking men could be 
 written concerning the trifles that have 
 altered the course of history. The cackling 
 of geese on the walls of ancient Rome 
 roused the sleeping sentries and thus saved
 
 And How I Came to Leave It 15 
 
 the city from the barbarian invaders. 
 For lack of a horse a king lost his crown. 
 In recent times vast quantities of wine 
 were drank in honour of the little gentle- 
 man in the velvet coat whose industry 
 put a period to the reign of his late Majesty 
 King William. 1 And as it is with kings 
 and empires, so it is with smaller men. A 
 sharp thunder-shower of rain, one hot 
 close night in the city of Paris, and later 
 on the same night seated in a cafe reeking 
 with the fumes of wine and tobacco-smoke, 
 the desire for a breath of cool fresh air, 
 were the trifles that set my feet on the 
 first steps along a road very different to 
 that which I had planned to travel, with 
 all the consequences herein to be set forth. 
 And here will I humbly crave the in- 
 dulgence of anyone who cares to spend a 
 winter's evening over this history, what 
 time some account is given of myself and 
 the events leading up to that night in the 
 
 1 King William was thrown from his horse by the 
 animal stumbling on a mole-hill.
 
 1 6 Something is Told of Alturlie 
 
 city of Paris. They may rest assured I 
 will not take so long about it as does Mr. 
 Sterne, whose book I am at present reading. 
 Vastly amusing, with much diverting and 
 learned chatter on life and men and man- 
 ners ; but comically vexing in his dis- 
 tracting trick of bolting off the main line 
 of march up some side-alley or another, 
 and devilish long-winded, seeing that after 
 reading three hundred and odd pages, 
 by what I can make of it, he is yet concerned 
 with the birth of Tristram Shandy, and 
 the lamentable accident upon that occasion 
 to the infant's nose. 
 
 When Prince Charles Edward his father 
 made the attempt in 1715, my father's 
 father was seized in his own right of the 
 house and lands of Alturlie, which lie 
 between the sea and the high road from 
 Inverness to Nairn. 
 
 When that unlucky business came to an 
 end on the field of Sheriffmuir an affair 
 to make the gods weep, and a battle the 
 strategy of which I can make neither head
 
 And How 1 Came to Leave It 17 
 
 nor tail of to this day, and have come 
 to think there was none my father Simon 
 Stuart, who had marched with the Mac- 
 intosh and the men of Moy, sorely wounded, 
 made his escape with the help of a comrade 
 named Ker in the yawl of an Aberdeen 
 fisherman. Meeting a Dutchman at sea 
 bound for Scheveningen, they transferred 
 themselves from the yawl, and so to Holland 
 and safety. There he married Jean, Bella- 
 drum's daughter, of which marriage I was 
 the only child. When I was two years old 
 my father died from the effects of that 
 gunshot wound he got at Sheriffmuir, and 
 Belladrum having died the year before, 
 my mother got her affairs redd up in 
 Holland and took ship with me to In- 
 verness, where we were met by my grand- 
 father, who carried us home with him to 
 Alturlie. At Alturlie I passed out of 
 pinafores, was breeched and sent to school, 
 and grew up in the ways of the son of a 
 highland landed gentleman until I was 
 nearly eighteen, when two things happened
 
 1 8 Something is Told of Alturlie 
 
 about that time which brought to an end 
 my life there, and as heart-broken I 
 thought, all that made life worth living. 
 My mother, the dear gracious lady whose 
 every thought and deed was love and 
 care for others, died, and a week later, my 
 grandfather, the kindly old man who 
 loved us both, was found dead sitting in 
 the great chair by his desk. 
 
 McRimmon, the Inverness lawyer, came 
 to me on the afternoon of my grand- 
 father's funeral as I sat in my mother's 
 room staring blankly out on the sea, all 
 heedless of the funeral company feasting 
 below. And with him came my mother's 
 uncle, Fraser of Clunes. 
 
 Gravely the two old gentlemen sat down, 
 and after a few kindly words of sympathy 
 from them both, says McRimmon, " I 
 am very sorry it is my business to tell you, 
 Simon, that a thorough search through 
 the house, with the assistance of Janet, 
 has not brought to light anything in the 
 shape of your grandfather's will ! "
 
 And How I Came to Leave It 19 
 
 " Weel, laddie ! " said he, observing I 
 was paying little heed " this has been a 
 dreidful blow for ye, and I dare say this 
 is no just the time, and ye'll no* be in the 
 mind for talking ower business the day, 
 but," said he, patting me on the shoulder, 
 " come in and see me in a day or two. 
 Mind, I was the friend o' your father, 
 though I canna say the same for his 
 brother, and I'm afraid ye will no' find him 
 just exactly the soul o' generosity nor, I 
 fear, even inclined to do the fair thing 
 by ye ! 
 
 " And if things go the way I'm thinking 
 they will from what I know of him," 
 said Fraser, " always keep in mind I have 
 neither wife nor bairn. Ye are welcome 
 to Clunes and all that's in it for the sake 
 o' her that's gone. So when the time 
 comes, just pack up and take the west 
 road ! " 
 
 The house was like a grave for a day or 
 two after the funeral, and I mooned about 
 from room to room, or sat on the beach
 
 2O Something is Told of Alturlie 
 
 unable to settle my thoughts to any work. 
 But except to those near and dear to 
 them, the dead are soon forgotten. Em- 
 pires may fall and kings may die, but the 
 cows have to be milked. The work of the 
 house and the farm went forward, and the 
 laugh of a serving maid joking with one 
 of the farm lads jarred me like a blow. 
 
 As for the future, distracted by grief, 
 I had so far hardly given the matter a 
 thought. 
 
 Well, if I had no plans for the future, I 
 was soon to find that my uncle James had 
 so far as Alturlie was concerned. This 
 gentleman, my father's younger brother, 
 managed that part of my grandfather's 
 estate, known as the lands of Petty, and 
 his name for avarice and hard-bargaining 
 was a byword in the country-side. In 
 all but one respect. To his children, Joan, 
 a lassie of fifteen, and Malcolm a year 
 younger, he denied nothing. 
 
 James Stuart was a widower who had 
 married late in life. He was now over
 
 And How I Came to Leave It 21 
 
 fifty years of age, but looked older. A 
 short, dry, weazened man, with some 
 twist in his nature that was always taking 
 him the roundabout way of saying or 
 doing anything. I have heard my grand- 
 father say, when he was told of some piece 
 of trickery, that though the front door 
 stood wide open, James would go to a 
 deal of trouble to sneak in at the back, and 
 there you have a picture of him. 
 
 On the fourth day after the funeral I 
 came in from an aimless ramble along the 
 beach to find him waiting for me. 
 
 " I'm thinking, Simon/' said he, when 
 I was seated, " that it is time now for us 
 to come to an understanding." 
 
 He paused for a minute, but as I re- 
 mained silent, he sat licking his lips, 
 fingering his chin, and darting little glances 
 here and there like a man casting about 
 for some way of tackling an unpleasant 
 job. 
 
 " Did you ever," he said at last, " have 
 any talk with your mother that is gone,
 
 22 Something is Told of Alturlie 
 
 poor soul, or my father, God rest him, 
 as to your future ? ' 
 
 I shook my head. 
 
 " It's a peety." 
 
 He drummed on the table and shot a 
 glance at me under his heavy eyebrows. 
 
 " It's a peety, and it's high time ye 
 was thinking aboot it, for ye see I'm 
 thinking aboot making some changes at 
 Alturlie ! " 
 
 ' You are going to make some changes 
 here ? I don't understand you, sir ! ' 
 said I. 
 
 The truth is, at the moment I had clean 
 forgotten about no will being found. 
 
 " Well, ye see, I'll be moving into the 
 house in a day or two, and though y'are 
 welcome to bed and board with us, I was 
 thinking that a smart lad like yersel' would 
 hardly be thinking o' spending his days 
 idling aboot Alturlie." 
 
 " I am still in the dark about these 
 changes," said I, faintly disturbed at the 
 man's manner, " and I don't understand
 
 And How I Came to Leave It 23 
 
 you saying I will be welcome to bed and 
 board in my grandfather's house ! " 
 
 " Come ! come ! " said he, perking up 
 and rapping the table with his bony 
 knuckles. " Y'are no so thick in the head 
 but ye must know that Alturlie is mine 
 now, and it is your home just as long as 
 I please ! " 
 
 " But my grandfather has made pro- 
 vision," said I. 
 
 " D'ye know of any ? " said he, peering 
 sharply at me across the table. 
 
 Only then did I remember McRimmon's 
 words after the funeral, and I sat be- 
 wildered. 
 
 ' Ye better see McRimmon ; he micht 
 know of something; but if he does, he 
 never mentioned it and I spent the morn- 
 ing with him. 
 
 " I will be stepping," said he, rising and 
 putting on his old cocked beaver. " I'm 
 no for hurrying ye, but while things are 
 being redd up at Petty, ye might set on 
 your thinking-cap. I would like to know
 
 24 Something is Told of Alturlie 
 
 what ye intend doing for a living. Ye see 
 ye are no use to me in the minding o' 
 the estate. The way ye employ your 
 time stravaging aboot wi' dogs an' guns 
 is no to my way o' thinking. And while 
 I am aboot it " he was in full tide now 
 " I micht as weel tell ye, that while ye 
 stay here, ye will stop colluging wi' they 
 lads from Moy and west the Beauly road. 
 A pack o' idle brainless deevils. Honest 
 work would set ye better. Culloden was 
 speaking to me aboot ye the last time he 
 was north. There's some o' ye merching 
 up a road that has a gallows at the end 
 o' it. And ye'll stop daidling wi' Joan, 
 and Malcolm. I'll no* have ye stuffing 
 their heids wi' a pack o' ould wives' tales 
 o' ghosts and bogles, and stories o' the 
 ould Stuart kings and plots. The Stuarts 
 are ower the sea. The deevil take and 
 keep them there ! " 
 
 The old fox had worked himself into a 
 passion which I dare say went some way 
 to soothing his conscience for turning me
 
 And How I Came to Leave It 25 
 
 out of house and home, but I hardly heard 
 a word of his harangue. 
 
 He stood looking at me for a moment, 
 then turning on his heel he walked out of 
 the room, and presently I heard his pony 
 trotting down the road. 
 
 Only one thing I clearly realised, trying 
 to come to some decision as to what I 
 should do. Alturlie was no longer my 
 home. And looking round the pleasant 
 room where everything spoke of my 
 mother's pretty task, or through the win- 
 dow at the trim bowling-green flanked with 
 flowerbeds, that was the old man's care 
 and pleasure, I knew I was taking farewell 
 of them. 
 
 There was a knock at the door and 
 Janet entered, her comely face drawn with 
 grief. Janet was my grandfather's house- 
 keeper, a good-looking woman, wholesome, 
 buxom, and still on the sunny side of 
 forty. She had been my nurse, and looked 
 upon me almost as a son, I think. 
 
 " Eh, my dear ! " she said, " are ye no'
 
 26 Something is Told of Alturlie 
 
 hungry wi' no' a bite in ye're stomach 
 since morning ? Come ben the hoose, an' 
 try an' pick a bittie fish, or a lamb's chop 
 that I've gotten ready for ye ma'sel', 
 an' a dish o' tea, newly masked ; come 
 noo ! " 
 
 She set me at the head of the table, and 
 taking a seat beside me poured out a little 
 glass of spirits. " Take that off, dearie, 
 it will give ye an appetite," said Janet, 
 coaxing me to make a meal. 
 
 " Ah me, the day," she said, dabbing 
 her eyes with her apron, " that ever I should 
 live to see the like. It will be changed 
 days at Alturlie wi' James Stuart maister 
 in it. Ye're old nursie has gotten her 
 merching orders, though I told him he 
 needna have bothered himself ! ' ; 
 
 " Are you leaving Alturlie too, Janet ? ' 
 said I. 
 
 " Aye, am I," said Janet. " What would 
 keep me at Alturlie noo ? I couldna live 
 in the ould hoose wi' ye all gone. It 
 would break my heart, that's near broken
 
 And How I Came to Leave It 27 
 
 already wi' all that's in it. What did 
 the ould deevil say to ye, laddie ? ' 
 
 " He practically told me to go, Janet. 
 There is no will." 
 
 " I know, I know, but I canna under- 
 stand it, Simon. It's enough to make your 
 grandfather turn in his grave. It was 
 never in his thoughts, you that he was 
 that fond o', to be turned out on the road- 
 side. I would take my oath on my bended 
 knees he never dreamed of such a thing, 
 but if there's a drawer or a corner o' this 
 hoose I've no' looked ower, I would like 
 to know where it is ! 
 
 " Are ye sure, laddie, it's no' among ye're 
 mother's papers ; there must be a will 
 somewhere ! ' 
 
 I shook my head. I was sorry to de- 
 stroy the faint hope in her voice, but I had 
 spent a dreary morning looking over the 
 contents of my mother's desk. 
 
 " And where are you going, Janet ? ' 
 It was an added burden to my grief, that 
 she who had nursed and petted me ever
 
 28 Something is Told of Alturlie 
 
 since I had come a babe to Alturlie should 
 be turned away. 
 
 " Och, A'm no thinking aboot ma'sel', 
 laddie. I hae plenty to do my turn, and 
 my sister in Cawmelton will be glad to 
 gie me a corner in her hoose ! Will ye 
 no* come and stop wi' us, where ye will be 
 as welcome as the floors in May, till ye 
 see what's to be done ? Or will ye be for 
 ye're mother's brother at Clunes ? ' 
 
 " Nay, Janet,'* said I, " thanking you 
 for the offer and for all your love and kind- 
 ness, but you see except for a little money 
 of my mother's, I am penniless. So I must 
 be up and doing, and that before another 
 day passes ! " 
 
 I sat for a while on my bed that night, 
 thinking bitterly of the change in my life, 
 but in a little, better and kindlier thoughts 
 prevailed. I was young and strong. I 
 would go forth into the world with all its 
 adventure before me. I would go to 
 France, where I would find men who knew 
 my father. Louis the king had need of
 
 And, How I Came to Leave It 29 
 
 men ! I would take service with him, like 
 many another from the highlands. 
 
 So resolved, my thoughts rambling far 
 ahead, as is the way of youth, I moved 
 quietly about the rooms making my pre- 
 parations. 
 
 Before I laid down to sleep for the last 
 time in Alturlie I had made ready for 
 the road. I wrote a few notes of farewell 
 to be delivered after I had gone. My 
 mother's papers I locked away in her 
 desk along with her trinkets, as I purposed 
 sending the furniture of her room away 
 with Janet, only keeping out a brooch for 
 her, and a pretty emerald ring of my 
 mother's for Joan, and my fowling-piece 
 I put aside for Malcolm with a note of 
 farewell stuck through the trigger guard. 
 
 About noon of the next day, having 
 seen Janet off with the carrier a sore 
 business this and hurt she was because 
 I refused the purse with half her savings, 
 I rode up the lane for the last time, glad 
 it was over. Turning into the road for
 
 30 Something is Told of Alturlie 
 
 Inverness, I had started the pony into a 
 trot, when I heard the sound of a horse 
 coming at the gallop, and looking back 
 saw it was Joan. 
 
 " What is this ? " she cried, reining in 
 abreast of me. " You are going away 
 and never telling me, or saying good-bye ! 
 Oh, Simon, that you would do such a 
 thing ! " 
 
 " I left a little message for you and 
 Malcolm at the house, Joan, and I thought 
 your father would tell you ! " said I. 
 
 " Never a word of this have I been told 
 till I came to Alturlie this morning, and I 
 think it was the least you might have 
 done, Simon, your own cousin, to go 
 away like this and never a word of good- 
 bye ! " 
 
 Then, seeing me so downcast, said she, 
 " I think he is a very hard, cruel man, 
 that ever I should say the like of my own 
 father. Alturlie is as much yours as his. 
 Such a thing to do ! 
 
 " Come," said Joan, getting off her
 
 And How I Came to Leave It 31 
 
 pony, " sit with me here on the bank and 
 tell me everything." 
 
 The afternoon was half spent when that 
 talk ended, with me telling her the some- 
 what hazy plans for the future I had 
 mapped out. 
 
 " But you will come back, Seum 1 ? " she 
 said, as we stood holding one another's 
 hands by the roadside. 
 
 ' I will be always looking forward to 
 that day ! " said I. 
 
 " And you will not be forgetting me and 
 all the happy days, off there, across the 
 sea in France ? " 
 
 " How could I ever forget my little play- 
 mate ? " said I. " The hardest thing I 
 have ever done, now all is past with me at 
 Alturlie, is saying good-bye to you ! " 
 
 " I will always be thinking of you, Seum." 
 
 Thus we stood for a little, looking at one 
 another in silence. The tender-hearted 
 little maid ! My eyes were beginning to 
 fill, and Joan, plucking her hands from 
 
 1 Gaelic for Simon.
 
 32 Something is Told of Alturlie 
 
 mine, put her arms round my neck and 
 kissed me on the lips. 
 
 It was the first time we had ever kissed 
 one another like that, and a great lump 
 came in my throat. 
 
 " Good-bye, Seum," she whispered, stand- 
 ing off in the road, her face flushing, and 
 her dark eyes brimming with tears. 
 
 " Good-bye, Joan ! " said I. And so I 
 left her, and rode on to Inverness with my 
 chin on my breast.
 
 // How I Came to Paris and What Befell Me 
 
 There one Night 
 
 THAT march to Inverness on a summer 
 day in the year 1737 was the first of 
 many marches that took me over France 
 and a great stretch of Europe. Over three 
 stricken fields, a score of skirmishes and 
 onfalls, and at last, after eight years of 
 campaigning, to this city of Paris. 
 
 About the hour of ten, on the night of 
 the 8th of July, 1745, a date, as will be 
 seen, I have good cause to remember, I, 
 Simon Stuart, lately Captain of the Regi- 
 ment of Picardy, had resolved to offer my 
 sword to the King of Spain, whither some 
 Scottish gentlemen of my acquaintance 
 had already gone, to take service under 
 Marshal Gage, and where it was likely an 
 experienced soldier would find plenty of 
 work to his hand. I was returning to my 
 quarters from the post-house, whither I 
 3 33
 
 34 How I Came to Paris 
 
 had sent my baggage and paid my fare 
 in the diligence, setting out for Marseilles 
 in the morning ; and the reason for the 
 sudden change in my affairs may shortly 
 be told. 
 
 The battalion was in garrison at Lille, 
 and upon a night at mess, when I dare say 
 the wine had got a little the upper hand, 
 the talk turned upon the recent battle at 
 Fontenoy, and the part played in that 
 action by the Jacobite battalions. A 
 touch-and-go affair for Saxe, I thought ! 
 
 " I will wager ten livres the marechal 
 thanked his Maker he had those same 
 Jacobite battalions to call upon that day ! ' 
 said I. 
 
 At this de Morville took upon himself to 
 raise a titter at my expense with some 
 words anent the national characteristic 
 displayed in the magnitude of my wager. 
 I might have passed it as a joke, being 
 fond of one myself, and a man slow to 
 take up a quarrel ; but this purse-proud 
 gentleman had so contrived, upon more
 
 And What Befell Me 'There 35 
 
 than one occasion, to make himself ob- 
 noxious to officers who had little beyond 
 King Louis' pay to serve their needs. 
 
 So, when the joke, such as it was, had 
 done its turn, I leaned across the table, 
 and said I, " Monsieur, a poor Scottish 
 gentleman in the service of His Majesty 
 King Louis has the best of reasons for 
 exercising care in the expenditure of his 
 silver. Those reasons, however, I would 
 have much pleasure in showing you, do 
 not apply to his steel ! " 
 
 Had de Morville's wound proved fatal, 
 he being the son of a great noble, with 
 powerful friends at his back, it might have 
 gone hard with me, owing to the recent 
 army orders on duelling. As it turned out 
 at the court martial, a great to-do was 
 raised over the words I had used. They 
 made it a case of lese-majesty, and I was 
 requested to resign my commission. 
 
 The 8th of July, 1745, in the city of 
 Paris had been a day of blazing heat, and 
 the night fell close and sultry, the sky
 
 36 How I Came to Paris 
 
 banked with heavy blue-black clouds. As 
 I came up the Rue St. Jacques, the street 
 was lit up by a blinding flash of lightning, 
 a splitting crash of thunder crackled like 
 a discharge of musketry and rumbled 
 along the sky. I felt several smart taps 
 on my hat, and before I had taken another 
 dozen strides down came the rain in a 
 deluge. 
 
 Having no cloak and a cat-like aversion 
 to getting wet, I stepped off the street into 
 the shelter of an archway until the shower 
 should pass over. Almost opposite the 
 archway stood the Botte d'Or, which 
 cafe, besides providing an ordinary within 
 the means of a poor officer on leave in 
 Paris, was a regular exchange for all the 
 news and rumours of war up and down the 
 earth. It was here I had heard the news 
 that decided me on going to Spain. Also 
 it was the rendezvous of all the Jacobites 
 in Paris, and where lately I had heard 
 much talk of another expedition against 
 England then fitting out at Dunkerque.
 
 And What Befell Me There 37 
 
 As a man will, I stood in a muse watching 
 the teeming rain and the torrent rushing 
 down the kennel, and my thoughts turned 
 on the Jacobites and their endless intrigues. 
 
 It would seem some evil fate hung over 
 the fortunes of the Royal Stuarts in their 
 attempts to win back the throne of their 
 fathers. The very elements fought against 
 them. A year ago we heard the news of 
 the great expedition of 15,000 men gathered 
 at Dunkerque for the descent upon England. 
 All was in readiness for the embarkation 
 of the troops, and then came the news of 
 a great storm in the Channel on the very 
 day of embarkation. The ships were 
 scattered and driven ashore with immense 
 loss of munitions of war, many soldiers 
 were drowned, and the whole scheme con- 
 founded and brought to naught. Marechal 
 Saxe, they said, was back in Paris and the 
 expedition abandoned. 
 
 Riquez was doing a roaring trade that 
 night. From the open door, a wide bar 
 of light streamed across the street through
 
 38 How I Came to Paris 
 
 the pelting rain. I could hear the chorus 
 of a marching song, and the loud calls for 
 wine from the company within. 
 
 Standing there, impatiently waiting for 
 the rain to cease, and listening to the 
 racket across the way, my attention was 
 caught by the antics of a little man dressed 
 in black, in the hall within Riquez's outer 
 door. It would appear that the fellow 
 desired to enter the saloon, yet could not 
 make up his mind to do it. Several times 
 he advanced timidly and laid his hand on 
 the inner door. He would push it open 
 a little way, peer in and then shut it and 
 fall back. Suddenly the saloon door was 
 flung open in his face, a loud burst of 
 laughter came from within, and two or 
 three men, a good deal the worse of wine, 
 staggered into the hall. 
 
 This decided the little man, for he in- 
 stantly turned tail and ran to the outer 
 door. Looking hurriedly up and down the 
 street, he caught sight of the archway, and 
 darting across, came to rest in front of me.
 
 And What Befell Me There 39 
 
 " Peste ! " he muttered, scowling at the 
 cafe, and shaking the rain from his hat, 
 " I will return in the morning." 
 
 " May I ask your trouble, my friend ? ' 
 said I. 
 
 Timid as a rabbit, he turned swiftly 
 and leapt back a pace or two. He cast a 
 frightened glance at me, then reassured 
 by my appearance as I came out to the 
 light, he thrust his hand into his bosom, and 
 said, " Monsieur, I carry a letter addressed 
 to a gentleman at the Salle d'Escrime, of 
 Marignan, Maitre d'Arms ! " 
 
 " The school is closed for the day, hours 
 ago ! " said I, pointing with my cane to the 
 row of dark windows above the Botte 
 d'Or. 
 
 " I was directed, Monsieur, to enquire 
 for him at the cafe below, but I am a 
 stranger to this part of the city, and Mon- 
 sieur, I dislike entering that place, where 
 they all seem to be drunk or mad." 
 
 He was a meagre, elderly little man, a 
 quill-driver or something of that sort, I
 
 40 How I Came to Paris 
 
 thought. " I am known to Marignan and 
 a few of the gentlemen who attend his 
 classes ; perhaps " 
 
 " I am employed by Latour, the Military 
 Costumier, and for the past three days, 
 Monsieur, I have been searching Paris 
 for this gentleman," said he, holding out 
 a letter. 
 
 I took the letter, and holding it to the 
 light, judge of my astonishment at reading, 
 " To Simon Stuart, formerly of Alturlie 
 in Scotland, and now officer in the Regiment 
 of Picardy in France." 
 
 " Why, my man ! " said I, " your search 
 is at an end, for I am, or was until lately, 
 Captain Simon Stuart of the Regiment of 
 Picardy ! " 
 
 ' You are Captain Stuart ? "' said he. 
 " But, pardon, Monsieur, how am I to 
 know ? " 
 
 ' True," said I, giving him back the 
 letter, " that is reasonable enough ; but 
 come with me, I will soon set your mind 
 at rest on that point ! "
 
 And What Befell Me There 41 
 
 The shower having almost passed over, 
 I took his arm, and together we crossed 
 the street to the Botte d'Or. 
 
 Beckoning to Riquez, said I, " Jules, 
 oblige me by telling this man my 
 name." 
 
 " This is the Capitaine Stuart, Mon- 
 sieur ! " said Riquez, with a bow and a 
 wave of his hand. 
 
 " A thousand pardons, and thanks ! " 
 said the little man. " Monsieur will be 
 pleased to give me a receipt ! ' ; 
 
 I gave him what he required, and paid 
 him for his trouble with one of my few 
 remaining louis, and bade Riquez bring 
 a bottle of wine to a little table where I 
 could sit alone. 
 
 I turned the letter over, wondering who 
 it could be from, for I had lost all touch 
 with Alturlie since the opening of the last 
 Austrian campaign. 
 
 It was dated the i6th of May, and tearing 
 it open, I found two sheets within, reading 
 as follows :
 
 42 How I Came to Paris 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 By the will of your late uncle, 
 James Fraser of Clunes, who died on the 
 loth instant, you are heir to his house 
 and lands in the Parish of Clunes, with all 
 stock, crops, and plenishings thereon. 
 
 It has been our pleasure to attend to all 
 legal matters appertaining to the estate 
 of the late James Fraser, and we would 
 be pleased to know and carry out your 
 intentions with regard to the same at your 
 earliest convenience. 
 We are, Sir, 
 
 Your humble and obedient Servants 
 to Command, 
 
 McRiMMON and McRiMMON. 
 
 The other paper was also from McRim- 
 mon, divested of his legal cloak. 
 
 DEAR SIMON, 
 
 Trusting this will come to your 
 hand with as little delay as possible and 
 find you well.
 
 And What Befell Me There 43 
 
 I take great pleasure in congratulating 
 you as the owner of Clunes. It is a fine 
 property, and unless you find the service 
 of King Louis more profitable I confess 
 I never heard tell of captains in his army 
 making fortunes you could not do better 
 than come home and take it over. 
 
 This is the earnest wish of all your old 
 friends, and among them, Simon, 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JAMES MCRIMMON. 
 
 The letter fell from my hands, and my 
 thoughts passed beyond the walls of the 
 Botte d'Or to the land of my fathers. I 
 saw, through the haze of smoke, the blue 
 Firth embosomed among the great green 
 and purple hills. The murmur of voices 
 changed to the subdued roar of the waters 
 among the islands, and the foam-tipped 
 combers crashing along the weed-strown 
 beach. Many a time I had dreamed that 
 dream, in bivouacs under the starry skies, 
 on long weary marches, or halts by the
 
 44 How I Came to Paris 
 
 wayside ; some little thing, as the call of 
 a bird or the scent of a plucked wild 
 flower, would stir the old memories. Old 
 times, old scenes, old faces, all would then 
 come back to me, and like some haunting 
 melody in a piece of music, through the 
 dreaming would run the memory of Joan. 
 And despite the years that had flown, the 
 picture was ever of a merry, tender-hearted, 
 dark-eyed maid, with a wealth of glossy 
 brown hair falling about her shoulders or 
 whipped about my face by the sea breeze, 
 as barefooted we raced together along the 
 beach, on the edge of the tumbling, hissing 
 waves. Never of a Joan grown to woman- 
 hood would I permit myself to think, for 
 with that would come the thought of some 
 other, taking the place of a Simon Stuart 
 forgotten, or, if now and then faintly 
 remembered, then only as a playmate of 
 school-days. 
 
 Heydey then ! I would soon know if 
 I were forgotten, for now I was going back 
 to Joan and the old place. Of that there
 
 And What Befell Me There 45 
 
 was no question in my mind, only the means 
 were lacking. To be sure I could write 
 to McRimmon for money, but highland 
 pride baulked at revealing to him how poor 
 I was. Yet in all this great city of Paris 
 I knew not where I could borrow ten louis. 
 
 Heigh ho ! I looked up. Every table 
 had its little group of patrons. The hour 
 was getting late and the clatter of tongues 
 was like to deave a man. The air of the 
 room was heavy with the heat that close 
 sultry night, and the reek of wine. The 
 tobacco-smoke hung over all like a blue 
 haze, and at the memory of winds blowing 
 off the sea, and cool shady woods and glens, 
 a sudden scunder took me at the place, 
 and I desired, above ah 1 things, a breath of 
 fresh air. 
 
 Pausing at the door for a moment, de- 
 bating which way I should walk, a waft of 
 cool air on my heated face, blowing down 
 the street from the river, decided me. 
 
 It was a clear starry night now. I would 
 stroll for a little by way of the Pont Neuf.
 
 46 How I Came to Paris 
 
 Crossing the bridge I walked as far as the 
 Louvre, and there leaning on the parapet 
 overlooking the river, pondered on this 
 latest turn of my fortunes, and the change 
 it had brought about in all my plans for 
 the future. 
 
 I was roused from a pleasant reverie by 
 the bell of the Palace Church above my 
 head clanging the hour of midnight, and 
 feeling cool and refreshed now, turned 
 myself about. 
 
 Men have told me it was on such a close 
 hot summer night these same bells of the 
 Church of St. Auxerrois, striking the hour 
 of midnight, gave the signal for the bloody 
 massacre of the Protestants on the Feast 
 of Saint Bartholomew, some hundred and 
 sixty years ago. I have since thought it 
 a little strange that their tolling should 
 have sent me at that particular moment 
 to seek my lodging. 
 
 I recrossed the bridge and had come to 
 the end of a street leading down to the 
 Sorbonne, a narrow lane between high
 
 And What Befell Me There 47 
 
 houses, whose overhanging upper stories 
 almost shut out the sky, and very dimly 
 lit at wide intervals by lanterns swinging 
 from cords, stretched across the street. 
 The hour being late, the streets were very 
 quiet ; not a soul did I meet coming from 
 the bridge, when at the moment of passing 
 this opening, I was startled by a clatter 
 of hurried footsteps and the clash of steel. 
 I heard a curse that I could have sworn 
 was English, and drawing my rapier, I ran 
 down the street crying, " Ha scelerats ! " 
 
 Fifty yards along, the light of a lantern 
 showed me a man down, over whom another 
 stooped, busily rifling, while two stood 
 on guard. 
 
 As I came up, the robber stood erect 
 and sprang back in line with the other 
 two, thereby escaping, with a touch on the 
 shoulder, a thrust that was designed to 
 end his career as a midnight assassin. 
 
 A glance showed me here were no com- 
 mon cut-throats, whose game was a few 
 coins. Instead of taking to their heels,
 
 How I Came to Paris 
 
 they exchanged half a dozen quick, whis- 
 pered words and advanced cautiously to 
 take me in front and on flank. 
 
 ' You are bold villains ! " said I, back- 
 ing to the wall, " one shout will bring 
 every blade in Riquez's here within three 
 minutes ! " 
 
 " Your business will be settled in less 
 time than that, you cursed marplot ! ' 
 said one in plain English, and he came on 
 a pace or two, crouched like a cat with the 
 straight arm of the Italian fencing schools. 
 
 According to Marechal Saxe, whom I 
 will maintain, so long as I have breath or 
 steel to draw, is the greatest master of his 
 trade since Julius Caesar, not excepting my 
 lord Marlborough and the great Frede- 
 rick himself, it is of the first importance, 
 where possible, in the face of a threatened 
 combined movement, to engage the enemy 
 before his attack has developed. 
 
 I leapt suddenly for the shelter of a 
 doorway to guard my back. This brought 
 me within reach of the man on my right,
 
 And What Befell Me There 49 
 
 whose thrust I parried and returned with one 
 that took him in the midriff. He staggered 
 back and sat down in the street holding 
 his stomach, setting up the most dismal 
 howling, and crying upon all the saints. 
 
 More than once on some hard-fought 
 field have I seen men crazed with the lust 
 of slaughter do the work of naked savages, 
 but I was now to witness a piece of villainy 
 that turned my blood chill. 
 
 The glare of links shone at the end of 
 the street, and seeing this, the tallest of 
 the two, the one who had addressed me, 
 stepped back. 
 
 ' This pig has brought the watch on us 
 with his howling ! " he snarled, " and the 
 jig is up for the present. As for you, my 
 friend, I shall know you again, and if ever 
 we meet I shall repay this with interest ! " 
 
 Whipping round, he passed his rapier 
 through the chest of the wounded robber, 
 and in a twinkling he and the other villain 
 had disappeared in the deep shadow of 
 the overhanging houses. 
 4
 
 777 Tells of a Gentleman Named Ker 
 
 I TURNED from the dead bravo to the man 
 whose aid I had come to so timely. He had 
 got himself to his feet, and leaning against 
 a doorpost, breathing heavily, thanked me 
 in execrable French. 
 
 " Are you badly wounded? what can I 
 do for you, my friend ? ' said I. 
 
 " An Englishman," said he, with what 
 I took to be a note of suspicion in his voice. 
 
 " It's long since I saw the heilan' 
 heather ! " said I. 
 
 " If it's heilan' ye are," said he, hur- 
 riedly, " I'll be obliged if ye get me oot o' 
 this. A'm lost amang these kennels, and " 
 he nodded his head at the slowly ad- 
 vancing street patrol " I have no wish to 
 fall into the hands o' yon gentry. Moreover 
 I have a bit stab in the airm that needs 
 seeing to, and a cloot on the heid that's 
 dirling it yet ! " 
 
 50
 
 Tells of a Gentleman Named Ker 51 
 
 " Come then," said I. " My quarters 
 are handy ! " 
 
 Taking his unwounded arm and keeping 
 in the black shadow of the houses we 
 slipped softly away, leaving the patrol to 
 make what they liked of the dead footpad. 
 
 Gaining the Rue St. Jacques, five 
 minutes' walk took us to my quarters. 
 
 I lit a pair of candles, and then for the 
 first time had a good look at my acquaint- 
 ance with the broad lowland Scots tongue. 
 
 He was a powerfully built, active-looking 
 man, a trifle above the medium height, 
 dressed in black, from his beaver to his 
 broad buckled shoes, all very plain but 
 good material. Besides his cut-and-thrust 
 sword, I saw the butts of a brace of pistols 
 in the belt beneath his coat and wondered 
 he had not used them. Indeed, there were 
 one or two points about the affair that set 
 me wondering. For the rest, his face was 
 hard, deep-lined, and weather-beaten, with 
 a steady pair of keen grey eyes set beneath 
 heavy black brows. His age it would be
 
 52 Tells of a Gentleman Named Ker 
 
 hard to say. He might be thirty-five, he 
 might be fifty. A quiet, stark, resolute 
 blade, as a man hard pressed might be 
 thankful to have at his elbow. 
 
 " First let me look to your arm ; I have 
 some skill in these matters ! " said I, 
 relieving him of his hat and coat. He 
 suffered considerable additional pain rather 
 than let me cut away his shirt-sleeve, 
 which, stiff with blood, was stuck to his 
 arm. 
 
 " It would be a peety tae spile the braw 
 new sark. Seventeen hunder linen I paid 
 twelve shillings Scots each for it and twa 
 neighbors tae it, no' a year syne in the 
 Lawn Market in Edinborough ! " said he 
 with a grimace. 
 
 I washed and bound a slight but painful 
 flesh wound, and saw to a lump the size 
 of a hen's egg on the back of his head. 
 Then, learning he was hungry as well as 
 thirsty, I placed in front of him the half 
 of a great Strasbourg pie and a decanter of 
 brandy, bidding him fall on, apologising
 
 Tells of a Gentleman Named, Ker 53 
 
 for the scanty fare, my landlord being abed 
 at that hour of the night. 
 
 " May you or I never hae waur ! " said 
 he, cutting himself off a generous helping 
 of the pie and pouring out a glass of 
 spirits. 
 
 I had been struck by the unshaken nerve 
 of the man, and his cool quiet eye regarding 
 me steadily as I moved about the room 
 getting a basin of fair water and a bandage, 
 and found myself strongly attracted to 
 him. Within the hour he had stood in 
 desperate peril of his life. He must have 
 been suffering great pain, yet without a 
 tremor of the hand he took off his dram, 
 nodding his respects to me with a smile, 
 and quietly went on with his food. 
 
