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JACOB STAIN WOOD

<y ; ... ^a«

— t..t.o ...„ I..U.H.-CTT- tvnuojnr tnis inenMtre i

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ROMANCE OF WAtT^ {^gMTanie* Grant.
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THE COUNTRY CURATE
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The Black Watch in Canada.

LEGENDS

THE BLACK WATCH:

OR,

fortn-scconi) gigblanfcers.

JAMES GRANT,

AUTHOR OF

BOMAXCB OF WAB," " HOLLTWOOD HALL," ETC., ETC.

XEW EDITION.

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[7)0 AuOtor r«»tr:e» the riylit qf Iraiulatio*.']

tOKDOlT

I-ATIU. 1ITO SBWABDS, PBDTTBBS,
CHASDO9 STBKKI.

PREFACE.

WOVEN up with an occasional legend or superstition
gleaned among the mountains from whence its
soldiers came, the warlike details and many of the
names which occur in the following pages, belong to
the military history of the country and of the brave
Kegiment whose title is given to our Book.

It is generally acknowledged that but for the reten-
tion of the kilt in the British service, and for the
high character of those regiments who wear it, the
military name of Scotland had been long since for-
gotten in Europe, and her national existence had been
as completely ignored during the Wars of Wellington
as in those of Marlborough ; nor in times more recent
had the electric wire announced that, when the cloud
of Russian horse came on at Balaclava and our allies
fled, " the Scots stood firm."

The kilt alone indicated their country, as our
Scots Lowland regiments are clad like the rest of
the Line. The martial and picturesque costume of

iv PREFACE.

the ancient clans which is now so completely iden-
tified with modern Scotland, is one of the few rem-
nants of the past that remain to her; and it is
remarkable that it has survived so long ; for it was
the garb of those adventurous Greeks who fought
under Xenophon, and of those hardy warriors who
spread the terror of the Roman name from the
shores of the Euphrates on the east, to those of the
Caledonian Firths upon the west.

It was the best public service of the great Pitt
when he first rallied round the British throne, as
soldiers of the Highland Regiments, the men of that
warlike race, who had been so long inimical to the
House of Hanover.

" I sought for merit wherever it was to be found,"
said he ; " it is my boast that I was the first minister
who looked for it and found it on the mountains of
the north. I called it forth, and drew into your ser-
vice a hardy and intrepid race of men, who, when
left by your jealousy, became a prey to the artifice of
your enemies, and who, in the war before the last,
had well nigh gone to have overturned the State.
These men in the last war were brought to combat
by your side ; they served with fidelity as they fought
with honour, and conquered for you in every part of
the world."

Highlander and Lowlander are now so mingled by

PREFACE. V

intermarriage that there is scarcely a subject in the
northern kingdom without more or less Celtic blood
in his or her veins; and to this mixture of race,
which unites the fire and impatience of the former to
-ready perseverance of the latter, Scotland owes
her present prosperity.

The Clans are passing away, and with them a thou-
sand great and glorious historical and romantic asso-
ciations; while, by the rapid spread of education,
even their language cannot long survive ; " but when
time shall have drawn its veil over the past as over
the present — when the last broadsword shall have
been broken on the anvil, and the shreds of the last
plaid tossed to the winds upon the cairn, or been
bleached within the raven's nest, posterity may look
back with regret to a people who have so marked the
history, the poetry, and the achievements of a distant
age ;" and who, in the ranks of the British army,
have stood foremost in the line of battle and given
place to none !

20, DANUBE STREET, EDINBURGH,
Octubtr, \

CONTENTS.

PAG*

I. THE STOUT OP FARQUHAR SHAW 5

IL THE SEVEN GRENADIERS 47

III. TUB LOST REGIMENT — A LOVE STORY .... 67

IV. MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HENRY .... 95

V. THE WIFE OF THE RED COJIYN — MY GRAND-
FATHER'S STORY 175

VI. STORY OF THE GREY MOUSQUETAIRE A FRAG-
MENT OF THE SEVEN YEARS* WAR .... 200

VII. THE LETTRE DE CACHET 25G

VIII. THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN GRANT .... 289

IX. THE STORY OF DICK DUFF 323

X. THE FOREST OF GAICH — OR THE CAPTAIN DHU . 35-i

LEGENDS

THE BLACK WATCH.

THE STORY OF FARQUHAR SHAAV.

Tnis soldier, whose name, from the circumstances
connected with his remarkable story, daring courage,
and terrible fate, is still remembered in the regiment,
in the early history of which he bears so prominent a

was one of the first who enlisted in Captain
1 ijibell of Finab's independent band of the

idem l>li". i>r Black Watch, when the six sepa-

'•ompanies composing this Highland force V.LTC
established along the Highland Border in 1729, to
repress the predatory spirit of certain tribes, and to

nt the levy of black mail. The companies were
independent, and at that time wore the clan tartan
of their captains, who were Simon Frazer, the
celebrated Lord Lovat ; Sir Duncan Campbt-ll
of Lochnell ; Grant of Ballindalloch ; Alister Camp-
bell of Finab, whose father fought at Darien ;
Lin Campbell of Carrick, and Deors Monro of Cul-
cairn. .

The privates of these companies were all men of
a superior station, being mostly cadets of good families
— gentlemen of the old Celtic and patriarchal lines,

6 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

and of baronial proprietors. In the Highlands, the
only genuine mark of aristocracy was descent from
the founder of the tribe ; all who claimed this were
styled uislain, or gentlemen, and, as such, when off
duty, were deemed the equal of the highest chief in
the land. Great care was taken by the six captains
to secure men of undoubted courage, of good stature,
stately deportment, and handsome figure. Thus, in all
the old Highland regiments, but more especially the
JReicudan Dhu, equality of blood and similarity of
descent, secured familiarity and regard between the
officers and their men — for the latter deemed them-
selves inferior to no man who breathed the air of
heaven. Hence, according to an English engineer
officer, who frequently saw these independent com-
panies, "many of those private gentlemen-soldiers
have gillies or servants to attend upon them in their
quarters, and upon a march, to carry their provisions,
baggage, and firelocks/'

Such was the composition of the corps, now first
embodied among that remarkable people, the Scottish
Highlanders — " a people," says the Historian of Great
Britain, " untouched by the Roman or Saxon in-
vasions on the south, and by those of the Danes on
the east and west skirts of their country — the un-
mixed remains of that vast Celtic empire, which
once stretched from the Pillars of Hercules to Arch-
angel."

The E-eicudan Dhu were armed with the usual
weapons and accoutrements of the line ; but, in addi-
tion to these, had the arms of their native country —
the broadsword, target, pistol, and long dagger, while
the sergeants carried the old Celtic tuagh, or Lochaber
axe. It was distinctly understood by all who enlisted
in this new force, that their military duties were

THE STORY OF FAUqUIIAK SHAW. 7

confined within the Highland Border, where,
from the wild, predatory spirit of those clans which
d\v<-lt next the Lowlands, it was known that they
would find more than enough of military service of
tin- most harassing kind. In the conflicts which
daily ensued among the mountains — hi the sudden

•lies by night ; the desperate brawls among

; ans, who were armed to the teeth, fierce as nature
and outlawry could make them, and who dwelt in
wild and pathless fastnesses secluded amid rocks,
woods, and morasses, there were few who in courage,
energy, daring, and activity equalled Farquhar Shaw,
a gentleman from the Braes of Lochaber, who was
esteemed the prcm'x r private in the company of
Campbell of Final), which was then quartered in
that district ; for each company had its permanent
cantonment and scene of operations during the eleven
years which succeeded the first formation of the

•udan Dhu.

rquhar was a perfect swordsman, and deadly
shot alike with the musket and pistol ; and his
strength was such, that he had been known to twist
a horse-shoe, and drive his akene dhu to the hilt in a
pine log ; while his activity and power of enduring

• T, thirst, heat, cold and lati^ue, became a

•rb among the companies of the Watch : for thus
had he been reared and trained by his father, a

line old Celtic gentleman and warrior, whose
memory went back to the days when Dundee led the
valiant and true to the field of Rinrory, and in whose
arms the viscount fell from his horse in the moment
of victory, and was borne to the house of Urrard to
die. Hi? was a true Highlander of the old school;
for an old school has existed in all ages and every-

:o, even among the Arabs, the children of Ish-

8 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCIL

mael, in the desert ; for they, too, have an olden time
to which they look hack with regret, as being nobler,
better, braver, and purer than the present. Thus, the
father of Farquhar Shaw was a grim d '«sal,

who never broke bread or saw the sun rise without
uncovering his head and invoking the names of " God,
the Blessed Mary, and St. Colme of the Isle •" who
never sat down to a meal without opening wide
his gates, that the poor and needy might enter
freely ; who never refused the use of his purse and
sword to a friend or kinsman, and was never seen un-
armed, even in his own dining-room ; who never
•wronged any man ; but who never suffered a wroug
or affront to pass, without sharp and speedy ven-
geance; and who, rather than acknowledge the
supremacy of the House of Hanover, died sword in
hand at the rising in Glensheil. For this act, his
estates were seized by the House of Breadalbane, and
his only son, Farquhar, became a private soldier in
the ranks of the Black Watch.

It may easily be supposed, that the son of such a
father was imbued with all his cavalier spirit, his
loyalty and enthusiasm, and that his mind was filled
by all the military, legendary, and romantic memories
of his native mountains, the land of the Celts, which,
as a fine Irish ballad says, was THEIRS

Ere the Roman or the Saxon, the Norman or the Dane,
Had first set foot in Britain, or trampled heaps of slain,
"Whose manhood saw the Druid rite, at forest tree and rock —
And savage tribes of Britain round the shrines of Zernebok ;
Which for generations witnessed all the glories of the Gael,
Since their Celtic sires sang war-songs round the sacred fires of
Baal.

"When it was resolved by Government to form the
six independent Highland companies into one regi-

THE STORY OP FARQUHAR SHAW. 9

merit, Farquhar Shaw was left on the sick list at the
cottage of a, widow, named Mhona Cameron, near
Invrlueliy, having been wounded in a skirmish with
:uns in Glennevis, and he writhed on his sick-
win n his comrades, under Fiuab, marched for
i !irks of Aberfcldy, the muster-place of the whole,
wh •!••• i he companies were to be united into one
lion, under the celebrated John Earl of Crawford
and Lindesay, the last of his ancient race, a hero
covered with wounds and honours won in the services of
Britain and Russia,

\\Vuk, wan, and wasted though he was (for his
wound, a slash from a pole-axe, had been a severe
one), Farquhar almost sprang from bed when he
1 the notes of their retiring pipes dying away,
as they marched through Maryburgh, and round by
margin of Lochiel. His spirit of honour was
ruffled, moreover, by a rumour, spread by his enemies
th<> Caterans, against whom he had fought repeatedly,
that he was growing faint-hearted at the prospect
of the service of the Black Watch being ex-
tended beyond the Highland Border. As rumours
to this effect were already finding credence in
tin: glens, the fierce, proud heart of Farquhar
burned within him with indignation and unmerited
shame.

At last, one night, an old crone, who came stealthily
to the cottage in which In- was residing, informed
him that, by the same outlaws who were seeking to
di-privu him of his honour, a subtle plan hail been
laid to surround his temporary dwelling, and put him
to death, in revenge for certain wounds inflicted by

vord upon their comrades.

The energy and activity of the Black Watch had
long since driven the Catalans to despair, and nothing

10 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

but the anticipation of killing Farquhar comfortably,
and chopping him into ounce pieces at leisure, enabled
them to survive their troubles with anything like
Christian fortitude and resignation.

" And this is their plan, mother ?" said Farquhar
to the crone.

" To bum the cottage, and you with it"

" Dioul ! say you so, Mother Mhona/' he ex-
claimed ; " then 'tis time I were betaking me to the
hills. Better have a cool bed for a few nights on the
sweet-scented heather, than be roasted in a burning
cottage, like a fox in its hole."

In vain the cotters besought him to seek conceal-
ment elsewhere ; or to tarry until he had gained his
full strength.

" Were I in the prime of strength, I would stay
here/' said Farquhar; "and when sleeping on my
sword and target, would fear nothing. If these
dogs of Caterans came, they should be welcome to my
life, if I could not redeem it by the three best lives
in their band ; but I am weak as a growing boy, and
so shall be off to the free mountain side, and seek the
path that leads to the Birks of Aberfeldy."

" But the Birks are far from here, Farquhar,"
urged old Mhona.

"Att< 'mj>t, and Did-not, were the worst of FingaTs
hounds," replied the soldier. "Farquhar will owe
you a day in harvest for all your kindness ; but his
comrades wait, and go he must ! Would it not be a
strange thing and a shameful, too, if all the Eeicudan
Dhu should march down into the flat, bare land of
the Lowland clowns, and Farquhar not be with them?
What would Finab, his captain, think? and what
would all in Brae Lochaber say V

" Yet pause," continued the crones.

STuKY OF FAi;<>UHAU SHAW. 11

" Pause ! Dhia ! my father's bones will soon be
clattering in their Lrnive, far away in um-u Giensheil,
whfi L for King JM -na."

continued the old woman, " lest you go
for ever, Farquhar."

" It is longer to for ever thnn to Beltane, and by
;ay I must be at the Birks of Aberfeldy."

Then, seeing that he was determined, the crones
muttered among themselves that the tarvccoill
would fall upon him ; but Farquhar Shaw, though
far from being free of his native superstitions, laughed
aloud ; for the tarvecoill is a black cloud, which, if
seen on a new-year's eve, is siid to portend stormy
weather ; hence it is a proverb fora misfortune about
to h;i{)pt.-n.

" You were unwise to become a soldier, Farquhar,"
'.lit-ir last argument.

••\Yhy-."

" The tongue may tie a knot which the teeth can-
not untie."

" As your husbands' tongues did, when they mar-

riud you all, poor men!" was the • good-natun.d

retort of Farquhar. " But fear not for me ; ere the

snow begins to melt on Ben Nevis, and the sweet

wallflower to bloom on the black Castle of Invi r-

lochy, I will be with you all again," he added, while

u-])lni'l about him, sliuging his

target on his shoulder, and whistling upon Bran, his

favourite stag-hound ; he then set out to join the

u;nt, by the nearest route, on the skirts of Ben

Nevis, resolving to pass the head of Lochlevin,

through Larochmohr, and the deep glens that load

rds the Braes of Rannoch, a long, desolate, and

perilous journey, but with his sword, his pistols, and

gigantic houud to guard him, his plaid for a covering,

12 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

and the purple heather for a bed wherever he haltoil,
Farqulnr ft-ared nothing.

Hi.- i lithful dog Bran, which had shared his couch
and phiid since the timo when it was a puppy, was a
noble specimen of the Scottish hound, which was
used of old in the chase of the white bull, the wolf,
and the deer, and which is in reality the progenitor
of the common greyhound ; for the breed has de-
generated in warmer climates than the stern north.
Bran (so named from Bran of old) was of such size,
strength, and courage, that he was able to drag down
the strongest deer ; and, in the last encounter with
tin- Caterans of Glen Nevis, he had saved the life
of Farquhar, by tearing almost to pieces one who
would have slain him, as he lay wounded on the
field. His hair was rough and grey ; his limbs
were muscular and wiry ; his chest was broad and
deep ; his keen eyes were bright as those of an
••. Such dogs as Bran bear a prominent place in
Highland song and story. They were remarkable
for their sagacity and love of their master, and their
solemn and dirge-like howl was ever deemed ominous
and predictive of death and woe.

Bran and his master were inseparable. The noble
dog had long been invaluable to him when on hunt-
oxpeditions, and now since he had become a
soldier in the Reicudan Dhu, Bran was always on
guard with him, and the sharer of all his duties ; thus
Farquhar was wont to assert, " that for watchfulness
on sentry, Bran's two ears were worth all the rest in
the Black Watch put together."

The sun had set before Farquhar left the green
thatched clachan, and already the bases of the purple
mountains were dark, though a red glow lingered on
their heath-clad summits. Lest some of the Cateran

THK STORY OF FARQUHAR SHAW. 13

hand, of whose malevolence he was now the object,
i night already have knowledge or suspicion of his
departure and be watching him with lynx-like •
from behind some rock or bracken bush, he pursued
for a time a path which led to the westward, until the
darkness closed completely in ; and then, after cast-
ing round him a rapid and searching glance, he
struck at once into the old secluded drove-way
or Fingaliau road, which descended through the
deep gorge of Corriehoilzie towards the mouth of
Glencoe.

On his left towered Ben Nevis — or " the Mountain
of Heaven" — sublime and vast, four thousand three
hundred feet and more in height, with its pale summits
gleaming in the starlight, under a coating of eternal
snow. On his right lay deep glens yawning between
pathless mountains that arose in piles above each
other, their sides torn and rent by a thousand water-
courses, exhibiting rugged banks of rock and gravel,
fringed by green waving bracken leaves and black
whin hushes, or jagged by masses of stone, lying in
;>iles and heaps, like the black, dreary, and Cyclopean
ruins " of an earlier world." Before him lay the wil-
derness of Larochmohr, a scene of solitary and solemn
grandeur, where, under the starlight, every feature
of the landscape, every waving bush, or silver
birch ; every bare scalp of porphyry, and every
granite block torn by storms from the cliffs above ;
every rugged watercourse, tearing in foam through
its deep marl bed between the tufted heather,
.n-d shadowy, unearthly, and weird — dark and
mysterious; and all combined, were more than
enough to impress with solemnity the thoughts of
any man, but more especially those of a Highlander;
for the savage grandeur and solitude of that district

14 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

at such an hour — the gloaming — were alike, to u
paradox, soothing and tern fie.

There was no moon. Large masses of crape-lite
vapour saih.-d across the blue sky, and by gradually
veiling the stars, made yet darker the gloomy path
which Farquhar had to traverse. Even the dog
Bran seemed impressed by the unbroken stilli
and t rutu-d close as a shadow by the bare legs of his
master.

For a time Farquhar Shaw had thought only of
the bloodthirsty Caterans, who in their mood of
vengeance at the Black Watch in general, and at him
in particular, would have hewn him to pieces without
mercy ; but now as the distance increased between
himself and their haunts by the shores of the Lochy
and Eil, other thoughts arose in his mind, which
gradually became a prey to the superstition incident
alike to his age and country, as all the wild tales he
had heard of that sequestered district, and indeed of
that identical glen which he was then traversing,
crowded upon his memory, until he, Farquhar Shaw,
who would have faced any six men sword in hand, or
would have charged a grape-shotted battery without
fear, actually sighed with apprehension at the waving
of a hazel bush on the lone hill side.

Of many wild and terrible things this locale was
alleged to be the scene, and with some of these the
Highland reader may be as familiar as Farquhar.

A party of the Black Watch in the summer of
1738, had marched up the glen, under the command
of Corporal Malcolm MacPherson (of whom more
anon), with orders to seize a flock of sheep and arrest
the proprietor, who was alleged to have " lifted" (i.e.,
stolen) them from the Camerons of Lochiel. The soldiers
found the flock to the number of three hundred, grazin^

Till! STOKY OF FAIiqrilAi: S-'IIAV.-. 15

on a hill siile, all fat black-faced sheep with fine long

1 seated near them, crook in hand, upon a

of rock, they found the person (one of the

rans already referred to) who was alleged to have

a them. J it- was a strange-looking old fellow,

with a long white beard that flowed below his girdle ;

.•-•as attended by two huge black dogs of fierce

and repulsive aspect He laughed scornfully when

bed by the corporal, and hollowly the echoes of

his laught'T run;,' among the rocks, while his giant

hounds bayed and erected their bristles, and their

> if emitting sparks of fire.

The soldiers now surrounded the, sheep and drove
them down the hill side into the glen, from whence
they prue'-e'i"d towards Maryburgh, with a piper
playing in front of the Hock, for it is known that
\> will readily follow the music of the pipe. The
k Watch were merry with their easy capture, but
; 'herson's party were so merry as the cap-
tured shepherd, whom, for security, the corporal had
*•) the left hand of his brother Samuel ; and
in this older they proceeded for three miles, until they
.ied a running stream; when, lo ! the whole ot
the three hundred fat sheep and the black dogs
turned into clods of brown earth; and, with a wild
mocking lan^h that seemed to pass away on the
wind which swept the mountain waste, their shepherd
vanished, and no trace of his presence remained but
the empty rin-- of the fetters which dangled from
the. left wrist of Samuel Macl'liersoii, who felt every
hair on his head bristle under his bonnet with terror
and affright.

Thi> ;;lso the abode of the Duoinr.

. or (im.d N.-i-libinir.-:. as they are named in the
Lowlands; and of this fact the wife of the pay-
i: '2

16 I.K.i ;KN*I)S OK THE BLACK WATCH.

sergeant of Farquhar's own company could bear

blc evidence. These imps are alleged to have a

.nge love for abstracting young girls and women

great with child, and leaving in their places bundles

of dry branches or withered reeds in the resemblance

of the person thus abstracted, but to all appearance

dead or in a trance ; they are also exceeding partial

to having their own bantlings nursed by human

mothers.

The wife of tlie sergeant (who was Duncan Camp-
bell of the family of Duncaves) was without children,
but was ever longing to possess one, and had drunk
of all the holy wells in the neighbourhood without
finding herself much benefited thereby. On a summer
evening when the twilight was lingering on the hills,
she was seated at her cottage door gazing listlessly on
the waters of the Eil, which were reddened by the
last flush of the west, when suddenly a little man
and woman of strange aspect appeared before her —
so suddenly that they seemed to have sprung from
the ground — and offered her a child to nurse. Her
husband, the sergeant, was absent on duty at Dumbar-
ton ; the poor lonely woman had no one to consult,
or from whom to seek permission, and she at once
accepted the charge as one long coveted.

"Take this pot of ointment," said the man, im-
pressively, giving Moina Campbell a box made of
shells, " and be careful from time to time to touch
the eyelids of our child therewith."

" Accept this pairse of money," said the woman,
giving her a small bag of green silk ; " 'tis our pay-
ment in advance, and anon \\e will come again."

qunint little father and mother then each blew
a breath upon the face of the child and disappeared,
or as the sergeant's wife said, seemed to melt away

THE STORY OF FAK<>riIAR SHAW. 17

into the twilight haze. The money given by the
woman was gold and silver ; but Moina knew not its
v.i 1 ue, for the coins were ancient, and bore the head
<>f King Constantino IV. The child was a strange,
pale and wan little creature, with keen, bright, and
inrhmcholy eyes ; its lean freakish hands were almost
transparent, and it was ever sad and moaning. Yet
in the care of the sergeant's wife it throve bravely,
and always after its eyes were touched with the oint-
ment it laughed, crowed, screamed, and exhibited
such wild joy that it became almost convulsed.

This occurred so often that Moina felt tempted to
apply the ointment to her own eyes, when lo ! she
'•ived a group of the dwarfish Daoine Shie— little
men in trunk hose and sugar-loaf hats, and little
women in hoop petticoats all of a green colour —
dancing round her, and making grimaces an$ antic
gestures to amuse the child, which to her horror she
was now convinced was a bantling of the spirits who
dwelt in Larochmohr !

What was she to do ? To offend or seem to fear
lln in was dangerous, and though she was now daily
tormented by seeing these green imps about her, she
ted unconsciousness and seemed to observe them
not ; but prayed in her heart for her husband's speedy
return, and to be relieved of her fairy charge, to whom
she faithfully performed her trust, for in time the
child grew strong and beautiful ; and when, again on
a twilight eve, the parents came to claim it, the
woman wept as it was taken from her, for she had
learned to love the little creature, though it belonged
neither to heaven nor earth.

me months after, Moina Campbell, more lonely
now than ever, was passing through Larochmohr,
when suddenly within the circle of a large green fairy

18 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

rinir, she saw thousands, yea myriads of little imps in
green trunk hose and with sugar-loaf hats, dancing
aii'l making merry, and amid them were the child
she had nursed and its parents also, and in terror and
distress she addressed herself to them.

The tiny voices within the charmed circle were
hushed in an instant, and all the little men and
women hecame filled with anger. Their little faces
-n-\v red, and their little eyes flashed fire.

" How do you see us ?" demanded the father of
the fairy child, thrusting his little conical hat fiercely
over his right eye.

" Did I not nurse your child, my friend ?" said
Moina, trembling.

" But how do you see us ?" screamed a thousand
little voices.

Moina trembled, and was silent.

" Oho \" exclaimed all the tiny voices, like a breeze
of wind, " sho has been using our ointment, the in-
solent mortal !"

" I can alter that," said one fairy man (who being
three feet high was a giant among his fellows), as he
blew upward in her face, and in an instant all the
green multitude vanished from her sight ; she saw
only the fairy ring and the green bare sides of the
silent glen. ^ Of all the myriads she had seen, not
one was visible now.*

'' Fear not, Moina," cried a little voice from the
hill side, " for your husband will prosper." It was
the fairy child who spoke.

Thi?, and the two legends which follow, were related to me
l'\ ,-i Highlander, who asserted, with tlu- almost good faith, that
thry happened in (Jlendochart; hut I have since seen an Arahian
till.-, which somewhat resembles the adventure of the sergeant's
wife.

THE STOUY OF FA11QUHAR SHAW. 1(J

" But his fate will follow him/' added another voice,
angrily.

Full of fear the poor woman returned to her cot-

. fn<m which, to her astonishment, she had !>-•< :i
:it ti 11 days and nights ; but she saw her husband
no more: in the meantime he had embarked for a
foreign land, being gazetted to an eusigncy ; thus so
far tin- fairy promise of his prospering proved true.*
Another story flitted through Farquhar's mind, and
troubled him quite as much as its predecessors. In a
shieling here a friend of his, when hunting, one night
sought shelter. Finding a fire already lighted therein he
; : ue alarmed, and clambering into the roof sat upon
the cross rafters to wait the event, and ere long there
'x-l a little old man two feet in height. His
1, hands, and feet were enormously large for the
size of his person ; his nose was long, crooked, and of
•rlet hue ; his eyes brilliant as diamonds, and they
ul.ned in the light of the fire. He took from his
baek a bundle of reeds, and tying them together, pro-
led to blow upon them from his huge mouth and
•nde.d cheeks, and as lie blew, a skin crept over
the dry bundle, which gradually began to assume the
appearance of a human face and form.

,in^s were more than the huntsman
on his ptn h above could endure, and filled by dread
that the process below might end in a troublesome
likene^ of himself, he dropped a sixpence into his
ery thing evil is proof to Iccul) and fired
straight at the hu^«; head of the spirit or gnome,
which vanished with a shriek, tearing away in his

* His "fail'" would srem to h.ivo followed him, tro; for ho
\v;is killed ;it TiamdiT<>p;:i. when car-kuu-lk'uU'tnnl of the Hl;ick
Watoh.— See Stewart' t Skctckct.

20 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

wrath and flight the whole of the turf wall on one
side of the shieling, which was thus in a moment re-
duced to ruin.

These memories, and a thousand others of spectral
Druids and tall ghastly warriors, through whose thin
forms the twinkling stars would shino (but these
orbs were hidden now) as they hovered by grey
cairns and the grassy graves of old, crowded on the
mind of Farquhar; for there were then, and even
now are, more ghosts, devils, and hobgoblins in the
Scottish Highlands than ever were laid of yore in
the Red Sea. Nor need we be surprised at this
superstition in the early days of the Black Watch,
when Dr. Henry tells us, in 1831, that within the last
twenty years, when a couple -agreed to marry in
Orkney, they went to the Temple of the Moon, which
was semicircular, and there, on her knees, the woman
solemnly invoked the spirit of Woden !

Farquhar, as he strode on, comforted himself with
the reflection that those who are born at night — as
his mother had a hundred times told him he had
been — never saw spirits ; so he took a good dram
from his hunting-flask, and belted his plaid tighter
about him, after making a sign of the cross three
times, as a protection against all the diablerie of the
district, but chiefly against a certain malignant fiend
or spirit, who was wont to howl at night among the
rocks of Larochmohr, to hurl storms of snow into the
deep vale of Corriehoilzie, and toss huge blocks of
granite into the deep blue waters of Loch Leven.
He shouted on Bran, whistled the march of the Black
Watch, " to keep his spirits cheery," and pushed on
his way up the mountains, while the broad rain drops
of a coming tempest plashed heavily in his face.

He looked up to the " Hill of Heaven." The night

Till-: STORY OP FARQUHAU SHAW. 21

clouds were gathering round its awful summit, wheel-
in.:, eddy in-.:, and floating in whirlwinds from the
dak chasms of rock that yawn in its sides. The
ling of the thunder among the riven peaks of
granite overhaul announced that a tempest was at
hand; but though Farquhar Shaw had come of a
brave and adventurous race, and feared nothing
«/r/ lily, he could not repress a shudder lest the
mournful gusts of the rising wind might bear with
them the cry of the Tar' Uisc, the terrible Water
Bull, or the shrieks of the spirit of the storm !

The lonely man continued to toil up that wilder-
til 1 he reached the shoulder of the mountain,
where, on his right, opened the black narrow gorge,
in the deep bosom of which lay Loch Leven, and, on
his left, opened the glens that led towards Loch Treig,
the haunt of Damh mohr a Voualia,or Enchanted Stag,
which was alleged to live for ever, and be proof to
mortal weapons ; and now, like a tornado of the
tropics, the storm burst forth in all its fury !

The wind seemed to shriek around the mountain

summits and to bellow in the gorges below, while the

thunder hurtled across the sky, and the lightning,

ii and ghastly, flashed about the rocks of Loch

n. shedding, ever and anon, for an instant, a

sudden gleam upon its narrow stripe of water, and on

the brawling torrents that roared down the mountain

, and were swelling fast to floods, as the rain,

which had long been falling on the frozen summit of

Ben Nevis, now descended in a broad and blinding

torrent that was swept by the stormy wind over hill

and over valley. As Farquhar staggered on, a gleam

of lightning revealed to him a little turf shieling

under the brow of a pine-covered rock, and mak

rous effort to withstand the roaring wind, which

LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

tore over the bare waste with all the force and might
of a solid and palpable body, he reached it on his
hands and knurs. After securing the rude door,
which was composed of three cross bars, he flung
himself on the earthen floor of the hut, breathless and
exhausted, while Bran, his dog, as if awed by the ele-
mental war without, crept close beside him.

As Farquhar's thoughts reverted to all that he had
:d of the district, he felt all a Highlander's native
horror of remaining in the dark in a place so weird
and wild ; and on rinding near him a quantity of dry
wood — bog-pine and oak, stored up, doubtless, by
some thrifty and provident shepherd — he produced
his Hint and tinder-box, struck a light, and, with all
tht; readiness of a soldier and huntsman, kindled a fire
in a corner of the shieling, being determined that if it
was the place where, about "the hour when church-
yards yawn and graves give up their dead," the
browni' s WITC alleged to assemble, they should not
come upon him unseen or unawares.

J living a venison steak in his havresack, he placed
it on the embers to broil, heaped fresh fuel on his fire,
and drawing his plaid round Bran and himself, wearied
by the toil of his journey on foot in such a night, and
over such a country, he gradually dropped asleep,

Hess alike of the storm which raved and bellowed
in the dark glens below, and round the bare scalps of
the vast mountain whose mighty shadows, when falling

.van! at eve, darken even the Great Glen of
Albyn.

In his sleep, the thoughts of Farquhar Shaw wnn-

d to his comrades, then at the Birks of Aberfeldy.
He dreamt that a long time — how long he knew
not — had elapsed since he had been in their ranks ;
but he saw the Laird of Finab, his captain, surveying

I STOHY OF FARQUHAR SHAW.

him with a gloomy brow, while the faces of friends
ami comrades v.'ere avcrb il from him.

" Why is this — how is this?" ho demanded.

Then ho was told that the Reicudan Dim were dis-
graced by tin- di-MTtion of three of its soldiers, who,
on that day, won- to die, and the regiment was
paraded to witness their fate. The scene with all its
solemnity and all its terrors grew vividly before him ;
lie heard the lamenting wail of the pipe as the three
doomed men marched slowly past, each behind his
black coffin, and the scene of this catastrophe was far,
far a\v:iy, he knew not where ; but it seemed to be in
a strange country, and then the scene, the sights, and
th • voices of the people, were foreign to him. In the
background, above the glittering bayonets and blue
bonnets of the Black Watch, rose a lofty castle of
foreign aspect, having a square keep or tower, with
four turret:-!, the vanes of which were shining in the
early morning sun. In his ears floated the drowsy
hum of a vast and increasing multitude.

Farquhar trembled in every limb as the doomed
men passed so near him that he could sec their bn
heave as they breathed; but their faces were o>n-
• 1 from him, for each had his head muffled in his
plaid, according to the old Highland fashion, when
imploring mercy or quarter.

Lots were cast with great solemnity for the firing
party or executioners, ami, to his horror, Farquhar
fbund himself one of the twelve men chosen for this,
to every soldier, most obnoxious duty !

Wh-'ii the time came for tiring, and the three
unfortunates wore kneeling opposite, each within
his eoflin, and each with his head mullled in a plaid,
Farquhar menially resolved to close his eyes and firo
at random against the wall of the castle opposite;

2-1 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

but some mysterious and irresistible impulse com-
piled him to look for a moment, and lo ! the plaid
had fallen from the face of one of the doomed men,
and, to his horror, the dreamer beheld himself!

His own face was before him, but ghastly and pale,
and his own eyes seemed to be glaring back upon him
with affrigh^ while their aspect was wild, sad, and
_ard. The musket dropped from his hand, a weak-
ness seemed to overspread his limbs, and writhing in
agony at the terrible sight, while » cold perspiration
rolled in bead-drops over his clammy brow, the
dreamer started, and awoke, when a terrible voice,
low but distinct, muttered in his ear —

"Farquhar Shaw, bithidth duil ri fear feachd,
acJi ch« bki duil ri fear lie!"*

He leaped to his feet with a cry of terror, and
found that he was not alone, as a little old woman was
crouching near the embers of his fire, while Bran, his
eyes glaring, his bristles erect, was growling at her
with a fierce angry sound, that rivalled the bellowing
of the storm, which still continued to rave without.

The aspect of this hag was strange. In the light
of the fire which brightened occasionally as the wind
swept through the crannies of the shieling, her eyes
glittered, or rather glared like fiery sparks ; her
nose was hooked and sharp ; her mouth like an ugly
gash ; her hue was livid and pale. Her outward attire
was a species of yellow mantle, which enveloped her
whole form ; and her hands, which played or twisted
nervously in the generous warmth of the glowing
embers, resembled a bundle of freakish knots, or the
talons of an aged bird. She muttered to herself at times,

* A man ma}' return from an expedition ; but there is no hope
that he may return from the grave. — A Gaelic Proverb.

THE STORY OF FARQUHAR SHAW. 25

and after turning her terrible red eyes twice or thrice
covertly and wickedly towards Farquhar, she suddenly
snatched tin: venison steak from amid the flames,
and, with a chuckle of satisfaction, devoured it
steaming hot, and covered as it was with burning
cinders.

On Farquhar secretly making a sign of the cross,
beholding this strange proceeding, she turned
sharply with a savage expression towards him, and
to her full stature, which was not more than
three feet ; and he felt, he knew not why, his heart
tremble ; for his spirit was already perturbed by the
effectf of his terrible dream, and clutching the steel
collar of Bran (who was preparing to spring at this
strange visitor, and seemed to like her aspect as little
as his master) he said —

•• Woman, who are you ?"

" A traveller like yourself, perhaps. But who are
you?" she asked in a croaking voice.

" Do you know our proverb in Lochaber —

What sent the messengers to hell,
But asking what they knew full well ?"

was the reply of Farquhar, as he made a vigorous
effort to restrain Bran, whose growls and fury were
fast becoming quite appalling; and at this proverb
the eyes of the hag seemed to blaze with fresh anger,
while her figure became more than ever erect

" Oich ! oich !" grumbled Farquhar, " I would as
readily have had the devil as this ugly hag. I have
got a shelter, certainly ; but with her 'tis out of the
cauldron and into the fire. Had she been a brown-
eyed lass, to a share of my plaid she had been wel-
come; but this wrinkled cailloch down, Bran,

down ]" he added aloud, as the strong hound strained

::\ns OP THE FILACK WATCH.

iu liis collar, ui:<l ta-lcr.d his master's hand and arm
to ktvp him from springing at the intruder.

this kind or manly of you/' she asked, "to
kr.-p a wild brute that behaves thus, and to a woman
t<.o< Turn him out into the storm; the wind and
rain will soon cool his wicked blood."

" Thank you ; but in that you must excuse me.
Bran and I are as brothers."

"Turn him out, I say," screamed the hag, "or
wor.M- may befall him !"

" I shall not turn him out, woman," said Farquhar,
firmly, while s'.iwying the stranger with some uneasi-
ness; for, to his startled gaze, she seemed to«have
grown taller within the last five minutes. " You have
a share of our shelter, and you have had all our sup-
per ; but to turn out poor Bran — no, no, that would
never do."

To this Bran added a roar of rage, and the fear or
fury which blazed in the eyes of the woman fully
responded to those of the now infuriated staghound.
The glances of each made those of the other more and
more fierce.

"Down, Bran ; down, I say," said Farquhar. "What
the devil hath possessed the dog ? I never saw him
behave thus before. He must be savage, mother, that
you left him none of the savoury venison steak ; for
all the supper we had was that road-collop from one
of MacGillony's brown cattle."

" MacGillony," muttered the hag, spreading her
talon-like hands over the embers ; " I knew him well."

" You !" exclaimed Farquhar.

" I lmv<; said so,'' she replied with a grin.

" He was a mighty hunter five hundred years ago,
who lived and died on the Grampians ! "

" And what are five hundred years to me, who saw

Till: >TORY OP FARQUHAR SHAW. :»7

the waters of tlie deluge pour through Corriehoilzie,
and sul). ide I'roni the slope of Ben Nevis?"

•• This is a very good joke, mother," said poor

1'arquhar, attempting to laugh, while the- hideous old

\vuin:in, who was so small when he first saw her as

(n be alnio t a dwarf, was now, palpably, veritably,

and without doubt, nearly a head taller than him-

: and watchfully he continued to gaze on her,

• :ng one hand on his dirk and the other on the

collar of Bran, whose growls were louder now than the

.storm that cart-en 'd through the rocky glen below.

" Woman !" said Farquhar, boldly, " my mind mis-
gives me — there is something about you that I little
like ; I have just had a dreadful dream."

V morning dream, too !" chuckled the hag- with an
ellis.ii grin.

" So I connect your presence here with it."

" Be it so."

'• What may that terrible dream foretell?" pondered
Karquhar ; "for morning dreams are but warnings
and pivsag'-s unsolved. The blessings of God and
all his saints be about me !"

At these words the beldame uttered a loud laugh.

" You are, I presume, a Protestant?" said Farquhar,
.ily.

At this suggestion she laughed louder still, but
seemed to grow more and more in stature, till Far-
quhar became well-nigh sick at heart with astonish-
7in nt and tear, and began to revolve in his mind the
ibility of reaching the door of the shieling and
rushing out into the storm, there to commit himself
to Providence and the elements. Besides, as her
stature <,nvw. h.-r ey, B waxed ivdder and brigliter, and
lu-r malevulcnt hilarity incn-a^ed.

It was a tiend, a demon of the wild, by whom he

28 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

was now visited and tormented in that sequestered
hut.

His heart sank, and as her terrible eyes seemed to
glare upon him, and pierce his very soul, a cold per-
spiration burst over all his person.

" Why do you grasp your dirk, Farquhar — ha !
ha !" she asked.

"For the same reason that I hold Bran — to be
ready. Am I not one of the King's Reicudan Dim ?
But how know you my name ?"

" JTis a trifle to me, who knew MacGillony."

" From whence came you to-night ?"

" From the Isle of Wolves," she replied, with a
shout of laughter.

" A story as likely as the rest," said Farquhar, " for
that isle is in the Western sea, near unto Coll, the
country of the Clan Gillian. You must travel fast."

" Those usually do who travel on the skirts of the wind. "

" Woman !" exclaimed Farquhar, leaping up with
an emotion of terror which he could no longer con-
trol, for her stature now overtopped his own, and ere
long her hideous head would touch the rafters of the
hut ; " thou art either a liar or a fiend ! which shall
I deem thee ?"

" Whichever pleases you most," she replied, start-
ing to her feet

"Bran, to the proof!" cried Farquhar, drawing
his dirk, and preparing to let slip the now maddened
hound ; " at her, Bran, and hold her down. Good,
dog — brave dog ! oich, he has a slippery handful that
grasps an eel by the tail ! at her, Bran, for thou art
strong as Cuchullin."

Uttering a roar of rage, the savage dog made a
wild bound at the hag, who, with a yell of spite and
defiance, and with a wondrous activity, by one spring,

THE STORY OF FARQUHAR SHAW. 29

left the shieling, and dashing the frail door to frag-
iii<-nts in her passage, rushed out into the dark and
tempestuous night, pursued by the infuriated but
battled Bran — battled now, though the fleetest hound
on the Braes of Lochaber.

They vanished together in the obscurity, while
Farquoar gazed from the door breathless and terrified.
The storm still howled in the valley, where the dark-
ness was opaque and dense, save when a solitary
gleam of lightning ilashed on the ghastly rocks and
narrow defile of Loch Leven ; ami the roar of the
bellowing wind as it tore through the rocky gorges
and deep granite chasms, had in its sound something
more than usually terrific. But, hark ! other sounds
cann- upon the skirts of that hurrying storm.

The shrieks of a fiend, if they could be termed so ;
— for they were shrill and high, like cries of pain and
laughter mingled. Then came the loud deep baying,
with the yells of a dog, as if in rage and pain, while
a thousand sparks, like those of a rocket, glittered for
a moment in the blackness of the glen below. Tho
heart of Farauhar Shaw seemed to stand still for a
time, while, dirk in hand, he continued to peer into
the d. use obscurity. Again came the cries of Bran,
but nearer and nearer now ; and in an instant more,
the noble hound sprang, with a loud whine, to his
•er's side, and sank at his feet It was Bran, the
tlrrt, the strong, the faithful and the brave ; but in
what a condition! Torn, lacerated, covered with
blood and frightful wounds — disembowelled and
dying ; for the poor animal had only strength to loll
out his hot tongue in an attempt to lick his master's
hand before he expired.

"Mother Mary," said Fan|uhar, taking off his
bonnet, inspired with horror and religious awe, " keep

30 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

thy blessed hand over me, for my dog has fought
with a demon !"

It may be imagined how Farquhar passed the re-
mainder of that morning — sleepless and full of terrible
thoughts, for the palpable memory of his dream, and
tli-' episode.which followed it, were food enough for
tion.

With dawn, the storm subsided. The sun arose in
a cloudless sky ; the blue mists were wreathed round
the brows of Ben Nevis, and a beautiful rainbow
seemed to spring from the side of the mountain far
beyond the waters of Loch Leven ; the dun deer were
cropping the wet glistening herbage among the grey
rocks ; the little birds sang early, and the proud eagle
and ferocious gled were soaring towards the rising
sun ; thus all nature gave promise of a serene sum
mer day.

With his dirk, Farquhar dug a grave for Bran, and
lined it with soft and fragrant heather, and there he
covered him ' up and piled a cairn, at which he gave
many a sad and backward glance (for it marked where
a faithful friend and companion lay) as he ascended the
huge mountains of rock, which, on one hand, led to the
Uiac Dhu, or Vale of the Black Water, and on the
other, by the tremendous steep named the Devil's
Staircase, to the mouth of Glencoe.

In due time he reached the regiment at its canton-
ments on the Birks of Aberfeldy, where the inde-
pendent companies, for the first time were exercised as
a battalion by their Lieutenant-Colonel, Sir Robert
Munro of Culcairn, who, six years afterwards, was
slain at the battle of Falkirk.

Farquhar's terrible dream and adventure in that
Highland wilderness were ever before him, and the
events subsequent to the formation of the Black

THE STORY OF FARQUIIAH SHAW. 31

Watch into a battalion, with the excitement produced
among its soldiers by an unexpected order to march
•thin*!, served to confirm the gloom that
preyi-d upon his spirits.

The story of how the Black Watch were deceived
is well known in the Highlands, though it is only
one of the many acts of treachery performed in those
clays by the British Government in their transactions
with the people of that country, when seeking to
u the adherents of the Stuart cause, and ensnare
them into regiments for service in distant lands;
henn- tin- many dangerous mutinies which occurred
after the enrolment of all the old Highland corps.

This unexpected order to march into England
rau-ed such a dangerous ferment in the Black Watch,
as being a violation of the principles and promise
under which it was enrolled, and on which so many
Highland gentlemen of good family enlisted in its
ranks, that the Lord President Duncan Forbes of
(Julloden, warned General Clayton, the Scottish Com-
mander-in-Chief, of the evil effects likely to occur if
this breach of faith was persisted in ; and to prevent
the corps from revolting en inasse, that officer in-
formed the soldiers that they were to enter England
" solely to be seen by King George, who had never
seen a Highland soldier, and hail been graciously
pleased to express, or feel great curiosity on tho
subject"

joled and flattered by this falsehood, the soldiers
of the Reicudan Dhu,aM uiiaware that .v/i/'y,
woe <>r<l' /•' «/ f» fnnvcy themto Flan<1<'i-ts, began their
inarch for England, in the end of March, 1743 ; and
if other proof bo wanting that they were deluded, tho
following announcement in the Caledonian Mercury
of that year affords it : —

c 2

32 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" On Wednesday last, the Lord Sempills Regiment
of Highlanders began their march for England, in
<>,•<!> r to be reviewed by his Majesty."

Everywhere on the march throughout the north of
England, they were received with cordiality and
hospitality by the people, to whom their garb, aspect,
and equipment were a source of interest, and in
return, the gentlemen and soldiers of the Reicudan
Dhu behaved to the admiration of their officers and
of all magistrates ; but as they drew nearer to Lon-
don, according to Major Grose, they were exposed to
the malevolent mockery and the national " taunts of
the true-bred English clowns, and became gloomy and
sullen. Animated even to the humblest private with
the feelings of gentlemen," continues this English
officer, " they could ill brook the rudeness of boors,
nor could they patiently submit to affronts in a
country to which they had been called by the invita-
tion of their sovereign."

On the 30th April, the regiment reached London,
and on the 1 4th May was reviewed on Finchley Com-
mon, by Marshal Wade, before a vast concourse of
spectators ; but the King, whom they expected to be
present, had sailed from Greenwich for Hanover on
the same night they entered the English metropolis.
Herein they found themselves deceived ; for " the
King had told them a lie," and the spark thus kindled
was soon fanned into a flame.

After the review at Finchley Common, Farquhar
Shaw and Corporal Malcolm MacPherson were
drinking in a tavern, when three English gentlemen
entered, and seating themselves at the same table,
entered into conversation, by praising the regiment,
their garb, their country, and saying those compli-
ments which are so apt to win the heart of a Scotch-

THE STORY OF FAK<>riIAIl SHAW. S3

man when far from home ; and the glens of the Gael
seemed then indeed, far, far away, to the imagination
of the simple souls who maimed the Black Watch
in 1743.

Both Farquhar and the corporal being gentlemen,
wore the wing 'of the eagle in their bonnets, and
were well educated, and spoke English with tole-
rable fluency.

" I would that his Majesty had seen us, how-
ever," suid the corporal ; " we have had a long
march south from our own country on a bootless
errand."

" Can you possibly be so simple as to believe that
the King cared a rush on the subject V asked a
.in -nt Ionian, with an incredulous smile ; for he and his
companions, like many others who hovered about
these new soldiers, were Jacobites and political incen-
diaries.

"What mean you, sir?" demanded MacPherson,
with surprise.

' Why, you simpleton, that story of the King
wishing to see you was all a tale of a tub — a
oare.

"A snare!" •

" Yes — a pretext of the ministry to lure you to this
distance from your own country, and then transport
you bodily for life."
. where V

" Oh, that matters little — perhaps to the American
plantations."

"Or, to Botany Bay," suggested another, mali-
ciously ; " but take another jorum of brandy, and
ft MI- nothing ; wherever you go, it can't well be a
worse place than your own country."

"Thanks, gentlemen," replied Farquhar, loftily,

84 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

while his hands played nervously with his dirk ; " we
want no more of your brandy."

"Believe me, sirs," resumed their informant and
tormentor, " the real object of the ministry is to get
as many righting men, Jacobites and so forth, out of
the Highlands as possible. This is merely part of a
new system of government,"

" Sirs," exclaimed Farquhar, drawing his dirk with
an air of gravity and determination which caused his
new friends at once to put the table between him and
them, " will you swear this upon the dirk ?"

" How — why ?"

" Upon the Holy Iron — we know no oath more
binding," continued the Highlander, with an expres-
sion of quiet entreaty.

" I'll swear it by the Holy Poker, or anything you
please," replied the Englishman, re-assured on finding
the Celt had no hostile intentions. " Tis all a fact,"
he continued, winking to his companions, " for so my
good friend Phil Yorke, the Lord Chancellor, who
experts soon to be Earl of Hardwick, informed
me."

The eyes of the corporal flashed with indignation ;
and Farquhar struck his forehead as« the memory of
his terrible dream in the haunted glen rushed upon
his memory.

" Oh ! yes," said a third gentleman, anxious to add
his mite to the growing mischief ; " it is all a Whig
plot of which you are the victims, as our kind ministry
hope that you will all die off like sheep with the rot ;
or like the Marine Corps ; or the Invalids, the old
in Jamaica."

" They dare not deceive us !" exclaimed MacPher-
son, striking the basket-hilt of his claymore

"Dare not!"

TIIK STOKY OP FARQUIIAIl SHAW. 85

" Xo "

i deed— why?"

"For in the country of the clans fifty thousand
claymores would be on the grindstone to avenge '

A laugh followed this outburst.

King George made you rods to scourge your own
countrymen, and now, as useless rods, you are to be
Hung into the fire," said the first speaker, tauntingly.

" By (iod ami Mary !" began MacPhersou, again
laying a hand on his sword with sombre fury.

" Peace, Malcolm/' interposed Farquluir ; " the
Saxon is right, and we have been fooled. Bithidh
r^ai'li ni mar is aill Dhiu. (All things must be as God
will have them.) Let us seek the Reicudan Dhu, and
woe to the Saxon clowns and to that German churl,
their King, if they have deceived us I"

On the march back to London, MacPherson and
Farquhar Shaw brooded over what they hud heard at
Fim-hley ; while to other members of the regiment
similar communications had been made, and thus, ere
nightfall, every soldier of the Black Watch felt
hat he had been entrapped by a royal false-
hood, which the sudden, and to them unaccountable,
d.-jiarture of George II. to Hanover seemed beyond
all doubt to confirm.

" In those whom he knows," according to General
art, "a. Highlander will repose perfect confi-
dence, and if they are his superiors will be obedient
and respectful ; but ere a stranger can obtain this
'fence, he must show that he merits it When
once it is given, it is constant and unreserved ; but if
confidence be lost, no man is more suspicious. K

: of a Highland regiment, on his first joining the

, must have observed in his little trau.-actions

with the men how minute and strict they are in every

30 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

item ; but when once confidence is established, scru-
tiny ceases, and his word or nod of assent is as good
as his bond. In the case in question (the Black
Watch), notwithstanding the arts which were prac-
tised to mislead the men, they proceeded to no
violence, but believing themselves deceived and be-
trayed, the only remedy that occurred to them was to
get back to their own country."

The memory of the commercial ruin at Darien, and
of the massacre at Glencoe (the Cawnpore of King
William), were too fresh in every Scottish breast not
to make the flame of discontent and mistrust spread
like wildfire ; and thus, long before the bell of St.
Paul's had tolled the hour of midnight, the conviction
that he had been BETRAYED was firmly rooted in the
mind of every soldier of the Black Watch, and mea-
sures to baffle those who had deluded and lured them
so far from their native mountains were at once pro-
posed, and as quickly acted upon.

At this crisis, the dream of Farquhar was con-
stantly before him, as a foreboding of the terrors to
come, and he strove to thrust it from him ; but the
words of that terrible warning — a man may return
from an expedition, but never from the grave —
seemed ever in his ears !

On the night after the review, the whole regiment,
except its officers, most of whom knew what was on
the tapis, assembled at twelve o'clock on 'a waste
common near Highgate. The whole were in heavy
marching order ; and by direction of Corporal
Malcolm MacPherson, after carefully priming and
loading with ball-cartridge, they commenced their
march in silence and secresy and with all speed for
Scotland — a wild, daring, and romantic attempt, for
they were heedless and ignorant of the vast extent of

THE STORY OP FAH' .'I'll All SHAW. 87

hostile country that lay between them and their
homes, and scarcely knew the route to pursue. They
had now but three common ideas; — to keep to-
gether, to resist to the last, and to march tun-lli.

With some skill and penetration they avoided the
two great highways, and marched by night from wood
to wood, concealing themselves by day so well, that for
some time no one knew how or where they had gone,
though, by the Lords Justices orders had been issued
to all officers commanding troops between London
ami the Scottish Borders to overtake or intercept
them ; but the 19th May arrived before tidings
reached the metropolis that the Black Watch, one
thousand strong, had passed Northampton, and a
body of Marshal Wade's Horse (now better known as
the :>rd or Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards) over-
t-ink them, when faint by forced and rapid marches,
by want of food, of sleep and shelter, the unfortunate
regiment had entered Ladywood, about four miles
from the market town of Oundle-on-the-Nen, and
had, as usual, concealed themselves in a spacious
thicket, which, by nine o'clock in the evening, was
completely environed by strong columns of English
cavalry under General Blakeney.

Captain Ball, of Wade's Horse, approached their
bivouac iti the dusk, bearer of a flag of truce, and was
received by the poor fellows with every respect, and
Faiquhar Shaw, as interpreter for his comrades, heard
his demands, which were, "that the whole battalion
should lay down its anus, and surrender at discretion
as mutineers."

"Hitherto we have conducted ourselves quietly and

peacefully in the land of those who have deluded and

wronged us, even as they wronged and deluded our

Mthers," replied Far<iuhar; "but it may not be

38 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCIL

so for one day more. Look upon us, sir; we are
famished, worn, and desperate. It would move the
heart of a -stone to know all we have suffered by
hunger and by thirst, even in this land of plenty."

" The remedy is easy," said the captain.

" Name it, sir."

" Submit."

" We have no such word in our mother-tongue,
then how shall I translate it to my comrades, so
many of whom are gentlemen ?"

" That is your affair, not mine. I give you but the
terms dictated by General Blakeney."

" Let the general send us a written promise."

"Written?" reiterated the captain, haughtily.

" By his own hand," continued the Highlander,
emphatically ; " for here in this land of strangers we
know not whom to trust when our King has deceived
us."

" And to what must the general pledge himself ?"

" That our arms shall not be taken away, and that
a free pardon be given to all."

" Otherwise "

<; We will rather be cut to pieces."

" This is your decision ?"

" It is," replied Farquhar, sternly.

" Be assured it is a rash one."

"I weigh my words, Saxon, ere I speak them. No
man among us will betray his comrade ; we are all
for one and one for all in the ranks of the Reicudan
Dim !"

The captain reported the result of his mission to
the general, who, being well aware that the High-
landers had been entrapped by the Government on
on-- hand, and inflamed to revolt by Jacotnte emis-
saries on the other, was humanely willing to tempo-

TIIK STORY OF FARQUHAR SHAW. 39

rize with them, and sent the captain to them once
more.

" Surrender yourselves prisoners/' said Ball ; " lay
down your arms, and the general will use all his in-
Hurnce in your favour with the Lords Justices/'

\\'e know of no Lords Justices," they replied.
" We acknowledge no authority but the officers who
speak our mother-tongue, and our native chiefs who
share our blood. To be without arms, in our country,
is in itself to be dishonoured."

" Is this still the resolution of your comrades ?"
asked Captain Ball.

"It is, on my honour as a gentleman and soldier,"
replied Farquhar.

The English captain smiled at these words, for ho
knew not the men with whom he had to deal.

• Hitherto, my comrade," said he, " I have been
your friend, and the friend of the regiment, and am
still anxious to do all I can to save you ; but, if you
continue in open revolt one hour longer, surrounded
as you all are by the King's troops, not a man of you
can survive the attack, and be assured that even I,
for one, will give quarter to none ! Consider well my
words — you may survive banishment for a time, but
from the grave there is no return."

"The words of my dream !" exclaimed Farquhar,

in an agitated tone of voice ; "Bithidb du'tl /•/ /«//•

/'«/, ack clta, bhi dull ri ff<w lie. God and

Mary, how come they from the lips of this Saxon

iin ?"

The excitement of the regiment was now so great

that Captain Ball requested of Farquhar that two

should conduct him safely from tli«>

i. Two duinewassals of the Clan Chattan, lioih

named .Mael'herson, stepped forward, blew

40 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

the priming from their pans, and accompanied him to
the outposts of his own men — the Saxon Seidar
Dearg, or Red English soldiers, as the Celts named
them.

Here, on parting from them, the good captain re-
newed his entreaties and promises, which so far won
the confidence of the corporals, that, after return-
ing to the regiment, the whole body, in consequence
of their statements, agreed to lay down their arms
and submit the event to Providence and a court-mar-
tial of officers, believing implicitly in the justice of
their cause and the ultimate adherence of the Govern-
ment to the letters of local service under which they
had enlisted.

Farquhar Shaw and the two corporals of the Clan
Chattan nobly offered their own lives as a ransom for
the honour and liberties of the regiment, but their
offer was declined ; for so overwhelming was the force
against them, that all in the battalion were alike at
the mercy of the ministry. On capitulating, they
were at once surrounded by strong bodies of horse,
foot, and artillery, with their field-pieces grape-
shotted; and the most severe measures were faith-
lessly and cruelly resorted to by those in authority
and those in whom they trusted. While, in defiance
of all stipulation and treaty with the Highlanders, the
main body of the regiment was marched under escort
towards Kent, to embark for Flanders, two hun-
dred privates, chiefly gentlemen or cadets of good
family, were selected from its ranks and sentenced to
banishment, or service for life in Minorca, Georgia,
and the Leeward Islea The two corporals, Samuel
and Malcolm MacPherson, with Farquhar Shaw, were
marched back to London, to meet a more speedy, and
to men of such spirit as theirs, a more welcome fate.

THE STORY OF FARQUHAIl SHAW. 4-1

The examinations of some of these poor fellows
prove how they had been deluded into service for the
Line.

" I did not desert, sirs," said John Stuart, a gentle-
man of the House of Urrard, and private in Camp-
bell of Carrick's company. " I repel the insinuation,"
he continued, with pride ; " I wished only to go back
to my father's roof and to my own glen, because the
inhospitable Saxon churls abused my country and
ridiculed my dress, We had no leader; we placed no
man over the rest."

" I am neither a Catholic nor a false Lowland
Whig," said another private — Gregor Grant, of the
family of Rothiemurchus ; " but I am a true man,
and ready to serve the King, though his actions have
proved him a liar ! You have said, sirs, that I am
afraid to go to Flanders. I am a Highlander, and
never yet saw the man I was afraid of. The Saxons
told me I was to be transported to the American
plantations to work with black slaves. Such was not
our bargain with King George. We were but a
\V;itch to serve along the Highland Border, and to
i » broken clans from the Braes of Lochaber."