 " May you and I never hae waur ! " he 
 repeated, " which kenning weel the road 
 I am travelling, and if I'm no* mistaken in 
 your profession, is something o' a vain 
 hope, sir ! " 
 
 " Simon Stuart, late Captain of the 
 Regiment of Picardy, at your service ! "
 
 54 fells of a Gentleman Named Ker 
 
 said I. " From what you say, I gather 
 you are a soldier yourself." 
 
 He had laid down his knife and fork at 
 my name, and looked closely at me for 
 a minute. 
 
 " No, sir, I earn my bread upon the 
 waters, maistly," he added as an after- 
 thought, " yet I micht ca' myself a sodjer 
 without getting oot o' sight o' the truth. 
 I hae seen and taken my pairt in twa or 
 three tulzies here and there in my time." 
 ' Under these somewhat uncommon cir- 
 cumstances, and seeing we appear to be 
 fellow-countrymen, though we come from 
 different sides o' the Grampian Hills, may 
 I ask your name and condition, and where 
 you are serving ? ' 
 
 " You may, sir, and no harm done." 
 He poured out a little brandy and drank 
 it slowly with the air of a man pondering 
 his answer to a weighty question. Setting 
 his glass on the table, he looked up, and, 
 said he, " Mr. Stuart, it is very likely I 
 am owing ye my life, or short o' that,
 
 Tells of a Gentleman Named Ker 55 
 
 certainly the saving o' certain matters o' 
 the first importance, trusted tae me for 
 safe gairding and delivery. A guid turn 
 I am no' likely to forget in a hurry. But to 
 be honest wi' ye, sir, and my business 
 being what it is, before answering your 
 very natural question, I will ask, by your 
 leave, ane or twa mysel' ! " 
 
 There was no particle of offence in the 
 man's manner or speech. It was plain his 
 caution, and the predicament I had found 
 him in, were the outcome of some uncom- 
 monly serious business. He might be the 
 carrier of valuable treasure, but I guessed 
 the business to be political, both from his 
 appearance and speech, and Jacobite at 
 that. 
 
 Knowing something of the great traffic 
 in spies and messengers, Hanoverian and 
 Jacobite, between Holland and France 
 and Britain, and both parties watching 
 like hawks to waylay one another, that 
 would explain the murderous attack upon 
 him.
 
 56 Tells of a Gentleman Named Ker 
 
 " Fire away with your questions ! " said 
 I, laughing heartily at his lowland Scotch 
 caution would to the Lord we had some 
 of it in the North. " Mine is the natural 
 curiosity aroused by meeting you in cir- 
 cumstances which you will admit were 
 something out of the ordinary. If you 
 would prefer it so, rest here for a few hours, 
 and when you feel like moving off, we will 
 just shake hands and say no more about 
 it ! " 
 
 " That is the word of a man after my 
 own heart ! " says he, " but I wouldna 
 wish to pairt wi* ye like that, Mr. Stuart, 
 at all, at all. Indeed, sir, I have a thocht 
 that we are to be better acquainted. Here 
 is what I would ask ye, but first of all, my 
 name is Ker James Ker, ye micht ken it. 
 I come frae Leith ! " 
 
 I started up in my chair and looked hard 
 at him. It was the name of a man I 
 would have given a good deal to meet, but 
 my James Ker would be an older man than 
 this. I shook my head.
 
 Tells of a Gentleman Named Ker 57 
 
 Ker leaned across the table, and said 
 he quietly, " It would be strange, but 
 stranger has happened. Micht ye, by any 
 chance, be any relation to Simon Stuart 
 of Alturlie, near the toon o' Inverness, the 
 Simon Stuart that was oot in the '15 ? " 
 
 " His son," said I. 
 
 He smiled, and striking the table with 
 his fist, said, " I have many's the time 
 heard my old father, noo deid and gone, 
 tell o' the fecht at Shirra Muir, and a 
 Stuart, sair wounded that day, that got 
 away wi' him in an Aberdeen fishing-boat ! " 
 
 He looked at me still with a smile on 
 his hard, weather-beaten face. 
 
 " Mr. Ker," said I, putting out my hand, 
 
 ' I have heard my mother tell that story, 
 
 and by the way she told it, I know if it 
 
 had not been for your father, mine would 
 
 never have lived to tell the tale ! " 
 
 " Or have a son to save my life on the 
 streets o' Paris this nicht ! " returned Ker, 
 giving my hand a grip that made the fingers 
 tingle.
 
 " It is a strange way to meet your 
 father's son, Mr. Ker, and the pleasure is 
 not lessened thereby ! '' 
 
 " Faith, Mr. Stuart, your pleasure is no 
 greater than mine, I'll be thinking ! " said 
 Ker, with a chuckle. 
 
 " Did I understand ye to say that ye 
 was a captain late o' the Picardy Regi- 
 ment ? " 
 
 " That is so ; I have left the service of 
 King Louis." 
 
 " Ye'll no tak it in the wrang way if I 
 ask ye, Mr. Stuart, what is your business 
 noo ? " 
 
 " No, there is no need for me to keep it 
 secret. I have, within the last few hours, 
 received a letter that takes me home to 
 Inverness." 
 
 Ker leaned back in his chair and gave a 
 low whistle. 
 
 "Is it no' a strange thing," said he 
 after a moment's silence, " that, only for 
 what happened this nicht, I would be a 
 guid few miles by this on the road to
 
 Tells of a Gentleman Named Ker 59 
 
 Inverness mysel' ? It would a'maist seem 
 that you and I were meant to mak' the 
 journey thegither." 
 
 '* I would wish to make it in no better 
 company," said I ; " but the truth is, I 
 must kick my heels here in Paris until I 
 get the means to travel with ! " 
 
 " And if it is a fair question, hoo lang 
 micht ye have to wait, Mr. Stuart ? ' 
 
 " That I cannot tell. It may be days or 
 weeks ! " said I. 
 
 ' The business will be important, Mr. 
 Stuart ? " said he. 
 
 " Aye," said I, thinking of the few 
 gold pieces left in my purse, " important 
 enough ! " 
 
 Ker looked at me a full minute, then 
 
 filling two glasses, said he, " Ye needna 
 
 wait another day, sir ! I will gie ye a 
 
 toast, Mr. Stuart," holding out his glass. 
 
 ' I will gie ye the King, sir ! " 
 
 I smiled, seeing his hand above the 
 water- jug. 
 
 " The King over the water if you like,
 
 60 Tells of a Gentleman Named Ker 
 
 Mr. Ker ! " said I, drinking the toast. 
 " It would be strange if a man of my family 
 could not drink to him, but that is about 
 as far as it will go with me. You have 
 heard the news from Dunkerque ? ' 
 
 " I have ; all the world has heard tell 
 o' it by this time, but there's anither day 
 coming, and it is a matter you and I 
 needna fash oorselves aboot the noo ; we 
 have other fish to fry," said Ker. 
 
 ' Ye will be thinking, na doot, Mr. 
 Stuart," said he, " that it wasna just the 
 siller in ma pooch yon gentry were after ? ' 
 
 " I confess, one or two points about the 
 affair struck me as being a bit out of the 
 ordinary," said I. 
 
 " An' ye would notice," he continued, 
 " that I was no' for making any bother wi' 
 the patrol aboot it ? 
 
 " I tell ye, sir, for I ken a true man when 
 I meet him, and I ken this gaes na farther, 
 deil ha' me ! " said Ker, striking the table 
 a blow with his fist that made the glasses 
 jump, " and deil ha' them that canna keep
 
 Tells of a Gentleman Named Ker 61 
 
 their tongues between their teeth ; but, 
 whatever way it is, or hoo they get to ken, 
 there's never a move made on the board 
 in this business but some blethering fool 
 canna keep his tongue frae wagging, and 
 so plans are brocht to naught. Men's 
 lives are put in needless danger, and the 
 whole thing has to be planned ower 
 again ! " He shook his head, and for a 
 space stared at the wall with drawn brows. 
 At last, turning his steady gaze upon 
 me, he said, " See now, Mr. Stuart, I'll 
 tell ye ; this is the way o' it. This busi- 
 ness I am charged wi' was settled no* 
 twenty-four hours gane by, an* look what's 
 happened ? I'm set on in the streets, an' 
 but for you, I'd be lying noo, a rifled corp 
 in the kennel ; and it wouldna end there. 
 I carry that on me that spells the wuddie 
 for a dozen men if I had lost it. The 
 warst o' it is, a'thing must be done quietly. 
 I darena ask for protection. That would 
 give the game away completely, and that 
 Mr. Stuart, brings me to you !
 
 62 Tells of a Gentleman Named Ker 
 
 " I would ask no man to pit his hand in 
 this Stuart business against his ain free 
 will, but it would just seem as if providence 
 was in it, meeting a man like yersel' this 
 nicht, and wi' business taking him to the 
 very bit I am bound for. I was never the 
 man to pass a chance, and it would jist 
 be fleeing in the face o' providence to pass 
 this yin. I have made my bargain, and 
 gang I must, so I mak* ye an offer, Mr. 
 Stuart. Gie me your company and I'll 
 no misguide ye it may be the help o' that 
 bilbo ye are sae gleg wi', as far as Dun- 
 kerque, and your charges to Inverness 
 will be mine. The journey winna cost ye 
 a bawbee ! " 
 
 I liked the man, though I had a poor 
 opinion of the game he was taking part in, 
 and for reasons I have already mentioned, 
 I was eager to be off, so, with little hesita- 
 tion, said I, " It's a fair offer, and I see 
 nothing to hinder me travelling with a 
 fellow-countryman. I gladly accept for 
 the sake of the company, and it saves
 
 Tells of a Gentleman named, Ker 63 
 
 me waiting here, it might easily be, 
 weeks." 
 
 If I had been blessed like the Brahan 
 Seer 1 with the second sight, I might have 
 taken a second thought before making 
 that bargain ; but not being able to look 
 into the future, I could see no shadow of 
 the gallows lying black across a ride to 
 Dunkerque with Mr. Ker. 
 
 So we shook hands upon it and drank a 
 glass together for good luck on the road. 
 
 " That being settled," said Ker" an' 
 I tell ye I'm a lot easier in my mind than 
 when I set oot last nicht we'll be the better 
 o' an hour or twa's sleep. That couch will 
 dae me fine, Mr. Stuart, if it's no' going to 
 pit ye to any inconvenience." 
 
 The grey dawn showing through the 
 window was dimming the guttering candles 
 as I made Ker comfortable and went to 
 bed myself ; but I heard him snore long 
 before I went to sleep. 
 
 It was nearing the hour of noon before I 
 
 1 A famous highland prophet.
 
 64 Tells of a Gentleman named, Ker 
 
 awoke, hearing Ker moving about, so dress- 
 ing myself I went out to him. I would 
 have had him to breakfast with me at 
 Riquez's, but Ker would not hear of this. 
 
 " I have had my morning, and a bit o' 
 that very guid pie, so I'll dae fine. Besides, 
 the hoodie craws will be on the look-oot, 
 and it wouldna dae for you and me to be 
 seen thegither. Tell me, hae ye a back 
 door tae your lodging ? " 
 
 " There is one which leads into the Rue 
 St. Jacques ! " said I. 
 
 " Show me that door," said he, buckling 
 his belt and taking up his hat, " I'll be 
 leaving ye for an hour or twa." 
 
 " Hev' your saddle-bags a' ready for 
 the road, a lad will call for them. Here 
 is an address ; on the chap o' six, time 
 yersel' to be dandering past the door, 
 that is a' ye have to mind ! " 
 
 I let him out and he walked quickly up 
 to the end of the lane. There he stood 
 for a minute, looking about him, before 
 passing out of sight in the crowded street.
 
 IF I Say Farewell to Paris 
 
 AT the hour of six, sharp on the minute, 
 following Ker's instructions, I walked slowly 
 by the door of a house I knew, not a little 
 to my astonishment, to be the residence 
 of the Marquis D'Argenson, one of the 
 great men about King Louis. A servant, 
 evidently on the look-out for me, came out 
 to the portico and beckoned. 
 
 I followed him across a great hall where 
 half a dozen lackeys lounged, and up a 
 wide handsome staircase to a gallery from 
 which opened many doors and corridors. 
 The man, who was dressed in black, and 
 carried a little ebony baton like an usher, 
 motioned me to wait here, and passing 
 through one of these doors, closed it softly 
 behind him. 
 
 I stood for a while admiring the grandeur 
 and richness of the house. Here, on 
 every hand, was the evidence of great 
 5 6 5
 
 66 / Say Farewell to Paris 
 
 wealth, contrasting grimly with the terrible 
 poverty of the street : a very noticeable 
 thing in this fair land of France. 
 
 In a minute or two the usher came out 
 and signed me to enter. Passing through 
 the door, I found myself in a richly ap- 
 pointed room, and saw Ker in conversation 
 with two gentlemen seated at a table. 
 
 The slim, elderly gentleman, dressed in 
 black, with a tired, cynical look on his pale 
 face, I knew very well. It was said of the 
 Marquis D'Argenson that he strongly ad- 
 vocated France helping the Jacobite cause, 
 not for any great love of the Jacobites, 
 but rather, it was suspected, because 
 through them he could embarrass the Eng- 
 lish Government. At the sight of him the 
 thought came to me that I was getting 
 in deeper waters than I had bargained for 
 a thought that strengthened when I 
 recognised the other gentleman dressed 
 in the gay uniform of the Royal Scots 
 Regiment in the service of King Louis. 
 There were very few among the exiled
 
 I Say Farewell to Paris 67 
 
 Scots who did not know Lord John Drum- 
 mond, the man who was to have led a 
 force composed of his own regiment and the 
 Irish companies had the Dunkerque disaster 
 not brought the Jacobite plans to naught. 
 
 He came forward and shook me warmly 
 by the hand. " I knew your father very 
 well. I remember him as a brave gentle- 
 man, and I am glad to meet his son ! " 
 He turned to the marquis. " A fellow- 
 countryman, your Grace, whose father 
 fought in the 'Fifteen ! " 
 
 The Marquis nodded pleasantly, and 
 rising, said, " I will leave you, my lord, 
 to arrange matters with your gallant con- 
 freres." He bowed with a graceful gesture 
 that included all three, and left the room. 
 
 " Ker has told me of your fortunate 
 appearance upon the scene last night ! " 
 said my lord. "It is very evident, from 
 this occurrence, some inkling of our plans 
 has got abroad. This will entail some 
 alterations." 
 
 " First of all," said Ker, " how many are
 
 68 / Say Farewell to Paris 
 
 to be made acquainted wi' these altera- 
 tions ? " 
 
 " It will not go further than we three 
 sitting in this room. I will see to that ! " 
 said my lord. 
 
 " That will be just as weel," said Ker 
 sarcastically. " I am ready enough to 
 tak a' risks, but A'm no' seeing my way to 
 stake my life in an undertaking the enemy 
 gets the wind o' the minute the plans are 
 made. There's them here in Paris to-day, 
 my lord, that would cut the throats o' 
 fifty men to lay their hands on what ye 
 charge me wi'. 
 
 " D'ye ken, sirs, the leader o' the three 
 men that set upon me last night ? The 
 ' Whaup,' no less ! " said Ker without 
 waiting for an answer. 
 
 " A clever villain, that ! " said his lord- 
 ship. " I have had word of him." 
 
 " Aye, clever, and a bauld yin," said 
 Ker, looking at me. 
 
 " Did ye mark the taller o' the three, 
 Mr. Stuart ? "
 
 / Say Farewell to Paris 69 
 
 " Only that he was, as you say, a tall 
 man, of the Italian school of fencing, I 
 thought," said I. "It was too dark to 
 see his face." 
 
 " I dinna ken aboot Italian fence," said 
 Ker, " but the ' Whaup ' is na Italian, but 
 a Scot, and be damned to him. If ever 
 ye meet a lang, skimpy, black-avised deevil, 
 wi' a lang neb, a bit ower to the one side, 
 look oot for him. He wad bother the 
 best o' ye at Marignan's ! '' 
 
 " He will cool his heels in the Bastille, 
 if hands can be laid on him ! " said Lord 
 Drummond. 
 
 " Aye, if ! " grunted Ker. 
 
 There came a little pause, then my lord 
 turned to me. " Ker has told you what 
 business he is engaged upon, Mr. Stuart ? ' 
 
 " Mr. Ker, I understand no more, nor 
 wish to, is the bearer, at some risk I think, 
 of letters to the North ! " said I. 
 
 My lord nodded his head. " He tells 
 me you are of the honest party, which is 
 what I would expect. Are you of the
 
 yo I Say Farewell to Paris 
 
 mind to accept a post with us, Mr. 
 Stuart ? " 
 
 I was expecting this, and wished heartily 
 he had not asked me. 
 
 " My lord," said I, " I will be plain with 
 you. Yesterday I was a poor man with 
 naught but my sword, and very little 
 money in my purse. To-day, by the death 
 of a relative, I am by way of being in 
 fair circumstances, and as a consequence, 
 am not looking at the future in the same 
 light. My bargain with Mr. Ker will be 
 carried out to the letter, but beyond that, 
 I am not, at this present moment, prepared 
 to go ! " 
 
 " Devil take them/' I thought, " this 
 is going too far. I knew next to nothing 
 of the present state of Jacobite affairs, 
 but fine I knew the history of the 'Fif- 
 teen, with its tale of blundering, and 
 heading and hanging, and forfeited estates. 
 It was all very fine for these gentlemen 
 pulling the strings in France, but I baulked 
 at landing at home, a stranger almost, not
 
 I Say Farewell to Paris 71 
 
 knowing how the land lay, and finding 
 myself up to the neck in Jacobite intrigue 
 the minute I got there. 
 
 " The Dunkerque disaster is not irre- 
 parable, Mr. Stuart ! " said Lord Drum- 
 mond, " only a delay. We will have great 
 need of trained soldiers when the time 
 comes ; you would be invaluable to us, and 
 there is no post, in reason, you might not 
 aspire to ! " 
 
 I offered no answer to this. 
 
 I believe his lordship divined what was 
 passing in my head, for, clapping me on 
 the shoulder, he said with a smile, " Well ! 
 well ! Mr. Stuart, we will have to wait, I 
 see, until the time comes when you will 
 be convinced that the 'Fifteen is not 
 to be repeated." 
 
 ' When do you leave ? " said he, turning 
 to Ker, who, during this conversation, had 
 turned away to look out of a window. 
 
 " I am timing myself to leave a few 
 minutes before the Port closes," said Ker, 
 coming back to the table.
 
 72 / Say Farewell to Paris 
 
 ' Then until that time, if you have 
 everything in readiness I would suggest 
 that you stay here, and you will permit 
 me to send in some refreshments ! 
 
 " I will leave you, Mr. Stuart, to plan 
 with Ker your safest route to Dunkerque, 
 and I wish you good luck and God speed ! ' 
 
 He held out his hand, "If we do not 
 meet again in France, I hope to meet you 
 soon in auld Scotland, with the cause, Mr. 
 Stuart, I believe we have both at heart on 
 the path to victory ! " 
 
 The day gave place to night ; a servant 
 came in with candles and laid out a supper 
 for us. When the time came we left the 
 house, and walked to where Ker had the 
 horses saddled and waiting under a dark 
 archway, a short distance from the house. 
 
 The guard struck the hour of nine as we 
 passed through the St. Denis gate, and 
 took the north road on a clear starlit 
 night.
 
 V Tells of Certain Gentlemen Interested in 
 
 Our Ride to the Sea 
 
 THE minute we were clear of the Port, Ker 
 set the pace at a smart canter, but when 
 we had travelled at this gait a trifle over 
 a mile we came to where another high road 
 crossed ours at right angles. Bidding me 
 follow him, Ker wheeled short, and urging 
 his horse across the ditch, rode into the 
 black shadow of a clump of low trees and 
 thick undergrowth standing a few yards 
 from the cross-roads. 
 
 " Do you expect to be followed ? " I 
 asked, when I joined him in the shelter. 
 
 " From what I ken o' them we hae to 
 deal wi', A'm prepared to expect anything. 
 We will bide here a bit, and see. Mr. 
 Stuart, it's no' to be thocht for a minute 
 they gentry will let us get the length o' 
 Dunkerque without trying all they ken to 
 stop us. Wheesht noo, and listen ! " 
 
 73
 
 74 'Tells of Certain Gentlemen 
 
 All was very still, save for the gentle 
 rustling of the leaves overhead in the night 
 wind, but presently, looking back at the 
 faint glare in the sky, from the lights of the 
 great city, a familiar sound caught my ear. 
 
 " Is that no' a horse ? " said Ker, who 
 had bent his head to listen. 
 
 " Horses," said I, " and hard ridden ! " 
 
 The distant patter, like rain drumming 
 upon a wooden roof, rose to the roar of 
 several horses ridden a gallop along the 
 road we had come. 
 
 " Haud your horse quiet ! " whispered 
 Ker. 
 
 Following his example, I slipped from 
 the saddle and held my horse by the muzzle 
 as five horsemen swept up and reined in 
 at the cross-roads. 
 
 We stood there in the dark watching 
 them against the sky, pointing this way 
 and that, what time they held a hurried 
 consultation. But what with the fidgeting 
 of their horses and the distance they stood 
 off, we could make nothing of it.
 
 Interested in Our Ride 75 
 
 In a minute or two they came to a 
 decision, and putting spurs to their horses 
 rode on again along the north road, at 
 the same headlong gait, and presently the 
 sound of hoofs died away in the distance. 
 
 " I was expecting no less ; we will take 
 the road to the right," said Ker, as we 
 swung into the saddles. 
 
 I confess I was already beginning to 
 respect the brains that were working for 
 his confusion, and said as much as we 
 gained the road and set off again. 
 
 " Ye will need to ! " says Ker. " Aye, 
 they're clever, ye may wager a' ye have 
 on that. Paris back there, fair swarms 
 wi' spies, and the English Government 
 spends money like water amang them. Ye 
 never ken, the very servants that brocht 
 us our meat the nicht are as likely as not 
 to be in their pay. But ! " said he with a 
 chuckle, " they have never kepped me. 
 Three times I have jinked them, and it 
 will be queer if they trap the pair o' us 
 this time. And noo, if ye please, Mr.
 
 j6 Tells of Certain Gentlemen 
 
 Stuart, we will try the mettle o' these 
 cattle, for I would like to be no far off 
 Compiegne by the dawn o' day ! " 
 
 The horses were sound beasts, in fine 
 fettle, and knee to knee we pounded on 
 through the short summer night, with short 
 breathing halts, and to listen for any more 
 signs of pursuit. 
 
 In the dark, we crossed the main road 
 from Paris to the city of Soissons, and 
 before the day was fully come, from the 
 top of some rising ground, we could make 
 out, in the light of the grey dawn, the spires 
 of Compiegne by the Oise in the valley 
 below. 
 
 It was not in the plans of Ker to show 
 ourselves at any inn, or halt at any village 
 or town at this stage of our journey. 
 Against this, he had provided corn for 
 the horses, and meat and drink for our- 
 selves. At the foot of the hill, therefore, 
 we turned aside and made for a piece of 
 wood half a mile or so off the road. 
 
 Having rubbed the tired horses down, we
 
 Interested in Our Ride 77 
 
 fed and watered them at a burn that ran 
 down a little dingle in the wood. We made 
 our bivouac just inside the edge of the 
 trees at a point from where we commanded 
 a good view of the road. There we passed 
 the long summer day undisturbed, eating 
 and sleeping by turns, and seeing nothing 
 pass on the road but two or three country 
 folks going or coming from Compiegne. 
 
 The horses and ourselves well rested, 
 with dusk we set off again, and taking such 
 by-roads as offered themselves, and push- 
 ing the horses hard, by dawn of the next 
 day we came to Arras. Ker now feeling 
 less need for precaution, we rode into the 
 town and found a quiet estaminet, where 
 we did justice to the first hot meal since 
 leaving Paris. 
 
 We left Arras late in the afternoon, and 
 having made careful enquiries along the 
 road, and hearing of no company of riders 
 passing that way, I was of the opinion 
 that we had fairly given the slip to the 
 pursuit.
 
 78 Tells of Certain Gentlemen 
 
 To this, Ker, who I found was the last 
 man to count his chickens before they 
 were hatched, replied, ' We may have, 
 but I'll hear your opinion on that when 
 we are snug aboard the Gull at Dun- 
 kerque ! " 
 
 Before another dawn I was to find that 
 he had not underrated the ability of the 
 men we were trying to evade. 
 
 So far we had come by fairly good roads 
 and in the best of weather. Now came a 
 change. Our line of march lay more to 
 the west ; we had to make our way, if 
 we were to avoid the main highways, by 
 rude cart tracks and bridle paths that 
 wound through woods, and led us in the 
 dusk splashing through miry hollows and 
 up and down dale until I lost all sense 
 of direction. 
 
 So far I had been content to follow 
 Ker's lead, without question of his know- 
 ledge of the roads, knowing by the stars 
 we were marching north. But now the 
 sky was overcast and the night dark as
 
 Interested in Our Ride 79 
 
 the pit. For two hours we had been 
 blundering along a rough track through 
 thick woods. I doubt if we had come ten 
 miles in that time. Finally Ker pulled 
 up. " I'm thinking I'm off my road a 
 bit, Mr. Stuart ! " said he. " There should 
 be an inn hereabouts, but in this mirk it 
 is hard telling where we have gotten to." 
 
 While we stood trying to get our bear- 
 ings, to make matters worse, there came 
 on a steady drizzle of rain, and the first 
 sough of a rising wind. 
 
 " Give the horses their heads ; being on 
 some kind of a track, it is likely it will 
 lead us to a main road," said I. 
 
 We pushed on again at a snail's pace, 
 with naught to break the silence but the 
 pattering of the rain and the floundering 
 and laboured breathing of the spent horses. 
 At last, at the end of another mile, a faint 
 whiteness showed at our feet, the horses 
 hoofs rang on a hard road, and we saw a 
 bar of ruddy light ahead, shining through 
 the trees.
 
 VI At the Sign of the The de Bazuf 
 
 " Do you know what place that is ? ' 
 said I. 
 
 " That will be the Bull's Head, the inn 
 I was speaking of. I suppose we'll hae 
 to ide there," said Ker, with what sounded 
 like a lack of enthusiasm, considering the 
 plight we were in. 
 
 For myself, I would have been grateful 
 for the shelter of a woodman's hut in that 
 hour. We dismounted in the light that 
 streamed from an open door, and called 
 to a man who stood there like a sentry on 
 guard. 
 
 He came out, and finding it was our 
 pleasure to halt there until the morning, 
 carried our saddle-bags into the house. 
 At his shout another man appeared on 
 the scene with a lantern and led the horses 
 away. 
 
 Now, the horse that I rode had served 
 so
 
 At the Sign of the Tete de Bceuf 81 
 
 me well, a stout-hearted, willing brute 
 that would have gone on until he dropped ; 
 so, leaving Ker to follow the landlord into 
 the house, I followed the stable-lad to see 
 the nags rubbed down, fed and watered 
 and bedded. 
 
 I came back to the house with a piece 
 of information for Mr. Ker that set us 
 both thinking. Three other horses stood 
 in that stable with the sweat of hard 
 riding still on their backs. 
 
 ' You have other company besides us, 
 to-night ? " said I to the landlord when 
 he came in, desiring to know our pleasure. 
 
 A lean, hard-visaged fellow, this, with 
 the air of an old soldier about him an 
 impression I got from his straight back and 
 a scar across his forehead that showed white 
 against the dark skin. 
 
 He started at the question, but answered 
 readily enough, " No, monsieur, you are 
 my only guests to-night." 
 
 ' Whose horses are those in the stable, 
 then ? " I demanded. 
 6
 
 82 At the Sign of the Tete de Bceuf 
 
 " Horses ! " said he. " Ah, yes, certainly, 
 monsieur, they were left by three gentle- 
 men who changed here this evening." 
 
 " And which way did these gentlemen 
 ride ? " 
 
 " To Arras, messieurs ; it was their desire 
 to get there to-night," said the landlord. 
 
 Seeing there was nothing more to be 
 got out of him on that point, I ordered 
 him to bring us food and wine, and showing 
 us into a room that opened from the 
 kitchen he went out, closing the door 
 behind him. 
 
 We heard a hurried whispering in the 
 kitchen and the outer door shut with a 
 clang. In a little while came the landlord 
 and set the table with a platter of fried 
 eggs and pork chops, a loaf of bread and 
 a litre of white wine. Learning there 
 was nothing more we desired, he went out, 
 and when the door closed, Ker, whose 
 whole manner, ever since we entered the 
 inn, was that of a man on the alert, listened 
 for the landlord's retiring footsteps.
 
 At the Sign of the Vete de Bauf 83 
 
 '' I would wager a trifle," said he, " that's 
 a lee aboot the horses, and no' the only one 
 he has told us this nicht ! 
 
 ' ' To Arras,' J ' quoth he, " mair likely 
 from Arras. I'm thinking we have made 
 oor first mistake in halting here, but if 
 there is only three o' them, besides that 
 landlord and his man, we micht mak' it 
 their mistake." 
 
 ' You think the riders of those horses 
 are after us ? " said I. 
 
 " Just that. I may be wrang, of course, 
 but I have a thocht that we are no' to 
 get oot o' this inn as easy as we came into 
 it I " said Ker, his face set in a heavy 
 frown. 
 
 He was not the man to express alarm 
 without good reason for it, so I began to 
 take stock of the situation. I tiptoed about 
 the room, a low-roofed, fairly large chamber 
 with two windows shuttered on the out- 
 side, that gave on the front of the house, 
 and two doors, that leading into the 
 kitchen, the other fast, and bolted, curiously
 
 84 At the Sign of the T^ete de Been] 
 
 enough, on the outside. For furniture, 
 two truckle-beds stood side by side between 
 the windows opposite the kitchen door. 
 The table, two or three chairs, and a 
 clothes-chest this last a heavy piece I 
 found, stood beside the bolted door ; the 
 only light we had was a brace of poor 
 candles, that beyond the table left the 
 rest of the room in semi-darkness. 
 
 Now, I am by no means a nervous man, 
 but there were one or two circumstances 
 about this Tete de Boeuf that troubled me. 
 For the first, the house was steeped in a 
 dead silence, and sign of a woman about 
 the place there was none. A most un- 
 usual circumstance, this last, I thought, 
 seeing that if there is one thing the traveller 
 in France will remark about the inns of that 
 land it is the racket and clatter of women's 
 tongues that begins with cock-crow and 
 continues throughout the live-long day 
 until bed-time. What with the loneliness 
 of the inn on the forest road, Ker's evident 
 apprehension of mischief afoot, and the
 
 At the Sign of the Tete de Been] 85 
 
 room full of shadows beyond the candle- 
 light, the place began to take on the 
 appearance of a deadly trap. 
 
 I came back to the table, my mind full 
 of stories of travellers waylaid and done 
 to death in lonely inns, and saw Ker with 
 his hand on the bottle of wine. 
 
 " Don't drink any of that wine," I 
 whispered sharply, as his action brought 
 a thought into my head. 
 
 He looked at me and drew back his hand. 
 
 " Ah, weel, it's poor, soor trash, the best 
 o' it," said he, and going to his saddle-bags 
 came back with a metal flask. 
 
 ' We'll hae a nip o' honest brandy then ; 
 a man needs a drap to put heart in him 
 in this unchancy den." 
 
 We took a dram of the spirits, and then 
 I filled the glasses to the brim with wine. 
 
 With a warning glance at Ker I crossed 
 the room, and opening the door, called 
 to the landlord, who sat alone, quietly 
 smoking a pipe by the kitchen fire. 
 
 ' We have finished our repast, we are
 
 86 At the Sign of the Tete de Bceuf 
 
 tired and desire to sleep. Have the good- 
 ness to clear the table," said I. 
 
 He came in, and watching him narrowly, 
 I saw him look at the wine in the glasses. 
 
 " A glass of wine with us, monsieur, before 
 we go to bed ! " said I, placing one before 
 him. 
 
 "It is an honour, monsieur ! " said he, 
 starting back with a smile, " but but, I 
 have a colic." 
 
 His hesitation resolved me. " There is 
 nothing like a glass of good wine to cure 
 a colic," said I, smiling at him. 
 
 His swarthy face paled beneath the tan 
 at the sight of the levelled pistol. He 
 grasped the tumbler of wine with a trem- 
 bling hand and his eyes darted here and 
 there like a trapped fox. 
 
 " Buvons ! " said I, in a savage whisper, 
 pressing the muzzle of the pistol against 
 his heart, " jusqua la lie, mon ami." He 
 emptied the glass, and when I lowered the 
 pistol, made to leave the room. But I 
 pointed to a chair. M Sit there ! " said
 
 At the Sign of the Tcte de Eoeuj 87 
 
 I, pressing him into the seat. " My friend 
 and I find your company entertaining." 
 
 It fell out as I expected. A glazed 
 stare came into the villain's eyes, he 
 slumped lower in his chair, and within 
 two minutes we laid him insensible upon 
 one of the pallets. 
 
 "Sharp work ! " said I, grinning at Ker. 
 
 " Poisoned ? " said Ker, who had looked 
 on the play with amazement. 
 
 " Poisoned maybe, but I suspect the 
 wine was only drugged," said I, " and taking 
 one thing with another, it is likely those 
 whose pay he is in are somewhere about 
 this infernal inn." 
 
 We stood in the middle of the room 
 whispering. 
 
 " What think ye we should do ? " said I. 
 ' There will be three o' them noo, an* 
 that serving man is likely to be in it," said 
 Ker, " but we dinna ken for sure, or where 
 they are. The horses are well-nigh foun- 
 dered, even if we could get at them, which 
 is no' very likely !
 
 88 At the Sign of the ?ete de Bceuf 
 
 " No, a' things considered, I'm for hold- 
 ing the fort, just biding where we are till 
 daylight ! " 
 
 " I am in the like mind, but we might 
 try our hand at laying some kind of a 
 trap ourselves ! " said I, looking hard at 
 the senseless landlord. 
 
 " I take ye ! " said Ker, as we moved 
 noiselessly to the vacant pallet. With 
 the bolster and pillows we made some rude 
 resemblance of a figure beneath the cover- 
 let. We pulled the coverlet beneath the 
 landlord and flung it over him. With 
 great effort and as little noise as possible, 
 we dragged the heavy chest forward against 
 the bolted door ; then, laying our pistols 
 and swords to our hands on the table and 
 blowing out the candles, we sat down to 
 watch and wait what might betide. 
 
 Outside we could hear the rain beating 
 in volleys against the shutters, and the 
 swish and moan of the storm among the 
 trees, but within the house was as silent 
 as the grave, save for the heavy breathing
 
 At the Sign of the Tete de Bceuf 89 
 
 of the man on the bed, and now and then 
 the dropping of embers in the kitchen fire. 
 
 Half an hour must have passed in that 
 eerie silence, in which we sat on the alert 
 watching the thin streak of light at the 
 foot of the kitchen door, when the outer 
 door was softly opened. Feet shuffled 
 on the kitchen floor, and again silence. 
 
 ' They're wondering what's come o' 
 the landlord ! " whispered Ker. 
 
 We heard a soft footfall and the bolt 
 in the door behind us gently drawn. The 
 door creaked as it was pressed against 
 the chest. The footsteps went back to 
 the kitchen. We could hear them whis- 
 pering, then a stealthy foot crossed the 
 floor, and someone called softly for 
 " Pierre." 
 
 The steps returned, more whispering in 
 the kitchen, then our door was softly 
 opened and a head appeared. Very gently, 
 inch by inch, the door was pushed wide, 
 until the light from the kitchen fell full 
 upon the beds.
 
 90 At the Sign of the The de Bauf 
 
 Seated far back, we remained unseen, 
 hardly daring to breathe. 
 
 " Pierre has done the trick ! " said he 
 at the door. 
 
 " In then, and make a finish of them ! " 
 called a voice, and at the word four or 
 five men rushed through the door. 
 
 There was a flash of steel, and the 
 muffled thud of blows fiercely struck at 
 the figures on the beds, and then they 
 found out their mistake. 
 
 " Name of a dog ! Bring lights ! " cried 
 one, " there is some cursed blunder. Here 
 is Pierre done for, and the birds are 
 flown ! " 
 
 One or two rushed to the kitchen, re- 
 turning with lights, and five very astonished 
 villains stared open-mouthed into the bar- 
 rels of four pistols. 
 
 " The trick is turned ; throw down your 
 arms ! " I called out sharply. 
 
 Some ready rascal at the back cried, 
 " There's only two, worth a hundred gold 
 louis each, dead or alive ! "
 
 At the Sign of the Tete de Been] 91 
 
 A heavy iron candlestick hurtled across 
 the room. I ducked my head or the 
 thing would have brained me, then came 
 the rush. 
 
 We fired point-blank, and snatching up 
 my sword, I heaved the table outwards 
 and over, passing my sword through one 
 ruffian sent sprawling at my feet by the 
 overturned table. Turning to meet the 
 next, I found the affair over. Less than 
 five minutes had passed since they had 
 rushed into the room ; three of the ruffians 
 lay on the floor, dead or wounded, I 
 stood barring the door against the other 
 two, who fell back crying, " Grace, mes- 
 sieurs ! " 
 
 " How is it with you, Ker ? " I cried. 
 
 " No' a scratch, and yersel', Stuart ? " 
 
 ' The same," I replied ; " oblige me by 
 strapping these rascals up. One move," 
 said I, menacing them with my blade, 
 " and I'll drive this through you ! " Tak- 
 ing their own belts, Ker bound their arms 
 behind them.
 
 92 At the Sign of the The de Baeuf 
 
 I looked around the room, reeking with 
 the acrid smell of powder, at the bodies 
 of the three ruffians, two of them dead, 
 another gasping his life out, and the land- 
 lord lying dead amid the disarray of 
 overturned furniture, and marvelled at 
 our easy escape. 
 
 Asking Ker to bring our saddle-bags, I 
 ordered our prisoners into the kitchen, for 
 I was minded to get some information 
 from them. 
 
 Seating myself at the table, I bade them 
 stand in front of me. They were both dour, 
 hardy-looking villains, by no means com- 
 mon foot-pads, but well fed and well clad, 
 their trade evidently a prosperous one. 
 But I had questioned too many prisoners 
 not to know the way of making such as they 
 answer straight. 
 
 " Sit beside me, Ker ! " said I ; " but 
 first of all, this is dry work, a glass of 
 your brandy and a mouthful of cool water 
 would not go amiss ! " 
 
 I drank the spirits, and then, very de-
 
 At the Sign of the Tete de Baeuf 93 
 
 liberately loading and priming a brace of 
 pistols, laid them on the table at my hand. 
 ' You carry the passport, Ker ; let me 
 have it ! " said I. 
 
 I opened the crackling document, and 
 looking sternly at the prisoners, asked if 
 they could read. 
 
 One of them said he could. 
 
 " Then read that ! " said I, holding it 
 up to his eyes. 
 
 ' You will see that this gentleman and 
 I ride on the King of France his business, 
 that all men along our road are required 
 to render us all needful assistance. Signed, 
 you see, by the Marquis d'Argenson, the 
 king's Minister of State." 
 
 I gave them time to ponder on that, then 
 said quietly, " Do you know the penalty 
 for attempted murder of the king's mes- 
 sengers ? ' 
 
 No need for them to answer that ques- 
 tion. Their pale faces and wavering eyes 
 told us they did. 
 
 " See now," said I ; "we would be doing
 
 94 dt the Sign of the 'Tete dt Been] 
 
 right by blowing your brains out where 
 you stand, but there is certain news we 
 want, and from information we possess, 
 we will know if you answer straight. The 
 truth, and you go free, so far as we are 
 concerned. One lie, and as sure as I sit 
 here, at daylight we march you to Arras, 
 where you will be BROKEN ON THE 
 WHEEL ! " 
 
 " Mercy, monsieur ! "' they both cried, 
 " ask, and the good God knows we shall 
 tell the truth." 
 
 " The Lord help you if you don't," 
 said I. 
 
 " How many of you left Paris to waylay 
 us, and what were your orders ? " 
 
 ' Twelve men, monsieur. When it was 
 discovered that you had left Paris, we 
 had orders to follow. One party taking 
 the route to Beauvais, the second to ride 
 straight to Dunkerque, and the third to 
 Arras." 
 
 ' Who leads the party to Dunkerque ? ' 
 
 " The ' Crane,' messieurs ! "
 
 At the Sign of the lete de Been] 95 
 
 Ker, who could understand well enough 
 to follow all this, said, "That's the 
 ' Whaup ! ' Ask him how many men ride 
 to Dunkerque." 
 
 ' Three, messieurs ! " said the man. 
 
 I told them to stand back. " They 
 will be waiting for us in Dunkerque, 
 Ker ! " said I ; " but the road will be 
 clear ! " 
 
 " Once in Dunkerque," said Ker, " it 
 will be easy to give them the go-by. The 
 question is, what are we going to do wi' 
 these birkies ? " 
 
 " Leave them here trussed up. With 
 the first peep o' dawn we'll be off, taking 
 all the horses with us ! " said I. 
 
 Going to the door, I looked out. The 
 rain had ceased and a faint greyness in 
 the east showed the dawn was at hand. 
 
 We found some bread and sausage in a 
 cupboard, and when we had eaten and 
 drank, Ker went out to feed and saddle 
 our horses. 
 
 I turned to the prisoners and demanded
 
 96 At the Sign of the The de Bceuf 
 
 sternly where the rendezvous in Dunkerque 
 was. 
 
 " Les Trois Poissons ! " answered one 
 ruffian. 
 
 ' We ride to Dunkerque, where we 
 shall lay your friends by the heels ! ' 
 said I. ' We give you your chance by 
 leaving you here ; make the best of it. 
 But, as you value your bones, set your 
 faces in any direction but north ! " 
 
 It was now in the first hour of dawn and 
 light enough to see the road, so, with no 
 more time lost, we set out, driving before 
 us the horses found in the stable. 
 
 Three miles along the road we turned 
 them into a piece of open wood, where 
 they found plenty of good grazing, and 
 so on again at a sharp canter to the north. 
 
 We met with no further adventure on 
 the road, and on the evening of the fourth 
 day from leaving Paris rode into Dunkerque. 
 
 " No inns for us in Dunkerque ! " said 
 Ker, " but straight aboard the Gull we 
 gang ! "
 
 At the Sign of the The de Been] 97 
 
 The Gull, of which Ker was half owner 
 with his brother the skipper, a large ketch, 
 very trim and staunch, lay moored to a 
 buoy, all ready for sea, in the outer har- 
 bour. 
 
 At the town gate we showed our passport 
 to the officer on guard there, who readily 
 came to the wharf with us and saw us 
 safe aboard. 
 
 We sailed in the morning, and of the 
 knot of idlers watching on the pier, doubt- 
 less some were there more than ordinarily 
 interested in the Gull's two passengers. I 
 confess to a feeling of relief at the sight of 
 the harbour slipping behind us as the ship 
 moved slowly out to sea.
 
 VII I Meet Joan Again 
 
 ON the morning of the 25th day of July I 
 was roused by some unusual movement of 
 the Gull, and the sound of voices, strange, 
 yet carrying something familiar in their 
 tone. I came on deck to find her hove to, 
 and the pilot clambering aboard from his 
 boat alongside. Ahead of us was the 
 narrow entrance to the Inverness Firth. 
 
 The wind scarcely ruffled the sea, and 
 all so calm and still at that early hour of 
 the day, we could hear the bark of a dog, 
 and the crowing of cocks about the white 
 cottages on the hill-side. 
 
 As the Gull came abreast of the beacon 
 there came on the soft air off the land the 
 oft-remembered scent of sea ware, of whins 
 in bloom and wild roses, and above all, 
 off yonder, gleaming white among the 
 trees, the old home at Alturlie. 
 
 The tide was making, so we sailed up 
 98
 
 / Meet 'Joan Again 99 
 
 the river to the citadel, and there I noticed 
 a curious incident marking our arrival. 
 As the Gull slowly hauled in to the quay- 
 side I stood beside Ker, scanning the crowd 
 of seamen and sightseers on the pier for 
 some familiar face, and seeing none, I 
 saw a man step to the edge of the pier and 
 fling his coat open, showing for a moment a 
 white rosette pinned over his heart. At 
 the sight of this, Ker raised his hat in 
 salutation. 
 
 The incident passed out of my mind for 
 the moment, taken up as it was with the 
 business of landing and getting my mails 
 taken to the Citadel Inn ; but seated there 
 at breakfast with Ker, I remembered and 
 asked him the meaning of that display of 
 a white rosette, and his evident satis- 
 faction at the sight of it. 
 
 " Ye would like to ken what yon lad 
 
 meant ? " said he, smiling across the table. 
 
 ' Weel, Mr. Stuart, it's a secret so far, but 
 
 as it's only a matter o' a day or twa when 
 
 the whole country will ken, I'll tell ye.
 
 loo / Meet Joan Again 
 
 " It just means that the Prince has 
 landed on the west coast ! " 
 
 Astonished for a moment, I could only 
 look at the man. 
 
 " Do you know what troops have landed 
 with him ? " I asked. 
 
 " No troops," was the astonishing an- 
 swer. " There will be just Tullibardine, 
 Sheridan, and Sullivan, and a few ither 
 gentlemen ! " 
 
 " Then he will have landed with arms 
 and money ? " said I. 
 
 " No arms but what they carry on their 
 henches ! " said Ker. " As for money, 
 I dinna ken if they brocht much wi' them, 
 but there will be plenty men wi' money 
 and arms once things are gotten in shape ! " 
 
 " You seem to be well informed ; how 
 did he come ? " I asked, my brain whirling 
 with the picture this madness conjured up. 
 
 " Och, there will be nothing astonishing 
 in that," said Ker, " seeing I am the lad 
 that got the Doutelle for them, and I 
 was hearing on the pier out there that the
 
 / Meet Joan Again 101 
 
 Camerons are up, and in a week a' the clans 
 will be on the march. I tell ye, the 
 heather's on fire, Mr. Stuart ! J; 
 
 Mightily disturbed, I sat looking at Ker, 
 who had risen from the table ; the Prince 
 landed with neither trained troops, arms 
 or money, and, once the news of the land- 
 ing known, the narrow seas swarming with 
 English cruisers. I might have said some- 
 thing of my conviction that the fire would 
 be smothered, and, in the present temper 
 of the Government, with more blood than 
 the last, but Ker stood facing me with a 
 smile of triumph on his face, and nothing 
 I could have said on that point would be 
 any use, so I held my tongue. 
 
 ' Weel," said he, " I must be on my way. 
 Our bargain ends here, Mr. Stuart, and 
 here, I suppose, oor ways pairt, but I 
 would gie a good deal to hae ye alang 
 wi' us." 
 
 I rose, and he put out his hand, holding 
 mine in his iron grip for a minute, as if 
 with a thought to say more. But he
 
 IO2 / Meet Joan Again 
 
 changed his mind. Pressing my hand in 
 farewell, he caught up his hat, and nodding 
 his head at me with a glint of triumph 
 in his eyes, he went out and down the 
 stair. A bold man, and a good comrade. 
 I saw him from the window, with the 
 man who had displayed the white rosette 
 at the pierhead. They spoke for a minute 
 or two, then together they strode up the 
 shore to the town ; like many another 
 that day, their hearts high with hope. 
 
 With something like an ache in mine, I 
 turned away when Ker passed out of 
 sight. There was another window to that 
 room where I could look across the fields 
 and the sea to the wooded slope above 
 Culloden House, and pick out, if I had 
 only known, the very ground where all 
 their high hopes were to go down in blood 
 and ruin. But I only saw the house at 
 Alturlie, and Ker being gone about his 
 business, I was eager to be gone on mine, 
 which, to be sure, had little thought in it 
 of any Stuart, but a maid of that name.
 
 / Meet Joan Again 103 
 
 McRimmon could wait ; the day being 
 fine, I would first walk the length of Al- 
 turlie. So, giving orders concerning the 
 care of my baggage until it was sent for, 
 I set off across the fields to the sea beach. 
 
 Of all the pleasant paths I have trod 
 in my time none I know can match this 
 road that runs eastwards along the seashore 
 from the Mill Burn, beyond the town of 
 Inverness. And pleasant I found it on 
 this summer morning, after eight long 
 years, to saunter there, where every turn 
 of the path greeted me like an old friend. 
 The tide was full in ; there was the old 
 bathing pool, yonder was the tall pine- 
 tree where the sparrow-hawks nested every 
 year. I even halted at the Toll House, 
 but the new toll-keeper's wife either brewed 
 an inferior brand, or the wines of France 
 had spoiled my palate, for I found my 
 enjoyment of treacle beer was a thing of 
 the past. The sun grew warm, and the 
 air heavy with the scent of pine, and it 
 was my mood to dawdle along, lingering
 
 104 I Meet Joan Again 
 
 here and there by trees and patches of 
 whins, and bits of the beach that were all 
 associated with the memory of some game 
 or adventure of my boyhood. Here time 
 seemed to have stood still; nothing was 
 changed, only the pool, which we accounted 
 a long swim across, would appear to have 
 shrunk, and the branch of a great tree 
 that overhung the path, a branch we were 
 wont to consider it a bold feat to clamber 
 and swing along, I could now touch with 
 my cane. And through all this idling 
 and turning over of old memories, along 
 the old road, fragrant with the scent of 
 whin blooms and wild roses, ran the 
 thought of how I should meet Joan, and 
 how she would look. 
 
 At length I came near to the top of the 
 lane ; it was here on this very spot that 
 we had bade one another farewell, and my 
 heart warmed at the memory of that 
 parting with the little maid. Joan a 
 grown woman ! It was hard to picture 
 the lassie who could climb after nests,
 
 I Meet Joan Again 105 
 
 daring as any boy, and run like a deer, her 
 long brown hair flying like a mane in the 
 wind, dressed, a fine madam in long petti- 
 coats and rokelay. 
 
 I turned off the high road into the lane 
 leading down to Alturlie. Yonder, show- 
 ing above the tall holly hedge, was the top 
 of the squat tower, with two little round 
 windows set high up beneath the edge of 
 the roof ; windows that gave one ap- 
 proaching the house a lively impression 
 of being stealthily surveyed by some beetle- 
 browed giant out of the fairy books. 
 
 One thing I noted walking along the 
 lane ; the fields on either hand were not 
 as they were in my grandfather's time. 
 Then all was trim, and the land in a high 
 state of cultivation. Now, I could see 
 broken dykes, gaps in the untrimmed 
 hedges, and many weeds among the grow- 
 ing crops. So, James Stuart, starving 
 the land rather than pay the hinds' wages, 
 was still living up to his old reputation 
 for greed and cheese-paring.
 
 106 / Meet Joan Again 
 
 I was half-way along the lane when a 
 woman came through the gate in the hedge 
 and walked towards me. As she drew 
 near I saw this was no farm lass, but a 
 tall young lady dressed in the mode, only 
 that she was bareheaded, save for the 
 snood binding a mass of glossy ringlets, 
 as is the fashion with highland maids. 
 I looked hard at the dark eyes regarding 
 me with something of a doubt or a question, 
 and wondered, could this be Joan ? 
 
 I made my best bow as she was about 
 to pass. " Madam ! " said I, " once on a 
 day I was very well known in these parts, 
 and chancing to be in neighbourhood 
 again, have made it my duty to find out 
 if any of my old friends are still about 
 who might remember me ! " 
 
 She made a little curtsy. " Good-day 
 to you, sir ! " she said. " Not so many 
 have left Alturlie that we are likely to 
 forget them ! " 
 
 " Might you by any chance know a 
 lady named Joan Stuart ? '
 
 / Meet Joan Again 107 
 
 " No one could know her better ! " she 
 replied. 
 
 A quaint trick of raising her eyebrows, 
 and a smile that showed a dimple in her 
 cheek assured me, but still she looked at 
 me in doubt. In the old days we used 
 to strut and declaim together a play we 
 had made with my mother's help, out of 
 the book of Macbeth, wherein Joan was 
 Lady Macbeth, and I Duncan, the King. 
 Now looking at her, the words of the old 
 play leaped back into my memory, and 
 striking an attitude, I pointed to the 
 house : 
 
 " This castle hath a pleasant seat ; the air 
 Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself" 
 
 I broke off, watching her with a smile. 
 
 " Unto our gentle senses 1 " 
 
 she finished the line with wide-open eyes. 
 ' Then it is really yourself, Seum ? " 
 The kindly sound of the old name from 
 the lips that I last heard it on thrilled 
 me like a caress.
 
 io8 / Meet Joan Again 
 
 She put out her hand. ' When did 
 you come ? We have been looking for 
 you for weeks ; and my ! how grand you 
 are. But you haven't grown so much ; I 
 am as tall as you, Simon ! '' Which was 
 true, for Joan looked me level in the 
 eyes ; I am neither tall nor stoutly built, 
 but of medium height, slim, and dark as 
 a Spaniard. 
 
 Then the first rush of questions asked 
 and answered, she cried, " But what am 
 I thinking about ! You must come up to 
 the house ; you will be starved with 
 hunger, and tired after that long walk. 
 My father is in ! " 
 
 " How is uncle James ? " I asked. 
 
 She paused with her hand on the gate, 
 and looked grave. 
 
 " Until a day or two ago, I could have 
 answered you. Father is much the same 
 except that he is not so young as he was, 
 and you remember how hard he was, 
 Simon ? I think the older he gets, the 
 more he strives to pinch and scrape. The
 
 / Meet Joan Again 109 
 
 way he grudges to spend money stinting 
 and saving one would think he is afraid 
 of coming to a day when he will be holding 
 out his bonnet on the roadside. But since 
 McRimmon's man was here three days 
 ago, I don't know what has gone wrong 
 with him. He is just going about the 
 place glowering and talking to himself like 
 a man fair demented, and nobody dares 
 ask him what it is that is bothering him. 
 
 ' Yell speak him fair ; ye'U no quarrel 
 wi' him, Simon ? I will be remembering 
 how bad he treated you ! ' J 
 
 Seeing the maid's fear lest I should 
 quarrel with my uncle, said I : 
 
 " Give me your hand. 
 
 Conduct me to mine host : we love him highly, 
 And continue our good graces towards him. 
 By your leave, hostess." 
 
 Laughing merrily, with a low curtsy, 
 Joan gave me her hand, and cried : " Oh, 
 Simon, you will be remembering the daft 
 days. I mind them, and canna forget." 
 
 We pressed together through the gate,
 
 no / Meet Joan Again 
 
 and, her face being close to mine, I kissed 
 her. 
 
 " Fie ! For shame, Simon ! Is this the 
 French manner ? ' she cried, the roses 
 glowing in her cheeks. 
 
 " Eight years ago you put your arms 
 around my neck, and kissed me, madam, 
 so now I pay you back ! " 
 
 " Ah, yes, eight years ago, Simon. But 
 how many maids have you kissed since 
 then ? " 
 
 " Never a maid," said I, with certain 
 mental reservations ; but what would you, 
 sirs, with Joan beside me ? 
 
 ' Then for one that has had such little 
 practice, ye do very well, and no time lost 
 about it, I think ; but there, you came to 
 see me first, Seum," said Joan, smiling 
 very prettily at me, and hand in hand, as 
 cousins should, when one of them is a 
 handsome maid, we walked across the 
 lawn to the house. 
 
 " Just as it used to be ! " said I, noting 
 that, though beyond the holly hedge the
 
 I Meet Joan Again in 
 
 land was neglected, here the grass was 
 trimmed and green, and the great flower- 
 beds bloomed as they did in the days of 
 grandfather's care. 
 
 " Oh, this is my care ! " said Joan. " I 
 keep it so in remembrance. Here is 
 father ! " 
 
 Over sixty, which I believe would be 
 about his age, James Stuart stood in the 
 porch as we came up, peering at us be- 
 neath his pent brows, and fingering his 
 chin as of old, a man very ill at ease. 
 
 " Here is cousin Simon home again, 
 father ! " said Joan in answer to the 
 question in his eyes. 
 
 He stepped back a pace and put his 
 hand to the pillar of the porch as though 
 she had struck him. 
 
 " Simon ! " he cried, with a kind of a 
 catch in his voice. 
 
 I might have been the devil himself 
 come to Alturlie, the way he glared and 
 gasped at my name. Then, pulling himself 
 together, he came down the steps, and
 
 112 / Meet Joan Again 
 
 put out a bony, trembling fist which I 
 shook heartily enough. I am not the 
 man to nurse a grudge, and, after all, the 
 man was Joan's father, my father's brother, 
 and I bore him no ill-will in the world. 
 
 " Man, Simon ! " he cried with a quaver 
 in his voice. " I would never have known 
 ye, but we have been expecting ye ever 
 since McRimmon gave us the news about 
 Clunes. Come in, come in, and gie us 
 your crack ! " 
 
 " I will leave you with father, Simon, 
 while I see about the dinner ! " said Joan, 
 and away she hurried, leaving me in the 
 old sitting-room, where her father set out 
 glasses and a decanter of claret. 
 
 James Stuart was never the best of 
 company, and now, seeing him spilling 
 the wine, and hearing him say, over and 
 over again, " So ye are back again, Simon. 
 Aye, aye, man \." said I, " Here's to you, 
 Uncle James, and hoping you will not be 
 bothering your head with what's past and 
 done with, it is all forgotten with me."
 
 / Meet Joan Again 113 
 
 " Aye, aye, Simon, to be sure," said 
 he, blinking at me and filling my glass 
 again, " ye have no seen McRimmon yet ? " 
 
 " No, that can wait," I replied. 
 
 " Surely, surely, that can wait ! " said 
 he, and looking up at his queer repetition 
 of my words, I saw the devil glaring at 
 me for an instant through my uncle's 
 eyes, and I began to think James Stuart 
 a trifle insane. 
 
 " And where is Malcolm ? " said I. 
 
 " Oh, Malcolm, to be sure, ye haven't 
 seen him yet. He's at the Muir of Ord 
 wi' the lambs ! " 
 
 The glasses were filled again, but the 
 conversation flagged. Plainly, for some 
 reason or other, James Stuart was ill at 
 ease, and his thoughts elsewhere. A false 
 note ran through his strained, awkward 
 attempts at hospitality, and presently I 
 was glad to see Joan come into the room. 
 Then, a little to my surprise, but to my 
 great relief, he rose from the table, an- 
 nouncing that he had a tryst in Inverness 
 8
 
 114 ^ Meet Joan Again 
 
 with a farmer concerning some heifers, 
 and this would prevent him staying for 
 dinner. 
 
 " There was no word of business in 
 Inverness this morning ! '* said Joan, as 
 we saw him ambling away on his pony 
 a few minutes later, " but the Lord only 
 knows what bee is hi his bonnet this past 
 day or two ! ' 
 
 Over dinner, I told Joan that I planned 
 to live at Clunes, and to that end I was 
 going on to Campbellton to see if Janet 
 was still there. 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Joan, " Janet will still 
 be with her sister, and my ! but she will 
 be the happy woman, keeping house for 
 her laddie again. But it will be dull for 
 you at Clunes ! " 
 
 " Ah," said I, looking straight at her, 
 " dull it will be, but that is a condition 
 I have hopes of amending before long. 
 Janet will do very well as housekeeper, 
 but Clunes will require a mistress, and I 
 have the very lady in my eye ! "
 
 / Meet Joan Again 115 
 
 " Indeed ! Are you going to Camp- 
 bell ton to-day ? " asked Joan, bending 
 her head and swiftly changing from a 
 subject I would have been happy to con- 
 tinue. 
 
 " Yes ! " said I, " and to that end I will 
 ask you to lend me a horse. Having made 
 up my mind to do anything, I don't 
 believe in wasting time about it." 
 
 " I was just thinking that ! I will see 
 one of the lads about saddling a horse," 
 said Joan, hurrying from the room. 
 
 " Yell no' be stranger, Simon ? " said 
 she, at the gate. 
 
 " I will get me a horse, that will soon 
 know every stone on the road between here 
 and Clunes ! " said I.
 
 VIII Janet has News for Me 
 
 ABOUT the hour of sunset I rode into Camp- 
 bellton, and leaving my horse at the inn, 
 made enquiries for the whereabouts of 
 Janet. The ostler pointed to a cottage 
 along the village street. 
 
 A woman answered my tirl on the risp, 
 and learning my business, started back 
 in surprise. " Aye, sir," said she, re- 
 covering herself and looking hard at me, 
 ' but will ye no' come ben ? my sister 
 Janet is no* at hame the day, but it would 
 just be a wonderful thing if you was the 
 young maister home again ? " 
 
 " I am Simon Stuart," said I, smiling 
 on the dame, who in face and form re- 
 minded me of my old nurse, " and if I am 
 right in taking you for Kirsty, the sister 
 of Janet, will you tell me when she will 
 be home again ? Or where can I find her, 
 
 116
 
 'Janet has News for Me 117 
 
 for my business with her is of some im- 
 portance/' 
 
 " Surely, surely. Aye me the day ! but 
 Janet will just be overjoyed, and the 
 business will be awful important to be 
 sure, for Janet took the carrier's cart for 
 Inverness, fower days ago, and without a 
 word of warning to me and I haven't seen 
 or heard tell o' her since ! " 
 
 It seemed to me here that, in some way, 
 Kirsty and I were at cross purposes. 
 
 " Is Janet quite well ? " I asked. 
 
 " Oh, yes, Janet was well enough in 
 body when she left for the toon, but I 
 would no' say as much for her mind, laugh- 
 ing one meenute and crying the next, 
 aboot her laddie, and the ould villain 
 which I would think she meant your uncle 
 at Alturlie, begging your pardon for making 
 as bould as to say the like, Maister Simon 
 like a cratur demented, she was. 
 
 " My sir, but I would never have known 
 the laddie that left Alturlie. 
 
 " Ah, no, Janet is no* in service ! " said
 
 n8 Janet has News for Me 
 
 Kirsty, " beyond keeping hoose for a friend, 
 or nursing some of the ladies round aboot. 
 Janet has never been in service since she 
 left Alturlie." 
 
 " Well, my business with Janet is, to 
 ask her if she will come and keep house for 
 me at Clunes. Do you know of anything 
 in this business that has taken her into 
 Inverness, that will prevent her coming 
 to Clunes ? " I asked. 
 
 " Maister Simon, it will be like giving 
 my sister Janet a new lease of life to serve 
 ye. I'm thinking it's for you she went to 
 Inverness, and Clunes, ye say ? ' said 
 Kirsty, looking at me in a curious manner, 
 " surely it will be Alturlie ye mean ? ' 
 
 " Clunes is to be my home, Kirsty," 
 said I. 
 
 " Ah weel, I'll no' be understanding my 
 sister, but I thocht she said ye were coming 
 back to Alturlie, A'm sure she did ! " 
 said Kirsty, shaking her head emphatically. 
 
 " Janet's visit to Inverness was doubtless 
 prompted by hearing that I was now the
 
 Janet has News for Me 119 
 
 owner of dunes. I will catch her in 
 Inverness to-night," said I. 
 
 " Oh yes, and I dare say ye well know 
 where, at McRimmon's the ould lawyer 
 mannie ! 
 
 r< But, Maister Simon, there's the rain on, 
 and it will be pitch dark, long before ye 
 get the length o' Inverness, foreby, the 
 roads are no* very safe these nichts. Ye 
 will just stop wi' me till the morning. If I 
 let ye go on a nicht like this, I would never 
 hear the end o' it from Janet." 
 
 I said something about giving trouble, 
 and staying at the inn. 
 
 " No trouble in the world, and what for 
 would ye stop at the inn ? I wouldna 
 sleep there if they paid me for it," said 
 Kirsty, bustling about setting the table, 
 " when I have a bed wi' fresh clean linen, 
 a supper o' fresh haddies and a dram o' 
 good speerits here for ye ! " 
 
 It was like being mothered by Janet 
 again ; the rain was now falling heavily, 
 and agreeable to Kirsty's wish she would
 
 I2O 'Janet has News for Me 
 
 have been mortally offended had I gone 
 to the inn I passed the night there in such 
 comfort as I had been a stranger to for 
 many a day. 
 
 Early next morning I took the road, 
 faintly curious at Kirsty's description of 
 Janet's hurried departure for Inverness, 
 and intent upon wasting no time about 
 setting up my housekeeping at Clunes. 
 I rode straight on without drawing bridle, 
 and dismounted at McRimmon's door on 
 the river-side, below the bridge, as the 
 steeple clock chimed the hour of ten. 
 
 As I entered the outer office a man came 
 out of McRimmon's private room, it after- 
 wards occurred to me in some disorder, 
 whether at my appearance, or what, I 
 could not say. Having no recollections 
 of the fellow, I asked if he were McRimmon's 
 clerk, and if his master was in. 
 
 " Maister McRimmon is no' in, but I 
 could send for him if your honour pleases ! " 
 said he. 
 
 " If that will be convenient for Mr.
 
 'Janet has News for Me 121 
 
 McRimmon, I will wait, and you can tell 
 the messenger to say it's the gentleman 
 he has been expecting." 
 
 " Oh yes, to be sure, sir, and the name 
 will be Mr. Stuart ; I had the pleasure of 
 seeing your honour land at the shore 
 yesterday morning ! " 
 
 I nodded and turned away to look out at 
 the window. Passing the time by watching 
 the river and the folks going to and fro 
 upon the bridge, I chanced to look in a 
 small mirror that hung on the wall by the 
 window, and was surprised to see the clerk 
 surveying me with a look of extraordinary 
 interest. I turned swiftly, but he was 
 busily scratching away on a sheet of paper. 
 
 I dare say there was reason for his interest 
 in me ; strangers were rare enough in 
 Inverness, except seamen, but when I 
 turned again to the window there I saw 
 him, through the mirror, watching me. 
 The little play roused my interest. Re- 
 membering a word dropped by Joan, this 
 would be the fellow whose visit had such
 
 122 Janet has News for Me 
 
 an effect on her father. I turned again to 
 find him intent on his work. A lean, 
 secretive-looking rogue, with an old dusty 
 scratch wig set atop of a long cadaverous 
 face that wore a smirk I took to be set 
 there, no matter what the fellow's mood. 
 
 The door was violently opened, and I 
 forgot the clerk at McRimmon's entry. 
 
 It might have been only eight days, 
 instead of eight uncommonly long years, 
 since I saw McRimmon, so lightly had time 
 dealt with him. The same stout, rosy, 
 energetic, old-fashioned little gentleman, 
 wearing a wig of a forgotten mode, and the 
 wide skirted coat and breeches that were 
 the fashion in King William's reign. 
 
 ' Weel, Simon ! " he cried, turning me 
 to the window. " It's yourself ! Here you 
 are at last, and it micht be your father 
 come to life again. You are his living 
 image ! E'cod ! I don't know the day I 
 was so pleased to meet a man. Ye are a 
 day or two late, but still in the nick o' 
 time, for I have the great news for ye ! "
 
 Janet has News for Me 123 
 
 " Here, Dougal ! " he cried, turning to his 
 clerk, " away up to the Black Vennel wi' 
 ye and bring Mistress Munro; tell her 
 Maister Simon is here ! " 
 
 " Come ben, Simon, come ben ! " He 
 ushered me into his private room, and 
 pressing me forcibly into a chair, trotted 
 to a cupboard and came back with a 
 decanter and glasses. 
 
 " It's no' often I take a dram at this 
 hour o' the day, but this is a very special 
 occasion oh, very special ! Good health ! 
 Simon my boy ! 
 
 " Man ! " he cried, setting down his 
 empty glass, and taking off his wig to mop 
 his close-cropped head, " this beats all. 
 But no' a word till Janet is here ; it would 
 spile a story that micht be oot o' a play ! " 
 
 " Nothing wrong, I suppose no mistake 
 about dunes ? " said I, mystified by the 
 old lawyer's boisterous manner. 
 
 " No, no, nothing wrong about Clunes. 
 It's no' Clunes Janet is going to tell ye about 
 damn the woman, what's keeping her ? "
 
 124 Janet has News for Me 
 
 he cried, bustling out to the front door and 
 looking down the street. 
 
 Five minutes later, when Janet had got 
 over her weeping and joy at seeing me 
 again, I heard McRimmon, in the outer 
 office, say : " Dougal, I am no' in for the 
 next hour, if it was the Provost himsel'." 
 
 He came in, closing the door behind him, 
 and going to a strong-box, unlocked it, 
 and came back to the table with a folded 
 paper in his hand. 
 
 " Noo, Janet, on wi' your story ! " said 
 he, seating himself opposite us at the table 
 and hugging the document against his breast. 
 
 " My dear laddie, the story is soon told ! " 
 said Janet, smiling at me and wiping the 
 tears from her eyes. ' Ye mind the furni- 
 ture o' ye're dear mother's room, that ye 
 gave me to tak' care o', and ye mind her 
 writing-desk wi' all the little drawers in it, 
 that many's the time ye played wi', and 
 all the flooers and leaves carved so bonnie 
 on it ? " 
 
 " Surely," said I.
 
 'Janet has News for Me 125 
 
 " I had it put in my room, at my sister 
 Kirsty's,and it has been a very dear pleasure 
 o' mine to keep everything fair and bonnie 
 as it was in your mother's day. No hands 
 touched them but my own. 
 
 " Ah, weel, fower, no, five days ago, I 
 canna be sure, I'm that throughother wi' 
 what's happened, going aboot the room, 
 dusting and polishing, I caught my foot 
 in the sheepskin rug. To save ma'sel' 
 from falling, I pit oot my hand on the 
 writing-desk. The bit came away wi' me, 
 and ower I went wi' a dunt on my hinder 
 end, wi' a little drawer in my lap, and in the 
 drawer a paper that I read ower sitting 
 there on the floor. When I finished the 
 reading o' it, I just dressed myself and cam' 
 away in to Mr. McRimmon here, and 
 that's the paper I found, in his hand." 
 
 ' Which same I now hand over with all 
 the pleasure in the world, and ask you to 
 read it, for yourself, Simon ! '* said Mr. 
 McRimmon, with a chuckle. 
 
 Here is what I read in my grandfather's
 
 126 'Janet has News for Me 
 
 hand, and dated the day after my mother's 
 funeral : 
 
 The Last Will and Testament of Simon 
 Stuart, of Alturlie by Inverness. 
 
 I, Simon Stuart, of Alturlie, being of 
 sound mind, but knowing my time is short, 
 do hereby will and bequeath, to my dear 
 grandson, Simon Stuart, the house and 
 lands of Alturlie, with all furniture, stock 
 and plenishings thereon. 
 
 To my son, James Stuart, I leave the 
 house, land, stock and plenishings at Petty, 
 to be held in trust by him for my dear 
 grandchildren, Joan and Malcolm. Of the 
 money lying at the British Linen Bank at 
 Inverness, I leave two hundred guineas 
 to my housekeeper, Janet Munro, and my 
 wish that she will remain in her place at 
 Alturlie. 
 
 To my grandchildren, Joan and Malcolm, 
 one hundred guineas in shares at the 
 British Linen Bank, to be left in the charge 
 of Roderick McRimmon, lawyer of Inver- 
 ness, until they are twenty-one years of age.
 
 'Janet has News for Me 127 
 
 To the above Roderick McRimmon, one 
 hundred guineas, and his pick of my books 
 at Alturlie. 
 
 To every serving man and woman at 
 Alturlie at the time of my death, five 
 guineas. 
 
 My saddle pony to be saddled and rode 
 no more, but to run free in the pasture 
 till he dies. 
 
 SIMON STUART. 
 
 Witnesses : Duncan Macintosh, Grieve at 
 Allan Fern, Malcolm Macintosh, son of 
 above. 
 
 To say that I was thunderstruck would 
 hardly explain my feelings when I came 
 to the end. It was the first paragraph of 
 the will that set me thinking hard. At last, 
 when I laid it down on the table, my mind 
 was made up ; if McRimmon and Janet 
 would fall in with my wishes. 
 
 " You don't look like a man that has 
 come into a fine estate, Simon ! " said 
 McRimmon, looking hard at me.
 
 128 Janet has News for Me 
 
 " McRimmon, and you, Janet, how many 
 people have you told about this will ? ' 
 said I. 
 
 " There's not a soul knows about it yet, 
 but the three of us," says McRimmon. 
 
 " I think a hint or two had been dropped. 
 What about that man of yours, McRim- 
 mon ? " 
 
 " He knows nothing about it ! " said 
 McRimmon, " but what does it matter who 
 knows about it ? The will is signed and 
 witnessed, and I can pit my hand on the 
 witnesses when they are wanted. Mac- 
 intosh and his son are in service together at 
 Darnaway . What is in your mind, Simon ? ' ' 
 
 " It is in my mind, if you will both agree 
 with me, to say nothing about it, for the 
 present." 
 
 They both stared at me in astonishment. 
 
 " But this is a most unbusinesslike state 
 of affairs, Simon ! " said McRimmon. ' I 
 never remember, in all my days, such a 
 thing as the proved heir to a fine property 
 refusing it."
 
 Janet has News for Me 129 
 
 " Clunes is mine, and the money can be 
 paid out of it," said I. 
 
 " Tchah! " cried McRimmon testily, " A'm 
 no' caring a pinch o' sneeshun about my 
 money." 
 
 " An' I'm sure, laddie, the money is no' 
 bothering me," said Janet. 
 
 " Then give me a little time to think it 
 out. I promise an explanation that will 
 satisfy you both," said I. " McRimmon, 
 the decanter is at your hand ! ' J 
 
 McRimmon filled the glasses, and bowing 
 to us, said, " Weel, here is my respects to ye, 
 Janet, and your very good health, Simon, 
 but I will say this is a disappointment. I 
 thocht I was to have the pleasure of showing 
 this to James Stuart. The sleekit ould 
 miser, it would be like drawing the heart's 
 blood out o' him to give up Alturlie ; but 
 he needs a lesson, and the estate is going 
 to rack and ruin wi' the way he starves it." 
 ' I would be sorry for Joan," said Janet, 
 looking at me over her wine. " I hear ye 
 was at Alturlie yesterday. Ye would see 
 9
 
 130 Janet has News for Me 
 
 Joan, a fine young leddie, and leal as she's 
 bonnie ! " 
 
 " Och aye, to be sure, there's Joan ! " 
 said McRimmon, following Janet's eyes. 
 