" We were resolved not to be tricked," added Far-
quhar Shaw. " We will meet the French or Spaniards
in any land you please ; but we will die, sirs, rather
than go, like Saxon rogues, to hoe sugar in the plan-
tations."

" What is your faith ?" asked the president of the
court-martial.

"The faith of my fathers a thousand y> ms liofore
tlu- li;it.'fn] sound of the Saxon drum was heard upon
Highland Border!"

•• You mean that you have lived "

" A -. !• UM God and the Blessed Mary, I shall die

LEGENDS OF Til 15 BLACK WATCIt.

— a Catholic and a Highland gentleman ; stooping to
none and fearing none "

" None, say you ?"

" Save Him who sits upon the right hand of His
Father in Heaven."

As Farquhar said this with solemn energy, all the
prisoners took off their bonnets and bowed their heads
with a religious reverence which deeply impressed the
court, but failed to save them.

On the march to the Tower of London, Farquhar
was the most resolute and composed of his com-
panions in fetters and misfortune ; but on coming in
sight of that ancient fortress, his firmness forsook him,
the blood rushed back upon his heart, and he became
ieadly pale ; for in a moment he recognised the cattle
of his strange dream — the castle having a square
tower, with four vanes and turrets — and then the
whole scene of his foreboding vision, when far away
in lone Lochaber, came again upon his memory, while
the voice of the warning spirit hovered again in his
ear, and he knew that the hour of his end was pur-
suing him !

And now, amid crowds of country clowns and a
rabble from the lowest purlieus of London, who
mocked and reviled them, the poor Highlanders were
marched through the streets of that mighty metro-
polis (to them, who had been reared in the mountain
solitudes of the Gael, a place of countless wonders !)
and were thrust into the Tower as prisoners under
sentence.

Early on the morning of the 12th July, 17i3, when
the sun was yet below the dim horizon, and a frowsy
fog that lingered on the river was mingling with the
city's smoke to spread a gloom over the midsummer
morning, all London seemed to be pouring from her
many avenues towards Tower Hill, where an episode

THE STOEY OP FAKQUIIAK SIIA\V. 43

of no ordinary interest was promised to the sight-
loving Cockneys — a veritable military execution, with
all its stem terrors and grim solemnity.

All the troops in London were under arms, and
long before daybreak had taken possession of an.
ample space enclosing Tower Hill ; and there, conspi-
cuous above all by their high and absurd sugar-loaf
caps, were the brilliantly accoutred English and Scots
Horse Grenadier Guards, the former under Viscount
Cubham, and the latter under "Lieutenant-General
John Earl of Rothes, K.T., and Governor of Duncan-
non ; the Coldstream Guards ; the Scots Fusiliers ;
and a sombre mass in the Highland garb of dark-
green tartan, whom they surrounded with fixed
bayonets.

These last were the two hundred men of the
Reicudan Dim selected for banishment, previous to
which they were compelled to behold the death, or —
as they justly deemed it — the deliberate murder
under trust, of three brave gentlemen, their comrades.

The gates of the Tower revolved, and then the
••I ;md muffled drums of the Scots Fusilier
Guards were heard beating a dead march before
who were " to return to Lochaber no more."
Between two lines of Yeomen of the Guard, who
1'aerd inwards, the three prisoners came slowly forth,
surrounded by an escort with fixed bayonets, each
doomed man inarching behind his coffin, which was
borne on. the shoulders of four soldiers. On approach-
ing the parade, each politely raised his bonnet and
bowed to the assembled multitude.

" Courage, gentlemen," said Farquhar Shaw ; " I
see no gallows here. I thank God we shall not die a

3 death I"

" Tis well/' replied MacPberson, " for honour is
more precious than refined gold."

44 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

The murmur of the multitude gradually subsided
and died away, like a breeze that passes through a
forest, leaving it silent ahd still, and then not a sound
was heard but the baleful rolling of the muffled drums
and the shrill but sweet cadence of the fifes. Then
came the word, Halt ! breaking sharply the silence
of the crowded arena, and the hollow sound of the
three empty coffins, as they were laid on the ground,
at the distance of thirty paces from the firing party.

Now the elder brother patted the shoulder of the
other, as he smiled and said —

" Courage — a little time and all will be over — our
spirits shall be with those of our brave forefathers."

" No coronach will be cried over us here, and no
cairn will mark in other times where we sleep in the
land of the stranger."

" Brother," replied the other, in the same forcible
language, " we can well spare alike the coronach and
the cairn, when to our kinsmen we can bequeath the
dear task of avenging us \"

" If that bequest be valued, then we shall not die
in vain."

Once again they all raised their bonnets and uttered
a pious invocation ; for now the sun was up, and in the
Highland fashion — a fashion old as the days of Baal —
they greeted him.

" Are you ready ?" asked the provost-marshal.

" All ready," replied Farquhar ; " moch-eirigh
'liiain, a ni'n t-suain 'mhairt."*

This, to them, fatal 1 2th of July was a Monday ; so
the proverb was solemnly applicable.

^ an, pale, and careworn they looked, but their
eyes were bright, their steps steady, their bearing

Early rising on Monday gives a sound sleep on Tuesday.—
See Macintosh's Gaelic Proverbs

THH STOUV OK FAK^UIIAU >imv. \:>

erect and dignified. They felt themselves victims and
martyrs, whoM,- late would find a terrible echo in the
••ish Hi-hlands ; and need I add, that echo was
IK a ,-if, when two years afterwards Prince Charles un-
I'urliKl his standard iu Glenfinnan? Thus inspired by
pride of birth, of character, and of country — by inborn
bravery and conscious innocence, at this awful crisis,
they gazed around them without quailing, and ex-
hibited a self-possession which excited the pity and
admiration of all who beheld them.

The clock struck the fatal hour at last !

" It is my doom," exclaimed Farquhar ; " the hour
of my end hath followed me."

They all embraced each other, and declined having
their eyes bound up, but stood boldly, each at the
foot of his coffin, confronting the levelled muskets of
thirty privates of the Grenadier Guards, and they died
like, the brave men they had lived. One brief para-
graph in tit. James's Chronicle thus records their

" On Monday, the 1 :Mli, at six o'clock in the morn-

ing, Samuel and Malmlm MacPherson, corporals, and

Fanjiiliar Shaw, a private-man, three of the Highland

were shot upon the parade of the Tower

pursuant to the sentence of the court martial. The

<>f the Highland prisoners were drawn out to see

the execution, and joined in their prayers with great

earnestness. rl'h« y behaved with perfect resolution

and propriety. Their bodies were put into three

coffins by three of the prisoners, their clan 8rn< n "/"/

names ikes, and buried in one grave, near the place

•cation."

Such is the matter-of-fact record of a terrible
fate!

To the slaughter of these soldiers, and the wicked

46 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

breach of faith perpetrated by the Government, may
be traced much of that distrust which characterized
the Seatbrth Highlanders and other clan regiments
in their mutinies and revolts in later years ; and
nothing inspired greater hatred in the hearts of those
who " rose " for Prince Charles in 1 745, than the
story of the deception and murder) for so they named
it) of the three soldiers of the Reicudau Dhu by King
George at London. " There must have been some-
thing more than common in the case and character of
these unfortunate men," to quote the good and gal-
lant old General Stewart of Garth, " as Lord John
Murray, who was afterwards colonel of the regiment,
had portraits of them hung in his dining-room."

This was the first episode in the history of the
Black Watch, which soon after covered itself with
glory by the fury of its charge at Fontenoy, and on
the field of Detfingen exulted that among the dead
who lay there was General Clayton, " the Sassenach "
whose specious story first lured them from the Birks
of Aberfeldy.

II.
THE SEVEN GRENADIERS.

"As the regiment expects to bo engaged with the
enriny to-morrow, the women and baggage will bo
sent to tin- iv:ir. For this duty, Ensign James.
Campbell, of Gli-nfalloch."

Such was the order which was circulated in the
ramp of the 42nd Highlanders (then known as the
Black "Wuteh) on the evening of the 28th April,
17t"', previous to the Duke of Cumberland's attack
on the French outposts in front of Fontenoy. Our

tlion (writes one of our old officers) was to form
tin' advanced guard on this occasion, and had been

red to the village of Veson, where a bivouac
formed, while Ensign Campbell, of Glenfalloch, the
same who was afterwards wounded at Fontenoy,
marched the baggage, with all the sorrowing women
of the corps, beyond Maulpre, as our operations were
for the purpose of relieving Tournay, then besi.
by a powerful French army under Marshal Count de
Saxe, and valiantly defended by eight thousand
Dutchmen under the veteran Baron Dorth. It wa.s tlu;
will of Heaven in those days that we should fight
for none but the Dutch and Hanoverians.

I had been appointed captain-lieutenant to the
T.lack Watch from the old 2(>th, or Angus's Foot, and
having overtaken the corps on its march between the
D 2

48 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

gloomy old town of Liege and the barrier fortress of
Maastricht, the aspect and hearing of the Highlanders
—we had then only one regiment of them in the ser-
vice— seemed new and strange, even barbaric to my
eyes ; for, as a Lowlander, I had been ever accus-
tomed to associate the tartan with fierce rapine and
armed insurrection. Yet their bearing was stately,
free, and noble ; for our ranks were filled by the
sons of Highland gentlemen, and of these the most
distinguished for stature, strength, and bravery were
the seven sons of Captain Maclean, a cadet of the
house of Duairt, who led our grenadiers. The very
flower of these were the seven tall Macleans, who,
since the regiment had been first mustered at the
beautiful Birks of Aberfeldy, in May, 1740, had
shone foremost in every encounter with the enemy.

Captain Campbell, of Finab, and I seated ourselves
beside the Celtic patriarch who commanded our
grenadier company, and near him were his seven
sons lounging on the grass, all tall and muscular
men, bearded to the eyes, athletic, and weather-
beaten by hunting and fighting in the Highlands,
and inured alike to danger and to toil. Though gen-
tlemen volunteers, they wore the uniform of the pri-
vates, a looped-up scarlet jacket and waistcoat faced
with buff and laced with white,* a tartan plaid of
twelve yards plaited round the body and thrown over
the left shoulder ; a flat blue bonnet with the fesse-
cheque of the house of Stuart round it, and an
eagle's feather therein, to indicate the wearer's birth.
The whole regiment carried claymores in addition to
their muskets, and to these weapons every soldier
added, if he chose, a dirk, skene, pair of pistols, and

* Tlio regiment was not made roj-al until 1758.

THE SEVEN GRENADIERS. 49

target, in the fashion of tho Highlands; thus our
front rank men were usually as fully equipped as any
that stepped on tho muir of Culloden. Our sword-
belts were black, and the cartouch-box was slung in
front by a waist-belt. In addition to all this warlike
paraphernalia, our grenadiers carried each a hatchet
ami pouch of hand-grenades. The servicelike, for-
midable, and cap-ti-pie aspect of the regiment had
impressed me deeply ; but Captain Maclean and his
:i sons more than all, as they lay grouped near
th-i wutehfire, in the red light of which their bearded
visages, keen eyes, and burnished weapons were
glinting and glowing.

The beard of old Maclean was white as snow, and
flowed over his tartan plaid and scarlet waistcoat,
imparting to his appearance a greater peculiarity, as
all gentlemen were then closely shaven. As Final)
and I seated ourselves by his fire, he raised his bonnet
and bade us welcome with a courtly air, which con-
sorted ill with his sharp west Highland accent. His
was cli-ur and bold in expression, his voice was
rumuwnding and loud, as in one whose will had never
b.-i-n disputed. Close by was his inseparable hench-
man and foster-brother Ronald MacAra, the colour-
ant of his company, an aged Celt of grim pre-
aml gigantic proportions, whose face had been
nearly cloven by a blow from a Lochaber axe at the
battle of Dunblane.

"\Yolcuim.', gentlemen," said old Maclean, "a hun-
dred thousand welcomes to a share of our supper, a
savoury road collop, as we call it at home. It was a
11 n«' fat sheop that my son Dougal found astray in a
lit-Kl near Maulpre' ; and here is a braw little demi-
john of P. -l^ian wine, which Alaster borrowed from a
close by. These other five lads are also my

50 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

sons, Dunacha, Deors, Findlay Bane, Farquhar Gorm,
and Angus Dhu, all grenadiers in the King's service,
and hoping each one to be like myself a captain and
to cock their feathers among the best in the Black
Watch. Attend to our comrades, my braw lads."

The lads, the least of whom was six feet in height,
assisted us to a share of the sheep, which was broil-
ing merrily on the glowing embers, and from which
their comrades, who crowded round, partook freely,
cutting off the slices, as they sputtered and browned,
by their long dirks and sharp skenes. The seven
grenadiers were all fine and hearty fellows, who trun-
dled Alaster's demijohn of wine from hand to hand
round the red roaring fire, on which the grim hench-
man or colour-sergeant heaped up, from time to time,
the doors and rafters of an adjacent house, and there
we continued to carouse, sing, and tell stories, until
the night was far advanced.

The month was April, and the night was a glorious
one ; all our bivouac was visible as if at noonday.
The hum of voices, the scrap of a song, a careless
laugh, the neigh of a horse, or the jangle of a
bridle alone broke the silence of the moonlit sky ;
though at times we heard the murmur of a stream
that stole towards the Scheldt, like a silver current
through the fields of sprouting corn, and under banks
where the purple foxglove, the pink wild rose, and tho
green bramble hung in heavy masses.

And could aught be more picturesque than our
Highland bivouac, lighted up by wavering watchfires
and the brilliant queen of night — the Celtic soldiers
muffled in their dark-green plaids, their rough bare
knees, hardy as the stems of the mountain pine, and
alike impervious to the summer heat and winter cold,
lying asleep upon their "umbered arms," or seated in

THE SEVEN GKENADi: 51

groups, singing old songs, or tolling wild stories of
distant glens from which, as Seidaran Deary
or " Red Soldiers," the chances of the Belgian war
had brought thorn here.

I v, ;ited with the old chief and his sons —

they were so free and gay in manner, so frank and
bold iu bear! ii;:. while there was something alike
noble and patriarchal in the circumstance of their
ly old father leading a company of brave hearts,
IK arly all of whom were men of his own name and
kindred. The fire had been freshly heaped with bil-
.t'id fagots, the demijohn still bled freely; we had
just concluded a merry chorus, which made the
Uhlan videttes on the distant plain prick up their ears
and li-tcn, and wo had reached that jovial point when
a lit tit- wit goes a very long way, when Sergeant
Ronald MacAra, the old henchman, approached Cap-
tain M;icle;m, and placing a hand upon his shoulder
with that kind but respectful familiarity which his
relation as a foster-brother sanctioned, said with im-

solemnity —

For the love of the blessed God, see that ye do
not fight the stranger to-morrow with your stomach
ing."

ruddy face of the old soldier grew .pale.
" No, Ronald/' said he ; " our race has already paid

ting that strange warning."

" God and Mary forbid \" muttered two of his
sing themselves devoutly.
> something for me in your havresac,
I the captain, " and call me before the
drums l..-.-ti for maivhiug ; keep something for the
laddies, too — for the Lord forfend that ever son of
innif Min-.dd <lr;;\v his blado with a fasting stomach
und'-r his belt."

52 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

"A wise precaution, Maclean," said old Captain
Campbell of Finab ; " but Gude kens we have often
luul to draw our blades here in Low Germanie, and
fall on, without other breakfast than a tightened
waist-belt."

" True ; but it was by omitting to break his fast
that my worthy ancestor Sir Lauchlau Maclean lost
his life in Mull, and hence the warning of Sergeant
MacAra, my fosterer."

11 How came that to pass ?" I asked with surprise ;
for the impressive manner of these Celts was strange
and new to me.

" 'Tis a story as well as any other, and I care not
if I tell you, gentlemen," said the old captain of
grenadiers. " Dunacha, throw some more sticks on
the fire — Angus, pass round the black-jack, my son,
while I tell of the doleful battle of Groynard. The
presence of the Lord be about us, but that was a
black day, and a dreary one for the house of Duairt
and the Clan Gillian to boot !"

After this preamble and collecting his thoughts a
little, the captain commenced the following strange
story : —

History will tell you, gentlemen, that in the early
part of the reign of his Majesty James VI. there arose
a deadly feud between my people, the Clan Gillian
in Mull, and the Clan Donald of Islay, concerning
the claim which, from times beyond the memory of
man, we had, or believed we had ('tis all one in tlio
Highlands) to the Rhinns of Islay. For many a
year our people and the Macdonalds invaded, harried,
hacked, hewed, and shot each other; the axe and
bow, the pistol and claymore were never relinquished
for one entire week, but we were never nearer our

Till-: SEVEN GRENADIERS. 53

end, for I must admit that our antagonists were a
brave tribe, though in boyhood — such is the absurdity
of a transmitted feud — I was taught to hate them
more than death. I have been told that there was
not a man of either of the hostile tribes but had lost
his nearest and dearest kinsmen in that ungodly con-
But now a crisis was coming.
.My worthy ancestor, Sir Lauchlan Maclean of
Duairt, was a, soldier of high renown and bravery —
one whose skill iu war was acknowledged by all who
saw him li-ad the Clan Gillian to victory at the great
battle of Benrinnes, where twelve thousand Scottish
I'mtt ->t ants measured swords with Lord Huntly's Catho-
lic on the banks of the Livat, and there decided their
religious differences like pretty men. Well, Sir Lauch-
lan, through the great favour in which he was held at
court, obtained from the King's own hand at Holyrood
a charter or warrant empowering him to take posses-
not only of those devilish Ilhinns, but of the
whole island of Islay — the patrimony and home of
the Lords of the Isles — what think you of that, sirs ?
All Islay with Eilan-na-Corlle, or the Island of Coun-
cil, the uivat castle in Loch Fmlaggan, the Rock of
the Silver Rent, the Rock of the Rent-in-Kind, with
vthing that flew over Islay, walked on its hills,
or swam in its lakes, to him and his heirs for ever,
heritably and irredeemably, until the day of doom.

This seemed a severe stroke of fortune to the poor
Clan Donald, the more so as their chief, Angus of
Kintyre, was aged and frail, and had not drawn a
swunl since last he fought our people in his seventieth
yar, and now he was eighty. His .-MID, Sir Janifs,
was ;is yt unknown as a soldier, whilr Sir Lauchlan
\\as in the noon of his strength and manhood — second

54 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

to none that stepped on heather or ever wore the
tartan : hence, full of hope and confident of success,
he rejected with scorn the offers of mediation made
by neighbouring chiefs ; for old Angus had many
friends, and my forefathers' claims were, to say the
least of them, rather unjust. Sir Lauchlan summoned
all the clan, his friends and kinsmen, to meet him in
arms and with their galleys on a certain day to sail
for Islay, when he hoped to crush the Clan Donald
for ever in one decisive battle.

On the evening before the muster, mounted and
alone he rode from Duairt to consult a witch who
dwelt in an uncouth den known among us as "the
cave of the Grey Woman." It was not without some
misgivings that my ancestor paid this visit ; but the
advice and auguries of this woman, Aileen Glas, had
never failed our race in times of war and peril.

As he drew near her dwelling, the night was closing
in ; the wind shook the' boughs of the forest, and as
he looked back, they resembled the long green waves
of a sea of foliage rolling up the narrow glen. Tho
" gloaming" darkened fast, and the silent dew dis-
tilled from the drooping leaves ; the golden cups of
the broom and the calices of the heather-bells were
shrinking with many a summer fly and honey-bee
concealed in their petals, for night was descending on
the stormy shores and boisterous hills of Mull — bois-
terous indeed, for there the hollow winds rave and
howl from peak to peak, and wreath up the mist into
many a strange and many a fearful shape, till the
ghosts of Ossian seem again to tower above Beumore
and Bentaluidh.

Sir Lauchlan rode rapidly up the narrowing glen,
till he found the cave of the Grey Woman before him.
It yawned dark, lofty, and profound ; so, dismounting,

THE SEYKX (ilJKXADIKRS. f>5

he tied his horse to a tree, and with his target and

claymore advanced boldly, but with no small trouble,

as tlif duikiH'.ss was now intense, and the ascent to the

. u was rocky and difficult Above his head rose

i paeious arch, fringed by matted ivy and the light

waving mountain ash that covered all the upper rocks,

tin- splintered peaks of which shot up against the star-

ky in abrupt and jagged outline. Clambering

up, he entered with a stately step, though his heart

last with anxiety; before him lay a dark abyss

of blackness and vacancy, opening into the bowels of

tin.' mountain; and though lightly shod in cuarans

of soft deer hide, he could hear his footsteps echoing

afar oft'.

At last a red light began to gleam before him,
playing in fitful flashes upon the wet slimy walls of
the den, and on the huge stalactites that hung like
h Gothic pendants from the roof, and were formed
by the filtrations of calcareous rills that stole noise-
Irssly down between the chasms and crannies in the
walls of rock.

Aileen Glas was said to have been bora in the
mossy isle of Calligrey, in a hut built among the
s of the temple of Annat, the ruined shrine of a
Dmidical goddess. Annat presided over the young
maidens of the Western Isles, and there still remains
h'T well, in which they are said to have purified
themselves. In that well Aileen was baptized by
the Hod Priest of Applecross, and hence her magical
pi >wcr.

As Maclean stepped on, he perceived the Grey

Woman, a withered, shrivelled, and frightful lia-.

wln.s • iio.M- \\as hooked like an eagle's beak, and on

wln»" chin \\ tuft, like a thistle's beard — a

anatomy of bon«"i and ^-kin - seated before a heap

56 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

of blazing turf and sticks, but asleep, and reclining
against the wall of rock. A tattered plaid of our clan
tartan was over her head, the grey hair of which hung
in twisted elflocks round her bony visage. An urchin
— a hideous hedgehog — nestled in her fleshless bosom,
and its diminutive eyes shone like red beads in the
light. On one side lay a heap of withered herbs, a
human skull cloven in battle, and the spulebane of a
sea-wolf; on the other side was an old iron three-
legged pot used in her incantations. Therein sat a
huge, rough, and wild-eyed polecat, which spat at the
intruder, and woke up a large, sleepy bat that swung
by his tail from a withered branch which projected
from a fissure of the rock.

The Grey Woman awoke also, and, without moving,
fixed her green basilisk eyes on Sir Lauchlan's face,
saying sharply —

" What want ye, Duairt ?"

" Your advice, good Aileen Glas," replied the chief,
meekly, for he was awed by her aspect.

" Advice !" shrieked the Grey Woman. " Is it a
spell you seek, to insure success, that you may do a
greater wrong unto the hapless and guiltless Clan
Donald of Islay ?"

" I seek to do them no wrong, Aileen. The Rhinns
are ours by right, and Islay is ours by the King's own
charter ?" '

" The people were there before kings or charters
were known in the land. God gave the hills and the
isles to the children of the Gael, and His curse will
fall on all who seek to dispossess them by virtue of
sheepskins and waxen seals. Did not a Lord of the
Isles say that he little valued a right which depended
on the possession of a scrap of parchment ? Beware,

THE SEVEN GRENADIERS. 57

Lauchlan Maclean ! beware ! for the hand of fate is
upon you!"

Scared by her words and her fury, as her shrill
voice awoke the inmost recesses of the vault, Sir
Lauclilan siid —

" In the name of the mother of God, Aileen Glas,
oech you to be composed, and to tell me of what
I must beware !"

She snatched up the spulebane of the wolf, an<l,
afi« r looking through it by holding it between her and
tin- fire, cast it aside with a shriek, saying —

"Lauclilan of Duairt, listen to me, for never may
you hear my voice again !"

" It may be so, Aileen ; we sail for Islay to-
morrow !"

" Well, do not land upon a Thursday, and do not
drink of the well that flows at the head of Loch
Groynard, for I can see that one Maclean will be
slain there, and lie Iteadlc,**! Away ! leave me now !
In iho glrn you will meet those who will tell you
more- !" and she muffled her face in her plaid as Sir
Lauclilan left her.

" I can easily avoid a landing on Thursday, and a
draught of that devilish well too ; but whom shall I
inert, in the glen?" thought he, as he mounted and
galloped homewards to Duairt, glad the horrid inter-
view was over. As he rode round the base of Ben-
more, the waning moon began to show half her disc
above the black shoulder of the mighty mountain, and
a pale light played along the broad waves of Loch-na-
keal, which lay on his loft, and were rolled in foam
against the bold headlands arid columnar ri'i
which am covered with coats of ivy and tufted by
remains of oak and ash woods that overhung the salt

58 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATClt.

billows of that western sea, where the scart, the mew,
and the heron were screaming.

On, on rode our chief, treasuring the words of Grey
Aileen in his heart, and soon he saw the lights in his
own castle of Duairt glittering before him about a
mile off, and anon he could perceive the outline of
the great keep as it towered in the pale moonlight on
its high cliff that breasts the Sound of Mull. But
hark ! the voice of a woman made him pause.

He checked his horse and looked around him.

Under an old and blasted oak-tree, the leafless and
gnarled branches of which seemed white and ghastly
in the cold moonlight, stood the figure of a woman
arrayed in a pale-coloured dress that shimmered ami
gleamed as the moon's half-disc dipped behind the
sharp rocky cone of Bentaluidh. The figure, which
was thin and tall, was enveloped in a garment that
resembled a shroud. It came forward with one lean
arm uplifted, as if to stay the onward progress of
Maclean, whose rearing horse swerved, trembled, and
perspired with fear. Nearer she came, and, as the
starlight glinted on her features, they seemed pallid,
ghastly, hollow, and wasted ; the lips were shrunken
from the teeth, the eyes shone like two pieces of glass,
and, to his horror, Sir Lauchlan recognised his old
nurse Mharee, who had been buried in the preceding
year, and whom, with his own hands, he had laid in
her grave, close by the wall of Torosay Kirk, the bell
of which- at tnat moment tolled the eleventh hour
of the night. Gathering courage from despair, he
asked —

" In the name of Him who died for us, Mharee,
what want you here to-night ?"

" Oh, my son !" said she, " for such indeed I may
call YOU (for did not these breasts, on which the worms

THE SKVKX r,RKXAI)lF.RS. 59

:uv now preying, give you suck?) this expedition
against the men of Islay is full of mighty consequences
to you and all Clan Gillian !"

" I am sure of that, Mharec," replied Maclean,

with a sinking heart; "but wo go to gather

glory and triumph, to spread the honour and the

r of our name, and to win a fairer patrimony

•[Heath, with our swords, to the children who suc-

. us."

"Lauchlan Maclean! by the bones of your father
ami the fame of your mother, I conjure you to aban-
don this wicked war, to sheath your sword, to burn
the King's charter, and to leave the Clan Donald in

r Islay is the land of their inheritance."
" To what disgrace would you counsel me, Mharee ?
to be a coward and a liar in the face of the King, of
my kindred and clansmen? Come weal, come woe,
to-morrow my birlinns shall spread their sails upon
the sea that leads to Islay, though I and all my
>le go but to their graves : by the cross of Maclean
I have sworn it!"

So be it then ; but if go you Avill, I warn you not
to cross the threshold of Duairt with a fcUtfao
•'(.•A, or sore evil, Lauchlan, will come of it to all
thy kin and thce !"

With these strange words, the figure faded away
like a moonbeam, and nothing was seen but the bare,
Masted tree stretching its naked arms across thu
narrow way. Some time elapsed before Maclean re-
covered from his terror and astonishment to find his
horse da.shing up the ascent which led to the Cast!.'
of Duairt, where his pale face and wild manner
il many questions and excited much comment;
but he kept his own counsel, resolving not to march
on tho morrow before breakfast, not to land on aThurs-

60 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

day, and not to drink of any well in Islay, if other
liquor could be found for love or money.

Next morning great were the hurry, din, and pre-
paration in Duairt, and long before cockcrow the
shore of Loch Linnhe was covered by armed men,
with their brass targets and burnished claymores,
axes, bows, and Spanish muskets ; their helmets and
lurichs sparkled in the dawn, and when the sun arose
above the hills of Lorn, the white sails of the birlinus,
with banners flying and pipers playing at the prow,
covered all the sea around the Castle of Duairt. Sir
Lauchlan in person superintended the embarkation
of his followers, and if there was one, there were seven
hundred good claymores among them — not a bonnet
less ! Every man, as he left Duairt, had a ration of
bannock, cheese, and venison given to him, with a
good dram to put under his belt, for such is our
Highland custom before setting out on an expedition.

But such was the enthusiasm, such were the cheers,
the congratulations and hopes uttered aloud, the
yelling of pipes, the twanghng of clairsachs and
quaffing of toasts with blade and bicker held aloft,
that it was not until he was on board his great war
birlinn, with all her canvas spread to catch the
northern gale which blew towards the peaks of Jura,
that the fated chieftain found that, in attending to
his people, he had forgotten to regale himself, and,
contrary to the solemn warning of the spirit, had
actually commenced his hazardous expedition with a
" fasting stomach '"

" Dhia I" cried he to my grand-uncle Lauchlan
Barroch ; " I am lost, nephew," and he related the
vision of last night.

" If that be all," replied my grand-uncle, who was
his brother's son, "rest easy, for here have I and

THK SEVKN (1KKXADIERS. 61

•

Ronald of tlio Drums marched too, with nothing
under our belts but the cold north wind."

Still my ancestor frit far from easy; but he forgot
it before night, when a heavy gale came on, and the
birlinns were scattered on tin- waters of the darkening
deep like a flock of gulls ; and it was in vain that he
iiivd his pateraroes as signals to keep together.

The storm increased, and while some of the little
lit it narrowly escaped being sucked (like the Danish
prince of old) into the roaring whirlpool of Coirv-
reckan, ninny were blown to the Isle of Colonsay and
others to the Sound of Jura. Many days — all d:iys
of storm with nights of pitchy blackness — followed,
and on the first Thursday of the next week the little
fleet of birlinns made the low green shores and sundy
inlets of I slay, and saw the rising sun gild the woods
and hills that rise upon its eastern coast. Still the
stormy wind ploughed up the sea ; the sun was en-
veloped in watery clouds, and the tempest-tossed Clan
Gillian gladly steered their vessels (oh, fatality !) into
the salt Loch of Groynard, a shallow bay on the
north-west of the isle, where, with a shout of triumph,
thov ran the keels into the sand and leaped ashore
with brandished swords, and formed their ranks, all
legg«-d, in the water.

But long ere this the crian tarigh, or cross of fire,
had blazed upon the hills of Islay !

Under their young chief, Sir James, the whole
Clan Donald, many of whom had been trained to
service in the Irish wars, were drawn up in array of
battle at the head of Loch Groynard ; and there, with
all their weapons glittering from the purple heather,
they hovered like a cloud of battle. As the hostile
bands drew near, some gentlemen of the Clan Donald,
to prevent the effusion of Christian blood, 'prevailed

C2 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH. '

•

upon Sir James to promise that he would resign one
half of Islay to Maclean during his life, provided he
would acknowledge that he held it for personal service
to the Clan Donald, in the same manner as our fore-
fathers had held the Rhinns of Islay.

But, rendered furious on finding that he had doubly
transgressed the wizard warnings he received, Sir
Lauchlan laughed the proposition to scorn. Then tho
young chief offered to submit the matter in dispute to
any impartial umpires Duairt might choose, with the
proviso that, if they should disagree, his Majesty the
King should be their arbiter.

But my ancestor drew off his glove, and, taking a
handful of water from a fountain that gurgled from a
rock near him, exclaimed —

" May this water prove my poison, if I will have
any arbiter but my sword, or any terms but an abso-
lute surrender of the whole island \"

Then my grand-uncle Lauchlan Barroch uttered a
cry of terror — for Duairb in his anger had forgotten
the prediction, and drank of " the well at the head of
Loch Groynard, where one Maclean was to fall" —
and there, in ten minutes after, he was slain by a
MacDonald, who by a single blow of a claymore swept
his head off his shoulders.

Long and bloody was the battle that ensued when
the MacDonalds rushed down the hill to close with
the Clan Gillian, who were routed, leaving eighty
duinewassals and two hundred soldiers, with their
chief, dead upon the field. Ronald Maclean of the
Drums — a little tower upon the peninsula of Loch
Suinard — was shot by an arrow, and not one who left
Duairt with " a fasting stomach," escaped ; — why,
God alone knows ; for though my grand-uncle
Lauchlan Barroch retreated with a remnant of our

TIIK SKVKN fJllK: 03

people to the birlinns, lie was mortally wounded by

a musket-shot. Of the Clan Donald, only thirty men.

:id sixty wounded. Among the latter

I heir young chief — afterwards a general of tho

i Jlrigade in Holland — who was found on the

iield with an arrow in his breast.

I have heard my mother say that all that night
the watchman on the keep of Duairt heard cries and
moans coining from the seaward, though the castle
was more than fifty miles distant from Groynard ; for
it seemed as if the spirits of the air brought the
sounds of battle on their wings from the fatal shore
of Islay. Late that night, the hoofs of a galloping
e were heard reverberating in the glen and ring-
in',; on the roadway that led to Duairt ; and soon a
horse and rider were seen in the moonlight approach-
rapidly, the hoofs of the steed striking fire from
flinty path.

" A messenger approaches \" cried the watchman,

and in an instant the lady of Duairt and all her

household were at the gate ; but how great was their

i when they perceived that the approaching

i was headless, though wearing the arms,

plaid, and trows of a chief ! Up, up the ascent came

the terrible vision, galloping in the pale moonlight,

but pa -sing on, it disappeared in the glen which led

to the; blasted oak where Sir Lauchlan had received

his last unearthly warning.

Be this story false or true, there are in our regi-
a hundred brave men of trust and honour, who
swear to having seen this spectre gallop up to
;t gati- on the anniversary of the battle of Groy-
nard, or when any calamity overhangs the Clan Gil-
lian. Sir l.auchlan — the heavens be his bed to-night !
»-ps in Torosay Kirk, yet that headless horseman

... 9

1 . -

64 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

may appear to-morrow on the shore of Mull, for many
a bonnet will be on the turf, many a plaid in our
ranks dyed red in the wearer's blood — and I have
seven sons in the field ! But our fate is in the hands
of God, KO let our hearts be stout and true, for He
will never fail us, though we may be false to our-
selves. Hand round the demijohn, Findlay, my
brave lad — and rouse the brands, Farquhar, for the
moon has sunk behind the hills, and our fire is getting
low.

So ended this legend of Celtic diablerie, to which
I had listened attentively, for the air and manner of
the venerable narrator were very impressive, as he
devoutly believed it all ; but Captain Campbell of
Finab, who affected to consider it, as he said, " a tale
of a tub," was as much startled as I by the issue of
the next day's engagement with the enemy.

By dawn next day the wild pibroch " Come to me
and I will give you flesh," that fierce invitation to
the wolf and raven, rang in the allied bivouac, as his
Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland took post
at Maulprd in view of the French position, and
ordered a squadron of each regiment, with six batta-
lions of foot, five hundred pioneers, a body of Austrian
hussars, and six pieces of cannon, all under the com-
mand of the veteran Lieutenant-General Sir James
Campbell, K.B., Governor of the Castle of Edinburgh,
to drive the enemy out of the defiles of the wood
of Barri. This movement was the prelude to the
disastrous battle of Fontenoy, where Campbell was
killed.

The Guards and we — the old Black Watch — began
the engagement at Veson — the well-known affair of
outposts, There the Dauphin commanded, and his

THE SEVKN CKKNADIEKS.

soldiers were the flcnvor of the French line, a splendid
brigade, all clad in white coats laced with gold, long
n i tiles, tied perriwigs, and little plumed hats. They
\\- )'• intrenched breast high, and defended by an
abattis.

We fell furiously on ; the Scottish Foot-guards
with their clubbed muskets and fixed bayonets; the

!<. \Yatch with swords, pistols, and dirks, and the
struggle was terrible, as the action ensued at a place
which was swept by the fire of a redoubt mounted with
cannon and manned by six hundred of the noble

ment do Picardie. Old Captain Maclean, at the
head of his grenadiers and with his seven sons by his
si' !••. rushed up the glacis to storm the palisades.

"Open pouches — blow fuses — dirk and clay more, fall
on '." were his rapid orders, as the hand-grenades fell
like a hissing shower over the breastwork, from which
a sheet uC lead tore through the ranks of our stormers.

• .in fell at the foot of the palisades with ono
hand upon them and the other on his sword. All his

pi -rushed with him, falling over each other in a
they strove to protect his body. The

whi> fell was the youngest, Angus Dhu, who, after
slaying a French field officer, had driven a bayonet
into liis head, thrusting it through the ears ; using it

I.-VLT. In/ strove furiously to twist, tear, or wrench
ofV the Frenchman's skull as a trophy of vengeanci- ;
for the young Celt was beside himself with grief and

. when a volley of bullets from the white-coated
Regiment de Picardie laid him on the grass to rise no
more, just as Sir James Campbell carried the in-
trenchmeut sword in hand, and totally routed or

royed the soldiers of the Dauphin.
Whether old Captain Maclean and his sons marched
that morning without breaking their fast — a fatal

6G LDJENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

omission apparently in any of the Clan Gillian — I
have no means of ascertaining ; but, as Ronald Mac
Ara, who bore their provisions, was killed by a stray
bullet about daybreak, it was generally believed so
by the regiment, as this faithful henchman of the
captain was found dead with a full havresac under
his right arm, and the weird story of the seven fated
grenadiers was long remembered by the Black
Watch, when the greater events of the rout at
Fontenoy and the evacuation of Flanders were for-
gotten.

III.
THE LOST REGIMENT.

A LOVE STOBY.

I HAVE boon told that a better or a braver fellow
than Louis Charters of ours never drew a sword. He
.is the regimental records show, captain of our
7th company, and major in the army when the corps
embarked for service in the Illinois in 1763 ; but
prior to that his story was a strange and romantic one.
Louis was a cadet of one of the oldest houses in Scot-
land, the Charters of Amisfield ; thus he was a lineal
descendant of the famous Red Riever. Early in life
ho had been gazetted to anensigncyin Montgomery's
Highlanders, the old 77th, when that corps was raised
in I7">7 by Colonel Archibald Montgomery (after-
wards Earl of Eglinton and Governor of Dumbarton),
among the Frasers, Macdoualds, Camerons, Macleans,
and other Jacobite clans.

Charters was a handsome and enthusiastic soldier,
full of the old chivalry and romance of the Highlands ;
but, at the time he joined the Black Watch, with the
remnant of Montgomery's regiment, which volunteered
into our ranks in 1763, he was a pale, moody, and
disappointed man, who had no hope in the service,
IMI! that it might procure him an honourable -death
nndi-r tho balls of an enemy.

The story of Louis Charters was as follows : —

68 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

In January, 1757, he was recruiting at Perth for
the 77th, when it was his good, or perhaps ill fortune,
to become attached to a young lady possessed of great
attractions, whom he had met at a ball, and who was
the only daughter of the Laird of Tullynairn, a
gentleman of property in the vicinity of the " Fail-
City/'

Emmy Stuart was four-and -twenty, and Louis was
three years her senior. She was tall and beautiful in
face and figure ; her hair was chesnut, her eyes hazel,
and there was a charming droop in their lids which
enhanced all her varieties of expression, especially the
droll, and lent to them a seductive beauty, most dan-
gerous to the peace of all who engaged in a two-
handed flirtation with her ; for although that word was
unknown to the fair maids of Perth in those days, yet
they flirted nevertheless, and none more than the
lively Emmy Stuart

Though her charming figure was almost hidden by
her frightful hoop petticoat, and her beautiful hair by
white powder — but that, if possible, increased the
brilliance of her eyes and complexion — none knew
better than Emmy the piquant mode of arranging her
capuchin, of holding a vinaigrette under her pretty
pink nostrils ; and your great-grandmother, my good
reader, never surpassed her in the secret art of putting
those devilish little patches on her soft cheek, or about
her bright roguish eyes, in such a manner as to give
double point to those glances of drollery or disdain in
which all ladies then excelled ; or, worse still, an
amorous languish, levelled d, la Francaise, in such a
mode as would have demolished a whole battalion ;
while the adorable embonpoint of her figure was
somewhat increased by the arrangement of her busk,
her jewelled necklace, her embossed gold watch and

THE LOST REGIMENT. 69

which no lady was ever without, aud which
Emmy of course carried at her waist.

When she left the assembly, there was always such
a crush of gay gallants about the door to see her
depart, that Louis seldom got her safely into her
•Boon or coach without swords being drawn, and some
unfortunate being run through the body, or having a
few inches of a rlaming link thrust down his throat ;
for the " fine fellows" of those days were not over-
pal titular in their mode of resentment when a pretty
woman was concerned. The " Blood/' or " Buck," or
" M;iccaroni/' of the last century was a very different
fellow from the peaceful unmitigated " snob " of the
••nt day.

It was no wonder that Louis loved Emmy ; the
only marvel would have been had he proved invulne-
rable. ; so he fell before a glance of her bright hazel
as Dunkirk fell before the allied armies. But
Kinmy was so gay in manner, distinguishing none in
particular, that Charters was often in an agony of
anxiety to learn whether she would ever love him ;
and moreover, there was one of ours, a Captain
recruiting in Perth, who possessed a most
annoyingly handsome person, and who hovered more
about the beautiful Emmy than our friend of the
77th could have wished. To make the matter worse,
Douglas was an old lover, having met Emmy at a
ball three years before, and been shot clean through
the 'heart by one of her most seductive glances.

Emmy was so full of repartee and drollery, that
though Charters was always making the most desperate
love to her, he was compelled to mask his approaches
under cover of pretty banter, or mere flirtation ; thus
leaving him an honourable retreat in case of a sharp
repulse ; for he coitld not yet trust himself to opening

70 BNDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

the trenches in earnest, lest she might laugh at him,
as she had done at others ; and Louis knew enough
of the world to be aware, that a lover once laughed at
is lost, and may as well quit the field.

So passed away the summer of — I am sorry to give
so antique an epoch — 1757. The snow began to
powder the bare scalps of the Highland frontier ; the
woods of Scone and Kinnoull became stripped and
leafless, and their russet spoils where whirled along
the green inches and the reedy banks of the Tay ;
then the hoar frost wove its thistle blades on the
windows in the morning, and our lovers found that a
period was put to their rambles in the evening, when
the sun was setting behind the darkening mountains
of the west

Now came the time to ballot for partners for the
winter season ; and then it was that Louis first
learned to his joy that he was not altogether indif-
ferent to the laughing belle. The fashion of balloting
for partners was a very curious one, and now it is
happily abolished in Scottish society ; for only imagine
one's sensations, good reader, on being condemned to
dance everything with the same girl, and with her
only, during a whole winter season ! Besides, as the
devil would be sure to have it so, one would always
have the girl one did not want The laws respecting
partners were strictly enforced, and when once settled
or fairly handfasted to a dancing girl for the season,
a gentleman was on no account permitted to change,
even for a single night, on pain of being shot or run
through the body by her nearest male relative.

In the beginning of the winter season, the appoint-
mentfor partners usually took place in each littlecoterie
before the opening of the first ball or assembly. A
gentleman's triple-cocked beaver was unflapped, and

Till*: LOST REGIMENT. 71

tin* fans of :ill tin- ladies present were slily put,
in ; the gentlemen were then blindfolded, and
selects I a fan; then -she to whom it belonged,
Imwever ill they might be paired or assorted, was his
partner for the season. Such was the strange law,
must rigidly enforced in the days of Miss Nicholas,
who was then the mirror of fashion and presiding god-
dess of the Edinburgh assemblies.

When the time for balloting came, great was the
anxiety of poor Louis Charters lest his beloved Emmy
might fall to the lot of that provoking fellow Douglas
of ours ; but judge of his joy when Emmy told him,
with the most arch and beautiful smile that ever
lighted up a pair of lovely hazel eyes, how to dis-
tinguish her fan. from amid the eighteen or twenty
were deposited in the hat

•'Nn\v, my dear Mr. Charters/' said she in a
whisjK r, " I never pretended to be ferociously honest,
and thus my unfortunate little tongue is always
getting me into some frightful scrape ; but I shall
give you a token by which you will know my fan.
that make you supremely happy?"

" Happy, Emmy ? Dear Emmy, more than ever
you will give me credit for 1"

" Do not be suro of that, and do not make a scene.
Quick now, lest some one anticipate you."

"But the fan "

" Has a silver ball in lieu of a tassel. Now go and
:>er."

Tims indicated, he soon selected the fan and drew
it forth, to the annoyance of Douglas, who beheld him
present it to the fair owner ; and her hazel, eyo
kled with joy as Charters kissed her hand with a
DMttchless air of ardour and respect Honest Charters
felt quite tipsy with joy. Emmy had now shown

.72 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

that he was not without interest to her ; and was not
this a charming admission from a young beauty, who
could command any number of wedding-rings at any
hour she pleased ? Thus, according to the witty Sir
Alexander Boswell, who (for one of his squibs) was
shot one morning by Stuart of Dunearn,

" Each lady's fan a chosen Damon bore,
With care selected many a day before."

"With the dancing of a whole season before them,
the reader may easily imagine the result. All the
tabbies, gossips, and coteries of the fair city hud long
since assigned them to each other; and though the
mere magic of linking two names constantly together
has done much to cajole boys and girls into a love for
each other, no such magic was required here, for
Ernmy, I have said, was four-and-twent}7, and Louis
was three years her senior.

Finding himself completely outwitted, and that the
fan of a demoiselle of somewhat mature age and
rather unattractive appearance had fallen to his lot,
"Willy Douglas " evacuated Flanders," i.e., forsook the
ballroom, and bent all his energies to recruiting for
the second battalion of the Black Watch, leaving the
fair field completely to his more successful rival.

But though assigned to Charters by the fashion of
the time, and by her own pretty manoeuvre, as a
partner for the season, our gay coquette would not
yet acknowledge herself conquered ; and Charters felt
with some anxiety that she was amusing herself with
him, and that the time was drawing near when he
would have to rejoin his regiment, which was then
expecting the route for America, over the fortunes of
which the clouds of war were gathering. Besides,
Emmy had a thousand little whims and teasing ways

THE LOST REGIMENT. 73

about her, all of which it was his daily pleasure, and
sometimes his task, to gratify and to soothe ; and often
they h:nl :i quarrel — a real quarrel — for two whole
days. TlifM- were two centuries to Louis; but then
it was of course made up again ; and Emmy, like
an Empress, gave him her dimpled hand to kiss,
reminding him, with a coy smile, that

" A lover's quarrel was but love renewed."

" True, Emmy ; but I would infinitely prefer a love
that required no renewal," said Charters, with a sigh.

" How tiresome you become ! You often make me
think of Willy Douglas. Well, and where shall we
liml this remarkable love you speak of?"

" Ah, Emmy, you read it in every eye that turns to
yours ; it lills the very air you breathe, and sheds ;i
purity and a beauty over everything."

" Then you always see beauty here ?"

" Oh, Emmy, I always see you, and you only ; but
you are still bantering."

" Do you know, Captain Charters, that I do not
think it polite to tell a woman -that she is beautiful ?"
said Emmy, pretending to pout, while her eyelids
drooped, and she played with her fan.

"To tell any ordinary woman that she was beauti-
ful, might offend her, if she was sensible ; but to tell
you so, though you have the sense of a thousand,
must be pleasing, because you are conscious of your
great beauty, Emmy, and know its fatal power — but
alas ! too well/'

" What !" exclaimed Emmy, her eyes flashing with
triumph and fun, " I am beautiful, then ?"

" Too much so for my peace. Beautiful ! Oh,
Emmy Stuart, you are dangerously so. But YOU
trill.- with me cruelly, Emmy. Think how time is

74 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

gliding away — and a day must come when I shall bo
no longer here."

Her charming eyelids drooped again.

" A time — well, but remember there is an Italian
poet who says,

All time is lost that is not spent in love."

Charters gazed at her anxiously, and after a mo-
mentary pause, with all his soul in his eyes and on
his tongue, he said : —

" Listen to me, dearest Einmy. Of all things ne-
cessary to conduce to man's happiness, love is the
principal. It purifies and sheds a glory, a halo over
everything, but chiefly around the beloved object
herself. It awakens and matures every slumbering
virtue in the heart, and causes us to become us pure
and noble as a man may be, to make him more worthy
of the woman we love. Such, dear Emmy, is my
love for you/'

This time Emmy heard him in silence, with down-
cast eyes, a blush playing upon her beautiful cheek,
a smile hovering on her alluring little mouth, with
her breast heaving and her pretty fingers playing
nervously with her fan and the frills of her busk.

This conversation may be taken as a specimen of a
hundred that our lovers had on every convenient
opportunity, when Louis was all truthful earnestness
— devotion and anxiety pervading his voice and man-
ner ; while Emmy was all fun, drollery, and coquetry,
yet loving him nevertheless.

But a crisis came, when Charters received, by the
hand of his chief friend, Lieutenant Alaster Macken-
zie, of the house of Seaforth, a command to rejoin his
regiment, then under orders to embark at Greenock,
to share in the expedition which Brigadier-General

TIIK LOST many 75

Forbes of Pittencricf was to lead ngainst Fort du
Quesne, oue of the three great enterprises undertaken
in 17o>S against the French possessions in North
America. How futile were the tears of Emmy now !

" Though divided by the sea, dear Louis, our hope
will be one, like our love," she sobbed in his ear.

" Think — think of me often, very often, as I shall
think of you."

" I do not doubt you, Louis. I now judge of your
long, faithful, and noble affection by my own. Oh,
Louis ! I have been foolish and wilful ; I have pained
you often; but you will forgive your poor Emmy
now ; she judges of your love by her own.''

It was now too late to think of marriage. Emmy,
subdued by the prospect of a sudden and long sepa-
ration from her winning and handsome lover, and by
a knowledge of the dangers that lay before him by
md land, the French bullet, the Indian arrow —
;ill the risks of war and pestilence — was almost broken-
;ed oil his departure. The usual rings and locks
of hair, the customary embraces, were exchanged ;
tin,- usual adieus and promises — solemn and sobbing
promises of mutual fidelity — were given, and so they
purled ; and with sad Emmy's kiss yet lingering on
lips, and her undried tears on his cheek, poor
Charters found himself marching at the head of his
party of fifty recruits, while the drum and fife woke
thr echoes in the romantic Wicks of Baiglie, as he
l>;i'!e a long adieu to beautiful Perth, the home of his
Emmy, and joined the headquarters of Montgomery's
Highlanders at Greenock.

.1 amid all the bustle of the embarkation in
transports :ui'l ships of war — such rough sea-going
ships as Smollet has portrayed in his " Roderick I
dom" — Charters saw ever before him the happy,

76 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCIT.

bright, and beautiful Emmy of the past year of joy ;
or as he had last seen her, pale, crushed, and droop-
ing in tears upon his breast — her coquetry, her drol-
lery, her laughter, all evaporated, and the true loving
and trusting woman alone remaining — her eyes full
of affection, and her voice tremulous with emotion.

Louis sailed for America with one of the finest regi-
ments ever sent forth by Scotland, which, in the war that
preceded the declaration of American independence,
gave to the British ranks more than sixty thousand
soldiers* — few, indeed, of whom ever returned to lay
their bones in the land of their fathers.

Montgomery's Highlanders consisted of thirteen
companies, making a total of 1460 men, including 65
sergeants who were armed with Lochaber axes, and
30 pipers armed with target and claymore.

Once more among his comrades, the spirit of Char-
ters rose again ; a hundred kindly old regimental sympa-
thies were awakened in his breast, and, though the keen
regret of his recent parting was fresh in his memory,
yet in the conversation of Alaster Mackenzie (who
shared his confidence), and in his military duty, he found
a relief from bitterness — a refuge which was denied to
poor Emmy, who was left to the solitude of her own
thoughts and the bitter solace of her own tears, amid
those familiar scenes which only conduced to add

* See " Present Conduct of the Chieftains Considered."
Edinburgh: 1773. "Thus it. appears," rays an anti-ministerial
pamphlet, published in 17G3, " that out of 756 officers com-
manding in the Army, garrisons, &c., 210 are Scots : and out of
1930 in' the Navy, 536 are Scots." The table was thus :—

Scots Generals 29 \ . Scots Admirals 7*

„ Colonels 39 [ 5? „ Captains 81

„ Lieut. -Colonels 81 [ jj „ Masters 33

„ Majors 61 J „ Lieutenants . . . 271

„ Surgeons , , , , Uii

THE LOST I:KI;IMI:NT. 77

poignancy to her grief, and served hourly to recal
memory of the absent, and those hours of
love and pleasure that had lied, perhaps never to
return.

Meanwhile, Charters had not a thought or hope,
desire or aim, but to do his duty nobly in the field, to
obtain promotion, and to return to wed Emmy. A
year — two years — yea, even three, though an eternity
to a lover, would soon pass amid the bustle and ex-
ciinnent of war and of foreign service. Three years
at most, then, would find him again at the side of
Emmy, hand in hand as of old. But, alas ! as poor
Robert Burns says pithily —

" The best-laid schemes of mice and men
Gang aft ajee."

Though our lovers had resolved that nothing should
exceed the regularity of their correspondence, and
thnt the largest sheets of foolscap should be duly filled
with all they could wish each other to say, in those
when regular mails, steamers, telegraphs, and
penny postage were yet concealed in Time's capacious
wallet, neither Emmy nor Charters had quite calcu-
late! upon the devious routes or the strange and wild
icts into which the troops were to penetrate, or
the chances of the Western war, with all its alternate
glories and disasters.

After a lapse of two long and weary months, by a
Hailing vessel poor Emmy received a letter from Louis,
and, in the hushed silence of her own apartment, tin:
humbled coquette wept over every word of it — and
read it a^ain and again — for it seemed to come like
the beloved voice of the writer from a vast distance
and from that land of danger. Then when she looked
ut tlie date and saw that it was a month — a whole

78 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

month — ago, and when she thought of the new ter-
rors' each day brought forth, she trembled and her
heart grew sick ; then a paroxysm of tears was her
only relief, for she was a creature of a nervous and
highly excitable temperament.

It described the long and dreary voyage to America
in the crowded and comfortless transport — one thought
ever in his soul — the thought of her ; one scene ever
around him — sea and sky. It detailed the hurried
disembarkation and forced march of General Forbes's
little army of 6200 soldiers from Philadelphia in the
beginning of July, through a vast tract of country,
little known to civilized men ; all but impenetrable
or impassable, as the roads were mere war paths, that
lay through dense untrodden forests or deep morasses
and over lofty mountains, where wild, active, and
ferocious Indians, by musket, tomahawk, scalping-
knife, and poisoned arrow, co-operated with the
French in harassing our troops at every rood of the
way. He told how many of the strongest and
healthiest of Montgomery's Highlanders perished
amid the toils and horrors they encountered ; but
how still he bore up, animated by the memory of her,
by that love which was a second life to him, and by
the darling hope that, with God's help, he would sur-
vive the campaign and all its miseries, and would find
himself again, as of old, seated by the side of his be-
loved Emmy, with her cheek on his shoulder and her
dear little hand clasped in his. He sent her some
Indian beads, a few forget-me-nots that grew amid
the grass within his tent ; he sent her another lock
of his hair, and prayed kind God to bless for the
sake of the poor absent heart that loved her so
well.

And here ended this sorrowful letter, which was

THE LOST REGIMENT. 79

dated from the camp of the Scottish Brigadier, who
halted at Raystown, ninety miles on the inarch from
Fort du Quesne. Thus, by the time Emmy received
it, the fort must have been attacked and lost or
won.

" Attacked !" — How breathlessly and with what
protracted agony did she long for intelligence — for
another letter or for the War-office lists ! But days,

:s, months rolled on; the snow descended on the
land mountains ; the woods of Kinnoull were

: i leafless ; again the broad Inches of Perth wore
the white mantle of winter ; the Tay was frozen hard

nt between its banks and between the piers of

T.l wooden bridge ; there now came no mails from
America ; uo letter reached her ; and poor Emmy,
though surrounded by admirers as of old, felt all the*
misery of that deferred hope which " maketh the
heart sick."

an while Louis, at the head of his company of
Montgomery's Highlanders, accompanied the force of

idier Forbes, who, in September, despatched from
Raystown Colonel Bouquet to a place called Loyal
Henuing, to reconnoitre the approach to Fort du
ue. The colonel's force consisted of 2000 men ;
of these he despatched in advance 500 Provincials and
400 of Montgomery's regiment, under Major James
Grant of Ballindalloch, whose second in command was
Captain Charters. Despite the advice of the latter,
Grant, a brave but reckless and imprudent officer, ad-
vanced boldly towards Fort du Quesne with all his

^ playing and drums beating, as if he was ap-
proaching a friendly town. Now the French officer
who commanded in the fort was a determined fellow.
He it was who had behaved with such heroism at the
recent siege of Savannah, where he had been sergeant-
F 2

80 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK \VATC1I.

major of Dillon's Kegiment of the Irish Brigade in
the service of King Louis. When the Comte d'Estaing
madly proposed to take the fortress by a coup-de-
main, M. le Comte Dillon, anxious to signalize his
Irishmen, proposed a reward of a hundred guineas to
the first grenadier who should plant a fascine in the
fosse, which was swept by the whole fire of the garri-
son ; but his purse was proffered in vain, for not an
Irishman would advance. Confounded by this, Dillon
was upbraiding them with cowardice, when the ser-
geant-major said —

" Monsieur le Comte, had you not held out a sum
of money as an incentive, your grenadiers would one
and all have rushed to the assault \"

The count put his purse in his pocket

"Forward!" cried he — forward went the Irish
grenadiers, and out of 194 who composed the com-
pany, 104 left their bodies in the breach.

But to resume : the moment the soldiers of Grant
were within range, the French cannon opened upon
them, and under coyer of this fire, the infantry made
a furious sortie.

" Sling your muskets ! Dirk and claymore !" cried
the major as the foe came on. A terrible conflict
ensued, the Highlanders fighting with their swords
and daggers, and the Provincials with their fixed
bayonets ; the French gave way, but, unable to reach
the fort, they dispersed and sought shelter in the vast
forest which spread in every direction round it. Here
they were joined by a strong body of Indians, and
returning, from amid the leafy jungles and dense
foliage they opened a murderous fire upon Major
Grant's detachment, which had halted to refresh,
when suddenly summoned to arms.