 " We will drink Joan's health," said I. 
 
 " Wi' all my heart ! " said McRimmon, 
 " a fine lass, and God knows who she takes 
 it off, for it's no' her father." 
 
 " An' now," said he, going back to the 
 strong-box, and putting away my grand- 
 father's will, " here is your uncle's will 
 and the documents concerning Clunes. 
 We can settle everything ower the dinner, 
 which I hope ye will both give an old 
 bachelor the pleasure o' taking with him." 
 
 It was a very happy trio that sat down 
 to McRimmon's dinner, and, Janet telling 
 me that she was at liberty, I gave her there 
 and then full charge, and settled all arrange- 
 ments for her going to take over the house 
 at Clunes.
 
 IX Joan Sends Me an Invitation Which I 
 
 Accept 
 
 Now was I settled at Clunes, with Janet 
 keeping house for me, to the quiet life of 
 a small landed proprietor, with, it might 
 reasonably be thought, naught to disturb 
 my peace of mind but the cares of my 
 estate, varied by a little shooting and 
 fishing, and the visits to Alturlie, whither 
 I believe no one made the mistake of 
 thinking I rode for the pleasure of my 
 uncle's company. 
 
 There was little peace for any man in the 
 highlands in the days of the '45, and, as I am 
 a living sinner, my peace and pleasure came to 
 an end before I had been a month at Clunes. 
 
 On a fine afternoon, about the middle of 
 August, two visitors came to see me. The 
 first was McRimmon's clerk, Dougal, with 
 papers relating to some business done by 
 my mother's brother before his death and 
 
 131
 
 132 "Joan Sends Me an Invitation 
 
 now requiring my signature. After the 
 clerk had gone I took up the work he had 
 interrupted me in, to wit, a book of flies 
 and the looping of casting lines, with no 
 thought in my head but a day with the 
 trout at Kilmorack, when Janet came in with 
 the news of a stranger riding into the yard 
 wishing to see me. 
 
 Wondering who this would be, I asked 
 her to show the gentleman in, and a minute 
 later I was shaking hands with Ker. I 
 had never clapped eyes on him since that 
 morning at breakfast in the Citadel, after 
 landing from the Gull. But I knew by the 
 way news travels in the highlands that he 
 had gone south, and now he sat before me, 
 a very saddle-weary man, splashed with 
 mud to the cocks of his beaver. 
 
 " What brings you to Clunes, and what is 
 your news ? " said I. 
 
 " First, Mr. Stuart, a horse that's no' fit 
 to carry me anither mile, and second, my 
 news is that Sir John Cope is marching on 
 Fort Augustus, and the Prince is on the
 
 Which I Accept 133 
 
 march to cut him off. If Cope tries to cross 
 the Pass of Corryarrack we'll hae him bag 
 and baggage." 
 
 " Is this true ? ' said I, in amaze- 
 ment. " Then the troops have landed from 
 France ? " 
 
 ' The divil a sodger has landed from 
 France, but the Prince is after Cope with 
 five thousand clansmen. That is as true 
 as you are sitting there, and I am here, 
 asking ye for a mouthful o' meat and drink, 
 and after that the loan o' a fresh beastie 
 to take me on to Beaufort, where I ride 
 to bring up the Frasers and the Chisholms, 
 another fifteen hundred men ! 
 
 ' Yes, Stuart," said Ker, surveying me in 
 high spirits, after a maid had set bread and 
 meat and a jug of ale before him. " The 
 Frasers will march the minute they get the 
 order I carry to Lord Lovat. Ye '11 no' be 
 content to bide here growing neeps wi' this 
 guid work on hand ? ' 
 
 To this I returned no answer, but sat 
 pondering Ker's astounding piece of news.
 
 134 Joan Sends Me an Invitation 
 
 Ker finished the ale and heaved himself 
 wearily out of his chair. ' Weel, sir, I must 
 be west this road to Beaufort, and a 
 thankful man will I be when I get to the 
 end o' it. How far d'ye ca' it frae here ? ' 
 
 " Three or four miles," said I. 
 
 " In the matter o' that fresh mount, then, 
 Mr. Stuart ? " 
 
 "To be sure, Ker," said I ; " anything 
 in my stable." 
 
 Rousing myself, I saw him mounted, and 
 walked at his stirrup in silence to the gate. 
 
 There, holding in his horse, Ker bent from 
 the saddle. 
 
 " I ken fine how it is wi' ye, Mr. Stuart," 
 said he. " A man hi your position is no' 
 expected to gang light-hearted into this 
 business ; but see who is in it already. The 
 pick o' the men in the south, all but the 
 Campbells. Lochiel, Murray, Clanronald. 
 Cluny is ready to be asked. Here in the 
 north only the McLeods and the Grants 
 are holding back waiting a sign. Before a 
 month is ower your heid, ye'll hae to throw
 
 Which I Accept 135 
 
 in wi' us, or do what it is no* to be thocht 
 a man o' ye're name could think o' doing." 
 
 Ker waited a moment, and when I gave 
 him no answer, said he : " If ye think o' 
 standing clear I tell ye this, for the sake o' 
 a ride we took together leave the north till 
 this quarrel is settled. Good day to ye, 
 Mr. Stuart." 
 
 Ker straightened inhis saddle, and gravely 
 saluting me, put spurs to his horse and 
 dashed off at a canter. I watched him to 
 a bend in the road, then I slowly returned to 
 the house and put away my fishing tackle. 
 
 For days past this question of the re- 
 bellion and my own attitude regarding it 
 had hung over my life like a black, ugly 
 shadow. I had tried to put the thoughts of 
 it away from me, but Ker's visit and his 
 parting words told me I could not put it 
 away much longer. No landing of troops 
 from France ! I would not be driven into 
 this thing. I knew my countrymen, and 
 brave though they were, what chances of 
 success they had in the long run against
 
 136 'Joan Sends Me an Invitation 
 
 the trained, equipped army England would 
 put in the field. All I had read of the '15, 
 all my training as a soldier, told me it was 
 madness, and yet and yet ! I paced up 
 and down my room fuming and fretting. My 
 heart, the traditions of my people, pulling 
 me this way ; my brain, and the knowledge 
 of the dark consequences of defeat to 
 these poor countrymen of mine, pulling me 
 the other one of thousands in Scotland, in 
 those days in the autumn of the year 1745. 
 
 A very strange thing to ponder upon is 
 the shortness of public memory, and the 
 way events, that one living in the days when 
 they happened would think could never 
 be forgotten, pass out of men's minds. 
 
 Lads and lasses make pilgrimages up to 
 the Moor, every sixteenth day of April, to 
 lay their posies on the graves of Culloden. 
 Men sit by the fire in the long winter nights, 
 and tell their bairns tales of the '45. It 
 is still an affair of yesterday, yet already 
 the memory of it grows dim. And, among 
 that which is forgotten is the position of
 
 Which I Accept 137 
 
 those who could not see eye to eye with the 
 Jacobites. 
 
 Forgotten are the days when men found 
 on their tables little folded billets contain- 
 ing a white feather, and were hooted by 
 the rabble on the streets of Inverness. Or 
 waken up some morning to find their cattle 
 driven off and a threat of death nailed on 
 their gates. 
 
 No more has a man to make a decision 
 that on the one hand may beggar and send 
 him flying for his life to the hills, hunted like 
 a wolf, with no safe refuge day or night, or 
 on the other hand strip him of friends and 
 all he holds dear, and make his name a by- 
 word in the country-side. 
 
 The men of my acquaintance, one would 
 think, were heart and soul for the Prince, 
 but what did they know ? Battles and 
 kingdoms are not won by roaring " The 
 Lads wi' the Kilts," and of all those who 
 talked so glib over their wine in Baillie's of 
 what they would do to the Hanoverians, 
 I knew not one who had seen service. As
 
 138 'Joan Sends Me an Invitation 
 
 for the ladies in the north egad, in those 
 days I never met one who did not openly 
 wear the white cockade. 
 
 When Cope, learning of the clans' march 
 to cut him off at Corryarrack, decided to 
 abandon his march on Fort Augustus, and 
 march north, I do believe it was the ladies 
 who prevented him from enlisting one 
 recruit in Inverness. 
 
 And this brings me to Joan. Under the 
 nose of the Lord President, who had come 
 north to Culloden House on the first news 
 of the Prince's landing, Joan and others 
 had formed a club composed, without 
 exception, I believe, of all the ladies of the 
 district, under the name of the " League of 
 the White Cockade," or some such high- 
 sounding title. The headquarters of this 
 precious organisation was at Castle Stuart. 
 It would have been at Alturlie, but Uncle 
 James, whatever else he might give in to, 
 where Joan was concerned, mustered up 
 sufficient resolution to put his foot down 
 on that. And at Castle Stuart, in a room
 
 Which I Accept 139 
 
 draped with a great white silken flag em- 
 broidered with " Righ Hamish go Bragh," 
 these madcaps busied themselves plot- 
 ting the downfall of King George, and 
 drumming up recruits for the Prince. I 
 had gone the length of warning Joan 
 against the danger of playing with gun- 
 powder, and got snubbed for my pains, and 
 as a consequence I had not been to Alturlie 
 for some time past. Nor had I stirred from 
 home for fear of my sheep and cattle. 
 
 To me at dunes came Malcolm, the bearer 
 of an invitation from the " League of the 
 White Cockade," to dance at Castle Stuart 
 on the evening of the 25th of September, 
 and beneath the printed words on the card 
 was scrawled, in Joan's hand, " Do come ! " 
 
 Malcolm stood slapping his boot with his 
 riding-whip while I read this, and when I 
 looked up said he : " Simon, d'ye know 
 I was of the mind to lose that and say 
 nothing about it to ye. Ye'll no' come ! " 
 
 " Why not ? " said I. 
 
 " Because," said he, " I know ye are no'
 
 140 'Joan Sends Me an Invitation 
 
 wi' us, and that," he tapped the card with 
 his whip, " the dance, is a blind. It's a pub- 
 lic declaration that's wanted from you, and 
 every man there, of the side he stands on ! " 
 
 Well, it had to come, and here it was at 
 last. I experienced a feeling of relief, as 
 turning to Malcolm, said I : " No, my lad, I 
 cannot refuse, nor would I make any excuse 
 for absenting myself. I will be at Castle 
 Stuart on the 25th ! " 
 
 ' Then you will join us ? " cried Malcolm, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " No, I cannot join you ! " said I, shaking 
 my head. 
 
 " Man, d'ye know in that case, you will be 
 publicly insulted ! " said Malcolm. 
 
 " I have dealt with insults before now," 
 said I. 
 
 " But, for God's sake, listen, Simon. 
 What can you do against a hundred ? ' 
 
 " If there were five hundred, it would not 
 matter, Malcolm. Sooner or later, I must 
 declare myself, and it is best I should do it 
 there!"
 
 Which I Accept 141 
 
 " Man, this is damnable ! Would ye 
 no' just go away for a while, Simon ? ' 
 said he earnestly. 
 
 " Go away ? " I cried. 
 
 " Yes ! It would be all settled, and then 
 ye can come back " 
 
 "To be pointed out as a white-livered 
 cur, by every man and woman on the 
 street ! " said I. 
 
 " Then, by God, Prince or no Prince, you 
 are my cousin, that I'm hoping one day to 
 call my brother, and they'll insult the pair 
 o' us ! " Malcolm banged his fist on the 
 table, and before I could stop him, he had 
 flung out of the room and galloped off. 
 
 I rode to Petty on the morning of the 
 25th, and passing through the town, I 
 called on McRimmon. 
 
 ' Ye've been a long time on the road this 
 visit, Simon ! " said he, looking gravely over 
 his barnacles when we were seated in his 
 private room. 
 
 ' True ; I have been very busy with one 
 thing and another," said I.
 
 142 'Joan Sends Me an Invitation 
 
 " I could wish ye had no business with 
 Mr. Ker, Simon," said he. 
 
 " Man ! " said he, observing my start, 
 " did ye forget ye are back in the heilan's, 
 where a man like Ker couldna blow his nose 
 but the very stones in the street would have 
 news o' it ? Ye'U no guess, either, who I 
 had the news o' his visit to ye from ; yer 
 Uncle James ! " 
 
 " How on earth could he have known of 
 that ? " said I. And then I remembered the 
 visit of McRimmon's clerk. I said, " Your 
 man Dougal is of an observing turn of mind, 
 but it would seem he does not come straight 
 to you with all he hears and sees ! " 
 
 " D'ye mean Dougal saw Ker on his visit 
 to you and told James Stuart of it ? " asked 
 McRimmon. 
 
 " Seeing your clerk left Clunes about the 
 time he got there, I would advance that as 
 a likely explanation," said I, 
 
 " I would think so, too," said Mc- 
 Rimmon, pursing up his lips, " and I will 
 take order about Dougal.
 
 Which I Accept 143 
 
 " Aboot this Mr. Ker, Simon. Of course 
 it is no' ill to guess his business wi' ye. I 
 suppose, laddie, ye'll be in it like all the 
 rest o' them. There's plenty men in the 
 country sitting on the dyke ! Would ye no 
 take a leaf oot o' their book, Simon ? " said 
 the old fellow, looking at me mournfully. 
 
 " Would you have said that to a man 
 thirty years ago ? " said I, with a smile, 
 " for if all I have heard is true, a certain 
 McRimmon was pretty deep in the '15 ! " 
 
 " Och, aye, thirty years ago ! " said 
 McRimmon, " but old blood runs slow, and 
 I canna forget the bloody end o' that 
 bungled business, and the shameful way 
 brave men were left in the lurch ! " 
 
 " And I cannot forget what I have read 
 and been told of that same ! " said I. 
 
 " And this might be another '15, Simon." 
 
 " It will be worse," said I. 
 
 " And I'm no' sae keen on the Stuarts 
 as I was, thirty years ago, Simon ! '" said 
 McRimmon, laying his hand on my shoulder. 
 
 " And I am not so very keen on the
 
 144 'Joan Sends Me an Invitation 
 
 Stuarts myself ; in fact, McRimmon, I am 
 not keen on them at all. I am against 
 them, and there's a few folks going to 
 hear me say so, to-night, no later ! " 
 
 It was a very curious thing to see the 
 way the old Jacobite started away from me 
 " My God ! Ye're no' a Hanoverian, 
 Simon ? " said he. 
 
 " God knows what I am, McRimmon," 
 said I, " but there's one thing I am not, 
 and that's a Jacobite ! " 
 
 He looked at me gravely. ' I confess, 
 Simon, I was under a different impression, 
 and I canna understand ye. Here ye are 
 visited by a man well known to be a Jaco- 
 bite agent, a man ye travelled from France 
 wi', and noo ye tell me ye are no' for the 
 Stuarts. I will be plain wi' ye, Simon. This 
 is no kind of work for your father's son ! " 
 
 So, to put the old gentleman's mind at 
 rest, and that I was not, as he was beginning 
 to think, a man with a foot in either camp, 
 I told him of my acquaintance with Ker. 
 
 " So that's the way o' it ? " said he, when
 
 Which I Accept 145 
 
 I had done. " Weel, laddie, that clears 
 the air a bit ; but the position ye are taking 
 up is no' going to make your life a very 
 pleasant one in the north here, I see that 
 very plain." 
 
 " I see that myself, but, short of going 
 away, a thing I am determined not to do, 
 there is nothing else for it," said I. 
 
 ' Weel, the family ye come o' never 
 wanted for spunk, and ye seem to have an 
 extra dose o' it, Simon ; but I would think 
 twice before I went to Castle Stuart to- 
 night, if I stood in your shoes." 
 
 " Oh, maybe I will find a friend or two 
 yet," said I, putting on my hat. 
 
 " I hope ye will, and I would not be ower 
 hasty, Simon. Mind and don't be too 
 ready to take up what will be said to ye. 
 Weel, weel, to think o' that now ! " 
 
 He stood at the door, watching me 
 mount and ride away, and such is the way 
 of human nature, I felt that I had dropped 
 in his estimation, and McRimmon, in some 
 way, was disappointed in me. 
 10
 
 X Tells of the Rout at Castle Stuart and What 
 
 Happened to Me There 
 
 I RODE to the inn at Petty, where I put 
 up my horse and changed my dress. The 
 evening being fine and the earth dry under- 
 foot, I walked quietly along the hedge-lined 
 lane, sweet smelling with the perfume of 
 dying summer, and so up the avenue to 
 Castle Stuart. And as I walked, I 
 pondered and conned over the reasons I had 
 to give for the position I was taking up. 
 
 I was not prepared for the sight that met 
 me on reaching the end of the avenue, and 
 for a minute stood somewhat daunted at 
 the great occasion made of the night. The 
 house was ablaze with lights from garret to 
 cellar. A great bon-feu had been built 
 in the open space before the main door ; 
 there a cask or two of ale had been staved, 
 and in the glare of the flames a crowd of 
 
 lads and lassies were dancing to the pipes. 
 
 146
 
 The Rout at Castle Stuart 147 
 
 Threading my way through this throng 
 apparently gone mad, I entered the hall, 
 where I was met by Eraser, the estate 
 grieve. 
 
 " You are late, Mr. Stuart," said he, as a 
 footman took my hat and cane. 
 
 ' What is the meaning of all this, 
 Fraser ? ' I asked him, pointing to the 
 dancers on the green. 
 
 " Surely ye'U have heard ? " said he, 
 looking at me in surprise. 
 
 " Nothing/' said I. 
 
 " Och, then, go in, Mr. Stuart ! " said he, 
 with a broad smile, " go in and hear the news 
 that's come north of Saturday. There has 
 no' been a day like it for Scotland for many 
 a year. The company has an inkling o' 
 it, but Colonel Anne is to read it oot after 
 this dance, and I see her with the paper in 
 her hand." 
 
 I stood by the door of the great room 
 watching the company in the full swing of 
 a contra dance. They were all here. All 
 the hot-heads for miles around had gathered.
 
 148 The Rout at Castle Stuart 
 
 Frasers and Chisholms from the west, 
 Macintoshes from Moy, McKenzies from 
 the Black Isle, and looking on, one thing 
 caught my eye about the guests. I was 
 dressed in black from head to foot, only 
 relieved by my cravat and ruffles ; even 
 my hair I could never abide powder was 
 dressed plain with a black ribbon. Whereas, 
 so far as I could see, every man in the room 
 was in full highland dress or trews, and every 
 lady either wore a tartan sash or snood. 
 
 Now the dance came to an end with a 
 great huzza and clapping of hands, and 
 Colonel Anne, as Lady Macintosh was 
 called, a tall handsome lady of somewhat 
 masculine appearance, escorted by two 
 gentlemen, took up her stand on the plat- 
 form at the far end of the room, where the 
 fiddlers sat. 
 
 One of the gentlemen raised his hand 
 for silence, and following the guests who 
 thronged towards the stage, I heard her 
 read out in a clear ringing voice the 
 astonishing news of Gladsmuir.
 
 And What Happened to Me There 149 
 
 When she looked up with a smile and 
 held aloft the sheet of paper, for a moment 
 there was dead silence. Then such a 
 cheering broke in and out of the house 
 as made the very lustres jingle. Clay- 
 mores, rapiers, scarfs, were brandished 
 in the air, and, to add to the din of wild 
 enthusiasm, a dozen pipes struck up 
 " Pibroch a Donal Dhu," and blowing for 
 dear life, made a circuit of the room, and 
 marching through the door, took up a 
 position in the midst of the wild cheering 
 gathering outside. 
 
 Was ever mortal man placed in such a 
 position ? 
 
 When the cheering died down, the crowd 
 of ladies and gentlemen broke up into little 
 groups, or passed from one to the other 
 eagerly talking of the news ; while the 
 serving men ran hither and thither with 
 trays of decanters and glasses. 
 
 I had only been there something under 
 half an hour, and having again withdrawn 
 to near the door, had, so far, remained
 
 150 The Rout at Castle Stuart 
 
 unnoticed. Now I had that curious feeling 
 of being under scrutiny, and turning my 
 head, looked straight in the eye, one of a 
 little company a few yards away, a gentle- 
 man dressed in a rich, plum-coloured suit. 
 The rest of the group were all deep in talk, 
 and turned the other way. Only this 
 gentleman looked at me so intently. I 
 began to think him impertinent, when I 
 was struck with something more than 
 curiosity in his eye. The man looked as 
 though he knew me and was pleased about 
 something. Returning the stare, I was 
 vaguely conscious of having met him before ; 
 but at that moment Joan caught sight of 
 me. 
 
 Leaving the company, she came swiftly. 
 " Oh, Simon ! " she cried, her eyes dancing 
 with excitement. ' Where have you been 
 all the evening ? Is not this the glorious 
 news ? And where are you now, with your 
 prophecies of defeat ? ' 
 
 " I am astonished at the news, Joan, it 
 would be idle to deny that," said I gravely ;
 
 And What Hap-pened to Me There 151 
 
 " but this is only the opening round of the 
 campaign. Come to me in six months 
 and ask me what I think of it ! " 
 
 " Simon, I just lose patience with you. 
 There is nothing can stand up to the 
 claymore ! " she cried. And her raised 
 voice brought some of the company about 
 us. 
 
 Turning to them with a smile, said Joan : 
 " Here is my cousin, by no means impressed 
 with the news we have ah 1 heard to-night, 
 but hinting yet at defeat." 
 
 " Perhaps the gentleman has reasons 
 unknown to us that might account for his 
 frame of mind," said a quiet voice behind 
 me. 
 
 I turned, and found the speaker to be the 
 gentleman in the plum-coloured suit. For 
 a moment I forgot Joan and the others, 
 and vaguely disturbed looked on him in 
 some curiosity. He was very tall, taller 
 than I by several inches. A dark thin 
 man, between thirty and forty, regard- 
 ing me with something like a sneer in his
 
 152 The Rout at Castle Stuart 
 
 black eyes. He would have been altogether 
 strikingly handsome only for a blemish 
 that gave a sinister cast to his face. His 
 nose was bent to one side a little, and 
 looking closely at him, I was again taken 
 with the thought of having met him before, 
 but where, for the life of me, I could not 
 say. 
 
 " I have not the pleasure of knowing 
 your name, sir ! " said I, bowing to him. 
 " Nor can I remember for the moment 
 where we have met." 
 
 " We should all be well known to one 
 another here ! O' Brady is my name. I 
 have the pleasure of knowing yours, Mr. 
 Stuart ! " said he, returning my bow, but 
 ignoring my latter remark. 
 
 So he was one of the Irish, and I was off 
 the scent. 
 
 " You was about to say, Mr. Stuart ? " 
 said he. 
 
 " Nothing, sir," said I. 
 
 O' Brady looked at me with a smile for a 
 moment, then turning away, some quick
 
 And What Happened to Me There 153 
 
 whispered sentences passed between him 
 and two or three other men standing near. 
 
 The whole company now pressed about 
 us, and sensing by the sudden silence fallen 
 on the room, that something out of the 
 ordinary was afoot, looked on me with 
 curious eyes, standing alone in the middle 
 of the crowd. 
 
 The little conference between O' Brady 
 and the others only lasted a minute, and 
 now McKenzie of Kessock picked up the ball 
 as though there had been no interruption. 
 
 " But deuce take it, Stuart," said he, 
 " you was thinking nothing of what the 
 clans had done at Gladsmuir, and the news 
 is true, as you have heard. General Cope 
 was completely routed, sir ! " 
 
 Joan stood near, with Malcolm, looking 
 at me with appealing eyes. It is a hard 
 thing to refuse a lady, but I had never 
 hidden my opinions. There were men and 
 women about us who had heard me declare 
 them in private ; to go back on them in 
 public was to be regarded as a man afraid.
 
 154 The Rout at Castle Stuart 
 
 And another thought pricked me in looking 
 at Joan. It was at her invitation I stood 
 there, and she must have known something 
 like this would have happened. Did she 
 think to turn me with a trick ? 
 
 The faces about me seemed to press 
 forward as they waited for my answer, but 
 though I knew the moment when I would 
 be called on to declare myself was near at 
 hand, I would do nothing to hasten it. I 
 would declare with dignity. So, in fencing 
 for an opening, I answered McKenzie 
 quietly, " What I said to my cousin was 
 for her private ear ! " 
 
 " I could not help overhearing your 
 remark, Mr. Stuart," struck in O' Brady. 
 r ' If I remember right, it was to the effect 
 that the Prince would be defeated within 
 six months, and I ventured to observe that 
 perhaps you had reasons for saying so. 
 I believe," smiling to those about us, " I am 
 voicing the opinion of the company in 
 asking you to state them, sir ! " 
 
 " If that is so "
 
 And What Happened to Me There 155 
 
 " Yes, yes, Mr. Stuart ! " cried a voice, 
 " let us hear what you have to say ! " 
 
 " I have this to say ! " said I. " The 
 Prince, with four or five thousand men, has 
 surprised and defeated some two or three 
 thousand badly led troops. I am a soldier 
 with four campaigns behind me, and I tell 
 you this : it is the trained troops that 
 will win in the end. Have the promised 
 regiments from France landed ? England 
 will, sooner or later, have fifty thousand in 
 the field to break the rebellion ; where are 
 you going to rise and equip an army to 
 face them ? ' 
 
 " For a man who, if there is anything in a 
 name and family traditions, should be with 
 us, that is not what the company would 
 expect to hear from you, Stuart ! " said 
 McKenzie. " You forget the Jacobites in 
 the south and in England ! " 
 
 " No, sir, I have not forgotten the Jaco- 
 bites in the south. I remember hearing 
 of them in the '15. Have they come out ? 
 If they have it is news to me," said I.
 
 156 The Rout at Castle Stuart 
 
 " This is no' the '15," retorted McKenzie. 
 " I thought," he cried, looking round the 
 circle, " that in this gathering all were of 
 the honest party, but it would seem I am 
 mistaken. I now call upon every lady and 
 gentleman in this room, who is for the 
 Prince, to hold up his hand ! " 
 
 Instantly, with huzzas and cries of " Righ 
 Hamish go Bragh," every hand was up. 
 All but mine. 
 
 It was a scene never to forget. The huge 
 lofty room, lit by dozens of candles. The 
 gay tartans and dresses, the bright eyes 
 and faces full of enthusiasm. Dazed for a 
 moment, I heard, as in a dream, McKenzie 
 say, " We are waiting on you, Stuart ! ' 
 
 He waited a full minute in dead silence, 
 then as I made no sign, he cried, " So you 
 are not with us ? '' 
 
 It had come at last. I looked about ; 
 Joan was staring at me with wide-open eyes, 
 her hand clutching her brother's arm. 
 And the other faces most of them were 
 those of men and women who well knew
 
 And What H appened to Me There 157 
 
 me and my people. They were watching 
 me, waiting for what I would say, and I was 
 going to disappoint them all. In a minute 
 they would all turn away in scorn. 
 
 I shook my head sadly. " I am not 
 against you, but in this business I am not 
 with you ! " 
 
 " For shame ! You are a disgrace to the 
 name of Stuart ! " a dozen voices cried out 
 against me. " Who is not for us, is against 
 us!" 
 
 " I believe," said McKenzie, very red 
 in the face, and holding up his hand, " Mr. 
 Stuart will find elsewhere company more to 
 his taste ! " 
 
 I bowed, and as I turned to go, a way was 
 opened for me in the circle. 
 
 r< Perhaps Mr. Stuart's interest is with 
 the other side," said O' Brady with an evil 
 smile. 
 
 I was feeling a trifle sick and faint at the 
 ordeal I had come through, but the sneer 
 braced me like a blow in the face, and now I 
 was on firmer ground. I turned on him, and
 
 158 The Rout at Castle Stuart 
 
 * 
 
 very softly said : "I take you, sir. A re- 
 mark like that, in the presence of ladies, 
 betokens a man of circumspection ! " 
 
 Joan cried out : " Mr. -Stuart came here 
 at my invitation. I am to blame. I beg 
 you will let my cousin go in peace ! " 
 
 " And I think, Mr. O' Brady, for a stranger 
 you take a great deal upon yourself, and 
 be damned to ye ! " said her brother, 
 stepping to my side. 
 
 " You all heard what my cousin said. 
 He is not against us. Simon, I will see 
 you to the inn," said he, putting his arm 
 through mine. 
 
 I cast one glance at O' Brady ; I was 
 afraid for the good lad, my cousin. O' Brady 
 read me, and returning his bow, I walked 
 down the lane of guests who silently made 
 way for me.
 
 XI " They Set a Combat them Between to Fight 
 
 it in the Dawning " 
 
 " A FINE mess you have made of yourself 
 now, Simon," said Malcolm, flinging himself 
 in the chair when we reached the inn. 
 
 ' Yes," I said, " it will be easier for me 
 to find enemies than friends now. I wonder 
 if I have one here that will share a bottle 
 with me, for I found yon dry work." 
 
 " A dozen if you like, but, for a man in 
 your shoes, I would say a pint of claret will 
 be best. If I know anything, you'll be 
 hearing from O' Brady ! " 
 
 ' Tell me what you know of him, Mal- 
 colm," said I, pushing the bottle his way. 
 " The man's face stuck in my thoughts, 
 and his persistence in picking on me, a 
 total stranger to him so far as I know, 
 was beyond my understanding." 
 
 " Och, he'll just be one o' the Irish that's 
 come over, and I believe he is here wi' 
 
 159
 
 160 " 'They Set a Combat them Between 
 
 letters from the Prince for the McLeod. 
 But that's no' what's bothering me," said 
 Malcolm gloomily. "D'ye know the man is 
 a warlock wi' a rapier ? Ye'll need all yer 
 wits about ye in the morning, Simon ! " 
 
 " That will explain a thing or two, but 
 not all," said I. Malcolm could carry me 
 no farther, and I found myself growing 
 irritable with trying, vainly, to remember 
 where I had seen this man with the bent 
 nose. 
 
 " Here comes our man," said Malcolm, 
 as a step sounded on the stair. 
 
 The door opened, and in came McKenzie, 
 carrying a rapier under his arm. 
 
 He bowed ceremoniously, bursting with 
 dignity and importance. " Your servant, 
 gentlemen. I carry a message from my 
 friend, Captain O'Brady ! " 
 
 " I wish you well of your friend, 
 O'Brady," said I. " Let us have your 
 message ; I could make a fair shot at 
 guessing it." 
 
 " Captain O'Brady considers himself
 
 To Fight It in the Dawning" 161 
 
 deeply insulted by what you said in the 
 presence of the company to-night ! " 
 
 ' You are not afflicted with any difficulty 
 in hearing, Mr. McKenzie ? " said I. 
 
 " My hearing is as good as any man's," 
 said McKenzie, very high and mighty. 
 
 ' That being the case and I am relieved 
 to hear you say so you could not help 
 hearing what this Captain O' Brady I 
 would like to see his commission said to 
 provoke my remark ? " said I. 
 
 " O' Brady demands a meeting, unless 
 you were thinking of sending him a written 
 apology ! " 
 
 " I am not in the habit of apologising 
 to gentlemen of O'Brady's kidney, or his 
 friends. I take it you stand for him as 
 being a person I must not use my cane 
 on, so I'm thinking it will have to be a 
 meeting. I dare say my cousin, here, will 
 arrange with you." 
 
 I turned to Malcolm, who nodded surlily 
 to McKenzie. 
 
 ' Your friend, O' Brady, is a bully, Mc- 
 ii
 
 1 62 " They Set a Combat them Between 
 
 Kenzie, and if harm comes to my cousin out 
 o' this, let him look to himself. What is 
 your pleasure in this cursed affair, Simon ? ' 
 
 I handed him my rapier. " A yard or 
 two of turf ; there's a sweet spot on the 
 beach where the burn runs into the sea, east 
 of the village. Quiet, yet only a step from 
 where we sit. Shall we say six in the 
 morning ? ' 
 
 " I know the place," said McKenzie ; "it 
 will do very well. We will be there ! " 
 
 The rapiers were measured, and no fault 
 found with them. McKenzie, declining a 
 glass of wine, went on his way. " And 
 now I'm for bed," said I, clapping Malcolm 
 on the shoulder. 
 
 " I hope ye sleep. I'm pretty sure I'll 
 no'," said he. " And I don't think ye 
 know what's afore ye. O'Brady's no' to be 
 treated like ye serve me wi' the foils, 
 Simon." 
 
 The sun was shining red through the 
 window when I awoke, with Malcolm, fully 
 dressed, shaking me by the shoulder.
 
 To Fight It in the Dawning" 163 
 
 " It's time ye were up, Simon," said he. 
 
 ' You have been sitting up all night ! " 
 said I, surprised at his tousled hair and 
 disordered cravat. 
 
 " Man, I'm thinking it a pity a cool 
 blade like you is no' wi' us. We could do 
 wi' a few," said he, watching me dress. 
 
 " I could wish that myself ; we would have 
 had your Prince back to France by this ! " 
 said I. 
 
 A sweeter morning for the business in 
 hand, a man could not wish for. Not a 
 breath of wind fluttered the leaves, yet 
 there was a brisk fresh tang in the air like 
 wine as I walked with the silent Malcolm 
 through the village where the folks were 
 still abed after last night's orgy. Nothing 
 stirring save the flocks of sparrows, twitter- 
 ing and chirping in the hedges, and among 
 the oat stocks. 
 
 Presently we came to the beach and found 
 O' Brady waiting it is always well to keep 
 the O'Bradys waiting and several more 
 gentlemen, among them a surgeon from
 
 164 " They Set a Combat them Between 
 
 Inverness. Some time was wasted, these 
 gentlemen being of the mind to show me 
 that the punctilios could be as sharply 
 observed in the highlands as ever they 
 were in France. These preliminaries over, 
 we stripped and saluted. 
 
 The rapiers rasped against one another 
 with a little grating tinkle, and in a minute 
 I learned this man was of the premier force. 
 
 I know of no secret botte such as one 
 often hears men talk about in the schools. 
 On the other hand, I have known men 
 who, by devoting endless time and care to 
 the practice, made themselves masters of 
 certain movements. Shortly I discovered 
 O'Brady to be an adept at the " Glide." 
 Again and again I felt that stealthy slide 
 of his blade along mine which is destined 
 to end in a thrust inside the guard. And 
 each time I countered O' Brady's crooked 
 smile grew less until it gave place to a 
 dubious frown. 
 
 Suddenly he disengaged and gave ground 
 a pace or two. I waited his pleasure to come
 
 To Fight It in the Dawning" 165 
 
 on again. Marking his approach, like a 
 flash of light I remembered Ker, the narrow 
 lane at midnight in Paris, and a tall bravo 
 coming on with a catlike crouch and a 
 straight arm. Off my guard for an instant 
 that was like to be my last, I only escaped 
 a deadly lunge by leaping back. 
 
 " So Captain O' Brady combines with his 
 other activities that of midnight assassin 
 in the streets of Paris," said I, as our blades 
 grated again. 
 
 The villain saw he was recognised and 
 pressed me with all his skill, plainly with 
 the intention of stilling my tongue for 
 ever. Filled with a cold rage at the memory 
 of his attack on Ker, and his murder of the 
 wounded bravo, I gave him the opening 
 he sought, and as the point of his rapier slid 
 towards my hilt, I countered with the 
 twist and thrust of the " Croise." 
 
 McKenzie caught him as he staggered 
 back holding his side, a red patch spreading 
 over his shirt, the blood trickling through 
 his fingers.
 
 1 66 " They Set a Combat them Between 
 
 I stood waiting while the surgeon busied 
 himself with lint and bandages. " Captain 
 O' Brady is in no danger, I am glad to say. 
 He will be about again in a week or two. 
 But an inch or two higher up and it's a 
 dead man we would have lying here, Mr. 
 Stuart ! " said the surgeon, looking at me 
 and then at the others like a man bewildered. 
 
 " It is to be regretted I am a trifle out of 
 practice ! " said I, wiping my rapier. 
 
 To the company at large said I : ' You 
 are disappointed, gentlemen, having, I per- 
 ceive, counted upon a different ending to 
 this morning's work. Yet, if you only knew, 
 there is something to thank me for. It is 
 none of my business, but I might advise 
 you to make some further inquiries re- 
 specting your friend lying there. Captain 
 O' Brady is his present name, but I have 
 met him before under another ! " 
 
 Leaving them to ponder this piece of 
 information, I saluted, and slapping my 
 rapier home, turned on my heel to walk 
 to the inn.
 
 To Fight It in the Dawning" 167 
 
 I had not gone a hundred yards when 
 Malcolm caught me up. " Simon," said 
 he, falling into step, " I have lost a night's 
 sleep, but I am well paid with the sight o' 
 their faces back there. Ye have given them 
 something to think about, and I believe 
 this is the best morning's work ye have done 
 since you came home. I'll wager they'll 
 take a second thought before they put a 
 quarrel on ye again ! " 
 
 " I had some notion like that in my head 
 when I took him up last night," said I. 
 
 ' Well now, I never thought that was 
 your game. But what is the meaning of 
 yon ye said about O' Brady ? " 
 
 " Give me your company at breakfast, 
 and I'll tell you." 
 