A yell pierced the sky ! It was the Indian war-

LOST BECIMKIsT. 81

whoop, startling the green leaves of that lone
American f,»iv :, and waking the echoes of the dis-
tant hills that overlook tho plain of the Alleghany ;
thousands of Red Indian warriors, horrible in their
native uglinrss, their streaky war paint, jangling
mocassins and tufted feathers, naked and muscular,
savage as tigers and supple as eels, with their barbed
spears, seal ping-knives, tomahawks, and French mus-
kets, burst like a living flood upon the soldiers of Bal-
lindalloch. The Provincials immediately endeavoured
to form square, but were broken, brained, scalped,
and trod under foot, as if -a brigade of horse had swept
over them. While, in the old fashion of their native
land, the undaunted 77th men endeavoured to meet
the foe, foot to foot and hand to hand, with the broad-
sword, but in vain. Grant ordered them to throw
aside their knapsacks, plaids, and coats, and betake
themselves to the claymore, and the claymore only.
For three hours a desultory and disastrous combat
was maintained — every stump and tree, every bush,
rock, and stone being battled for with deadly energy
and all the horrors of Indian warfare — yells, whoops,
the tomahawk and the knife — were added to those of
Europe, and before the remnant of our Highlanders
effected an escape, Captains MacDonald and Munro,
Lieutenants Alaster, William and Robert Mackenzie,
and Colin Campbell, were killed and scalped, with
many of their men. Ensign Alaster Grant lost a hand
by a poisoned arrow ; but of all who fell, Charters
most deeply regretted Alaster Mackenzie, his friend
and confidant, to save whom, after a shot had pierced
his breast, ho made a desperate effort and slew three
Indians by three consecutive blows; but this succour
came too late, and Mackenzie's scalp was torn off
before he breathed his last

82 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

"Stand by your colours, comrades, till death!"
were his last words. " Farewell, dear Charters — may
God protect you for your Emmy's sake — we'll meet
again I"

"Again!"

" Yes — again — in heaven !" he answered, and ex-
pired with his sword in his hand, like a brave and
pious soldier.

The Red men were like incarnate fiends, and, amid
groans' yells, prayers, and entreaties, were seen on
their knees in frenzy, drinking blood from the spout-
ing veins and bleeding scalps of their victims. The
combat was a mere massacre, and seemed as if all hell
had burst its gates and held jubilee in that wild forest
of the savage West. The Provincials were destroyed.
Grant, with nineteen officers, fell into the hands of
the French; and of his Highlanders only 150 suc-
ceeded in effecting a retreat to Loyal Henning, under
the command of Louis Charters, to whose skill,
bravery, and energy, they unanimously attributed
their escape. Many of their comrades who were cap-
tured died under agonies such as Indians, Turks, or
devils alone could have devised ; and the story of one
— Private Allan MacPherson — who escaped a cruel
death by pretending that his neck was sword-proof, as
related by the AbbI Reynal, and General Stewart of
Garth, is well known.

James Grant of Ballindalloch died a general in the
army in 1806 ; but he never forgot the horrors of his
rashness at Fort du Quesne, which was abandoned to
Brigadier Forbes on the 24th November; by this he
was deprived of a revenge, and to win it Charters had
volunteered to lead the forlorn-hope. Poor General
Forbes died on the retreat,

Charters's regiment served next in General Am-

THE LOST REGIMENT. 83

herst'.s army at Ticonderoga, at Crown Point, and on
the Lake Expedition, where he *aved the life of
Ensign Grant — now known as Alaster the One-handed
— by bearing him off the field when wounded ; but
during all those desultory and sanguinary operations,
he never heard from Emmy, nor did she hear from
him. He suffered much ; he nearly perished in the
snow on one occasion with a whole detachment ; he
was wounded in the left shoulder on that night of
horrors at Ticonderoga, and had a narrow escape from
a cannon-ball in the fight with a French ship, when
proceeding on the- expedition to Dominique under
Lord Rollo and Sir James Douglas ; but though the
ball spared his head, the wind of it raised a large in-
flamed spot, which gave him great trouble and pain.
He was with his corps at the conquest of the Havan-
nah ; he was at the capture of Newfoundland with the
45th and the Highlanders of Fraser, and he served
with honour in a hundred minor achievements of the
brave Highlanders of Montgomery.

Renewed or recruited thrice from the Highland
clans, the old 77th covered themselves with glory, and
of all the Scottish corps in the King's service, there
was none from which the soldiers more nobly and
ly transmitted to their aged parents in Scotland
the savings of their poor pay or the prize money
gained by their blood in the Havannah. In one of
his (unanswered) letters to Emmy Stuart, Louis says,
" I have known some of our poor fellows, my dear girl,
who almost starved themselves for this pur])'

One of the majors being killed at the storming of

the Moro, his widow, in consideration of his great ser-

. was permitted to sell his commission. Louis

now senior captain, and tin- n^iim-nt kin-\v v.vll

that lie, having only his pay, was unable to purchase

8-4 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

it: but so greatly was he beloved by tho soldiers,
many of whom, iy America, had thrown themselves
before the sharp tomahawks and poisoned arrows of
the Indians to save him, that they subscribed each
Highlander so many days' pay to purchase his ma-
jority ; and the plunder of the rich Havannah having
put these brave souls in good funds, the money was
all fairly laid on the drum-head in one hour, when
the corps was on evening parade in the citadel of El
Fuerte.

Such a noble instance of camaraderie and true
soldierly sentiment never occurred in the British ser-
vice but once before ; and then it was also in an old
Scottish regiment which had served, I believe, in the
wars of Queen Anne, before the amalgamation of the
forces of the two kingdoms.*"

This was the most noble tribute his soldiers could
pay to Charters, who was duly gazetted when the re-
giment was stationed at New York in the summer of
3763, to enjoy a little repose after the toils of the
past war.

The services and adventures so briefly glanced at
here, had thus spread over a period of five years — to
Louis, long and weary years — during which he had
never heard of Emmy but once ; and now he had no
relic of her to remind him of those delightful days of
peace and love that had fled apparently for ever.
The ring she had given him, warm from her pretty
hand, had been torn from his finger by plunderers as
he lay wounded and helpless on the ramparts of Fort
Loudon, on the confines of far Virginia ; her fan was
lost when his baggage was taken on the retreat from
Fort du Quesne ; the locket with her hair had been

* Sec "Advice to Officers." Perth, 1795.

THE LOST IlKiJIMEXT. 85

rent from him, when he was taken prisoner and
stripped by the French, in the attack on Martinique.
He was changed in appearance too ; his hair once
black as night was already seamed by many a silvery
thread, yet he was only two-and-thirty. His face
was gaunt and wan, and bronzed by the Indian sun
and keen American frost. His eyes, like the eyes of
all inured to facing death and danger, pestilence and
the bullet, were fierce at times, and keen and hag-
gard ; and when tidings came, or it was mooted at
mess, that the war-worn regiment of Montgomery
was once again to see the Scottish shore, poor Louis
looked wistfully into his glass, and doubted whether
Emmy would know him ; for between the French and
the Cherokees he had acquired somewhat the aspect of
a brigand.

Peace was proclaimed at last, and the Government
made an offer to the regiment, that such officers and
nifii as might choose to settle in America should
have grants of land proportioned to their rank and
services. The rest might return to Scotland or volun-
teer into other corps. A few remained among the
colonists, and on the revolt of America in 1775, were
the first men to join the standard of George III.,
who ordered them to be embodied as the 84th or
Royal Regiment of Highland Emigrants. The rest —
most of whom volunteered to join the Black Watch,
— with the baud, pipes, and colour's, under Loute
Charters, embarked at New York, and, full of hope
and joy, with three hearty cheers, as their ship cleft
the waters of the Hudson and bore through the Nar-
rows, saw the future capital of the western world sink
iu the distance and disappear astern.

Five years !

" Emmy must now be nearly nine-and-twenty I"

86 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

thought Louis ; "in a month from this time I shall
see her — shall hear her voice — shall be beside her
again, assuring her that I am the same Louis Char-
ters of other days."

But month after month passed away, and six
elapsed after the sailing of the transport from New
York had been duly notified by the London and the
Edinburgh Gazettes, and yet no tidings reached
Britain of the missing regiment of Montgomery.

During all these five long years — those sixty months
— those one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five
days, every one of which had been counted by poor
Louis — how fared it with the beautiful Emmy Stuart,
•who was still the belle of the fair city ?

So far as the defective newspapers of those days,
when Edinburgh had only three (and those of London
seldom came north), supplied intelligence, she had
traced the operations of Montgomery's Highlanders
in the Canadas, the States, on the Lakes, and in the
West Indies, in the despatches of Brigadier Forbes,
of Colonel Bouquet, Lord Hollo, and others ; she had
frequently seen the name of her lover mentioned, as
having distinguished himself, and twice as having
been left wounded on the field. I need not dwell on
her days and nights of sickening sorrow and suspense,
which no friendship could alleviate.

Save once, no letter from Louis had ever reached
her ; yet poor Louis had written many : from among
frozen camps and bloody fields — from wet bivouacs,
and places such as Emmy's gentle mind could never
conceive — had he written to her the outpourings of
his heart, believing that in due time Emmy would be
gazing fondly on the words his hand had traced, and
endeavouring to conjure up the tones in which he
would have said all that distance and separation com-

THE LOST REGIMENT. 87

pellcd him to commit to paper ; but, by a strange
fatality, these letters never reached her ; yet Emmy,
the belle, the coquette, remained true, for she knew
the chances of war ; and that, until the regiment re-
turned home and he proved false, she could not desert
her lover.

But Willy Douglas of the Black Watch, who had

been all this time comfortably recruiting about Perth

ami Dunkeld (thanks to his uncle, the Duke of

Douglas), was wont to remind her that the 40th

: in 'lit had been more than forty years abroad,*

and the battalion of Montgomery might be quite as

^ away.

After three years had passed without letters arriv-
ing, Emmy still mourned and loved Louis more than
ever ; while well-meaning friends, who never thought
of consulting the army list, assured her that he was
killed ; but it availed them nought.

Then five years elapsed, and in all that time there
came no letter ; yet, when taunted that Louis IKK!
forgotten her, she replied as Cleopatra did to Alexis
•when he advised her to deem her lover cruel, incon-
stant, and ungrateful : —

" I cannot, if I could ; these thoughts were vajn ;
Faithless, ungrateful, cruel if he be,
I still must love him !"

But time changes all things. A pleasing and sad
recollection was now beginning to replace her lively
affection for Charters. Tired of worshipping one
wln> had become little more than a beautiful statue,
in is had disappeared gradually, till the
assiduous Douglas alone remained in the position

• Fact in 176-1.

88 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

of a tacit and privileged dangler. Willy was an
honest-hearted fellow, and with his real love for
Emmy there was mingled much of pity for what she
suffered on account of his " devilish neglectful rival,"
as he termed Charters. Emmy had long been insen-
sible to his addresses ; but as Douglas, who was very
prepossessing, was the nephew of the last Duke of
Douglas, and had a handsome fortune, her father
frequently, earnestly, and affectionately urged her to
accept his proposals ; while her mother reminded her
that she was past eight-and-twenty now ; and added,
that in a new and more fortunate attachment — in
the love that is supposed to follow marriage — she
would forget the sorrows of the past. But Emmy,
though knowing that this was all mere sophistry, was
about to give a, silent acquiescence to their schemes,
when, turning over the leaves of an old periodical,
one day, in a dreamy and listless mood, her eye fell
on the following : —

" A union of fortunes, not a union of hearts, is the
thing generally aimed at in marriage, and, by those
who esteem themselves prudent people, is thought
the only rational view. There is no divine ordinance
more 'frequently disobeyed than that wherein God
forbids human sacrifices, for in no other light can
most modern marriages be viewed. Brazen images,
indeed, are not the objects of their worship ; a purer
metal is their deity. Every one who reads in ancient
history of human sacrifices, exclaims against the
horrid practice and trembles at the narrative, though
there is scarcely one of the female readers, if she is of
a marriageable age, who is not ready to deck her
person, like an adorned victim, in the hope of
tempting some golden idol to receive a free-will
offering:/'

THE LOST K! 89

Emmy thought of Douglas's fortune, and the book
fell from her hand.

'NO, no," she said with a shudder; " I shall not
be the adorned victim offered up to this golden idol ;"
and from that hour she resolved to decline his
addresses.

On the day succeeding this brave resolution came
tidings "that the remnant of Montgomery's High-
hinders, under the command of Major Louis Charters,
had sailed from New York six weeks ago, and were
daily expected at Greenock, from whence that gal-
lant corps had sailed for the wars of the Far West in
1758."

Now came Emmy's hour of triumph, and already
Louis seemed before her, loving, trusting, and true ;
and hourly she expected to have, in his own hand-
writing, assurance of all her heart desired ; but, alas !
time rolled on — days became weeks — weeks became
months, and no tidings reached Britain of the High-
landers of Montgomery.

"The lost regiment" was spoken of from time to
time, till even friends, comrades, and relations grew
tin d of futile surmises, and their unaccountable dis-
appearance became like a tale that is told— or a frag-
in nt of old and forgotten intelligence.

For a time a sickening and painful suspense had
been kept alive by occasional reports of pieces of
wreck, with red coats and tartan fluttering about
thriu, having been espied in the Atlantic; vessels
waterlogged and abandoned were passed by solitary
ships, and averred to be the missing transport ; craft
answering her description had been seen to founder in
tempests off the banks of Newfoundland ; but after
eight months had elapsed nothing \v;is hr .ml of what
was emphatically called the lost regiment.

90 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

Emmy mourned now for Louis as for one who was
dead — one who, after all his toil and valour, suffering
and constancy (she felt assured he had been constant),
was sleeping in the great ocean that had divided them
so long.

Tired of all this, her friends had arrayed her in
mourning as for one who was really dead; and to
carry out a plan of realizing this conviction, her
father had erected in the church of St. John a hand-
some marble tablet to the memory of Charters ; and
this cold white slab in memoriam met Emmy's
heavy eyes every time she raised them from her
prayer-book on Sunday. So at last Louis was dead
— she felt convinced of it, and, with a reluctant and
foreboding mind, she consented to a marriage with
Captain Douglas of the Black Watch — a consent in
which she had but one thought, that in making this
terrible sacrifice she was only seeking to soothe the
anxiety and gratify the solicitations of her mother,
who was now well up in the vale of years, and who
loved her tenderly.

Emmy was placid and content ; but though even
cheerful in appearance, she was not happy ; for her
cheek was ever pale and her soft hazel eyes, with
their half-drooping lids, failed to veil a restlessness
that seemed to search for something vague and unde-
fined.

They were married. We will pass over the appear-
ance of the bride, her pale beauty, her rich lace, the
splendour of all the accessories by which the wealth
of her father, of her husband, and the solicitude of
her kind friends surrounded her, and come to 11/e
crisis in our story — a crisis in which a lamentable
fatality seemed to rule the destinies of the chief
actors in our little drama.

THE LOST REGIMENT. 91

The minister of St. John's Church had just pro-
nounced the nuptial blessing, and the pale bride was
in her mother's arms, while the officers of the Black
Watch were crowding round Douglas with their
hearty congratulations ; a buzz of voices had filled the
large withdrawing room, as a hum of gladness suc-
ceeded the solemn but impressive monotony of the
marriage service, when the sharp rattle of drums and
the shrill sound of the fifes ringing in the Southgate
of Perth struck upon their ears, and the measured
march of feet, mingling with the rising huzzahs of
the people, woke the echoes of every close and wynd.

A foreboding smote the heart of Captain Douglas.
He sprang to a window and saw the gleam of arms —
the gutter of bayonets and Lochaber axes, with the
waving of plumed bonnets above the heads of a crowd
which poured along the sunny vista of the South-
gate ; and, as the troops passed, led by a mounted
officer whose left arm was in a sling— a bronzed, war-
worn, and weatherbeaten band — their tartans were
:nised as well as the tattered colours which
: i it -i I in ribbons on the wind, and their name went
from mouth to mouth : —

" The Lost Regiment — the Highlanders of Mont-
gomery !"

A low cry burst from Emmy ; she threw up her
clasped hands, and sank in a dead faint at her
mother's feet. All was consternation in the house of
Stuart of Tullynairn ; and the marriage guests gazed
at the passing soldiers, as at some fascinating but un-
real pageant — but on they marched, cheering, to the
barracks, with drums beating and pipes playing; and
now the mounted officer, who had been gazing wist-
fully at the crowded windows, stoops from his saddle
aud whispers a few words to another — Alaster the

92 LEGE2TDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

One-handed, now a captain — then he turns his horse,
and, dismounting at the door, is heard to ascend the
stair ; and in another moment, Louis Charters, sallow,
thin, and hollow-eyed, by long toil and suffering, his
left arm in a sling and his right cheek scarred by a
shot, stands amid all these gaily-attired guests in his
fighting jacket, the scarlet of which had long since
become threadbare and purple.

He immediately approached Emmy, who had now
partially recovered and gazed at him, as one might
gaze at a spectre, when Douglas threw himself forward
with a hand on his sword.

" What is the meaning of all this ?" said Louis, who
grew ashy pale, and whose voice sank into Emmy's
Koul ; " have you all forgotten me — Louis Charters of
Montgomery's Kegiment ?"

" No/' replied Douglas, " but your presence here at
such a time is most unfeeling and inopportune."

"Unfeeling and inopportune — I — Miss Stuart —
Emmy—"

" Miss Stuart has just been made my wedded wife ;
thus any remarks you have to make, sir, you will
please address to me."

Louis started as if a scorpion had stung him, and
his trembling hand sought the hilt of hi.s sword ; here
the old miuister addressed him kindly, imploringly,
and the guests crowded between them, but ho dashed
them all aside and turned from the house, without a
word or glance from Emmy. Poor Emmy ! dismay
had frozen her, and mute despair glared in her hag-
gard yet still beautiful eyes.

" Half an hour earlier and I had saved her and
saved myself !" exclaimed Charters, bitterly ; " the
half-hour I loitered in Strathearn !" for he had halted
there to refresh his weary soldiers.

THE LOST REGD! 98

And now to explain this sudden reappearance.

Tempest-tossed and under jurymasts, after long
beating against adverse winds, the transport, with the
remnant of his regiment, had been driven to 37 and
40 degrees of north latitude, and was stranded on the
small isles of Corvo and Flores, two of the most
western and detached of the Azores. There they had
been lingeringamong the Portuguese for seven months,
unknown to and unheard of by our Government ; and
it was not until Charters, leaving Alaster Grant in
command at Corvo, had visited Angra, the capital of
the island, and urged the necessity of having his
soldiers transmitted home, that he procured a ship at
Ponta del Gadu, the largest town of these islands, and
sailing with the still reduced remnant of his corps — for
many had perished with the foundered transport — he
landed at Greenock, from whence he was ordered at
once to join the 2nd battalion of the Black Watch,
into which his soldiers had volunteered, and which,
by a strange fatality, was quartered in Perth — the
home of his Emmy, and the place where for five long
years he had garnered up his thoughts and dearest
hopes.

The reader may imagine the emotions of poor
Emmy on finding that her lover lived, and that her
heart was thus cruelly wrenched away from all it had
treasured and cherished for years. Then, as if to
aggravate hpr sorrow, our battalion marched the next
day for foreign service, and Louis again embarked for
America, the land of his toil, without relentless fate
}H rniitting Emmy to excuse or explain herself.

Douglas left the corps and took his wife to Paris,
where he fell in a duel with a Jacobite refugee.

Emmy lived to be a very old woman, but she never
smiled again.

94 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

Thus were two fond hearts separated for ever.

Three months after Louis landed in America, he
died of a broken heart say some ; of the marsh ;
say others. He was then on the march with a detach-
ment of ours up the Mississippi, a long route of 1500
miles, to take possession of Fort Charters in the Illi-
nois. His friend, a Captain Grant — Alaster the One-
handed — performed the last offices for him, and saw
him rolled in a blanket, and buried at the foot of a
cotton-tree, where the muskets of the Black Watch
made the echoes of the vast prairie ring as they
poured three farewell volleys over the last home of a
brave but lonely heart.

IV.

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM
HENRY.

WHEN the Black Watch sailed for America, in 1756,
i vo untliT the heroic Wolfe and fight against the
|uis of Montcalm, the lieutenant of the 7th com-
ji:niy was Roderick MacGillivray, known in the ranks
by his local patronymic, Roderick Ruadh (or the
Red) of Glenarrow, a gentleman of the Clan Chattan,
who, eleven years before, had been a cap tain in the army
of Prince Charles Edward, and had served throughout
the memorable campaign of 1745-6. In his heart
Roderick MacGillivray had no love either for the
service or sovereign of Britain, whom he considered
as the butcher of his countrymen, and the usurper of
their crown ; but his estate of Glenarrow had been
forfeited ; he was penniless, and having a young wife
to maintain, he was glad to accept a commission in
the Royal Highlanders — a favour he procured through
the interest of one who has already been mentioned
in these pages, Louis Charters, who served at Fort
du Quesne, as already related in the legend of the
" Lost Regiment/'

In those days there were many soldiers in the ranks

of our regiment who had served in the army of Prince

Charles, and who deemed his father, James VIII.,

the undoubted sovereign of these realms, by that

G 2

96 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK \YATCH.

hereditary right, which, as their Celtic proverb has it,
" will face the rocks," and which they deemed as
sacred and immutable as if the breath of God had
ordained it. Thus they served George II., not be-
cause they wavered in their loyalty to their native
kings, but because they hated his enemies the
French, whom they knew to have betrayed the cause
of the clans, and in the hope that a time would yet
come when the standard which Tullybardine, the
loyal and true, unfurled in Glenfinnan, would again
wave over a field in which God would defend the
right.

And such thoughts and hopes as these were the
theme of many a poor soldier of the Reicudan Dhu,
in their tents and bivouacs, on the plains of Flanders,
on the Heights of Abraham, and by the vast and
then untrodden shores of the American lakes.

Similar thoughts, and the memory of all he had
endured at the hands of the victorious party, together
with the confiscation of his estate, which had de-
scended to him through twelve generations of martial
ancestors, made Roderick MacGillivray a grave and
somewhat sombre man. He had fought valiantly in
the first line at Culloden, where he was one of the
guard, the Leine Ckrios (i.e. Shirt of Mail, or Children
of the Belt) around the Laird of Dunmacglas,* who
led the Macintoshes, and who was next day mur-
dered by the English soldiers, when found all but
dead of wounds upon the field, where they dashed out
his brains by the butts of their muskets as he lay in
the arms of his distracted wife.

After that day, MacGillivray became a fugitive
and outlaw, but was happy enough to be one of those

* The Fort of the Grevraan's Son.

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HENRY. (J7

eight brave men who, with MacDonald of Glenala-
dale — the faithful, the gentle, and the true Glenala-
— watched, guarded, and tended by night and by
day the unfortunate Prince Charles in the wild
cavern of Coire-gaoth among the beautiful Braes of
Glemnnrriston. There these starving and outlawed
men made a bed of heather for the royal fugitive, and
there he slept and lurked in perfect security, though
thirty thousand pounds were set upon his head by
George II., and though the Saxon drum was heard,
where the flames of rapine were seen rising on the
vast steeps of Corryarrack.

The memory of those stirring days — this com-
panionship with the son of his exiled King, with
Prionse Tearlach Righ nan Ghael, words that wenj
said and promises made, with all that winning charnv
of manner, for which the princes of the House of
Stuart were so remarkable, sank deep in Roderick's
heart ; and there were times when in his soul he
panted for the hour when again the White Rose
would shed its bloom upon the wasted Highland hills,
wln-n the swift vengeance of the loyal would fall on
the faithless clans of the west, and the shrill wild
j.ibroch of the Clan Chattan would ring in fierce
triumph above the burial mounds at Culloden.

And so he hoped and thought, and watched and
waited, but that new day of battle never came !

His secret aspirations were shared to the full by
his young wife, Mary MacDonald, who was a grand-
daughter of MacViclan, the chieftain of Glencoe, the
iile Williamite episode in whose history can yet
make the brow of every Highlander darken. But
Mary was gentle and timid ; she had seen too much
of war and bloodshed, of butchery and terror in her
girlhood, during the time that followed Culloden ; and

98 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

though she prayed in her innocent little heart for the
restoration of Scotland's exiled kings, it was in peace
she would have wished it achieved.

In the ancient fashion of the Highlands, Koderick
on the day of their marriage had bestowed on Mary —
in addition to the espousal ring — an antique brooch ;
one of those old marriage gifts which were usually
given on such occasions. It had been worn by many
matrons of his house, and thus became invested with
many deep and endearing memories : association, old
tales of the love, the spirit and virtue of the dead,
hallowed the gift, for it had shone on many a soft
breast that had long since mouldered in the dust.
Being circular, it was the mystic emblem of eternity,
and bore the crest of the Clan Gillibhreac — a cat,
with the significant motto in the old Gaelic letter —

" Touch not the cat without the glove;"

and as her own life Mary prized this old bridal
brooch, the dearest gift her husband could bestow
upon her.

When MacGillivray joined the regiment, Mary was
in her twentieth year. She was pale and more than
pretty, having that dazzling white skin for which the
women of her clan are said to excel all others in
Scotland ; but of old the same was said of the Camp-
bells and the Drummonds. Her hair was black ; her
eyes, deep and quiet, were dark hazel, and her fea-
tures were unexceptionable. She was neither bril-
liant nor beautiful, but there was a sweetness and
delicacy in her smile and manner that touched and
won the hearts of all who knew her. There was a
sadness, too, in her air and tone, for the most of her
kindred had perished in the Glencoe massacre, or at
Culloden. She was thus alone in the world, with

Till] MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 99

none to shield or shelter her but her husband — he
\\ho\\as iio\v beginning a life 6f W*r And peril — the
'.rand double peril of acampaigii in America,
a wild and untrodden land of barbarous hordes and
mighty forests. She shrank with a terror of the

;>ect before them, and viewed with dismay the
many lesser horrors which surrounded her in a
crowded transport of those day-;.

MucGillivray sailed on board the Mercury, the

•«T of which was James Cooke, afterwards the
celebrated navigator.

'•Twain of heart and of purpose/' husband and
wife were to each other all in all ; and the Celtic
soldiers, who knew their story well, said in their own
forcible language, that if the bullet of a Frenchman
or the arrow of an Indian brought death to Roderick
Ruadh, the daughter of MacVicIan would not sur-
vivt- him long.

Each scarcely knew how deep was the love of
the other ; for the Scots are not a demonstrative
people, and the most powerful emotions of the heart

hose which they have been taught, perhaps erro-
neously, to conceal ; but of this negative quality we
find less in the more impulsive Celt. The ardour of
love had now been succeeded by the affection of
marriage, and the sincerity of friendship had replaced
the glow of passion ; but Roderick's enthusiasm in the

.ate of perfect excellence by which he judged his
own little wife was only equalled by the standard
which she had formed for him. To make her happy
was to be himself happy, and it was the study of his
lite to surround her with such comforts as a camp and
barrack or transport afforded upon the pay of a
lieutenant of the line in the days of George II.
" England," says honest Harry Covcrdalc, "expects

100 LEGENDS OF THE liLACK WATCH.

every man to do his duty, and occasionally recom-
penses him for it with honourable starvation." And
such was indeed a subaltern's pay in 1757.

In their new mode of existence all seclusion was
destroyed ; and amid the whirl of a military life, the
hurry of embarkation for foreign service, and in the
narrow recess allotted to her in the transport, odious
by the odour of tar, tobacco, and bilge water, poor
Mary sighed for the hum of the summer bee, and for
the free, pure breeze that waved the heather bells in
Glencoe, or for her husband's once happy home in
Glenarrow, roofless and ruined now, as the flames and
the devastators of the ducal butcher had left it

" We have lost all, Mary," said Roderick, bitterly,
as one evening she sat on deck, nestled in his plaid,
and whispering of these things and of other times ;
" all but the name of our fathers have gone to the
Campbells of Breadalbaae, for-they have become the
lords of all"

" But a time shall come, Roderick, when these
usurpations and another still greater shall end, and
then the Clan Donald, the MacGregors, the Macln-
tyres of Glen O, and the race of Mac Vicar, like the
King, shall enjoy their own again/'

" Mhari, laoghe mo chri — Mary, calf of my heart,"
replied the husband, folding her, with a smile, to his
breast ; " but this will never be "

" Until the fatal plaid floats down Loch Fyne,"
she added, with a smile.

There is a Highland prophecy, that a time is
coming when a plaid of many colours shall float down
Loch Fyne from the Ara to the Firth of Clyde, and
then the eagles from a thousand hills shall assemble,
and each take therefrom a piece of his own colour ;

Till: AT FORT WILLIAM HKNRV. 101

and this is to be the day of general restoration by the
Campbells of all of which they have dispossessed the
clans of the west.

Under Colonel Francis Grant of Grant (afterwards
a lieutenant-general) the regiment landed in America,
where the peculiar garb of the Highlanders astonished
the Indians, who, during the march to Albany,
"flocked from all quarters to see these strangers,
who they believed were of the same extraction as
themselves, and therefore received as brothers ;" for
the long hunting-shirt of the Indians resembled the
kilt, as their moccassins did the gartered hose, their
striped blanket the shoulder plaid, and they too had
round shields and knives, like the target and dirk of
the Celt ; hence, according to General Stewart, " the
Indians were delighted to see a European regiment
in a costume so similar to their own."

At this period our officers wore a narrow gold
braiding round their jackets, but all epaulettes and
lace had been laid aside to render them less conspi-
cuous to the Canadian riflemen. The sergeants laced
their coats with silver, and still carried the terrible
fv'rjh or Lochaber axe, the head of which was fitted
for hooking, hewing, or spearing an enemy.

After remaining in quarters at Albany for some
months, during the winter and spring of 1757, the
Black Watch were exercised in bush-fighting and
sharpshooting ; and amid the dense copsewood or
jungle which covered the western margin of the
Hudson, on the rugged, stern, and sterile banks of the
Mohawk, among woods of stunted pine, dwarf shrubs,
and sedge grass, they soon revived the skill they had
attained as hardy hunters, deerstalkers, and deadly
shots on their native hills ; but when they fairly took

102 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

the field, their ardour and impatience often lured
them within the fire of the more wary and cunning
Indians who served the Marquis of Montcalm.

So expert, brave, and active did the soldiers of the
Black Watch prove themselves in skirmishing, that
when, in the beginning of summer, a plan was formed
to reduce Louisbourg, and they joined the army
destined for that purpose under Major-General Aber-
crombie, a detachment of fifty chosen men, under the
orders of MacGillivray of Glenarrow, departed to re-
inforce the little garrison in Fort William Henry, on
the southern bank of the beautiful Lake George, a
sheet of clear water, which is thirty-three miles long
and two miles broad, and which, on its northern
quarter, near Ticonderoga (that place of fatal memory
to the Royal Highlanders), discharges itself into Lake
Champlain. It is surrounded by high mountains of
the most romantic beauty.

Here, then, lay a garrison of nearly three thousand
British soldiers, commanded by Colonel Munro, a
veteran Highland officer of great courage and expe-
rience, who had for some time successfully protected
the frontier of the English colonies, and by his cannon
covered the waters of the lake, the double purpose
for which the fort had been built. Before the depar-
ture of MacGillivray, a serious malheur had occurred
near this place.

Munro having heard that the French advanced
guard, composed of regulars and Indians, had reached
Ticonderoga, sent Colonel John Parker, with four
hundred soldiers, down the lake in bay-boats to beat
up their quarters ; but three of his boat crews being
captured, his design became known to M. Bcauchatel,
the officer in command. Parker was lured into an
ambush, and the most dreadful scene of massacre and

THE MASSACIIK AT FORT WILLIAM IIEXIIY. 103

scalping ensued. His detachment was literally cut to
pieces, only two officers and seventy privates escaping,
of the four hundred who left the garrison of Munro.

It was on a beautiful evening when MacGillivray's
party of Highlanders, marching from the mountains
that look down on Lake Champlain, came suddenly
in view of Lake George. They had their muskets
slung, ^d were encumbered by their knapsacks,
liavresacks, canteens, and blankets, and the live-long
day had toiled to reach the fort ere night fell ;
for to halt in that woody district, teeming as it was
with the savage Iroquois of Montcalm, would have
been a measure fraught with danger and death.

( jillivray came in rear of his little band, leading
by the bridle a stout pony, on the pad of which his
wife was mounted, for she was ever the object of his
tenderest solicitude. This pony was a sturdy little
nag, but the long march from Albany had somewhat

lired its vigour, and now it was beginning to fail
when almost at the end of the journey.

With the detachment of MacOillivray were two of
his ou:n:i'it's in the late civil war, Alaster Mac-

_or, from Glengyle, and Ewen Chisholm, one of
the faithful mm of Glmmorriston, who guarded the
1'iince in the Coire-gaoth.

Th<; sun was setting, and his gorgeous disc seemed
for a time to linger among clouds of saffron, crimson,

i mi pie, that were piled in glowing masses above
the \\<><>ded hills, some of which were a thousand feet
in heijit, and surrounded the waters and isl<
Lake George — named by the Indians of old the
Il"ii<'aii, ami by the Pilgrim Fathers the Lake of the
:it ; for, charmed by the limpid purity of the

: and the sylvan beauty of the scenery, it had
been selected, especially by the Jesuits, as a place for

104 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

procuring the element of baptism. But now for the
old Indian name had been substituted that of his
Majesty George II. ; while, to awe the Mohawks, the
Oneidas, the Tuscaroras, and to keep the French in
check, Fort William Henry — named after another
prince of the House of Brunswick — had been built,
as related, upon the southern margin of the lake.

Like all American forts, it was formed with earthen
ramparts, covered by rich green turf, and defended by
tall stockades of dry white timber. Within were seen
the shingle-covered roofs of the low barrack buildings,
tarred and painted black, and all glistening in the
sunshine. Two of the lower bastions were faced with
stone and washed by the azure water of Lake George,
while a deep fosse secured the fort on the landward,
and dangerous morasses protected its flanks. Beyond
lay a cleared space, where the timber of the old
primeval forest had been cut down for garrison pur-
poses. The bayonets of the sentinels flashed like
stars on the green ramparts ever and anon, while some
thirty or forty lines of steady horizontal light marked
where the setting sun shone on the iron guns that
peered through the embrasures, or frowned en barbette
above the slope of the parapets.

The gaudy Union Jack hung uuwaved upon its
staff. As evening closed in, masses of vapour ascended
from the bosom of the deep blue water, and wreathed
like white and golden scarfs about the summits of the
mountains, whose tops were mellowed in the distance,
and those rocky bluffs that start forward from the
wooded slopes, as if to break the harmony of the
scenery by a few darker and bolder features. As the
last vestige of the sun sank, and its rays alone re-
mained to play upon the clouds above and the ripples
of the Horican below, the boom of the evening gun

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 105

was heard pealing through the wilderness with a
hundred solemn reverberations ; and as the flag de-
scended from its staft' on the fort, a sound on the soft
and ambient air caine floating up the mountain-
side.

" The drummers are beating the evening retreat,
Mary," said MacGillivray to his wife, who was looking
pale and weary ; " in half-an-hour we shall be with
old Munro."

" Yonder fort is like some place I have seen before,"
said she, pressing her husband's hand.

"Aye, Lady Glenarrow," responded Ewen Chis-
holm, coming close with the easy familiarity of a High-
lander— a familiarity that is destitute of all assurance ;
" you are thinking of Fort George, for there are the
same palisades and the same fashion of ramparts
washed by the waves of the Moray Firth ; but oich !
oich ! we miss green Ard-na-saor."

" And the Black Isle, and the Chanonry-ness,
Ewen," added MacGillivray.

" Yes, yes," said Mary, thoughtfully, to the soldiers
in their own language ; " the land is beautiful ; but it is
not home. Then what is it to us ?"

" Yet," said Ewen, "here is a badge for your bon-
net, MacGillivray, and, though of American growth,
you cannot despise it"

" Thanks, Ewen," said the officer, with a kindling
eye, as he placed the gift in his bonnet.

It was a sprig of the red whortleberry, the badge
of those of his name in Scotland, where they are
styled the Clann Gillibhreac, "or the Sons of the
Freckled Man."

The elm, the ash, the cypress, the chesnut. the
pine, and the beech, all mingled their varied foliage
above the narrow track or Indian trail the soldiers

106 LEGENDS OF THE I5LACII WATCH.

were pursuing, while a thousand flowers and shrubs, to
them unknown, flourished in all the rich luxuriance of
this new world into which they were penetrating, and
the musk-rat, the racoon, and the fox scampered
before them from tree to tree as they proceeded.

" Hark I" exclaimed Alaster MacGregor, a wary
old forester, "something on two feet stirs in the
bush I"

" Dioul ! and see, Alaster, the objects are close
enough," added the officer.

At a part of the wood where it became more open
by the trees having been cut away, and where the
ground shelved abruptly down to the depth of eighty
or a hundred feet, they suddenly came in view of two
Indians gliding stealthily from stem to stem, as if
seeking to elude observation. Their wild" and horrid
aspect caused the timid wife of MacGillivray to utter
a faint cry of terror, while the whole detachment
halted simultaneously to observe them, and began in-
stinctively to handle their muskets.

" They are Iroquois/' whispered MacGillivray to
his sergeant ; " I was told that Montcalm had filled all
the woods around Lake George with the cursed tribes
of that race."

" One of them is carrying something," replied the
sergeant, as he shred away by his Lochaber axe a mag-
nificent azalea, the flowers and foliage of which ob-
scured his view.

" It is a child — a poor little child," exclaimed Mary,
piteously. " Listen to its cry of despair !"

" The child of a white man, by Heaven !" added
MacGillivray. " Come hither you that are the best
shots, and bring yonder rascals down; but fire
one it a, time, lest we needlessly alarm the fort, or,

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 107
what is worse, bring all the tribes of the Iroquois

US.

Both these savages were nearly nude. Their skins
h:ul the deep and tawny red of their race, but were

ked with war paint. One was daubed over red
and l)lue, and the other who bore the child was striped
with white lines, and these glaring upon a background
so sombre, gave him the horrible aspect of a walking
skeleton. Their heads were closely shaved, or by
some other process divested of all hair, save the scalp-
lock, in which was tied a tuft of eagles' feathers.

: had the terrible tomahawk and scalping-knife

flittering at his gay wampum girdle, and each bore a
.uh musket ornamented with brass rings. One
wore over his shoulder the fur of a wild animal ; the
other had nothing across his bare, brawny chest but
the buff belt of a cartridge-box. By their weapons
they were at once known to be allies of the Marquis
de Montcalm, who with a policy, alike dangerous and
ungenerous, had armed the six nations of the Iroquois

-l the British.
On finding themselves perceived, the savages

rod a wild laugh of derision, and the skeleton —
he who bore the child, a poor little boy of some three
or four years — waved him thrice round his head, as
if with the intention of dashing out his brains

list a tree; then, suddenly seeming to change
his mind, he deliberately deposited him on the
ground, and grasping a handful of the boy's golden
hair in his brown fingers, drew his scalping-knife
from the tail-piece of a musk-rat, the skin of
which formed his hunting-pouch : but now a
wild cry of entreaty from Mary MacGillivray made
him pause.

108 LEGES DS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

" Ewen Chisholm — Alaster, shoot — shoot, at all
hazards I" exclaimed her husband.

Ewen knelt down, took a deliberate aim, and
then paused, for the Iroquois was also on his knees,
and had artfully interposed the child between his
person and the soldiers.

" Fire, Ewen, T command you ; fire at all hazards !"
reiterated MacGillivray, impetuously ; " 'tis better for
the poor child to die by a bullet than by an Indian's
knife — a poisoned one, perhaps."

The Iroquois raised his arm for the purpose of
giving the knife one vigorous sweep round the scalp
of the child, who was frozen with fear ; but at that
moment Ewen fired. The ball pierced the red skin
near the shoulder ; with a yell of rage he dropped his
weapon, and plunging into the woods disappeared.
A shot from the musket of Alaster MacGregor
brought down his companion, who though one of his
legs was broken, endeavoured to crawl away, but
Avas overtaken by the soldiers, and roughly dragged
up the slope to the forest path. The rescued child
clung to his preservers, and to the neck of Mary
MacGillivray, who placed him on her saddle-bow,
and with that motherly tenderness and those caresses
which come so naturally from a kind and amiable
woman, endeavoured to calm the terrors his late ad-
venture had excited.

With a sudden glare of defiance, the wounded
Iroquois surveyed those captors at whose hands he
expected immediate immolation.

Several bayonets were directed against him, and
more than one musket was clubbed butt-end upper-
most to close his career, when Mary interposed and
begged that his life might be spared, on which the
H ighlanders drew back. The glittering eyes of the

THE MASSACRE AT FOltT WILUAM I1KSUY. 109

Iroquois were fixed upon her, and though he knew
not the language in which she spoke, he was aware
that to her intercession he owed his life, and smiled ;
for, Indian like, he despised the manhood of men
who could be swayed by a woman. Thus he evinced
neither surprise nor gratitude, nor even pain, though
his wounded litnb bled freely, and must have occasioned
him exquisite torment. By Mary's desire the limb
was bound up, and in a few minutes the astonished
savage found himself placed across four muskets, and
borne towards the fort, which was now little more than
a quarter of a mile distant. From time to time he
glanced keenly and sharply into the adjacent thickets,
as if expecting a rescue, but none appeared ; and on
finding himself clear of the forest he doubtless gave
If up for lost

" We are close to the gates," said MacGillivray to
the piper ; " play up, Alisdair Bane."

"Bodoich n' m briogois?" suggested the piper,
assuming his drones.

The officer assented, and soon the far-stretching
dingles of American forest were ringing to the stirring
notes of Lord Breadalbane's march, while the tones of
the instrument seemed to astonish and excite the
terror of the Indian, in front of whom the piper was
strutting with that lofty port peculiar to his profession.
Considering this to be probably a prelude to his being
scalped and slain, the Iroquois smiled disdainfully,
remembered that he was a warrior, and relapsed into
his previous state of apathetic indifference, resolved
that in the death of torment for which he doubted not
he was reserved, to perish with the phlegmatic cool-
ness and iron resolution of his race.

These Iroquois were a confederation of tribes, who
supported each other in battle in a manner not unlike

110 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

the sixteen confederated clans known in Scotland as
the Clan Chattan. The chief of the Iroquois were
the Mohawks, who resided on the Mohawk River and
the banks of those lakes which still bear their name,
and from thence they extended their conquests
beyond the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, sub-
duing the Eries, the Hurons, the Ottawas and
five other tribes, till they became the terror of
their enemies by their ferocity and valour ; but
even these were forced to yield at last to British
rule.*

The report of the musket-shots had reached the
fort, where the mainguard and a strong inlying piquet
were under arms when the Highlanders marched
in. They were received by their countryman Colonel
Munro, who, to his astonishment and joy, discovered
in the little fellow who nestled in the arms of the
mounted lady, his own son and only child Eachin
(or Hector), who had been abstracted — but how, none
could tell — from the gate of the fort by some of the
lurking Indians.

The colonel was a brave and veteran officer, who
had recently been deprived, by death, of a young
wife. She had left him this little boy, and the heart
of the soldier was filled with lively gratitude for the
rescue of one whom he prized more than life. After
pouring out his thanks to MacGillivray, he turned
sternly towards the Iroquois. A sudden glow of
anger for the narrow escape of the child made him
unsheath his sword, with the intention of passing
it through the heart of the Indian, to destroy him, as

* In the Army List of the 15th September, 1816, will be
found among officers having the local rank of Major in Canada,
"John Norton, alias Teyoninhakawaren, Captain and leader of
the Indians of the Five Nations."

TIIi: MASS.VKK AT FORT WILLIAM IIF.XRY. Ill

one might slay a reptile or wild animal ; but again
Alary interposed, saying, —

" For my sake, spare him, Colonel Munro."

"I cannot refuse you anything* madam/' replied
the old soldier, courteously, lowering the point of his
sword ; " and I would that you had something of
or value to ask of me than the life of a wretched
Iroquois ; but it shall be spared — ay, and his wound
shall be dressed, if such is your wish."

"Thanks, dear colonel."

" But, bear in mind, madam/' continued Munro,
ing his little boy close to his breast, "that were
the case reversed and we at the mercy of the Iroquois,
as ihi; tawny villain is at ours, we should be
stripped, bound to trees, and put to death by
such torments as devils alone could devise. And
now, MacGillivray, though doubtless weary with
your long march, ere you refresh, tell me (for here
amid tho wilds of the Horican, we hear nothing but
the whoop of the wild Iroquois, the yells of the Mo-
hawks, and, now and then, a rattle of musketry)
what news of the war ?"

" The Earl of London has marched to besiege
Louisbourg !"

" And delayed his attack upon Crown Point ?"

" Yes."

"I expected so much. Since the capture of
Oswego, the French have remained masters of the
lakes, and collecting the Indians, force or lure them,
like the Iroquois, to serve King Louis, and thus all
our settlements on the Mohawk River and the Ger-
man Flats have been destroyed and the land laid
as waste and desolate as — "

" The Braes of Lochaber after Culloden," said Mac
Gillivray, with a louring eye.
n 2

112 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK \VATCII.

"While here with red coats on us, let us think
no more of Culloden," replied Munro in a low
voice. " But what news of Montcalm ? Our scouts
assert he is moving up this way to besiege ir.e."

" At Abercrombie's head-quarters, all ?uy that,
elated by recent advantages, Louis de St. Veran,
and his second in command, the Baron de
Beauchatel, are desirous of attempting something
great."

"And that something — "

" Will be the destruction of Fort William Henry,
as it covers the frontiers and commands Lake
George."

" But does the commander-in-chief expect that I,
with only three thousand regulars, will be able to
withstand the whole French army ?" asked Munro,
with a stern and anxious whisper.

"No— General Webb— "

" Old Dan Webb of the 48th ?"

" With a column of infantry, was to leave head-
quarters a day or two after us to succour you, and
Fort Edward is to be the base of his operations.
Meanwhile, I with my fifty Highland marksmen,
pushed on as a species of avant-garde."

" Then both Webb and Montcalm are en route for
this locality ?;>

" Tis a race, and he who wins may win Fort Wil-
liam Henry."

" In three days a great game shall have been
played here, perhaps," said Munro, thoughtfully ;
" but to God and our own valour we must commit the
event ; and now, madam, a hundred pardons for
leaving you here so long," he added, bowing to Mary,
and with that old air of Scoto-French gallantry which
Scott has so well portrayed in his " Baron of Brad-

Tli:: LT FOBT WILLIAM HEKBY. 113

wardine," he drew the glove from his right hand, and
1 his little triangular hat; " permit me to lead
you to my quarters until your own are prepared, and
we shall have a cheerful evening's chat about poor
old Scotland, and the homes we may never see again.
;i I first heard the sound of your pipe rising up
from the dingles of yonder forest, and saw the tartans
ng as your Highlanders marched up the gate, I
cannot describe the emotions that filled my heart.
Th«? thoughts of home and other times came throng-
ing thick and fast upon my memory — kinsmen and
friends, father, mother, and wife — voices and faces of
years long passed away, of the loved, the lost, and the
dra'l, were there with the memory of all that the
vdlce of the war-pipe rouses in the heart of an exiled
Scotsman ; but enough of this ! And cow, to you,
madam, and to you, MacGillivray, as we say in the
land of hills and eagles, a hundred thousand welcomes
to Fort William Henry !"

The wounded Iroquois was consigned to the tem-
porary hospital of the fort ; the newly arrived High-
landers were "told off" (as the phrase is) to their
quarters, and in one hour after, when the last roll of
tlu- drum at the tattoo had died away, and when
the rising moon shone over the wooded mountains
011 the clear glassy water and green islets of Lake
George, all was still in Fort William Henry, and
nothing Deemed moving but the bayonets flashing
. the rays of silver on their tips, as the muf-
fled sentinels trod to and fro upon the palisadoed
ramparts.

The fatigue of her journey northwards from Albany
to Lake George had proved too much for the delicate
wife of MacGillivray, as at this timn she wa.i on the
eve of adding a littL- stranger to the number of the

114 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

garrison, and thus the solicitude of her husband for
her health and safety, in a crowded fort, prepared for
a desperate siege, and situated in a wild district, now
swarming with hostile Indians, became at times alike
deep and painful. The issue of the coming strife,
none -could foretell, and Koderick knew that if aught
fatal happened to him, Mary and her babe — the babe
he might not be spared to see — would be alone, in
this far world of the west, exposed to penury, to perils
and horrors, which his mind could neither contem-
plate nor conceive.

The first and second day after their arrival passed
without any alarm.

On the third, Mary visited the wounded Indian,
and gave him some little comforts prepared by her
own hands. His limb had been simply fractured, and
the wound, which was not so severe as had been at
first supposed, was now healing rapidly. He received
her with a bright smile of recognition — perhaps of
gratitude, for he remembered that she had twice saved
his life — first from the bayonets of the Highlanders,
and secondly from the sword of Colonel Munro. His
features were rather regular and handsome, and save
for their deep tawny tint and strong lines, not unlike
those of many Europeans. He received her presents,
and then relapsed into moody and sullen silence ; but
Mary, whose tender nature felt pity for the poor
Indian who was deemed and treated little better than
a dog by those around him, had learned some of the
native language from an old Ottawa woman who had
acted as her servant in Albany ; and now she made
an effort to address the savage in that singular mix-
ture of Canadian-French, English, and Indian, which
formed the usual medium of communication with the
natives. She asked his name.

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HEXItV. 115

" Orono," he replied in a husky voice, while his
I lightened, and a red deeper even than the war-
paint and the glass beads he wore, spread under his
tawny skin.

" And he who accompanied you ?"

" Ossong, a Mohawk warrior, and a brave one !
Before the door of his wigwam a hundred scalps of
the Yengees are drying in the wind."

Mary uttered a faint exclamation of horror, but the
savage smiled, and said —

" Are no men ever killed in your country ?"

" And what meant you to do with the child ?"

The stealthy and cunning eyes of Orono lowered
for a moment ; then, as a gleam of unutterable fero-
city spread over his striped visage, he answered —

" To have kept him till we could get the grey scalp
of the white chief his father."

" And then "

" We would have given him to an old pawaw, as a
sou, to replace one slain by the white chief two moons
ago ; but I will pardon him all wrong for the sake of
you, the pale-face who have been so kind to me."

As he said this the Indian took the tiny white
hand of Mary in his strong brown muscular fingers, and
attempted to place it on his bare head near the scalp-
lock, in token of amity and future service ; but she
.sin auk back in terror and with a repugnance which she
could not repress, and once more the malevolent gleam
which always filled her with dread, shone in the glit-
teriiij;- eyes of the Red Indian.

" Have you a wile, Orono ?" she asked, to conciliate
him.

" Orono had a wife," replied the Indian, sadly ; "a
girl of the Oneidas, and he had two little children for
whom she boiled the rice and maize, and wove bright

116 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

belts of wampum. Orono had a mother too, who
shared his wigwam Joy the sunny bank of the Hori-
can ; but three moons ago the red warriors came, his
wigwam was burned, his cattle taken, the trees were
cut down, and the mother, the squaw, and the
children of Orono were all destroyed, as we would
destroy the big snakes in the reeds or the otter in the
swamps. And they slew his father — an aged warrior,
a man of many moons, and many, many days, who
remembered when first the great fire-spouting canoes
of the Yengees, with their huge white sails, came over
the salt lake from beyond the rising sun ; but they
slew him also — all, all ! Father, mother, squaw, and
papoose — cattle and dog ; nothing was left but a little
heap of cinders to mark where the wigwam stood : all
were gone, like the flowers of last summer — gone to
the happy hunting grounds of the Iroquois/' he added,
pointing westward.

" And poor Orono is left quite alone I" said Mary,
patting his shoulder kindly, for the story of the
Indian impressed her by its resemblance to the
fate of her own family in Glencoe, and to many
an episode of murder and outrage after Cullo-
den ; " alone," she added, " in this great selfish
world!"

" To revenge them ; and for this I have trod on the
pipe of peace and dug up the war-hatchet !" he re-
plied in a voice like the hiss of a snake, while his eyes
glared like two red carbuncles in the dusk of the even-
ing, as Mary retired in dismay.

Ere the night was finally set in her tender sympathies
for her new friend received a severe shock. To her
husband, who had just returned from a reconnoitring
expedition, she was relating her interview with Orono,
when the sharp report of two muskets echoed among

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 117

the logwood edifices which formed the barracks of
the fort. Mary grew deadly pale, and clung to
ick.

"The French !" was his first thought, as he broke
away, snatched his claymore, and hurried to the
barrack-square, where he heard that a soldier
of the Royal American Regiment had been assassi-
nated.

Orono the Indian had abstracted a knife from the
basket of his late unsuspecting visitor, and springing
en upon the sentinel at the hospital *loor had
. him, swept the blade once round his head above
the cars, and torn away his scalp. Then though weak
and wounded, with hi.s knife in one hand, and the
ghastly trophy reeking in the other, he had bounded
over the palisades like an evil spirit, glided through
the wet ditch like an eel, and, escaping the musket-
shots of two sentinels on the summit of the glacis,
reached the darkening forest, where all trace of him
was instantly lost in the thickness of the foliage and
the gloom of a moonless evening.

"And so, dear Mary, with this terrible episode
closes your little romance," said MacGillivray, with a
kind smile, as he put an arm round her.

" I devoutly hope so,"said she, shuddering, and feel-
ing, she knew not why, a horrible impression that she
would yet see more of this Indian, whose lithe but
herculean form, sternly sombre face, glittering eyes,
and scalp-lock were ever before her.

" The black traitor, to reward our kindness thus !
Tis a thousand pities, dearest, you saved him from
our men on the march, and from old Munro's sword
in the fort ; for these wretches are no better than wild
beasts. Thus it matters little whether wo kill them now
or a month hence/'

118 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" Oh, Roderick !" exclaimed Mary, with her hazel
eyes full of tears ; " how can you talk thus ?"

"Why?"

" For so said King William's warrant to massacre
my people in Glencoe ; and so said that order which
was written on the night before Culloden."

" True, true ; the poor Indian only fights for the
land God gave his fathers, even as ours, Mary, was
given to the children of the Gael," replied Roderick,
as the usual current of his bitter thoughts returned ;
" and a tme there was Mary (God keep thee from
harm !) when I little thought to find myself so far
from my father's grave, wearing the black cockade of
the Hanoverian in my bonnet, and the red uniform
of those men who trampled on the white rose at Cul-
loden, and murdered the aged men, the women, and
the little ones of your race, under cloud of night, at
the behest of a bloodthirsty Dutchman !"

" Still speaking of Glencoe and Culloden !" said
Colonel Munro, joining them, as they sat on the bas-
tion, at the base of which rippled the waters of Lake
George, then flushed red with the last light of
sunset.

" Yes, Munro ; -I am thinking of the time when the
kilt alone was seen upon the Highland mountains,
and when the breeches of the Lowlander — the brat-
galla (i.e. foreigner's rag) — were unknown among
us."

" Let us have no more of these sour memories, and
if my fair friend will favour me with that song which
she sang to my little boy last evening, it may
lighten the tedium of a time which to me, after
being caged up here for six months, seems insuf-
ferably weary."

Mary coloured, and glanced round timidly, for

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 119

several officers of the garrison who had been lounging
on the parapets drew near, and she knew few songs
those of her native hills, and consequently they
were in a language totally unintelligible to the gentle-
men of the Royal Americans and Parker's Foot ; but
on being pressed by the colonel and his little one, who
led at her feet, she sang the only English song
with which she was acquainted. It was a paraphrase
of one of the psalms,* and was then a favourite
with the Jacobites, •who sang it to a beautiful and
plaintive old Highland air.

On Gallia's shore we sat and wept,

When Scotland we thought on,
Bobbed of her bravest sous, and all

Her ancient spirit gone !

" Revenge !" the sons of Gallia said,
" R«venge your wasted land ;
Already your insulting foes
Crowd the Batavian strand !

" How shall the sons of Freedom e'er

For foreign conquest fight ?
For power how wield the sword, deprived
Of liberty and right ?

" If thee, 0 Scotland I we forget,

Even to our latest breath,
Muy foul dishonour stain our name,
And bring a coward's death.

" May sad remorse for fancied guilt

Our future days employ,
If all thy sacred right* are not
Above our chiefeat joy.

* Psalm cxuvii.

120 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" And thou, proud Gaul, 0 faithless friend,

Thy ruin is not far ;
May God, on thy devoted head,
Pour all the woes of war !

" When thou, thy slaughtered little ones,

And outraged dames shalt see j
Such help, such pity mayest thou have,
As Scotland had irom thee !"

As Mary sang, many loiterers of the Black Watch
had joined the little group around her, and listened
as if turned to stone. The veteran colonel of the
Royal Americans, who had been long, long from the
land of his birth, felt his grave iron nature melted.
He sat on the parapet of the gun-battery, with his
chin placed in his right hand, and his left nervously
grasping the hilt of his sword. His keen grey eyes,
which roved uneasily from one object to another,
began at last to moisten and fill, and then tears ran
down the furrows of his cheeks — old dry channels
worn by war and time, but all unused to such
visitors.

The air rather than the words moved MacGillivray
and his soldiers who listened. Their heads were
bowed and their eyes were sad, for their hearts and
souls, their memory and their love, were far away —
away to the land where, at that hour, the silver moon
was casting the shadows of the heath-clad mountains
on the grassy glens below ; away to the Braes of
Lochaber, the shores of Lochiel, and the deep blue
lochs that form a chain of watery links in the great
glen of Caledonia ; away to the land of the clans, the
soil from whence their fathers sprang, and where
their graves lay under the old sepulchral yew, or by

THE MASSACIli: AT FORT WILLIAM IIKNUY. 121

the Druid clachan of ages past and gone ; away from
the lone woods and mighty wilds of that Far West,
which in the next century was to become the home of
their children, where the expatriated men of Suther-
land, JBarra, and Breadalbane were to find a refuge
from the avaricious dukes, the canting marquises, and
grinding factors of the Western Highlands, and from
their infamous system of modern oppression, tyranny,
and misrule, which has decreed that the poor have no
right to the soil of their native country.

All were hushed and still in the group as the
Highland girl sang — for, though a wedded wife, and
on the eve of being a mother, Mary was sbut a girl
yet — when hark ! the report of a musket on the
outer bastion broke the stillness of the evening hour,
and an officer of the mainguard rushed, sword in hand,
towards the startled listeners.

" Munro," , he exclaimed ; " Colonel Munro — a
column of French are in sight, and already within
range of cannon-shot"

" So close, Captain Dacres ?"

" And in great strength," added the officer.

" And the Indians — those diabolical Iroquois V

" Fill the woods on every side — they are already at
the foot of the glacis. Hark !" continued Captain
Dacres, as a confused volley was heard, " the main-
guard are opening a fire on their advanced files."

The colonel kissed his child, and with an impres-
-lance consigned it to the care of Mary.

" Fall in, Sixtieth !" he exclaimed, rushing into the
barracks, where the alarm was now general. " Mac-
Gillivray, get your lads of the Black Watch under
arms, and let them pick me off those brown devils as
fast as they can load and fire again. Gentlemen, to
your companies ; we shall have grim work to do

122 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

before another sun sets on the waters of the
Horican."

In ten minutes the troops in the little garrison
were all under arms, for the men came rushing, cross-
belted, to their colours, while the log huts echoed
again and again to the long roll of the alarm drum —
that peculiar roll, which, when heard in camp or
garrison, makes the blood of all quicken, as it is the
well-known warning <: to arms ;" and now the pipes
of Alisdair Bane (a pupil of Munich Dhu, or Black
Murdoch Maclnnon, the old piper of Glenarrow) lent
their pibroch to swell the warlike din, while the
troops loaded, and fresh casks of ball-cartridge were
staved and distributed by the sergeants in rear of
each company.

The artillerymen stood by their guns, with rammer,
sponge, and lighted matches ; the battalions of the
Royal Americans and of the unfortunate Colonel
Parker, a corps of Provincials, and the fifty Celts of
the Black Watch, soon manned the ramparts, from
whence, in the dim twilight of eve, the white uniforms
of the regiments of Beam, Guienne, and Languedoc,
who formed the flower of Montcalm's army, and the
bronze-like figures of the gliding Iroquois, who formed
the scourge of ours, were seen at times between the
green masses of foliage that fringed the calm, deep
waters of Lake George, which lay motionless as a vast
mirror of polished steel.

" AAvay to the bomb-proofs, Mary ; this is no scene
for you," said MacGillivray, giving his weeping and
terrified wife a tender embrace ; " the vaults are your
only place of safety. Would to God," he added,
giving her a farewell kiss, " that you were safe at
home, laoighe mo chri, even with the humblest of
our cottars in Glenarrow. The thought of you alone

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 123

causes my heart to fail, and makes a coward of me,
Mary. Alaster MacGregor, conduct her to the bomb-
proofs, and join us again."

Tin* soldier led her to the vaults in which the whole
of the women aud children of the garrison were en-

d for safety from shot and shell, and where they
nestled together in fear and trembling, preparing lint
and bandages for the wounded ; and scarcely had

ter rejoined his commander, when a red flash
ami a stream of white smoke came from the dar-
kening wood, and the first cannon of the French
sent a sixteen-pound shot crashing through the
log barracks and slew a captain of the Royal Ameri-

Then a hearty hurrah of defiance rose from the
garrison of Munro, and the fiendish yells and war-
whooping of the Iroquois were heard in the echoing

IB.

MncGillivray envied the lightness of heart possessed
at this crisis by his unmarried comrades, who had
neither wife nor child to excite their anxiety, corn-
on, or fear — men who, careless and soldierlike,
< d to live for the present, without regret for the
«r (In ad of the future ; but such is the life of a
soldier, while as we have it in " Don Juan" —

" Nought so bothers
The hearts of the heroic in a charge,
AH leaving a small family at large."

At the head of all the forces he could collect, ten
thousand regular infantry of France, and hordes of
the wild Iroquois, Louis de St. Veran, Marquis of
Montcalm, and his second in command, the Baron de
Beauchatel, Chevalier of St. Louis, now invested Fort
"William Henry, and pushed the siege with a vigour

124 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

that was all the greater because General Webb, with
four thousand British troops, was posted at some dis-
tance, for the purpose of protecting Munro's garrison,
a duty about which he did not give himself the smallest
concern whatever.

Before daybreak next morning, the French artil-
lery opened heavily on the turf ramparts, the wooden
palisades and log huts of the fort ; while a fire of
musketry was maintained upon it from every avail-
able point, and the Indian marksmen, from behind
every tree, rock, and bush, or tuft of sedge-grass that
afforded an opportunity for concealing their dingy
forms, shot with deadly precision at the officers, and
all who in any way exposed or signalized themselves.
Munro and his soldiers fought with ardour, and
defended themselves with confidence, never doubting
that General Webb would soon advance to their sup-
port, and by a brisk attack in the rear, compel the
marquis to abandon the siege. From their gun-bat-
teries and stockades, they maintained an unceasing
fire, and thus the slaughter on both sides became
desperate and severe.

In the gloomy vault to which the humanity and
prudence of Colonel Munro had consigned the women
and children of his garrison, the timid wife of Mac
Gillivray could hear the roar of musketry, with the
incessant booming of the heavy artillery on every
side, and ever and anon the hiss or crash of the ex-
ploding shells. These and other dreadful sounds
paralysed her ; for she had but one thought — the
safety of her husband ; and appalled by the united
horrors of the siege, she almost forgot to pray, and
sat with her arms round the child of Munro, pale,
sad, and silent — awed and bewildered.

Meanwhile Roderick, with his party of the Black

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM IIKNRY. 125

Watch, proved invaluable to Munro. As the dis-
U of the latter lias it, "Being all expert marks-
men and deadly shots, they manned a line of loopholed
stockades, which faced a wood full of the Iroquois, of
whom they slew an incredible number ; for if the foot
or hand, or even the scalp lock of a warrior became
visible for a moment to these quicksighted deer-
stalkers from the Highland hills, it revealed where
tin rest of his body could be covered by their levelled
barrels ; thus there were soon more dead than living
warriors in the bush where the braves cf the Five
Nations had posted themselves, and the yells and
screams of rage uttered by the survivors in their
anticipations of vengeance, were like nothing one
could imagine but the cries of the damned."

Among the savages who swarmed thick as bees
upon the skirts of the forest, MacGillivray repeatedly
recognised the ghastly warrior Ossong, who was
painted over with white stripes ; and his comrade
Orono, who had so recently made an escape from
the fort, and who was conspicuous alike by his
bravery and the tuft of eagle's feathers in his scalp-
lock.

MacGillivray relinquished hisclaymore for a musket,
and, as Munro said, " Knocked over more Red Indians
in an hour, than he could have done red deer in a
k, at home."

On the second day, just as the firing was about to
re-commence, a French officer, bearing a flag of truce,
and accompanied by a drummer beating a parley,
appeared before the gates, and was received by Mac
Gillivray, who conducted him, blindfolded by a hand-
kerchief, to the presence of Munro. He was a tall
and handsome man, about forty years of a<j»>, and
wore the white uniform of the Grenadiers of Guienne,

126 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

with the order of St. Louis, and had a white flowing
peruke, a Id Louis XV.

" Your name, monsieur ?" said Munro, bowing
low.

"The Sieur Fontbrune, Baron of Beauchatel,"
replied he, bowing to the diamond buckles at his
knees, and then presenting his box of rappee.

" Indeed — the second in command to the Marquis
of Montcalm \"

"The same, and Colonel of the Regiment of
Guienne."

" We are greatly honoured."

"Nay," responded the courteous French noble,
" the honour is mine in having the privilege of con-
ferring with an officer of such valour as M. le
Colonel Munro."

" And your purpose ?" asked the latter, drily.

" The delivery of this letter."

In presence of the senior officers of his garrison,
Munro opened and read this communication from the
French marquis, in which the latter wrote, that he
deemed himself obliged by the common dictates of
humanity to request that M. le Colonel Munro would
surrender the fort, and cease, by a futile resistance,
to provoke the savage Iroquois, who accompanied
the French army in such vast' and unmanageable
hordes.

" A detachment of your garrison, under Colonel
Parker, has lately (he continued) experienced their
cruelty. I have it yet in my power to restrain and
oblige them to observe a capitulation, as comparatively
few of them have been hitherto killed. Your persisting
in the defence of your fort can only retard its fate a
few days, and must of necessity expose an unfortunate

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM IIENltY. 127

ison, who cannot possibly receive relief, when
we consider the precautions taken to prevent it.
I demand a decisive answer ; and for this pur-
pose have sent the Sieur de Fontbrune, one of my
You may implicitly credit all that he tells
you.

" MONTCALM."

" I will never surrender while we have a shot
left," exclaimed Munro, furiously. " What say you,
gentlemen ?"

" That we and our soldiers will stand by
you, Colonel, to the last gasp \" replied Captain
Dacres.

" This, then, is your decision, messieurs ?" said
M. Beauchatel, playing with the ringlets of his
peruke.

': It is — it is," was the answer on all hands.

1 A most unwise one, permit me to say," urged the
baron.

" To yield when General Webb is within less than
one day's march of us, would be a treason to the
King and a disgrace to ourselves."

The French baron smiled with provoking coolness,
and xii'l,

" General Webb beholds our preparations and ap-
proaches'with an apparent indifference that originates
cither in infamous cowardice or miserable infatua-
tion. In short, M. le Colonel, he has abandoned
you."

" M. le Baron," replied Munro, with some heat,
"General Webb is a British officer, and I have no
doubt will fully maintain his reputation. If he has
not already advanced to raise the siege, he must dr m
it better for the King's service to remain in position
I 2

128 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCIL

where he is ; but, ere long, you will hear his cannon
opening on your rear."

" Pardieu, you delude yourself."

" I do not, M. le Baron, and you may inform the
Marquis de Montcalm, that he had better have con-
tinued to amuse himself with mounting guard at
Versailles and Marli, than by beating up our quarters
here on the Canadian lakes/'

" Oh, he and I have mounted guard at Mons and
Tournay, at Lisle and Fontenoy, Colonel, where men
don't play at soldiers, as here in America," replied
the Frenchman, smiling ; " but adieu, mon ami —
adieu."

"Farewell — MacGillivray, conduct M. le Baron
beyond the gates."

So ended this parley, and in less than five minutes
the din of cannon and musketry, with the warwhoop
of the Indians, again rang along the echoing shores
of the Horican, and once more the white smoke
shrouded alike the defences and defenders of Fort
William Henry.

The Baron de Beauchatel led the Regiment of
Guienne close up to the stockades, which were lined
by the fifty Highlanders of the Black Watch, and
though exposed to a withering fire, he bravely and
furiously strove to destroy the barrier by axes and
sledge hammers. MacGillivray thrice covered the
Baron with his deadly aim ; but, inspired by some
mysterious emotion, the origin of which at that time
he could not fathom, he spared him and levelled his
weapon at others. Filled with rage by the resistance
they experienced, the soldiers of the Regiment of
Guienne encouraged each other by shouts of

" Vive le Roi ! Tue — tue les sauvages d'Ecosse ! a la
baionette ! a la baionette I"

Till- MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM IIKXRY. 129

They soon fell into confusion ; but the brave

..•hatel continued to brandish his sword and shout

the mot ds ratliemcnt of his corps, for it was then

in the French service to have a war-cry or regi-

il rally ing- word.

• otre Dame ! Notre Dame de frappemort !" (Our
holy Lady, who strikes home ! ) he was heard crying
a-_r:ii:i and again ; for the Virgin was the patroness of
tlif ( iivnudiersof Guienne; but neither the spell of her
name nor the fiery spirit of Beauchatel enabled the
Kildiers to withstand the fire- of the Highlanders,
whose position was impregnable ; and on Captain
Ducres' company of the 6'Oth opening a flank fusilade
upon them, they were swept back into the forest,
leaving a mound of white-coated killed and wounded
before the stockades they had so valiantly attempted
to destroy.

Alaster MacGregor received a wound from a French
soldier, who, on finding himself dying, crawled on his
hands and knees close up to the stockade, and, with
the last effort of expiring nature, fired his musket
through a loophole and fell back dead.

" A brave fellow !" exclaimed MacGillivray.

" Yes," added Alaster, as the blood dripped from
his left cheek : " but I wish he had departed this life
five minutes sooner."

A third and fourth day of conflict passed away, and
the loss by killed and wounded became severe in Fort
William Henry ; five hundred dead men were already
lying within the narrow compass of its batteries ; but
still there was no sign of Webb's brigade advancing
to the rescue. Munro began to havo serious doubts
of the issue, with secret regrets that he had not
accepted the first offers of the Marquis de Montcalm,
for tho blood of the Iroquois was now at bailing heat,

130 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

in their longing to revenge the fall of so many of their
braves, who, notwithstanding all their caution and
cunning, had perished under the deadly aim of the
Highland marksmen, and lay in dusky piles among
the long wavy sedge grass and luxuriant foliage of the
forest ; but though he confined these thoughts to his
own breast, his garrison began to have the same mis-
givings.

One day, telescope in hand, he was eagerly sweep-
ing the distant landscape in the direction where it was
known that General Webb was posted, when Dacres,
of his own regiment, approached him. Not a bayonet
or musket-barrel were seen to glitter, or a standard
to wave in the hazy distance in token of coming aid,
and he sharply closed the glass with a sigh and turned
away ; so Dacres addressed him.

" When smoking a pipe in the bomb-proofs this
morning — by the bye, my dear colonel, I am always
thoughtful during that operation — it occurred to me
that General Webb "

" Well, sir — well," said Munro, irritably.

" Remains very long in position without advancing
to our relief."

" I am too well aware of that, sir."

" But what does such conduct mean ?"

"God and himself alone know," replied Munro, while
his keen grey eye flashed with passion; " he would seem
to be in league with the enemy against us ; ay, in
league with Montcalm, and the words of Beauchatel
seemed to infer some previous knowledge of his inten-
tions, and hence perhaps the friendly warning about
the Indians ; but we have cast the die with them.
If in the course of one day more Webb comes not to
our aid "

" By Heaven, I will pistol him with my own hand ;

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HKNRY. 131

that is, if I survive this affair I" exclaimed MacGilli-
who joined them.

'• Xay, sir," replied the colonel, " I shall claim that
task, if task it be ; but hark ! there is a salvo."

A tremendous shock now shook the fort, as a cama-
rade battery of ten 32-pounders commenced a dis-
charge against it, and showers of destructive bomb-
bulles from small mortars were poured into the
heart of the place. Many of these little engines of
destruction bounded from the shingle roofs of the bar-
racks and burst in the waters of the lake ; others were
exploding in all directions, with a sound like the roar
of artillery, forcing the soldiers, who crept and cowered
in ivar of the parapets and palisades, to lie close, while
the heavy hum of the round shot, with that peculiar
sound which terminates its course by piercing the
ground, or crashing through a building, and the sharper
u-l ink of the musket-balls, filled up all the intervals by
sfraughtwith alarm. The barracks and storehouses
soon unroofed and ruined, for the camarade bat-
tery proved very destructive ; the stockades were soon
't away in showers of white splinters before its
discharges, which resembled nothing but a whirlwind
of shot and shell, while vast masses of the earthen
works were also torn down, leaving the defenders ex-
1 to tin- deadly rifles of the lurking Indians. The
i an non of Alunro were alike defective and danger-
ous to his soldiers; for two 18-pounders, two 32-
pounders, and two 9-pounders burst in succession,
destroying all who were near them, and at last the
colonel received intimation that only seventeen bombs
remained in the magazine.

On the sixth day, there was still no appearance of
1 i al Daniel Webb (who was Colonel of the 48th,
or Northamptonshire Foot), though his column was

132 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

within hearing of the firing, being at Fort Edward,
which was only six miles distant ; arid now the spirit
of the garrison began to sink ; but in that dejected
band there was no heart more heavy than MacGilli-
vray's, for the condition of his wife at such a terrible
crisis rilled him with the deepest anxiety and the most
tender solicitude.

At last Munro, finding the futility of further resist-
ing forces so overwhelming, and that all hope of suc-
cour from Webb was hopeless, on the 9th day of
August, 1757, lowered his standard, and sent forth
MacGillivray to the French camp, bearer of a flag of
truce, to confer on the terms of a surrender.

Immediately on leaving the gates, he was received
by the Baron de Beauchatel and a party of the Grena-
diers of Guienne, who surrounded him with fixed
bayonets, as a protection from the infuriated Iroquois,
who crowded near in naked hordes, leaping, dancing,
screaming like incarnate fiends, and brandishing their
tomahawks, seeking only an opening in the close files of
the French escort to slay, scalp, and hew him to pieces.
Thus he was conducted to the tent of Louis Marquis de
Montcalm de St. Veran, Marechal du Camp, and Lieu-
tenant-General of the Armies of His Most Christian
Majesty in America. Before the tent were posted the
colours of the Regiments of Beam and Languedoc,
and around it were a guard of grenadiers in white
coats, with the long periwigs and smart little trian-
gular hats of the French line. These received the
flag of truce with presented arms, while the drums
beat a march.

Montcalm, then in his forty-fifth year, came forth,
and, presenting his hand to MacGillivray, conducted
him within. Then followed several officers of the

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM IIKX.UY. 133

staff whom, with M. de Bcauchatel, lie had invited to
the conference.

" You perceive, now," said the baron, " that I
proved a true prophet I"

" In what manner, monsieur?" asked MacGillivray.

" When I affirmed that M. le General Webb would
leave Munro to his own resources. Ma foi ! but he is
a brave fellow, Munro."

"M. le Marquis," eaid MacGillivray, with an air of
hauteur, " I am here to stipulate that our garrison
shall be permitted to inarch out with their arms —

"Unloaded "

" Be it so ; but as Christian men you cannot refuse
us arms in a land so wild as this; the officers to
havo their baggage, and the men their kits ; that a
detachment of French troops shall escort us to within
two milt-s of the gates of Fort Edward, and that your
interpreter attached to the savages will make this
treaty known to the Iroquois."

" 1 gladly agree to these conditions," replied Mont-
calm, "though I fear the latter portion will be
achieved with difficulty ; for the comprehension of these
Red Iroquois is not very clear, and they will despise
me for burying the war-hatchet and smoking the pipe
of peace, for permitting you to depart with your scalps
on, and so forth ; but they must be forced to under-
stand and observe our treaty. For the space of
eighteen months every officer and soldier now in
Fort William Henry must not bear arms against the
Most Christian King. M. le Colonel Munro must
give me hostages for the safe return of my troops
who are to form your escort ; and say to him, that in
testimony of my esteem for his valour and spirit as
a soldier, I shall present him with one cannon, a

134 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

6-pounder, to be delivered at the moment the grena-
diers of my own regiment receive the gates of the
fort, and his troops are ready to depart."

" Our wounded and sick, of whom we have
many "

" I shall send under guard to General Webb at
Fort Edward."

" Thanks, marquis."

The terms were soon drawn up and signed by the
staff officers of both forces ; by Munro in the name of
the British Commander-in-Chief, and by Montcalm
in the name of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor-
General, and Lieutenant-General of New France ; and
after ably concluding this negotiation, so important
for his comrades, MacGillivray returned to the fort
just as the red round moon began to rise like a bloody
targe above the eastern skirts of the forest, and to
tinge with its quivering rays the placid waters of
Lake George.

The first who received him at the gate was his
" dear wee Mary," as he called her, trembling and
in tears for his safety. During the whole time of
his visit to the camp of Montcalm, the yelling and
whooping of the -Indians had filled the fort and the
woods with horrid sounds.

The next day passed before Munro had all pre-
pared to leave the shattered ramparts he had defended
so well.

It was on a gorgeous August evening when his war-
worn and weary garrison paraded, prior to their final
departure. The western clouds, as they floated across
the sky, were tinged with violet and saffron hues.
The forest and the grass wore their most brilliant
green, and Lake George its deepest blue. The large
golden butter-cups that spotted all the verdant glacis

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM IIEXIIY. 135

of the ramparts, within which so many brave men

rk and stiffened in their blood, and the

it-coloured wildflowers that grew amid the waters

ot the fosse and by the margin of the lake which

fill' d it, were unclosing their petals, to catch the

coming dew, and wore their gayest tints.

The whole aspect of the scenery, and of the soft
balmy evening, were little in accordance with the
horrors that were passed, and those which were soon
to ensue !

Already the grenadiers of Montcalm, with all the
formality of friends, had received the gates and vari-
ous posts from the guards of the Royal Americans ;
the white banner of France, under a royal salute, had
replaced the Union Jack, and at that moment sharply
beat the drums, as the garrison began to march out,
with their unloaded muskets slung and their colours
cased — the Royal Americans, Parker's Foot, and the
little band of our old friends, the Black Watch (now
less by sixteen men than on the day of their arrival),
with the piper and MacGillivray at their head, de-
filing from the fort in close column of subdivisions,
while the French escort was under arms to receive
thnn in line by a general salute, with drummers beat-
ing on the flanks.

A faint cheer was heard within the fort. It came
from the log huts where the wounded lay. They,
poor fellows ! were left to the care of the enemy, to-
gether with the unburied bodies of those who would
never hear a sound again until the last trumpet
shakes the earth with its peal.

The veteran Colonel Munro, tall and erect, with his
quaint Kevenhuller hat and old-fashioned wig of thc>
days of Malplacquet, marched at the head of his crest-
fallen column; he was on foot, with his sword drawn,

136 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

and led by the hand the child, his son, as being the
only object he cared about preserving in that hour of
bitterness and defeat.

Seated on the tumbril of the 6-pounder, with two
other ladies (one of whom had lost her husband in the
siege), was the wife of MacGillivray, awe-stricken and
all unused to such stern and stirring scenes as she had
daily witnessed in Fort William Henry. Her r/i"/'-
riage, brooch, almost the only ornament she possessed,
she had concealed in the folds or tresses of her long
black hair, lest it should excite the cupidity of
any French soldier or Indian, for she had an equal
dread, and nearly an equal repugnance for them
both.

A slender escort of French soldiers with their
bayonets fixed protected Munro's garrison on both
flanks ; but as they proceeded into the forest, the
savages continued to assemble in dark hordes, till
their numbers, their gestures, and yells of rage be-
came seriously alarming. They were animated by
the blindest frenzy on finding themselves deluded of
their plunder and the blood — the red reeking scalps
of the hated Yengees — by a treaty which they could
not and cared not to understand. They were re-
hearsing to each other the bravery and worth, the
names and number of their warriors who had perished,
and all continued to scream and shout, but none cared
to begin the work of destruction while so near the
tents of the pale faces of France.

" Push on — push on, for God's sake, gentlemen and
comrades !"

" Forward, my friends — let us lose no time in reach-
ing Fort Edward/'

"Step out, comrades — step out, you fellows in
front."

THE MASSACRE AT POUT WILLIAM HENRY. 137

"Throw off your knapsacks — let these greedy
hounds have them."

" Better lose an old kit than a young life.",

" On, on — push on, boys !"

Such were the cries that were heard along the
column as the rear urged on the front, and the dark
yelling hordes of the infernal Iroquois blackened all
the woods and grew denser and closer, until at last
they insolently jostled and crushed the French guard
among the impeded ranks of those they were es-
corting.

" This is intolerable — let us attack those dogs," said
MacGillivray.

" Beware — beware I" exclaimed Munro ; " if once
blood be shed or the warwhoop raised, all will be
over with us."

The leader of this hostile display was the savage
whom we have already introduced as Ossong. A
Lenni Lennape, he was almost the last of his ferocious
tribe, which, with the Miami, had been conquered and
exterminated 'by the Iroquois, with whom he had now
completely identified himself. His aspect was fright-
ful ! His forehead was low; with a short nose of great
bi. adth ; his ears were huge, and set high upon his
hrad ; his mouth was large, with teeth sharp and
serrated like those of some voracious fish. His mantle
of woven grass was trimmed with scores of human
sc:iljvlocks salted and dried, while rows of human
it, th intermingled with glass beads and gilt regi-
mental buttons arid British coins (the relics of Colonel
Parker's force) covered all his brown expansive chest.
On his brawny shoulders hung the skin of a black
bear ; in front, he wore the fur of a racoon ; his
uii<ll>', moccassins, and arms were ornamented with
brilliant wampum beads, which rattled as he walked,

138 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

and he brandished alternately a rifle, a tomahawk,
and scalping-knife.

Two or three soldiers had already been dragged out
of the ranks and slain to increase the general alarm ;
but as yet the warwhoop had not been raised.

Perceiving a savage near him, who was placing his
hands to his mouth and puffing out his cheeks, pre-
vious to raising that dreadful signal for a general on-
slaught, MacGillivray, unable longer to restrain the
fury which boiled within him, drew the Highland
tack (i.e. steel pistol) from his belt and shot him
dead.

" Rash man," exclaimed Munro, " we are lost !"

" Fix your bayonets, my lads, and bear back this
naked rabble I" said MacGillivray, drawing his sword.
" Remember, colonel, you are a kinsman of the House
of Foulis ; in an hour like this belie not your name \"

A thousand throats now uttered the horrible whoop
of the Iroquois, and from a myriad echoes the vast
forest encircling the shores of the Horican replied.

It was the death-knell of the Yengees ; and now
ensued that frightful episode of the war known in
American history as the Massacre of Fort William
Henry.

" In the name of God and the King, keep together,
60th — shoulder to shoulder, Royal Americans I" cried
Munro ; but his soldiers, crushed and impeded by the
pressure, strove in vain to free their muskets and bear
back the human tide that closed upon them. In the
confusion poor old Munro lost his child, and with him
all his soldierly coolness and self-possession. He be-
came a prey to grief and distraction.

"Lochmoy! Lochmoy ! stand by MacGillivray!"
were the shouts of the Black Watch, as they flung
aside their muskets, knapsacks, and cantines, and,

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 189

unshf •.•filing their dirks and claymores, closed hnnd-
td-li.-ind with tin- Iroquois, and hewed them down like
children on every side.

" Dhia ! 0 Dhia ! my wife !" was the first thought
of M;icGillivray ; and 'when last he saw Mary she was

in^ erect on the tumbril, the horses of which
had been shot, wringing her hands in an attitude of

iir, as the brown tide of the Iroquois swept round
li'-r like a living sea ; and the last she saw of her hus-
band was his form towering above all others, when
combating bravely and making frantic efforts, with

er MacGregor, Ewen Chisholm, Bane the pipor,

»tlier Celtic swordsmen, to reach her; but by a

horde of savages they were driven into the forest, and

iw them no more.
The French guard offered but a feeble resistance,

(led ; then ensued a thousand episodes replete
with horror ! On all hands the unfortunate survivors
of the siege were hewn down, slashed, stabbed, toma-
hawked, and scalped. Shrieks, groans, screams,
prayers, and wild entreaties for mercy, with the occa-
sional explosions of musketry, rang through the
forest ; but above all other sounds, on earth or in the
sky of heaven, rose the appalling whoop of the un-
glutted Iroquois.

One of Mary's companions — the widow — was lite-
rally hewn to pieces in a moment, while her children
were whirled round by the feet, and had their brains
dashed out against the trees ; her other friend, the

of Captain Dacres, a fair-haired and pretty young

-hwoman, was torn from her side. The glitter-
ing hatchet of one Indian cleft her head to the i
while another caught her body as it was fallinj. and
by a single sweep of his knife shred off her scalp, and
waved the silken curls as a trophy abovo his head.

140 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

Mary was to be their next victim ; but ere they could
drag her down she flung herself at the feet of Ossoug,
and, clasping his moccassined legs, said in his own
language —

" I will pray the Great Spirit that he pardon you
my death ; but do not torture me ; do not make me
suffer — I am a weak woman, and about to become a
mother."

Ossong grinned hideously, and grasping her by the
hair raised his seal ping-knife ; but at that moment
his hand was grasped from behind. He turned furi-
ously, and was confronted by Orono.

"Spare her!" said the latter, in his guttural
tones.

" For what ? My ears are not as the ears of an
ass, therefore I hear not follies ; nor of a fox, therefore
I hear no lies I" responded the fierce savage ; " spare
her for what ?"

" The wigwam of Orono."

Ossong laughed scornfully, and turned away in
search of other victims, which he found but too
readily.

Mary clung to her preserver. She gave a wild and
haggard glance over that forest scene, in the recesses
of which the shrieks of the destroyer and destroyed
were already dying away — over that wilderness of
red-coated dead, of mothers and their children,
gashed, hewn and dismembered, scalped and muti-
lated— over the debris of scattered muskets, torn
standards, and broken drums, rifled baggage, open
knapsacks, hats, and powdered wigs — everywhere
blood, death, and disorder ! Then the light seemed
to go out of her eyes ; she became senseless, and re-
membered no more.

Saved by the French, Colonels Mun.ro and Young

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM IIKXIiV. 1 II

with thtve hundred fugitives reached Albany; and

ml \\M»1>, when all was over, sent out five him-

div.l men from Fort Edward to glean up survivors

:uid bury the dead. Our soldiers perished in the

; in scores under every species of torture, wounds,

thirst and fatigue; many were flayed and roasted

alive by the Iroquois ; others were stripped nude,

scalped, and made a mark for bullets or tomahawks

till death relieved them of their misery.

"Thus," says Smollett, "euded (with the fall of
Fort William Henry) the third campaign in America,
where, with an evident superiority over the enemy,
an army of twenty thousand regular troops, a great
number of provincial forces, and a prodigious naval
power — not less than twenty ships of the line — we
abandoned our allies, exposed our people, suffered
them to be cruelly massacred in sight of our troops,
and relinquished a large and valuable tract of country,
to the eternal disgrace and reproach of the British
nain

Three of the Black Watch alone escaped this mas-
sacre— viz., Ewen Chisholm, with Alaster MacGregor
—whose adventures were somewhat remarkable — and
another, of whom hereafter.

Duncan MacGregor, a soldier from Glengyle, and
aasome averred a son of the venerable Glhun Dhu,
who was captain of Douue Castle under Prince Charles,
iell mortally wounded by a bullet from the rifle of an
Indian in the woods. On finding himself dying, he
begged his elaiisman Alaster to convey his little all —
a le\v ji Minds of back pay and ]>ri/<- money — to his
. and widowed mother. Faithful to the trust re-
i in him by his expiring friend, this poor fellow
bore the money about with him, untouched, through-
out the most arduous stniyj'-s of the- American cam

142 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

paign, during a long captivity in France, and amid
the urgent necessities of nearly ten years of privation,
until he reached Glengyle, and then he handed to the
mother of his comrade the money, still wrapped in the
moccassin of a Pawnee, whom he had slain at Fort
William Henry.

Ewen Chisholm, one of the eight faithful men of
the Coire-gaoth in Glenmorriston, survived the war in
America, but was slain when the Black Watch was at
Guadaloupe, in 1759 ; and his death is thus recorded
in the Edinburgh Chronicle for that year, which
contains a letter from Ensign Grant — known as Alas-
ter the One-handed — detailing the circumstance :—

" When the troops were to embark, the outpost-;
were called in. This soldier (Chisholm) had been
placed as a single sentinel by his captain. When sum-
moned to come off, he refused, unless his captain who
had appointed him his post would personally give him
orders. He was told that his captain and most of
the troops were embarked, and that unless he came
off he would be taken prisoner ; he still refused, and
said he would keep his station. When the troops
were all on board the ships, they saw a party of forty
or fifty men coming towards him ; he retired a little,
and setting his back to a tree, fired his gun at them,
then, throwing it aside, he drew his sword, ruslied
amongst them, and after making considerable havoc
was cut to pieces."

Such was the end of Ewen Chisholm ; but to re-
sume : —

The noon of the next day — the llth August — was
passed before Mary became fully alive to the desolate
nature of her position — to all that she had lost and
suffered — and to the circumstance that in her deli-
rium she had become the mother of a little daughter.

TIIK MA^ACIM: AT FOKT WILLIAM IIKXRY. 1 l-'J

was lying on a bed of soft furs of various kinds,
within a hut formed l>v branches .and matting tied to
, and covered with broad pieces of bark. Upon
tin -so poles hung varipus Indian weapons, at the sight
of which she closed her swimming eyes as the memory
of her husband and the horrors of yesterday rushed
u;>on her. An old Indian woman, hideous as a tawny
skin full of wrinkles and streaked with paint could
•* her, sat near, squatted on the ground like a
Burmese idol ; but this ancient squaw was nursing tho
horn infant tenderly, and with care placed it in
the. bu.Mjm of Mary, who wept and moaned with sorrow
and joy as she pressed it in her arms, and the new
emotions of a mother woke within her ; but again the
light seemed to pass from her eyes, and a faintness
• over her. Then starting, she sought tP shake it
off that she might look upon her child, and strive to
trace the features of Roderick in her face ; but the
weakin -.-s she suffered was too great — she sank back
upon the bed of furs, and lay still, and to all appear-
asleep, though tears were oozing fast from her
black lashes.

Close by, behind a matting, crouched an Indian
warrior. This person was Orono concealing himself,
for the honest creature felt instinctively, that at such
a critical time his presence or his aspect might very
naturally excite the terror of the desolate patient.
Two terrible questions were ever on the tongue aud
in the heart of the latter.
" Was Roderick safe T

If so, how were she and her babe to join him 1
At last she ii-ineinbered Orono, who had j
IHT, and on the third day, though weak, and though
she knew it not — dying — she inquired of the squaw
• he \vw.

K 2

Ml- LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" Here," replied the watchful Indian, stepping for-
ward, while his eyes beamed with pleasure, on find-
ing that he was not forgotten.

"My husband, Orono — know you aught of my
husband ?"

The Indian shook his head.

" When did you last see him ?" she asked, im-
ploringly.

" Fighting against a hundred braves in the forest,
where the pawaws of the French have put up two
trees, thus," said he, crossing his fingers to indicate a
cross made by the Jesuits near the Horican.

"Alas ! my mother taught me that the way of the
cross was the way to heaven. Oh, my husband ! —
and that at the foot of that cross I should give up my
whole heart. God, who bringeth good out of evil,
will order all things for the best ; but can this be, if
my husband, my friend, my protector, the father of
my babe, be slain ? May he not have been preserved
for himself and this little one ? Oh, yes — God is
kind. His will is adorable," continued the poor girl,
kissing her babe in a wild rapture of resignation and
despair.

She recalled with sorrow and horror the many
whom she had seen so barbarously destroyed, and
others whom she believed to have perished ; the
brave soldiers, the kind old colonel, and the poor
little boy, his son, to whom she had been almost a
mother, during the terrors of the recent siege. Their
voices lingered in her ear; their faces hovered
before her.

Orouo visited the place where he had last seen the
" white chief," as he not inaptly named MacGillivray ;
but could discover no trace of him. Many of the
dead had already been interred by the soldiers of

Till-: MASSAHJK AT n >UT WILMAM IIKNUY. 115

Montcalm, who now possessed the shattered remains
of Fort William Henry; others had been devoured
by wild animals. No body answering the description
of Roderick had been, found or seen among the slain
by the Iroquois. He was known to have a gold
bracelet of Mary's, rivetted round his sword arm ;
luit that might have been cut off, or buried with him,
undiscovered.

Mary felt a great repugnance for the old squaw;
yet the poor Indian was kind and attentive in her
o\\n barbarous fashion ; and the patient, while her
in-art was swollen almost to bursting, conversed with
her, in tin- hope of obtaining surer protection for
her little one, and discovering some traces of its
lather.

" What would it avail you, were he found ?" asked

-Why?"

"Tin lied warriors would immediately take his
scalp, for the oracles of the pawaws have driven them
mud. After three days of conjuration, they have told
us — ''

i hey — are the pawaws a tribe of the Iroquois?"

" They are our wise men — our oracles."

"And they told— what?"

" That the devils would not hinder the pale faces
from being masters of our country. Wo have fought
bravely ; but the brandy, the gold and silver of the
Yengees are more powerful than the proph
of tin- lying pawaws or the knives of our warriors."

" Every Red man in the land has dug up the war-
hatchet," said a strange guttural voice ; " tne print of
tin- white moccassins will soon be effaced on the
prairies and in tin: woods — their graves alone will re-
main — their scalps and their bones."

146 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

The old squaw started nimbly forward, and poor
Mary pressed her little naked babe clo.ser to IHT
breast, on seeing the towering form of Ossong,
streaked with his ghastly war paint, appear bet.,
her and the" door of the wretched wigwam in which
she lay so helplessly at his mercy.

" What seek you in the dwelling of Orono ?"
demanded the Indian woman with some asperity.

" Neither the squaw nor the papoose of the white
man," replied Ossong, scornfully.

"It is well. You are in your native land, and
can find the bones of your fathers ; but here the
poor squaw of the white chief is a stranger."

"And Orono will protect her," added the other
savage, who bore that name, stepping proudly
forward.

" The pawaws say our fathers come from the rising
sun, and that we must go towards the place of its
sotting — that there is the future home of the Red
man," said Ossong, as a savage glare lit up his eyes
and he played with his scalping-knife ; " shall even
one pale face be permitted to live, if such things are
said ? Go — Orono has become a woman I"

With this taunt, the most bitter that can be made
to an Indian, Ossong waved his hand,, and strode
away with a sombre air of fury and disdain.

As he left the hut, a glittering ornament which
hung at his neck caught the eye of Mary. She
uttered a faint cry, for she was weak and feeble, and
while clutching her babe in one arm, strove to raise
her attenuated form with the other. She endea-
voured to call back Ossong ; but her voice failed, and
she sank dispairingly on her bed of skins. Among
the gewgaws which covered the broad breast of
Ossong, to her horror, she had discovered the gilt

TIIK MA>S.U'Ki: .-. WILLIAM HKNKY. 117

regimental gorget of her husband, which she knew
too well, by its silver thistle, as there had be- n n<>
i officer of Highlanders but he in Fort William
Henry.

Tli of Orono gleamed brightly; he, too,

h.id detected the cause of her agitation, and he
said,

"It is an ornament of the pale chief, worn by
•ng." I

" It was my husband's ! Oh, Orono, ask him — for
pity, ask him, where, when, how he obtained po
sion of it"

" Ossong is fierce as a Pequot," said the Iroquois,
sadly.

" Ask him, lest I die !" exclaimed Mary, pas-
siona:

" Ossong is a strong and fierce warrior," replied the
savage, gently; "I will steal it for you, if I can.
Ossong is cruel Listen ; he found a pale face on the
shore of the Horican ; he was wounded and feebl'e,
so Ossong stripped and bound him to a gum-tree,
whore he roasted him with sedge-grass, and, before
i. forced him to eat his own ears, which were
cut off by a scalping-knife."

" Oh, my husband !" exclaimed Mary, in despair ;
"and a fiend such as this has had his hands on

you :"

" I fear aie/' said Orono, shaking his head, " that
ho you weep for has gone to where the sun hides
it night"

" What mean you, Orono ?"

" Away beyond the great prairies of the buffaloes
— to the place of sleep — the \vi^\v;im of A here

the Indian sleeps Bunder than oven the tire-water of
the white man ean make him."

148 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

" Alas ! you mean the grave ?"
The Iroquois nodded his head, and relapsed into
silence, while with a low moan at a suggestion which

seemed to fulfil her own fears, and seemed only too
probable, Mary fell back and became, to all appear-
ance, insensible.

Several days passed, during which she hovered be-
tween time and eternity; but nothing, even in civilized
life, could surpass the watchful 4dnd ness and atten-
tion of the poor but grateful savage on whose mercy
she found herself thrown. Hoiv Ossong became
possessed of the regimental gorget — whether he had
found it in the wood, or torn it from her husband's
neck when dead, Orono could never discover, as his
tawny compatriot was animated in no measured
degree by the worst attributes of the American
Indian — craft, timidity, fickleness, ferocity, revenge,
and quickness of apprehension. Hence there were
no means of wresting the important — perhaps
dreadful — secret from him. He was soon after
shot in a skirmish by the soldiers of Fort Ed-
Avard, and the story of the gilded badge perished
with him.

" Oh, never to see my dear, dear husband again —
never, in this dreary world ! It is a terrible blow — a
dreadful and soul-crushing conviction !" Mary con-
tinued to exclaim, " God has required many sacrifices
of me ; but that Roderick should never see the wee
pet-lamb I have brought into this vale of woe is the
bitterest thought of all ; and to what a fate shall I
leave it ! My heart is like a stone — my brain a
chaos."

" Remain and be the squaw of Orono ; he is good
and gentle, and will love the lonely pale face, and
will teach her to hoe rice," said the enterprising pro-

Till; MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM I1KNKY. 1 !'•»

prietor of the wigwam, who also possessed a valuable
property in wampum and scalp-locks.

" Remain hero ! a month, yea, a week of this will
kill me, Orono. Remain here, and so far away from
my country — from the deep glens where the heather
ins so sweetly ! I cannot stay, Orono," continued
the poor girl, wildly. "I have been taught to love
my native land by the voices of my father, who fell
in battle, of my mother, who died of sorrow, and of
my bravo husband, who perished in this hated wil-
derness !"

"Orono understands," said the Indian, quietly;
"he, too, loves the hunting-grounds of the Jroquois ;
but he will protect the poor pale face and her
child."

Seeing her weep bitterly, after a pause, during
which he regarded her attentively —

" Orono," said he, " is but a poor Indian warrior
and knows not the God of the pale faces; but may ,

lir speak T

v on."

"Turn to the Great Spirit of the Iroquois, who

dwells far away beyond the lakes and the prairies ;

signed to his will. The lightning is not swifter

than his wrath ; the hunting-grounds are not greater

than his goodness. This Great Spirit knows every

in the woods — every ripple on the waters; and

doubtless he has removed the white chief from evils

more terrible than yonder battle by the Horicau ; for

suddm death is good."

" How think you so ?"

" I know not; but the pawaws say so."

Here was a subject for one who could reflect ;
but the heart of .Mary seemed to have died within
her.

150 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" Oh yes," continued the Indian, patting her white
shoulder gently with his strong brown hand, and
pointing south ; " he is gone to the abode of the Great
{Spirit, to the happy hunting-grounds, where the souls
of all brave warriors go, and where they seem to live
again."

" Oh that I were with him."

" Orono has no squaw now ; but the Oneida girl
who slept on his breast is there."

" Orono," said the widow, touched by his tone,
and gathering hope from his protection, "is a good
warrior."

" He is a brave one \" replied the Troquois, proudly.

" It is better to be good than brave ; and you are
good."

" 0/ono is grateful to the squaw of the white chief,
and has given his promise to protect her ; so the
strongest and tallest braves of the Iroquois must
respect that promise. My brothers say, Let the pale
face die "

" She will not trouble you long/' said Mary, weep-
ing over her child, for which she had neither proper
nurture nor little garments, nor even the rites of
baptism.

" Are we to perish, they cry, that pale faces may
gather, and dig, and sow, on the sacred banks of
the Horican ? Are they sent here to inherit the home
of the Indian, the hunting-ground of his fathers, and
the great solemn barrows where their bones lie by the
Oswego and the Mississippi, as if the Great Spirit
loved them better than his children the Iroquois."

From this day fever of mind and body — an illness
for which she had neither nurse, physician, nor com-
forts around her — prostrated the faculties of the poor
•widow, for such she deemed herself. As each link in

THK MAS.vU'KK AT TOUT WILLIAM HLXllV. 1 o I

the chain of life is broken by death, wo are unlit ,1
-oly to those which remain ; but to poor Mary
nil seemed a hopeless blank. The last link «
child, \vhos" feeble life and doubtful future filled her
with dismay.

Now that Roderick was gone, her heart seemed to
follow him. She clung with fonder affection to the
world that was to come, and where she was to :
him; but her babe, could she selfishly forsake it?
lli-r In 'art was sorely lacerated. Eternity seemed
close — terribly close to her ; and her husband being
th> re, instituted to her a more endearing tie betv
this world and that mysterious " bourne from whence
no traveller returns." She had no terror of this
journey, for he whom she loved with all the strength
of her soul had gone before and awaited her there.
At times she fancied that he chid her delay ; she
felt drawn towards that spirit-world by a chord of
tion which made her now yearn for it, as before
she had wept and yearned for her Highland home.

But her babe — so innocent and so deserted — could
she die and leave it among the Iroquois?

How did Roderick die — where? Peacefully or in
torture ? Was he buried, or lying still unentombed?

i dreadful questions and thoughts were ever
re her in the intervals of waking from her fits of
limn, which often lasted for hours; and her
snatches of sleep were filled by horrible dreams.

Jn these intervals a new hope dawned in her h
Her husband might have escaped and gained Fort
Kdward or the army of Montcalm, and she miidii
>et r .-i.-h him with her child if protected by Oi
This idea gave a new and exciting impulse to her
already «>v. r\vn«u^ht frame; but it came, alas! too
. for, a few days after the birth of her little one,

132 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

she too surely felt herself dying — dying there with
none to hear her story, or to whom she could bequeath
her helpless babe— a thought sufficient alone to kill
her. With the last effort of her strength she took
from her now matted hair the Celtic marriage brooch
(the old palladium of her husband's family) which
she had kept there concealed since the day of their
departure from Fort William Henry, and fixing it to
a fragment of her own dress, which she had wrapped
round the infant, pointed to it, that Orono might
deem it an amulet or talisman — " a great medicine"-

and expired !

* * * *

It was about the time of sunset, and before inter-
ring the body in a deep grave which he had scooped
at the foot of a gum-tree, and lined with soft furs,
Orono sat silent and watching in his wigwam. Near
the dead mother her unconscious child slept peace-
fully. The poor Indian was perhaps praying, and
feeling thankful in his heart that he had discharged
a debt of gratitude, and would yet do more by con-
veying the little orphau to the nearest white settle-
ment, and there leaving her to her fate.

The evening was beautiful, like those which pre-
ceded the siege and the massacre. A mellow sunset
was deepening on the hills' that overlook the waters
of Lake George, and the setting beams played with a
wavering radiance on the green foliage that was tossed
like verdant plumage by the evening wind, and on the
ripples that ran before it over the bosom of that lovely
lake. All was still within the Indian hut where the
dead woman lay, with her long black lashes resting
on the pallid cheek from which they never more
would rise ; and with her pure, pale profile, sharply
defined against the coarse grass matting that screened

THE MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM IIF.XUY. K.:J

lier wivt<'ln-d couch. Crouching on one side was the
old squaw, appalled by the marble hue of the strange
corps,' ; on the other sat Orono, divested of his plume
ami all his ornaments in token of grief, with his deep
glittering eyes fixed on the rocky bluffs which seemed
to start forward from the copse-covered slopes, and were
tln'ii tinted with a deep purple by the sinking sun.

As the last rays died away from the volcanic peaks,
th" Indian started up and prepared to inter the
i. mains of poor Mary, when the glittering epaulettes
and appointments of a Frencli officer, who was lead-
inn his horse by the bridle, appeared at the door of
, igwam.

He was the Baron de Beauchatel, with the gold
cross of St. Louis dangling on the lapelle of the gay
white uniform of the Grenadiers of Guienne. Having
lost his way in the forest, he now sought a guide to
tin i amp of Montcalm ; but the dead mother caught
his i -ye at the moment he peered into the obscurity
of tin- hut.

"Mon Dieu ! what have we here?" he asked, with
sorpi

" The squaw and papoose of a pale chief," replied
tin- apparently unmoved Indian.

" Dead — a lady, too !" exclaimed the French officer,
stooping over her with a commiseration that was
.tly increased when he discovered that she was
V"ium and beautiful. He gently pressed her thin
white hand, and lifted her soft black hair. "And this is
her child ?"

Orono nodded.

" Almost newly born — how calmly it sleeps ! The
poor infant — alone in this wilderness — Tete Dieu ! it
is frightful ! Tell me all about this, Imquois, and 1
will reward you handsomely with a now English clasp-

154 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

knife, a bottle of eau de vie, a blanket, or whatever
else your refined taste teaches you to prize most."

In his own language, by turns soft and guttural,
Orouo related to the baron all that he knew of the white
woman ; that she had twice saved his life, and that
he, ingratitude, had protected her from the Iroquois ;
but he had no power over the Great Spirit.

The baron was a humane and gallant French officer
of the old days of the monarchy. He had been a gay
fellow some few years before, and had been sent to
America (according to Parisian gossip) because he had
been too favourably noticed by Madame de Pompadour;
but he had a good and tender heart ; thus, the story of
the poor mother, and the helplessness of her orphan,
stirred him deeply. By the whole aspect of the dead,
and the remains of her attire, he suspected that her
rank and position in life had been good — a lady at
least. A ring upon the fourth finger of her left hand,
bearing the name of her husband in GaeUc, he gently
removed ; he then cut off some of her fine black hair,
and, after making a few memoranda descriptive of her
person, he bargained with the Indian that he should
give up the child for a few francs. This the Iroquois
at once agreed to do, and, with the assistance of the
baron, Mary was wrapped in furs and buried under a
tree on the sequestered shore of the Horican.

To Beauchatel it seemed strange and repugnant
that a Christian woman should be laid there without
a prayer or a blessing, on the rough mould that
covered her pale attenuated form, her pains and her
sorrows ; but it was long since he had prayed ; yet,
with an impulse of piety, he cut on the bark of the
tree, which covered the place where she lay, a large
cross, and raising his hat retired.

The act was in itself a prayer !

Till: MA VT FORT WILLIAM IIKNIIV. 1 .V)

" Can I now do aught for you ?" he asked of Orono.
The Indian mournfully shook his head, and then
said,

" Give me a new musket, for the time is coming —
the time that has boon foretold."
"By whom?"
" The sachems, the pawaws, and the old men of the

;ois."

" And what shall happen, mon camarade ?"
" The warriors of the Six Nations will break the
pipe of peace and dig up the great war-hatchet,"
..ainst whom ?"

.1 who corne from the land of the rising sun."
. io it so," said the baron, shrugging his shoulders,
ami looking with some anxiety towards the long
shadows, that darkened in the forest vistas ; " you
.shall ha\v your musket ; but give me the child, iiion
; and now for the camp of Louis do JSt.
V. ran I"

* » -.:-. • *

Let us change the scene.

Jt is 1778, exactly twenty-one years after the
r\viiis n -curded as having happened at Fort William
IL-nry. We are now in France, in the sunnv
province of Guienne, an<J near the gay city of
Bordeaux.

A lady, young and beautiful, is seated at one of
ofty open windows of the turreted Chateau de
Fontbnme, which crowns the summit of a wooded
eminence on the right bank of the Garonne. Her
and hair are dark; her complexion soft and
brilliant. Her attire, as she is in the country, par-
takes of the picturesque fashion of the last days of
Louis XV. She r.rliiies on a velvet fautcuil, and
fuivihly ivmiiul.s us of a languid little beauty in

156 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

one of Watteau's pictures waiting for some one to
make love to her. As a poet of the time has it, her
attire

*' Was whimsically traversed o'er,
Here a knot and there a flower ;
Like her little heart that dances,
Full of maggots — full of fancies ;
Flowing loosely down her back,
Fell with art the graceful sacque ;
Ornamented well with gimping,
Flounces, furbelows, and crimping,
While her ruffles, many a row,
Guard her elbows, white as snow,
Knots below and points above,
Emblem of the ties of love."

Her cheek rested on her hand, and heedless of the
too familiar splendour of the apartment in which she
was seated, she impatiently drew back the blue
satin hangings, which were festooned by cords and
tassels of silver, and setting her round dimpled chin
into the white palm of her pretty little hand, gazed
languidly upon the beautiful landscape that spread,
as it were, at her feet.

The vine-covered district of the Bordelais, through
which wound the Garonne ; Bourdeaux, clustering on
its left bank in the form, of a crescent, with its old
walls and towers of the Middle Ages ; its nineteen
gates, through which the tide of human life was
ebbing and flowing ; its long rows of trees casting
their lengthening shadows to the eastward ; the
huge grey ramparts of the venerable Chateau de
Trompette ; the palace of the Dukes of Guienne ; the
church of St Michel and the cathedral of St. Andre,
with its two tall and splendid spires, which pierced
the saffron-tinted sky like stone needles ; and then
the majestic river sweeping past towards the sea, all

Till: UK AT FOKT WILLIAM IIKXIIY. K>7

bathed in the broad light of a glorious June sunset.
But Th<T. •-..- had seen all this a thousand times
brtuiv. and it ceased to interest her now.

In tin- lap of this noble lady reposed a pretty, but
saucy and snubnosed Bologna spaniel, with the long
and black silky hair of which the white fingers
of one hand played involuntarily. Statues, bronzes,
buhl tables, vases of flowers, and a hundred beautiful
trifles, decorated this little room, which was her
boudoir — her own peculiar sanctum sanctorum —
and the windows of which overlooked a bastion,
whereon were sixteen antique brass cannon ; for the
an de Fontbrune, in which we have now the
honi i:r of finding ourselves, was an old baronial
e, which, after being fortified by Louis de Foix,
had given shelter to Charles VII., and been be-
ared by the Mare'chal de Matignon.

The productions of the popular men of the day
ved the apartment. The poems of Bernis, the
comedies of the Abbe* Boissy, the music of Lulli,
with drawings and pictures without end, lay near,
while a vaudeville by Panard was open upon the
piano. Mademoiselle had evidently been sorely puz-
zled in her efforts to get through the long hours of
this day of June, 1778.

" Oh, Nanon !" she exclaimed to her attendant, a
pn.-tty girl of eighteen, who sat near her on a
tabourette, sewing; "I am so ennuyd — for in this
doeary old chateau, which I am not permitted to
]ca\v, and to which no one comes but prosy old
colonels and stupid magistrates, such as M. lo Mai re,
01 M. le Maitre du Palais, or still worse, those horrid
counsellors of the Court of Admiralty, there is so
little to rouso one from sad thoughts and drowsy
lethargy."

158 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" Try another chapter of that new romance by M.
de Marivaux."

" Ah, merci ! he is a most tiresome fellow, Nanon,
and odious, too,''

'Odious?"

'Yes."

' How, Mademoiselle Tlierese ?"

' I judge from his memoir of himself."

' Explain, mademoiselle."

' He was once in love with a young lady — "

'Once, only — then he is no true romance writer."

' She had black hair, hazel eyes and long las
divine little hands and feet — in fact, the counterpart of
myself, as the old Abbe de Boissy told me — and was
on the point of paying his most solemn and magnifi-
cent addresses to her ; when, happening to enter her
boudoir one day unexpectedly, he found —

"Not alover?" exclaimed Nanon, becoming suddenly
interested ; " not a student or mousquetaire, I hope ?"

"Mafoi ! no — nothing half so pleasant."

" What, then ?"

" Mademoiselle studying smiles and postures before
her mirror."

" And this—"

"So shocked the staid and proper M. de Marivaux,
that his passion passed away in a moment, and he
took to novel writing."

" It was no passion whatever, mademoiselle," re-
plied Nanon, disgusted to find that a lady should lose
a lover by the same arts which she practised daily to
win one ; and now ensued another long pause.

This young lady — so beautiful, so tenderly nur-
tured, so accomplished, and so splendidly jewelled —
was the richest heiress in Bordeaux, a ward of the
young King Louis XVI., fiancee of the Comte

TIIK MASS AC UK AT FORT WILLIAM HKXRY. 150

d'Arcot, a liiirh military noble, who had covered him-
,,Hh distinction in India, and was now on his way
home \\ith a fabulous sum in livres, and, of course,
with the liver complaint. But this noble demoiselle,
successor of M. le Baron Beauchatel, Seigneur de
Fontbrune and of St. Emilion, Seneschal of Bour-
ileaux, and Commandant of the Chateau de Trom-

, was the foundling of the Iroquois wigwam, the
orphan child of Roderick MacGillivray and of that
lonely and despairing mother who found her grave,
uncoffined, in the savage solitude on the southern
shore of the Horican.

And now to solve this mystery.

.luchatel had conveyed the infant girl to Fort
William Henry, and consigned her to the care of the
baroness, a lady of gentle and amiable disposition.
In pity for the helplessness of the child, she under-
took its care, at first as a mere duty of humanity, but
as months passed on, her regard became a strong love
for this lonely little waif — a love all the stronger that
she was herself without children, and had long ceased
to hope that she would ever be a mother ; so it
,icd as if Heaven had sent this infant to fill up tho
void in her heart She named her Therese, after her-
self ; for she had been Mademoiselle Therese de St.
Veran, a sister of the Marquis de Montcalm, and con-
sequently was a lady of Nismes. Soon after her re-
turn to France with Beauchatel she died, and her last
request was, that he would continue to protect the
orphan which fate had so strangely committed to his
care. Tho good and faithful soldier had learned to
love the little girl as if she had been his own, and
being without kinsmen or heirs to his title and estates,
he obtained from the young King Louis XVI., then
in the fourth year of his unhappy reign, as ft reward
L -2

1GO LEGENDS OF THE BLACK Vv'ATCII.

for his services and those of his ancestors, permission
to adopt her in legal form. The necessary docu-
ments were accordingly drawn up, sealed, signed, and
registered ; and thus the poor foundling of the Cana-
dian forest, the child of Roderick MacGillivray of
the Black Watch, became the heiress of the Chateau
de Fontbrune and of the Seigneurie of Saint Emilion.

On returning from America, the baron had served
five years under M. Law de Lauriston in the East,
upholding the interests of the French India Com-
pany against the Nabob of Bengal and the British,
under Lord Clive. There he had met and become
acquainted with Count d'Arcot, for whom he had con-
ceived a sudden and vehement friendship — so much
so, that, after his return to France, he resolved that,
bongre rnalgre, his young ward should marry this
soldier of fortune ; for such he was, having been
created Count d'Arcot and Knight of St. Louis for
his bravery at the recapture of that city of Hindostan,
the capital of the Carnatic.

Poor Therese had been told the sad story of the
mother she had never known, and of whom no relics
remained but some silky black hair, a ring, and that
singular brooch — an ornament so unlike anything she
had ever seen, and which was graven with a legend
in a language to her so strange and barbarous ; and
her heart yearned for a further knowledge of whom she
was, and whence she came, and for that mother's kiss,
of which, though it had been planted a thousand
times upon her little lips, she had no memory; and
at times she mourned for that father she had never
seen. Then it seemed so odd, so strange, so grievous
that she could have any other father than the dear,
kind old baron, for whom she had a love and reve-
rence so filial and so strong.

Tin: M • \VII.LIAM III:N;:Y.

1-Mit to

evening lags, as if the sun would never
yawned the petulant little beauty. " What
shall \\v do with ourselves — speak, you provoking
Nanon '."

" Play," was the pithy reply.

" I have played everything that came last from
Paris, and my piano is now frightfully out of tune —
the chords are fallen."

"Bead."

"I have read MM. Marivaux, Bernis, and Jean
Jacques de Rousseau till I am sick of them."

" Draw."

" It makes my head ache, and the Abbe* Boissy
says it will spoil my eyes, in which he seems to take
a poetical interest."

"Sing."

" Nation, you bore me !"

" Suppose we pray, then 1"

" Ma Ibi ! — that would not be very amusing when
one is dull and dreary."

" Order out the grey pads and ride."

" M. Beauchatel never allows that, as you know
well, Nanon, save when he is with me ; and we shall
have enough of our horses, I have no doubt, when this
odious old count, whom I am to marry, and whom I
already hate, and whom I am resolved to tease to
death, arriv.-s here."

" I shall retire, mademoiselle."

" You shall not !"

" I fear you find me poor company," urged Nanon,
demurely.

" Poor or bad company are better than none - "

" Here in this luige chateau, perhaps ; but one
would not think so in the midst of a wood."

162 LEGENDS OP THE CLACK WATCH.

" Here I am left all day with no thoughts to rouse
me but of that horrible old Comte d'Arcot, who
is certainly coming from India, and to whom I am
to be given like a box of rupees or a bale of sugar."

" It is a long way to India," said Nanon ; " away
round the end of the world at Cape Finisterre, and
perhaps — perhaps "

" Say on, Nanon."

" He may be drowned by the way."

" Ah ! don't say so, Nanon I"

" Storms may arise, as they frequently do, and then
ships are wrecked. There was M. la Perouse, who
sailed away out into the wide ocean in the days of the
late King Louis XV., and has never been heard of
since. If stout young sailors drown, surely an old
soldier like Comte d'Arcot may."

" I am almost wicked enough to wish it."

"I think I see something that will amuse you,
mademoiselle."

" Mon Dieu ! I am glad of that — what is it ?"

" A party of soldiers."

" Where ? — oh, I do so love to see soldiers !"

" "Tis a guard conveying prisoners to the Chateau
de Trompette, and now they are about to cross the
Garonne by boats."