 " You say O' Brady came north on the 
 McLeod business ? " said I when we were 
 seated at a pigeon pie, a dish of collops 
 with ale, and oat-bannocks and cheese. 
 
 ' That's the news I got o' him," replied 
 Malcolm. 
 
 " Well, it may be true," said I. " There
 
 1 68 " 'They Set a Combat them Between 
 
 is such a thing, I believe, as a spy taking 
 pay from both sides, but judging by the way 
 you take strangers to your bosoms, you don't 
 go very deep into their credentials. The 
 Lord help you with any plans you have 
 made with O' Brady in your councils that's 
 what I say." 
 
 Then I told him of the encounter in Paris. 
 " He will be no danger to you for a week or 
 two, the surgeon said; but confront him 
 with Ker, and lose no time about it that 
 is my advice to you." 
 
 " Ker is far away in Edinburgh wi' the 
 Prince," said Malcolm. 
 
 " Ha ! It's likely O'Brady would know 
 that. Well, there's my news for you. 
 Do what you like about it, but the man's 
 a dangerous spy on you, and he is known 
 to Ker and others by the name of the 
 ' Whaup.' " 
 
 'He is well named, but I never heard 
 tell o' it, and this will have to be seen to at 
 once ! " said Malcolm. " The Lord only 
 knows what mischief has not been done
 
 To Fight It in the Dawning " 169 
 
 already, or how much we are in your debt. 
 Ker here, or Ker there, I'll see what can be 
 done about him myself." 
 
 ' You'd better. O'Brady is no common 
 spy," said I, admiring the resource and 
 iron nerve that could take him into the 
 highlands, into the stronghold of the Jaco- 
 bites, and carry him smiling in the company 
 of men where a slip would mean sudden and 
 violent death. Yet, thinking it over after 
 Malcolm had gone, as the information had 
 come from one who declared himself not in 
 sympathy with them, even now regarded 
 as a traitor ; in the absence of any who knew 
 him, a master of the game like O'Brady 
 might be able to divert suspicion and 
 continue to hold his position in the good 
 graces of the Jacobites in the North. 
 
 Well, as I have said, it was none of my 
 business. I had enough troubles of my own 
 now. The maid I loved despising me for 
 the shame I had brought on the family, a 
 leper in my own country. Yesterday I 
 came through Petty greeted on every hand.
 
 170 " They Set a Combat them Between" 
 
 This morning, save Malcolm, I could not 
 count on a single friend. The very men 
 and maids about the inn served me with 
 bent brows, and riding slowly through the 
 village not a soul did I see on the road but a 
 bairn or two. Only dim, white, staring 
 faces appearing suddenly in the windows, 
 watching me go past.
 
 XII I 'Take Wine with my Lord, London 
 
 To Climes I rode, and for the next two 
 weeks lived like a hermit, seeing no one but 
 the house-servants and farm-lads, taking up 
 my time with the work of the estate. 
 For company at night, Janet came in with 
 her knitting. Indeed, if it was not for my 
 housekeeper, I might as well be living on 
 the top of Ben Wyvis, so little I would have 
 known of the world beyond Clunes. But if 
 a man would have news of the country-side 
 let him go to his housekeeper. Of course, 
 Janet knew of the night at Petty, and, 
 very indignant at the way I had been 
 treated, straightway changed her politics 
 and became a Hanoverian ! I could hear her 
 flyting on the maids for a pack of idle, 
 feather-headed limmers, with their songs 
 and havers. 
 
 " Aye, my faith ! " Janet would cry, " it 
 
 would set ye better to keep the lads at 
 
 171
 
 172 / Take Wine with my Lord London 
 
 home instead o' stravaiging aboot the 
 farms, egging them on to ' up and fecht for 
 Charlie.' A fine state o' affairs this, to be 
 sure. What will ye be saying when ye see 
 their corps hanging by the roadside, and 
 their heads on the bridge when ye go in wi' 
 the eggs and butter, and the crowdie. 
 Aye, an' ye canna move in the heilan's for 
 the Sidier Rhua l as I saw it all when I was 
 a lassie in the '15." 
 
 To my certain knowledge, Janet, for days 
 on end, never put her foot beyond the gate 
 at dunes. Yet she was a veritable news- 
 letter of what went on in the town and the 
 country-side. It was from Janet I had 
 the news of the Frasers under the Young 
 Master, besieging Fort Augustus. Of the 
 Prince in Edinburgh, and the great doings in 
 that city. And Duncan Forbes of Culloden, 
 the Lord President in residence at Bunchrew. 
 
 Of Joan I had had no word since she 
 turned away from me on that night at 
 Petty. But Malcolm, Janet had told me, 
 
 1 Gaelic for Red Soldiers.
 
 / 'Take Wine with my Lord London 173 
 
 was with the Master of Lovat. And 
 O' Brady gone, no one knew whither. 
 
 Thus the weeks went by, with much 
 intimidation and cattle lifting by bands of 
 rievers from Moy and the West. From 
 first to last, I lost over forty fat ewes and a 
 dozen stirks before my Lord Loudon and 
 the Lord President took order and hanged 
 a few of these gentry. 
 
 So I come to an evening in October. 
 Janet has taken her place by the fire in my 
 sitting-room, plainly with something out 
 of the ordinary in her mind. After some 
 beating about the bush, said she, " Simon, 
 laddie, ye'll no* take it ill if I ask ye have 
 ye broken wi' Joan ? " 
 
 " Not me, Janet/' said I, " it will be the 
 other way about ! " 
 
 ' Weel, I am sure ye'll no' be wishing the 
 lassie any harm at all events, and I think 
 ye better see her, Simon." 
 
 " I will not be very welcome at Alturlie 
 these days. What is the matter with Joan, 
 is she ill ? "
 
 174 I Take Wine with my Lord London 
 
 " Oh no, the lassie is well enough, but 
 she might be in some danger in another way, 
 if all I'm hearing is true ! " Janet stopped 
 plying her knitting-needles, and looked 
 up at me with a grave face. 
 
 " Danger ! What's this you are driving 
 at, Janet ? " said I. 
 
 Janet rolled up her knitting into a ball 
 and transfixed it with the needles. " Ye 
 know Jeannie, the kitchen lassie here, 
 Chisholm the carrier's daughter ? Well, her 
 sister, Ishbel, is a table-maid at Bunchrew, 
 wi' Duncan Forbes. I dare say, Simon, ye 
 know the way news o' the gentry is carried 
 by the lassies from one hoose to another ? ' 
 
 I nodded my head as a man having some 
 slight knowledge of this. 
 
 " Ah weel," says Janet, " ye'U no stop 
 the lassies clashing. Ishbel was here seeing 
 her sister, and after Ishbel went home, 
 Jeannie, a good lassie, comes ben to me wi' 
 a story aboot Duncan Forbes having my 
 Lord Loudon to stay over the Sawbath wi' 
 him. The lassie was taking the wine into
 
 / Take Wine with my Lord London 175 
 
 the gentlemen after the dinner and she 
 heard them talking aboot taking some o' 
 the leddies up and jailing them in the Fort. 
 And they mentioned Miss Fraser at Foyers, 
 and Miss Joan and Lady Macintosh hersel', 
 no less ! " 
 
 I took a turn about the room at the 
 receipt of this piece of inside information, 
 which I knew, for certain reasons, would 
 likely be little short of the truth. 
 
 Better than Janet I could guess what was 
 exercising the minds of the Lord President 
 and Lord Loudon. There was the business 
 of the old chief at Beaufort. Protesting his 
 loyalty to King George and deploring the 
 young Master's disobedience in raising the 
 Frasers against his father's wishes. When, 
 as any bairn knew, unless Simon, Lord 
 Lovat, gave the word, not a Fraser in 
 the land would have crooked a hand on a 
 hilt for all the Princes in Christendom. 
 
 The Jacobites in the town hardly concealed 
 their elation at the news of Gladsmuir, but 
 of all the Prince's friends in the North, his
 
 ij6 I lake Wine with My Lord London 
 
 best recruiting sergeants were the ladies. 
 No doubt of that. So it might well be 
 that Loudon meditated taking some sharp 
 measures with these firebrands. 
 
 " I will see Joan to-morrow, no later," 
 said I. 
 
 " Aye ! " said Janet, "a fine thing this, 
 for folks to see their dochters up to the jail, 
 merching between the Sidier Rhua like 
 thieves and vagabonds. It's a good skelp- 
 ing the lassies want. Many's the time, 
 when ye were bairns, and I showded ye in 
 my airms, I thocht to see the day when Joan 
 and you would make a match o' it, and noo 
 this business o' Prince Charlie and that's 
 the black business to be sure putting bad 
 blood between friends and neighbours, is 
 like to end everything, and I donno what 
 the world is coming to, indeed ! 
 
 " Joan is fond o' ye, fine I know that, 
 but she wouldna be a Stuart if she hadna 
 a temper o' her own. Mind that ; speak 
 the lassie fair ; don't be quarrelling wi' her, 
 Simon ! "
 
 I Take Wine with my Lord, London 177 
 
 Assuring Janet that whatever I said I 
 would do nothing to rouse the Stuart 
 temper, but remembering the circumstances 
 under which I saw her last, I rode away next 
 morning, dubious of the reception of my 
 advice. 
 
 A mile west of the village of Clachnaharry 
 I overtook a party of horsemen, and fitting 
 exactly to my train of thought, discovered 
 the leader of the party to be Lord Loudon, 
 returning to the town after his visit to the 
 Lord President. 
 
 My lord, knowing me, very kindly would 
 have me to ride with him, and talked 
 very pleasantly of the weather and the 
 crops and so forth, until we came to the 
 village. There, to breathe the horses, the 
 road being very heavy, he halted his escort 
 and asked me to join him in a pint of claret. 
 
 To be sure I was not deceived in thinking 
 my Lord Loudon was taken so with my 
 company, but that it was news he was after. 
 So I was not surprised, after the landlord had 
 bowed himself out of the room and left us to 
 12
 
 iy8 I 'Take Wine with my Lord London 
 
 our wine, when he said : " Mr. Stuart, I 
 have the news of what happened to you at 
 Petty, a week or two ago, and I am glad to 
 know of you as a young man well affected 
 and not carried away by the temporary 
 success, Mr. Stuart, of this young man and 
 his deluded supporters. Your very good 
 health, sir ! " 
 
 Wondering what was coming, I bowed 
 my acknowledgment of his courtesy and 
 drank my wine. 
 
 " Doubtless you are aware of how my 
 friend the Lord President and I are strug- 
 gling to hold back the hot-heads in the 
 North here ; our labours have met with some 
 success, but the price is unceasing vigilance, 
 and we are much hampered in the good work 
 by the enemy spies and messengers passing 
 to and from between this and France ! 
 Do you happen to have heard any word of a 
 man named Ker ? " 
 
 The question came like a pistol-shot, but 
 feeling pretty sure my Lord Loudon very 
 well knew of my landing off the Gull with
 
 I Take Wine with my Lord London 179 
 
 Ker, and was only trying me, without 
 hesitation I said : " I do know a man of 
 that name, my lord ; in fact, I made the 
 voyage from Dunkerque in the same ship 
 with him, when I came home a month or 
 two ago ! " 
 
 " Did he ever drop any hint as to 
 the nature of the business taking him to 
 the North ? The wine is with you, Mr. 
 Stuart ! " 
 
 Loudon was looking at. me squarely. 
 Filling my glass and passing the tan- 
 kard, said I : " From the conversation, I 
 gathered he had an interest in the ship. 
 Part owner, I believe, with his brother, who 
 was the skipper." 
 
 " You met Mr. Ker in Paris ? " 
 
 I was beginning to feel something of the 
 
 sensation of a man on his trial, as I answered, 
 
 ' Yes, Ker offered me a passage on his 
 
 ship, and as the offer came at a needful 
 
 time, I was obliged to him ! >; 
 
 ' You met with some adventures on the 
 road, I believe ? "
 
 180 / Take Wine with my Lord London 
 
 Here showed the hand of O' Brady, and 
 I felt sick to think of that villain and the 
 mischief he could do to my friends. 
 
 " It would appear, my lord," said I, " that 
 anything I might tell you of my journey 
 from Paris would be information at second 
 hand. We were set upon by a gang of 
 murderers, and we accounted for them. 
 I believe I could make a guess at the source 
 of your information, my lord ! " 
 
 He turned away for a moment with a 
 secret smile, then looking at me again, and 
 seeing me watch him with a very set face, 
 he said : " Tut, Mr. Stuart, you are a 
 soldier, so don't be losing your temper. 
 You are not so simple as not to know that 
 you travelled hi company with a very 
 dangerous enemy of the State, and in 
 assisting him you did the State a very bad 
 turn ! " 
 
 " They were bent on nothing short of 
 murder, and I think myself very lucky not 
 to be lying back there in France with my 
 throat cut ! " said I.
 
 / Take Wine with my Lord London 181 
 
 ' Very lucky," said my Lord Loudon, 
 coolly ; " it is not often the man detailed to 
 attend to Ker fails us." Then, I suppose, 
 by way of smoothing me, he said : " Having 
 served yourself, Mr. Stuart, you are aware 
 that we who have the guidance of the 
 affairs of the realm in our hands cannot 
 afford to be too nice in our choice of weapons 
 against the enemy." 
 
 A faint flicker of a smile played about his 
 tight lips, and that night in the Tete de 
 Bceuf recalled in this cool fashion made 
 me feel a little warm ; but I had to keep on 
 the right side of such a man as Loudon, so 
 I replied : "I am not likely to forget in a 
 hurry my experience with that department 
 of State-craft!" 
 
 " And, knowing you now, I regret the 
 inconvenience you were put to, and glad 
 you got away with nothing worse than an 
 unpleasant memory ! " said he. 
 
 Inconvenience ! I liked that word, think- 
 ing of yon set of murderous villains, and 
 what happened to the drugged landlord.
 
 1 82 I Take Wine with my Lord London 
 
 " Faith, my lord, your satisfaction is no 
 greater than mine," said I dryly. 
 
 " By the way, Mr. Stuart," said he, " the 
 name reminds me. Have you any know- 
 ledge of Ker's whereabouts at the 
 present ? " 
 
 " I have not," said I. 
 
 Lord Loudon rose from his chair and 
 stood for a moment looking out on the 
 village street. He turned to me again, 
 and said : 'I could give you work, Mr. 
 Stuart, if you are inclined to help. In going 
 about among the people here, you might 
 pick up serviceable information." 
 
 I have had men at the point of my rapier 
 for less, but though my face grew hot at the 
 insult, I held my temper, and replied : " It 
 is very little I can do ; as you know of what 
 took place at Petty, my lord, you must know 
 I have scarcely a friend left. I am regarded 
 as a traitor, and I doubt if any would listen 
 to me ! " 
 
 Then for a shot at finding out what truth 
 lay in Janet's news, said I : " My journey
 
 Wine with my Lord, London 183 
 
 to-day is to find out if I have any influence 
 left in one quarter." 
 
 " Indeed ? May I ask where you are 
 going, Mr. Stuart ? " 
 
 ' To my cousin, Mistress Stuart of Altur- 
 lie ! " said I. 
 
 My lord looked at me, frowning heavily 
 at the name. " I consider the women in this 
 Jacobite business the very devil ! " said he 
 angrily. " A dozen of them can make more 
 mischief than a regiment of spies ! " 
 
 " My cousin will just be a young lady with 
 her head full of romantic nonsense," said I. 
 
 " Dangerous nonsense, Mr. Stuart, that 
 leads them to send white feathers to well- 
 affected young men, and use every feminine 
 device to drive them into the ranks of 
 Charles Stuart. You may tell your cousin 
 from me that there is a limit to the lengths 
 we will permit even the ladies to go. 
 
 " And as for the men, by - the limit 
 is reached ! " he swore through his teeth. 
 " Let these spies and traitors look to 
 themselves, for this day I start to rout them
 
 184 / Take Wine with my Lord London 
 
 out, and high or low, if I lay them by the 
 heels, they shall swing for it ! " 
 
 Then, swift as the passing shadow of 
 a cloud on the hill-side in sunny, windy 
 weather, the mood changed. He put on 
 his hat and clapped me on the shoulder. 
 With a smile said he : "I wish you good 
 luck with your cousin, Mr. Stuart. It is 
 ill work fighting with the ladies ! " 
 
 I was not deceived with this sudden 
 change of manner, but more impressed than 
 ever. Behind the smile and jovial manner 
 I saw a hard, ruthless man, with no scruples 
 where his duty lay. 
 
 We continued our journey to Inverness 
 very pleasantly together. Coming to the 
 head of Kirk Street he bade me good day, 
 and rode with his troop up the Wynd to 
 Fort George, leaving me to ride along the 
 High Street, and out at the East Gate on 
 my way to Alturlie, carrying with me, for 
 company along the road, a picture of Lord 
 Loudon, his face black with anger, and 
 his sinister words ringing in my ears.
 
 XIII I Fall in With Some Gentlemen who 
 have Business With the Lord President 
 
 IT was about four in the afternoon, and 
 growing dark, with a sprinkling of rain, 
 when I dismounted at the door. 
 
 Giving my horse up to a stable-lad, I 
 bade the maid tell her mistress I wished to 
 speak to her, and waited wondering how 
 she would receive me. I was not long kept 
 in suspense. The door opened and Joan 
 came in with a face on her like a graven 
 image. Before I could get a word out of 
 my mouth, said she : "It will be my father 
 you are wanting. He is east the way of 
 Forres, and will not be back until Friday ! " 
 
 " I hope my uncle is well, and will find 
 everything to his mind in Forres," said 
 I ; " but my business will be with his 
 daughter ! " 
 
 ' I know of no business you can have 
 with me ! " said she. 
 
 185
 
 1 86 Some Gentlemen who have Business 
 
 I pulled out a chair. " If you will sit for 
 a minute or two, I believe what I have to 
 say will show you that you are mistaken 
 there." 
 
 " I am very well, here," said she, re- 
 maining by the door. 
 
 " Joan ! " said I, " don't be taking that 
 high and mighty air with me ; surely you 
 must know that whatever I would say or 
 do would be out of my love and regard for 
 you. I rode into Inverness with Lord 
 Loudon to-day " 
 
 " The company sets a Stuart well ! " 
 said she bitterly, " but I wonder at your 
 taste in telling it in this house. It is the 
 taste that made me a laughing-stock in 
 Petty ! " 
 
 " You don't understand, I tell you, and 
 I am not going to lose my temper. It is a 
 serious business." 
 
 ' Temper forsooth, who cares here 
 whether you lose it or no !" said Joan. 
 
 " Do you realise that you are playing with 
 gunpowder ? Loudon warned me to tell
 
 With the Lord President 187 
 
 you that if the ladies don't mind their steps, 
 some of you will be put under arrest ! " 
 
 ' Is this your message ? ' said Joan, 
 raising her voice. " You can go back to my 
 Lord Loudon and tell him to do his worst." 
 
 " Is this your answer ? " said I. 
 ' You were a fool to come to me and 
 think to get any other ! " said Joan. 
 
 " Ah well," said I, taking up my hat, " it 
 it is plain I have done my errand badly. I 
 might better have stayed away, but the day 
 is coming, and not far off, when you will be 
 glad of the fools ! " I should have held my 
 peace there, but nettled at being called a 
 fool for my pains, with my hands on the 
 door, said I : " After all, it's just possible 
 that Lord Loudon may be right." 
 
 ' What do you mean ? " said Joan 
 sharply. 
 
 " Perhaps a little enforced solitude might 
 be the best means of bringing some of you 
 to your senses." 
 
 " Have you done ? " she cried. 
 
 " Perhaps you will tell them to bring my
 
 1 88 Some Gentlemen who have Business 
 
 horse ! " Not another word would I say, 
 but strode out to the porch and banged 
 the door behind me. An angry man was I, 
 waiting there, my mission worse than useless, 
 and here was a black dirty night, with a 
 rising wind and raining heavily. 
 
 Presently a lad with a cloak over his head 
 came round with my horse. As I swung 
 myself into the saddle, the door opened and 
 Joan called out : " It is an awful night, 
 and foolish of you riding away in this 
 weather. Will you not be stopping ? ' 
 
 She stood in the open door, the wind 
 blowing her dress, and the voice was that of 
 the old Joan, but I shook my head. ' I 
 will be living up to my reputation of a 
 fool," said I, and rode off into the night. I 
 am not sure, it might have been a trick of 
 the wind, but I thought I heard a cry of 
 " Simon ! " as I passed through the gate. 
 
 Reaching the high road beyond the 
 shelter of the trees, we got the full force of 
 the storm, and the horse, with more sense 
 than myself, jibbed and would have turned
 
 With the Lord President 189 
 
 back to the warm stable. But, hot with 
 anger, I put the spurs to him and rode on at 
 a canter. 
 
 It was a mad thing to do on a bad road 
 on a night dark as the pit. I had not gone 
 a mile when the willing brute put his foot 
 in a hole, and over his head I went, luckily 
 enough, into some bushes. So there I was 
 with a singing head, a horse dead lame, and 
 not a house, save the one I had left, within 
 two miles. Go back I would not, nor leave 
 a horse in this plight. Then I remembered 
 a half-ruined cottage with an old stable 
 at one end, which must be within a hundred 
 yards of where I stood. 
 
 It took me half an hour to urge my 
 crippled horse to this place, where, taking 
 off the saddle and bridle, I did the best I 
 could for him in the dark. 
 
 Feeling about, I found some dry musty 
 hay in a corner, where, sitting down, I 
 made up my mind to wait for morning, or 
 until the storm should abate. I have no 
 mind of the time nor how long I had been
 
 190 Some Gentlemen who have Business 
 
 there, having fallen into a doze, soothed by 
 the rushing sound of the wind, and the 
 drumming of the rain when I was roused 
 by the clatter of feet and men's voices about 
 the ruin. 
 
 I was about to spring to my feet when I 
 heard a man curse the weather, and call on 
 someone to light the glim. I sank back 
 in my corner, recognising the speaker to be 
 a wild ruffling blade, one MacGillivray from 
 Raigmore. Came the clink of flint on steel 
 and in a minute the light of a lantern shone 
 through a crack in the old wall at my ear. 
 
 The next voice made me clutch the hilt 
 of my rapier. " So, the old fox has gone 
 to his other den, and we have had all our 
 trouble in this cursed weather for nothing ! " 
 
 " Well, the night is young yet. Plenty 
 time to nab him at Bunchrew before 
 morning/' said another. " Pass along that 
 horn ; what with lying among these infernal 
 bushes I'm chilled to the marrow." 
 
 Very gently I turned on my side and 
 peered through the crevice. The lantern,
 
 With the Lord President 191 
 
 dangling from a beam overhead, shone on 
 six men grouped beneath it, passing from 
 hand to hand a bull's-horn of spirits. I 
 knew them all, MacGillivray, O' Brady, 
 MacBean from Millburn, Sinclair, an Inver- 
 ness man, and two Frasers from Beauly. 
 As precious a set of brawling, hard-drinking 
 rakehellies, with a double-dealing villain 
 like O' Brady, as an honest man would 
 wish to give the width of the road to. 
 
 And what did this talk of the Lord 
 President mean ? 
 
 " Well, it's got to be done to-night," 
 said Sinclair, " the hunt is up for us, and 
 by this time to-morrow we will all have to 
 be out o' this and far away ! " 
 
 "Aye, or swing, by ! " cried MacBean. 
 
 " They nabbed Mclvor to-day in Baillie's ! " 
 
 " I would swing content, I think, if I had 
 the man who laid the trap for us, here, 
 under my hand, for one minute," growled 
 Sinclair, with an oath. " The red-coats 
 were searching every tavern when I slipped 
 away this afternoon ! "
 
 192 Some Gentlemen who have Business 
 
 " This talk is useless, and time is passing," 
 said O' Brady. ' The question is, how are 
 we to get to this place, Bunchrew, which, 
 I understand, is on the other side of the 
 town ? " 
 
 " Easy enough," said another ; ' the 
 river is low, we can ford it above the town, 
 pick up the horses at Muirton, ride to 
 Bunchrew, and before dawn be well on 
 the road to the Master watching Fort 
 Augustus." 
 
 " And what are we to do with Duncan 
 
 Forbes when we get him ? " asked another. 
 
 Hardly daring to breathe, I pressed my 
 
 ear to the crevice to catch the answer to this. 
 
 ' You heard what was said. We will 
 
 finish with him at Bunchrew, and burn the 
 
 house over his -corpse!' 1 cried Sinclair 
 
 ferociously. 
 
 " But, look here," said MacGillivray, 
 " the word from Lo vat was to kidnap him." 
 
 " Aye, but accidents will hap C 
 
 What was that ? " 
 My blood running cold with horror, I had
 
 With the Lord President 193 
 
 risen to my knees to creep out. I had clean 
 forgotten my horse, and the poor brute, 
 hearing me move, had given a loud whinny 
 that sounded like the crack of doom. 
 
 In an instant there was a rush of feet, 
 and before I could clear the door or draw 
 my rapier, I was caught, tripped, flung to 
 the floor with two or three ruffians on me, 
 and a hand feeling for a grip on my throat. 
 
 " Bring the light ! " cried one. 
 
 I was rudely plucked to my feet and the 
 lantern held to my face. 
 
 " Stuart ! " they all cried, and stared at 
 me in amazement. 
 
 They all looked at my horse, and one of 
 them said, " Yes, and heard every word 
 that was said in there ! " A chill silence 
 fell at that, and if ever I saw murder in 
 men's eyes it was then. 
 
 The first to speak was O'Brady. He 
 looked pale and ill. " This is quite a 
 surprise, Mr. Stuart," said he with a cruel 
 grin, " and it seems the bad luck is with 
 you this time ! " 
 13
 
 194 Some Gentlemen who have Business 
 
 " I am feeling a bit surprised myself, at 
 seeing you, and at your success in still 
 running with the hare and hunting with 
 the hounds," said I, mustering up all my 
 courage to meet what looked like certain 
 death within the next few minutes. 
 
 The others still looked on me in grim 
 silence. 
 
 " Is it possible," said I, " that you don't 
 know this man for a Hanoverian spy, and 
 that he tried to murder Ker in Paris ? ' 
 
 " Spy here or spy there, O' Brady has 
 explained all that," cried Sinclair ; " but I 
 saw you ride into Inverness with Loudon 
 to-day, after being closeted with him for 
 an hour at Clachnaharry ! " 
 
 " Then," cried O'Brady, " this is the one 
 that peached, and the man you were wishing 
 you could meet a short time ago ! " 
 
 " If this is the man, here goes ! " snarled 
 MacBean, plucking a pistol out of his belt. 
 
 " Would you do murder at that man's 
 bidding ? " I cried. " Whatever happened 
 to-day was not through me ! " and clutching
 
 With the Lord President 195 
 
 at a straw, I told them in words I cannot 
 recall what passed between Lord Loudon 
 and me, and the nature of my message to 
 Alturlie. 
 
 MacGillivray thrust himself in front of 
 MacBean. " I believe what Stuart says is 
 the truth ; he is no spy at all events. Put 
 up that barker, MacBean. I'm no' in wi' 
 killing him ! " 
 
 " Ye would leave him go wi' all he has 
 heard to-night ? " said Sinclair. 
 
 " No, but we can truss him up and leave 
 him here ! " said MacGillivray. 
 
 " And when he's loosed by the first to 
 pass here in the morning, what then ? " 
 cried someone. 
 
 MacGillivray, who seemed to be the leader 
 of the party, laughed, and turning to the 
 speaker, said : " Bah, what does it matter 
 what happens in the morning ? We'll 
 all be far enough away by then ! " 
 
 ' You are fools ! " said O' Brady, scowling 
 at them, " and the time will come when you 
 will rue letting this dog go."
 
 196 Some Gentlemen who have Business 
 
 " Maybe we are fools ; how much so, 
 perhaps no one knows better than your- 
 self ! " said MacGillivray, looking hard 
 at O' Brady, whereupon the other turned 
 away. 
 
 " Unbuckle the reins off that bridle, one 
 o' ye," ordered MacGillivray. 
 
 Except O' Brady and MacBean, who was 
 half-drunk, I believe the others were not 
 sorry at the turn things had taken. They 
 bound me with my own sword-belt and reins 
 and laid me in a corner of the stable. 
 
 " Here ! " said MacGillivray, holding the 
 bulTs-horn to my lips. " I believe ye'll 
 be owing me a day in harvest, Stuart ! " 
 
 I drank deep of the brandy, for I was 
 feeling the need of it. "If ever that day 
 comes I'll not forget this ! " said I. 
 
 " Well, ye never can tell ! " said he with 
 a wild kind of laugh. " Come ! " he cried, 
 " we have lost time enough ! " 
 
 And that was the last I ever saw of them. 
 They all crowded out, and presently I heard 
 them plunging along the road to Inverness.
 
 XI V How I Carried the News to the Lord 
 
 President 
 
 THE good brandy sent the warm blood back 
 to my heart, and as the sound of their 
 footsteps were lost in the storm I began 
 to think of the Lord President and the 
 deadly peril he stood in. And the thought 
 of that, and what might yet be done if a man 
 was free, nerved me to bend every ounce 
 of strength in my body to the loosening 
 of my bonds. See now what it was to 
 be the best swordsman of my day in the 
 Regiment of Picardy a skill I thanked 
 God for that night, though never did I 
 reckon on it serving me in this way. Far 
 beyond the ordinary, the years of practice 
 had made this right arm and wrist of mine 
 strong and supple as a good Toledo blade. 
 I rolled there in the dark, twisting myself 
 about this way and that, and after ten 
 minutes of desperate straining and tugging, 
 
 197
 
 198 How I Carried the News 
 
 felt the rain-sodden leather stretch, and 
 at last, the sweat running down my face 
 and faint with the furious struggle, I stood 
 up unbound. 
 
 Without waiting to draw my breath, I 
 set off, running my hardest in the dark, 
 rainy night, stumbling and falling in the 
 mire and puddles, and within half an hour 
 stood beneath Joan's window, where a light 
 showed, though all the rest of the house 
 was in darkness. 
 
 I flung a handful of gravel scraped off the 
 path, and at the second try the window 
 was opened and she looked out. 
 
 " Joan," I cried softly, " this is Simon 
 here ; for God's sake come down and let 
 me in ! " 
 
 The window was hurriedly shut ; in a 
 minute or two, she opened the door, and I 
 staggered past her and sat down fairly 
 spent. 
 
 She followed me without a word, and 
 lighting two or three candles, stared at me 
 in open-eyed affright. No wonder ; I got
 
 To the Lord President 199 
 
 a start myself, on catching my reflection 
 in a mirror. My face was white and bleeding 
 from a cut on the cheek, plastered with my 
 black wet hair, and from head to foot my 
 soaking clothes were spattered with mire. 
 
 Pulling myself together, noting even in 
 that moment she was fully dressed and her 
 eyes red as though she had been crying, said 
 I : ' Joan, does your zeal for the Stuarts 
 go the length of condoning murder ? ' 
 
 " Are you mad ? " said she. " What on 
 earth will you be meaning ? You have 
 been set on ! Oh, why did you not stop 
 here when I asked you ? >; 
 
 " I mean this, and there is little time to 
 tell you all, but I overheard this night a plot 
 to murder Duncan Forbes ! " 
 
 " Oh Thighearn ! l Is this true, Simon ? " 
 she cried. 
 
 " It is this true ! " said I, striking the 
 table with my fist, " that if I cannot get to 
 Bunchrew before them to-night, the old 
 man that we know so well and was so kind 
 
 1 Gaelic for " Oh Lord ! "
 
 2OO How I Carried the News 
 
 to us when we were bairns will be dead, and 
 his death lying at our door ! " 
 
 Joan looking at me, her face white as a 
 sheet, started back, clasping her hands 
 together. " The lads are gone home these 
 three hours, Simon ; but we can saddle 
 another horse ! " 
 
 " A horse would be no use, I might be 
 stopped, and besides it would be too late. I 
 could make no speed in this darkness ! " 
 
 " Then what on earth is to be done ! " 
 she cried, wringing her hands. 
 
 " There is another way I have thought of 
 getting to Bunchrew before them, and that's 
 across the sea. The boat is at the old 
 place, hauled up on the beach I suppose, 
 but you can get me the mast and sail and 
 help me to launch her ! " 
 
 " But such a night as it is. Will you 
 listen to the wind ? " said Joan. 
 
 " I have been out in her in as bad 
 weather as this," said I ; " but if it was 
 blowing a hurricane I would try it. 
 
 " Now, Joan, time is passing. Get me a
 
 To the Lord President 201 
 
 cloak of Malcolm's and a mouthful of meat 
 and drink for I am minded I haven't 
 broke my fast since morning and I'll 
 be off across the firth ! " 
 
 Joan set meat and wine before me, and 
 as I satisfied my hunger I went over the 
 plan I had mapped out. I looked on the 
 clock, marvelling at the hour as the events 
 of the day flashed through my memory. 
 It yet wanted half an hour to midnight. 
 The tide would be coming in, and high 
 water at two in the morning. With the 
 tide to help me and this wind from the N.E., 
 there was every chance, barring accidents, 
 of my reaching Bunchrew first. For, by 
 land, the way the conspirators would go, 
 they would have to travel in the dark on 
 foot part of the way, some twelve miles, 
 whereas my way, it would be little more 
 than half that distance. As a set-off to 
 this, they had an hour's start of me, and 
 with that thought I sprang to my feet. 
 
 I put on the cloak Joan had brought 
 me, and wrapping something round her,
 
 2O2 How 1 Carried the News 
 
 together we went out to the dark, windy 
 beach. She got me the mast and little 
 lug sail, and we dragged the boat down the 
 shingle and got her afloat. 
 
 " Simon," cried Joan, steadying the boat 
 as I stepped the mast, and hauled up the 
 wildly flapping lug, " it's awful to see ye 
 setting out by your lone on a night like 
 this. Would ye not wait while I run for 
 one of the men to go with you ? " 
 
 ' There's no time, even if you could get 
 one ; and besides, there's the reason that 
 this had better be kept to ourselves. If it 
 gets about, I might have some of the Lovat 
 lads lying for me behind a dyke." 
 
 ' Would you not take me with you ? " 
 she cried, clutching my arm. 
 
 I had only to say the word, for the lass 
 was as brave as steel ; but, "No, no," I 
 cried, " you have done all a man could ask 
 of you, and if I have the luck to get there 
 in time, for all we are travelling different 
 roads, you will find, when you think of it, 
 this is the best night's work you ever did ! "
 
 To the Lord President 203 
 
 " Send a man for my horse, first thing in 
 the morning. Good night to you, Miss 
 Stuart, and thank you ! " 
 
 Giving the boat a shove I clambered in, 
 and taking a turn of the sheet round the 
 cleet, in a moment she heeled over to 
 the blast that struck her beyond the shelter 
 of the cove. 
 
 Boy and man, I have sailed the firth in all 
 weathers, but never at night in weather like 
 this. The boat, an old one, but light and 
 well built, leapt at the sea like a living 
 thing, and sped like a gull across the 
 stormy waters. There was a faint light 
 about me from the gleaming wave-crests, 
 but a boat's length was all I could see 
 ahead. 
 
 The course I set by guess-work for the 
 narrow entrance to the Beauly Firth. The 
 wind was fair on my quarter, and settling 
 down I watched with straining eyes for a 
 light that might serve as a guide. 
 
 What with the care of the boat and look- 
 ing out, I lost count of time, but in an
 
 204 How I Carried the News 
 
 incredibly short space I saw a greater 
 darkness ahead, and knew it to be the 
 great bulk looming up of the Ord Hill. 
 And soon I could tell by the shape of it that 
 I was too far to the north. Altering my 
 course, I swept into the Beauly Firth, 
 missing Craigton Point by a stone's-throw. 
 Now, save for the danger of being swamped 
 by the heavy tide running west, the worst 
 part of the sea was past. It is only a mile 
 wide here, and for guides I had the lights 
 of North and South Kessock. 
 
 Crossing to the south side in a long slant, 
 and then along close in shore, I ran the 
 boat aground at the nearest point I could 
 judge to the President's house. 
 
 The high road from Inverness winds along 
 the shore, and familiar with every turn of it, 
 dark as it was, I found myself about two 
 hundred yards east of my destination. 
 
 The rushing of the wind and the thresh 
 of the rain among the trees sounded like 
 the roar of surf breaking on the beach as I 
 ran along the road and hammered on the
 
 To the Lord President 205 
 
 door of the silent house. At last a light 
 showed, someone stirred within, and the 
 door was opened an inch or two on the 
 chain. 
 
 ' Who is there ? " called a voice. 
 
 " Stuart of Clunes, with an important 
 message for his lordship. Let me in, Mac- 
 Alister ! " said I, recognising the voice of 
 the President's butler. 
 
 The door was opened wide enough for 
 me to pass, and once inside, said I, " Bar 
 the door, and tell your master I must have 
 instant speech with him." 
 
 " But my lord is in bed hours past," said 
 the butler, staring at my wild appearance 
 and dripping clothes. 
 
 " Go, man ! " said I, putting a hand on 
 his shoulder, " I have just sailed a boat 
 across the firth. Do you think I did that 
 for diversion ? Rouse your master, and 
 say it is perhaps a matter of life and death, 
 and will not bear a minute's delay ! " 
 
 He hurried away without another word 
 and very shortly came downstairs followed
 
 206 How I Carried the News 
 
 by my lord in night-cap and dressing- 
 gown. 
 
 " What is this, Stuart ? " said he. " Man, 
 ye look as if ye came out of the firth ! " 
 
 " I have come across the firth, from 
 Alturlie ! " said I. 
 
 " On such a night ! " he cried. " If I did 
 not know ye for one of the sane men left 
 in the country-side, I would say ye were 
 mad. But not another word till ye take 
 something to warm ye. MacAlister, bring 
 brandy and hot water ! " 
 
 I had my story told before the butler 
 came back. When I came to the end with 
 my sail across the sea, he stood with his 
 back to the fire looking at me beneath his 
 puckered brows. 
 
 MacAlister brought in a tray of decanters 
 and glasses flanked by a silver jug of hot 
 water and a sugar-bowl. Duncan Forbes 
 mixed me a jorum himself. 
 
 " Mr. Stuart," said he, when I set the 
 empty glass down, " the hand of Provi- 
 dence is surely in this. It was my intention
 
 To the Lord President 207 
 
 and arrangements had been made for my 
 return to Culloden House yesterday. They 
 were changed at the last moment. And to 
 think," he added, as if talking to himself, 
 ' I was to go on to Beaufort in the morn- 
 ing. Kidnap me, and he would have it all 
 his own way in the north, for well he knows 
 it is my hand that is holding them back." 
 
 " How many men are there in the house, 
 my lord ? " said I, breaking in on him. 
 
 He looked at MacAlister waiting by 
 the door, who replied : " There will be 
 just myself and the maids, my lord ! " 
 
 " In that case," said I, " we can make no 
 stand against six, perhaps more, desperate 
 men. You must leave the house. I would 
 advise you, sir, that we are wasting precious 
 time. They may be here any minute ! " 
 
 ' I will make ready instantly, Stuart ; 
 but what about the servants, and where 
 can we go ? We will meet the villains on 
 the road if we take horses to Inverness." 
 
 To all of which I replied : " The servants 
 will come to no harm. It is only yourself
 
 208 How I Carried the News 
 
 that is in danger. As for riding, that 
 is out of the question. So I suggest you 
 wrap yourself up, my lord, and I will 
 undertake to land you at South Kessock 
 within the hour ! " 
 
 " Come, MacAlister, and help me to dress," 
 said the President, hurrying from the room. 
 " I will be with you in ten minutes, Stuart." 
 
 I helped myself to a glass of punch and 
 stood by the window listening, and trying 
 to pierce the darkness outside until my lord 
 came back, wrapped to the eyes. 
 
 Bidding MacAlister show us out by a 
 back door, we slipped through the silent 
 house. 
 
 ' You will warn the servants, MacAlister, 
 and when these men come, tell them your 
 master was called back to Inverness, say 
 three hours ago ; and for a last word, see 
 there is no mention of my name in it ! " 
 
 With that I took the President's arm, 
 for he was an old man. We crossed the 
 road, and keeping well into the trees, 
 stumbled along towards the boat. We had
 
 To the Lord President 209 
 
 nearly reached there, when, above the 
 swishing and creaking of the trees about 
 us, came the quick patter of hard-ridden 
 horses. They galloped past, close enough 
 for me to touch them with outstretched 
 arm. 
 
 We listened for a moment, and the 
 galloping ceased. 
 
 " Come, my lord," said I, hurrying him 
 down to the boat. " You see they have lost 
 no time ! " 
 
 Pushing the boat off, we looked back and 
 saw lights about Bunchrew House. 
 
 Within the hour, as promised, I landed 
 the Lord President at Kessock, none the 
 worse, bar a drooking from the rain and 
 sea-spray. We roused the inn, and after 
 the gaping landlord had brought us brandy 
 and water and went away for a coach to 
 take us to the town, says my lord : ' It is 
 possible I will be owing ye my life, Stuart," 
 and gravely gave me his hand. 
 
 Hardly another word did Duncan Forbes 
 say to me, but sat waiting for the coach, 
 14
 
 2io How I Carried the News 
 
 and twirling his glass by the stem. The 
 lines in his face set in a grim frown. I 
 believe I could put a name to his thoughts. 
 
 In the days to come I remembered this 
 picture of him sitting there, and I know that 
 night's work put an end to his friendship 
 and pleading with Simon, Lord Lovat. 
 It was open war between them after that. 
 
 Reaching the town, my lord very kindly 
 had me into the house, and very thankfully 
 I accepted the invitation to sleep there. 
 I went to bed feeling I had not lain in one 
 for a week, and the very last thing I have 
 mind of, before falling into a sleep, deep as 
 death, was the watch in the street below 
 my window crying : " Power o'clock, and a 
 could, wet, stormy morning ! "
 
 XV I Breakfast With my Lord Loudon and the 
 President, and Make a Poor Meal of It 
 
 A SERVING-MAN moving about the room, 
 seeing I was awake, told me the hour was 
 ten, and his honour would be glad to have 
 my company at breakfast. 
 
 He brought my clothes dried and cleaned, 
 and hot water for shaving, whereupon 
 I dressed, feeling a trifle stiff, and went 
 downstairs. 
 
 My lord stood with his back to the fire, 
 behind a table set for breakfast ; but I did 
 not look to find him talking with my Lord 
 Loudon there. 
 
 Here were the two men upon whose 
 shoulders rested the heavy task, and small 
 was their thanks in after-days, of keeping 
 quiet the clans that had not yet declared 
 themselves, Duncan Forbes doing his work 
 with shrewd, kindly, patient persuasion ; 
 Loudon, hard, ruthless man, by terror. 
 
 211
 
 212 / Breakfast With my Lord London 
 
 The conversation stopped and both gen- 
 tlemen looked up as I entered the room, 
 vaguely discomforted at the sight of Loudon. 
 
 ' Well, Stuart ! " said Duncan Forbes, 
 coming round the table and giving me his 
 hand very heartily, " I am glad to see you 
 looking none the worse for last night's 
 adventure." 
 
 " I hope, my lord, you are none the worse 
 yourself," said I. 
 
 " Indeed then, very little I think, thanks 
 to you. I have been telling the story to 
 my Lord Loudon here. I believe you 
 are already known to one another." 
 
 I bowed to his lordship, who nodded his 
 head, his grim face breaking into a smile. 
 " I have the pleasure of knowing Mr. 
 Stuart," said he. 
 
 A footman came in with a tray of dishes, 
 and when we were seated and the man gone, 
 said Duncan Forbes : " His lordship has 
 a proposal for your consideration, Stuart." 
 
 " The proposal," said Loudon, catching 
 the ball, " arises out of your very brave and
 
 And Make a Poor Meal of It 213 
 
 loyal conduct last night, and to which 
 I am convinced my lord the President owes 
 his life." 
 
 " I cannot bring myself to think they 
 would have gone that length, Loudon," said 
 the President, wagging his head. 
 
 Said Loudon, turning to me : " The trouble 
 with the President is, that he is slow to 
 believe evil of any man, whereas I am as 
 sure as I am sitting here that this plan was 
 hatched in Beaufort, and those villains 
 you so fortunately frustrated intended 
 nothing short of murder." 
 
 I might have satisfied both gentlemen 
 that Loudon was probably correct so far as 
 one or two of the rascals were concerned. 
 But now the danger was past, and having, 
 in my story to the President, left out the 
 more sinister words I had heard from 
 Sinclair, I could see no good in telling them 
 now. God knows, there was likely to be 
 enough bad blood between highland men for 
 many a day to come without my adding to it. 
 
 So I shook my head, saying : "I over-
 
 214 I Breakfast With my Lord London 
 
 heard all that was said, and there was no 
 word of anything beyond kidnapping my 
 lord, and keeping him out of the way for a 
 while ! " 
 
 " Huh ! " growled Loudon, looking hard 
 at the President, " you see, there is no 
 doubt where the orders came from. Your 
 friend, Simon, has a weakness in that 
 direction x ; but this brings him to the 
 end of his tether ! " the harsh voice grated. 
 " I will take instant measures, and if 
 Lovat gets any more rope it will be to his 
 craig ! 
 
 " And now, Mr. Stuart, here is what I 
 would say to ye. You have shown by your 
 conduct, since you came home, that you 
 are among those who have preserved their 
 sanity in the wave of madness that has 
 swept over this part of the country. On 
 the occasion of our last meeting you will 
 remember I asked if you were of the mind to 
 help us ? " 
 
 1 It is common talk in the highlands that the chief 
 of the Frasers kidnapped the lady he married.
 
 And Make a Poor Meal of It 215 
 
 " I do, my lord," said I, " and I believe 
 your offer contained a hint that the help 
 you would require of me would be in the 
 nature of spying upon my friends ! " 
 
 " Well, well," said he, frowning at his 
 plate, " I believe I did suggest something 
 of the kind, and I regret it " he bowed to 
 me " but now I offer you a commission as 
 an officer in the service of His Majesty the 
 King ! " 
 
 So far I had taken very little breakfast, 
 though I had sat down to that table 
 hard set. Well, I had all the breakfast I 
 wanted now, as I searched my brain for 
 words to decline this offer, and in so doing 
 give as little offence as possible. 
 
 " My lord, I thank you for your good 
 opinion of me ! " said I, " and the offer, but 
 when, with all respect, I beg to decline it " 
 London's face set like granite " I ask 
 you to consider my position here ! " 
 
 " Your position here, sir, is no different 
 to mine, or Culloden's there, or any other 
 man who has the welfare of his country at
 
 216 / Breakfast With my Lord London 
 
 heart. I must tell you, Mr. Stuart, that in 
 a time like this there is no middle course for 
 honest men, and your refusal to consider 
 this offer leaves your conduct open to 
 suspicion, to say the least of it." 
 
 " My lord," said I, beginning to lose my 
 temper, "it ill becomes me to refer to it, 
 but surely my conduct since I came home, 
 that you have been kind enough to com- 
 mend, places me above the suspicion you 
 hint at ! " 
 
 " Don't forget, Mr. Stuart, that, had it 
 not been for you, a most dangerous Jacobite 
 spy would have been laid by the heels, with 
 documents that might have been more 
 valuable to us than a victory on the field of 
 battle ! " 
 
 I felt the ground slipping from under my 
 feet. " I had no knowledge of what the 
 man was carrying. I only saw a fellow- 
 countryman in a strange land in peril of his 
 life ! " said I. 
 
 " A dear mistake for us, for which I 
 offer you a way of making amends."
 
 And Make a Poor Meal of It 217 
 
 I turned to Culloden : "I have only one 
 or two friends left to me now, as matters 
 stand. How many will I have if I take this 
 commission ? " 
 
 " Refuse it, and the mistake you made 
 may be a perilous one ! " Loudon cried. 
 
 ' If this is the way to treat a man doing, 
 in his own humble way, what my lord 
 the President is doing in his, I might as 
 well " I hesitated for a moment. 
 
 ' What ? " cried Loudon, leaning across 
 the table. 
 
 " Trying to keep the peace," said I, 
 recollecting who I was talking to. 
 
 " You had passed beyond that, Mr. 
 Stuart ; you were saying that you might 
 as well " 
 
 " Gently, gently, Loudon ! " said Duncan 
 Forbes, holding up his hand ; "ye make a 
 bad recruiting sergeant ! " 
 
 " There is such a thing, Mr. Stuart, as a 
 loyal subject's duty to his King ! " said 
 Loudon, frowning heavily at me, with 
 drawn brows.
 
 21 8 / Breakfast With my Lord London 
 
 " Ah yes, my lord," said I, " but then 
 it would be my duty to turn my sword 
 against my own flesh and blood. You, 
 my lords, are great gentlemen dealing with 
 high affairs of state. I am a simple man 
 who can only follow what his conscience 
 tells him. I can appreciate your position, 
 my lords ; I beg of you to try and see mine. 
 This miserable rebellion will be crushed 
 as a soldier I see that ; but afterwards, if I 
 accept your offer and live, what will be my 
 life here ? I will be the scorn of old friends 
 and foes alike ! " 
 
 In my excitement I had risen from my 
 chair, when, " There, there ! " said Duncan 
 Forbes, clapping his hand on my shoulder, 
 " sit ye down, Stuart ; if Loudon does not 
 understand ye, I do, and ye need say no 
 more about it. I told ye how it would 
 be, Loudon, and, damme ! " he added with 
 a chuckle, " if I were forty years younger 
 I might be out with the kilts and clay- 
 mores myself." 
 
 The Lord only knows what might have
 
 And Make a Poor Meal of It 219 
 
 been said only for the diversion caused 
 by this piece of good-nature on the part 
 of Culloden. 
 
 ' You are a pair of sentimental fools. 
 I am not sure which is the greater ! " 
 snarled my Lord Loudon, shaking his finger 
 at us. And, so saying, he rose from his 
 seat at the table, and turning his back on 
 us, walked to the fire. 
 
 ' Where will you be for the day, 
 Stuart ? " said the President, taking my arm 
 and convoying me to the street door. 
 
 I muttered something about a lame horse 
 at Alturlie. He turned with his hand on 
 the door. " Now ye'll not be cast down 
 by what his lordship said to ye. His 
 bark is worse than his bite ; but I would 
 add this, knowing better than he does 
 what influences may be at work on ye. 
 Mind, my son ! " said he, laying his hand 
 on my shoulder, " keep clear o' this thing. 
 That young man will fail, as his father 
 before him did. Many will hang high, 
 many's the head will moulder on a pike,
 
 22O I Breakfast With my Lord London 
 
 and the brunt of it will fall on this poor 
 land of ours. By keeping clear, the time 
 may come when ye may help to soften the 
 blow ! " 
 
 I bade Duncan Forbes good-morning, 
 and, having little recollection of walking 
 there, found myself at Baillie's, where I 
 called for a glass of brandy and a pipe and 
 tobacco, feeling the need of something to 
 soothe my mind.
 
 XVI I Ride to Make my Peace with Joan and 
 
 Fail 'Therein 
 
 I ORDERED the landlord to bring me some 
 breakfast, and having satisfied my hunger, 
 lit another pipe and sat pondering on my 
 interview with my Lord Loudon and the 
 President, and my own position, which, 
 taking all into consideration, was become 
 well-nigh impossible, and likely to become 
 altogether so if, in addition to making 
 myself an outcast among my own people, 
 I was to find myself under suspicion by 
 the other side. 
 
 Well, many a man in Scotland in the 
 year of grace 1745 found himself in a 
 like pickle, and seeing no solution to the 
 problem, I made up my mind to cross no 
 bridges until I came to them. 
 
 Calling for the reckoning, I sent to the 
 vennel for a horse. I had two things 
 needing attention, in order, if possible, to 
 
 221
 
 222 I Ride to Make my Peace with Joan 
 
 keep tongues from wagging. The first, 
 to get the boat back to Alturlie, and the 
 second, to ride out there, as no matter 
 how Joan and I might differ, she would be 
 anxious to know the outcome of my ad- 
 venture. So when the lad came with the 
 horse I sent him with a message to an old 
 seaman to sail the boat home. 
 
 I rode out by the Eastgate, only draw- 
 ing rein on my way to look in at the ruined 
 cottage. Two or three bits of reins on 
 the floor of the stable reminded me sharply 
 of my ordeal there. 
 
 Joan came to me quickly as I looked 
 out on the bowling-green. " I have ridden 
 out," said I, " thinking you would be 
 glad to know that I was entirely successful 
 last night." 
 
 " Oh, Simon, don't be standing there 
 talking to me like a schoolmaster reading 
 out a lesson, and me never closing an eye 
 all the night ! " said Joan. 
 
 Then in a softer voice, " Of course I 
 am glad, you might know that, and I
 
 And, Fail Therein 223 
 
 think it a very brave thing you did. Cullo- 
 den and the rest of them will be glad to 
 have you on their side," she added bitterly. 
 
 " Not yet," said I, thinking of the 
 breakfast I did not eat that morning. 
 
 ' Well, I suppose it will be only a 
 question of time till we see you marching 
 with the red-coats. A fine sight that for 
 folks, to see a Stuart of Alturlie in that 
 company ! " said Joan. 
 
 ' The folks that are looking for that 
 may train their eyesight. I march with 
 neither ! " said I. 
 
 " It will go hard with you, Simon, when 
 the King comes to his own again ! " 
 
 " Ah, when ! " said I. 
 
 " Do you know," said Joan, her eyes 
 shining with enthusiasm, " that the Prince 
 will soon be setting out with his army for 
 London ? " 
 
 " An army of a few thousand poorly 
 armed clansmen. I wonder at the way you 
 talk. Has Edinburgh, the old capital of 
 the Stuart Kings, risen in his favour ? I
 
 224 ^ R*de to Make my Peace with Joan 
 
 have heard no word of the lowlands flock- 
 ing to his standard, nor the English rising. 
 Joan, do you think I cut myself off from 
 all my friends here and quarrelled with 
 you for a whim ? If I had seen any sign 
 of the people wanting the Stuarts back 
 I would not be here, but outside of the 
 highlands not a man has risen. The people 
 have forgotten them, or remember the 
 old persecutions under the Stuarts, and I 
 tell you their day is past." 
 
 " It will be a good thing the Prince and 
 the men about him have stouter hearts 
 than some in the north here," said Joan, 
 tapping her foot on the floor. 
 
 " I understand what you would be 
 hinting at," said I, " but, stout heart or 
 faint heart, I have marched for days 
 through country-sides where naught was 
 to be seen but the blackened walls of 
 farms and villages, and the bones of the 
 people whitening the fields. God send 
 the like may never come here, but the 
 thought of that nerved me to do what I
 
 And Fail Therein 225 
 
 did last night, for I tell you the day is 
 coming when the highlands will be needing 
 men like Culloden ! " 
 
 I might have saved my breath to cool 
 my porridge. A man makes a mistake 
 in preaching to a maid like Joan. She 
 said nothing while I delivered my sermon, 
 but sat cold and proud, and I don't know 
 how she might have answered; but as I 
 finished came the scraping of horses reined 
 up on the gravel outside, and the voices 
 of men and women talking and laughing. 
 
 Rising to the window as Joan left the 
 room, I saw, dismounting at the door, Miss 
 Fraser of Foyers and her brother and 
 two other ladies with McKenzie of Kes- 
 sock, and Chisholm of Culduthel. All 
 leading lights in the League of the White 
 Cockade . Fraser, very handsomely dressed, 
 made an elaborate bow to Joan, saying 
 something that appeared to please her 
 vastly, and they all stood talking and 
 laughing very merrily. 
 
 " We are not your only visitors to-day ? " 
 15
 
 226 I Ride to Make my Peace with Joan 
 
 said Fraser, looking at the lad walking my 
 horse up and down. 
 
 " It will just be Mr. Stuart calling about 
 a horse he left here yesterday ! " said Joan 
 carelessly. I might have been a pack- 
 man. I did not wait to hear the answer, 
 but taking my hat came to the door. 
 
 " Will ye not stay for a dish of tea ? ' 
 said Joan, stepping aside. 
 
 " Thank you, cousin, but I believe I 
 will be getting back to Inverness," said I. 
 
 " Mr. Stuart took his breakfast with 
 Loudon and Culloden, it is likely he will 
 be taking his tea in the same company ! " 
 said Miss Fraser, smiling mischievously 
 at the others. 
 
 I might have known the news would 
 get about. 
 
 " Oh, you did not tell me that ! " said 
 Joan in high disdain. 
 
 ' We were talking of other matters ! " 
 said I. 
 
 " Och, you would not expect Mr. Stuart 
 to tell you what passed, high matters of
 
 And Fail 'Therein 227 
 
 state and so forth," said Fraser. " But 
 I suppose," said he, smiling triumphantly 
 and slapping his boot with his riding-whip, 
 " the conversation would turn for a while 
 on the march of the highland army into 
 England. It would be interesting to know 
 what the gentleman had to say to that ! " 
 
 I am always more at ease talking to 
 men. Turning to Fraser said I, "As it 
 happens, the conversation did not take 
 that turn, sir. If it had you may easily 
 guess the answer ! " 
 
 "Faith, I don't know that I could," 
 said Fraser. 
 
 ' We might have expressed a hope that 
 the clans will find the same ease in getting 
 out. Personally I have my doubts on that 
 point ! " 
 
 I had mounted my horse and was about 
 to turn away, but pulled up, taken with 
 the giggle of these fools, and what appeared 
 to me, in the mood I was in, a contemptuous 
 smile on Fraser's lips. Very handsome did 
 Joan look, and keenly in that moment I
 
 228 / Ride to Make my Peace with Joan 
 
 felt the disadvantage that was mine, as 
 I looked on Fraser standing, with what 
 appeared to me an air of possession, at 
 her side. He was all that I was not, in 
 the eyes of a woman. An easy gentleman 
 in their company, a splendid figure of a 
 man, tall, fair-haired, handsome, blue- 
 eyed, with a quick wit and a neat compli- 
 ment ever at the tip of his tongue. How 
 he must loom in the eye of Joan ! 
 
 I stared at him steadily with black, 
 envious rage in my heart rage at Joan, 
 rage at all the world. Brave as steel, a 
 pretty gentleman, yet knowing well he 
 would be at my feet in half a dozen passes, 
 Fraser looked me squarely in the face. A 
 minute I sat on my horse, with I know 
 not what words calculated to sting him 
 forming in my brain. Then, with a shiver 
 as though the air had grown chill, I looked 
 at Joan, and the evil thought passed. 
 
 Gathering up my reins, I bowed to the 
 silent company, and rode slowly away.
 
 XVII I am of Some Assistance to Simon, Lord 
 
 Lovat 
 
 A YOUNG man deep in love with a maid 
 who has just cast him off may think, as 
 I did riding home from Alturlie that even- 
 ing, that nothing much worth while is 
 left for him in life. My horse, better of 
 a sprained shoulder, followed me to Clunes 
 with never a message. I gave the lad 
 who brought him a polite note of thanks 
 to take back, and that I thought was the 
 end of all between Joan and me. 
 
 Yet, when one comes to think, it is 
 curious, if a man be sane in mind, and hale 
 and sound of wind and limb, how small a 
 space in the day the very worst of our 
 troubles takes up after the first bitter 
 wrench is over. There are the common 
 everyday cares of life, the matters of 
 eating and sleeping, the getting up and 
 lying down, and a man's work, the great 
 
 229
 
 230 I am of Some Assistance to Simon 
 
 cure and solace for most ills in this world. 
 And of work there was plenty at Clunes. 
 The harvest had been an abundant one 
 that year; the root crops were still to be 
 lifted, the sheep to be brought home from 
 the hills to the low ground against the 
 winter, hedges to be mended, ditches 
 to be cleaned out, and the thousand and 
 one things on a farm that are neglected 
 during harvest-time, that need tending 
 before winter sets in. 
 
 All these matters kept us busy and my 
 mind occupied. So November passed and 
 winter was come with hard frosts, and the 
 peeweets and golden plovers, driven from 
 the hills by the bitter weather, were 
 gathered in flocks feeding along the beach. 
 
 In all this time I had gone no farther 
 than the inn at Bogroy, which stands east 
 a mile from Clunes on the road to Beauly. 
 
 Being now, in a manner of speaking, 
 cut off from the world, no news came to 
 me of what was going on in the south 
 country. Nor could I gather much at
 
 Lord Lovat 231 
 
 Bogroy, which being a halting-place for 
 drovers and cattle-dealers, a sort of half- 
 way house between the great cattle market 
 at the Muir of Ord, and Inverness, is 
 generally a main place for news. 
 
 To be sure I knew of the march of the 
 clans into England, but for all that I 
 could learn of the fortunes of the Prince 
 and his army, they might have marched 
 off to another planet. But on a day in 
 December, when the hard frost of that 
 winter had been with us for three weeks, 
 and when, for lack of company, I was 
 smoking a pipe with the landlord at Bog- 
 roy, there came a stir on the road to Beauly. 
 We were called to the door by the rub- 
 a-dub of drums and the wail of pipes. A 
 column of infantry marched by, headed 
 by my Lord Loudon himself, looking 
 dour and black as thunder. Marking the 
 files as they swung past, nine hundred 
 men I reckoned, made up of MacKenzies, 
 MacLeods, and two full companies of 
 red-coats.
 
 232 / am of Some Assistance to Simon 
 
 I had to wait until the next day for 
 the meaning of this display of force. The 
 column passed Clunes on their return 
 march to Inverness. A great coach lum- 
 bered along in the centre of the column, 
 and in it sat Simon of Lovat and Gor- 
 tuleg, the chief's right-hand man. 
 
 That night Janet, bringing in my supper, 
 told me of Lovat living in his own house 
 in the town, whither I suppose Loudon 
 had brought him to have the old chief 
 under his eye. 
 
 For some days, going about Clunes, I 
 amused myself picturing the plotting and 
 intrigue going on under London's nose in 
 that house of my Lord Lo vat's, which 
 was a very rabbit-warren for back doors. 
 Soon though, things began to look serious. 
 A word or two picked up here and there 
 from travellers to the west led me to 
 think there was that in my Lord Loudon's 
 head likely to prove anything but amusing 
 for Simon of Lovat. 
 
 So, curious to learn what I could of the
 
 Lord Lovat 233 
 
 truth of the business, on the twentieth 
 day of the month I rode into Inverness. 
 And as a spur to my curiosity, riding up 
 the Bridge Street, I marked a guard of 
 red-coats posted at Lovat's door. 
 
 Stabling my horse in the vennel, I 
 walked down to the bridge. McRimmon, 
 if anybody, would know what was afoot. 
 I found him at the river end of the street, 
 talking with one or two merchants, and 
 gathered from the conversation that the 
 guard had only been posted that morning. 
 
 " And what's come ower ye this long 
 time, Simon ? '" says McRimmon, as we 
 walked down to the house, " and what 
 will be the meaning o' yon, think ye ?" 
 
 " I am here seeking information. What 
 do you know of this business of Lord 
 Lovat's yourself ? Some queer stories are 
 going about, McRimmon," said I. 
 
 " It's easy seeing ye are no' often in 
 Inverness, Simon. Hae ye no* heard o' 
 the disarming ? " said he. 
 
 " Ye see, it's this way. Lovat got the
 
 234 I am t S me Assistance to Simon 
 
 orders to disarm the clan weeks ago, and 
 he kept putting them off and putting them 
 off, until now all the Fraser lads are off 
 wi' the young maister ! " 
 
 " Then it's not very likely Loudon has 
 got the arms ! " said I. 
 
 " Arms ! " chuckled McRimmon. " It's 
 just a joke. Aboot a dozen old firelocks 
 that micht have been used by the lads 
 in the '15 have been given up, that's 
 the disarming ! " 
 
 Said I, " It would seem that Lord Loudon 
 bringing the chief in has some difficulty 
 in seeing the joke ! " 
 
 " Ah, weel," says McRimmon, refreshing 
 himself with a pinch of snuff, " what can 
 he do ? The lads are gone and the arms 
 wi' them. The door is locked, but the 
 horse is gone ! " 
 
 " For a man whom I was given to under- 
 stand is keeping his feet clear of politics 
 ye seem to be pretty well informed on 
 what is passing ! " said I, taking a chair. 
 
 " Och ! " says McRimmon, setting out
 
 Lord Lovat 235 
 
 the wine and glasses, " the disarming is 
 common town talk, but I will be hearing 
 bits o' news now and then, o' others that 
 are no' keeping their feet so clear ; aboot 
 a lad that crossed the firth on a dark 
 night no' so long ago, for instance. Weel, 
 here's to him," nodding his head at me 
 and gravely taking off his wine. 
 
 " So the news of that has got about, and 
 another black mark against me ! " said I. 
 
 " How could ye think such a thing 
 would be kept a secret," said McRimmon, 
 " wi' a lass and servants and the inn- 
 keeper at Kessock ah* in it ? But as for 
 a black mark against ye, I would not say 
 that ye are a daring deevil, Simon. 
 Faith, I mind the night it was lying in 
 my bed listening to the wind. The Erasers 
 micht be having it in for ye, but barring 
 them, no man, woman, or bairn would 
 wish any harm to come to Duncan Forbes 
 o' Culloden ! " 
 
 ' Well, it seems the Frasers have got 
 something else to think about now," said
 
 236 / am of Some Assistance to Simon 
 
 I, " with their chief a prisoner in his own 
 house ! " 
 
 " Och, what can Loudon do wi' the 
 old lord ? The clan is up and away ! " says 
 McRimmon. 
 
 ' There's no telling what my Lord Lou- 
 don can do ! " said I, " but from what I 
 know of him, he might find a way of turn- 
 ing the joke, as you call it, into something 
 very different for Simon, Lord Lovat." 
 
 There was a new saddle to order and 
 one or two other matters, and merchants 
 to see, so I left McRimmon, promising 
 to call in on him on my way home. 
 
 From one cause or another, so much 
 time was taken up that the hour was late 
 and the bridges closed long since when I 
 was free to call on McRimmon, intending 
 to ask him to put me up for the night. 
 
 The chain was on the door and I rapped 
 with the butt of my riding- whip. Mc- 
 Rimmon himself answered. 
 
 "Is it you that's in it, Simon, is there 
 anybody wi' ye ? ' said he, holding up
 
 Lord Lovat 237 
 
 the candle and peering out. " I thocht 
 ye would be home hours ago. What's 
 brocht ye here at this time o' the nicht ? ' 
 
 " Aye, it's me that's in it, McRimmon, 
 and there's nobody with me. As for 
 what brought me, am I to tell you here 
 on the door-step, and the cold like to freeze 
 a man to the marrow ? 
 
 ' What's gone wrong with you, Mc- 
 Rimmon ? ' said I, for the old lawyer 
 still held the door, as if undecided whether 
 to let me in or shut it in my face. 
 
 " Och, aye to be sure, Simon ; come in, 
 man, come in ! " said he, unhooking the 
 chain, and the moment I crossed the door 
 he shut it and put the chain up again. 
 
 ' What the deuce is wrong with you ? " 
 said I again, for this was not the usual, 
 ready, cool McRimmon standing with his 
 back to the chained door, the candlestick 
 wabbling in his fist, but a man in a state 
 of uncommon excitement and indecision. 
 
 ' Well, ye see, Simon," he quavered, his 
 eyes straying to the door of his private
 
 238 I am of Some Assistance to Simon 
 
 room, " I I will be having unexpected 
 company to-night, and " 
 
 " Oh, if that's the case, McRimmon, I 
 can get a bed at Baillie's," said I. 
 
 " No, no, ye needna go, Simon ; but wait 
 ye here ; ye will excuse me a minute," 
 said he, putting the candlestick on a table. 
 
 He trotted away to his private office, 
 and standing there wondering what all 
 the whispering and mysterious conduct 
 of McRimmon meant, I heard a man say, 
 " If that's the sort of man he is, we might 
 ask him. It can do no harm, at any rate." 
 
 At that McRimmon came out. ' There's 
 a gentleman here, Simon, that would 
 like a word wi' ye ! " 
 
 I followed him, feeling in my bones 
 that I was to hear of some Jacobite busi- 
 ness ; all the same I was surprised to find 
 four men seated at McRimmon's table, 
 all Frasers, one of them Gortuleg himself. 
 
 I drew back for a moment with my hand 
 on my hilt, a wild thought in my head 
 that McRimmon had led me into a trap.
 
 Lord Lovat 239 
 
 Gortuleg, a tall, strong, handsome man 
 in tartan trews, rose and held out his 
 hand, saying, " Though we may not see 
 eye to eye with Mr. Stuart, it is always 
 an honour to meet a brave man ! " 
 
 I bowed to this, wondering what was 
 coming next as he made me known to 
 the others. 
 
 ' To be frank with you, Mr. Stuart," 
 said Gortuleg when we were seated, " your 
 coming here at this moment, and from 
 what we know of ye, has decided me to 
 ask your help in a matter of pressing 
 importance ! " 
 
 I could have laughed only for the deadly 
 seriousness with which he regarded me. 
 " That is a strange thing to ask of me, 
 sir, seeing you appear to know what I 
 think of the rising. I need hardly ask 
 if it will be in connection with Lord 
 Lovat ? " said I. 
 
 " It is. I understand what is in your 
 mind, Mr. Stuart," said Gortuleg, ' but 
 this is not an attempt to ask you to join
 
 240 / am of Some Assistance to Simon 
 
 in any plan against the Hanoverian forces. 
 I tell you, on my honour, that if the Lord 
 President himself were in Inverness, which 
 most unfortunately he is not, the situation 
 would not have arisen, and if it had, he 
 would approve of what we would do ! ' 
 
 There is no denying I was impressed 
 with Gortuleg's manner. His voice shook 
 with emotion, and a deep murmur of 
 assent came from the others. 
 
 " I am still in the dark, sir," said I ; 
 " but before you tell me more, may I say 
 that surely it is strange your asking me, 
 of all men in Inverness, when you might 
 find so many others only too ready to 
 help." 
 
 " I know, sir, I know ; but time presses, 
 the streets are full of patrols, none of 
 us here but my good friend McRimmon 
 and yourself know the town, and where 
 are we to find the help that we need ? " 
 said Gortuleg, rising from his chair and 
 taking a pace or two about the room. 
 " Where," said he, resting his hands on
 
 Lord Lovat 241 
 
 the table and looking at me, his brow 
 puckered with anxiety, " when perhaps it 
 is a case of minutes, or at the uttermost 
 an hour or two. For, if the life of my lord 
 is to be saved, what we have to do must 
 be done long before the dawn of another 
 day ! " 
 
 " Oh yes, Mr. Stuart," said he, in answer 
 to my look of astonishment, " that is 
 what I mean, no less. You would see the 
 guards at my lord's door. I have it, sir 
 no need for me to tell you how, the infor- 
 mation is certain that he is to be taken 
 to the Fort, and, once there, my lord is a 
 dead man ! ' 
 
 Whether Loudon had the power to take 
 such extreme measures with a man of 
 Lovat's rank was beyond me to say ; but 
 on his shoulders and on the Lord President's 
 lay the heavy task of holding back the 
 clans that had not yet come out. There 
 was the MacLeod. He was one of those 
 at the meeting of the chiefs at Beaufort. 
 A feather thrown into the scale might 
 16
 
 242 / am of Some Assistance to Simon 
 
 turn the balance there, and send the 
 MacLeod and his thousand claymores and 
 many another to join the Prince. 
 
 So, it being a time when the sternest 
 measures would be justified, Loudon, a 
 man with a heart of stone where he con- 
 ceived his duty lay, might go to any 
 lengths in order to strike terror into the 
 hearts of the waverers. 
 
 Thinking of this and Gortuleg's words, 
 two pictures rose before my eyes. The 
 first when I was an urchin staying for a 
 holiday in Beauly, of seeing a very stout 
 old gentleman in a vast periwig distributing 
 boddles from his sagging pockets to the 
 bairns in the street, and patting me on 
 the head and giving me two when he 
 learned my name was Simon, like his own. 1 
 
 Then I saw the same old gentleman with 
 his back to a wall in Fort George facing 
 a firing party of Hanoverian soldiers. And 
 at that second picture there was no thought 
 
 1 This was a custom of the old chief of the Frasers 
 in his periodical journeys among his people.
 
 Lord Lovat 243 
 
 of any consequences, but to do what I 
 could for my lord's deliverance. 
 
 There are some, I know, who, in reading 
 over these memoirs, will lay them down 
 and looking up, will say, " A plague on 
 the man ! My faith ! he does not appear 
 to know his mind from one week to another, 
 but blows hot and cold. To-day active 
 on the side of the Hanoverians, to-morrow 
 running his neck in a noose for the sake 
 of the Jacobites." 
 
 To all of which I will say even so, and 
 will offer no excuse beyond this I was 
 young and neither clever nor much given 
 to the weighing of consequences, but a 
 plain soldier knowing something of his 
 trade, and with, I freely confess, as may 
 easily be seen from these writings, my 
 heart in one camp, my head in the other. 
 So, where it will be seen the heart guided 
 the head, I would ask them to remember 
 the times, the family I came of, and the 
 country I lived in ; and then, if they would 
 still hold me strictly to account, humbly
 
 244 I am f $ ome Assistance to Simon 
 
 bow to their sterner sense of the right 
 and wrong of it, and hope that it may 
 never be their lot to be placed in the same 
 quandary. 
 
 Said I, " You have some way of getting 
 his lordship out of the house ? ' 
 
 " We have him in the house here, 
 Simon ! " was McRimmon's astonishing 
 reply, motioning to the door leading to 
 his private quarters. " Getting him this 
 far was easy enough, after he had given 
 out that he was for bed. It was only a 
 matter of getting him through a window 
 and through a back garden or two. The 
 bit is to get him clear o' the toon ! " 
 
 " Safety for his lordship lies across the 
 river ! " said I. 
 
 " Once across the river we have horses 
 and help waiting us there ! "' said Gor- 
 tuleg. 
 
 We talked of this plan and the next, 
 but to every one thought of some obstacle 
 arose that there was no getting past. 
 The man himself was the main difficulty.
 