The lady gazed from the window, and saw a mass
of armed soldiers marching quickly down the oppo-
site slope towards the river. As they issued from
under the green vine trellis which shaded the roads
for miles in every direction, she could distinctly dis-
cern the scarlet coats of the prisoners contrasting with
the white of the French linesmen who formed the
escort, and had their bayonets ^Ixed.

" Red uniforms — thoj are JBritish prisoners of
war J" "xclaiined Na.non ; " oh, mademoiselle, we have

TIIK MASSA< Ki: AT FORT WILLIAM HKNT.Y. 1G3

gained a battle somewhere, and beaten the English,

>• always do."

"Poor, poor fellows!" sighed Therese ; " ah,

Nanon, I feel sad when I see them, for M. le Baron

says my mother was one of these people : yet it

...s so strange that I should ever have had any

r than Therese de St. Veran — dear Madame hi

!u-ss<-, whom the Blessed Virgin has taken to

herself

See how they crowd into that little boat! Oh,
mon Dieu ! the brave reckless fellows — it will never
hold them all !"

" And the stream is deep and rapid there."

See — see, 0 Dieu ! what has happened !" shrieked

.on.

" Overturned — the boat has overturned."
" No — 'tis* man overboard ! — he is in the stream,
and drowning !"

1 Oh, I cannot look- upon this!" said Therese,
shrinking back and burying her face in her hands,
while loud cries of alarm ascended from the river to
the windows of the chateau ; but Nanon, whose ner-
vous teiiiju nunent was less delicate than that of her

.ess, continued to gaze steadily.
Two men were swimming or splashing in the water.
One had fallen overboard ; the other had plunged in
i occur or save him ; but both were swept away
by the stream. In short, the former was soon OfOwneo,
ami the latter rescued with the utmost difficulty.
When tln'.j'jvd on shore he was quite insensible ; but
tin- officer in command of the escort, having no time
nare, desired four of his men to form a litter with
thi-ir muskets, and bear him to the Chateau do V
Inline, as the m at. jj phuv where the usual m
might be adopted for the restoration of life.

16-1 LEGENDS OF TIIK BLACK WATCH.

The half-drowned man, who had perilled life so
gallantly to save the unfortunate soldier, was an
officer, and moreover, one that was sure to win favour
in French eyes, being young, handsome, and an
Offider d'Ecossais, as Nanon reported minutely to
her startled mistress, who had promptly all her
household in attendance on the sufferer, though she
dared not peep into his room in person. At last
Nanon brought the joyous intelligence that he was
" recovering, and had opened a pair of such beautiful
eyes •" — so here was a stirring episode for our young
demoiselle, who, a half hour before, had been so dull
and ennuye that she was weary of her own charming
self and all the world beside.

France and Britain were still, as we last left them
twenty-one years ago, engaged in the lively and profit-
able occupation of fighting battles, battering fleets and
burning towns in America, where the subject of taxa-
tion had occasioned hostilities between the mother
country and her colonies, whose forces, led by Washing-
ton, were aided in the strife by the armies and fleets
of France, Spain, and Holland.

Some days elapsed before the young officer, who
was on his parole of honour, had sufficiently recovered
to appear on the terrace of the chateau, where
Mademoiselle Therese and the gossiping Nanon re-
ceived him in due form. He was pale and thin from
the effects of a wound, his long sea voyage, and the
severe treatment to which prisoners of war were
usually subjected in those days ; but all this only
served to make him the more interesting to the two
girls, who were quite flattered by the presence of the
chance visitor fortune had sent them to enliven the
old chateau. His uniform was sorely dilapidated ;
the lace and epaulettes of his scarlet coat were

Tin: MASSACKI: AT FORT WILLIAM in:xi:v.

1 darkened by powder and long service, and it con-
sorted oddly with a pair of French hussar pantaloons.
Still, notwithstanding these disadvantages, his bear-
ing . gallant, and gentlemanly ; and in very
jjood French he thanked the lady of Fontbrune for
her humanity and hospitality.

" May I ask your name, monsieur ?" asked Therese,
timidly.

Munro— Hector Munro."

" And your regiment?"

" The Black Watch— -Ecossais."

• ( )h, indeed," said Therese, with her dark eyes
brightening; for to belong to a Scottish regiment in
tho-c days (and even in the present} was as sure a
guide to French favour as if he could have answered,
" The Irish Brigade."

" And you were taken prisoner "

" In America, mademoiselle, on the Acushnet River,
where my regiment was serving with the brigades of
idiers and light infantry then ordered to destroy
:i number of pirates who made New Plymouth their
haunt. This we achieved successfully, but not with-
out severe loss."

- \Vere you not dreadfully frightened ?"

" I was then under fire for the first time" said the
young officer, smiling.

" And how did you feel — oh, pray tell me ?"
" A tightening of the breast— a long-drawn breath,
as thefirst shot whizzed past my ear ; another as the
tir>t cannon-ball seemed to scream in the air over-
land, and then I rushed on fearless, filled by a fierce
and tumultuous joy. I heard only the din of the
li;iupij)L.s and tin- cheers of my comrade?. But I lost
my way in the \vn..ii,and falling among a detachment
of the Regiment of Languedoc, was made a prisoner.

ICG LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

With many others in the same predicament, I was
soon shipped off for France, and so have the honour
to appear before you."

" And who was the soldier for whom you risked
your life ?"

" A sergeant of the Regiment of Languedoc."

" A Frenchman I"

11 Yes, mademoiselle ; the same man who made me
prisoner in America."

" Ah, mon Dieu ! and you tried to save him ! How
noble !"

" Mademoiselle, my father, who was a brave old
soldier, taught me that when the sword was in the
scabbard all men are brothers."

'•' And your rank ?"

" Lieutenant; and now," he added, bitterly, " I may
remain a prisoner for ten years perhaps, with my
hopes blighted, my promotion stopped, and my pay
gone."

" It is very sad," replied Therese, casting down her
fine eyes, which she feared might betray the interest
she already felt in the young prisoner of war ; " but
when the baron comes home from Paris — he will be
here in three days — we shall see what can be done
for you."

Three days — poor little Therese ! by that time she
was irrevocably in love with young Hunro, and
Nauon left nothing undone or unsaid to convince her
that the passion was quite mutual. Though they did
not meet at meals, they, were constantly together on
the terraces and in the gardens of the chateau ; thus
it was impossible for this young man to spend his
time in the society of such a girl as Therese, in the
full bloom of her youth and beauty (a. fair bloom that
belonged not to Franco), without feeling his heart in-

THE MASSACRE AT FOIIT WILLIAM HKXKY. 1G7

fluenced ; while her artless ami charming manner,
which liy turns was playful, sad, earnest,. or winning,
hucil him into a passion against which his 1.
judgment strove in vain ; for he knew the danger and
absurdity of a subaltern — a prisoner of war — a lad
without rank, home, friends, or subsistence — and
more than all, in that land of tyranny, bastilles, and
lettres de cachet, engaging in a love affair with a lady
of rank and wealth.

" In three days," thought he, " this deuced old
baron returns ; but in three days I shall be well
enough to be out of the sick list, to march off from
here, and report myself at the Chateau de Trom-

According to the author of Dream Life, "Youth-
ful passion is a giant ! It overleaps all the dreams
and all the resolves of our better and quieter nature,
and madly drives toward some wild issue that lives
only in its own frenzy. How little account does pas-
sion take, of goodness ! It is not within the cycle of
• •volution — it is below — it is tamer — it is older —
it wears no wings/'

So the evening of the sixth day passed into twi-
light, and found M. Hector Munro, of his Britannic
Majesty's i2nd Highlanders, still lingering by tin-
side of Therese in the. garden of that delightful old
chaieau by the " silvery Garonne," when the ominous
sound of horses' hoofs, and of wheels rasping on the
v.-l under the antique porte cochere, announced
the return of the Baron de Beauchatel 1
rese grew deadly pale.

" Your father — he has arrived, and I must bid you
farewell," said Munro, kissing her trembling hands
with sudden emotion.

luunsieur," said Therese, iu an imploring

168 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

voice. So " monsieur" stayed ; to go was impos-
sible.

" M. le Baron !" exclaimed Nanon, rushing towards
them, while her round black eyes dilated with excite-
ment ; " M. le Baron, and oh, mon Dieu, M. le Comte
d'Arcot is with him I"

" M. d'Arcot I" murmured poor Therese, and stood
rooted to the spot, the statue of terror and grief ; for,
after six days such as the last, to meet an old and
previously unknown fiance with the cordiality requi-
site, was more than poor human nature could bear or
achieve.

The baron, who was considerably changed in person
since we last had the pleasure of seeing him, having
become stout and paunchy, abrupt and irritable in
manner, now approached, leading, and indeed almost
pulling forward a tall, thin, and soldier-like Chevalier
of St. Louis, whose form and face seemed wasted
by inward thought and care, by exposure to the burn-
ing sun of India and the toils of war, rather than by
lapse of time ; yet he seemed quite old, though in
reality not much more than fifty years of age. His
hair, which he wore unpovvdered, was white as snow,
and was simply tied behind by a black ribbon. He
wore the undress uniform of a French Mare'chal du
Camp, and leaned a little on his cane as he walked.

" Mademoiselle de Beauchatel — my daughter — M.
le Comte d'Arcot," said the baron, introducing them,
and kissing Therese.

" M. le Comte is most welcome to Fontbrune," said
Therese, presenting her trembling hand to the tall
old soldier, who kissed it respectfully; and after a few
polite commonplaces, muttered hurriedly, on the calm-
ness of the evening, the beauty of the chateau, its
gardens, the scenery, &c., she drew aside to wipe away

THE MASSACHE AT FORT WILLIAM III-XRV. 109

her tears, and desire Nanon to conceal Munro or get
him quietly away.

"What think you of her?" asked the baron,
rtly.

••She is most lovely; but now, rny dear Beau-
1, though I have come to visit you, pray forget
your project of the marriage."

" Forget the object nearest my heart !" exclaimed
the impetuous baron.

" To unite an old veteran, a man of a withered
heart, to a blooming young girl — December to May
—it is absurd, my dear baron I" replied the Mardchal
du Camp, laughing.

" Absurd — parbleu ! do not say so."

" I assure you it is."
• When you know her, you will be charmed."

" I do not doubt it," replied D'Arcot ; " but oh !
what is this that moves me ? Her face seems more
than familiar to me, and recals some old friend or
relative."

" Impossible, comte ; you have been more than
in India, and she is barely twenty-one."

Therese came forward again, and the comte began
to examine her features with a fixed and earnest gaze,
which filled her timid heart with inexpressible fear
and confusion.

At that moment the baron's eye caught the red
coat of poor Munro, who had withdrawn a little way
back, and was irresolute whether to advance or retire
on finding himself so suddenly de trop where hitherto
he had been so much at home.

"Oh, sacre bleu!" exclaimed Beauchatel, drawing
his sword in a sudden gust of fury and suspicion, as
he rushed upon the stranger; "whom have we
here?"

170 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK \VATCH.

Therese uttered a cry and sprang forward ; but she
was less alert than Count d'Arcot, who, at that moment,
threw himself between the baron and the object of
his jealous anger.

" Permit me, to arrange this matter," said the
Mare'chal du Camp, unsheathing his sword ; " officer,
answer me truly on your honour — on your life — how
long you have been here."

" Six days, M. le Comte."

" Oh, sang Dieu !" swore the baron, pirouetting
about in a fresh gust of fury ; " six whole days."

" How came you here V

" On a litter, insensible — being half-drowned, in
attempting to save the life of a French soldier in
the Garonne."

" You are a prisoner — "

" On my parole," interrupted Munro, bowing.

" One of those who were landed at Castillon from
America, and were en route for the Chateau de
Trompette?"

" Exactly, M. le Comte."

" You are named-1—"

" Munro — Hector Munro, lieutenant in the 42nd
Highlanders."

" The old Black Watch !" said the Mare'chal du
Camp, sheathing his sword, while an inexplicable ex-
pression came over his grave features ; " I once knew
well an officer who bore the good old name of
Munro."

" My father, perhaps," said the prisoner, anxiously ;
" he was a brave soldier."

" Was — he is, then, dead ?"

" He fell in action against the Spaniards \"

"Where?"

" At the storming of the Moro Castle."

Till: UK AT FOIIT WILLIAM IIKXUY. 171

" And what was his rank ?"

'olonel of his Britannic Majesty's 60th Regiment
of Infantry."

" Or Royal Americans ?" continued the count, with
a kindling eye.

.esame, M. le Comte."

" Did he command at Fort William Henry, where
led troops were so shamefully abandoned by
General Webb, and were afterwards massacred by the
Iroquois ?"

" He did. I was saved from that massacre by the

of a French soldier. It was my second narrow

escape from the Iroquois, then ; for once before two

Indians bore me into the forest, and my life was

spared by the luckiest chance in the world."

" You must have been very young," said Beau-
chatel ; " I too, served there, and am quite an old
fellow now."

" I was a mere child, messieurs, in those days."

" Ah, they will soon be friends now !" thought
Therese ; " already they are comrades."

" And you were saved — " resumed D'Arcoi

" By an officer named MacGillivray, who was on
liis march to join that ill-fated garrison with a party
of the Black Watch, the same regiment to which I
have now the honour to belong. Then folloAved that
unparalleled massacre, the memory of which seems
like a horrible dream to me."

" And to me, too, boy ; for I, also, was at the siege
of Fort William Henry, and I was that lieutenant of
the Black Watch who saved you from the Iroqu
said Count d'Arcot, taking the hand of Munro in
his; "I had, then, a wife — perhaps a child," In-
addod in a troubled voice; "but both lie buried in
the forest by the shore of Lake George !"

172 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

" Your wife, M. le Comte," said Beaucliatcl ; " how
did she die ?"

" Not as the leaves die when the summer is over ;
for she was torn from me by the hands of the accursed
Iroquois — my beloved Mary ! After the lapse of one
and twenty years, baron, her image, so noble, so
gentle, and so womanly, fills up my past, as once it
filled my future. I was taken prisoner, as you
know, and joining the French army in sheer disgust
of the British, whose conduct, under Webb, mad-
dened me, I have attained in India the rank I now
bear, and which I never could have won in the armies
of the House of Hanover."

" Stay — paste ! a sudden light breaks in upon
me !" exclaimed the baron, smiting his forehead ;
" ah, tnon Dieu ! mon Dieu ! if it should be !"

"What?"

" Excuse me, messieurs, for one moment ; a thought
has struck me !" said the impulsive Frenchman, and
rushing into the house, he returned in a few moments,
bearing in his hands an antique oak casquet, in
which he kept his commissions, his diplomas, orders
of knighthood, and other objects of value; and,
drawing therefrom the brooch which had been found
upon the dress of Therese when a child, he placed
it in the hands of the count.

As Eoderick MacGillivray, now M. le Comte
d'Arcot, Governor of Pondicherry, Mare'chal du Camp,
and Colonel of the Regiment du Hoi, a man grown
old by war and thought and time, saw the ancient
and well-known heirloom of his house — the marriage-
brooch of the brides of Gleuarrow — the same mystic
symbol which, in youth, he had bestowed upon his
v/ife, a sudden tremor came over him, and a flush and
then a pallor crossed his wrinkled face.

THK M\SSACl;i: AT FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 173

• Locltnwy f" he muttered in his native language,
whirh he had so long unused; "touch not tlte cat
U'tt/nmt flu' ijlm-i-. Oh my Gqd ! whence came this
trinket, Beauchatel ?"

" I found it fastened to the dress of a newly-horn
Lunr in the forest near Lake George — a babe that
lay on the breast of its dead mother, in the wigwam
of an Iroquois, and on her finger was this ring,
inscribed— ' .

" RoderaickRuadh MacGillibhreac — my own name,

and my gift it was to Mary, the grand-daughter of

the murdered Maclan of Glencoe," exclaimed Mac

Gillivray, in an agonized voice, as his eyes filled with

; "and you buried her — "

" By my own hands, at the foot of a tree, which I
marked with a cross — "

" God bless thee, my brave and honest Beau-
chatel !" exclaimed Roderick.

" And there she lies in peace."

" But the babe, baron— the little babe ?"

" Therese — she stands before you."

The veteran Comte d'Arcot opened his arms, and
tin- pale and agitated girl found herself pressed to
the breast of her newly- discovered father.
* * * *

Our readers may guess the sequel.

Hector Munro of the Black Watch remained a
prisoner of war in France until the autumn of 1782,
when a general peace was concluded. He was on
parole not to pass beyond two miles from the gates
of the Chateau de Trompette. As the mansion of
Therese was within that boundary, he found his
limits ample enough, and long before that auspicious
day when the cannon on the ramjarts of Buunleaux
announced the peace of tho two countries, and the

174 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

independence of America, he had become the son-in-
law of Count d'Arcot

The latter, soon after, seeing the approaching storm
of the Revolution, transferred himself and all his pro-
perty to Britain, and thus escaped the fate of the
loyal and gallant Beauchatel, whose noble chateau
was destroyed, and whose fate is thus recorded in a
despatch of the Comte d'Artois, dated Coblentz, 10th
June, 1793.—

"M. Beauchatel rivalled his forefathers in glory
and in faith. He died in battle, at the head of his
Emigrant Regiment, and lies in the trenches of Lisle,
a fitting grave for the premier Chevalier de St.
Louis"

175

THE WIFE OF THE RED COMYN.

MY OUANDFATHKB'S STOBT.

•

THK old gentleman had served in the 42nd High-
landers, or old Black Watch, in early life, and could

to us endless yarns of the bloody affair of Ticon-
drwga, where the regiment had no less than six
hundred and forty-seven officers and soldiers killed
or wounded ; the expedition to the Lakes ; the sur-
render of Montreal ; the siege of the Moro, and the

ing, flaying alive, the tomahawking, and other
little pleasantries incidental to the relief of Fort Pitt
in 17<>-"« ; and of that devilish business with the Red
.Indians amid the swamps and rocks at Bushy Run,
all of which were " familiar in our mouths as house-
hold words ;" while, to the venerable narrator, the
smell of gunpowder, the flavour of Feriixtosh,' or the
skirl of a bagpipe were like the elixir vitas of the
anrii MI! s, and seemed to renew his'youth, strength, and
spirit for a time ; and thus the fire of other years
would flash up within him, like the last gleam of a
sinking lamp, as we sat by our bogwood tire in the
long winter nights of the North.

In the year 1768, his regiment was cantoned in

ay, where it was reviewed by Major-Gem i.d
Artni^er, and the old gentleman was wont to !>•
that, exc-opt two Lowland Scots, every soldier in its
ranks was from the clans that dwell northward of the

M 'I

17G LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

Tay, "and happily for the corps," he used to add,
" these two were knocked on the head during the
onfall at Long Island." The regiment, then for the
third time in Ireland, remained there for seven years.
During 1772, it was employed in suppressing tumults
occasioned by the complicating interests and adverse
views of the Catholic and Protestant landlords and
tenants in Antrim and elsewhere ; and in this deli-
cate service their Highlanders were found particularly
useful, from th*e knowledge of the language and their
gentle bearing towards the people, whom by old tra-
dition they believed to be sprung from the same stock
as themselves. Though some of the Highland tribes
have a proverb which says, cha b'ionann 0 Brien is
na Gael — that O'Brien and the Gael are not alike,
yet they found many sympathies in common — to wit,
a love of fun and breaking heads ; a jealousy of the
English ; an aversion to still-hunting, and a just,
laudable, and commendable antipathy to all gaugers
and tax-gatherers.

For the ticklish service of settling disputes in the
neighbourhood of Antrim, it pleased his Majesty
George III. to order that an additional company of
the Black Watch should be raised among the Breadal-
bane Campbells ; and it was soon seen, that though
the slaughter of Ticonderoga had carried woe and
desolation to many a lonely hearth and loving heart
in the country of the clans, so far from extinguishing
the military ardour of the Highland youth, it made
them more than ever anxious to enrol themselves in
the ranks of the Reicudan Dim, for so was the regi-
ment named, from the dark colours of its plumes and
tartans, in contradistinction to the troops of the line,
who wore scarlet coats, white waistcoats, pipeclayed
breeches And flour-powdered wigs, with .queues, poma-

TI1K \VIFfc OF THE RED COMYN. 177

turned curls, and looped-up hats, having the true Blen-
heim cock and the star of Brunswick — i.e. the black
It.'.-uher cockade of the Protestant succession, which
still survives on the chapeaux of the penny postman.

My grandfather was popular among the Breadal-
li:uieraen, to please whom he had, at various times,
hanged suiulry MacNabsand MacAlpines, whose ideas
of the eighth commandment were somewhat vague ;
thus on being sent into "the marquis's country" to
r.ciuit, lie rnis'-i I the required company in three days,
inarched down from the hills of Glen Urchai with
pi|>es playing, across the dreary Braes of Rannoch,
and du\vn by the Brig of Tay with a hundred of the
handsomest men that ever became food for gun-
powder, all clad in their native tartans, and well
armed, each with his own sword, dirk and pistols, to
which the Government added the usual arms and ac-
coutrements of the line. From Perth, the captain
ordered to march his company to Glasgow, there
to embark for Ireland ; and proceeding en ronf<\
after leaving Falkirk and traversing the remains of
the Torwood, he found himself, with his little com-
niaii'l, approaching the burgh of Kirkintulloch one
(livary November evening, just as the dusk \\as
closing in, while the rain fell in torrents, and the wind
swept in gusts through the pastoral hollows and
hurled the wet and withered leaves furiously before
it There he was compelled to halt, and oblige the
authorities to procure immediate quarters for a hun-
dr«-'l Highlanders — a race of whom the westland
Whigs had harboured a holy aversion and wholesome
terror, since the epoch of the Great Montrose and his
• lap -devil Cavaliers, ono hundred and twenty years
before.

" But what has all this to do with the Wife of the

178 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

Red Comyn ?" the reader may ask. I answer, every-
thing— for had not my grandfather halted on that wet
November night in the ancient burgh of Kirkintul-
loch, that good lady — though she made some noise in
her time — had never been introduced to the reader's
notice. So patience yet awhile.

The soldiers were soon distributed among the people
by the town constable, and in a few minutes after
seeing the last man off to his billet, my grandfather
found himself standing before the gate of the Castle
of Kirkintulloch drenched through plaid and philabeg,
while the rain dripped gracefully from his long
feathers into the nape of his neck, and the water
spouted from his scabbard as from a syringe when he
sheathed his claymore. Draggled and weary, he
knocked furiously against the gate of the huge mansion,
on which, as being the most important in the town,
he was billeted as commander of the forces. Being a
Celt, 'and not blessed with overmuch patience, he
thrust his billet-order almost into the mouth of the
servant who opened the door, and then swaggered in
with all the air of a man who had heard the forty
days' cannonade at the Moro ; but a couple of good
drams from a jolly magnum bonum of Ferintosh,
which were given to him without delay, at once re-
stored his equanimity, and, chucking the plump
housekeeper under the chin, my grandfather — or, as
I shall call him in future, the captajn — proceeded up-
stairs.

This ancient Castle of Kirkintulloch, which had
been stormed by Edward I. of England, but re-taken
by the Scots, was a good specimen of the gloomy
mansions of the Middle Ages, when every Scotsman
was forced to keep watch and ward against his neigh-
bour, and, more than all, against Southern invasion;

THK WIFE OP THE UKI) COMYX. 179

for it was built by tlic Comyns, who flourished iu the

- of Malcolm III., and were Lords of Lin ton Ro-
deriek and uf Batlenoch, and Avho made a ,L
Jigim- during the reigns of the three Alexanders and

rtl.

In those turbulent times every Scotsman was a
soldier, and a brave one, too ; every house was a for-
, every fortress a citadel, and its inmates were a
garrison, while the urgent necessity for security caused
tin1 Scottish baron literally to found his dwelling on a
rock.

A site alike remote and inaccessible was usually
selected, on the isle of some deep lake, or the brow
of a sequestered hill, and there the Scottish feudatory

• 1 the mansion in which his race were to dwell, to
bo married and given in marriage, to be born and to
di.-, ''while grass grew and water ran" — the strong
suuare peel-house, with its corbelled battlements,
through the openings of which missiles could be shot
securely ; its stone-flagged roof; its irregular slits or
windows, all strongly grated, though ninety or a
hundred feet from the base, and girdled by a bar-
bican, having an arched gate and flanking tov.
.Such was unvaryingly the external aspect of tin-
dwelling of a Scottish baron, and such was the Castle
of Kirkintulloch.

Above the gate, which bristled with loopholes for
musketry, were the armorial bearings of Robert
( '"inyn, who was slain at the battle of Alnwick, and
the monogram of his descendant, the black Lord of
JJadenoch, who married the Princess Mar;
ilan.vhtf-r of King John Baliol, and whoso son was
the last of his race.

After taking a draught from the cup of alt; which was
filled for him, as for all other visitors, from a ban«-!

ISO LEGENDS OF. THE BLACK WATCH.

which stood in a recess of the entrance lobby, the
captain ascended the hollow-stepped stair to the
common hall of the venerable tower.

Internally the accommodation and construction
were of the plainest description. A narrow turn-
pike stair gave access to the various floors of the
keep. The first of these being the levelled rock on
which the edifice was founded, was vaulted, and con-
tained the pit or dungeon, with cellars for the stores
necessary to a crowded household during the long
northern winter, and there was also a deep draw-well
hewn through the living rock. The next contained
the arched hall into which our wet and weary captain
was ushered with much formality. Its floor was
paved ; the fireplace was of stone, and had ingle-seats
within its arch. The windows were deeply embayed,
and were secured by shutters within and iron bars
without. The sun, when it shone through the half-
darkened halls of those days, must have imparted to
the dwelling of the Scottish baron the aspect of a
prison ; thus their prisons became dungeons, for the
good folks of the olden time knew no medium in
anything.

A gigantic fire blazed redly 09 the hearth, and by
its light the captain could discern a number of those
unfortunate wights who, as casual guests, trencher-
men, or boys-of-the-belt, in that year, 1 772, shared
the old-fashioned hospitality of the Flemings of
Kirkintulloch ; but not being of sufficient conse-
quence to have separate apartments, lay rolled up
in their plaids on the benches, or among the stag-
hounds that nestled together on the warm hearth-
stone.

The reader may deem my description somewhat
minute, but the events which occurred to my vene-

THK win: m THK RED COMVX. 181

rable kinsman in the old stronghold of the Corny ns,
ami ;i tale which In- heard there, served to impress
y feature of it on his memory, and thus it bore a
prominent place in his narrative.

As he entered the hall, a stout and jolly-looking old
man, who sat with his sturdy legs stretched out before
the lire, one hand supporting a long pipe in his mouth,
<;hcr resting on a silver tankard of mulled claret,
up at his approach and bade him welcome. The
f;vshioii of this person's dress was old — for still the
Scots are always a year or two behind every innova-
tion; his red vest was deeply flapped, his coat of
brown broadcloth was square-tailed, with enormous
cull's and silver buttons ; he wore a brown bob peri-
with a single row of curls round the bottom
thereof; square buckles on his square-toed shoes,
and a hat cocked with great exactness in the form of
an equilateral triangle, completed the costume of the
old chamberlain or castle bailie of the Laird of Kirk-
intuUbch.

" A cold night, bailie," said the captain ; " I am
sorely chilled, having marched from the Torwood amid
this tempest of wind and rain."

••The more are you welcome, sir, to the Castle of
Kirkintulloch," replied the bailie, placing a chair;
"and if a draught from this tankard of hot mulled
claret will comfort you, take it and welcome, while
something better is preparing."

"A thousand thanks, good bailie," replied the
captain, as he drained the silver pot which came
set 'tiling from the glowing hob.

Being thoroughly drenched, he begged the bailie
would have him shown to an apartment where he
niii^ht change certain portions of his attire. A boy
in the livery of the Flemings, with their goat-head

182 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

worked on his sleeves, appeared to conduct him, and,
taking a candle, the lad, who was evidently disph
at being summoned from the warm fire of the kitchen,
which in the Scoto-French fashion adjoined the hall,
hurried up the staircase before the captain, leaving
him to follow as he pleased.

I have already hinted that my grandfather was
somewhat short-tempered, so he swore one of those
hearty oaths which our army picked up so glibly in
Flanders, adding, " Hollo ! you young devil — do you
mean to leave me here in the dark ?"

Without heeding him, the lad sprang to the top of
the stairs, and hastened across the landing-place into
an apartment, leaving the captain to ascend by no
other light than the feeble rays that fell from a
candle in a tin sconce, which hung on the wall in
the first turn of the spiral stair. Looking angrily up
in search of his guide, the captain saw — or thought he
saw — a lady cross the landing-place.

She was tall, and her white profile was stem and
grave, and she was attended by the most diminutive
black dwarf in the world — a little creature who ap-
peared absolutely to perspire under the weight of her
enormous train, which was of some dark rich stuff,
but brilliantly brocaded with white stars. The captain
paused and bowed very low, lifting up the end .of his
long claymore, believing that this stately dame might
wish to descend ; but when he raised his head again
she was gone ! Her disappearance was so sudden that
he was confounded, and rubbed his eyes.

'•' Can the long march against a chill November
wind have affected my vision ?" thought he ; " or has
that brimming tankard of hot claret affected my
nerves ? Impossible ! Tush — the dame has been
scared by my draggled appearance, and has hastened

THE \\IFK OF THK RKT) COMYX. 183

into ono of these apartments ;" so the old gentleman
tnish oath, and reached the top of

018.

The guide now reappeared, and ho would certainly
have had his ears pulled, but the captain's mind was
strangely agitated by thoughts of the lady, whose tall
aristocratic figure, and pure, cold, and almost sublimo
profile seemed to be still before him in the dusk.

J It- was shown into a handsome bed-chamber, which

lighted by four candles in brass-mounted holders

trved oak. The walls were hung with antique

leather, of a pale yellow colour, embossed with red

llowers ; the bed was very ancient, and resembled the

canopied tombs one occasionally sees in old chuiv

r the mantelpiece was a Latin legend, informing
the visitor that in this chamber the wife of the Red
Comyn had died a prisoner in the year of our redemp-
tion 1310.

" Four hundred and sixty two years ago," quoth the

,iin, after airing his subtraction a little; "ugh!

bow gloom vibe place looks, compared to the cheerful

hall — so gloomy, indeed, that I shall be here as little

-/i!>le before marching to-morrow."

lie Hung off his belted plaid, badgerskin sporan,
and sword- Kelt, wrung the water from his kilt and
l'r< mi the curls of his periwig, smoothed his queue,
donned a p.-iir of dry hose, and, after giving a casual
glance to the primings and charges of his pistols,
which were a pair of true steel-butted Doune pops,
from the armoury of old Thomas Caddel, he turned
to leave the chamber, from the ceiling of which a
dried kingfisher hung by a thread; for it is an old
superstition that the bird will turn his bill to f/tut
it from which tho \\ind Mows.

Taking one of the candles, the captain left the

184 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

chamber, and was about to descend, when by some
" glamour" he mistook the way; for being supper
I am convinced that the hot wine had affected his
head ; he stumbled against a door ; it flew open, and
he found himself in the dressing apartment of a lady,
whose face was turned towards him, and by the lights
on a side-table he perceived at a glance that she was
the same queenly dame who had recently crossed the
landing-place. She gazed fixedly at the amazed in-
truder, as she stood before a mirror, with her round
polished shoulders turned towards him, and her jet
black hair gathered up in heavy massQS on her slender
fingers, for she seemed in the act of dressing it. From
a faultless bust, her dark dress, brocaded with stars,
hung in magnificent folds to her feet, where, crouching
like a marmoset, the hideous little dwarf was sitting.
Her figure was beautiful, but so motionless and still,
as she gazed with eyes full of indignation and inquiry,
that the words of apology huug half arrested on the
lips of the bowing intruder, who, in another moment,
discovered that he had before him a — picture — only
a picture; but one painted in the first style of
antique art.

Nothing artistic could be more beautifully executed
than the upturned and polished arms, from which the
lace that foreign looms must have woven, hung in
loops upheld by diamonds. A necklace of precious
stones encircled her neck, and a large band of the
same formed a coronet round her head, and gave an
imperial grace to her lofty beauty of feature and
of form.

The captain gazed on it till the figure appeared to
come forward and the canvas to recede, till the eyes
seemed to fill with light and the proud lips to curl
with a scornful smile ; and then he turned away, for

THE WIFE OP THE RED COMYX.

the strange picture had a mysterious effect upon him,
ami hastily he sought the hall, where a hot and
savoury supper smoked on the centre table, :md where
thr bailie or castellan of the absent proprietor impa-
tit ntly awaited him.

" Conn- awa, sir — come awa ; I thought you meant
to bide up -stairs a' night. Here are hot collops,
devilled turkey, stewed kidneys, mulled claret, port,
slu-rry, and whisky toddy — draw in a chair, sir, and
make yourself at name.'

" 1 have a hawk's appetite, bailie," said my kins-
man, applying himself assiduously to the devil and
the sherry.

" And I ditto, double — for I have ridden in
from Stirling market to-day ; try the cold gibelotte
pie."

" Thank you ; I'll rather stick to my old friend— a
devilled bone smacks of tho bivouac. Pass the sherry,
bailie. Thank you."

" Try the kidneys ; they would serve a king."

" Thauka By the bye, who is that noble lady now
residing here?"

" Noble lady ?" reiterated the bailie, looking up
with his mouth full, and surprise in his flushed
face.

" Yes ; she whom I passed, or rather who passed
me, on the staircase to-night." The bailie pushed
back his chair and plate.

" A lady, sir !" he stammered, while his eyes
jji.-ni-d wider.

"She in the black dress brocaded with white
stars."

" Gude hae mercy on us ! — and a dwarf holding up
h.-r tail r

" The same."

ISO LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" The Lord take us a' into his holy keeping ! Ye
have seen her ?"

" Seen who ? What the devil do you mean 1"

" The wife of the Red Corny n !"

" Come, that is good ; but I am too old a soldier,
bailie, to believe all this."

" Keep us frae harm !" continued the old man, as his
rubicund visage grew pale, and he glanced stealthily
over his shoulder while lowering his voice ; " she
hasna' been seen for these ten years past ; heaven
send it portends uae evil to our family !"

" Our family," meant the house ; so completely were
the old Scottish domestics identified with those they
served.

" Lord help you, sir/' he continued, draining a hot
jug of toddy almost at a draught; "you have seen a
wandering spirit."

" It may have been fancy, bailie ; but I certainly
saw her picture, and that is tangible enough."

" That picture was painted two hundred years and
mair after her death ; and there is a devilish Btory
connected with it too/'

" Ton my honour, bailie, you quite interest me,"
said the captain, brewing a jug of smoking toddy, and
drawing a chair nearer to the fire ; " the atmosphere
of this place becomes full of diablerie. Painted two
hundred years after her death ! I hope the likeness
is good ; but tell me all about it."

" She was the wife of the last Comyn to whom this
castle belonged, and she was a woman possessing alike
the pride and temper of Lucifer ; but they cost her
dear, for she suffered a sore penance in the yellow bed-
chamber up-stairs, and there 'tis said her spirit walks
to this hour. Now it chanced that in the days of
King James IV., his Master Painter, the famous Sir

THE WIFE OF THE RED COMYN.

Thomas Galbruith, the pupil of Quentiu Alatsys, of
Antwerp, and the friend of Leonardo da Vinci and of
Titian \ ocelli, came here during the lifetime of John
Lord Fleming — the same who was so barbarously
assassinated by the cursed Laird o' Drummel/ier, ui
\vliose folk we have a feud outstanding yet, like an
auld »lt -lit — well, the King's painter slept, or rather,
I is. passed the night in the yellow room, and from
; hue he was a changed man ; from being rosy-
!, he became pale and wan, hollow-eyed and
: ly ; from being as full of fun and frolic as the
King himself, he became sad, woful and thoughtful,
lie shut himself up in the haunted-room, where
In- worked day and night for a whole week, without
eating, drinking, or sleeping, as folks aver, until I/tot
awful picture was finished; and whether it was done
from the memory of one vision of the spirit, or whether
the wife of the Red Comyncame to him nightly from
ht-11, and sat for her portrait, I cannot say ; but when
h'ni.sla •(! by Sir Thomas Galbraith, it was the last work
h<: did on earth, for he was found dead, seated before
it, one morning, with a pallet on his left thumb and a
brush in his il.jlit hand. Terror was on his dead face,
ami tin- marks of strangulation were round his throat ;
so the Flemings buried him in the auld Kirk of St.
Nitii.-in, >it the Oxgang, where his grave is yet to be
I would fain have the picture burned, but the
family set a high value upon it ; yet I verily believe,
it .1 puir presumptuous auld carle like me dare judgfl
o' >ie. tilings, that its presence here may keep the spirit
o' that awt'u' woman hovering about the walls o' the
auld castle she rendered accursed by her crimes '"

" Well, bailie, tell me the story and "

" Mo-k' another browst o' toddy while the water is
hot, sir," replied the castellan, as he stirred up the firo

188 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

with an enormous poker, and as the flames roared in
the tunnel-like chimney, the red sparks flew up in
pyramids.

'' I am charged to the brim," said the captain ; " so
fire away, my friend, I am all impatience."

After a few preliminary hems, coughs, and flourishes,
with sips of toddy between, the bailie told the
captain the following strange story, which I uiv<-
in my own words, being vain enough to prefer them
to his.

In the beginning of the fourteenth century, the
Castle of Kirkintulloch was the principal residence of
John Comyn Lord of Badenoch, who, a« nephew of
King John Baliol, was a competitor with Bruce for
the crown of Scotland, and he was called the Red
Comyn to distinguish him from his father, the Black
Comyn, who was so named from his swarthy com-
plexion.

In those days the country around this castle was
covered by forests of oak and pine, through the
secluded hollows of which the Kelvin and the Logie
crept with that slow and sluggish current which gives
them more the aspect of Flemish canals than streams
that roll from Scottish mountains. The rising burgh
was then roofed with stone, or thatched ; the Roman
fort on the Barhill was nearly entire, as when a thou-
sand years before the soldiers of the Caesars had relin-
quished it befere the furious Scots ; and the how
ruined tower of Sir Robert Boyd, Baron of Kilmar-
nock, Hartshaw, Ardneil and Dairy, was still the
stronghold of his family, who were the sworn enemies
of the Baliols and all their adherents. So deep,
indeed, was their hatred, that they would not bury

TI1K Will: or THK HLI) COMVN. 1 °.)

their dead in the same church ; thus, while the Boyds
were laid in the Chapel of St. Mary (which is now the
parish kirk), the Comyns were interred in the Church
. Ninian.

The Red Corny n was powerful, cunning, and dis-
sembling ; being ambitious, and though he fought
under Wallace at Falkirk, intensely selfish, he feared
to lose his estates after that disastrous battle was lost ;
and as usual with Scottish nobles, considering his own
interior before the common weal or the national
honour, he joined the English ranks, and fought
against his own country in the army of the traitor-
king, John Baliol.

He was a woful tyrant to the burgh of Kirkintul-
loch ; for, in defiance of the old laws of the land, ho
enforced the bludewit, the stingisdynt, the marchet,
the herezeld, and other exactions now unknown within
the ports of a Scottish town ; and as all pleas between
burgesses and travelling merchants must be settled
before the third flowing and ebbing of the tide, he
usually decided them by whipping the burgess and
confiscating the goods of the stranger. Moreover,
although it had been ordained by the kings of old,
that on any burgess departing on a pilgrimage to
the Holy Land or other sacred place, his goods and
family should be protected "vntill God brought
him name againe," the wives of the absent were
oft ni seized by Comyn, and their goods by his
lady.

At his mills he exacted exorbitant mulctures, and
he hung all who dared to complain ; if any ventured
to grind wheat, mashloch, or rye with hand querns,
they were also hanged; and though it was statute
and ordained that he who stole a halfpenny-worth of
bread should be scourged, that he who stole a pair of

190 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

shoes should be pilloried, or eightpence worth should
have one leg cut off, the tyrant hanged them all.
Thus his Dule-tree was never without a man hanging
from it, with the black gleds flying round him ; for
Comyn ground alike to the dust the burgesses within
the walls and the gudemen of the Newlaud Mailings
without ; so that it was generally said in Dumbarton-
shire, that the devil himself would be a gentler over-
ord than he ; and he was so hated that men remem-
bered the dreadful fate of his father in Badenoch,
and it came to be whispered about that there was a
prophecy made by a weird woman, that he too should
die a violent death I

His wife, Lady Gwendoleyne, was esteemed one of
the most beautiful women in Scotland, and none had
outshone her at the Court of Queen Yolande, the
consort of Alexander III. Lovely beyond all com-
parison, tall, stately and magnificent in form, with
pale commanding features and dark eyes, indicative
rather of pride of birth and loftiness of mind than of
gentleness, she made the people — even those whom
her beauty dazzled, and her slightest smile would
have won for ever — shrink and quail before her, as
beneath the eye of some mysterious spirit; for the
keen black eye of that imperious lady is said to have
been as dangerous in its beauty as it was terrible in
its expression.

She had been wedded early to the Red Lord of
Badenoch ; they had three daughters, the youngest
of whom (according to Andrew Wyntoun) was mar-
ried to the traitorous MacDougal of Lorn. They had
also one son, who at the time this history opens,
A.D. 1306, was in his eighteenth year, and was said
to be a handsome, gallant, and high-spirited youth ;
but, unfortunately, devoted to the false Baliol, at

THE \VIFK OF THK IIKI) COMYN. 191

^o mock Court in tho Castle of Perth lie resided,
and there he had been educated.

Notwithstanding her own unparalleled beauty, her
husband's rank, power, and overweening authority,
Lady Gwendoleyno was far from being happy ! A
thorn sharper than a poisoned arrow rankled in her
heart, in the form of a restless jealousy of her hus-
band, to whom she was passionately devoted, and
whom she loved with all the ardour of her impulsive
nature. And though he seemed to be, in manner, all
that befitted a faithful and attached spouse, he was
m object of suspicion to Gwendoleyne ; for some
artful minion had skilfully sown the seeds of mis-
trust between them, and several of Comyn's unguarded
actions and interferences with the wives of pilgrim-
burgesses had given her every reason to deem her
fears were just and true ; hence her fiery heart became
a prey to furious passions and to bitter thoughts, and
she looked about ner, longing for some fitting object
on which to vent her wrath.

Her husband's kinsman and her own dear friend,
old Sir Alexander Baliol of Cavers, Great Chamber-
lain of Scotland, to whom she often hinted her com-
plaints against Comyn and her suspicions of his in-
v, endeavoured to laugh away her fears.

"Madam," said he, on one occasion, "jealousy is
the soul of a love which will brook no rival even for
a moment. I mean not to hint that you love II <\
Comyn too much, but without this jealousy your
love for him perhaps would die."

"You are too subtle a casuist for a woman, Sir
Alexander of Cavers," replied the lady, cresting up
lnM- beautiful head ; " but you must lie aware that the
disposition and manners of Comyn, your kinsman, are
at least but too well calculated to excite my suspicion
N "2

192 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

and distrust. To wit : his passionate and unconcealed
admiration for female beauty ; this is known over the
whole country, and thrice, on vague suspicion, I have
had to discard certain ladies of my household, and
thus make their families deadly enemies of ours.
And say, my good Lord Chamherlain, are these wan-
dering sallies not shameful, when perpetrated by om-
who has a sou now in his eighteenth year, and tall and
handsome as himself?"

Sir Alexander thought of Comyn's gigantic red
beard, and smiled when remembering the handsome
youth, who had all his mother's beauty, without his
father's ferocity of aspect and bearing.

" You srnile, Sir Alexander \" said the fiery dame.
" You smile — 'tis very well, sir ! You know more of
the Red Comyn and his secrets than you care to tell
me, and that courtier's smile assures me that I am an
injured wife-

" I beg to assure you, Lady of Badenoch-

" Assure me of nothing, Lord of Cavers, if you can-
not assure me of your kinsman's faith and purity."

" Madam," said the old Lord Chamberlain, testily,
"there are two kinds of jealousy — a pure fear by
which the young and restless lover is animated — and
a grovelling suspicion, which is jealousy in the worst
sense of the term. Your suspicion wounds your self-
esteem — it piques your honour — and is but a new
phase of selfishness, for you suspect yourself an injured
woman."

" And justly too, for Comyn's coldness to me during
the last month cannot be accounted for but by some
new fancy."

" Your husband is never jealous of you, madam."

" That only proves his indifference. Tis shainel,
false, and unknightly ; and 1 only trust that the pre-

THE WIFE OF THK KKD COMYX. 193

sence of our boy, the young Sir John, whom the King
just knighted, will in some degree recal my wan-
dering husband to a sense of his own honour and the
honour of his wife and daughters."

"Madam, how often shall I assure you that the
husband of one so beautiful as you could never prove
false — I am an old man, your father's friend, and may
well say this."

" True, you arc an old man, and were my father's
friend," resumed the lady, whose black eyes flashed
with dusky fire through their tears ; " thus it is the
more culpable in you to be in my husband's wicked
secrets, and endeavouring thus to blind and to deceive
a loving and devoted wife. But woe to Comyn and
to you in that hour when I prove the falsehood of you
both !"

And gathering up her long silk kirtle, which was
worn without sleeves, but was so long in the skirt as
constantly to require upholding by one hand, she
; a\v;iy with the air of an offended queen, and
with her long and magnificent hair floating over her
shoulders from under a band of burnished gold.

" Alas !" thought tho old chamberlain, shrugging
his sin in:- i. -i-, "how true it is, that love being jealous,
maketh a good eye look asquint."

In those days maidens of good family were received
into the houses of ladies of high rank to be delicately
nurtured and well educated ; for which, strange as it
may now seem, a befitting fee or pension was paid.
Now, among the ladies of the tabourctte, or damta
(l'1/onneur of the Lady of Badenoch, were the daugh-
ters of many noble houses of the Baliol faction, and
who were consequently false to their country. Thus
she had Margaret, daughter of that Lord Abernethy
who basely accepted from the English King a com-

194 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

mission as Captain- General of the Scottish rebels ;
Muriel, daughter of Sir Gilbert de Umphreville, the
forfeited Earl of Angus ; Isabel, daughter of David
Lord Brechin, who was accused of a design to betray
Berwick to the English ; Rosamond and Alice, the
daughters of John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, and Lord
High Constable of Scotland, another prime traitor of
the Baliol faction ; and Yolande, daughter of William
de Gifford, Lord of Tester, in East Lothian. All
these were beautiful girls, and, save the last, wrere
proud, haughty, and reserved ; for their manners and
bearing were all modelled exactly after those of Lady
Comyn. Yolande de Gifford, whose father, though a
lord, had, strange to say, been true to Scotland, was
an orphan, and had been taken into the Castle of
Kirkintulloch at the request of Bernard, Abbot of
Arbroath, the Lord Chancellor, and almost in pity,
as all her father's lands in the shire of Haddington
had been seized by John BalioL She was the most
beautiful of Gwendoleyne's attendants, and perhaps
the most reserved and gentle, for she felt herself
friendless and alone among the selfish courtiers of the
Scottish King. Blue eyed, golden haired, and softly
skinned, Yolande, who had been so named after her
godmother, the late queen (Yolande, Countess de
Dreux.), was, indeed, the most gentle and loveable of
all gentle creatures, and she shrank under the bold
black eyes of Lady Gwendoleyne, as a sensitive plant
might shrink beneath a hot sun, or before the keen
north wind.

Yolande, when the tresses of her rich hair were
gathered in the golden crespinette then worn by ladies
of the Scottish Court, to show the contour of the neck
and shoulders ; when her blue kirtle, with its tight
sleeves, displayed her beautiful form, over which

THK win: OF Tin: RED COMYN.

float od lior sunjiiayiir or velvet mantle, tied with

Is at each shoulder, looked only second in beauty
to Lady Coinyn li rself, for they were nearly of a

lit; and lit T pretty white fingers were the most
expert of all the ladies there at the weaving of those
endless waves of tapestry at which all noble demoi-
n worked daily for the comfort and decora-
tion i>r their dwellings and churches. Such was then
tii.- industrious custom ; and we are told that Matilda,

•11 of William the Conqueror of England, sewed
with her own fair hands sixty-seven yards representing
the history of the Conquest of South Britain, begin-

wlth Harold's embassy to the Norman Court, and
eihlin'4 with his death at Hastings.

After a long absence at King Edward's Court in

ion, Red Comyn returned to Scotland, which

tin 'ii groaning under the yoke of the infamous
Kin;_f John Buliol, the tool of the English, and a fac-
tion of traitorous Scottish nobles. On arriving at his
home, he gave presents to all the ladies of his house-
hold— to one a necklace, to another a bract-let, a
cinette, a brooch, and so forth; but to Yolande
i lillbrd he gave a golden ring.

/</ !

The restless suspicions of his lady had now dis-
covered a clue to something real and tangible ; and
now she had an object on which her vague jealousies
could settle with security. Yolande de Gifford, the
playmate of her absent son — the viper whom sin- had
taken into her bosom at the entreaty of the cunning
Abbot Bernard, was doubtless involved with her
husband in one of those intrigues which had
rmliittrred her whole life, although she had ii

aide to detect them or discover solid proofs.
'• Let me be wary and watch well," said she t<l

196 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

herself ; " should it be so, by the cross that stood on
Calvary, my Lord of Badenoch shall pay dear for his
fair-haired toy !"

lago's words have been quoted a thousand times,
and none are more true ; for

" Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous, confirmation strong

As proofs of holy writ

Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons,
Which, at the first, are scarce found to distaste,
But, with a little act upon the blood,
Burn like the mines of sulphur."

Lady Comyn suddenly discovered that the timid
Yolande had been abstracted and thoughtful, neglect-
ful of her apportioned duties, and inattentive alike to
the conversation of her companions and the commands
of her mistress. Was not this a sign of love and of
secret thoughts ? She frequently and bitterly repri-
manded her, till even the gentle Yolande could not
forget that she was the Lord Tester's only daughter,
and replied with honest pride and proper spirit, assert-
ing her own position and rank.

"This insolence and hauteur are alike unbe-
coming," said Lady Gwendoleyne ; " and you shall
be banished, minion, from my hall and bower, though
the poorest convent in Scotland be your portionless
home !"

And assuredly this harsh threat would have been
put in execution, but for the determined intervention
of the Red Comyn, whose kindness to the orphan in-
creased with his haughty wife's displeasure ; and so
she set her little black dwarf, who was dumb, to watch
Yolande constantly. This dwarf was a present from
Sir Thomas of Charteris, the famous Red Rover and
pirate, who afterwards became Lord of Kinfouns, and

THE WIFE OP THE RED COMYX. 197

was conquered on the high seas by William Wal-

About the time that great preparations were mak-

:V>r the return of her son, the young Sir John

Corayn, whom — whether the youth was so disposed

or not — she meant to wed to his cousin, Alicia

Comyn, daughter of the Lord High Constable, she

i,r;iin imparting her griefs to Sir Alexander of

Cavers.

" Comyn goeth from bad to worse ; he braves me
now, and dares to keep his minion here, whether I
will it or no. By God's teeth, sir, could I but dis-
cover aught to prove my suspicions right, I'd slay
that pale-faced Yolande with Red Comyn's own

-• H"

•• 1 beseech you, lady, to compose yourself, and to
be assured that your suspicions are alike unjust and
cruel ; for they malign your husband and crush this
friendless maiden to the dust."

1 1 tell you that I hate her !" responded the impe-
rious dame, grinding her beautiful teeth, while her

jnificent eyes Hashed fira

" Then get her married," said the Chamberlain of
Scotland, pithily.

" Who in these selfish times will be mad enough to
wed the penniless daughter of a forfeited house?
Who would ask her love V

" I for one, were I young as herself ; but let her
seek a husband according to the ancient law."

" Sir Alexander, you mock me again."

" Heaven forbid, fair kinswoman ; I do but remind
you of an Act of Parliament passed in the reign of
the late Queen Margaret."

"Pshaw — thn Mniil of Norway — well?"

" Auent spinsters, like this Yolande."

198 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

" Well — well," continued Gwendoleyne, stamping
her pretty foot.

" In 1288, it was statute and ordained, ' that during
the reign of her Most Blessed Majesty, ilk mci'
Imlye of baith high and lowe estate shall Imcr,
lilei'tie to bespeak ye man she UJces : albeit, if he re-
fuses to take her to be his wyf, he shall be mulctit of
ye sum of one hundred pounds or less, as his estate
may be, except and alwais, if he can make it appear
that he is betrothit to ane ither woman, when he
shall be free."

" Yolande is proud as myself, for she comes of a
race that would not stoop their crests to kings ; and
this is but mockery, my Lord Chamberlain, so — but
what is this now ?"

At that moment the little black dwarf crept close
to her side, pulled her skirt, and pointed towards the
chamber of Yolande Gifford. The yellow glossy eyes
of the stunted negro gleamed with malevolent light,
as, snatching up her train, the lady swept out of the
hall ; and the Chamberlain shrugged his shoulders
and blessed his stars that he was still a bachelor,
while he whistled merrily, and resumed his employ-
ment of teaching a hawk to shake its little bells and
coquette with its wings.

With all her pride and spirit, her furious will and
temper, so completely had the demon of jealousy
taken possession of her soul, that Gwendoleyne stooped
to the humility of eavesdropping ; and on hearing the
murmur of voices whispering in the chamber of
Yolaude, she crept close to the thick arras that covered
the door, and listened with all her soul in her (

" Go, I implore you," she heard Yolande say, in a
stifled voice ; " alas ! if you are discovered here, what
will my tyrannical mistress say ?"

Till: WIFE OF THE RED COMYX. 199

"Just what she pleases," replied a voice, and then
tin re was a sound — a kiss — which set the listener's
blood on fire.

" I am watched by that hateful imp her dwarf, and
live in daily terror of her discovering all," continual
tin- sobbing Yolande ; "and you know what her vicus
are concerning yourself. Go — go — John Comyn, for
tin- love of God and Saint Mary, go !"

" John Comyn !" muttered Lady Gwendoleyne ;
"oh, wretch ! that I had a dagger here to avenge this
double perfidy !"

A pause ensued.

"To-morrow evening be it, then — at the Roman
Peel," .said a low voice.

" When the moon is over Campsie Fells."

" You will not forget, beloved Yolande."

" Oh, no — no ; and let that meeting be our last, for
nnnther day will change the face of everything," wept
Yolande.

Unable longer to restrain her fury, the white hand
of Lady Comyn tore aside the arras, and she rushed
into tin- apartment with all the aspect of an enraged
Pythoness, whileat the same moment the figure of a man
vanished from the open window, and his steps were
heard crashing through the bushes and trees without,
as he retired hastily and in the dusk ; but Gwendo-
leyne saw— or thought she saw — enough to bo con-
vinced that the fugitive was no other than her
husband !

" Alas ! madam," cried Yolande, sinking on her
kn.-es in an agony of terror, "you have discovered
us."

" At last — yes, at last ! " exclaimed the fierce, ex-
ulting woman, in hoarse accents, as she savagely
wreathed her slender fingers, which rage had endued

200 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

with triple strength, in the golden hair of Yolande,
and proceeded to drag her several times across the
oak floor ; " beggar ! viper ! outcast ! — ha, ha, ha !
thou shalt die now I" and she laughed as she tore
out those beautiful tresses in handfuls, till the poor
girl's shrieks died away, and she sank senseless at her
feet. Then Gwendoleyne locked her up, and after
tying the key of the chamber to her silver girdle, re-
tired to her own apartment to still the fierce tumult
that swelled her fiery heart, and to lay her plans of
deeper and surer vengeance. Alas ! they were but
too soon formed and matured for pity or remorse to
arrest them.

The night passed away, and though she had alter-
nate fits of tenderness and tears, with gusts of jealous
rage and passion, the morning found her cold, calm,
inexorable, and resolved to have a terrible retribution
on the Red Comyn for this attempt to deceive her ;
and the arrival of a hasty message from him, stating
that he was compelled to depart with a slender train
on public business to the town of Dumfries, only made
her smile the more bitterly, as she thought she saw
the game her truant husband meant to play ; but she
resolved to checkmate him.

" Dumfries, my Lord Chamberlain I" she said, with
a scornful smile upon her lovely lip ; " now what
fool's errand takes him there ?"

" To hold a conference with Sir Robert Bruce, the
young Earl of Annandale," replied the other, in a low
voice ; " the Bruces have some bold project now in
hand."

"A project."

" Ay, to root the English faction and all Baliol's
people out of Scotland. Comyn hath known of this
project long, and duly gives King John and King

THE WIFE OF THE RED COMYX. 201

Edward notice of its progress ; thus Bruce ere long
must peri-h ami'l his own plots and follies."

" Ami without waiting for our boy's arrival from

Perth, without even bidding me adieu, Comyn has

goae to confer with him? Tis well — I wish him

1 on his journey. But there is a prophecy con-

'',<!/ him ; so let him beware lest he perish by a

violent death like his kinsman who died at Craigie,

and who had no other grave than his own girdle."

" Now, grace me guide, lady, talk not thus," replied
Sir Alexander, growing pale at her words, which
red to a terrible tale ; for it came to pass in the
days of King Alexander III., that it was foretold by
Thomas the Rhymer, that Comyn Earl of Buchan,
who was ranger of the royal hunting forests of Plater,
would die by a violent death ; so he mocked the seer,
saying —

" Thou art Sir Thomas the Liar, rather than the
Rhymer."

But the aged chief replied solemnly in verse, as was
his wont when inspired by his mysterious power —

" Though TJiomas the Liar thou callcst me,
The sooth, Lord Ear), I toll to thee !
By Aikeyside,
Thy horse shall ride ;
He shall stumble and thou shall fa',
Thy neckbane shall be broken in twa,
And the hunting dogs thy bones shall gnaw !
There, maugre all thy kin and thee,
Thine own belt thy bier shall be !"

And so it came to pass soon after, for when the earl
was hunting in the gloomy Den of Howie, as he gal-
loped over the green hill of Arkeybrae, his horse
became dazzled by the setting sun, and threw him
with such violence that his brains were dashed out

202 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

by some blocks of grey stone, which to this day are
named Comyn's Craigie, and there his bones were
found after his hounds had gnawed and torn them
asunder.

" So, for God's love, dear lady," resumed the Lord of
Cavers with a shudder, " refer no more to these dark
and terrible predictions."

; The white lips of the haughty lady smiled, but a wild
expression of rage and sorrow filled her eyes, and the
glance she gave her kinsman was to him inexplicable,
as she had not a doubt that this sudden journey was
all a device of her husband to meet, or perhaps to
elope, with Yolande. Dark and terrible were the
silent thoughts of Gwendoleyne as the evening drew
on. The old prophecy that like the Black Comyn,
the Red one would die by a violent death, seemed
ever before her in letters of fire ; and she thought that
now the time had come.

" How was I ever weak enough to expect that a
fair-haired man could be true to me ?" she muttered ;
"in all old Scripture tapestries are not Cain and
Judas represented with large yellow beards, or red
ones, like that of my husband Comyn ! Oh, woe is
me ! and cursed be the hour I forsook Sir John the
Grahame to become the wife of his home and the
mother of his children !"