 Lord Lovat 245 
 
 My lord was eighty years of age, of such 
 unwieldy habit that it was a question if 
 he could sit a horse, or his legs carry him 
 half a mile without help. Behind us 
 lay the town swarming with patrols. The 
 road to the south along the river-bank 
 was barred, for that way we would have 
 to pass the guard at the bridge-end. Down 
 the river it was the same ; a great brazier 
 stood in the road below the church. A 
 boat was out of the question at that 
 hour of the night, and a guard at the river 
 mouth. There remained the bridges closed 
 for the night. 
 
 Now, for such as do not know the plea- 
 sant town of Inverness, with its clear, 
 shining river flowing through it down to 
 the sea, be it known that in all its length 
 there are only two bridges. One, the 
 stone bridge of many arches which spans 
 the Ness below Fort George, the other 
 a wooden structure crossing it at the 
 Merkinch, a mile from the river mouth. 
 We might hold my lord till the morning,
 
 246 / am of Some Assistance to Simon 
 
 when always, since martial law came into 
 force, there was a great concourse of 
 people waiting to cross the minute the 
 bridges were opened. While we cast about 
 for some plan of smuggling my lord across 
 the bridge in the morning, my thoughts 
 were busy with the stretch of the river 
 below the stone bridge and the church. 
 My memory went back to schooldays and 
 long-forgotten school-mates. 
 
 I broke into the talk of getting his 
 lordship across the bridge in the morning. 
 " There is another way," said I, looking 
 at Gortuleg and the other three Erasers. 
 " There you are, four strong men ; if 
 you had some sort of a litter I know a 
 place where you could carry him across 
 on your shoulders and not wet your belts ! " 
 
 " Are ye sure o' that, Stuart ? ' said 
 Gortuleg, starting up. 
 
 " I have never waded the river in winter," 
 said I, " but the water is low with this 
 long frost, and many's the time, as a boy 
 fishing for parrs, at the place I have in
 
 Lord Lovat 247 
 
 mind, I have waded the Ness for the fun 
 of it, when the water was no deeper than 
 it is to-night ! " 
 
 " Where is this ford ye talk of, Stuart ? " 
 said Gortuleg. 
 
 ' Three minutes' march down the river 
 from the door here," said I. 
 
 " By the Lord, then, the chief is saved ! 
 Show us the place, Stuart, that is all I 
 will ask of ye, and if ye will come wi' me, 
 we can acquaint my lord of what we 
 would do 1 " 
 
 At a table, whereon stood wine and 
 glasses, sat Simon of Lovat with his hands 
 on his knees, his face hidden by the great 
 periwig that hung down on his breast. 
 
 He looked up as the door opened. " Hey 
 then, Gortuleg ! " said he in a high, quaver- 
 ing voice, " who is this gentleman ? " 
 
 Gortuleg introduced me, and in a few 
 words explained the plan of getting him 
 across the river. 
 
 " Pegs, yell mind it's no' a dainty lassie 
 ye will hae on your shoulders ! " said the
 
 248 / am of Some Assistance to Simon 
 
 old lord, with a little laugh. " Ye think 
 it can be done wi' an old man o' my bulk, 
 Mr. Stuart ? " 
 
 " I do," said I ; " there is the risk of 
 getting your lordship wet, but very little 
 of that with five strong men to carry 
 you ! " 
 
 " Ah well, beggars canna be choosers. 
 I will be risking more than a dooking, 
 staying in Inverness wi' my Lord Loudon 
 so unfriendly. So, when ye are ready, 
 gentlemen, we'll be on our way, ower the 
 water and west the road, where the air 
 is more kindly to Simon of Lovat, who is 
 very much indebted to ye, Mr. Stuart." 
 
 When all was ready, McRimmon let us 
 out, thankful I believe, and small blame 
 to him, to see the back of such a dangerous 
 guest. We had to halt once in the shadow 
 of the cottages, to let a patrol go by, and 
 about a hundred yards above the church 
 I bade them rest, for here was where we 
 had to cross. The patrol returned, and 
 presently the light of the brazier beyond
 
 Lord Lovat 249 
 
 the church was shut off by their figures 
 grouped about it. 
 
 " Now is our time, follow me ! " said 
 I, leading them across the road and down 
 the bank into the icy water. With many 
 a stumble on the slippery stones, but no 
 greater mishaps, we gained the farther 
 side, and hoisting his lordship up the bank, 
 four weary men laid their burden down in 
 a narrow lane leading west from the river. 
 
 When they were breathed Gortuleg 
 whispered an order, and two of them stole 
 away like shadows down the river-bank. 
 
 " Mr. Stuart, that was a lucky thought 
 of yours, and Loudon may whistle for 
 his prisoner the morn, for by then we will 
 be far beyond the reach of his arm. I 
 have sent the lads for the ponies and a 
 litter, and on this side we'll no' be wanting 
 willing arms to help us into the hills ! " 
 
 " In that case I will be getting back to 
 our friend, McRimmon," said I. 
 
 " Ye think that will be best ? " said 
 Gortuleg.
 
 250 / am of Some Assistance to Simon 
 
 " I do, and back the way we came. 
 There will be a stir across there in the 
 morning. Many saw me in town late last 
 night ; the bridge guard will be examined, 
 I might be missed, and I would have some 
 difficulty in explaining how I left ! " 
 
 " Mr. Stuart will be saying good night 
 to us, my lord ! " said Gortuleg, turning 
 to the silent figure in the chair. 
 
 " Aye, man ! " said the lord, " and how 
 are we to thank ye, Mr. Stuart ? ' 
 
 " By saying nothing about it, my lord ! " 
 said I. 
 
 " Well, sir, silence will be best to-day, 
 no doubt ; but there's another day coming, 
 and Simon of Lovat will keep ye in mind ! "
 
 XVIII Tells, with Other Matters, of a Visit 
 from an Old Acquaintance 
 
 BENT now on getting back, and the sooner 
 the better, I swashed into the river, keeping 
 an eye, as I waded across, for any unusual 
 stir in the neighbourhood of Lo vat's house. 
 With my mind on what might happen 
 there, and the dark, I must have moved 
 up-stream. Finding I was getting into 
 deep water, and trying to steady myself 
 against the strong current, a stone turned 
 under my heel, and down I went with a 
 resounding splash. To anyone on the bank, 
 the sound might have passed for a leaping 
 salmon, but in the struggle to regain my 
 feet, encumbered with my riding-boots 
 full of water, the splashing in the silence 
 of the night might have been heard at the 
 bridge. Whether it was heard there or 
 not, I cannot say. All I know is, that 
 unlucky patrol heard me. A hoarse bellow 
 
 251
 
 252 Tells, with other Matters, of a Visit 
 
 came from the bank. ' Hallo there ! 
 What boat is that ? " 
 
 I was a good fifty yards from the bank, 
 and feeling sure they could not see me, I 
 stooped, and carefully turning myself about, 
 began to go back. 
 
 A sharp order was barked, followed by 
 the rattle of the patrol handling firelocks. 
 Again came the shout. " Ho there, that 
 boat, pull ashore at once, or we fire ! ' 
 
 My only hope was to wade on, making as 
 little commotion in the water as possible, 
 and I had made perhaps a dozen yards 
 when the order came, " Fire ! " 
 
 The volley flashed and almost I went 
 down with a blow on the left arm as if I 
 had been struck with a club. If ever a 
 man needed his wits about him, I needed 
 them there in the middle of the river, with 
 this arm numbed and helpless, dangling 
 at my side. Setting my teeth, I went 
 on picking my steps and at length gained 
 the bank. 
 
 Making some sort of a rude bandage
 
 From an Old Acquaintance 253 
 
 with my cravat, and buttoning my arm 
 in my coat, I pushed on across the fields. 
 
 Remembering as in a dream, plodding 
 through the silent village of Clachnaharry, 
 but how I reached dunes from there, I 
 cannot tell. All I know is, they found me 
 lying at the door. I had sense enough left, 
 as they carried me to bed, to tell Janet 
 to keep the servants from talking. She 
 could be trusted to do that, and it was 
 given out that I had fallen from my horse 
 and sprained my shoulder. The ball had 
 struck above the elbow, tearing an ugly 
 flesh-wound, but no bones broken, and 
 thanks to Janet's care and surgery, I was 
 up and about the house in a day or two, 
 carrying my arm in a sling, little the worse 
 for either wound or ducking, but a trifle 
 shaky from loss of blood. 
 
 What bothered me now was the lack 
 of news from the town and McRimmon's 
 silence. On the third day, however, here 
 came the clerk Dougal with a letter from 
 his master. Much disappointed, I found
 
 254 lells, with other Matters, of a Visit 
 
 it only a document dealing with the renting 
 of some pasture land requiring my signa- 
 ture, and half a dozen words to say he was 
 abed, sick. 
 
 In my eagerness for news, and thinking 
 the clerk might have something to tell, I 
 told him to sit down. ' You will be the 
 better of a dram after that cold ride ! ''' 
 
 " Weel, sir, thank ye, sir," said he, look- 
 ing up with that eternal grin on his face, 
 " it was a cowld ride to be sure, and I 
 wouldna say no to a drop of the craytur ! ' 
 
 " McRimmon tells me he is abed ? ' 
 said I, pouring him out a stiff glass. 
 
 " Aye, but he was doon the stairs for 
 a while this morning ; it'll no* be anything 
 sayrious, I'm thinking ! Ye have had an 
 accident yersel', Mr. Stuart," said he, 
 with his eye on my arm. 
 
 " Yes, a sprain through falling from my 
 horse," said I. 
 
 " Och, aye, to be sure! Would it be 
 the beastie ye left in the vennel ? ' 
 
 I shot a glance at the fellow, wondering
 
 From an Old Acquaintance 255 
 
 what was behind that grin of his, as I said, 
 ' No, another horse." 
 
 ' Horses are kittle cattle whiles. Here's 
 your very good health, Mr. Stuart, and 
 hoping the sprain will no' bother ye long." 
 
 " And what's the news from Inverness, 
 Dougal ? " I asked. 
 
 " Och, just the talk o' Lovat's escape. 
 Ye would be hearing o' that, of coorse ! " 
 said he. 
 
 ' You surprise me ! " said I, filling his 
 glass again. " I have heard no word of it." 
 
 " Ye tell me that, sir ? Och then, 
 there's the great news ! His lordship is 
 ower the hills and far away. The talk is, 
 he was gotten oot o' the hoose by a band 
 o' Frasers helped by someone in the toon, 
 and ferried across the river in the night. 
 The patrol fired on them in the river, and 
 they found tracks o' them and blood on 
 the west side in the morning. Aye, and 
 there's a reward oot, and the red-coats 
 are riddling the west side for a man wi' a 
 bullet wound on him ! "
 
 256 Tells, with other Matters, of a Visit 
 
 " They will have a hard job to find him 
 now, I would think ! " said I. 
 
 The fellow put down the empty glass, 
 and lugging out a snuff-mull, refreshed 
 himself with a pinch. ' Ye would won- 
 der ! " said he. 
 
 Carefully putting his snuff-mull away, 
 he buttoned his coat and stood up. " Weel, 
 sir, Mr. McRimmon told me to hurry back, 
 so I'll be for the road again, and thank 
 ye for the dram, Mr. Stuart." 
 
 Janet came into the room as I stood by 
 the window after Dougal had gone. The 
 housekeeper at Clunes was emphatic and 
 outspoken where her likes and dislikes 
 were concerned. " McRimmon's man is 
 in a hurry, surely. He wouldna stop for 
 a bite o' denner in the kitchen. No' that 
 it pits me aboot, for I canna stand the 
 sicht o' the sleekit whitterack, 1 an' I 
 wonder at McRimmon having sich a cray- 
 tur aboot him. A'm sure he's no' honest. 
 Ye never know whether it's a girn or a 
 
 1 Weasel.
 
 From an Old, Acquaintance 257 
 
 grin on the monkey's face o' him. Come 
 ben, ye're denner is set oot, Simon." 
 
 Watching Dougal ride away, I had an 
 uncomfortable feeling that Janet was not 
 far out in her estimation of him. 
 
 Well, I had made one mistake in letting 
 him see me. After dinner, still disturbed 
 in mind, I made a second. I wrote a 
 short note to McRimmon asking him to 
 come out to Clunes as soon as he felt able, 
 and added a word or two of warning as 
 to what his clerk might know or suspect. 
 This I sealed and despatched by one of the 
 lads, with orders to give it to McRimmon 
 himself. As I was afterwards to find out 
 
 though, thinking it over, it would have 
 made no difference : what is to be, will be 
 
 McRimmon never got my letter. The 
 dolt of a lad gave it to the clerk. 
 
 And now, with news reaching the high- 
 lands every day of momentous events in 
 the south, I forgot all about it. News of 
 the march into England, the total lack 
 of support from the Jacobites there, and 
 17
 
 258 Tells, with other Matters, of a Visit 
 
 at last the retreat of the highland army 
 from Derby. We heard of Cumberland 
 hard on the heels of the retreating clans, 
 and the old English General Wade ready 
 in the north to bar the way back across 
 the border. 
 
 With a map spread out on the table I 
 would spend hours measuring the marches 
 with an eye to the danger of that army at 
 Newcastle on the flank of the retreat, 
 and I told myself that only a miracle 
 could save the Prince and his little army. 
 Then came an express with news of the 
 clans safe back across the border. To 
 this day I am puzzled to know how 
 Wade blundered. Of a surety my old 
 Marshal Saxe would have shot him ; but 
 there it was, the miracle had come to pass. 
 McRimmon himself brought me the news. 
 It was his first visit since Lo vat's escape, 
 and I made him stay the night with me. 
 
 I astonished Janet by telling her to get 
 a new rokelay for herself, and gave orders 
 for a feast. I sent a dozen of wine and
 
 From an Old Acquaintance 259 
 
 whisky to the kitchen, and we made 
 merry at Chines that night. 
 
 McRimmon went back to Inverness next 
 morning, and that afternoon the long frost 
 broke with a high wind from the east and 
 heavy snow. Late at night, with the house- 
 hold all abed, I sat in my room hearkening 
 to the wind rushing among the tall bare trees. 
 I must have fallen into a doze, when I sat 
 up at a shout that rose above the beat of the 
 storm. I went to the door and peered out 
 into the smother of whirling, drifting snow. 
 
 A strong voice with a familiar ring in it 
 called out from the road. " Is that yoursel', 
 Mr. Stuart ? " 
 
 Flinging a cloak about me, I ran down 
 and unbarred the gate, and through into 
 the light from the door strode no less a 
 personage than James Ker. 
 
 When the man was divested of riding- 
 boots and cloak and sat over against me 
 by the fire with a glass of punch in his 
 fist, I asked him what he did in these 
 parts, so far from the Jacobite army.
 
 260 Tells, with other Matters, of a Visit 
 
 " We are marching north ; ye might ca' 
 me the advance gaird, Mr. Stuart," said 
 Ker. " Foreby I hae the task o' finding a 
 ship that seems to hae lost herselV 
 
 He drank the punch and, pushing the 
 glass away, sat for a minute or two staring 
 at the fire. Ker was a changed man. 
 The strong face wore a stern look, the 
 lines were deeper, and he slumped in his 
 chair in an attitude of utter weariness of 
 mind and body. 
 
 " Aye, sirs ! " said he, looking up and 
 about him with a tired smile. ' It's 
 changed days since I sat here a few months 
 ago that seem like years ! 
 
 " Tired, ye say ? Tired is no the word 
 for it, Stuart. Tired o' the fools and 
 rascals, and o' seeing the wreck and ruin 
 o' all we worked for. Aye, there's no 
 use in me saying one thing and thinking 
 another we'll see the thing oot to the bitter 
 end, but A'm 'feared the cause is lost ! " 
 
 " Are matters come to such a pass as 
 that ? " said I. For, now the Jacobite
 
 From an Old Acquaintance 261 
 
 army was back in Scotland, I entertained 
 the hope that further bloodshed might 
 be prevented by the Prince giving up the 
 venture and the chiefs coming to terms with 
 the Government. 
 
 Ker did not answer my question, but 
 sat frowning at the fire, and I did not 
 repeat it, feeling that if he had anything 
 to tell me he would do so in his own time 
 and way. 
 
 I filled the glasses, and looking up, said 
 he, " It's good to be sitting wi' ye again, 
 Stuart. I was minding the noo, o' yon 
 nicht in Paris. Ye was a bauld yin, but 
 ye had that I liked as well, ye had sense. 
 It is a quality no very common among 
 the men I hae been wi' these few months 
 past. I knew what was in ye're mind 
 when I tried to get ye to throw ye're lot 
 in wi' us. Ye were right in keeping clear 
 o' it, though by what I was hearing" he 
 looked across the table at me " ye havena 
 kept altogether clear. Ye were asking if 
 things are in a bad way, and I'll tell ye.
 
 262 Tells, with other Matters, of a Visit 
 
 Once or twice it looked as if we would win 
 oot. There's a caird or two to play yet, 
 but unless a miracle happens, the game is 
 lost. And how, ye would ask ? Jist the 
 way any game is lost. The want o' sense 
 in the players ! " 
 
 He drank some punch and said, ' If 
 ye care to hear, and I'm no' keeping ye 
 from ye're bed, I'll tell ye the story o' it." 
 
 " Fill up your glass. I can listen until 
 morning ! " said I. 
 
 " It'll no tak* that long," said Ker, 
 " and it's no sae nice that a man would 
 care to mak a lang story o' it. It is jist 
 a tale o' stupeedity and jealousy, and 
 chances flung awa, one after the other. 
 The first was in the beginning, in no' 
 settling wi' Cope when we had him in the 
 hollow o' oor hand here in the north. If 
 we had done that, a' the clans in the north 
 would have been in wi' us from the be- 
 ginning. Then we beat him at Glads- 
 muir. But what was done ? Precious 
 weeks flung awa, daidling in Edinboro'.
 
 From an Old, Acquaintance 263 
 
 When we did march on England, instead 
 o' going by Newcastle where we could 
 hae made collops o' yon auld doited General 
 Wade, and so brocht the English that were 
 for us in, we gang by Carlisle ! " 
 
 " That was a terrible mistake for the 
 Prince's staff to make ! " said I. 
 
 " Staff, ye say ! " Ker's face set in a 
 heavy frown. " If this business comes to 
 wreck, there's the rock we split on. The 
 staff, the Irish, the Sheridans and Sullivans, 
 and Hay that is quartermaster, and secre- 
 tary Murray, the two-faced fox ! It beats 
 me hoo the Prince lippens tae them, but 
 he does, and they are at drawn dirks wi' 
 Lord Murray. 
 
 " Eh, man Stuart, there's a lad for ye 
 that kens what should be done and the 
 way to dae it, but he gets the cauld shoulder 
 frae the Prince and sees his plans altered 
 time and again. And why, ye would ask 
 me ? Jist for one thing : my Lord Murray 
 is as straight and true as his claymore, but 
 he is no' a soople man. Stuart, he's the
 
 264 Tells, with other Matters, of a Visit 
 
 only man among them a' that kens, but 
 he has a dour temper, and canna help 
 showing his contemp' for them. 
 
 "So ye may ken hoo things are at 
 Headquarters ! " 
 
 " And if it is a fair question," said I, 
 " what is the plan of campaign now, and 
 what do you in the north, Ker ? " 
 
 " Fair enough," said Ker. " Lord Mur- 
 ray is for falling back into the hills and 
 drawing Cumberland after him." 
 
 " It is their best plan without a doubt," 
 said I, picturing the swift-moving high- 
 landers in their own familiar country, 
 swooping down on the slow-marching Hano- 
 verian columns lumbering through the 
 passes, encumbered with all the impedi- 
 menta of a regular army. 
 
 " Aye, there's no much wrang wi' the 
 
 plan, but " Ker shook his head and 
 
 for a minute stared silently at the fire. 
 
 " Ye see, Stuart, it's this way," said 
 he with a wry grin, " they heilan' coun- 
 trymen o' yours are kittle cattle tae
 
 From an Old Acquaintance 265 
 
 drive. They McDonalds and Frasers, and 
 Camerons, and a' the rest o' them. In 
 the field, better men never drew steel, but 
 when the fechting is done they hae to be 
 soothered like bairns. Ye never ken what 
 pooder magazine ye're gaun tae blaw up. 
 There's auld world quarrels and friendships 
 between them. Touch a Fraser, an' ye 
 micht get the length o' a Chisholm dirk 
 between ye're ribs. Ye manna pit yin 
 afore the ither, each must hae his place 
 that he got fra the Lord kens wha, long 
 syne Bruce it seems gae the McDonalds 
 the right o' the line in the field. Forget 
 ony o' they points and ye hae the whole 
 camp bizzing like a beeskep, the lads 
 glowering at yin another like snarling 
 tykes. Tak' mutiny ; if a Cameron dis- 
 obeys an order, no' a man daur lay a finger 
 on him but Lochiel. If the MacRaes 
 tak' it into their heids tae gang hame for 
 a week, hame they'll gang, an' the deil 
 himsel' canna stop them. 
 
 " Aye faith, they're kittle cattle, and
 
 266 Tells, with other Matters, of a Visit 
 
 if Lord Murray is no* backed up by the 
 Prince, there's no anither man in his army 
 that ken's the guiding o' them ! 
 
 " An' the Prince is badly in need o' 
 siller. That's hoo I come to be sitting 
 here. Hae ye heard o' the Hazard ? 
 Weel, after we captured her and named 
 her the Prince Charles, she was sent to 
 France. We got news o' her sailing wi f 
 arms and money for us ; but where is she ? 
 That's the bit. She has either been nabbed 
 or had to run for it. It is just a sample 
 o' the bad luck that seems to be following 
 us ever since Gladsmuir. If she has given 
 them the go-by, the chances are she has 
 gone north aboot through the Pentland 
 Firth. So, I'm for the west wi' a few lads 
 that ken the coast, hoping to fall in wi' her 
 thereaboots ! " 
 
 " Where are your men ? " Tasked. 
 
 " No* far awa, at the inn back there a 
 mile or so. We hae been riding hard, and 
 men and horses will be the better o' the 
 rest.
 
 From an Old Acquaintance 267 
 
 " And that 'minds me. What is this 
 story aboot Lord Lovat ; will ye tell me ?" 
 
 " Oh, just that he has slipped through 
 their fingers," said I. 
 
 r< Loudon will be angry man, nae doot ! " 
 said Ker. " We came north by Loch 
 Ness and halted to-day a mile or two south 
 o' the toon. We fell in wi' an auld man 
 comin' frae Inverness, and my lads got 
 ' tearing the tartan ' * wi' him. I'm told 
 there's a reward oot, and they ken the 
 man that helped them to get the old lord 
 awa." 
 
 As he said this Ker leaned forward to 
 the fire for a light to his pipe. There was 
 nothing in his manner to tell me he knew 
 more than he had just said. All the same, 
 after lighting him to bed and thinking it 
 over, in some way I connected his last 
 remark with McRimmon's man, and mine 
 was an uneasy pillow. 
 
 1 Talking in Gaelic.
 
 XIX James Kef Relays an Obligation 
 
 IT was still snowing when I came down- 
 stairs to find Ker had gone out, leaving 
 word with Janet that he would be back to 
 breakfast. That meal over, he said, " Wi' 
 your permission I will quarter myself on 
 ye till the snow blows over. We will 
 march in the evening." 
 
 ' You are welcome to quarters here as 
 long as you care to bide," said I heartily, 
 being well pleased with his company. So 
 I spent the morning for the most part 
 listening to Ker, who being a seaman and 
 much travelled, ere ever he came to take 
 a hand in this Jacobite venture, spoke 
 shrewdly of the ways of men and business 
 beyond the knowledge of a man who had 
 only a few years' campaigning in Europe 
 behind him. 
 
 Dinner passed, and Ker was deep in a 
 
 wild tale of privateering on the Spanish 
 
 268
 
 James Ker Re-pays an Obligation 269 
 
 Main when the story was broken off short 
 and we started to our feet as Janet hurried 
 into the room crying, " Oh, Simon, the 
 Sidier Rhua ! " 
 
 We sprang to the window, and there 
 saw an officer and half a dozen troopers 
 riding through the gate. My first thought 
 was for Ker. " Here," said I, throwing 
 open a door, " out this way ! Janet, there, 
 will take you to the back of the house ; 
 a few steps and you are into the trees with 
 the hill above you. Hide yourself and I 
 will find a way of sending you word." 
 
 Ker caught up his hat and cloak, and 
 buckling on his belt and hanger, followed 
 Janet. " If," said he, pausing at the door 
 to thrust a brace of pistols in his belt, " it 
 should turn oot it is no* me they are after, 
 put off all the time ye can wi' them ! " 
 
 I closed the door behind them, but 
 before I could give a thought to what Ker 
 had said, there was a thundering tattoo 
 on the door, and a shout of " Open in the 
 King's name ! "
 
 270 "James Ker Re-pays an Obligation 
 
 The officer and two troopers had dis- 
 mounted at the door. I heard the officer 
 demanding from the quavering maid the 
 whereabouts of her master, and next 
 minute their heavy footsteps clumped 
 along the hall. 
 
 " I know you, Mr. Stuart," said the 
 lieutenant ; ' you are under arrest, and 
 must accompany me to Inverness ! " 
 
 ' What is this for, lieutenant ? " I asked, 
 as taking a slip of paper from him I read 
 the order of arrest signed by Lord Loudon. 
 
 " I know nothing beyond my orders ! ' 
 said the lieutenant, with his eye on my 
 wounded arm. " And I must ask you 
 to make ready with as little delay as pos- 
 sible. The roads are heavy, and it will 
 be dark before we reach the town." 
 
 " Ochone the day ! What will be the 
 matter, Simon ? " cried Janet, coming 
 into the room and looking from me to the 
 officer and the stolid troopers standing 
 without the door. 
 
 " Just a mistake, Janet," said I, though
 
 'James Ker Re-pays an Obligation 271 
 
 well I knew it was no mistake, " but I 
 must ride to town with this gentleman, 
 before it can be put right ! " 
 
 I turned to the officer : " You have had a 
 cold ride, sir. You will take a glass of wine 
 and permit me to send out a dram to the 
 men while they bring my horse around ? ' : 
 
 " No objections to that, Mr. Stuart," 
 said he, seating himself in a chair. 
 
 Janet left the room ; perhaps half an 
 hour was taken up in giving the -party 
 refreshments, and then we set out for 
 Inverness with four or five inches of 
 snow on the road and the sky clearing. 
 
 I rode beside the lieutenant, behind two 
 troopers, with the rest bringing up the 
 rear, my brain busy with what I would 
 have to say for myself when confronted 
 with my Lord Loudon ; yet unable to 
 see clearly nor knowing what the evidence 
 might be against me. 
 
 McRimmon's man was in it, of that I 
 felt sure, but how much did they know ? 
 Where did McRimmon himself stand ? I
 
 272 James Ker Repays an Obligation 
 
 thought of Loudon robbed of the chief 
 instigator of rebellion in the north bent 
 in crushing without mercy any signs of 
 favouring the Stuarts, and more sure of 
 his ground now the clans were in retreat. 
 The more I thought of it the blacker my 
 case looked in all this uncertainty. I 
 raised my eyes to the tree-clad hills on 
 my right with something like fear in my 
 heart, and a mad plan forming in my brain, 
 of a sudden wheel and a dash for the trees. 
 
 Before we had travelled a mile past 
 Bogroy inn, I had made up my mind to 
 try it. Though the odds were ten to one 
 I would get half a dozen musket-balls in 
 my back before I had gone a dozen yards, 
 yet I knew of places along the road where 
 the trees came very close, and there was 
 a chance. Quietly gathering up my reins, 
 I marked each little bend. 
 
 Thus we came to within a mile of Bun- 
 chrew and a sharp turn where the leading 
 troopers passed out of sight. When the 
 officer and I reached the bend we found the
 
 James Ker Relays an Obligation 273 
 
 leading troopers halted. A few yards ahead 
 the road was blocked by one or two heavy, 
 thick fir-trees fallen across it. My heart 
 leapt at the sight, and warily I looked 
 about. Men would have to dismount to 
 remove the obstacle ; my chance would 
 be while they were busy. 
 
 The lieutenant gave orders for the lead- 
 ing troopers to clear the road. With 
 every muscle braced, I was in the very act 
 of scanning and measuring the few yards 
 of open ground between me and the tree- 
 clad hill-side. Already I leaned forward 
 in the saddle ; in another instant I would 
 have dashed the spurs into my horse's 
 flanks, when a single musket-shot rang 
 out. The bah 1 whined over our heads 
 and a sharp, stern shout, " Halt ! " came 
 from behind the fallen trees. 
 
 Troopers and prisoner, we were all 
 crowded together. Staring first at the 
 trees, and from that to the glint of musket- 
 barrels now showing among the under- 
 growth on the hill-side where a wisp of 
 18
 
 274 James Ker Repays an Obligation 
 
 grey smoke trailed slowly through the 
 branches, the officer pushed his horse 
 to the front and ordered his troopers to 
 handle their carbines. At that moment a 
 man stood out from the trees, and now we 
 could see behind him more men covering 
 us with levelled muskets. " Keep your 
 hands awa frae they holsters ! " he called 
 out, " and order your men to drop their 
 carbines. Besides what ye see behind me 
 there's a score o' shot covering ye from the 
 hill-side, and the first wrang move a man 
 o' ye mak's '11 be ye're last ! ' 
 
 The lieutenant looked about him and swore 
 under his breath at the hopeless situation, 
 for there on his left within a stone's-throw 
 was the empty beach. Without waiting 
 for his order the carbines thudded, one 
 by one, on the snow. " Who are you, and 
 what do you want ? " he called out. 
 
 " King James's men," answered Ker, 
 advancing with a pistol in either hand. 
 " We promise ye good quarter, but let 
 you and ye're men dismount, all but that
 
 "James Ker Relays an Obligation 275 
 
 dog who rides wi' ye. Dismount ! " and 
 at the harsh shout, officer and men got 
 off their horses. 
 
 Ker waved a pistol and four well-armed 
 Highlanders came out from behind the 
 barricade. " That's oor man," said he, 
 pointing a pistol at me, " one o' ye gaird 
 him. Put a bullet through his heid, and 
 be damned to him, if he moves a finger." 
 " A'm sorry to set ye afoot," said he 
 to the officer, " but it's the fortune o' 
 war ye'll understand, and we need the 
 horses. Tell them that sent ye, we hae 
 a crow to pick wi' yon traitor on the 
 horse, and ye're welcome to what's left 
 when we are done wi' him. Now march ! " 
 said he, sternly pointing a pistol along the 
 road to Inverness. 
 
 The crestfallen officer, muttering a word 
 or two, led his troopers past the grim, 
 alert highlanders who watched them trudg- 
 ing heavily in their great jack-boots 
 through the snow, until they came to 
 another turn in the road.
 
 276 James Ker Repays an Obligation 
 
 When the last red-coat disappeared, 
 said Ker, with a grin on his hard face, " I 
 doot, Stuart, ye better mak' up ye're 
 mind to tak' a cast west the road wi' me, 
 for, by all accounts, Loudon is of the 
 mind tae mak' short work o' ye ! " 
 
 " I'll be thinking that myself," said I, 
 grasping his hand. Two other highlanders 
 now came down from the trees. Gather- 
 ing up the carbines, they mounted the 
 horses, and we all rode back to Clunes. 
 
 Had the Lord President been in Inver- 
 ness I would have gone straight to him, 
 but he was far away in Edinburgh. So 
 we primed Janet with a story to tell, in 
 the certain event of a strong force visiting 
 Clunes within the next few hours. Being 
 all in the dark as to McRimmon, I told 
 Janet to warn him of his man Dougal. 
 Lastly, I left with her certain instructions 
 regarding the ordering of Clunes, not know- 
 ing when I might see it again, and in a 
 clear frosty night rode off to the west 
 with James Ker and his men.
 
 XX Tells of What I Heard on the Morning 
 
 of the i6th April, 1746 
 
 LONG weeks passed, weeks of fruitless 
 search and waiting in wild winter weather 
 and the early spring along the bleak rocky 
 shores of the Minch, and the first half of 
 April was nearly gone ere I rode again 
 with Ker through Beauly and saw the 
 chimneys of Clunes above the trees. 
 
 Inverness was now in the hands of the 
 Jacobites, and Loudon across the firth 
 grimly waiting what might betide, so, 
 finding Janet and all well, we rested the 
 night at Clunes, and early next morning 
 rode on to the town. 
 
 We made a rendezvous to meet later, 
 having no knowledge yet of what was 
 afoot, and parted at the bridge. Ker to 
 the Jacobite headquarters with the doleful 
 tidings of the capture of the Prince Charles 
 with all her munitions of war and money 
 
 277
 
 278 7 ells of What I Heard 
 
 to pay the grumbling Highlanders whose 
 pay was long in arrears. I to find Mc- 
 Rimmon, eager for news of Joan and how 
 matters stood regarding my own affairs. 
 
 And as I came down to the old lawyer's 
 door, who should be coming out, very gay 
 with Stuart ribbons and cockade, escorted 
 by McRimmon bowing and chuckling at 
 some pleasantry, but the lady herself. 
 
 " Talk o' the deil," cried McRimmon, 
 lowering his head to stare at me over his 
 barnacles. 
 
 " My, it is Simon ! " said Joan, the 
 roses in her cheeks. 
 
 " Just Simon ! " said I, bowing to the 
 lady, " McRimmon's eyes are failing him ! " 
 
 " Deil or no, ye hae given us the deil's 
 own time wondering what's come ower ye 
 these weeks past," cried McRimmon, " and 
 if my old eyes are failing, then the sight 
 o' ye has done them good. Come in 
 boy, and Miss Joan ye'll stop now for a 
 glass o' wine and a bit cake o' ye're own 
 baking to welcome this stravaiger."
 
 On the 1 6th April, 1746 279 
 
 We all went in, and McRimmon seeing 
 me look on a strange face at the clerk's 
 desk, said, " Aye, Dougal is gone. I made 
 short work o' him, and not before time, the 
 sly villain ! " 
 
 " Is your arm better, Simon, and where 
 have you been all this time ? " Joan asked 
 me, as McRimmon, excusing himself for 
 a moment, left the room. 
 
 ' The arm is well again. I have just 
 been running up and down the earth, Joan, 
 seeking and not finding." 
 
 ' That will be a pity, Simon. What was 
 ye seeking and not finding ? " 
 
 " Oh, a way out of my troubles," said I. 
 
 " I was hearing that Lord Loudon 
 himself was put about thinking ye mur- 
 dered in the hills. So if that's all your 
 troubles " 
 
 " Ah, but that is not the worst of my 
 troubles," said I, gravely shaking my head. 
 
 " My gracious me, this day ! What else 
 can be bothering ye then ? " enquired 
 Joan, looking at me with wide-open eyes.
 
 280 Tells of What I Heard 
 
 " Well, I'll tell you, Joan ; this is the 
 way of it," said I. ' There is a man I 
 know that dearly loves a maid, but a 
 cloud lies between them, seeing they hold 
 different opinions on certain matters, and 
 another thing, it may be the love is all 
 on the man's side. How would you advise 
 this poor fellow ? " 
 
 " I think," said Joan, casting a quick 
 glance at the door, " that it will be the 
 gentleman's part to change his opinions." 
 
 " McRimmon will be here in a minute, 
 Joan," said I. " But what if the gentleman 
 cannot do that without being a lie to 
 himself ? " 
 
 " Does he want the lady to be that ? ' 
 Joan asked, quick as the crack of a whip. 
 
 " He knows, he is sure, the lady is in 
 the wrong," said I hurriedly, hearing 
 McRimmon's foot on the stair. 
 
 " Indeed ! " and oh, but she was the 
 sarcastic maid " was ever the like of 
 that heard ? The Lord give us a good 
 conceit of ourselves ! I think, Simon
 
 On the 1 6th Afril, 1746 281 
 
 Stuart," said Joan, picking up her gloves 
 and riding- whip, " this man you are asking 
 advice for, is the kind I would like to shake. 
 He is sure, forsooth ! " 
 
 " What's this, what's this ? Ye are no' 
 quarrelling already, are ye ? "' cried Mc- 
 Rimmon, coming in with the wine and a 
 basket of cake. 
 
 " No, McRimmon, I was just telling 
 Joan here of a man I know and she does 
 not appear to approve of him," said I. 
 
 " He must be a fool then, and that's his 
 misfortune," says McRimmon, pouring out 
 the wine and handing it round, and so the 
 matter passed, and I was no farther for- 
 ward. 
 
 We drank to one another, and I asked 
 Joan if I might see her on the road to 
 Alturlie. 
 
 ' Thank you, but I am going to Cullo- 
 den House with Lady Macintosh. There 
 is a dance to-night ; Malcolm and some old 
 friends will be there. Perhaps you would 
 like to come out and bring that man with
 
 282 Tells of What I Heard 
 
 you ; he might learn something that would 
 make him change his mind ! " 
 
 To this I made no reply, but held the 
 door, and Joan passed out, returning my 
 bow with a very haughty inclination of 
 her pretty head. 
 