All that day she kept Yolande carefully under lock
and key, and without food or drink, while the black
dwarf watched the window and the corridor. The
sunset faded on the green ridges of the Campsie Fells,
evening darkened into sombre night, and the pale
light of the moon, long before her rising, was spread
across the blue and starry sky behind the hills of
Lanarkshire. The woolly-leaved birches that fringed
the banks of the Logic and Kelvin, diffused a rich

THE \Vi , ;IE IIKI) COMYX.

;;mco as the dew of eve full on them; and tin;
li' T»H sent up its mournful cry at times, as it
Availed iu the pools that gleamed below the ca.stle
Avails.

Attired as Yolande, in a dress of dark velvet starred
with silver, with her black locks gathered in a golden
crespinette, a veil spread over her head and shoulders,
and with her little white hand grasping the hilt of a
1< 'd dagger that was concealed in her bosom, the
wife of the Red Comyn left the Castle of Kirkintulloch
unseen by all, and by a little postern on the south,
and, skirting the houses of trie town, reached the
ing-place, the Caer-pen-tulloch, or old Roman
fort at the west end of the hill. The fallen ramparts
of the tower were eighty feet square, and the yellow
broom, the green whin, the purple foxglove, and the
t wallflower, all flourished together on the masses
of fallen masonry which were covered by long grass
that waved mournfully to and fro between the pale
Gwendoleyne and the white starlight. The place
seemed very silent, lonely, and desolate. All was in-
tensely still, save the fierce beating of her heart,
•which teemed with passion, as her eyes did with tears
she scorned to weep. Time stole away. The moments
d like hours.

No one came ! Could she have mistaken the place
— the time ?

Now the yellow moon began to peep above
the distant hills, and its lustre glinted on the
green mounds and shattered masonry of the ancient
peel.

Up, up it came, and now its whole disc was gleam-
ing above the dark mountain-ridge, and tipj>
rock and peak with fire.

Gwendoleyno prayed in her heart that no one might

204. LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

come — that she might have been deceived — that
Comyn, the father of her four children — but, hark !
the hoofs of a horse rang hollowly on the green turf,
and through the archway of the ruined enclosure rode
an armed man, who sang merrily the same march to
which, eight years after, Bruce marched his victorious
host to Bannockburn.

" Hark to the tramp, from yonder camp,
Whence the Scottish spearmen come !
When they hear the bagpipe sounding,
Tuttie taittie to the drum !"

" Tis the Red Comyn's favourite song !" said she,
shrinking aside ; " now mayest thou be accursed from
the bearing cloth in which thou wert baptized to that
shroud of blood in which thou shalt lie ! Now by
the soul of him who loved me well, the Grahame
who fell at Falkirk, and by the life of my son — my
dearest hope — I shall have a terrible vengeance !"

The knight, on whose head was a plumed chapel-de-
fer, with a mail coif that concealed the lower part of
his face, wore over his armour an embroidered coin-
tise, with the cognisance of the Comyns, two ostriches,
with the motto " Courage." He dismounted, and
after looking about him for a moment, discovered
Gwendoleyne, to whom he hastened with an exclama-
tion of joy, and she recognised on the breast of the
surcoat some embroidery, on which she had but too
surely and too lately seen the white hands of Yolande
Gifford plying the needle ! What other proof of
perfidy was necessary ? *

An arm was thrown around her, and passionately
and joyously she was pressed to the breast of the new
comer. But while trembling with ungovernable fury
to find herself exposed to embraces intended for

Till: WIFE OF THE RED COMYN. 205

Yolande, she drove her poniard in the heart of the
twice, exclaiming,

" Die, villain and deceiver— die in your adultery —
die !"

"Mother — oh, mother!" cried a voice, which froze
the marrow in her bones ; and the frantic and wretched
udoleyne discovered that she had slain — not the
Red Comyn — but their beloved and only son.

The plumed chapcl-dc-fer rang as the wearer
sank to the earth.

A gurgling sound was all that followed ; the ruined
tower swam round that miserable woman, and, mul-
tiplied by a thousand times, the horse of the mur-
dered knight seemed to career around her; till borne
down by misery, by a revulsion of feeling, by over-
tension of the heart, and by horror of what she had
done, Gwendoleyne sank senseless on the body of her
son.

The young Sir John Comyn had loved the orphan

Yolande, and on his return had secretly wished to

meet — perhaps, for all that we can learn now — to

ise her; but this terrible catastrophe ended his

litu and intentions together.

Meanwhile, like a true Scottish baron bent on selfish
srh'-mes of family ambition and degrading aggran-
disement, Red Comyn had ridden fast to meet Robert
Bruce, the younger, at Dumfries, and to concert with
him a pretended plan to free Scotland from the
English and from John Baliol ; but of this scheme
the red-headed traitor had duly informed King Ed-
\\-.\\\\ from time to time. On Comyn's arrival in
Nithsdale, the gallant Robert, afterwards King of
Scotland, had fled in safety northward, by reversing
his horse's hoofs, as the ground was covered with
sncw; and being furnished with clear proofs of his com-

206 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

patriot's villainy, he pursued him to the church of the
Minorites at Dumfries, whither he had fled for sanc-
tuary, being full of conscious guilt; but neither the house
of God nor its high altar could protect this perfidious
wretch, who was false to Scotland and her people ;
and the prophecy that " Red Comyn should die by a
violent death " was terribly fulfilled ; for there Bruce,
Lindsay, and Kirkpatrick buried their daggers in his
heart upon St. William's day, the 1 Oth of February,
1306.

So perish all who are false to their country !

He was the last Comyn of the house of Badenoch,
and was, moreover, the last of his race — a race which
Scotland well could spare.

Lady Gweudoleyne never spoke after she was borne
into the castle with the dead body of her son. She
lived for five years a close captive in that yellow cham-
ber, and during those terrible five years a word, even of
prayer, never passed her lips ; but a period was put
to her sufferings, for this proud and resentful beauty
died on the 10th day of February, 1310, at the hour
of three in the afternoon, the' anniversary of the very
moment in which her husband died under the three
daggers in the Minorite Church of Dumfries.

She was buried before the Shrine of St. Ninian,
with all the grandeur of a princess and all the splen-
dour of the Roman ritual ; her son slept by her side,
and Sir Alexander of Cavers reared a stately monu-
ment above them ; but that fierce woman's restless
spirit is still said to haunt the Castle of Kirkintul-
loch and the Roman ruins at the west end of the
town ; for it is supposed that she will never find re-
pose or peace until the day of doom.

THE WITH OF TITE RED COMVX. 20?

Such was the story told to the captain by tho castel-
lan of the old fortress of Kirkintulloch, scarcely one
e of which now stands upon another, as it was
ivnit.vfil ali'Uit the beginning of the present century.

"And Yolande GirYord— what of her?" asked the
captain.

^he did not die of love or grief either, but
! to be a very old woman, and passed away in
:il>«ut her eightieth year, when Robert III. was
King, a prioress of the Bernardino nuns of St. Mary
— a convent of which you may still see the ruins on
the north bank of the Avon, about a mile above
Linlithgow Bridge."

" A melancholy story !'J said the captain ; " what
vil of a wife that Gwendoleyne must have been
— but no better than such an infamous traitor as
Com) u deserved !"

" Beware ye, sir," said the castle bailie, lowering
his voice, and looking furtively round him ; " she is
ttiid to walk about — ay, at this very hour, and may
pay you a visit that you may never get the better
of."

" I'll be hanged, bailie, if I go up-stairs to-night —
or this morning, rather," said my grandfather, laugh-
ing ; "I would rather face the Dons at the Moro
again, than meet that dame in black velvet with her
1 of a dwarf — so make a fresh browst and stir up
the fire."

The clock struck four.

" Four !" said the soldier ; " four already ; and we
inarch in an hour !"

The bailie, who was a jolly old fellow, brewed a fivsh

jorum of hot toddy — by this time they had under

their girdles ten jugs each ; and my grandfather now

began to spin his yarns, and detailed the slaughter

o 2

208 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

of Ticonderoga, the scalping and flaying at Fort
Pitt, the storming of the Moro, where British mus-
ket-butts and the pates of the Dons tested the hard-
ness of each other ; he proceeded on the expedition
up the Lakes, and had just opened the trenches
before Montreal, when he found himself at the bot-
tom of his tenth jug, the fire out, the bailie asleep
in his easy-chair, and heard the warning drum beaten
in the streets of Kirkintulloch — the warning for the
march, Avhile the grey dawn stole through the ancient
windows.

It was daylight now, and fearless alike of Dame
Gwendoleyne and her dwarf, my grandfather sallied
down-stairs, and propping himself between his clay-
more and the walls of the houses, or an occasional
pump-well as he passed it, reached the muster-place,
and holding himself very erect, gave, with great
emphasis, the command to " march." His detach-
ment marched accordingly, and — here ends our story
for the present.

209

VI.

STORY OF THE GREY MOUSQUETAIRE.

A FRAGMENT OF THE SEVEN YEABS* WAB.

AMONG the captains of " Ours" who had the honour
of serving in the Seven Years' War was one named
Allan Robertson, a gentleman of the clan Donno-
quhy, and a cadet of the loyal house of Struau, who
bore the singular soubriquet of the Mousquetaire
. and whose adventures during the early part of
his military career were very remarkable.

In his latter years, when leading a quiet " half-pay
life" in the Scottish capital, Allan was known to all
tin- military loungers about " Poole's Coffee-house,"
.it the east end of Prince's Street, then the great ren-
(Ir/.vous of the military idler, as a warlike octogena-
rian :i sih vr-haired remnant of other days — and as a
ln-ave and warm-hearted old Highlander, who was so
devoted to the memory of the 42nd, that he never
saw those two numerical figures, even on a street
door, without lifting his hat, and saying, "God
U.'s.s the old number!" for his heart swelled at
everything that reminded him of the venerable Black
Watch.

The manner in which Allan joined the regiment
was in itself romantic und singular.

210 LEGENDS OF THE JJLACK WATCH.

Among the French army at the famous battle of
Minden, in the year 1759, when the Household
troops were led by Prince Xavier of Saxony, brother
of the French Queen, no cavalry distinguished them-
selves more by the fury and valour of their reiterated
charges than the Compagnie Franche, or "Free Com-
pany" of the Chevalier Jules de Cceurdefer, and two
other bands entirely composed of gentlemen of the
highest rank and of irreproachable character, who
were named from the colour of their uniforms Les
Mousquetaires Gns et Rouges, led by the Vicomte de
Chateaunoir.

In the fury of their last attack, the gallant Prince
Xavier was slain by the 51st Regiment, and the
leader of the grey troop (for all these noblesse served
on horseback) was left behind bleeding on the ground,
though a desperate rally was thrice made by tho
energy of one Grey Mousquetaire to rescue and carry
off the colonel. These noble rallies were made in
vain ; for, after a third attempt, the Mousquetaires
were swept from the plain of Minden by the terrible
charge of the Scots Grey Dragoons, led by old Colonel
Preston, the Icist soldier who wore a buff coat in the
British service, and who had risen to command from
being a kettle-drummer in the old Flanders War.

The faithful Mousquetaire fell in this flight, being
pierced by a musket-shot from one of Lord George
Sackville's Dragoons, and he lay all night on that
sanguinary field, near the leader he had striven so
valiantly and in vain to rescue.

A distinguished Highland officer, whose memoirs
have been published, mentions that on the 2nd of
August, the day after the battle, he rode over the
plain, accompanied by Major Pringle of Edgefield.

" On one part of the field we saw a French officer,

THE GREY MOUSQUETAIRK. 211

who had boon wounded in the knee, sitting on the
ground, with his back supported by a dead horse. W,-
accosted him, and offered any assistance in our power.
He proved to be the commanding officer of Les Afous-
•i Gris, and was distinguished by several
is, which, with a handsome snuff-box, had pro-
bably excited the cupidity of some of the wretches
who are never found wanting in the train of an
army. We left him in high spirits, having under-
taken to bring a cart or tumbril to carry him from
the field ; but with the hasty imprudence of young
officers, we rode off together on this duty, instead of
one of us remaining with the wounded man. It
could not be more than ten or twelve minutes when
w returned with the cart, and found — to our un-
kable concern — the murdered body of the poor
1 r. uch colonel (the Vicomte de Chateaunoir) lying
naked on the ground."

Another officer adds, that near the corpse of the
iiuiurtunate colonel, which had been so ruthlessly
stripped by the German marauders and death-
hunters, lay, pistol in hand, the Mousquetaire, who
had made such vigorous efforts to save him in the
• -barge of yesterday. He was still breathing, and
after having his wound hurriedly dressed by a sur-
geon of the 51st, he was conveyed to the rear, in
care of Major Pringle, who was a son of Lord Edge-
lield, a distinguished senator of the Scottish Coll. •-«•
of Justice. At the place where they found him,
tin- adverse artillery had furrowed up the plain
like a ploughed field by their shot, which lay so
thick and half sunk in the turf, that they resembled
an iron pavement, strewn with all the destruction
and debris of battle.

The Grey Mousquetairo was a tall and handsome

212 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

man, bronzed by the weather and scarred by battle.
On the breast of his grey uniform glittered those de-
corations which few of the corps were without — the
golden crosses of St. Louis and St. Lazare.

Pringle conveyed him to his own tent, for he knew
well that the Mousquetaires were all men of no ordi-
nary rank, and there he supplied him with wine and
other comforts. As yet, he had not spoken ; but as
he gathered strength, he began to mutter and talk
to himself in a strange language.

" Assuredly this man is not a Frenchman !" said
Pringle, kneeling down to listen.

The Mousquetaire Gris was praying in the Erse
tongue !

" What — are you a Scotchman ?" exclaimed the
astonished major.

" A Highlander," sighed the other.

"I recognised your Gaelic at once."

" Likely enough," responded the other, in a low
voice; "the Gaelic was the first language I heard,
and, please God, it shall be my last ! 1 spoke but
the tongue I learned at my mother's breast !"

" And you are a Mousquetaire Gris ?"

" Yes — that grey uniform is all the inheritance
which the dark day of Culloden has left me."

" Poor fellow !" said Major Pringle, with commi-
seration ; " and you are — "

" Allan Kobertson, of the house of Struan, who,
thirteen years ago, was a captain in the Athole Re-
giment under his Royal Highness Prince Charles,
whom God long preserve !"

" Hush — hush I" said Pringle, hurriedly ; " remem-
ber that you are in the British camp."

" I care not," replied the other, with flashing eyes ;
" I have shouted his name at Preston, Falkirk and

THE GREY MOUSQUETAIIIK. 213

Cullodcn, anil why should I shrink from naming him
here V •

Major Pringle kept the Jacobite officer in his
quarters, ami in a few days he was able to sit up in a
camp bed, and converse with ease and coherence ;
and many Scottish gentlemen of the army whose
political sympathies were with the exiled race, fre-
< limited the tent, and supplied him with whatever he
rr<iuiivd and their own necessities could spare. He
ask >d particularly about the wounds on the breast of
his dead colonel, the Vicomte de Chateciunoir, and on
being informed that they must have been done with
a dagger, he became dreadfully excited, and ex-
claimed,

" Jules de Coeurdefer has murdered him !"

"Who?" exclaimed Major Pringle and several
officers who were present.

" A wretch most justly named Cceurdefer, who
serves in the French army, to its disgrace ; a noble
and an outlaw — a soldier and a robber ! a riband,
with whom the Mousquetaires Gris et Rouges have
had more than one sword-in-hand encounter."

Among the mass of papers and regimental memo-
randa, from which these legends are gleaned and pre-
p.nt 1. i find this Chevalier Jules de Cceurdef't r
frequently mentioned as a prominent character
during the early part of the Seven Years' War ; ami
some of Robertson's adventures with him during his
service in the Grey Mousquetaires were very remark-
able. His narrative was as followa

" We, the Red and Grey Mousquetaires, by forced
marches from Paris, quitted the gay Court of Louis
X V., and joined the army of M. de Coutades about tho

214 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

end of May, crossed the Rhine with him at Cologne,
Sind on the same day the Free Band of the Chevalier
de Coeurdefer joined us, to the great annoyance of
the whole army; for our hitherto quiet and well-
ordered camp became a scene of incessant disquiet,
by drunken brawls, duels, and severe military punish-
ments ; for as this Franche Gompagnie, like the wild
Pandoors of Baron Trenck, subsist only by gambling
and secret robbery in camp, and by open plunder and
ruthless bloodshed in the field, you may imagine our
repugnance to co-operate with them ; and our asto-
nishment that leaders so strict as M. de Contades or
Prince Xavier of Saxony would tolerate their pre-
sence among us for a moment. Their ranks were
filled by men of all nations — runaway students, spend-
thrifts, cashiered officers, deserters, fugitive malefac-
tors— in short, by men ready for any desperate work,
and being deemed the cheapest food for gunpowder,
• they had enough of it.

" Their captain, the Chevalier Cceurdefer, is the re-
presentative of an ancient but decayed family in Lor-
raine, who spent his patrimony among the gambling-
houses, the cabarets and bordels of Paris. Dismissed
summarily from the French line when a captain in
the Regiment du Roi for barbarously slaying a
brother officer, after severely wounding him in a
duel about a courtesan, he has now joined our army
against the Prussians, in the hope of winning himself
a new name by reckless bravery, cruelty, and outrage.
He is handsome and young, but without fear of God
or man ; without religion, and without honour. Even
their chaplain — "

" What ! they have a chaplain ?" exclaimed Pringle,
laughing.

" Yes, a canon of Notre Dame, who was unfrocked

THE OREY MOrson.TAIRE.

by the Archbishop of Paris for having an affair with
a citizen's wife in the Faubourg St. Antoine. He is
a burlesque oil the clerical character, and rights — as I
was about to say — more duels than even the chevalier
his leader. One of this choice band plundered a
church at Cologne, and as sacrilege could not bo tole-

1, Prince Xavier made a great hubbub about it.
The thief had been seen ; he wore the tattered uni-
form of the Franclm Compagnie, and hail huge red
wkixki'i-s. The chevalier paraded his men next day
for inspection. Bearing a piece of the true cross, the
holy fathers came along the line in solemn procession
to discover the culprit ; but lo ! every man was shaven
to the eyes, and not a vestige of whisker was to be
seen in the whole band of the Chevalier Jules.

" On the 2nd June, 1759, with the force of M. de
Contades, we joined the Marechal Due de Broglio
near Giessen, and left M. d'Armentieres with twenty
thousand men to oppose Prince Ferdinand of Bruns-
wick, in the neighbourhood of the Wesel ; and on
tliis important day we had an open rupture with the
Free Company of Coeurdefer, for when detailed together

rm the advanced guard of horse, the gentlemen
of the Mousquetaires Gris et Rouges flatly refused to
share a post of honour with a corps of outlaws. Then
the chevalier, flaming with irrepressible fury, flung
jlovc in the face of our colonel, Henri the Vicomte
de Chateaunoir, with whom he had an old unfinished
feud, and a duel to the death was only prevented by
the determination of the mare'clml due, who bound
them both down by solemn promises to keep tin-
peace towards each other, at least until the close of
the campaign ; but the villain -Ccourdefer made a
vow of vengeance, s\ve:iring to ' lay the vicomte at his

where he luvd laid many a better man ;' and you

216 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

see how he has kept that vow, for by him or by his men
our wounded leader was murdered on the field on the
morning after Minden I"

" I do not understand," said Major Pringle, in
whose tent this conversation took place one evening,
when, with a few droppers-in, he and the now-con-
valescent Mousquetaire lingered over a few bottles of
Rhenish wine ; " in fact, it seems tome a marvel how
a gallant soldier such as the late Prince Xavier of
Saxony could tolerate the presence of such a ruffian
and bully as this Captain Cceurdefer."

" For various reasons ; he is brave "

" Bravery is no strange quality in the French or
Imperial armies, I think," said one of the 51st.

" Moreover, he is an expert forager, skilful in war,
useful in council, and leader of two hundred troopers,
who have only one virtue — their devotion to him.
Besides, the brutal qualities he displays are not
singular in the history of wars in Germany. We
have had many such examples as he among the
mixed races which make up the armies of France and
Austria.

" In the last century there was the terrible Count
Merode, a colonel of musketeers, whose name has be-
come a proverb for all that is vile ; and there was
the ferocious Jehan de Wart, a colonel of horse, who
in Bavaria spared neither man, woman, nor child,
when the lust of blood glowed in his fiery heart."

" Thank Heaven ! we have no such fellows among
us," said the officer of the 51st, complacently.

" Sir," said Allan Robertson, with a cloudy brow,
"you forget the nine of diamonds — the exterminating
order of Cumberland, written on the night before we
fought you at Culloden."

" But the assassination of your poor colonel,"

TIIK UKKV Mor.M>ri.TAli:K. '-17

u Pringle, hastily, to change the turn the con-
ition was taking.

"Ali ! that was a frightful episode in this new war ;
and yet believe me, my dear major, Coeurdefer has
committed many such acts, and has always contrived
to elude the hand of justice. Witness his vow to lay
our colonel at his fcut, where better men had lain.
Liar that he is! Chateaunoir was the first gentle-
man in France ! But true it is that, of the many who
have lain at the feet of Jules, few have fallen in battle
or fair combat."

" You seem to have serious cause for disliking him,"
sui< I rringle.

" Disliking !" reiterated Robertson, while his eyes
sparkled and his pale face glowed with anger — "say
al'horring him !"

" You had your sword," said the officer of the 51st.

" But it is the sword of a Mousquetaire," replied
Robertson, sternly ; " the chevalier ranks with a field

offic

" True," said Pringle ; "you must pardon my friend,
who forgets surely what discipline inculcates. And
tin cause of this animosity ?"

" Is a dark and painful story," sighed Robertson, as
In; drained his green glass of Rhenish, and tossed it
un the- turf floor of the tent

" Let us hear it"

"Before the rising of the clans in 1745," began
Robertson, " I was a student at the Scottish College
of Pontamousson, where I learned Latin and the
classics under the tuition of old Father Innes. I had
dim a dear friend named Louis d'Herblay, a native of
Remiremont, at the foot of Mount Vosge in Lorraine*
Louis was handsome, brave, and courteous ; an expert
maker of verses ; a tolerable player on the guitar,

2l8' LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

and a smart handler of his sword, which he had
seldom occasion to use, for he was beloved by
every one ; a successful love affair with Mademoiselle
Annette, a pretty and sprightly girl, had put him in
the best of humours with all mankind. Annette was
the only daughter of the old Marquis de Chateaunoir,
father of the vicomte of that title, Great Marechal of
Lorraine and Bar-le-Duc.

"Jules Cceurdefer, the spendthrift, gambler, and
roue, was then, to our great regret, at college with
us too, and having not yet come to his estates, his
finances being far below his ambition and expendi-
ture, to keep these equal he had betaken him to cards,
dice, successful bets, to bullying some and cajoling
others- — and to every means his wild and wayward
course of life permitted — a course which was the
scandal of the good fathers of Pontamousson, and
soon procured him the only favour he wished at their
hands — expulsion .

" Between him and Louis d'Herblay there grew an
aversion — a hatred that waxed stronger daily ; an an-
tagonism on his side, but on the part of Louis a cold
and haughty bearing ; for he despised the life and
habits of Cceurdefer, whom he had thrice fought and
thrice disarmed, when involved with him in tavern
brawls beyond the college gates ; for within these
barriers no sword or other weapon was ever worn.
But in the very spirit of a Venetian bravo, Jules was
known, or suspected, to bear about his person a small
crystal poniard, the most savage of all weapons for
inflicting a wound ; as the blade, when broken off at
the hilt, remained like a deadly sting in the body of
the victim. It was a weapon which could be used but
once only, and then with terrible effect.

" I have mentioned that my friend D3 Herblay had

T1IK GREY MOUS<>r: 219

tVair. As a trophy of it, he wore at
his breast an antique cameo of great size, set round
\\itli diamonds, and within it was the hair of Annette
concealed by a secret spring. He was not rich, but

-utlick-ntly wealthy and well born to render him
an acceptable suitor even to the most wary of fathers ;
thus it had been arranged that, as soon as he left col-
lege, his marriage would be celebrated. Father Innes,
our old preceptor, was to perform the ceremony ; all

tudents congratulated Louis, and looked forward
to his nuptials as to a fete — at least, all save

i d« fur, who kept ever aloof from him, and smiled
with the quiet covert smile of malice and hate, when
1) ihrblay or his affairs were mentioned in his pre-

"At last came the time appointed for Louis to
• the college, and I was to accompany him to
Remiremont. He bade adieu to all the old Scottish
priests of Pontamousson, and severally shook hands
with all his brother students — all till he came to
where Cceurdefer was lounging outside the gates
smoking a huge German pipe ; and D' Herblay, in
tin' happy fulness of his honest heart, being unwilling
to leave a foe behind him, approached and held out
his hand, saying —

" ' Farewell, M. le Chevalier, though we have not
always been the best of friends, I hope we do not
as enemies. Here is my hand to you — my
hand, in token of friendship and future amity.'

" Despito the honest frankness that beamed in tho
blue eyes of D'Herblay and the confiding generosity
of his speech, the coarse Jules Coeurdefer gave him a
sullen frown, and while rudely emitting a volume of
smoke full in his face, with a sullen gesture of con-
tempt, strode away.

220 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" All the students muttered ' Shame !' and for a
moment a cloud hovered on the usually smooth brow
of D'Herblay.

" ' Bah !' said he, turning to me, c one who is so
happy as I, can well afford to pity the wrath of one
so poor in spirit and in Christian charity. Farewell,
Jules/ he added, as we leaped on our horses ; ' when
next we meet, we shall part less sullenly/

" ' Yes — when next we meet, our parting shall be
different/ replied Coeurdefer, looking over his left
shoulder, with a black frown in his face, as we trotted
from the college gates.

" ' He means me mischief — pooh ! let the fool do his
worst/ said Louis. We soon dismissed him from our
thoughts, and laughing and chatting gaily, waving
our hats to the old people, and kissing our hands to
the young girls, we rode through the old familiar
streets of Pontamousson, and took the road that led
direct to D'Herblay 's home, which lay more than
twenty leagues distant. And now, gentlemen, observe
that within one hour after we left the college
gates, Jules de CcEurdefer, alone and unattended,
also departed on horseback, ostensibly to return
to his father's house on the French side of the
Rhine.

" We cantered along the road to Nancy, between
the yellow cornfields, feeling happy as boys in our
new freedom, and singing together a song which Louis
bad composed in honour of Annette de Chateaunoir,
and thus we pushed on without halting at the capital
of the duchy, save for a few minutes at a jeweller's,
where my friend bought a diamond bracelet for his
future bride. Blaziers and Neufchateau were soon
passed, and then we reached Epinal, which, in 1466,
was bestowed upon the once independent princes of

THE (JIJKY MOUSQUETAIRE.

Lorraine ; and their castle, now a ruin, crowns an
eminence above it.

" Epinal is within ten miles of Remiremont, and
tin re we were compelled by the state of our horses to
halt, notwithstanding the impatience of my friend, to
whom a night spent so near the residence of Annette
:ied an age, and the ten miles that intervened a
thousand leagues ; but we called for supper and made
ourselves comfortable at an auberge. Louis assumed
his guitar, and we sought to while away the time; and
the hours flew quickly, for we had a thousand plans
to form and things to talk of.

" Alas ! how little did we dream that Jules de
Cceurdefer, like a bloodhound, was tracking us
swiftly and surely, by Nancy, Blaziers, and Neuf-
chateau, and had actually lodged himself in an
auberge opposite ours, at Epinal.

" After sitting up late, we retired. Overcome by an
excessive lassitude, induced by the long and arduous
journey of the past day, I fell into a deep and pro-
ti.inul sleep — so deep indeed, that the noon of the
next day had rung from the church bells ere I awoke,
and inquired for my companion. Thus, you may see,
the dift'erence between one who is a lover ami
one who is not.

" Louis had been up with the lark, as the aubergisto
informed me, and full of impatience to visit his mis-
tress, had mounted a fresh horse, and set forth alone,
leaving a message for me to follow him to the man-
sion of the marquis, near Remiremont ; adding, as an
apology for his abrupt departure, that he was loth to
iuu>.' me from a slumber so comfortable and \>K>-
found.

"I ordered my horse, paid my bill, and departed at
- for I had J>o hope of overtaking Jura, An

222 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

easy trot of ten miles brought mo to Remiremont,
which is a pretty little town on the left bank of the
Moselle, and without difficulty I reached Chateau-
noir, the fosse of which was filled by the river. The
edifice was ancient, surmounted by heavy turrets and
all built of black stone .(hence its name), and it stood
embosomed among fine old trees.

" I sent up my name, and inquired for M.
d'Herblay.

" ' How — is he not with you, M. Allan ?' asked the
old marquis,, with astonishment in his tone and
manner.

" ' No/ said I ; 'he quitted Epinal at least four
hours before me, leaving a message for me to follow
him hither/

u ' Four hours before you, and he has not arrived
yet!'

" ' This is most perplexing, M. le Marquis !' said I.

" ' Oh, mon Dieu ! what can have happened ?' ex-
claimed mademoiselle, whom I now saw for the first
time, and who was a fair blonde, with a beautiful skin
and long dark eyelashes, which lent a softness and
inexpressible charm to her face.

" I could not reply. My heart misgave me ; for
knowing D'Herblay as I did, I feared that some-
thing most unusual must have occurred to prevent
his appearance at the chateau.

" Noon passed ; the sun verged westward, and still
he did not appear. I became seriously alarmed ; the
old marquis was perplexed and irritated ; while
Annette wept in silence.

" Horses were ordered at last, and with Chateaunoir,
his son the Vicomte Henri, afterwards Colonel of
the Grey Mousquetaires, and all his servants, I set
forth to search the roads and inquire for my friend.

THE GREY MOUSQUETAIIIK. 223

For some time we prosecuted this object in vain ;
but alter much labour ami anxiety, judge of ou
horror, when in a secluded orangery, about two
miles from Epinal, the young vicomte found a man
lying on the grass wounded, bleeding and dying, sur-
rounded by a group of pitying and terrified viin
drenera

" The damps of death were on the brow of this
unfortunate, who proved to be my friend, poor Louis
(I'll i rblay.

" He was frightfully pale, having received several
wounds — one of these in the bosom occasioned him
the most exquisite agony. From this wound he had
bird for some hours undiscovered, and now he was
beyond all hope of recovery. Revived partially by
our presence, by a cordial poured between his lips,
and by the stoppage of the crimson tide which had
soaked the soil whereon he lay, in broken accents
and at long intervals,, he related what. had befallen
him ; and every word he uttered there, so slowly,
painfully, and laboriously, sank deeply in our hearts,
lor they were too surely the last words of the dyin-.

"Loth to arouse me untimeously at Epinal, my kind
friend had arisen, and softly descended the wooden
stair, saddled his horse, and left the aufcerge by dawn.
; ;i-d from Epinal at a canter, and in the over-
flowing happiness of his heart was singing merrily,
when at a solitary part of the road, he heard tin-
hoofs of a galloping horse, and a voice impetuously
calling upon him to stop. Believing this folK

i, who had discovered his secret and hasty dc-

parUnv, he turned to find himself confronted by a

tall stranger, whose face was concealed by a black

t mask, and whom he believed to be a brigand

or assassin.

p 2

224 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

" ' Monsieur/ said the strange horseman, in a voice
which, by its varying tones, was too evidently dis-
guised as his face, 'you are abroad betimes.'

" ' As you also are/ replied Louis ; ' but was it you,
monsieur, who called upon me to stop ?'

"'It was.'

" ' For what purpose ?'

" ' That you shall shortly see.'

" ' Shortly — nay, as soon as you please, for I am in
haste.'

" ' Indeed !' said the other scornfully and slowly.

" ' What is your wish, sir ?'

" Simply, that you measure swords with me in this
meadow.'

' " Why ?' asked Louis, with astonishment.

" ' I intended to have pistolled you through the
back, sans ceremonw, at first ; but my heart re-
lented; thus, I mean to afford you a chance of
saving your miserable life — though I must have your
purse and valuables.'

" ' You are, then, a robber.'

" ' If one whose funds are down to zero, and who
is desperate, be a robber, then I am one/ replied the
mask, still in his feigned voice.

'"I am no* poltroon, yet I will gladly save your
soul the commission of a double crime/ said poor
D'Herblay, who was the very mirror of generosity ;
' here is my purse, good fellow — pray accept it and
be gone, for I have no time to trifle with you/

The unknown coolly put the purse in his pocket
and drew his sword, saying, with an ironical laugh —

"' I thank you, though I would have had it, at all
events ; but still/ he added, grinding his teeth, ' you
must fight with me !'

" ' Leave me until to-rnorrow/ said Louis ; ' thero

THE GREY MOUSQUETA1UE. 225

is one awaiting me at Rcmiremont— one expecting me
to-day — whom I would not disappoint — a lady who
loves me, monsieur.'

" The stranger laughed scornfully.

" ' Let me see her but once again, and I shall meet
you with joy.'

" The stranger laughed louder, and said bitterly —

" ' Why not meet me now ?'

"'I know not,' urged poor D'Herblay, who
was anxious to ride on; 'but your presence chills
my heart — I have a dark and solemn presenti-
ment.'

" For a third time the other laughed ferociously,
while his eyes sparkled through the holes in his
ma-k, and he menaced D'Herblay with his sword,
sa \iiii; —

"Fighfc—: fight!'

' ' To-morrow — I tell you, to-morrow/

' ' Never — be it now or never !'

' ' I am too full of happiness to fight.'

' ' Happiness !'

" ' She whom I love — she whom I am to wed, ex-
pects me at Remiremont'

" ' She whom you love, and whom you hope to wed,
shall never see you, but as a breathless corpse,
fool !'

" ' If I am slain, who will bear my last words to
Aim.-ttr r

" ' The spirits of the air or the demons of hell — I
care not which,' was the fierce response.

" ' Fool that I was to leave the auberge without my
friend. Moreover, I decline to fight with a rascally
lUUur/'

" This epithet, which is used in France to distinguish
a person who, without provocation, delights in quar-

226 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

relling and forcing others to fight, made this highway
brawler tremble with rage.

" ' Coward !' he thundered out.

" ' Hah !' exclaimed Louis, leaping from his horse,
and in his passion forgetting all but vengeance.

" £ Coward, come on !' reiterated his assailant.

"Louis pressed to his lips the cameo locket which
contained the hair of Annette, and with a prayer
to Heaven that he might be spared to see her,
rushed upon his furious antagonist. A desperate
duel began, and so ably were the voice and costume
of the masker disguised, that never once did a thought
of Jules de Ccourdefer cross the mind of D'Herblay.
They had withdrawn from the roadway into an
orangery, and taken off their coats and vests to
afford them greater freedom. A perfect fencer, Louis
stood erect, with his head upright, his bo^y forward
on a longe, all the weight on his left haunch — feet,
hands, body, arm and sword in a line, and completely
covered by his weapon.

" Their swords clashed and gleamed in the bright
morning sun ; both were expert combatants, and most
of their passes were skilfully made and as skilfully
parried. The masker made a feint to the left, but
changing the attack, suddenly ran his weapon through
the sword-arm of Louis, fairly wedging the blade
between the bones below the elbow, and covering his
shirt with blood in a moment. Paralysed by this, his
future defence was feeble. He received repeated
wounds, and was at last laid prostrate on the earth,
bleeding and senseless.

" ' Lie there, thou moonstruck fool !' exclaimed his
ruthless conqueror, giving him a final stroke in the
breast. Tearing away the cameo locket, he left the
unhappy D'Herblay a dying man, for he expired in

THE lini-Y MOUSQUETAIKE. 227

our amis as we were conveying him to Rcmire-
raont

unining the wound in his breast, we found that

it had been made by the blade of a email cry.-t<il

. wliich was purposely broken oft' from the hilt

and left rankling in the orifice to insure by a mortal

stroke the death of the victim !

" My first thought was of Coeurdefer, whom I knew
to be the possessor of such weapons, which he had
brought from Venice, where they are commonly used
1 > v the bravoes ; but the proofs I could adduce were
too slight for me, a stranger and a foreigner, to
;so the son of a powerful baronial family ; thus
the terrible suspicion remained locked in my own
luvast — a suspicion that grew less, however, when
I remembered that the victor, like a common foot-
I >:»<!, had taken the purse and locket of my poor
friend.

"The grief of a kind, warm-hearted, and affectionate
•jirl like Annette may be imagined. She wept little,
but her sorrow was the deeper that it was unrelieved
by any external manifestations. She was long in-
consolable.

"Now came the war consequent to the Lea<:u.-
formed at Vienna, in 1757, to strip the King of
Prus -i;i of his dominions, and an alliance was forim-d
by France, Austria, Russia, and Sweden, when Britain
del-laved war against the former, and all Europe seemed
to '{TO by the ears' at once.

"The old Marquis deChateaunoir marched asColone*
of Horse under the Mare'chal d'Estre'es, and fell at the
ige of the Rhine. His son, the Vicomte Henri,
became a soldier, too, and soon obtained the command
of the Mousquetaires Gris, into which I, then a fugi-
tive from the Scottish Highlands, was admitted !•}•

228 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

his request ; but long before all this poor little Annette
had become a canoness of Bemiremoni

"This ecclesiastical establishment, by the peculiarity
of its constitution, is one of the most singular in the
church. Itwasfounded by St.Romerick,afamous abbot,
who lived in the days of Clotaire II., and who built
his first convent on what was then a bare and deso-
late place, at the foot of Mount Vosge. All the ladies
in it, the abbess excepted, take certain vows, reserving
to themselves the right of quitting the convent and
marrying if they please ; and all must prove their
nobility by four descents before admission. The
abbess had both spiritual and temporal power under
the Pope and Dukes of Lorraine.

" Annette was a canoness for three years, and lived
in peace, viewing the world only as a place wherein
to practise those little act's of kindness and Christian
charity which the ladies of St. Romerick practised so
freely as to make their establishment a boon and a
blessing to that sequestered little city among the
mountains. There her virtues, her attention to the
sick, and her charity to the poor, excited the admira-
tion of all, as her sorrowful story, and sad, grave man-
ner won their sympathy. So three years glided away,
until in an evil hour Jules de Cceurdefer came to visit
his sister, who was the superior of this remarkable
establishment.

" He saw Annette unveiled in the garden ; her pale
beauty, her exceeding gentleness, and her loneliness
raised a passion in his breast. Impetuous in all
things, he at once besought his sister to intercede for
him with Annette ; and after many objections to
engage in a task so unsuited to the nature of her
office, the abbess, inspired by a natural regard for her
only brother, and a desire to obtain for hirn the object

Till! (iKKV MOUSQUETA1IIK. 229

of his choice, whom she justly deemed a pearl among
women, and one whom she loved dearly and highly
med, left nothing unsaid to urge his suit. M.
.lull s became a regular visitor at the convent parlour,
and daily saw Annette in the presence of the abbess,
who, believing that his conversation and gaiety (for he
was fresh from Paris, and the camp of Marcchal
d*Estre'es) might amuse and interest the lonely girl,
L\V that in a second love affair she might gradu-
ally !•<• drawn from the terrible memory of the first
and of its fatal end.

•• They soon became intimate, and all Remiremont
rang with gossip ; the old condemned the lax disci-
pline of the abbess, and the young rejoiced that the
1 iivtty canoness Annette de Chateaunoir was to become
the wife of the handsome chevalier.

" In submission to the stronger will of the lady
sujx-rior, and to the energetic mind oft Jules, and per-
haps da//led a little by the brilliance, the splendid
uniform, handsome figure, and gay conversation of
that r< -doubtable personage, she passively admitted his
addresses. But this new lover's deep dark eye seemed
to exercise some mysterious and magnetic influence
her; for, as the poor girl afterwards told me,
there were times when his glance seemed full of a
terrible fascination, and when she alternately loved
and felt a strange coldness — almost an involuntary
repugnance for him.

Ibe strove to conquer this emotion, the origin of
which she failed to fathom, and anxious, perhaps, to
•t the terrible sequel to her first love among tin-
gaiety proffered by the second, she consented to
receive the chevalier as her husband; and l-->i
might retract, the ceremony was hurried on with a
haste on his part which the good-natured gossips of

230 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

Remiremont averred to be somewhat indelicate at
least.

"His sister perceived the strange waverings and mis-
givings that agitated the mind of poor Annette, and
on the marriage morning she embraced and kissed
her tenderly.

" ' Beware what you do, dearest Annette/ said she,
' lest you repent the hour you leave us. In marriage
the love of the mind and character must be blended
with and united to the love of the person, or there can
never be any duration of tenderness or of mutual con-
fidence. Oh, I pray Heaven, I may not have acted
wrong in this affair !'

" The misgivings of the geod abbess came too late.

" Full of hope, the gentle Annette smiled through
her tears ; full of love and triumph, the exulting
chevalier led her away, and they were married.
Before leaving the convent, Jules placed in her hand
a case containing a complete set of brilliants — a tiara
for her head, a necklace, bracelets, and rings. Among
these jewels was a cameo locJcet, studded with the
purest diamonds.

" On perceiving this well-known trinket, Annette
grew pale, and tottered to a chair. It seemed to come
like a signal from the grave of Louis d'Herblay to
reproach her ! Her features became convulsed and
her voice tremulous, for in a moment she recognised
her own gift to Louis, previous to his last departure
for Pontamousson, and there occurred to her a
strange, but just and dreadful suspicion, that for a
moment paralysed her and rendered her totally inca-
pable of repelling the chevalier, who held her in his
arms, and perceived at once, and with no little
confusion, the misfortune or discovery which was
impending.

THE GREY M0l> .ilE.

" ' Cursed fatality !' ho exclaimed, through his
cl'-nclic'l teeth.

" ' Wlicnce came this trinket, Jules ? How came it
into your possession? Speak!' she exclaimed, in
accents of terror, and with the gestures of passion.

" ' I do not understand you, dear Annette/ said he,
finding that nothing but perfect confidence and a bold
falsehood would carry him through this nudheur.
' I had that locket made for me by a jeweller of the
Rue St. Honore', in Paris, many years ago, as a gift
for my mother."

" ' It is false all this; for, four years ago, I had it
In -re in Remiremont."

"'Annette!'
' ' Has it any secret spring or clasp ?' she asked.

" ' No — none, I am assured/ he answered, boldly.

" ' You are sure of this, Jules ?'

" ' I swear to you Annette/ he urged, becoming
frightfully agitated, while the perspiration rolled like
beads down his brow.

" ' Swear not — you have lied enough already/ she
;iimed wildly. ' See, monsieur/ she added, press-
ing a spring and opening the locket by a secret
hitherto unknown to Cceurdefer, ' it contains my
miniature and a braid of my hair — mine, given in a
happy, happy hour to Louis d'Herblay ! O, Louis!
look down on me from heaven, and see how fate has
avenged thee ! Away, chevalier — away ; come not
near me, and touch me not ! If other proof were
wanting that you were his murderer, it is here.'

"These words were rashly spoken, yet they stung
Jules to the soul. She tore her bridal chaplet and
voil from her brow, trampled on them with gestures
of frenzy, and was borne away insensible in the arms
of the canonesses.

232 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

." In one hour after thaid&nonement the exasperated
chevalier had left Remiremont for the French camp —
left it to return no more."

" And what of Annette ?" asked some one.

" She took the black veil, and is now nun of the
convent of St. Nicole, seven miles from Nancy.
With that day's discovery began and ended the
wedded life of Coeurdefer ; and since then he has led
a wild and reckless career, committing innumerable
acts of daring, which by some strange fatality have
passed as yet unpunished ; but the assassination of
D'Herblay — for that he did assassinate him, I have
not the slightest doubt — is the blackest of his acts ;
unless, indeed, that other episode at Minden be a
deeper and a darker one.

" The marriage prevented the Vicomte Henri alike
from prosecuting him at common law as a felon, and
from challenging him to a solemn duel, and so time
passed on ; but he hated my colonel — the handsome
young Mousquetaire — with the hate of a tiger ; hence
I doubt not that by his hand, or the hands of some of
his lawless troop at his behest, my leader perished on
the field of Minden !

" France has not in all her army a more splendid
soldier than that Mousquetaire Gris !

" After the junction of the French army under M.
de Contades and M. de Broglio, as I have related, on
their approach Prince Ferdinand retreated, first to
Lippstadt, and afterwards to Ham, where he mus-
tered all the forces in the Bishopric of Munster, and
was joined by the soldiers of Imhoff, while we ad-
vanced and took possession of Cassel, Minden, and
Beverungen.

" While we lay at Cassel, engaged in repairing and
strengthening the fortifications, the vicomte, our

THE GREY MOUSQUETAIRK. 233

loader, was engaged in two pieces of service, which
savoured of the romance of the Middle Ages in Ger-
many.

" There came to the colonel of the Mousquetaires,
fnun the Lower Saxon side of the Weser, a certain
old kniyht named Otto of Burgsteinfort, who though
an adlinvnt of the enemy, implored him as a soldier
and a Lr<-iitlriuaii to attempt the rescue of his daughter,
;ily child, who had been carried off by a party of
_,re Uzkokes or Hungarian infantry, who had been
Miksidized by the King of Prussia, and formed a por-
tion of the column commanded by Prince Ferdinand,
but were more immediately under the orders of Count
Hatzfeld in Munden, twelve miles distant on the
W.-ser ; and these wretches, he added, had borne her
into a forest in the Bishopric of Paderborn, where he
dared not follow them, alone at least. Pitying the
distress of the old man, Chateaunoir left Cassel on
this errand of mercy with forty gentlemen of the
Mousquetaires Gris. Of these forty I had the honour
to be one.

" * Will not Count Hatzfeld do this service for you,
baron ?' I asked.

" ' No — though on my knees I prayed him ; I who
never have bent my knee before to aught but a
minister of God.'

" ' Why r

" ' Because our families are and have been lon at

" ' Good — I can understand that, for in my country
we are not without hereditary liatnds. Yt-t in tin-;
instance his onidurt ha- been alike ungenerous and
wicked.'

"'True; thus I, a German, appeal to
ihivnlry/

LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

" ' In a happy moment, baron/ said Chateaunoir,
* and your appeal shall not be made in vain. This

abduction '

" ' Occurred three days ago/
" ' Peste ! then we have no time to lose !'
" We crossed a range of mountains in the night, and
entered the Bishopric of Paderborn, pushed on
towards the forest, riding with such speed, that, to
prevent our horses being knocked up, at a village
near Borcholz, we refreshed them in the old Reiter
fashion, by bathing their nostrils with vinegar, giving
them water and wine to drink, and folding round their
bits a piece of raw flesh sliced from a stray cow, which
we shot, and cut up for the purpose.

" Otto, the knightor baron (for we named him both),
acted as our guide, and such was the deadly treachery
so frequently practised by those Germans, that we
were not without fear that the whole story of the ab-
duction might be a snare to lure away into ambush
those who were considered by the King of Prussia
as the right arm of the French general ; and thus
our colonel gave me express orders to keep by
the old man's side, and on the first indication of
treachery, or attempted flight, to pistol him without
mercy !

" The harvest moon was shining full and yellow in
her placid beauty high above the steep green moun-
tains that look down on Liebenau ; but now it was on
the wane, for the east was marked by the coming day,
as in silence and circumspection we approached the
fortress of the lawless Uzkokes. Every leaf was still,
the sky was of the purest blue, and spread like a starry
curtain behind the 'dark mountain peaks, and the
sombre forest scenery was reflected like inverted trees
of bronze in the calm lakes and tarns which we passed

THE GREY MOUSQUETAIRE. 235

in our progress through this wild region of solitude
and old romance.

" An old servant of the baron, who had been lurking
about the forest in the vague hope of succouring his
young mistress, now joined us, and threw himself at
the feet of his master. For two nights and days this
faithful fellow had been lurking in the vicinity of these
terrible depredators, and now he acted most efficiently
as our guide. His appearance, his tears, and enthu-
siasm dissipated our fears of a snare, and made me
somewhat ashamed of having encouraged
them.

"The Uzkokes, about twenty in number, were
'iers from Count Hatzfeld's garrison in Munden,
and had possessed themselves o£ an old and deserted
hunting lodge of the Electoral Bishops, built at the
foot of a rock ; from thence they had been issuing
from time to time, to plunder the peasantry, to rob
\v:iyf;iivrs and to shoot deer.

" The sound of guttural voices in loud altercation,
'.lf»l with savage laughter, informed us that we
iu the immediate vicinity of those enterprising
who had abducted the baron's daughter. Then
we saw the gleam of a red wavering light between the
stems and branches of the trees. This came from
a huge fire around which they were all bivouacked,
drinking, sleeping, or making merry, and being ap-
paivntly without any proper watch or scout, as we
were enabled to approach them by a forest path un-
challenged ;md unseen. The reason of this seeming
• confidence was soon explained, when we found 01.
their number lyin^ across the narrow way stretclnd
upon his mii.-kft, either sottishly drunk or in profound
slumber; but • which wo m-vrr had time to discover,
for, quick as thought, the servant of the baron, a

236 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

bloodthirsty Westphalian boor, dispatched him by one
slash of his short and sharp couteau de ckasse.

" The father was by my side as we advanced. Bare-
headed, he was praying with his clenched hands
pressed upon his breast. The poor old man was full
of agony and terror.

'"They are twenty in number, you say?' asked
Chateaunoir.

" ' Exactly twenty, mein herr/ replied the old
servant, wiping his hunting-knife on the grass with
grim care before he sheathed it.

" ' Then ten of -MS are enough for them/ replied
our heroic young colonel ; ' let the ten gentlemen
next me dismount and take their pistols with them.
You are sure, my friend, that your young mistress is
still among them ?'

" ' Sure as I li ve, mein herr/ replied the boor.

The baron groaned.

" ' See !' exclaimed a Mousquetaire, ' there is a
white dress amid their circle.

" ' Christ I kreutz ! it is my young lady !' whispered
the servant, in a breathless voice.

" I placed my gloved hand on the baron's mouth
lest he might utter a cry, and spoil all.

" ' Where — where ?' asked Chateaunoir.

" ' At the foot of that elm-tree, and, mein Gott /
she is tied to it with a cord.'

" Creeping forward after Chateaunoir (for he would
allow no man to precede him) I saw a very remark-
able scene.

"Around a huge fire of dried branches that crackled,
sputtered, and blazed, casting a red and lurid glow on
the gnarled trunks of the old oak-trees and on the
leafy canopy formed by their twisted and entwined
foliage overhead, were the twenty UzkoHes, all fit .

TIP.: «;KMV MOUSQUKTAIKK. ^:'>7

looking little men, of powerful, active, and athletic
figures, with hooked noses, keen eyes, and wild in
ire. They were bearded to the cheekbones, and
wen- round fur caps and brown pelisses, or short
jackets, and wide red breeches, ending in brodecjuins,
or half-boots. They had each a short musket, slung

-s his body, with a crooked sabre, which
worn in front, so that the hilt came readily to the
right hand. A few were asleep, snorting off the
fumes of the midnight debauch, as they sprawled
am"i)g staved barrels, broiled bones and broken
dishes. The rest were engaged in a vehement dis-
. while near them drooped the poor object of
their contention, a pale-cheeked and slender young
girl, secured to a tree by two broad buff waist-belts
and a cord ; her dress was disordered ; her flaxen
hair dishevelled and unpowdered ; her face bowed
down in her hands, which rested on her knees.

" This was the daughter of Otto of Burgsteinfort.

" Once she looked wildly up to heaven, and then

bowed down her fnco again in hopeless misery. She

ghastly pale, and had a hopeless glare in her

blue eyes. Beauty, if she really possessed it, seemed

to have been quite scared from her.

. " ' Morllcu ! how pale she is — 'tis quite a little
spectre !' muttered the mousquetaires.

" ' Hush, gentlemen/ said the vicomte, cocking a
I and drawing his sword ; ' we have come at a
critical time. These wretches are all insanely drunk,
and, if I understand their barbarous jargon aright,
are now in vehement dispute as to whose property
their lair prisoner shall be.'

"All seemed inflamed by the desire of poeseoung
the prize by the strong hand ; hence sal ires
drawn, and a brawl, which might have saved us all

238 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

further trouble, was about to ensue, when a corporal,
who was leader of the gang, and evinced more
brutality even than his comrades, swore 'that none
should have her but the wolves/ and unslinging
his musket, levelled it full at her head ; but at that
moment a shot pierced his chest and he fell dead
upon his face, with arms outspread upon the earth.
Death had come to him from the ready pistol of
Chateaunoir, who now led us on, and taking them
by surprise, we cut down almost the whole party
without resistance. Four who were asleep and dead
drunk we hanged at our leisure, before mounting to
return.

" We then, without loss of time, retraced our steps,
lest we might be discovered and cut off by troops of
Count Hatzfeld or Prince Ferdinand, and rode on the
spur towards the Weser.

"To the grateful Baron Otto and his daughter we
bade adieu within a few miles of jHatzfeld's head-
quarters, and sent the count an ironical message,
complimenting him on his chivalry and gallantry to
the fair sex. After this we reached our quarters in
Cassel next evening, without the loss of a man, and
so ended our adventure in the forest at Paderborn.

"The next affair to which I referred, is as fol-
lows : —

" We remained quietly in our new quarters for a few
days until the Due de Broglio devised an attack upon
Munden, the fortifications of which were increasing
under the eye of Count Hatzfeld. The Mousquetaires
Gris et Rouges marched on this service, and early
that morning, long before our trumpets sounded, I
was roused by the din of the chopping blocks, of
which every French troop has one, to cut straw for
the horses before marching.

THK <;KKV MOUSQUETAIKK. 239

"With the dragoons of Brissac we formed the ad-
vanced guard of this expedition, which included the
Regiments of Picardie and Normandio ; and here I
may mention that our mounted comrades were not
named from Brissac in Alsace, but from a little town
of the same name in Anjou, which belonged to the
ancient family of Cosse, one of whom, Charles de Cossc,
made a peer by Louis XIII., with the title of
:chal Due de Brissac.

" En route to the scene of our operations, the guide,
a wild-looking denizen of the neighbouring forests,
clad almost entirely in wolf's fur, and having a shock
head of flaxen hair, which he seemed to comb on an
average once in a year, left us in a wooded gorge to
shift for ourselves, as he knew full well that the rocks
and thickets on both sides were manned by his Prus-
sian friends. We were thus caugh n an ambush of
infantry led by Count Hatzfield in person ! From
both sides of the path there suddenly opened a de-
structive fire upon us. Night was just closing, and an
immediate confusion ensued. After a short and feeble
resistance the Dragoons de Brissac, believing them-
selves to be, as the French say, ocharpc, or cut to
pieces, fell back in a panic on our infantry, who were
about a mile in the rear, and we, finding ourselves
alike bewildered and unsupported, retired, leaving
several of our comrades shot or unhorsed. Among
", unnoticed and unseen, was our Colonel, the
Vicomte de Chateaunoir, whose horse had been killed
by a musket-shot The animal, after plunging thrice,
fell heavily, and severely bruised the rider's right leg,
which was crushed by its weight in his jack-boot,
though the latter was lined by ribs of tempered iron.
Thus he lay helpless and unahlr either to rise or ex-
tricate himself. Close by him lay a chevalier of the
Q 2

210 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

Golden Fleece, gorgeously attired, with silver ai-_fni-
lettes on his shoulders. The blood was oozing from
a wound in his breast. Chateaunoir strove to staunch
it, and ultimately succeeded.

" ' Leave me, monsieur/ said the sufferer, who was
in great agony ; ' leave me that I may die, and go to
that God who for you and me suffered more than I
this night endure !'

" With these pious words he became insensible, and
this chevalier, so daring and devout, was poor Prince
Xavier of Saxony, who was afterwards slain on the
field of Minden.

" The . moon rose above the mountains to light the
scene of this misfortune, and while stretched on the
ground, enduring great pain and thirst, Vicomte
Chateaunoir had the horror of beholding many of his
wounded companions butchered (even as he, perhaps,
was butchered at Minden !) by the sabres of some
prowling Jagers in search of plunder ; and though he
lay still, feigning death, such would too probably have
been his own fate, had not a sudden torrent of rain
mercifully driven them into an adjacent wood for
shelter.

" Believing himself to be now altogether lost — for if
not rescued by his French comrades, he was certain
when day dawned to be slain by the Jagers or the
Westphalian peasantry — he lay bruised, sore, and help-
less under the drenching rain, and was on the point
of becoming insensible from exhaustion and suffering,
when the tremulous light of a lantern gleamed along
the wet grass, and glinted on the scattered weapons,
the shot-riven soil, and the pale faces of the dead.
Two dark fmires approached noiselessly, and then he
heard a female crying —

"'Hatzfeld — Count Hatzfeld ;' and near him

TUB GREY MOUSQUETAIRE. 21-1

there passed a voting woman of great beauty, muffled
to her chin in a mantle of furs, and attended by an
old man hi-aring a lantern, the light of which, (while
shuddering at the terrors it revealed), they turned from
to side on the faces of the dead and wounded
anion^ whom they threaded their way.

" ' If you seek Count Hatzfeld, madame, you seek
in vain,' said the vicomte, faintly.

" ' Who spoke V said the lady, pausing in terror.

" ' I — a wounded Frenchman !'

" ' And wherefore say you so, monsieur ?' asked the
lady, while her large dark eyes seemed to dilate with
alarm ; ' is he wounded — slain ?'

" ' Nay, I hope not, as you are interested in his
safety ; but he has simply fallen back with his victo-
rious infantry towards the town of Munden.'

" ' Thanks — thanks/ said she, turning away ; and
then, seeing by the light of her lantern that the
speaker was a young and very handsome man, she
added — ' Pardon my selfish anxiety, for Count Hatz-
1'i-id is my husband ; but you — who are you?'

To-night I am your humble servant, madame ;
this morning I was colonel of the brave Mousquetaires
Gris, under Louis XV.'
Your name '

" ' Henri, Vicomte de Chateaunoir.'

" ' Who was the first to cross the Rhine at
ae?J «

" ' I had that honour, madame.'

" ' Oh, monsieur, I have heard of you very often.'

"'Then I would pray you, madame, a Prus-
sian though you be, to give me but a cup of
wati-r ; for even under this falling rain I am dying of

" The Countess of Hut/tVld hastened to give him

212 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

some wine from a flask borne by her attendant, and
she even proposed to remain beside him.

" ' I would rather perish of cold and exhaustion, or
die by the knives and sabres of those rascally Jagers
or Uskokes, than have you remain here in such a piti-
less night as this, lady/ replied Chateaunoir. ' I am
a Mousquetaire Gris. I thank you, Madame la Corn-
tesse ; but leave me to my fate. I have done my
duty to God and his Most Christian Majesty, and am
quite willing to leave the event to chance/

" But this dame with the gentle eyes and black
tresses was one of the Douglases of Esthonia,* and
was resolved to leave the event in the hands of one
quite as fickle as fate, to wit, herself, and she pro-
tested that she would not and could not quit the
vicomte ; but with the assistance of her old valet,
whose silence and fidelity could evidently be relied
on, she succeeded in extricating him from his fallen
charger ; she bound up the bruises of his limb, and,
supported partly by the hard paw of the old German
valet on one side, and by her soft arm on the other,
he was conveyed to an adjacent mansion, of which
the Prussians had taken possession. It stood about a
mile from the field ; and there the lady laid him on
a couch, and attended him with every care, while her
attendant a cunning old fellow — kept watch, to an-
nounce when the count, a young and fiery soldier who
had vowed extermination to the enemies of the Great
Frederick, should return.