 " And now, what is your news, McRim- 
 mon ? " said I, when we were seated again. 
 ' Well, so far as yourself is concerned, 
 there's no' much wrong," said he. ' Yon 
 villain Dougal found out one or two things 
 and, putting them together, laid the in- 
 formation against ye, but they knew 
 nothing for sure, and when word came 
 back with the red-coats of what happened 
 at Bunchrew, and ye taken away to be 
 murdered, A'm told Loudon was sorry. 
 Of course Janet came in the next day and 
 gave me your message. But there, that's 
 all past and done with. The Prince is 
 at Culloden House. The great question 
 now is, what's going to happen next ? 
 And on that point ye will be as wise as 
 mysel', for nothing seems to be known
 
 On the i6tb April, 1746 283 
 
 here, more than Cumberland left Aberdeen 
 on the 8th of the month and we only 
 heard of it yesterday." 
 
 So here was the I5th with the Hano- 
 verian army within a march or two of the 
 town, and they were dancing to-night at 
 Culloden. 
 
 Much disturbed at what I had heard and 
 seen in the streets, I went back to Clunes. 
 
 That evening a messenger, riding at 
 full gallop to the west, flung a letter over 
 the gates as he thundered past. It con- 
 tained a message from Ker asking me to 
 meet him hi the morning at McRimmon's, 
 and the news of Cumberland halted at Nairn. 
 
 Little guessing what was in front of me, 
 I told Janet I might not be home for a 
 day or two, and eating an early breakfast, 
 rode off, reaching the town about seven 
 o'clock, on this long-to-be-remembered 
 morning of the i6th of April in the year 
 of grace, 1746. 
 
 Putting up my horse for an hour, I 
 walked about the town dumbfoundered.
 
 284 Tells of What I Heard 
 
 Companies of sullen, weary Highlanders stood 
 or sat about in the open streets. Every 
 tavern was crowded with men clamouring 
 for meat and drink, and harassed officers 
 and orderlies hurried about giving orders 
 that were received with counter-demands 
 for food, or flat disobedience. 
 
 I had seen this before in my time, and 
 burning to know where Joan was or what 
 she was doing on this day that carried 
 disaster on the very air of it, I hurried 
 down to McRimmon's. 
 
 There I found at breakfast with the 
 old lawyer, Ker, my cousin Malcolm, and 
 Fraser of Foyers. And, judging by the 
 flushed faces and boisterous greetings of 
 the last two, the decanters on the table 
 had not been idle. There was even a 
 watery twinkle in McRimmon's eye. But 
 Ker looked dour ; no quantity of wine 
 could affect that iron head. 
 
 " The great day has come, Simon ! " 
 cried Malcolm, filling me a bumper of 
 claret. " Here's to the lads wi' the kilts ;
 
 On the i6th April, 1746 285 
 
 by this time to-night we'll be hunting 
 Cumberland and what's left o' his Hessians 
 ower the hills. Down with it ; man, ye 
 must drink success to us this day and come 
 up to the Moor wi' us ! " 
 
 " I will drink, hoping and wishing the 
 best for all ! " said I, taking the glass. 
 
 " Ye could not say fairer than that, 
 Stuart ! " said Foyers. 
 
 " From my heart I could not say less, 
 the Lord knows ! " and I drank the wine. 
 
 ' What is your news, gentlemen, may 
 I ask ? " 
 
 ' The clans are mustering on the Moor 
 above Culloden ; the Master of Lovat 
 will be here within the hour, and we march 
 wi' the Frasers ! " said Foyers. 
 
 " And where is your sister ? " I asked, 
 turning to Malcolm. 
 
 " At Culloden, with the rest of the 
 ladies," said he. 
 
 I looked at them all, amazed. ' What 
 madness is this ? " I cried, springing to my 
 feet.
 
 286 Tells of What I Heard 
 
 " Och, the ladies are safe enough ; what 
 harm can come to them there ? " said the 
 young fool. 
 
 " Aye, if you win, they are safe enough 
 maybe ; but is that so certain ? Have you 
 thought of a retreat, or if the day goes 
 hard with you ? ' 
 
 " There ye go, Simon, for a croaker," 
 cried Malcolm. " Man, I tell ye, we will 
 do this day to Cumberland, on the Moor of 
 Culloden, what we did to Cope at Glads- 
 muir. Fill up and have the other glass ! " 
 
 " I want no more wine, and neither do 
 you, my lad," said I, catching up my hat. 
 
 " Hark ! " said Fraser, standing up. 
 " That will be the Master !" said he, as 
 we listened to the drone of pipes and drums 
 beating a quick step on the bridge. 
 
 " What do you think of it ? " said I to 
 Ker, as we came to the door and saw the 
 bridge filled from end to end with Frasers. 
 
 " I am hoping for the best, and that will 
 be to play wi' Cumberland for a day or 
 two. Wi' half the men to muster yet, and
 
 On the 1 6th April, 1746 287 
 
 what's here wearied and hungry, it will 
 be playing a losing game to fecht him 
 to-day ! " said Ker. 
 
 " D'ye come wi* us, Stuart ? " cried 
 Fraser, buckling his belt. 
 
 " I ride to Culloden House. It may be 
 a man will be needed there/' said I, and 
 turning on my heel, without another word 
 I walked quickly away. 
 
 With Ker's last words in my mind, I 
 forced my way through the rabble of 
 weary, semi-mutinous highlanders. Offer 
 battle to Cumberland's disciplined bat- 
 talions on the open Moor with his army 
 in this condition ? Quos deus vult perdere, 
 prius dementat, the old line learned in 
 schooldays, came back to me with terrible 
 significance, as I flung the saddle on my 
 horse. 
 
 With only one thought in my head, and 
 that how soon I could get to Culloden 
 House, to avoid the tumult and throng of 
 men now mustering in the streets, I turned 
 my horse's head down Kirk Street and so
 
 288 7 ells of What I Heard 
 
 east along past Seafield, and by the sea 
 beach, to the Nairn road. 
 
 This road was almost deserted, as the 
 main road to Culloden ran along the high 
 ground to the south. Thus, and riding 
 at full gallop, I reached without hindrance 
 the bridle-path that turns off the road and 
 leads up through the woods past the cot- 
 tages of Millt own to the Lord President's 
 house. A high, steep-roofed mansion, with 
 a broad flight of steps leading up to the 
 main door, it stands with its wide lawn 
 in front completely surrounded by a wood 
 of tall trees. It is always quiet and 
 peaceful there, with naught to break the 
 silence but the cawing of nesting rooks, of 
 which there are many about, and the 
 cooing of wood-pigeons off in the woods. 
 
 But this day there was a strange eeriness 
 in the silence. This peace and quiet, this 
 pleasant house standing amid its flower- 
 beds and well-ordered grounds, sheltered 
 by the woods from the shrewd east wind, 
 the peacock preening himself on the wall
 
 On the i6th A<pril, 1746 289 
 
 all presented a grim contrast to the deadly 
 game about to be played out up there on 
 the bleak, wild, wind-swept Moor, less 
 than a mile away. 
 
 I skirted the lawn, keeping out of sight 
 of the house, and came to the stable and 
 byres at the back where the trees came 
 right up to the buildings. Stabling my 
 horse, I paced to and fro among the trees, 
 debating what I should do. Going up 
 to the house now, I might only lay myself 
 open to rebuff. And if the highlanders 
 won the day, there would be no need and 
 little welcome for me. All things con- 
 sidered, I would wait ; wait and watch. 
 So at a point from where I could see the 
 house, and across the lawn to the woods 
 sloping up to the Moor beyond, I sat 
 myself down with my back to a tree and 
 smoked a pipe. And as I sat there, only 
 the good God and myself knew how tor- 
 mented and swayed, now this way and 
 that, was I, with the thoughts that passed 
 through my brain. 
 19
 
 290 Tells of What I Heard 
 
 And the main thought, always it came 
 back to this, was I doing right ? I, 
 Simon Stuart, a soldier with some years 
 of honourable service behind me, skulking 
 here in the woods, bothering my head 
 about a maid that maybe cared not a snap 
 of her fingers for me ; while up there 
 on the Moor the men of my blood and 
 kin were waiting sword in hand for the 
 onset to blow. 
 
 Twice I flung the pipe away and rose 
 to get my horse and ride up the hill. 
 Then I would see some petticoats come out 
 of the house, Joan among them, and stand 
 at the head of the steps. They would 
 talk for a little, point, and look up to 
 where now faintly down the wind came the 
 wail of bagpipes. Then they would all 
 troop into the house, and I would stop 
 dead. Oh, my ladies, you do not know how 
 Cumberland and his Hessians make war. 
 If they win this fight down I would sit 
 again, fill another pipe, and fall to planning 
 what should be done in that case.
 
 XXI Tells of an Escape and, a Capture 
 
 So maybe two hours passed, and then I 
 heard the first sound of cannon firing, and 
 with it a great clamour among the rooks 
 in the tree-tops. The ladies all thronged 
 to the door, and servants looked out of the 
 windows. Presently the dull, heavy thud- 
 ding of cannon increased, and between the 
 discharges, one could hear the distant 
 blare of trumpets, the sustained, rapid 
 beat of drums, and bending my head, I 
 thought I could hear the pipes blowing the 
 onset. It must have been that, for there 
 broke out a great irregular splutter of 
 musketry, and above all rose the wild 
 fierce yell that could only mean highlanders 
 charging. 
 
 Pacing hurriedly to and fro, I could see 
 
 the smoke of battle drifting westwards. 
 
 Again there came a great discharge of 
 
 musketry and cannon, and a little while 
 
 291
 
 292 Tells of an Escape and, a Capture 
 
 after that the uproar died away in a 
 dropping fire with an occasional cannon- 
 shot. 
 
 The cawing rooks wheeled overhead, 
 chaffinches twittered about me, and on 
 the lawn and the steps by the main door 
 the women clustered talking and listening. 
 Aye, down here all was strangely quiet 
 and still, but up yonder on the Moor, how 
 was the day going ? I stooped again to 
 listen, thinking I could hear the noise of 
 battle nearer at hand. Then I heard 
 musket-shots, single, by twos and threes, 
 and saw puffs of smoke bursting through 
 the tree-tops on the slope. 
 
 I know not what time passed from then ; 
 it might have been a quarter of an hour, 
 when a highlander broke out of the wood 
 across the lawn, then two more walking 
 quickly and looking behind them. I ran 
 out to meet them. 
 
 " Don't go up the hill, sir ! " cried one. 
 
 " What has happened ? " I shouted. 
 
 " We have lost the day. We are beaten,"
 
 Tells of an Escape and a Capture 293 
 
 cried another. " Tell those women they 
 had better be off out o' this ! " and they 
 slipped into the wood again, going towards 
 the town. 
 
 Now I could see and hear more fugi- 
 tives skulking and crashing in their haste 
 through the trees and undergrowth. I 
 waited a few minutes, but the firing came 
 farther down the slope, and the noise of 
 men running through the wood continued. 
 I determined to wait no longer. Running 
 across to the group of women, said I, 
 " Ladies, I fear the day has gone against 
 the Prince, and I would advise you to 
 leave here without delay ! " 
 
 The serving-maids never doubted me 
 for a minute ; at once they turned and 
 ran crying into the house. But Joan and 
 Miss Fraser of Foyers, and three other 
 ladies looking at me in astonishment, cried 
 all at once, " Surely not ; you must be 
 mistaken ! " 
 
 :< It may be," said I ; but, turning, I 
 pointed to several men in tartan who
 
 294 Tell* f an Escape and. a Capture 
 
 shouted some warning to us as they ran 
 across the open, " that does not look like 
 victory ! Come," I said, as with paling 
 faces they turned from me to look at one 
 another, and then at the woods above 
 Culloden, " I know them, and I would 
 not care to tell you what danger you stand 
 in if any of Cumberland's German soldiers 
 come this way ! " 
 
 " But the Prince and all the rest of 
 them ; they will come here surely, Simon/' 
 said Joan. 
 
 " This is the very last place he would 
 make for in the event of a defeat, believe 
 me ! " said I, beginning to lose patience. 
 
 " Oh Thighearn ! " * cried Miss Fraser, 
 " look at this ! " 
 
 She pointed to two men half carrying 
 a third between them, coming out of the 
 trees. So blackened with smoke and pow- 
 der were they, and hatless with hair unbound 
 about their faces, it was not until they 
 came to the foot of the steps we recognised 
 
 1 Gaelic for " Oh Lord."
 
 Tells of an Escape and a Capture 295 
 
 Ker and Fraser helping Malcolm, who had 
 a wounded arm and a bloody bandage 
 round his head. I gave one glance at 
 Ker, and the gesture he made told me 
 the day was lost. 
 
 ' Let us go into the house for a minute," 
 said I. 
 
 The servants had all gone. In a room 
 a table was set for a company who would 
 never dine there. Joan and Miss Fraser 
 bandaged Malcolm afresh and we snatched 
 a hurried mouthful of meat and wine. 
 
 " Now," said I, "if you will make 
 ready, through the woods we go to Al- 
 turlie ! " 
 
 " Why Alturlie ? " asked Fraser. 
 
 " For the best of reasons. It is not in 
 the line of retreat," said I. 
 
 Ker backed me with an emphatic nod. 
 
 " And what will we do about Malcolm ? " 
 asked Joan. 
 
 " We will think of that after. The main 
 business at present is to get away from 
 this house, where I shiver to think of the
 
 296 'Tells of an Escape and a Capture 
 
 danger we stand in, wasting time like this ! " 
 said I, leading the way to the back of the 
 house. 
 
 Putting Malcolm on my horse and keeping 
 in the shelter of the woods, we came to the 
 Nairn road. A strange quiet hung over 
 this neighbourhood. If there were any 
 people about they were all hiding some- 
 where. Not a soul did we meet until we 
 came to Alturlie, to find no one there but 
 two elderly serving women and a half- 
 witted lad who did odd jobs about the 
 house, a sort of familiar of James Stuart's, 
 following him wherever he went. The 
 women told us James Stuart had gone 
 to Inverness the day before, and all the 
 others had run away. 
 
 Malcolm was made comfortable in his 
 bedroom. All the rest of that day we 
 kept to the house, Ker, Fraser, and I 
 spending the time in the tower, where we 
 could see across the fields to the high road 
 and beyond to Culloden, and talking of 
 what had best be done.
 
 Tells of an Escape and a Capture 297 
 
 ' Here, I take it, we lie on Cumberland's 
 rear, and for a day or two he will be taken 
 up with what is in front of him, so for 
 that time there is no great danger," said I. 
 
 " Na doot," said Ker, " but that will 
 be the limit." 
 
 " What hopes are there of a rally ? " I 
 asked them. 
 
 Fraser shook his head, as also did Ker, 
 saying, " The word was passed that we 
 were to fall back on Ruthven ; but, sirs, this 
 business has been sair bauchled in the 
 matter o' looking ahead. Where ye gather 
 men ye must hae meat for them, and 
 powder and shot. It was the want o' 
 provender that lost us the day that and 
 nothing else ; and at Ruthven there's 
 neither bread nor powder and shot." 
 
 As dusk began to fall we saw the English 
 men-o'-war sail farther up the bay towards 
 the mouth of the river a manoeuvre 
 that appeared to have considerable in- 
 terest for Ker, who spoke little, but never 
 left the window, looking out on the bay
 
 298 Tells of an Escape and a Capture 
 
 while daylight lasted. When night was 
 come four of the ladies decided to walk 
 on to Petty, where two of them lived ; but 
 leave Alturlie Joan would not, and Miss 
 Fraser said she would stay and keep Joan 
 company. 
 
 All that night we slept in turns and 
 spent the waking hours talking over plans 
 to get away from Alturlie before the hunt 
 was up for the rebels. But in all these 
 plans, which in the end came to slipping 
 through to the south and making a wide 
 detour to the west, Malcolm, wounded and 
 weak from loss of blood, was the stumbling- 
 block. 
 
 Morning found us with no plan, save that 
 of Ker and Fraser taking to the hills them- 
 selves after finding safe hiding for Malcolm. 
 
 We missed Ker for an hour after break- 
 fast, and when he came back I saw he had 
 something in mind. Said he, ' I have 
 taken the liberty o' shifting that boat o' 
 yours, Miss Joan, round to the north side 
 o' the Point."
 
 Tells of an Escape and a Capture 299 
 
 He filled a pipe, and after a puff or 
 two to get it fairly alight, he said, " Ye 
 have been talking o' making for the west 
 coast, but even wi' the lad fit to travel, I 
 doot if I am fit for such a march mysel'. 
 Ye see, friends, A'm a seaman first and 
 last. In all my days I have never made 
 a march o' twenty miles on foot ; before 
 I would make the half o' that ower they 
 hills, ye would be carrying me. But, oot, 
 there is a sweet bit boatie. Once past 
 Chanonry and I wisht the Lord had made 
 it ten miles wide instead o' one we might 
 run through on the ebb to-night, and wi' 
 this wind we would be at Findhorn ere 
 morning ! " 
 
 " And after that ? " said Fraser. 
 
 " After that," said Ker, " I hae friends 
 among the fisherfolk at Findhorn. We 
 hae money, we could do what Mr. Simon 
 here's fether and mine did, after Shirra- 
 muir. I was for trying it last night," he 
 said, " but the ships were too close in. 
 Noo ye see them anchored farther up the
 
 300 Tells of an Escape and a Capture 
 
 bay, and barring maybe a guard boat 
 watching at Chanonry, the road is clear 
 for us. But, if we are to try it, the sooner 
 the better, before the news o' yesterday 
 gets aboot the country, and the longer oor 
 feet will be on the ground ! ' 
 
 Ker leaned back and relit his pipe. 
 
 ' Ye need hae no fear o' the boat. She is 
 
 well built ; for a guinea, in weather like 
 
 this, I would sail her across the North 
 
 Sea ! " 
 
 " Ker is right," said I. " You could not 
 better his plan, and every hour you spend 
 here will make it harder to get away ! ' 
 
 So it was settled the attempt should be 
 made as soon as it was dark ; and that all 
 things should be ready, I went out to 
 tell the lad to bail the boat and fill up the 
 water-keg. Not finding him about, I did 
 this myself, and saw that her gear was in 
 order. 
 
 It was getting dusk when all was ready. 
 Bidding Joan and Miss Fraser stay in the 
 house, we walked across the Point to the
 
 Tells of an Escape and a Capture 301 
 
 boat, and by the time we got there it was 
 almost dark and the tide beginning to ebb. 
 We had made Malcolm comfortable, seated 
 by Ker in the stern sheets. Bidding them 
 farewell and God-speed, Eraser was in 
 the very act of pushing off when we were 
 startled by a woman's scream. There was 
 a rush of feet to the edge of the bank above 
 us, and a shout, " Halt there, or we fire ! " 
 
 " My God, it's the red-coats ; jump in, 
 Simon ! " cried Fraser, grasping my arm. 
 
 I shook him off. ' Would you hang 
 all ? Take the oars, man, and pull for 
 your lives ! " I cried. Gathering all my 
 strength, I gave the boat a mighty push 
 and fell all my length into the sea. Strug- 
 gling to my feet, another shout came from 
 the bank, several muskets flashed. A 
 woman shrieked, I heard Joan wailing, 
 11 Oh, father, you have killed Simon and 
 Malcolm ! " And on the heels of her 
 crying that, a mad kind of scream that 
 seemed to break in the middle. 
 
 Standing there up to my waist in the sea,
 
 302 Tells of an Escape and. a Capture 
 
 I saw through the gloom, against the 
 sky, several soldiers rapidly reloading their 
 muskets. 
 
 " Steady, men ; you there in the water ! " 
 a voice called out, " Surrender yourself 
 or I give orders to fire." 
 
 Behind me was the dark, empty sea, 
 with, somewhere out of musket-range, the 
 lessening sound of oars. For the present 
 at least my friends were safe. The levelled 
 muskets were twenty yards away. " I 
 surrender," I called out, and wading ashore, 
 was instantly seized and disarmed. 
 
 " What have we here ? " called out the 
 officer as we came up the bank, and found 
 Joan standing beside a dark form stretched 
 out on the bank. 
 
 "It is my father, in a fit, or maybe 
 dead," cried Joan. " Oh, Simon ! " she 
 cried again, peering into my face, "is it 
 you ? why did you not go with them ? ' 
 
 " Bring the prisoner along to the house," 
 ordered the officer, " and two of you help 
 the lady to get her father home ! "
 
 Tells of an Escape and a Capture 303 
 
 Joan ran on ahead, and when we reached 
 the house she was there to show us into 
 the sitting-room, and direct the soldiers 
 to carry her father up to his bedroom, 
 where Miss Fraser and the women took 
 charge of him. 
 
 Joan came back and stood anxious- 
 eyed, looking from the officer writing at the 
 table to me standing between two redcoats. 
 
 " Your name, sir ? " said the officer, 
 looking up. 
 
 " Simon Stuart." 
 
 ' The old gentleman we carried home 
 I am sorry " he bowed to Joan " his 
 name is Stuart ; well affected, I know ! 
 Are you related to him ? " 
 
 " His nephew," I replied. 
 
 " His nephew ! " repeated the officer. 
 
 " Why " he broke off suddenly, looking 
 
 sharply at Joan. My heart was sore for 
 her, standing white-faced and miserable, 
 twisting her fingers. 
 
 " And those men who got away in the 
 boat ? "
 
 304 Tells of an Escape and a Capture 
 
 " Just friends of mine," said I. 
 
 The officer wrote it down. " Dangerous 
 friends for you, I am afraid ! " And I 
 thought it a strange turn in my affairs 
 that he should be sitting there at my 
 table, and I standing a prisoner in front 
 of him answering his questions. 
 
 " I regret, sir, it is my duty to march 
 you into Inverness. You are wet ; there 
 is no hurry for an hour," said he, 'if 
 you can dry or change your clothes ! ' 
 
 I thanked him for his courtesy, he made 
 a sign, and escorted by the two red-coats, 
 who turned with me stiffly, like wooden 
 men, we followed Joan to Malcolm's 
 room, where she laid out linen and a suit 
 that fitted me very well. 
 
 When we came down again Joan had 
 food and wine on the table for the officer 
 and me, and she saw to it that the soldiers 
 had ale and bread and cheese. I believe 
 she gave them money, as I heard the 
 chink of coins. 
 
 I could not make the maid out, she was
 
 Tells of an Escape and a Capture 305 
 
 so strangely silent and pale and tight-lipped. 
 But when it came time for us to go, and 
 the officer thanked her, muttering some- 
 thing about unpleasant duty she pressed 
 against me in the hall, and whispered, 
 " Never fear you, Seum ; I will go to 
 McRimmon this night ! " 
 
 I looked back and saw her for a moment 
 standing hi the door, black against the 
 light, watching us march away. Then 
 she turned and ran swiftly into the house. 
 
 20
 
 XXII And the Last 
 
 IN the High Church I was lodged that 
 night with many others, and what I saw 
 there of ghastly wounds untended and 
 misery among the prisoners I do not 
 care to think on, far less put it down on 
 paper. In the morning I was taken before 
 some sort of drumhead court martial, 
 and though not caught a rebel in flag? ante 
 delicto, I had been taken in the very act 
 of helping rebels to escape. And at the 
 end of half an hour's examination I could 
 almost hear the ramrods of the firing 
 party rattle. 
 
 Then matters took an unexpected turn. 
 Among the officers who sat at that table 
 was a tall, thin, ungainly man ; the air 
 in the room being hot and stuffy, this 
 officer had laid aside his white military 
 wig, and I saw his hair was red. Though 
 
 not the President of the Court, he had put 
 
 306
 
 And the Last 307 
 
 several questions to me. My attention 
 was thus drawn to him, and also by the 
 fact that he appeared to be the only man 
 there who did not look upon the Jacobite 
 prisoners as cattle for the slaughter. I 
 was to remember this officer and meet him 
 again under circumstances far beyond the 
 thoughts of either of us at that moment. 
 
 He now drew a paper from his breast and 
 gave it to the President, who read it, 
 after which it was passed around the 
 table. I heard the red-headed officer ad- 
 dressed as Major Wolfe. 1 The court looked 
 on me with a new interest, something of 
 the grimness gone from their faces, I 
 thought, and I was ordered from the 
 room. 
 
 While waiting under guard in another 
 room, the officer who had taken me prisoner 
 came in. " Is it the case, Mr. Stuart," 
 said he in a low voice, " that you helped 
 the Lord President when he was in some 
 danger from the rebels ? " 
 
 1 Afterwards General Wolie.
 
 308 And the Last 
 
 " I was of some service to his lordship 
 on an occasion, some months ago," said I. 
 
 "Then, Mr. Stuart," said he brightly, 
 and smiling, " that will explain the de- 
 liberation of your case. I am glad to tell 
 you that I feel sure it is in your favour, 
 and that your life is in no imme- 
 diate danger. It is likely you will be sent 
 aboard the transport sailing to-night 
 for Edinburgh, with other prisoners of 
 importance ! " 
 
 I could see Joan's hand in this, and 
 doubtless McRimmon's. It turned out as 
 the officer expected. Without being al- 
 lowed an interview with any friends, in 
 the afternoon, under a strong guard, I was 
 marched with a score of others to the shore. 
 
 Eagerly scanning the faces of the people 
 crowding the streets to watch us go by, 
 passing the chapel yard, where, in the 
 narrow street, the people pressed in upon 
 us, I was cheered by the sight of Joan and 
 McRimmon. 
 
 We marched at a brisk step, and it was
 
 And, the Last 309 
 
 only for a moment I saw them. They were 
 both smiling and waving their hands, and 
 in the moment of passing a boy thrust 
 a scrap of paper into my hand. " Keep 
 your heart up, we go to see Duncan Forbes/' 
 I read as we marched along. 
 
 We were rowed aboard the transport 
 lying at anchor at the river mouth, and 
 sailed at night. The ship made a fan- 
 passage to Leith, and from thence, those 
 of us who could walk, were marched 
 straightway to the Castle at Edinburgh. 
 
 My memory serves me very badly at 
 this point of writing. I have no clear 
 mind of dates. Days passed into weeks 
 in that dismal, nerve-breaking prison, that 
 I learned was crammed with Jacobites. 
 Naught could be heard day and night but 
 the tramp of jailers and soldiers ; the 
 clanging of prison doors, the clash of 
 arms, and harsh words of command. 
 
 Through a narrow slit in the thick walls 
 of the little chamber over the inner gate, 
 wherein I was jailed with half a dozen
 
 310 And the Last 
 
 other prisoners, it was our melancholy 
 diversion to watch what passed below. 
 
 Prisoners marched in, and again parties 
 of them marched out, all shackled and 
 guarded, it was whispered, on their way to 
 trial, and, what meant the same thing, 
 execution, at the Assizes to be held at 
 Carlisle. 
 
 Four times the prisoners in my cell 
 went away, to be replaced by others, and 
 at last I was left alone. And in all this 
 time I saw no face but prisoners, or dumb, 
 surly jailers. Neither did I receive any 
 word from friends, or news of what the 
 world outside was doing. 
 
 Though not a man to be easily cast 
 down, as prisoner after prisoner passed 
 beneath me, down that dismal gloomy 
 slope between the high, frowning walls, 
 I caught myself beginning to fear my end 
 was not far off, and say, I will be the next. 
 Every time the jailer's key clashed in the 
 lock, I stood up expectant. And at night 
 I would kneel on the stone seat by the
 
 And the Last 311 
 
 narrow slit, and look up at the stars and 
 mutter, " Soon now; it may be to-morrow ! " 
 
 Then came the change. One morning I 
 stood to attention, as the door swung 
 open. The jailer brought in my breakfast. 
 A dish of minced collops, and white buttered 
 bread, with a pewter pot of good ale, and 
 a tass of brandy. In answer to my look of 
 astonishment at the sight of this change 
 of fare, he grinned and said, " Och, it 
 seems ye hae guid freends. D'ye smoke 
 a pipe ? Wad ye be wantin' a barber ? " 
 
 " I need both badly," said I, pinching 
 myself to see if this was not a dream. 
 
 At the word he went out, and when he 
 came back for the dishes with him came 
 the barber and the pipes and tobacco. 
 
 Now this went on for three days ; good 
 food, with sometimes a bottle of excellent 
 claret, and every morning the barber to 
 shave me and dress my hair. But not a 
 word of explanation could I get from him 
 or the jailer. Then, on the fourth morning 
 after the barber had gone, came McRimmon.
 
 312 And the Last 
 
 Thunderstruck, I stared at him, wonder- 
 ing if my eyes were playing me some 
 trick. The old lawyer stood in the open 
 door, smiling, and two great tears running 
 down his cheeks. 
 
 " Lord, Simon boy, here you are at 
 last ! " he cried, with a little catch in his 
 voice, and the kindly old man came, and 
 putting his arms round me, kissed me on 
 the cheek. 
 
 " Och, but this is the happy day ; 
 let me sit down, laddie. I'm weak wi' 
 joy to see ye ! " 
 
 I sat him down by the arrow-slit, and 
 gave him the tass of brandy. " No, no," 
 he cried, pushing my hand away, " drink it 
 yourself weel, just a sip o' it, there ! 
 Thanks be to the Almighty, before another 
 day is past we'll crack a bottle together 
 in a different place to this ! >J 
 
 " McRimmon, how come you here ? ' 
 I asked him, " and what is your news ? ' 
 
 " No news but what is good ! " he 
 chuckled, " and as to how I come to be
 
 And the Last 313 
 
 here, I have my orders, and A'm no to 
 tell that. But the news now. This morn- 
 ing, no later, ye go before Culloden and 
 my Lord London, here in Edinburgh. 
 It's just a matter o' form, and you are a 
 free man again." 
 
 " And Joan ? " 
 
 " The last I saw o' the lassie," said he, 
 wagging his head, " there was little wrang 
 in her that canna be mended." 
 
 "And Malcolm and Ker and ?' 
 
 " All safe and oot o' danger. All weel 
 except your uncle, and A'm no losing any 
 sleep ower James Stuart ! " said McRim- 
 mon, pursing up his lips. 
 
 "D'ye know, Simon, it was yon auld 
 deevil, and the other gallows bird, Dougal, 
 that put the sodgers on ye at Alturlie, 
 only the daft laddie didna tell them Mal- 
 colm was wi' ye. James Stuart didna 
 know his own son was in the boat. Ah, 
 weel, the Almighty has put His hand upon 
 him. Ye're Uncle James has had a stroke, 
 he is just a bairn again, and will never be
 
 314 And the Last 
 
 but a bairn till the Lord takes him. I think, 
 Simon, seeing that Joan knows everything, 
 we'll say no more aboot James Stuart ! ' 
 
 " Never a word," said I heartily. ' The 
 Lord knows I have too much to be thank- 
 ful for. I am not so sure, the way things 
 have turned out, that I haven't something 
 to thank Uncle James for ! " 
 
 ' That's yoursel' that's speaking, laddie, 
 and, my conscience," he cried, lugging 
 out and consulting a watch, in shape and 
 size resembling a young turnip, " it's 
 eleven o' the clock. I must be going, boy, 
 for there's them waiting on us that it'll 
 no' do to keep waiting. Now," said he, 
 holding up his hand, " no' another word 
 till we meet again." 
 
 He rapped on the door with his cane. 
 The jailer let him out, and waving his 
 hand to me, McRimmon trotted away in 
 high feather. 
 
 When the door clanged behind him, I 
 looked up at God's blue sky, and I kneeled 
 down and I said a prayer my mother had
 
 And the Last 315 
 
 taught me at her knee when I was a 
 bairn. 
 
 In a little while came the jailer, and 
 marching out of my prison I was given 
 up at the main gate to a corporal's guard. 
 Such a common sight it was in the summer 
 of the year 1746, aye, and for many a day 
 to come, to see shackled and guarded 
 prisoners marched up and down that 
 thronged narrow High Street, that hardly 
 a citizen turned to look at me going by. 
 Only a few ragged urchins keeping step 
 with us, and once or twice I caught the 
 pitying eyes of a woman. 
 
 We halted at a house near the Church of 
 St. Giles, a footman came out and gave 
 the corporal a paper, whereupon the cor- 
 poral barked at his men, and at the word 
 they wheeled and marched away leaving me 
 standing in amazement in the street. The 
 footman signed to me to follow him into the 
 house. He opened an inner door, ushering 
 me into a large room, where at a table sat 
 the Lord President and my Lord Loudon.
 
 316 And the Last 
 
 Duncan Forbes looked up at me with a 
 reassuring twinkle in his eye. Loudon, 
 very black and grim, said, " Well, Mr. 
 Stuart, you may consider yourself a very 
 lucky young man ! ' 
 
 " If I am, I believe I have to thank you 
 gentlemen," said I. 
 
 " You have to thank someone else be- 
 sides us/' replied Loudon gruffly. ' To 
 cut a long story short, you are pardoned 
 and a free man, but my friend, the Lord 
 President here, has assumed the respon- 
 sibility for your future good behaviour. 
 I suppose, sir/' he growled, " in gratitude, 
 you are prepared to do something in return 
 for being saved from the hangman ? ' 
 
 " Whatever a man can do ! " I replied. 
 
 " Humph ! Well, Culloden here has work 
 for you in a field where too great a strain 
 will not be put on your peculiar ideas of 
 what constitutes loyalty to His Majesty King 
 George ! ' : He glared at me beneath his 
 black eyebrows, and I bowed to both gentle- 
 men, having the good sense to say nothing.
 
 And the Last 317 
 
 ' I told you a moment ago that you 
 had someone else to thank. Yonder she 
 is ! " said Loudon, pointing his finger at 
 a window across the room, and my heart 
 gave a bound to see Joan standing there, 
 half concealed by the heavy curtain. 
 
 ' That young lady rode every step of 
 the way from Inverness, in company with 
 an old lawyer who had better amend his 
 politics, for I have my eye upon him to 
 intercede for you. You may thank her, 
 Mr. Stuart ! " said my Lord Loudon. 
 
 " That young lady requires a keeper " 
 he wagged an admonitory finger at Joan 
 " and so do you, sir ! " said he, turning 
 suddenly on me. 
 
 ' I think, my lord," said Duncan Forbes, 
 rising from the table, " we will leave them 
 to arrange how such a condition can be 
 best brought about." 
 
 I stared as both gentlemen walked to 
 the door, and nodding their heads, and 
 smiling rery pleasantly, closed it gently 
 behind them.
 
 318 And the Last 
 
 Then, turning to the window, I saw Joan 
 coming from behind the curtain holding 
 out her arms a little towards me. 
 
 And so the tale is almost told. For a 
 time men thought there would be a rally 
 of the clans after Culloden. But there was 
 no rally. Fear makes men cruel as the 
 grave, and the Government had got a great 
 fright. When they learned that the Prince 
 had abandoned his followers and fled to the 
 hills they determined that this should be the 
 last Jacobite rebellion, and took measures 
 accordingly : such measures as make men 
 sick at heart to read or hear about. 
 
 I served the Lord President in his labour 
 of standing between the highlanders and 
 the heavy hand of the Government. When 
 that great man and true friend of the high- 
 landers died, worn out by his terrible task, 
 the Master of Lovat offered me a commission 
 in his regiment of Fraser Highlanders. 
 
 I made the campaign of Quebec with 
 my regiment, and there had the pleasure
 
 And the Last 319 
 
 of reminding and thanking the general 
 for his kindness to me at the court mar- 
 tial. A musket-ball in the moment of 
 victory ended General Wolfe's career. A 
 musket-ball in the knee that day put an 
 end to my soldiering. I am bothered 
 with the wound in unsettled weather ; in 
 all else I am sound as a buck. 
 
 Highlanders will always have it that 
 King Louis of France played them false 
 in the '45, and I believe there was a note 
 of vengeance in their yell of triumph that 
 day when we drove Montcalm's battalions 
 in rout from the Heights of Abraham. 
 
 As for the rest, we have visitors at 
 Alturlie this summer afternoon, and through 
 the open window whereat I sit penning 
 these last few lines comes with the scent 
 of flowers, the laughter of children, and 
 the murmur of voices. 
 
 Walking together on the lawn is my 
 cousin Malcolm and his wife, Miss Fraser 
 of Foyers, that was. On a seat by the 
 bowling-green sits Janet, rosy and a
 
 320 And the Last 
 
 trifle more buxom, dandling Miss Joan 
 Stuart on her knee. Deep in conversa- 
 tion with her is Captain James Ker, grown 
 lusty these days. His ship is at Inverness, 
 and he is spending his time with us until 
 his cargo is stowed. 
 
 Like many another seaman, Ker talks 
 of sailing the seas no more, but will give 
 it up to go farming. If, as I am assured, 
 Janet and he make a match of it, I will 
 settle them at Clunes. 
 
 McRimmon, the hale and hearty old 
 lawyer, needing no powder for his hair now, 
 is very gravely engaged in settling a dispute 
 between my little son and his grand-uncle, 
 James Stuart, as to the lie of the bowls. 
 
 The tall lady looking on turns to the 
 window, and catching my eye, with a 
 quaint trick of raising her eyebrows, and 
 a smile that shows a dimple in her cheek, 
 beckons me out to the sunshine. 
 
 Made and Printed in Great Britain. 
 Hazett, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
 
 A 000 131 399 8