" When Chateaunoir found himself in a luxurious
bed, within a handsome apartment, hung with green
silk festooned by golden cords and massive tassels,

* Where .the ruins of their castle are still to be seen on the
Douglasberg. They WCTC descended from a Scottish Douglas
who served the Teutonic knights.

THE GREY MOUSQUETAIRE. 213

and having buhl toilet-tables, covered with Mechlin
lair festooned with white and silver; large oval mir-
rors, lighted by rose-coloured candles in girotfdoles of
glittering crystal, and vases of flowers between, he be-
lieved himself to be in a dream, the more so, as witli
hali-closed eyes he saw a beautiful woman, with re-
markably white hands, long tremulous eyelashes, and
fine eyes, gliding noiselessly about his couch, and
from time to time watching over his slumbers and re-
covery. So he thought,

" ' Tis a spirit-woman, and this is some enchanted
castlo on the Rhine, or under it, perhaps. In Paris,
I have often heard tales of such adventures in this
land of diablerie, and seen them, too, in the
theatres.'

" But the hands and arms of this ' spirit woman/
wlu-ii they touched the vicomte were remarkably un-
like those of a spectre or spirit ; moreover, she had a
bright roguish eye, and, by her manner, seemed not
at nil reluctant to receive compliments, or to indulge
in ;i little innocent coquetry, being, as most pretty
women are, charmed by the admiration she excited.
She had resided long at Berlin, and as our young
cul<>n«'l was almost fresh from the King's antechamber
at Versailles, she was charmed to find a chevalier so
gallant in that sequestered district which lay between
tin \Y. .-< r and the (then) wild forests of Paderborn.

" Three days slipped pleasantly away at that q;:iet
old German chateau.

" On the evening of the 3rd, the galloping of horses
heard in the avenue, and Count Hatzfeld, still
llu.shed by the success of his ambuscade, which, for a
tinu', had completely delayed the advance of the
Mnivchal Due de Broglio towards Munden, accom-
panied 1 v a squadron of Blue Prussian Hussars,

24-1 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

arrived at the mansion, and, without removing his
soiled and blood-stained uniform, hastened to embrace
his countess. Pale and confused, the latter had barely
time to conceal the vicomte in a secret alcove, or
ancient hiding-place which she had discovered, and
which opened by a sliding panel at the lack of tin1
couch, whereon he had been reposing when Hatzfeld
entered, and after a few gay Avords of greeting, threw
aside his hussar cap, gloves, sabre, and rich pelisse,
and with an exclamation of pleasure, satisfaction,
and weariness, stretched himself on the same place
and the same pillow where the vicomte had lain but
a moment before !

" Trembling with apprehension, and paler than
ever, the poor little countess sat near a mirror, dread-
ing even the expression of her own face, and scarcely
trusting herself to speak.

"And now scarcely a long, tedious, and terrible
hour had elapsed, when a casual sound, or some vague
suspicion excited by her peculiar manner, prompted
Hatzfeld suddenly to unclose the long panel of the
alcove, wherein lay the stranger almost side by side
with himself. With a shout of angry astonishment,
the count leaped up, and sprang to his lately re-
linquished sabre.

" ' Stay/ exclaimed the countess, throwing herself
upon his sword-arm ; ' he is only a poor wounded
man, whom I have saved and concealed.'

" ' In my bed — or beyond it — could you find no
more fitting place, madam ?' exclaimed her husband,
endeavouring to free himself from her impetuous
grasp, while sombre fury and fierce suspicion sparkled
in his eyes.

"'Hatzfeld — believe me — Hatzfeld, I speak the
truth !'

Tin: i ; i : K v MOUSQU ETA 1 ; :M ."»

" ' Swear that you do.' said ho, menacing her white
with til-- gleaming weapon.

" ' I su ear it/ she exclaimed, ' by our Lady of
Oetingon, I swear '

"'What,?'

" ' That he is only a poor stranger.'

" ' And that you never saw him before ?'

" ' Never bef< re the night of the ambush/

" ' Ami that he is who ?* queried the count,

;!y.

"'A mouaquetalre of King Louis/

"'O Christi Kreutz ! a soldier of King Louis!'
rated the count; 'what matters it — Frenchman
or Austrian — one can reach hell as soon as the
other f

': lie made a thrust atChateaunoir,who though weak
t'n.ni his l.niis, s, sprang from the alcove, and would
infallibly have been slain had not the countess hung
i her fiery husband's sword-arm, praying him by
all he la-Id sai-ivd and dear to spare her the horror,
th. disgrace, and lifelong reproach of an act so cruel
as this man's slaughter in her chamber; but she
sjxiko to one who heeded and who heard her not.

" In his blind fury or suspicion, the count disdained
to hear her, and coarsely strove to thrust her from
him, l.n.M:;^ her tender breasts and hands, as she
riling about him wildly. Though so faint that he
could scarcely stand, Chateaunoir had now reached and
drawn his sword; and how this matter might have
1, there are no means of knowing, had it not
at this crisis been cut short by the ball of a field-
piece passing through the house with a frightful crash,
and then they heard the sh:\ip shrill notes of the
IVu.-.-sian trumjirts sounding t» Inn-tte, as a party of
the Due de Broglio's Cavalry, who were again advanc-

246 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

ing towards Munden, approached the mansion, and
seeing a squadron of Blue Hussars in the lawn with a
standard displayed, had suddenly opened a fire on
them from three pieces of flying artillery.

" Leaving our colonel to the care of his advancing
friends, Hatzfeld had to depart on the spur for Mun-
den, which was his head-quarters and nearest fortified
post, while his fair young countess became the lawful
prisoner of the Mousquetaires Gris. The vicomte
treated her with every courtesy, and she was escorted
with all honour to the quarters of the Due de Broglio,
whose timely approach had arrested an act of assassi-
nation.

" In his anger at Count Hatzfeld, and anxiety to
remain with us, Chateaunoir, immediately on procur-
ing a new horse, assumed once more the command of
the Grey Musketeers, and marched at our head, on
the expedition against the town of Munden.

" The sun was setting when we, who formed the
advanced guard, came in sight of Munden, at the
confluence of two streams, which there unite and are
named the Weser ; and its current rippled in pink
and gold as the tints of evening deepened on the
laden barges that floated by the quays, on the spires
of the churches, and the quaint architecture of the
streets. The scenery was neither bold nor striking ;
but the sun seemed to linger for a time ' at the gates
of the west/ casting upward his rays through cloud
and sky, diverging like the fiery spokes of a mighty
wl\eel, and these continued to waver and play, to fade
and gleam again from below the dark line of the
horizon, long after the sun himself had disappeared
from our eyes.

" As the last bright vestige of his flaming disc went
down, a cannon — the solitary evening gun — boomed

THE GREY MOUSQUETAIRi:. 247

from tho fortifications of Munden, and the Pru>
standard was slowly lowered for the night; and this

to us a significant notice that as yet our approach
was unseen.

" Munden we considered one of the most important
places on tho Weser. On one side it had eight solid

ons faced with stone, full of earth and impene-
trable to cannon-shot. A half-moon lay before every
curtain and the ditch was broad. The counterscarp,
covered way and palisadoes were all in the best order,

the town was garrisoned by three thousand men,

hundred of whom were Irish, whose backs had
never been seen by an enemy. Count Hatzfeld
commanded the whole, and his second was the Baron

•illy, a soldier as resolute and determined as
himself, consequently we had every reason to expect
that broken heads would be numerous enough.

" If my warlike friends expect a detail of the siege
and capture of Munden, I regret that I can afford

i but a brief note of the operations, which were

sed by M. de Broglio with great vigour. Tho
battalions de Picardie blockaded it on one side, while
those of Normandie enclosed it on the other. M. de
(Joutades broke ground before the strongest bastions,
ami .M. de Broglio undertook to storm and destroy
the works and bridges on the Weser, while the
Vicomte de L'hateaunoir, with the Mousquetaires
Gris et Rouges and the cavalry, covered the roada
and collected supplies.

" The fire of our artillery, which was heavy, .was
neutralized by the elevation at which they were dis-
charged, aud by the compactness of the earthen para-
ju-ls ; but ultimately a breach was effected in t\\»>

, and a lu..-,t of bravo fellows volunteered for the
assault. Among these were all the Grey Mousque-

243 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

taires and about a hundred of the Dragoons of Brissac,
dismounted. The honour of leading the stormors at
midnight was assigned to the vicomte, who appeared
in his brilliant state uniform, with all his orders
sparkling on his breast.

" ' Is this wise, vicomte ?' asked the old Due de
Broglio.

" ' Wherefore, mardchal ?'

" ' You will be the mark of every musket to-night/

" ' So much the better for others/ replied the gay
noble ' Allow me to please myself, Monseigneur le
Dae. I may as well be killed in my best coat
to-night as have it sold at the drum-head to-
morrow/

" The second volunteer for the storming party was
a mere child — a son of the Comte de Brille, who had
been unjustly executed for losing a military post
under General Lally, in India. The boy was serving
as a private soldier under M. de Contades, and was
burning for an opportunity to distinguish himself;
thus when we advanced towards the breach mingling
together pell-mell, men of all ranks and arms united
in a mass, and falling fast on every side, with shot of
every sort and size passing us with an incessant hum
or whistle, tearing up the turf, shattering stones, and
rending huge branches off the trees that grew on the
banks of the river, the vicomte turned, with an emo-
tion of pity, and said to the boy —

"'M. de Brille, my young brave, return while there
is yet time/

" ' My father perished innocently on the scaffold in
the Place de Greve, vicomte/ replied the boy, on
whose pale cheek glowed the light of the fireballs,
which filled the air above and sputtered in the muddy
ditches below ; ' and I shall to-night redeem his

Tin-: <;I:KY M<H:SMI:LTAII;!:. :: I1.)

con, n, -t IVoni the temporary tarnish it has suffered, or
die. I, too, am a Do Brille !'

• I Jut the breach is just before us.'

"'\Vell:'

" ' And you have no fear ; pardon me, boy, I am
your senior officer, and, believe me, your sincere
friend.'

" ' I thank you/ said he, haughtily ; ' fear — I have

" ' Thou art a brave chick — Vive M. le Comte de
Brille !' exclaimed the stormers, and the eyes of the
hul Hashed fire.

" ' J know, vicomte,' said he, ' that at this moment
my poor old mother, the widowed countess, is praying
for me at home ; and God/ lie added, pointing with
his sword to the starlighted heaven, ' will spare the
willow's son !'

" ' Bravo ; forward, then, to the assault — to the
o^Muilt ! France and Vive Louis le Roi !'

•• Uut he was not spared ; he fell, pierced by a
mortal wound. Like a swollen surge the stortners
^ \\i-jit over him, and through the ghastly gap in the
.shattt red rampart hewed a passage into the heart of
tin- place, driving the foe before them. Count Hatz-
feld was among the first who fell, for, after a brief
encounter, Chateaunoir slew him at the third pass.
After this the Prussians gave way, and the only re-
sistance we experienced was from O'Reilly and his
Irishmen, who took possession of a Lutheran church,
where they fought like incarnate devils, swearing to
blow themselves up, if they had powder enough, but
to surrender.

" J!y noon, ho\vi;ver, they hoisted a white flag on
the steeple, and agreed to leave the place with the
honours of war, which we were glad to accord them.

250 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

By this time there were only two hundred left alive ;
and at their head the gallant O'Reilly marched out,
with one standard displayed ; it bore the Irish harp
and Prussian eagle. One drum was beating before
them ; and, in the old fashion, each man had a bullet
in his mouth and four charges of powder in his
pouch.

" We cheered them heartily and saluted them with
all the honours of war, and then the drums of the
Regiment de Normandie were beaten before them
down through that terrible breach, which was strewn
with dead and wounded, and where the blood was
battening in the sun or oozing and trickling between
the stones; and from thence they crossed the Weser,
and marched to Beverungen.

" On our advance towards the latter place, they
were soon compelled to retire again ; for, when we
carried the town by assault, they retired from it on
the Prussian side.

" My next service was on the field of Minden, where
— but, gentlemen, you know the rest."

Such was the varied narrative of Allan Robertson,
the Grey Mousquetaire.

On his recovery, being sick of exile and of the
French service, he expressed a great desire to join
any of our Highland regiments, even as a volunteer.
His wish was warmly seconded by the officers of the
olst Regiment, and his hopes were realized beyond
his expectations ; for, by their desire and the recom-
mendation of Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, he was
fizetted to an ensigncy in the Forty-second — the old
lack Watch — then serving under General Amherst
on the American Lakes ; but before leaving the camp

THE fiKKV MOUS'jUKTAIRK. 251

of the Allies, from Avhence he was first sent homo in
charge of sick and wounded soldiers, he had the satis-
faction of s « iii'^ the strange career of his enemy,
the Chevalier de Cceurdefer, terminated with abrupt
ignominy.

At Fellinghausen — a severe battle, the name and
results of which are now absorbed and forgotten in
the greater glories of the previous encounter at Min-
(lon — the Free Company of the chevalier charged our
51st or Second Yorkshire Regiment, to which Allan
Robertson had for a time attached himself as a volun-
teer. This occurred among those dense and ancient
forests which surround Fellinghausen, and which, on
this day in particular, rendered the operations of the
cavalry on both sides almost futile.

Issuing from a jungle, heedless of the shells which
exploded in the air or roared and hissed along the
ground, and of the leaden rain that sowed the turf
about them, the wild troopers of the Franche Com-
pagnie fell sabiv & la main on the 51st, who formed
square in a trice, and by a withering fire swept them
back in disorder. Then the Black Prussian Hussars,
led by Count Redhaezl, a dashing noble, in his
twentieth year, by a furious .flank movement, cut
them wholly to pieces. Beneath the sabres of the
irs a hundred men and horses rolled upon the
i, and many prisoners were taken. Among these
were the Chevalier Jules, his chaplain, and a score of
his troopers, all of whom were more or less wounded.
They were immediately enclosed by the square of the
51st, and were soon after transmitted to the rear.

After the battle, the chevalier and his ghostly
friend, the late canon of Notre Dame de Paris, were
deemed such desperate characters that their paroles
were not accepted, and they were placed in a secluded

252 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

house with the other prisoners, under a guard of
Keith's Highlanders, commanded by Captain Fother-
ingham, of Powrie, an officer who had covered himself
with distinction in the late battle. There they remained
for some time without Marechal Broglio, who was
probably but too glad to be rid of them, making
the least effort for their ransom or exchange, until
Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, to whom a report
was made on the subject, declared " that to supply
such fellows with rations was simply feeding what
ought to be hanged."

In an evil moment over their cups, the chaplain in-
formed the chevalier that he had, concealed about
him, notes and gold to the value of fifty thousand
francs, the plunder of various persons and places.

" Fifty thousand francs \" said the chevalier ;
" mordieu ! with that sum I should soon gild over
the most watchful eyes and achieve my liberty/'

This thought haunted him day and night, and
with one so unscrupulous the sequel ma}' easily be
guessed.

One night the chaplain was roughly wakened by a
hand being heavily laid on his throat, and he found a
masked man standing pver him, armed with a bayo-
net, and commanding htm to yield his ill-gotten
wealth on pain of instant death !

A loud cry, cut short by a death-stab in tho
throat followed, and, in less than a minute, the cheva-
lier found himself a prisoner in the hands of the
startled quarter-guard, beside the dead body of his
comrade and with a blood-dripping bayonet, as a ter-
rible testimony against him.

A court-martial next day made short work with
him, and he was sentenced to death — a doom which
he met with the most singular coolness and contempt.

THE OHKY MOUSQUETAIRE. 253

Hi- fate was announced to him at night, and he wns
chained to a tree lest he should escape before rev^Hlc
next morning, when the sentence was to be put in
execution. He conversed with his guards, smoked,
lau^ht-d and sang catches, and was provokingly cool
ami gay to the last. On perceiving his old brother
student, Robertson, loitering near him, he said,

" You have the odds of me to-night, mow am! ;
but a Prussian bullet ere long may, perhaps, enable
you to overtake me en route to the infernal regions."

" Be thankful, chevalier, that you end your life ill
camp, and not in Paris," replied the Alousquetaire,
quietly.

-Wherefore?"

" Because a soldier's death and a soldier's grave
are a better fate than a felon's on the dissecting-table."

" Perhaps so — peste ! unpleasant thought to have
a parcel of medical garni us amusing themselves with
one's intestines and arteries."

"Think, sir," said Allen, gravely and with pity,
" you are to die to-morrow morning."

" Better then, than to-morrow night, if it is to be.
Allans ! comrade, another light ; for, sang Dieu!
my pipe has gone out !"

So passed his last night on earth.

Grey morning came and the great-coated guard
got mnli -r ;mus. The chevalier was unchained from
the tree and marched to a secluded spot, where his
grave, which the pioneers of the 51st hud dug over-
night, yawned in the damp mould among the bright
green grasa He walked calmly round it and looked
down with all the curiosity of an amateur or mere
spectator. He then stood erect opposite the provost-
marshal's guard, with a scornful smile and with folded
arms.

254 LEGENDS OP .THE BLACK WATCH.

"I thank you, M. le Prevot," said he, smiling
gaily; "all is as it should be — 'tis just my length ;
five feet ten inches."

The guard, or firing party, which was composed of
twenty men of the 51st, were confounded, and, per-
haps, disgusted by his unparalleled coolness. He
declined to have his eyes bound up.

" Make ready !" said the provost-marshal, and his
guard cocked their arms at the recover, according to
the position of those days.

" Pardonnez moi," said the unmoved chevalier ;
"I have a little request to make of you, M. le
Prevot."

"What is it, sir?"

" Don't bury that devil of a friar near me/'

" You mean your victim ?"

" Peste ! so you name an avaricious monk, who
wanted fifty thousand francs all to himself."

" Your chaplain."

" Yes — so don't bury him near me, I say."

" Why, chevalier ?"

" He might trouble me in the night, for he has
been a worse fellow in life than I, and is not likety to
sleep so sound in that dark hole as poor Jules do
Cceurdefer ; so now with your permission, I shall end
this scene myself. Once more, soldats, appretez-
vous armes !"

The muskets were levelled at him, and steadily he
looked at the twenty iron tubes before him.

" Joue !" he added rapidly, " FEU !"

The report of twenty muskets rang sharply on tho
still morning air, and pierced by eleven bullets tho
chevalier fell dead.

His body, shattered and covered by the blood that
spouted from his wounds, was lowered, while warm,

TIIK (IKKY MOrs-'Jl HiAiUL'.

the grave by the pioneers of the 51st ; but
before they covered it up, an officer stepped fen-ward
and took the cloak from his own shoulders to wrap
up his miserable remains.

He who performed this last act of kindness to the
earthly tm.-ment of the wild and reckless spirit that
had tlud, was Allan Robertson of "Ours," the soi-
• , i Mutisuetaire Qris.

R 2

25G LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

VII.
THE LETTRE DE CACHET.

IN the ancient church of St. Germain de Prez, at
Paris, is H stone which bears the following inscription
in English : —

M.S.

ADAM WHITE, OF WHITEHAUGF,
MAJOB IN THE ROYAL REGIMENT OF SCOTTISH HIGH-
LAN DEES, 1789.
E.I.P.

On that stone, or rather on its inscription, the fol-
lowing legend, compiled from the traditions of the
regiment, was written.

Lately, every mess-table in the service rang with a
romantic story that came by the way of Calcutta. It
was reported and believed, that an officer of Sale's
gallant brigade, who was supposed to have been killed
at Cabul, thirteen years ago, had suddenly re-appeared,
alive, safe and untouched. He had been all that time
a prisoner in Kokan ; his name had long since been
removed from the Army List ; and on reaching Edin-
burgh, his native place, he found that his wife had
erected a handsome monument to his memory, was
the mother of a brood of little strangers, and had be-
come the "rib" of one of his oldest friends.

This reminds me of the adventures of Adam White

THK

of Ours, who served with the Black Watch under
Wnlt'i- aii- 1 A-.ihersL

In tli«- v .ir 17-37 throe additional companies were
added to our regiment, which, the historical records
• was thus augmented to thirteen hundred men,
all Highlanders, n-) others being recruited for the
••<." These new companies were commanded by
ains James Murray, son of Lord George Murray,
the Adjutant-General of Prince Charles Edward
Stuart, James Stewart of Unpaid, and Thomas Stirling,
son of the Laird of Ardoch. The two subalterns of the
latt»-r \\vre Lieutenant Adam White, of the old Border
family of Whitehaugh, and Ensign John Oswald, one
of the most remarkable characters in the British ser-
vice— and of whom more anon.

White's father had been a major in the anny of
Prince Charles ; he had been wounded at the battle
of Falkirk, taken prisoner near Culloden, marched in
chains to Carlisle, and was hanged, drawn, and quar-
tered by the barbarous laws of George II., while his
old hereditary estate was forfeited and gifted to a
Scottish placeman of the new rdgimo.

Adam White was a handsome and dashing officer,
\vh<> had served under Clive in the East ; and on the
Uth of April, 1751, when an ensign, led the attack on
the strong pagoda named the Devil's Rock, when six
months' stores of AH Khan's army were taken with
all their guanls. Like many others who were ordered
on the Ani'TK-an campaign, Adam White had loft his
love behind him ; for in those days a lieutenant's pay
only a triHe more than that of the poor ensigns —
for they (Lord help them !) when carrying the British
colours on the frozen plains of Minden, and up the
bloody heights of Abraham, had only three skill
tl'r«2>cnce per diem.

LEGENDS OF Till-; ULACK WATCH.

Thus, for White to marry would have been mad-
ness ; and as lie had only his sword, and that poor
inheritance of pride, high spirit, and pedigree, which
falls to the lot of most Scottish gentlemen — for he
was descended from that Quhyt, to whom King
Robert I. gifted the lands of Stayhr, in the county
of Ayr — poor Lucy Fleming and he had agreed to
wait, in hope that his promotion could not be far
distant now, when he had served six years as a
subaltern, and the army had every prospect of a
long and severe war with France for the conquest
of North America. With the minstrel he had
said —

" Have I not spoke the live-long day,
And will not Lucy deign to say

One word her irieud to bless ?
I ask but one — a simple sound,
Within three little letters bound,

Oh let that word be YES."

Lucy answered in the affirmative, and so they
parted

Lucy Fleming, the only daughter of a clergyman
of the Scottish Church, lived at her father's secluded
manse in Berwickshire, among woods that lie on the
margin of the Tweed, in a beautiful and sequestered
glen, where tidings of the distant strife came but sel-
dom, save when the Laird of Overmains, and Row-
chester, or some other neighbouring proprietor, t^ent
" with his compliments to the minister" an old and
well-read copy of the London Gazette, or more pro-
bably the Edinburgh Evening Courant, "sair
thumbed by ilka coof and bairn ;" for newspapers
were few and scarce in those days, and the tidings
they contained were often vague, marvellous, or un-
satisfactory. But Lucy was only eighteen ; and she

Tin: CACiiKr.

1 in liopo, while her lover in a crowded and

ruble transport was ploughing clown the North

Channel, making a vain attempt to remedy sea-sick-

ii\ brandy anil water, endeavouring to forget his

ncholy among comrades who were full of bilious

recollections of the last night's hock and champagne,

and v.i re seeking to drown their sense of discomfort

in rough practical jokes, mad fun, and fresh jorums of

Done in the best style of Sir John de Medina, a
f;n nous foreign artist, who in those days resided in
Edinburgh, and who now sleeps there in a quiet cor-

of the old Greyfriars Kirk-yard, a miniature of
Lucy in a gold locket, with a braid of her black hair,
w;us White's best solace ; and for many an hour he
lay in his swinging hammock, apart from all, gazing
iij ion the soft features Medina's hand had traced.
This miniature cost our poor subaltern half-a-year's
pay ; but the prize-money of Trichinopoli had paid
for it ; and now when rocking far, far at sea, oblivious
of the ship's creaking timbers, the groaning of blocks,
and jarring sounds of the main-deck guns, as they
strained in their lashings ; the whistling of the wind
through the rigging ; and the varied din of laughter,
occasional oaths and hoarse orders bellowed from tho
poop, he abandoned himself, lover-like, to the sad and

4ng employment of poring over that little me-
mento, until the dark hazel eyes seemed to smile, the
red lips to unclose, the light of love and joy to spread

: all her features, and her parting tears seemed to
f;ill ii^ain, hot and bitterly from her cheek upon

the last recollection of his dear little Lucy
her pule, wan face, with eyes red and swollen by werp-
iiiur, as she stood on the stone stile of tho old kirk-
yard wall, when he l'iid«: her farewell, just as the

260.. LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

lumbering stage from Berwick bore him away, per-
haps— for ever.

In the same spirit did he brood over the thousand
trifles that the lover treasures up in memory, and on
none more than the love-music of Lucy's voice, which
he might never hear again.

Never again ! — he shrank from those terrible words,
and, trusting through God's grace to escape the
chances of the war that were before him, he en-
deavoured to reckon over the days, the weeks, the
months, and it might be the years (oh what a prospect
for a newly separated lover !) that must pass, before
he should again see the little secluded kirk-hamlet,
with its blue-slated manse, half buried among the
coppice ; the Tweed brawling over its pebbled bed in
front, under the white-blossomed hawthorns and green
bourtree foliage ; the ancient church with its stone
spire, its old sepulchral yews, and black oak pulpit,
•where for more than forty years the father of his Lucy
had ministered unto a poor but pious flock.

He was an old and white-haired pastor, whose
memory went back to those terrible times, when
Scotland drew her sword for an oppressed kirk and
broken covenant —

" When the ashes of that covenant were scattered far and near,
And the voice spoke loud in judgment, which in love she would
not hear."

Adam White saw in fancy the dark oak pew, where
on Sunday Lucy sat near her father's pulpit, and close
to a gothic window, from which the sun, each morn-
ing in the year, cast the red glow of a painted cross
on her pure and snow-white brow ; and so, with his
mind full of these things, with a tear in his eye and a
prayer of hope on his lip, " rocked on the stormy

Tin: i.r.m:i: in-: CACIIKT.

in of the deep," our military pilgrim went to sleep
in his <_•«>(, as tin- Li/ard light faded away, and word
round from ship to ship that Old England had
Mink into the waste of sky and water, far, far astern.

By the many casualties of foreign service, Adam
White, on joining the regiment in America, found

If junior captain.

It w:is now the spring of 1758, and George II. was
King. Lieutenant-General Sir Jeffry Amherst, K.C.B.,
was proceeding on the second expedition against L'Isle
Royale, now named Cape Breton, which had belonged
t<> the French since 1713, and was deemed by King
Louis the key to Canada and the Gulf of St. Law-

Meanwhile, Major-General James Abercrombie of
Glassa, a gallant Scottish officer, with the 1st Scots
i Is, the Black Watch, the 55th, or Westmoreland
inent, the 62nd, or Royal North Americans, and
nher troops, to the number of seven thousand regu-
lars and ten thousand provincials, landed from nine
hundred batteaux, and one hundred and thirty-five
whale-boats, with all their cannon, provisions, and
ammunition, on the 6th of July, at the foot of Lake
George, a clear and beautiful sheet of water thirty -
three miles long, and surrounded by high and verdant
mountains. That district, now so busy and populous,
\vas then silent and savage. No sound broke the still-
of the romantic scenery, or the depths of the
American forest, but the British drum or Scottish
pipe, as the troops formed in four columns of attack,
and advanced against the Fort of Ticonderoga.

Our regiment, then styled " Lord John Murray's
Highlanders," was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel
Francis Grant ; his second was Major Duncan Camp-
bell of Inveraw, and never did two better or braver

262 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

officers wear the tartan of the old 42nd. Viscount
Howe, a brilliant officer of the old school of puffs,
pigtails, knee-breeches, and Ramilie wigs, led the
55th.

Ticonderoga is situated on a tongue of land extend-
ing between Lake George and the narrow fall of water
that pours with the roar of thunder into Lake Cham-
plain, a hundred feet below. Its ramparts were thirty
feet high, faced with stone, surrounded on three sides
by water, and on the fourth by a dangerous morass
that was swept by the range of its cannon and mortars.
The approach to this morass — the only avenue to the
fort — was covered by a dense abattis of felled trees of
enormous size, secured by stakes to the ground, and
having all their branches pointed outward.

The garrison, which consisted of eight battalions,
was five thousand six hundred strong ; and as the
assailants advanced, it was the good fortune of our
hero, Adam White, to learn from an Indian scout
that three thousand French, from the banks of the
Mohawk river, were advancing to reinforce Ticon-
deroga. These tidings he at once communicated to
General Abercrombie, and orders were given to push
on without delay. The praise he obtained for his
diligence made the breast of our poor " sub" expand
with hope ; and with a last glance at his relic of Lucy
Fleming, he shouldered his spontoon, and hurried
with his company into the matted jungle.

The officer who commanded in Ticonderoga was
brave, resolute, and determined. Twenty-four years
before he had been a grenadier of the Regiment de
Normandie, and served with the army of the Rhine
under the famous Mardchal the Duke of Berwick. At
the siege of Philipsburg in 1734, the Prince of Conti
was so pleased by his intrepid bearing, that he placed

Tin: u:m:i: DK c'.vcurr.

;i pui M. iii liis hand, apologizing for the srnallness of
-um it contained; " but wo soldiers, mon cam a-
r:ulu," continued the prince, "have the privilege to
plead that we are poor."

Next morning the young grenadier appeared at the
tent of Conti, with two diamond rings and a jewel of
great value.

" Monseigneur le Prince," said he, " the louis in
your purse I presume you intended for me, and I
have* sent them to my mother, poor old woman ! at
Lillebonne ; hut these I bring back to you, as having
no claim to them."

" My noble comrade," replied the prince, placing
an epaulette on his left .shoulder, "you have doubly
deserved them by your integrity, which equals your
bravery ; they are yours, with this commission in the
ment de Conti, which, in the name of King
Louis, I have the power to bestow/'

" .Bravo, prince, this is noble !"

" Bravo 1 it equals anything in Scuderi !" ox-
claimed two officers, who were at breakfast with the
prince.

Tim first of these was Maurice Count Saxc,
general of the cavalry ; the second was the famous
Victor Marquis de Mirabeau, the future political
economist, who was then a captain in the French
line.

In twenty-four years this grenadier became a gene-
ral officer and peer of France by the title of Comto
de Montmorin ; and in 1758, he commanded the
French garrison in Ticonderoga, where he left nothing
undone to render that post impregnable. Thus a des-
perate encounter was expected.

Formed with the grenadiers in the reserve, the
42nd marched with muskets slung, and their thirteen

264 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

pipers, led by Deors MacCrimmon their pipe-major,
made the deep dark forests ring to that harsh but
wild music, which speaks a language Scotsmen only
feel ; and the air they played was that old march, now
so well known in Scotland as the " Black Watch ;"
and loudly it rang, rousing vast flocks of wild birds
from the lakes and tarns, and scaring the Red men
from their wigwams and camps in the dense forests
of pine that covered all the then unbroken wil-
derness.

The day was hot — the sun being 96° in the shade ;
the shrubs were all in blossom, and the wild plum
and cherries grew in masses and clusters in the jungle,
through which the heavily-laden columns of attack
forced a passage towards Ticonderoga, leaving their
artillery in the rear, as the officer commanding the
engineers had reported, that without employing that
arm, the works might be carried by storm.

While the reflection of all Lucy might suffer,
should he fall, cost poor White a severe pang, he was
the first man who sent his name to the brigade-major,
as a volunteer to lead the escalade.

" But," thought he, " if successful, my promotion is
insured ; and if I miss death, I shall, at least, be one
step nearer Lucy."

Jack Oswald, who volunteered next, consoled him-
self by some trite quotation from Bossuet (he was
always quoting French writers), that he had not a rela-
tion to regret in the world.

The country was thickly wooded, and the guide
having lost the track through those hitherto almost
untrodden wastes, the greatest confusion ensued.
Brigadier-General Viscount Howe, who was at the
heud of the right centre column, suddenly came upon
a French battalion led by the Marquis de Lauuay,

Tin: i.::Tn:i: DK CACHET.

who was in full retreat, and a severe conflict ensued.
Tin' viscount, a young and gallant officer, whom
Aliercrombie styles "the Idol of the Soldiers," fell at
the head of his own regiment, the 55th, as he was
calling upon the French to surrender. A chevalier of
St. Louis rushed forward and shot him by a pistol ball,
which pierced his left breast. The chevalier was shot
by Captain Monipennie, and received three musket
balls as he fell The French were routed ; many were
slain, and five officers with one hundred and forty-

• •iglit privates were taken.

Meanwhile, the column of which the Black Watch
tunned a part, had been brought to a complete halt
in a dense forest, where the rays of the sun were inter-
d by the lofty trees ; the guides had deserted,
and the officer in command was at a loss whether to
julvanct; or retreat, when Adam White, who had been
famous for beating the jungle and tigerhtfflting in
India, found a war-path, and boldly taking upon him
the arduoii.-; and responsible office of guide, conducted
the troops through the wilderness; and thus, on the
morning of the 8th July, the waters of Lake Cham-
plain, long, deep, and narrow, appeared before them,
shining in the clear sunrise, between the stems of the
opening forest. Beyond rose the solid ramparts of
that Ticomlcroga which had proved so fatal to the
liritish arms in the last campaign, faced with polished
stones, grim with sh: dy embrasures and pointed
cannon, peering over trench and palisade; ami over
all waved slowly in the morning wind the white ban-
ner, with tin; three fleurs de lis of old France.

Fire Hashed from the massive bastion, and then the
alarm-gun pealed across tin- water, waking a th ;i~and

• •chocs in the lonely woods; and the drum beat
hoarsely and rapidly the call to arms, as the heads of

2GG LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

the four British columns in scarlet, with colours waving
and bayonets fixed, debouched in succession upon the
margin of that beautiful lake ; and there a second
time Captain White of Ours was warmly complimented
by General Abercrombie for his skill in conducting
his comrades through a country of which he was
totally ignorant.

" And if I live to escape the dangers of the assault,
believe me, sir," continued the general, <( this second
service shall be recorded to your advantage and
honour."

But poor White thought only of his betrothed wife,
and far away from the shores of that lone American
lake, from its guarded fortress and woods, where tho
stealthy Red man glided with his poisoned shafts, and
from the columns of bronzed infantry, wearied by
toil and stained by travel, his memory wandered to
that sweet sequestered valley, where the pastoral
Tweed was brawling past the windows of the old
manse ; and to the honeysuckle bower, where, at that
moment, perhaps, Lucy Fleming, with pretty foot and
rapid hand, urged round her ivory-mounted spinning-
wheel ; for, in those days of old simplicity, every
Scottish lady spun, like the stately Duchess pf Lau-
derdale, so famous for her diamonds and her imperious
beauty.

But now the snapping of flints, the springing of
iron ramrods that rang in the polished barrels, the
opening of pouches and careful inspection of ammu-
nition by companies at open order, gave token of the
terrors about to ensue ; and old friends as they passed
to and fro with swords drawn to take their places in
the ranks, shook each other* warmly by the hand,
or exchanged a kindly smile, for the hour had
come when many were to part, and many to

Tin: I.KTTI:;: m: CACHKT. 2C.7

take their last repose before the ramparts of Ticon-
deroga.

io the front !" was now the order that
passed along tlie columns, as the arms were shouldered,
juul tht; companies closed up to half-distance, while
the grenadn-r companies of the different corps v.
formed witli the Highlanders, as a reserve column of
attack ; for on them, more than all his other troops, did
the general depend ; and a fine-looking body of men
they wen-, those old British Grenadiers, whom Wolfe
ever considered the flower of his army, though they
\\uiv those quaint, sugar-loaf Prussian caps, which we
adnptrd with the Prussian tactics, and though their
heads were all floured and pomatumed, with a .smart
pigtail trimmed straight to the seam of the coat
nd, their large-skirted coats buttoned back for
u>e and to display their white breeches and black
ings — their officers with triple-cocked hats and
Bleeve-rufHes, just as we see them in the old pictures
of Oudenarde and Fonteuoy.

As Colonel Grant had been wounded by a random
shot, Major Duncan Campbell of Inveraw, a veteran
otlicor of great worth and bravery, led the regiment,
and Adam White was by his side.

The cracking roar of musketry, and the rapid boom-
In^ mi-booming of cannon, with the whistle and ex-
plosion of mortars, shook the echoes of the hitherto
silent, waste of wood and water, and pealed away with
a thousand reverberations among the beautiful moun-
tains that overlook Lake Champlain, as the British
columns rushed to the assault ; but alas ! the en-
tivnrhments of the French were soon found to bo
altogether impregnable.

The first cannon-shot tore up the earth under the
fe«t of Ensign Oswald, and hurled him to the ground ;

"208 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

but lie rose unhurt, and rushed forward sword in
hand.

The leading files fell into the abattis before the
breastwork, and on becoming entangled among the
branches, were shot down from the glacis, which was
lofty, and there perished helplessly in scores.

The Inniskillings, the East Essex, the 46th, the
55tb, the 1st and 4th battalions of the Royal Ameri-
cans, and the provincial corps, were fearfully cut up.
Every regiment successively fell back in disorder,
though their officers fought bravely to encourage
them, waving their swords and spontoons ; but
the French held the post with desperate suc-
cess. Proud of their name, their remote antiquity
and ancient spirit, the Scots Royals fought well
and valiantly. At last even they gave way ; and
then the Grenadiers and Highlanders were ordered

to ADVANCE.

While the drums of the former beat the " point of
war," and the pipes of the latter yelled an onset, the
reserve column, led by Inveraw, rushed with a wild
cheer to the assault, overground encumbered by piles
of dead and wounded men, writhing and shrieking in
the agonies of death and thirst.

Impetuously the Grenadiers with levelled bayonets,
and the Black Watch, claymore in hand, broke through
a bank of smoke, and fell among the branches and
bloody entanglements of the fatal abattis.

" Hew !" cried White, " hew down the branches
with your swords, my lads, and we will soon be close
enough."

" Shoulder to shoulder ! Clann nan Gael an guillan
a chiele," cried old Duncan of Inveraw ; but at that
instant a ball pierced his brain, he fell dead, and on
White devolved the terrible task of conducting the

THE LETTKE DE CACIIKT. 269

finnl assault. Oswald was by his side, with the King's
colours brandished aloft

Hewing ;i passage through the dense branches of
tin; :il>;ittis by their broadswords, the Black Watch
made ;i gallant effort to cross the wet morass and
storm tho breastwork by climbing on each other's
shoulders, and by placing their feet on bayonets and
dirk-blades inserted in the joints of the masonry.

<j brave men were totally unprovided with
ladders.

White was the first man on the parapet, and while
exposed to a storm of whistling shot, he beat aside
th«' muzzles of the nearest muskets with his claymore,
and with his left hand assisted MacCrimmon, tho

-major, Captain John Campbell, and Ensign
Oswald, to reach the summit ; and there stood the
resolute piper, blowing the onset to encourage his
comrades, till five or six balls pierced him, and he
fell to rise no more.

A few more Highlanders reached the top of the

•", but they were all destroyed in a moment
White fell among the French, and was repeatedly

ijed by bayonets. And now the Grenadiers gave
way ; but still the infuriated Black Watch continued
that bloody conflict for several hours, and " the order
to retire was three times repeated," says the historical
record of the iv/nnent, " before the Highlanders with-
drew from so unequal a contest."

At last, however, they did fall back, leaving, besides
Adam White and Major Campbell of Inveraw, Captain
John Campbell (of the fated house of Qlenlyon, who had
been promoted for his valour at Fontenoy), Lieutenants
Macpherson, Baillie, and Sutherland ; Ensigns Ratt-
ray and Stuart of Banskied, with three hundivl and

oldiers killed ; Captains Graham, Gordon, Graham
s

270 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

of Duchray, Campbell of Strachur, Murray, and
Stewart of Urrard, with twelve subalterns, ten ser-
geants, and three hundred and six soldiers, wounded ;
making a frightful total of six hundred and forty-
eight casualties in one regiment !

Oswald received a ball through his sword arm,
but brought off the colours, tradition says, in his
teeth !

The last he saw of his friend White was his body,
still, motionless, and drenched in blood, under the
muzzle of a French cannon, but whether he was then
alive or dead it was impossible for him to say.

Four hours the contest had continued, and then
Abercrombie retired to the south side of Lake George,
leaving two thousand soldiers and many brave officers
lying dead before Ticonderoga.

The regiment deplored this terrible slaughter, but
the loss of none was so much regretted as Inveraw,
Adam White, and old MacCrimmon the pipe-major ;
and as the shattered band retired through the woods
towards a bivouac on the shore of Lake George, the
pipers played and many of the men sang " MacCrim-
mon's Lament," which he had composed on the fall
of his father, Donald Bane, who had been piper to
MacLeod of Dunvegan, and was killed in a skirmish
with Lord London's troops near Moyhall thirteen
years before, in the dark epoch of Culloden ; and. the
effect of this mournful Highland song, as it rose up
sadly from the leafy dingles of the dense American
forest, was never forgotten by the spirit-broken men
who heard it : —

" The white mountain-mist round Cuchullin is driven,
The spirit her dirge of wailing has given;
And bright blue eyes in Dunvegan are weeping,
For thou art away to the dark place of sleeping.

THE LETTRE DE CACHET. 271

Return, return — alas, for ever !
MucCrimmon's away to return to as never !
In war or in joy, to feast or to fray,
To return to us never, MacCrimmon's away !

" The breath of the valley is gently blowing,
Each river and stream is sadly ilowing;
The birds sit in silence on rock and on spray,
To return on no morrow, since thou art away !
Beturn, return, &o.

" On the ocean that chafes with a mournful wail,
The birlinn is moored without banner or sail,
And the voice of the billow is heard to complain,
Like the cry of the Tar' Uisc from wild Corriskain.
Return, return, &o.

" In Dungevan thy pibroch so thrilling, no more
Will waken the echoes of mountain and shore ;
And the hearts of our people lament night and day,
To return on no morrow, since thou art away I
Return, return, &c."

For many a year after, this lament was used by the
regiment as a dead march.

" With a mixture of grief, esteem, and envy, I con-
sider the great loss and immortal glory acquired by
the Scots Highlanders in the late bloody affair," says a
luMit«:ii;uit of the 55th, in a letter dated from Lake
George, July 10. "I cannot say for them what they
really merit ; but I shall ever fear the wrath, love
the integrity, and admire the bravery of these Scots-
men. There is much harmony and good regulation
amongst us ; our men love and fear us, as we very
justly do our superior officers ; but we are in a most
d — nable country, fit only for wolves and its native
savages." — Caleaoi <\y, Sept 9, 1758.

For many a year after, Ticonderoga found a terrible
echo in the hearts of the Highlanders ; a cry for ven-
geance, as if it had been a great national affront,
s 2

272 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

went throughout the glens, and in an incredibly short
space of time more than a thousand clansmen volun-
teered to join the regiment. So the King's warrant
came to form them into a second battalion ; and it
was further enacted that " from henceforth our said
regiment be called and distinguished by the title and
name of our 42nd, or Royal Highland Regiment of
Foot, in all commissions, orders, and writings. Given
at our Court of Kensington, this 22nd day of July,
1758, in the thirty-second year of our reign." Blue
facings now replaced the buff hitherto worn by the
corps.

This warrant was issued while the survivors of
Ticonderoga were encamped on the southern shore of
Lake George.

In due time the tidings of this second repulse of
the British troops before that fatal fortress reached
the secluded manse on Tweedside ; and from the cold
and conventional detail of operations, as given in the
official despatch of General Abercrombie, poor Lucy
turned, with a pale cheek and anxious and haggard
eyes, to the list of killed and wounded ; and the ap-
palling catalogue that appeared under the head of

' Lord John Murray's Highlanders " struck terror to
her soul. Her heart beat wildly, and her eyes grew
dim ; but mastering her emotion, the poor girl took
in the fatal roll at a glance, and in a moment
her eye caught the doubly distressing announce-
ment—

" Wounded severely, and since missing, Captain
Adam White."

" God help me now, father !" she exclaimed, and
threw herself on the . old man's breast ; " he is gone
for ever !"

. • « Missing !"

THE LETTRE DE CACHET. 278

That term used in military returns and field reports
to express the general absence of men de'ad or alive,
struck a va^ue terror, mingled with hope, in the heart
of Lucy Fleming. But then White was also wounded,
ami tin- dread grew strong in her mind that he might
bled to death, unseen or unknown, in some
solitary place, with no kind hand near to soothe his
dying agony or close his glazing eyes ; and expiring
tli us miserably, have been left, like thousands of
others, in that protracted war, unburied by the Red
Indians — a prey to wolves and ravens, with the
autumn leaves falling, and the rank grass sprouting
among his whitened bones.

These thoughts, and others such as these, filled
Lucy with a horror over which she brooded day and
night ; and it was in vain that her only surviving
parent, the old minister,

"A father to the poor — a friend to all,"

sought to encourage her by rehearsing innumerable
stories of those who had returned, in those days of
vague and uncertain intelligence, after being mourned
for and given up, yea, forgotten by their dearest friends
and nearest relatives ; but in the first paroxysm of
her grief and terror Lucy refused to be consoled.

The name of the missing man was still borne in the
Army List ; and by the slaughter of Ticonderoga he
was gazetted to the rank of brevet-major, and Oswald
to a lieutenancy.

Then weeks and months slipped away, but Adam
White was heard of no more.

Every hope that inventive kindness could suggest,
or the uncertainty of war, time, and distance could
supply, were advanced to soothe the Bufferer, who
caught at them fondly and prayerfully for a time ;

274 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

but suspense became sickening, and day by day these
hopes grew fainter, till they died away at last.

The colonel of the regiment, Lieutenant-General
Lord John Murray (son of John Duke of Athole, who,
after the revolution, had been Lord High Commis-
sioner to the Scottish Parliament), an officer who took
a vivid interest in everything connected with his regi-
ment, spared no exertion or expense to discover the
missing officer ; but, after a long correspondence with
the Marquis de Montcalm, who commanded the French
in America, M. Bourlemarque, who commanded near
Lake Champlain, and the Comte de Montmorin,
commandant of Ticonderoga, no trace of poor White
could be discovered, as all prisoners had long since
been transmitted to France.

At Chelsea, Lord John Murray appeared in the
dark kilt and scarlet uniform of the regiment to plead
the cause of its noble veterans who had been disabled
at Ticonderoga ; and becoming exasperated by the
parsimony, partiality, and gross injustice of the
Government of George II., a monarch who abhorred
the Scots and loved the English but little, he gene-
rously offered " the free use of a cottage and garden
to all 42nd men who chose to settle on his estates."
Many accepted this reward, and the memory of their
gallant colonel — the brother of the loyal and noble
Tullybardin, who unfurled the royal standard in Glen-
finnan — was long treasured by the men of the Black
Watch.

But this tale, being a true narrative, though en-
rolled among our regimental legends, will not permit
of many digressions.

White's name disappeared from the lists at last ;
another filled his place in the ranks, and after a time
even the regiment ceased to speak of him, in the ex-

THE LETTRE DE CACHET. 275

citcment of the new campaign in the West Indies,
where, in the following year, 17o9, the most of his
friends fell in the attack on Martinique or the storm-
ing of Guadaloupe ; and Jack Oswald, who was a
strange and excitable character, becoming disgusted
with the slowness of promotion, after being " rowed "
one morning for absence from parade, sold out, left
the service in a pet, became an amatory poet, and
then a dangerous political writer, under the well-
known nom, de plume of Sylvester Otway.

Long, sadly, and sorely did Lucy Fleming pine for
the lost love of her youth. The mystery that involved
his fate, and the snapping asunder of the hopes she
h:nl cherished for years, the shattering of the fairy
altar on which she had garnered up these hopes, and
all the secret aspirations of her girlish heart, affected
her deeply. She had all the appearance of one who
was dying of a broken-heart ; and yet she did not so
die. Many have perished of grief and of broken-
hearts, but our fair friend with the black ringlets and
the black eyes was not one of these.

In time she shook off her grief, as a rose shakes off
the clow that has bent it down, and like the rose she
raised her head again more beautiful and bright than
ever ; for her beauty was now chastened by a certain
pensive sadness which made her very charming ; and
thus it was, that in the year 1761 — three years after
the fatal repulse of the British troops before Ticon-
deroga — she attracted especial attention at the Hague,
whither her father, the amiable old minister, had
gone for a season, leaving his well-beloved flock and
sequestered manse upon the Scottish border, to bene-
fit the health of his pale and drooping daughter.
Being furnished with introductory letters from his
friend Home, the author of " Douglas," who was then

276 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

conservator of Scottish privileges at Campvere, the
best society was open to them.

At the balls and routs of the Comte de Montmorin,
the French resident, Lucy soon eclipsed all the blue-
eyed belles of Leyden and the Hague. Enchanted by
the charms of the beautiful brunette, their country-
woman, a crowd of gay fellows belonging to the Scots
brigade in the Dutch service followed her wherever
she went ; and those who saw her dancing the last
cotillion by M. Brieul of Versailles, the fashionable
composer of the day, or the stately and old-fashioned
minuet de la cour, with the bucks of Stuart's regi-
ments or MacGmVs musketeers, might have been
pardoned for supposing that poor Adam "White of
Ours, and the dark days of Ticonderoga, were ahke
forgotten — as indeed they were ; for Time, the con-
soler, was fast smoothing over the terrible memories
of three years ago ; and again Lucy could listen with
a downcast eye and a halt-smiling blush to the voice
that spoke of love and admiration.

Thrice the Comte de Montmorin asked her hand in
marriage, and thrice she refused him ; but again mon-
seigneur returned to the charge.

" Ah ! mademoiselle/' said he, " I am lured towards
you as the poor moth is lured towards the light — as
an eaglet soars towards the glorious sun — soars, but
to sink panting and hopeless down to earth again.
Never did a Guebre worship the sacred fire with half
the tremulous ardour I worship you ; for mine is a
worship of the heart and soul — the love of father,
lover, husband, and brother — all combined in one !"

" And so, M. le Comte, you do admire me/' said
Lucy, trembling.

" In that, Mademoiselle Fleming, I would only be
as other men."

"Well—"

THE LETTKE DE CACHIIT. 277

" I love you, mademoiselle."

" But so do many more."

" Mon Dieu ! I know that too well ; but none love
as I do."

It was not in bombast like this that poor Adam
White had wooed and won her love ; yet in six
months after her arrival at the Hague, to the dismay
and discomfiture of six entire battalions of the Scots
•le — at least the officers thereof — she became the
of M. le Comte Montmorin, Peer of France,
Knight of St. Louis, and all the royal orders — he
who in former days had been the trusty grenadier of
Pbilipeborg and the resolute general at Ticonderoga ;
ami though the old minister sorrowed in his heart
for the brave and leal-hearted lad she had loved in
other days, and who was buried in his soldier's grave
so far away ; and though he deemed, too, that the old
manse by Tweedside would be lonely now, without
her, as the count belonged to an ancient Protestant
house in Lillebonne, and had a magnificent fortune,
et cetera, he had no solid objection to offer ; and so
In.- pronounced the irrevocable nuptial blessing, and
han.l.-'l OV»T his last tie on earth — the last flower
little flock who were all sleeping "in the auld
kirk van 1 at Lime," to the titled stranger.

On the occasion the Scots brigade consoled them-
selves by giving a magnificent ball ; and none danced
more merrily thereat than the friend of the lost
lover, Jack Oswald, late of Ours, who had been taken
prisoner during some of his wanderings, and sent to
I' ranee ; but had made his escape in the disguise of a
poissard, and was wandering home, via, the Hague
and Rotterdam.

"Poor Adam fell at Ticonderoga," said he, in a
pause of the dancing — "I saw him knocked on tho
head — 'tis well he lived not to see this day !"

278 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" But the count is so rich !" said a disappointed
man of the Scots brigade.

" Tush I" snarled Oswald, " the fellow is a mere
Frenchman — a heartless fool, who would laugh in
the face of a corpse, as old Inveraw of Ours used to

Let us change the scene to a period of thirty-one
years after.

It is now the year 1 789.

M. le Comte de Montmorin, a venerable peer, was
then the secretary of state for the foreign department
under Louis XVI. Madame la Comtesse, after being
long the mirror of Parisian fashion, had become a
staid and noble matron, with a son in the French
Guards, and two marriageable daughters, the belles of
Paris. The old minister, their grandsire, had long
since been gathered to his fathers, and was sleeping
far away, among the long grass and the mossy head-
stones of his old grey kirk on bonny Tweedside.
Another occupied his humble manse, another preacher
his pulpit, and other faces filled the old oak pews
around it.

The horrors of the French Revolution were burst-
ing over Paris !

The absolute power of the crown of the Louis ;
the overweening privileges of a proud nobility and
of a dissipated clergy, with their total exemption
from all public burdens, and the triple tyranny
under which the people groaned, had made all
Frenchmen mad. A determined and fierce contest
among the different orders of society ensued ; the
mobs rose in arms, and the troops joined them. A
new constitution was demanded, and equality of
ranks formed its basis ; for the cry was,

THE LETTRE DE CACHET. 279

" Vive the people ! down \vith the rich, the noble,
and the aristocrats !"

The flower of the French nobles either perished on
the scaffold or fled for safety and for foreign aid ; the
King himself became a fugitive, but was arrested on
the frontiers and brought back to Paris. The streets of
that city swam in blood, and the son of Lucy Flem-
ing, a brave young chevalier, perished at the head of
his company in defending the beautiful Marie An-
toinette, and his head was made a foot-ball by the
rabble along the Rue St. Jacques. A thousand times
Lucy urged her husband to fly, for Paris had become
a mere human shambles, but the determined old
soldier of Ticonderoga and Quebec stood by his
miserable king, and coolly proceeded each day to the
foreign office on foot ; for the mobs systematically
murdered every aristocrat who dared to appear in a
carriage, sacrificing even the valets and horses to
their mad resentment

In July, avast armed multitude assailed the Bastille,
and foremost among the assailants was a Scottish gen-
tleman— known by many as the notorious Sylvester
Otway ; by others as Jack Oswald of the Black Watch.

After quitting the regiment, this remarkable man
(whose father was the keeper of John's coffee-house at
Edinburgh) had made himself perfect master of the
Greek, Latin, and Arabic languages ; and he became
a vegetarian, in imitation of the Brahmins, some of
whose opinions he had imbibed during service in
India. He became a violent political pamphleteer,
and on the outbreak of the French Revolution repaired
at once to Paris, where his furious writings procured
him immediate admission into the Jacobin club, in all
the transactions of which he took a leading part, and
was appointed to the command of a regiment of in-

280 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

fantry, which was raised from the refuse, the savage
and infamous population of the purlieus of Paris ; and
they marched sans breeches, shoes, and often sans
shirts, with their hair loose, and their arms, faces,
and breasts smeared with red paint, blood, and gun-
powder.

At the head of this rabble, on the evening of the
14th of July, Oswald appeared with other leaders
before the walls of the terrible Bastille ; and bearing
in his hand a white flag of truce, summoned the
governor, the Marquis de Launay, " to surrender in
the name of the sovereign people ;" but that noble
proudly and recklessly despised this motley rout of
armed citizens, and opened a fire upon them. The
cannon taken from the Hotel des Invalides soon
effected a breach, and a private of the French Guards,
with John Oswald, the ci-devant lieutenant of the
Black Watch, were the two first men who entered the
place. The poor garrison were all slaughtered or
taken prisoners ; among the latter were De Launay,
his master-gunner, and two veteran soldiers, who were
dragged to the Place de la Greve and ignominiously
beheaded.

The terrible Bastille, for centuries the scene of so
many horrors, and the receptacle of broken hearts,
was demolished, sacked, and ruined ! The most active
in that demolition was the author of " Euphrosyne,"
and the " Cry of Nature" — the wild enthusiast, John
Oswald. Intent on releasing the suffering captives
who were believed to be immured there, he hurried,
sword in hand, from tower to tower, from cell to cell,
and vault to vault ; through staircases and corridors,
dark, damp, and horrible, where for ages the bloated
spider had spun her web, and the swollen rat squat-
tered in the damp and slime that distilled from the
massive walls to make a hideous puddle on the floors

THE LETTRE DE CACHET. 281

of clay, amid which the bones of many a hapless
wretch, forgotten and nameless now, lay steeping with
their rusted chains.

In one of these, the darkest, lowest, and most pes-
tilential— for it was subject to the tides of the Seine,
where the oozing water dropped from the vaulted
roof, where the cold slimy reptiles crawled, and where
the massive walls were wet with dripping slime — he
found a human being, almost an idiot, chained to a
block of stone. He was old ; his hair and beard were
white as the thistle-down : he seemed a living corpse ;
spect was terrible, for existence seemed a miracle,
a curse in such a place ; and on being brought to
upper earth and air by these blood-steeped men of
the people, he became senseless and swooned.

Three other prisoners were found, and then, to its
lowest vaults, the infamous Bastille was levelled — even
to its base, and its records of tyranny, torture, suffering,
human crime, and inhuman horror perished with it

" The only State prisoners, where so many were sup-
posed to have entered," says the Edinburgh Magazine
for that year, " the only prisoners that were forth-
coming in the general delivery amounted to four !
Major White and Lord Mazarine were two out of that
number. The first gentleman, a native of Scotland,
was in durance for the space of twenty-eight years ;
he had never in that time been heard of by his friends,
nor in the least expected thus to be enthralled. When
restored to liberty, he appeared to have lost his mental
powers, and even the vernacular sounds of his own
language. The Duke of Dorset has taken him under
his direct protection ; this is unasked, and therefore
the more honourable."

So this miserable wreck, aged, paid, and wan, worn
almost to a skeleton, nearly mul -•, uith his limbs
fretted by iron fetters, and all but fatuous; insane,

282 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

and with scarcely a memory of his native tongue or
past existence ; in whose eyes the light of life and in-
telligence seemed dead, and who had forgotten the
days when he could weep or feel, was our long-lost
comrade, the soldier of Ticonderoga ?

Inspired by just indignation, and determined to
unravel this terrible mystery, the Duke of Dorset
took him in a fiacre to the hotel of the Comte de
Montmorin, the only minister then in Paris, to de-
mand the reason of this outrage upon the laws of war,
of peace, and of common humanity ; but the official
of the unfortunate Louis could only shrug his shoul-
ders, make the usual grimaces and apologies, and
plead, that as the records of the Bastille had perished
in the sack of that prison, it was totally beyond his
power to explain the affair ; for not a scrap of paper
remained to show how or why this brave officer of
the Black Watch, who had been wounded and taken
prisoner in action in 1758, should have been found in
that dreadful place thirty-one years after. The Duke
of Dorset perceived, with surprise, that while speak-
ing the Comte de Montmorin was ghastly pale, and
that his eyes were filled with terror. It would have
made a fine subject for a painter, but a finer still for
a novelist — the delineation of this interview, as it
took place in the drawing-room of the Hotel de
Montmorin on the morning after the demolition of
the Bastille.

The unfortunate victim of a government which had
long made that infamous prison an engine of tyranny,
was introduced by our proud and determined ambas-
sador, who spoke for him in no measured tones ; for
alas ! the poor major could scarcely put three words
together, aud for some hours seemed to have forgotten
the sound of his own voice.

THE LETTRE DE CACHET. 288

In the stately and now elderly French lady seated
on the gilt fauteuil, between her shrieking and pitying
• laughters, clad in her high stays, hooped petticoat,
and figured satin, with an esclavage round her neck,
ami her white hair powdered and towered up into a
mountain of curls, flowers, and feathers, & la Marquise
de Pompadour, it was impossible for Adam White to
recognise the once beautiful and black-eyed Lucy of
his youth — the simple Scottish girl of the quiet old
manse on Tweedside, for whom his sorrowing heart
had yearned with agony, in the long and dreary days
of captivity, and in the longer watches of the silent
night, until love and youth and blessed hope all
passed away together.

1 1 was as difficult for her to trace in that wan, aged,
and resuscitated man, the handsome young officer
who had left her side to fight Britain's battles under
Amherst and the hero of Quebec. She was now a
white-haired matron, and he a wild-eyed, haggard
old man— old by premature years, for eight-and-
!y in the Bastille had crushed him by a load of
unavailing care and sorrow. How many seasons had
passed over that dark and vaulted solitude during
which his pained and weary eyes had never met
a friendly smile, or his ear welcomed a kindly
greeting.

Eight-and-twenty summers had bloomed and
withered, and eight-and twenty winters had spread
their snows upon the hills ! In that long space of
time, how many had been wedded and given in
marriage, or been laid in their last homes? — how
many of the brave and good, the noble and the beau-
tiful, had gone to " the Land of the Leal," where there
is no dawning or gloaming, where the BUU shines fur
ever, and the flowers never die !

284 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

For eight-and- twenty years all the pulses of life
had seemed to stand still ; and now, under their
changed aspect and character, and ignorant of each
other's presence, Lucy Fleming and Adam White
stood within the same apartment, without a glance of
recognition. Weak, tottering, and frail, White was
placed in a chair-, and the countess brought wine to
him from a side table. His aspect was that of a
dying man ; her eyes were full of pity, and her
daughters wept to see this poor old man, whose wan-
dering faculties were awaking to a new existence after
the long and dreamless sleep of eight-and-twenty
years, and to whom the upper air, the blessed sun-
shine, and the twitter of the happy birds, were all as
strange and new as if he had never known them.

" Your name, monsieur le prisonnier V asked her
husband, coldly, and with averted eye.

"Adam White— yes, yes — I am sure it was so—
Adam White; once a major in the 42nd Regiment
of his Britannic Majesty George II." he replied, with
great difficulty and long pauses.

"George II. has been dead these twenty^eight
years, sir," replied the Duke of Dorset, kindly
placing an arm upon his shoulder, while, with out-
spread hands and eyes dilated with terror, the
countess started back as if a spectre had risen
before her.

" Dead ! dead !" muttered the major. " I too
have been dead, I think — and who now is on the
throne ?"

" His grandson, George III."

" Know you the crime for which you were
arrested, monsieur?" asked the count, who did
not seem to notice the agitation of the countess.

The sunken eyes of Major White flashed, but the

: DE CACHET. 285

emotion died at onco, for his heart seemed broken
and liis spirit cm-!

" Crime I" said he ; "I was wounded and taken
in the assault on Ticonderoga by the Comto de
Montmorin."

" I commanded there, and I am he/'

"This was thirty-one years ago — my God ! oh, my
God !"

" Be calm, dear sir," said the Duke of Dorset

"And you have been all that time in the
Bastille?"'

" Yes, monseigneur."

" Horrible '" exclaimed the duke.

'• You were arrested" —

" One night in the streets of Paris, near the Port
St. Antowie, when I was at liberty upon parole, as a
prisoner of war."

" When was this ?"

" In 1761 — three years after Ticonderoga."

" Ah, we had peace with Britain in 1763," said
the count, averting his eyes, and endeavouring to
;ae a composure which he did not feel under
tin- k- n scrutiny of Dorset's eye. "And so we
meet again — fortune has cast us together once
more."

"Fortune — say rather fatality,** replied White,
as some old memory shook his withered heart

" Did you ever hear how or why you were ar-
il ?"

"Once, and once only — I was told — I was told
that it was on the authority of a Icttre de cachet,
filled up by King Louis in the name of the Comte
de Montmorin."

"It is an infamous falsehood I* exclaimed tho
count, passionately.

286 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

" Perhaps so,'' sighed "White, meekly ; " the man
who told me so has been dead twenty-three years."

" And this arrest was" —

" On the anniversary of Ticonderoga — the night of
the 15th of July, 1761."

"The 15th of July!" exclaimed the countess,
wildly, and in a piercing voice ; " on the morning of
that very day my desk was rifled of your letters, and
your miniature, Adam White ! — O my friend — I see
it all — I see this horrible mystery I"

White turned his hollow eyes and haggard visage
towards her in wonder. He passed a hand repeatedly
across his eyes, as if to clear his thoughts, then shook
his white head, and relapsed into dreamy vacancy.
After a painful pause, " That voice," said he, "is like
one which used to come to me often — very, often — in
the Bastille ; in my dreams it used to mingle with
the rustle of the straw I slept on."

He smiled with so ghastly an expression that the
Duke of Dorset grew pale with anger and compassion.
He had gleaned from White the story of his life, and
discovered in a moment that the .countess was the
Lucy Fleming of his early love ; and that the count,
on discovering the wounded and long-missing major
to be in Paris in 1761, to preclude all chance of the
lovers ever meeting again, had consigned him to the
Bastille, there to be detained for life, as it was termed
" IN SECRET."

" Monseigneur," said he, sternly, "I see a clue to
this dark story; and believe rne, that the king,
whom I have the honour to represent, will take sure
vengeance for this act of more than Italian jealousy,
and for an atrocity which cannot be surpassed in the
annals of yonder accursed edifice, which the mob of
yesterday have happily hurled to the earth."

Till: LKTTRE DE CACHET. 287

With these words he retired, taking with him
Adam White, who seemed reduced to mere child-
hood, for recollection and animation came upon him
only by gleams and at unexpected times. As they
withdrew, the countess turned away in horror from her
husband, and fainted in the arms of her terrified
daughters.

The inquiry threatened by our ambassador was
never made. Paris was then convulsed, and France
was trembling on the brink of anarchy, even as the
weak Louis trembled on his crumbling throne. The
exertions of his Grace of Dorset to unravel more of
the mystery, and the fears of the Comte de Mont-
morin, were alike futile, for next morning the poor
major was found dead in his bed. He had expired
in the night. The sudden revulsion of feeling pro-
duced by a release, after so many years of blank cap-
tivity, had proved too much for his weak frame and
shattered constitution. He was buried in the church
of St Germain de Prez ; and when Oswald's sans-
culottes lifted the dead man from the bed, to lay him
in the humble shell provided by the cure of the
parish, there dropped from his breast a locket It
contained a miniature and a withered tress of black
hair — the last mementoes left to him of all that he
had loved in the pleasant days of youth and hope, and
prized beyond even blessed hope itself, in the solitude
and horror of the long years that had followed Ticon-
deroga. The ruffians who had desecrated tho regal
sepulchres of St Denis respected the heritage of tho
dead soldier, so that the locket was buried with him;
and thore, in the ancient church of St Germain,
wald, the political enthusiast, interred his old and long-
lost comrade with all the honours of war.

The stone which was erected in the church, and of
T 2

288 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

•which I have given the brief inscription, is said, tra-
ditionally, to have been the gift of a lady — who, need
scarcely be mentioned. How long this lady and the
count her husband survived the disclosures consequent
to the destruction of the Bastille, I have no means of
knowing ; but French history has recorded the fate of
Jack Oswald.

His two sons left Edinburgh and joined him at
Paris, where, to illustrate the complete system of
equality and fraternity, he made them both drum-
mers in his regiment, among the soldiers of which his
severe discipline soon rendered him unpopular ; and
on his attempting to substitute pikes for muskets, the
whole battalion refused to obey, and then officers and
men broke out into open mutiny.

" Colonel Oswald's corps/' continues the editor of
the " Scottish Biographical Dictionary," " was one of
the first employed against the royalists in La Vendee,
where he was killed in battle. It is said that his
men took advantage of the occasion to rid themselves
of their obnoxious commander, and to despatch also
his two sons, and an English gentleman who was
serving in his regiment"

And thus ends another legend of the Black Watch.

289

VIII.
ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN GRANT.

COLQUHOUN GRANT, a captain of one of our battalion
companies during the Peninsular war, was a hardy,
active, strong, and handsome Highlander, from the
wooded mountains that overlook Strathspey. Inured
from childhood to the hardships and activity inci-
dental to a life in the country of the clans, where the
of vast herds of sheep and cattle, or the pur-
suit of the wild deer from rock to rock, and from hill
to hill, are the chief occupations of the people ; — a
deadly shot with either musket or pistol, and a com-
plete swordsman, he was every way calculated to
become an ornament to our regiment and to the
service. General Sir William Napier, in the fourth
volume of his "History of the Peninsular War,"
writes of him as " Colquhoun Grant, that celebrated
scouting officer, in whom the utmost daring was so
mixed with subtlety of genius, and both so tempered
by discretion^ that it is difficult to say which quality
predominated."

In the spring of 1812, when Lord Wellington
crossed the Tagus, and entered Castello Branco, ren-
dering the position of Marshal Marmont so perilous
that he n-tircd across the Agueda, by which the gene-
ral of the allies, though his forces were B] or a
vast extent of cantonments, was enabled to victual

290 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almieda, the
42nd, or old Black Watch, were with the division of
Lieutenant-General Grahame, of Lynedoch. The
service battalion consisted of 1160 rank and file, and
notwithstanding the fatigues of marching by day and
night, of fording rivers above the waist-belt, and all
those arduous operations by which Wellington so com
pletely baffled and out-generalled Marmont in all his
attempts to attack Rodrigo — movements in which
the sagacity of the " Iron Duke " appeared so re-
markable, that a brave old Highland officer (General
Stewart of Garth) declared his belief that their leader
had the second sight, — not a man of our regiment
straggled or fell to the rear, from hunger, weariness,
or exhaustion ; all were with the colours when the
roll was called in the morning.

The information that enabled Wellington to execute
those skilful manoeuvres which dazzled all Europe,
and confounded, while they baffled, the French
marshal, was supplied from time to time by Colqu-
houn Grant, who, accompanied by Domingo de Leon,
a Spanish peasant, had the boldness to remain in rear
of the enemy's lines, watching all their operations,
and noting their numbers ; and it is a remarkable
fact that while on this most dangerous service he con-
stantly wore the Highland uniform, with his bonnet
and epaulettes ; thus, while acting as a scout, freeing
himself from the accusation of being in any way a
spy, " for," adds Napier, " he never would assume any
disguise, and yet frequently remained for three days
concealed in the midst of Marmont's camp.'"

Hence the secret of Wellington's facility for
circumventing Marmont was the information derived
from Colquhoun Grant ; and the secret of Grant'
ability for baffling the thousand snares laid for hint

ADVENTURES OP CAPTAIN GRANT. 291

by the French, was simply that he had a Spanish
love, who watched over his safety with all a woman's
wit, and the idolatry of a Spanish woman, who, when
she loves, sees but one man in the world — the object
of h<-r passion.

When Marmont was advancing, Wellington des-
patched Captain Grant to watch his operations " in
the heart of the French army," and from among its
soldiers to glean whether they really had an intention
of succouring the garrison of Ciudad Rodrigo— a despe-
rate duty, which, like many others, our hero under-
took without delay or doubt

Thus, on an evening in February, Grant found
himself on a solitary mountain of Leon, overlooking
the vast plain of Salamanca, on the numerous spires
and towers of which the light of eve was fading, while
the gilded vanes of the cathedral shone like stars in
the deep blue sky that was darkening as the sun set
behind the hills; and one of those hot dry days
peculiar to the province gave place to a dewy twilight,
:i the Tormes, which rises among the mountains
of Salamanca, and washes the base of the triple hill on
which the city stands, grew white and pale, as it
wandered through plains dotted by herds of Merino
sheep, but destitute of trees, until it vanished on
its course towards the Douro, on the frontiers of
Portugal.

Exhausted by a long ride from Lord Wellington's
head-quarters, and by numerous efforts he had made
to repass the cordon of picquets and patrols by which
the Fivnch — now on his track — baa environed him,
Grant lay buried in deep sleep, under the sha
some olive-trees, with a brace of pistols in his 1/i-lt,
1m claymore by his side, and his head resting in the
lap of a beautiful Spanish peasant girl, Juanna, the

292 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

sister of his faithful Leon, a warm-hearted, brave, and
affectionate being, who, like her brother, had attached
herself to the favourite scouting officer of Wellington,
and, full of admiration for his adventurous spirit,
handsome figure, and winning manner, loved him
with all the ardour, romance, and depth of which
a Spanish girl of eighteen is capable.

Juanna de Leon and her brother Domingo were
the children of a wealthy farmer and vine-dresser,
who dwelt on the mountainous range known as the
Puerto del Pico, which lies southward of Salamanca ;
but the vines had been destroyed, the granja burned,
and the poor old agriculturist was bayonetted on his
hearthstone by some Voltigeurs of Marmont, under
a Lieutenant Armand, when on a foraging expedi-
tion. Thus Juanna and her brother were alike home-
less and kinless.

The girl was beautiful. Youth lent to her some-
what olive-tinted cheek a ruddy glow that enhanced
the dusky splendour of her Spanish eyes ; her lashes
were long- ; her mouth small, and like a cherry ; Her
chin dimpled ; her hands were faultless, as were her
ankles, which were cased in prettily embroidered red
stockings, and gilt zapatas. With all these attrac-
tions she had a thousand winning ways, such as only
a girl of Leon can possess. Close by lay the guitar
and castanets with which she played and sung her
weary lover to sleep.

Her brother was handsome, athletic, and resolute,
in eye and bearing ; but since the destruction of their
house, he had become rather fierce and morose, as
hatred of the invading French and a thirst for ven-
geance were ever uppermost in his mind. He had
relinquished the vine-bill for the musket ; his yellow
sash bristled with pistols and daggers ; and with

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN' C: It AST. 293

heaven for his roof, and his brown Spanish mantle for
a couch, he had betaken himself to the mountains,
wlic-re he shot without mercy every straggling French-
man who came within reach of his terrible aim.

While Grant slept, the tinkling of the vesper bells
was borne across the valley, the sunlight died away
over the mountains, and the winding Tormes, that
shone like the coils of a vast snake, faded from the
plain. The Spanish ijirl stooped and kissed her toil-
worn lover's cheek, and bent her keen dark eyes upon
the mountain path by which she seemed to expect a
or.

One arm was thrown around the curly head of the
sleeper, and her fingers told her beads as she prayed
over him ; but her prayers were not for herself.

Innocent and single-hearted Juanna !

Suddenly there was a sound of footsteps, and a
handsome young Spaniard, wearing a brown capa
gathered over his arm, shouldering a long musket to
which a leather sling was attached, and having his
coal black hair gathered behind in a red silk net,
sprang up the rocks towards the olive-grove, and ap-
proached Juanna and the sleeper. The new comer
her brother.

" Domingo, your tidings?" she asked, breathlessly.

" They are evil ; so wake your Sonor Capitano with-
out delay."

" I am awake," said Grant, rising at the sound of
his voice. "Thanks, dearest Juanna ; have I been so
crtiel as to keep you here in the cold dew — and watch-
ing me, too?"

" Caro mio !"

"It U4«.s cruel of me; but I have been so weary that
nature was quite overcome. And now, Domingo, my
lucno caman'.dv, tor your tidii^ .

294< LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

" I would speak first of the Marshal Marmont."

"And then?"

" Of yourself, senor."

" Bravo ! let us have the Marshal first, by all
means."

" I have been down the valley, and across the plain,
almost to the gates of Salamanca," said the young
paisano, leaning on his musket, and surveying, first,
his sister with tender interest, and then, Grant with
a dubious and anxious expression, for he loved him
too, but tremblefl for the sequel to the stranger's pas-
sion for the beautiful Juanna. "I have been round
the vicinity of the city from Monte Rubio and
Villares to the bridge of Santa Marta on the
Tormes— "

" And you have learned ?" said Grant, impetuously.

" That scaling-ladders have been prepared in great
numbers, for I saw them. Vast quantities of provi-
sion and ammunition on mules have been brought
from the Pyrenees, and Marmont is sending every-
thing— ladders, powder, and bread — towards —

" Not Ciudad Rodrigo and Almieda."

" Si, senor/'

" The devil ! You are sure of this ?"

" I counted twenty scaling-ladders, each five feet
wide, and reckoned forty mules, each bearing fourteen
casks of ball cartridges."

" Good — I thank you, Domingo," said Grant, taking
paper from a pocket-book, and making a hasty note
or memorandum for Lord Wellington.

" Ay — Dios mi terra !" said Juanna, with a soft
sigh, as she dropped her head upon Grant's shoulder,
and Domingo kissed her brow.

" Now, where is Manrico el Barbado ?" asked the
captain, as he securely gummed the secret note.

ADVENTURES OP CAPTAIN GRANT. 295

" Within call," said Domingo, giving a shrill
whistle.

A sound like the whirr of a partridge replied, and
then a strong and ferocious-lookiug peasant, bare
legged, and bare necked, with an enormous black
beard (whence came his soubriquet of el Barbado),
sprang up the rocks and made a profound salute to
Grant, who was beloved and adored by all the gue-
rillas, banditti, and wild spirits whom the French had
unhoused and driven to the mountains ; and among
these his name was a proverb for all that was gallant,
reckless, and chivalresque.

" Is your mule in good condition, Manrico ?"

" He was never better, senor."

" Then ride with this to Lord Wellington ; spare
neither whip nor spur, and he will repay you hand-
somely."

" And how about yourself, senor V

" Say to his lordship that I will rejoin him as early
and as I best may."

The Spanish scout concealed the note in his beard
with great ingenuity, and knowing well that he could
thus pass the French lines with confidence, and defy
all search, he departed on his journey to the British
head-quarters ; and the information thus received
from Grant enabled the leader of the allies to take
such measures as completely to outflank Murmont,
and baffle his attempts upon Almieda and the city of
Rodrigo.

" So much for my friend Marmont," said Grant,
" and now, Domingo, for myself."

" Read this," said Domingo, handing to him a docu-
.bbixl the French sentinel at the bridge
of Santa Marta, and tore this paper from the guard-
house door."

296 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

It proved to be a copy of a General Order, ad-
dressed by Marmont to the colonels of the French
regiments, "saying" (to quote General Napier) "that
the notorious Grant, being within the circle of their
cantonments, the soldiers were to use their utmost
exertions to secure him ; for which purpose guards
were also to be placed, as it were, in a circle round the
army/'

" Caro mio, read this to me," whispered Juanna.

He translated it, and terror filled the dilating eyes
of the Spanish girl ; her breath came thick and fast,
and she crept closer to the breast of her lover, who
smiled and kissed her cheek to reassure her.

" Have you closely examined all the country ?" he
asked Domingo.

" I have, senor."

" There is but one way back to Lord Wellington's
head-quarters."

"And that is— "

" At the ford of Huerta on the Tormes."

" Six miles below Salamanca ?"

"Yes."

" I will cross the ford, then."

" But a French battalion occupies the town."

" I care not if ten battalions occupied it — / must
even ride the ford as I find it ; 'tis a saying in my
country, Domingo, where I hdpe our dear Juanna
will one day smile with me, when we talk of sunny
Spain and these wild adventures."

" No — no — you will never leave Spain," said
Juanna, with a merry smile. " Your poor Spanish
girl could never go to the land of the Inglesos, where
the sun shines but once in a year — not once every
day, as it does here in beautiful Leon : but say no

ADVENTURES OP CAPTAIN GRANT. 297

more of this, or I shall sing Ta no quicro amores,"
&c., and, taking up her guitar, she sang with a win-
ning drollery of expression which made her piquant
loveliness a thousand times more striking : —

" My love no more to England — to England now shall roam,
For I have a bettor, fonder love — a truer love at home 1
If I should visit England,

I hope to find them true ;
For a love like mine deserves a wreath ! •

Green and immortal too !
But, 0 ! they are proud, those English dames, to all who thither

roam,
And I have a better, dearer love— a truer love at home !"•

"You have me, Juanna — dearest Juanna!" ex-
claimed Grant, tenderly, as he kissed her.

"And now for Huerta/' said Domingo, slapping
the butt of his musket impatiently ; " the moon will
be above the Pico del Puerto in half an hour — vaya
— let us begone.''

Grant placed Juanna on the saddle of his horse, a
fine, fleet, and active jennet presented to him by Lord
Wellington, and led it by the bridle, while Domingo
slung his musket, and followed thoughtfully behind,
as they descended the hill with the intention of seek-
ing the banks of the Tormes; but making a wido
detour towards the ford. The moon was shining on
the river when they came in sight of Huerta, a small
village, through which passes the road from Sala-
manca to Madrid. A red glow at times shot from its
tile works, showing the outlines of the flat- roofed cot-
tages, and wavering on the olive-groves that overhung
the river, which was here crossed by the ford. While
Grunt and Juanna remained concealed in a thicket of
orange-trees in sight of Huerta, Domingo, whose god-
father was a tile-burner in the town, went forward to

298 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

reconnoitre and make inquiries ; and in less than
twenty minutes he returned with a gloomy brow and
excited eye.

"Well, Domingo, what news?" asked Grant, on
whose shoulder the head of Juanna was droop-
ing, for she was nearly overcome by sleep and
fatigue.

" I have still evil news, Senor."

« Indeed/'

"The French battalion occupies Huerta, and the
main street is full of soldiers. Guards are placed at
each end, and cavalry videttes are posted in a line
along the river, patrolling constantly backwards and
forwards, for the space of three hundred yards, and
two of these videttes meet always at the ford, conse-
quently, be assured, they know that you are on this
side of the Tonnes."

" The deuce I" muttered Grant, biting his lips.
" M. le Mare'chal Marmont is determined to take me
this time, I fear ; but I will cross the ford, Domingo,
in the face of the enemy too ! Better die a soldier's
death under their fire, than fall alive into their
hands."

" A soldier's death, and a sudden one, is sure to
follow, Senor Capitano," added Domingo, gloomily,
and poor Grant was not without anxiety for the issue.
He thought of Juanna, and some recollection of the
ignominious fate of the gallant Major Andre', when
found beyond the American lines, under similar cir-
cumstances, may have flashed upon his memory.

" Do not weep, Juanna," said he to the Spanish
girl, who strove to dissuade him from attempting the
ford ; " your tears only distress and unman me, when
all my courage is wanted."

" Caro mio, if you love me, stay, for you cannot

ADY: - OF CAPTAIN GI: 299

deceive me as to the peril— it is great — and if t;
what IIKT y can you -expect from Marshal Mar-
mont ?"

" But I will never be taken, alive at least," re-
sponded the Highlander, with a fierce and s-orroy. ml
embrace ; " 'tis better to die than be taken, and per-
haps have the uniform I wear — the uniform of the
old Black Watch — disgraced by a death at the hands
of a provost marshal."

The young Spanish girl caugh£ the fiery enthusiasm

of her lover, and nerved herself for the struggle, and

for their consequent separation ; but Domingo had

once more to examine the ground and so many points

to be considered, that day began to brighten on

Pico del Puerto and the Sierras of Credos and

Gata, before Grant mounted his horse ; and by that

time, the French drums had beaten reveille, and the

whoje battalion was under arms at its alarm-post, a

nsward behind the tile-works. Juanna and her

l'.v.-r parted with promises of mutual regard and re-

iin mlirunce until they met again.

" When will it be — oh, when will it be ?" she
moaned.

" In God's appointed time — quando Dios sera ser-
vido," replied Grant " Farewell, Juanna mia, a thou-
ul adieux to you."

"Bueno — away!" said Domingo, taking Grant's
horse by the bridle — " away before day is <
broken !"

As they hurried off, Juanna threw herself on her
•> in the thicket, and prayed to God and Madonna
for her lover. She covered her beautiful head with
that thick mantle usually worn by the women of
Leon, to shut out every sound ; but lo ! there en;
loud, yet distinct shout from the river's bank, and

300 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

then a confused discharge of firearms that rang sharply
in the clear morning air.

" O Madonna mia !" exclaimed the Spanish girl,
and with a shriek she threw herself upon her face
among the grass.

Meanwhile Grant had proceeded in rear of the tile-
works, close by where the French regiment was
paraded in close column at quarter distance, and so
near was he, that he could hear the sergeants of com-
panies calling the roll; but a group of peasants
assembled by Domingo, remained around his horse,
with their broad sombreros and brown cloaks, to con-
ceal it from the French, along whose front he had to
pass to reach the ford. From the gable of a cottage,
he had a full view of the latter — the Tormes brawling
over its bed of rocks and pebbles, with the open plain
that lay beyond, and the two French videttes, hel-
meted and cloaked, with carbine on thigh, patrolling
to and fro, to the distance of three hundred yards
apart, but meeting at the ford.

"Their figures seem dark and indistinct, in the
starry light of the morning/' said Grant.

"But we know them to be dragoons," said
Domingo.

"Si, senores," added the brother of Manrico el
Barbado ; " from this you may perceive that their hel-
mets and horses are afrancesado."

" Frenchified — yes ; now when I whistle, let go my
horse's head, and do you, my good friends in front,
withdraw to give me space, for now the videttes are
about to part, and I must make at dash at it I"

Atf the moment when the patrols were separated to
their fullest extent, and each was one hundred and
fifty yards from the ford, Grant dashed spurs into his
horse, and with his sword in his teeth and a cocked

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN GRANT. 301

pistol in each hand, crossed the river by three furious
bounds of his horse. Receiving without damage the
fire of both carbines, he replied with his pistols, giving
each of the dragoons a flying-shot to the rear, but
without injuring either of them. There was an in-
stantaneous and keen pursuit ; but he completely
baffled it by his great knowledge of the country, and
reached a cork-wood in safety, where he was soon
joined by Domingo de Leon, who, being attired as a
peasant, and unknown to the French, was permitted
to pass their lines unquestioned.

Marmont's rage on Grant's escape was great ; the
sentinels at the ford were severely punished, and the
officer commanding the regiment in HuertA was
deprived of his cross of the Legion of Honour. Grant
was not satisfied with the extent of his observations,
for he became desirous of furnishing Lord Wellington
with still further intelligence.

From the conversations of French officers whom he
had overheard, he made ample notes, and proved that
means to storm Ciudad Rodrigo were prepared ; but
he was resolved to judge for himself of the direction
in which Marmont meant to move, and also to see his
whole division on the line of march. For this pur-
pose he daringly concealed himself among some cop-
pice on the brow of a hill near the secluded village of
Tamames, which is celebrated for its mineral springs,
and lit s thirty-two miles south-west of Salamanca,
There he sat, note-book in hand, with Leon, smoking
a cigar, and lounging on the grass, while his jennet, un-
billed, was quietly grazing close by, and the whole of
Marmont's brilliant division, cuirassiers, lancers, in-
fanlry, artillery, and voltigeurs defiled with drums beat-
ing, tricolours waving, and eagles glittering through llio
pass below ; and Grant's skilful eye counted every cannon.

802 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

and reckoned over every horse and man, with a cor-
rectness which astonished even Lord Wellington. The
moment the rear-guard had passed, he mounted, and
although in his uniform, rode boldly into the village
of Tamames, where he found all the scaling ladders
left behind. With tidings of this fact, and the strength
of Marmont's army, he at once despatched a letter to
Wellington, by Manrico el Barbado, who, as before,
concealed it under his nether jaw ; and this letter,
which informed the allies that the preparations to
storm Rodrigo were, after all, a pompous feint, allayed
their leader's fear for that fortress, and to Marmont's
inexpressible annoyance, enabled him to turn atten-
tion to other quarters,

Fearless, indefatigable, and undeterred by the
dangers he had undergone, Grant preceded Marmont
(when that officer passed the Coa) and resolved to
discover whether his march would be by the duchy of
Guarda upon Coimbra, the land of Olives ; or by the
small frontier town of Sabugal, upon Castello Branco,
•which stands upon the Lira, a tributary of the Tagus,
and still displays the ruins of the Roman Albicastrum
from which it takes its name.

Castello Branco is a good military position ; but to
reach it, a descent was necessary from one of those
lofty sierras that run along the frontier of Portuguese
Estramadura, and are jagged by bare and sunburned
rocks, or dotted by stunted laurel bushes. From
thence, he traversed a pass, at the lower end of which
stands the town of Penamacor in the province of
Beira, thirty-six miles north-east of Castello Branco.
There, our adventurous Highlander, accompanied by
Manrico el Barbado and the faithful Domingo de
Leon, concealed himself in a thicket • of dwarf-oaks ;
and there a very remarkable adventure occurred to

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN GRANT. 303

him, whilo waiting the approach of the French, whose
ad vane. (1 guard he hourly expected to see in the dark
mountain pass below. Their horses were* beside
;n.

Wrapped in their cloaks, the captain and his two
Spanish comrades, after a supper of broiled eggs —
<-»s estrallados — sat by a fire of leaves and
withered branches, and after sharing a bottle of vino
de Alicant, composed themselves to sleep — a state of
oblivion soon obtained by the two sturdy paisanos ;
but Grant remained unusually restless, thoughtful
and awake. His mind was full of other times and
past events— of distant scenes and old familiar faces.
He thought of his home, .of the regiment, and of
Juanna, whom he had left at Huerta ; and as the red
sunset deepened into night upon that lofty mass of
rock which is washed by the Eljas and crowned by the
picturesque houses, the strong fortifications, and the
three churches of Penamacor, the light and shadow
blended into one, and darkness came broadly and
steadily on; then a strange and mysterious sensation
of sadness stole over him — a solemn melancholy which
he strove in vain to account for and dispel.

At last, when about to drop asleep, about ten
o'clock, he started up, for a broad blaze of light illu-
mined all the citadel of Penamacor. He saw its solid
ramparts and the sharp spires of its three churches
standing in black and bold relief against the unwonted
glow that filled the sky above the city ; he heard the
clanging of an alarm-bell, the hum of voices, and the
treao of feet, as two vast and dark columns of in-
fantry debouched from tho pass and began to descend
the mountains towards the bridge of the Eljas.

" The enemy — the enemy !" he exclaimed. " Up,
tip, Domingo— Manrico, awake 1"
u 2

304 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

Roused by his voice they sprang to his side ; but
lo ! at that moment, the light faded away from the
citadel*; the sounds of the alarm-bell, the hum of dis-
tant voices, and tread of marching feet died away ;
the columns vanished, and the hollow way from the
pass to the river was lonely and silent as before, in
the clear light of the star-studded sky !

Of all these alarming sights and sounds, Manrico
and Domingo had seen and heard nothing !

" It was a dream !" said Grant, as he threw him-
self on the sward in alarm and perplexity, while his
heart be'at wildly and strangely — and for the remain-
der of that night sleep never closed his eyes. The three
wanderers passed the whole of the next day lurking
in the oak woods that overhang the pass of Penamacor,
and Domingo, who, after sunset, ventured into the
town for some provisions for supper, returned to say
that no lights had been burned, and no alarm had
been given last night, as no fear was entertained of
the approach of Marmont.

Night again drew on, and the three companions
were all alike watchful and awake.

The hour of ten began to toll from the bells of
Penamacor. At the first stroke Grant felt a nervous
sensation thrill over his whole body, while the same
solemn melancholy of the same time last night again
weighed down his heart

At the tenth stroke, lo ! a brilliant light flashed
across the sky. It shot upward from the citadel of
Penamacor ! Again, as before, the crenelated battle-
ments and the sharp spires of the three churches
stood darkly out from the blaze, which was streaked
by the ascent of hissing rockets ; again the alarm-bell
sent its iron clangour on the wind, but mingled with
the boom of cannon ; again came the hum of voices,

ADVKXTURES OV CAPTAIN GRANT. 305

and a.^-xin two dark and shadowy columns debouched
from thtj black jaws of the mountain gorge and de-
scended towards the bridge of the Eljas ; but this
time there came horse and artillery ; the uplifted
lances and the fixed bayonets gleamed back the star-
light, while the rumble of the shot-laden tumbrils
rang in the echoing valley.

" Madre de Dios ! the enemy !" exclaimed the
two Spaniards, starting to their muskets.

" What ! do you, too, see all this ?" exclaimed
Grant, wildly, as he smote his forehead ; for now he
had begun to distrust the evidence of his own senses,
and a horror that these mysterious visions, known in
Scotland as the second sight, were about to haunt
him, made his head reel

" See them — yes, senor, plain as if 'twas day,"
said Domingo.

" O ! senor capitano, 'tis the French — the French !
the ladrones los perros !" exclaimed Manrico, rashly
firing his musket at three or four soldiers, whose out-
lin< , with shako and knapsack, appeared on a little
ridge close by. Four muskets, discharged at random,
replied, and in a moment the three scouts found
themselves fighting hand to hand with a mob of active
little French voltigeurs.

The latter recognised the Highland uniform of
Grant, and finding him with two Spaniards, knew
him at once to be the famous scouting officer, for
whose arrest, dead or alive, Marmont had offered such
a princely reward, and uttering loud shouts, tlu-y
pressed upon him with bayonets fixed, and musketa
clubbed.

Strong, active, and fearless, he hewed them down
with his claymore on all sides. He shot two with his
pistols, and then hurled the empty weapons at the

306 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

heads of others, and, with Leon, succeeded in mounting
and galloping off ; but Manrico was beaten down, and
left insensible on the mountain side.

" Grant and his follower," says General Napier,
" darted into the wood for a little space, and then,
suddenly wheeling, rode off in different directions ;
but at every turn new enemies appeared, and at last
the hunted men, dismounting, fled on foot, through
the thickest part of the low oaks, until they were
again met by infantry detached in small parties down
the sides of the pass, and directed in their chase by
the waving of the French officers' hats on the ridge
above. (Day had now broken). Leon fell exhausted,
and the barbarians who first came up killed him, in
spite of his companion's entreaties."

" My poor Juanna, what will now become of you ?"
exclaimed Grant, on seeing his faithful Domingo ex-
piring under the reeking bayonets of the voltigeurs ;
and now, totally incapable of further resistance, he
gave up his sword to an officer, who protected him
from the fury of his captors. He was at last a
prisoner !

A few days after this, Manrico, covered with wounds
and with one arm in a sling, appeared sorrowfully
before Lord Wellington, to announce that Grant, " el
valoroso capitano," had been taken, after a desperate
conflict in the pass of Penamacor. Lord Wellington
was greatly concerned for the safety of his favourite
officer, and the greatest excitement prevailed in the
ranks of his regiment, for Colquhoun Grant was well
beloved by the soldiers of the Black Watch. To the
guerilla chiefs Wellington offered a thousand dollars
for the rescue of Grant, and his letters proclaiming
this reward were borne by Manrico and the broken-
hearted Juanna through some of the wildest and most

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN GRAM. 307

dangerous parts of the frontier ; but Marmont took
measures too well, and kept his valuable prisoner
too securely guarded, for rescue or escape to be
thought o£

The officer who had captured him, M. Armand,
was a young sous-lieutenant of the 3rd Voltigeurs
(the same who had destroyed the granja of Leon the
farmer) ; but he had a heart that would have done
honour to a marshal of the empire; and, with all
kindness and respect, he conducted him to the quar-
ters of the Marshal Due de Raguse.

The latter invited the captive to dinner, and
chatted with him in a friendly way about his bold
and remarkable adventures, saying that he (Marmont)
had been long on the watch for him ; that he knew
his companions, Manrico the Bearded, Leon and his
sister Juanna (here Grant trembled), and that all his
haunts and disguises were known too.

" Disguises — pardon me, M. lu Mare'chal/' said
Grant, warmly — " disguises are worn by spies ; I have
never worn other dress than the uniform and tartan
of my regiment/'

" Vrai Dieu ! the bolder fellow you 1" exclaimed
the Due de Raguse. " You are aware that I might
hang you ; but I love a brave spirit, and shall only
exact from you a special parole, that you will not
consent to be released by any partida or guerilla chief
on your journey between this and France."

" Monseigneur le Due, the exaction of this parole
is the greatest compliment you can pay me," replied
Grant, who, on finding matters desperate, gave liis
word of honour, and was next day sent towards the
Pyrenees with a French guard, under M. Armand,
his captor. Grunt, without suspicion, was bearer of
a treacherous letter to the Governor of Bayonne, in

308 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

which he was designated by Marmont " a treacherous
spy, who had done infinite mischief to the French
army, and who was not executed on the spot out of
respect for something resembling a uniform (i.e.,
the Scottish dress) which he wore ; but he (Marmont)
desired that at Bayonne Grant should be placed IN
IRONS, and sent up to Paris." (Peninsular War,
vol. iv.)

On the first night of his march to the rear, M.
Armand halted in a grove of cork and beech-trees,
within a mile of Medellin, on the Guadiana — the
birth-place of Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico ; but
as a guerilla chief with 5000 desperadoes held pos-
session of the town and bridge, our lieutenant of Vol-
tigeurs, with his prisoner and escort, were forced to
content themselves with such shelter as the light
foliage of the wood afforded.

The night was pitchy dark ; the blackness that in-
volved the sky, the mountains, the vale through which
the Guadiana wound, and the wood where our travellers
bivouacked, was palpable, painful, and oppressive ;
but at times it was varied by the red sheet lightning
which shot across the southern quarter of the sky,
revealing the lofty Sierra, whose sharp peaks arose afar
off like the waves of a black sea, and the stems and
foliage of the cork and beech-trees in the foreground.

On this night occurred the most horrible episode
of Grant's military adventures.

After having drained their canteens of Lisbon wine,
and discussed their ration of cold beef and commis-
sariat biscuit, Grant and Armand, the voltigeur, lay
down fraternally side by side in their cloaks to
repose ; their escort lay close by, long since asleep ;
for Grant had given his parole that he " would not
attempt to escape," and such were their ideas of mill-

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN GRANT. 309

tary honour and value for a soldier's word, that these
brave Frenchmen never doubted him.

Just as the two officers were about to sleep, they
became aware of various cold and dewy drops, or
clammy creeping things, that continued to fall upon
them from the beech trees overhead.

" Sangbleu !" exclaimed the lieutenant of Volti-
geurs ; " we are all over creepers or cockroaches, and
they drop like rain from this old beech upon us."

" Let us seek another tree, my friend," said Grant,
drowsily ; " one place is the same as another to me
now."

" Diable ! let us shift our camp then — but do you
smell the lightning? It must have scorched the
grass."

" There is a stench so overpowering here on every
breath of wind."

Moving a few paces to their left, they lay down at
the root of another beech tree ; but there the same
cold dewy drops seemed to distil upon them like
rain ; yet the night was hot, dry, and sultry ; and
ever and anon there fell those hideous creepers, whose
slimy touch caused emotions of horror.

" Tudieu \" shouted the Frenchman, springing up
again ; " I cannot stand this ! We had better have
beaten up the guerillas in their quarters at Medellin.
Holo, Corporal Touchet — flash off your musket, and
let us see what the devil is in these trees \"

Roused thus, the corporal of the escort cocked his
piece; and as he fired, the two officers watched tliu
beeches in the sudden and lightning-like gleam that
flashed from the muzzle.

Lo ! the dark figure of a dead man swung from a
branch, about twelve feet above them I

310 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

"Ouf!" said the voltigeur, with a shudder of
horror.

" These beeches bear strange nuts," said Grant, as
they hastily left the wood, and passed the remainder
of the night on the open sward in front of it. When
day dawned, Grant went back to examine the places
where they had first attempted to sleep. The corpses
of a man having a voluminous beard, and a woman
with a profusion of long and silky hair, were sus-
pended from the branches ; and, as they swung
mournfully and fearfully round in the morning wind,
the crows flew away with an angry croak, and a cry
of horror burst from the lips of Grant on recognising
Manrico el Barbado and — Juanna de Leon !
* * * *

Three weeks after this, Colquhoun Grant saw the
long blue outline of the Pyrenees undulating before
him, as he approached the frontier of France, a
country for which he had now the greatest horror ;
and during the whole march from Medellin towards
Bayonne, the young subaltern of Voltigeurs experi-
enced the greatest trouble with his prisoner, on whom
that frightful episode in the cork wood had left a
dreadful impression.

In his hatred and animosity to France and every-
thing French, Grant, from that hour had resolved,
that though he could not with honour attempt to
escape while in Spain, he would spare no exertion or
trouble, no cunning or coin, to leave France, and re-
turn once more to find himself sword in hand before
the ranks of Marshal Marmont, whom he now viewed
as the assassin of that poor maiden of Leon.

As they approached Bayonne, he took an early op-
portunity of deliberately tearing open the sealed letter
which the marshal had given him for the Governor of

ADVENTURES OP CAPTAIN GRANT. 311

that fortress, and made himself master of its contents.
Instead of finding its tenor complimentary and re-
commendatory as he had been told, he saw himself
tlu r. in designated as a " dangerous spy who had done
infinite ini.-chief to the French army/ and who should
be marched in fetters to Paris, where no doubt tor-
tures such as those to which Captain Wright was sub-
jected in the Temple, or a death on the scaffold
awaited him ! The contents of this letter more than
released him from any parole.

" Oho, M. le Due de Raguse, is this your game V
said Grant, as he tore the letter into the smallest bits,
and buried them in a hole. " Let me see if I cannot
make a Highland head worth a pair of French
heels."

Arrived at Bayonne, Lieutenant Armand presented
him to the governor and bade him adieu. Then
Grant confidently requested, in the usual way, to be
furnished with a passport for Verdun, the greatest
military prison in France. This the governor at once
granted him, little suspecting that he meant to com-
mence an escape the moment he left the garrison,
A \\are that, guarded as all the avenues from Bayonne
aud the Pyrenean passes were by French troops of
every kind, flight towards Spain was impossible, he
resolved to make the attempt in the opposite, and
consequently less to be susr>ected, direction. The
moment he left the governor's quarters, Grant quietly
put the passport in the fire, and repairing to the
suburb of St. Esprit, which, from time immemorial
has been the quarter of the Portuguese Jews, he sold
his silver epaulettes and richly-laced Highland uni-
form, to a dealer in old garments, and received in lieu
the plain frogged surtout, forage cap, and sabre of a
French staff-officer ; he stuck the cross of the Legion

312 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

of Honour at his button-hole, and after promenading
along the superb quay, after repairing boldly to the
" Eagle of France/' an hotel in the Place de Gram-
mont, he ordered an omelette and a bottle of vin ordi-
naire with all the air of a Garde Imperiale and sat
down to dinner.

Inquiring of the waiter " if there were any officers
in the house about to proceed to Paris ?" he was told
that " M. le General Souham was about to leave that
very night." Grant procured a card, and writing
thereon Captain O'Reilly, Imperial Service, sent it
up, and was at once introduced to old Souham, who
was just about to start, and was in the act of buckling
on his sabre.

" Captain O'Reilly," said he, frowning at the name,
and glancing round for a French Army List, but for-
tunately none was at hand.

" Of what regiment ?"

" Lacy's disbanded battalion of the Irish Brigade."

" Ah ! And in what can I serve you, monsieur ?"

" Allowing me to join your party about to proceed
to Paris."

" You do me infinite honour, M. O'Reilly."

"Thanks, general"

" From whence have you come ?"

"The banks of the'Coa,"

" Sacre ! the banks of the Coa !"

" Yes ; I am attached to the staff of M. le Due de
Raguse."

" Ah ! old Harmont. Peste ! he is my greatest
friend. M. Armand of the 3rd Voltigeurs brought me
a letter from him, in which he says that a dear friend
of his would join me on my way to Paris."

" How kind of brave Harmont," said Grant ; " he
never forgets me."

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN GRANT. 313

" So he has captured the notorious Scaramouche,
Captain Grant ?"

" Yes ; a wonderful fellow that !"

" Quite a devil of a man ; allons, let us go ; you
have a horse of course V

"No, M. le General."

" One of mine is at your service."

" Mille baionettes ! You quite overwhelm me."

In half an hour after this, Grant, with Souhain and
two other French officers had crossed the wooden draw-
bridge of Bayonne, and left the citadel of M. Vauban
with all its little redoubts in their rear, as they all rode
merrily en route to Paris ; Souham by the way telling
twenty incredible stories of Wellington's prince of
scouts, the Scottish Captain Grant. In a house of en-
tertainment in the Rue Royale at Orleans, Grant fortu-
nately made the acquaintance of a man who proved to
be an agent in the secret service of the British Govern-
ment This person furnished him with money and a
letter to another secret agent who lived in an obscure
part of Paris, where he arrived, still disguised as an
officer in the suite of General Souham, and as such,
for a time, he visited all the theatres, the gardens, the
operas ; and all splashed and travel-stained, as fresh
from the seat of war, was presented to the great
Emperor, who patronizingly spoke to him of the
probability of restoring Lacy 'a Irish Regiment, " by
recruiting for it among the Irish in the prisons
of Bitche and Verdun, in which case his sen
•would not be forgott< . "and his promotion

to a majority would be duly remembered," &c.
&c. Grant could not foresee that in three years
after this, the old Black Watch, after raising
the cry of "Scotland for ever" at Waterloo,
would make the Tuileries ring to their Highland

314 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

pipes, and that he would actually compose the well-
known parody —

"Wha keep guard at Versailles and Marli,
Wha, but the lads wi' the bannocks of barley ?"

He spoke French with fluency, having been a
pupil of the famous Jean Paul Marat, when that
notable ruffian taught French in Edinburgh, where,
in 177-4 he published a work entitled "The Chains of
Slavery."

Grant thanked the Emperor, and thinking that the
daring joke had been carried quite far enough, he
doffed his French uniform, sabre and all, and making
a bundle thereof, flung the whole into the Seine one
night. Then, attiring himself in an unpretending
blouse, he repaired to the house of the secret agent,
presented his letter, and obtained more money to en-
able him to reach Britain.

"Monsieur is in luck/' said the agent; "I have
just ascertained that a passport is lying at the foreign
office for an American who died, or was found dead
this morning/'

" How is your American named ?"

" Monsieur Jonathan Buck."

" Very good — thanks ! From this very hour I am
Jonathan Buck," said the reckless Grant. He re-
loaded his pistols, concealed them in his breast, and
repairing to the Foreign Office, demanded his passport
with the coolness of a prince incog.

" Your name, monsieur ?"

" M. Jonathan Buck," drawled Grant through his
nose.

The passport was handed to him at once, and long
before the police could ascertain that Monsieur Buck
had departed this life at 9 A.M., and yet had received
his papers at 9 P.M., on the same day, our hero had

ADVENTURES OP CAPTAIN GRANT. 315

left Paris far behind him, and was travelling post
towards the mouth of the Loire.

On reaching Nantes, he repaired at once to Paim-
bceuff, twenty miles further down the river, where all
vessels, whose size was above ninety tons, usually un-
loaded their cargoes ; and there he boarded the first
vessel which had up the stars and stripes of America,
and seemed ready for sea. She proved to be the
(Jli. 'O, a fine bark of Boston, Jeremiah Buck, master.

" Tis fortunate," said Grant through his nose, as
he was ushered into the cabin of the Yankee ; " I
am a namesake of yours, captain — Jonathan Buck, of
Capo Cod, seeking a cabin passage to Boston."

"All right — let me see your passport, stranger?"

" Here it is, skipper."

" Well, for a hundred and fifty dollars, I am your
man," drawled the Boston captain, who was smoking
a long Cuba ; " but it is darned odd, stranger, that I
have been expecting another Jonathan Buck, my own
nephew, from Paris ; he is in the fish and timber
trade, and hangs out at old Nantucket ; but he took
a run up by the dilly to see the Toolerie, the Loover,
and all that Well, darn my eyes, if this is not my
nephew's passport!" exclaimed the American sud-
denly, while his eyes flashed with anger and suspicion.
" Stranger, how is this ?"

In some anxiety, Grant frankly related how the
document came into his possession, and produced the
letters of the secret agent, proving who he was, beseech-
ing the captain, as a man come of British blood and
kindred, to assist him ; for, if taken by the French,
the dungeon of Verdun or Bitche, or worse, perhaps,
awaited him.

The Yankee paused, and chewed a quid by which
li«- had replaced his cigar. Full of anxiety, yet with-
out fear, Grant summoned all his philosophy, and

316 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

recalled the words of Bossuet, "That human life
resembles a road which ends in frightful precipices.
We are told of this at the first step we take ; but our
destiny is fixed, and we must proceed/'

Natural sorrow for the loss of his relative, and the
native honesty of an American seaman, united to
open the heart of the captain to our wanderer, and he
agreed to give him a passage in the Ohio to Boston,
from whence he could reach Britain more readily than
from the coast of France, watched and surrounded as
it was by ships and gunboats, troops and gens d'armes,
police, spies, passports, &c. Believing all arranged at
last, Grant never left the ship, but counted every hour
until he should again find himself in Leon, the land
of his faithful Juanna, with his comrades of the
Black Watch around him, and the eagles of Marmont
in front.

At last came the important hour, when the anchor
of the Ohio was fished ; when her white canvas filled,
and the stars and stripes of America swelled proudly
from her gaff-peak, as she bore down the sun-lit Loire
with the evening tide ; but now an unlooked-for mis-
fortune took place. A French privateer, the famous
Jean Bart, ran foul of her, and, by carrying away her
bowsprit and foremast, brought down her maintop-
mast too. Thus she was forced to run back to Paim-
bceuff and haul into dock.

For our disguised captain of the 42nd Highlan-
ders to remain in the docks, guarded as they were by
watchful gens- d'armes, was impossible ; thus, on being
furnished by the skipper of the Ohio with the coarse
clothes of a mariner, and a written character, stating
that he was " Nathan Prowse, a native of Nantucket,
in want of a ship/' he stained his face and hands with
tobacco-juice, shaved off his moustache, and repaired

ADVENTURES OP CAPTAIN GRANT. 317

toan obscuretavern in tho suburbs of Paimbceuff,tofmd
a lodging until an opportunity offered for his escape.
Under his peajacket he carried a pair of excellent pis-
tols, which he kept constantly loaded ; and a fine dagger
or Albacete knife, a gift of poor Domingo de Leon.

As he sat in the kitchen of this humble house of
entertainment, his eye was caught by a printed placard
above the mantelpiece. It bore the imperial arms,
with the cipher of the Emperor, and stated that " the
notorious spy Colquhoun Grant, a captain in a Scot-
tish regiment of the British army, who had wrought
so much mischief behind the lines of le Mart-dial Due
de Raguse, in Leon, and who had been brought
prisoner to France, where he had broken his parole,
was wandering about, maintaining a system of espio-
nage and Protean disguises; that he had, lastly,
assumed the name, character, and passport of an
American citizen, named Jonathan Buck, whom he
had wickedly and feloniously murdered and robbed
in the Rue de Rivoli at Paris ; that the sum of 2,000
francs was hereby offered for him dead or alive ; and
that all prefects, officers, civil and military, gens-
d'armes. and loyal subjects of the Emperor, by sea
and land, \\cro hereby authorized to seize or kill tho
said Colquhoun Grant wherever and whenever they
found him."

With no small indignation and horror, tho High-
lander read this obnoxious placard, which contained
so much that wore the face of truth, with so much
that was unquestionably false.

" So Buck, whose papers I have appropriated, has
been murdered — poor devil !" was his ii ;

" what if the honest skipper of the Ohio should see
this precious document and suspect me ? In that
case I should be altogether lost."

318 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

He retired from the vicinity of this formidable
placard, fearing that some watchful eye might com-
pare his personal appearance with the description it
contained ; though his costume, accent, and the
fashion of his whiskers and beard altered his appear-
ance so entirely that his oldest friends at the mess
would not have recognised him. He hastily retired
upstairs to a miserable garret, to think and watch,
but not to sleep.

When loitering on the beach next evening, he
entered into conversation with a venerable boatman,
named Raoul Senebier, and an exchange of tobacco
pouches at once established their mutual good-will.
Grant said that " he was an American seaman out of
a berth, and anxious to reach Portsmouth in England,
where he had left his wife and children/'

The boatman, an honest and unsuspicious old fellow,
seemed touched by his story, and offered to row him
to a small island at the mouth of the Loire, where
British vessels watered unmolested, and in return
allowed the poor inhabitants to fish and traffic without
interruption.

" I can feel for you, my friend," said old Senebier ;
" for I was taken prisoner at the battle of Trafalgar,
and was seven years in the souterratns of the Chateau^
d'Edimbourg, separated from my dear wife and little
ones, and when I returned, I found them all lying in
the churchyard of Paimbceuff."

11 Dead— what, all V

" All, all, save one — the plague, the plague I"

" Land me on the isle, then, and ten Napoleons
shall be yours," said Grant, joyfully, and in twenty
minutes after, they had left the crowded wharves, the
glaring salt-pans which gleam on the left bank of the
Loire, and all its maze of masts and laden lighters, as

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN GRANT. 319

they pulled down, with the flow of the stream and
the ebb-tide together. The fisherman had his nets,
floats, and fortunately some fish on board ; so, if over-
hauled by any armed authority, he could pretend to
have been at his ordinary avocation. They touched
at the island, and were told by some of the inhabi-
tants that not a British ship was in the vicinity, but
that a French privateer, the terrible Jean Bart, was
prowling about iu these waters, and that the isle was
consequently unsafe for any person who might be
suspected of being a British subject ; so, with a heart
that began to sink, Grant desired old Raoul Senebier
to turn his prow towards PaimboeufE

Morning was now at hand, and the sun as he rose
reddened with a glow of Italian brilliancy the tranquil
banks of the Loire, and the sails of the fisher-craft
that were running up the stream. No vessels were
in sight, for terror of the British cruisers kept every
French keel close in shore; but suddenly a large
white sail appeared to the southward, and in the
lingering and ardent hope that she was one of our
Channel squadron, Grant prevailed upon Raoul to
bear towards her. The wind became light, and all
day the two men tugged at their oars, but still the
ship was far off, and yet not so distant but that Grant,
with a glistening eye and beating heart, could make
out her scarlet ensign ; when evening came on, and
a strong current, which ran towards the Loire,
gradually swept the boat towards the coast of France,
and just as the sun set, old Raoul and the fugitive
found themselves suddenly close to a low battery, a
shot from which boomed across the water, i
like a spout beyond them. Another and another
followed, tearing the waves into foam close by.

" Wo must surrender, monsieur," said Raoul, wring-
x 2

320 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

ing his hands ; " and I shall be brought in irons
before M. le Prefect for aiding the escape of a prisoner
of war."

" Call me your son," said Grant ; " say we were
fishing, and leave the rest to me/'

" I have a son," said Raoul ; " he escaped the
plague by being where he is now, on board the Jean
Bart."

They landed under the battery ; a little corporal in
the green uniform of a Voltigeur, with six men, con-
ducted them with fixed bayonets before the officer in
command. He was a handsome young man, and
Grant in a moment recognised his former captor and
companion, M. Armand, the sous-lieutenant of the
3rd Voltigeur Regiment.

" Milles demons ! is this you, monsieur ?" exclaimed
Armand, who knew Grant at once.

" Exactly, Monsieur le Lieutenant," replied Grant,
with admirable presence of mind ; " 'tis I, your old
companion, Louis Senebier, captain of a gun aboard
the Jean Bart, from which I have a day's liberty to
fish with my father, old Raoul of Paimbceuff, whom you
see before you here ; but understanding that a rascally
British cruiser is off the coast, we were just creeping
close to the battery when monsieur fired at us."

" Is this true, M. Senebier ?" asked Armand, with
a knowing smile.

" All true ; my son is said to be very like me," re-
plied the old fisherman, astounded by the turn mat-
ters had taken.

" Like you ? Not very, bon ! But you may thank
heaven that I am not M. le Prefect of the Loire.
Leave us your fish, M. Senebier, and be off before
darkness sets in. See," he added, with a furtive but

AD\ : . | OP CAPTAIN GRANT. 821

expressive glance at Grant ; " see that you keep your
worthy father clear of yonder British ship, which will
ju>' be .- 1 breast of the battery and two miles off about
midni

Armand placed a bottle of brandy in the boat, and,
while pivt«'ii<linur to pay for the fish, pressed Grant's
hand, wished him all success, and pointed out the bear-
ings of the strange sail so exactly, that the moment
darkness set fairly in, Raoul trimmed his lug sail and
ran right on board of her ; for her straight gun streak,
her taper masts, and her snow-white canvas shone in
the moonlight above the calm blue rippled sea, dis-
tinctly in the clear twilight of the stars.

%< Boat ahoy !" cried a sentry from the quarter ;
"keep off, or I shall fire."

" What ship is that f ' asked Grant, in whose ears a
British voice sounded like some old mountain melody.

"His Britannic Majesty's frigate Laurel, of thirty-
six guns."

" Hurrah !"

" \Vho the devil are you?"

" A prisoner of war just escaped."

" Bravo !" cried another voice, which seemed to be
that of the officer of the watch ; " sheer alongside,
and let us see what like you are. Stand by with tlio
man ropes — look alive there !"

Grant shook the hard hand of Raoul Senebier,
gave him five more gold Napoleons, and, in a
moment after, found himself upon the solid oak deck
of a spanking British frigate. Now he was all but
at home, and his Proteus-like transformations and
disguises were at an end. A single paragraph from
the " History of the War in the Peninsula" will suf-
fice to close this brief story of Colquhotm Grant's

322 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

adventures, of which I could with ease have spun
three orthodox volumes, octavo.

" When he reached England, he obtained permis-
sion to choose a French officer of equal rank with
himself to send to France, that no doubt might re-
main about the propriety of his escape. In the first
prison he visited for this purpose, great was his
astonishment to find the old fisherman (Raoul Sene-
bier of Paimbosuff) and his real son, who had mean-
while been captured, notwithstanding a protection
given to them for their services. But Grant's gene-
rosity and benevolence were as remarkable as the
qualities of his understanding ; he soon obtained their
release, and sent them with a sum of money to
France. He then returned to the Peninsula, and
within four months from the date of his first capture,
was again on the Tormes, watching Marmont's army!
Other strange incidents of his life could be told/'
continues General Napier, " were it not more fitting
to quit a digression already too wide ; yet I was un-
willing to pass unnoticed this generous, spirited, and
gentle-minded man, who, having served his country
nobly and ably in every climate, died not long since,
exhausted by the continual hardships he had en-
dured."

But his name is still remembered in the regiment
by which he was beloved ; and his adventures, his
daring, and presence of mind, were long the theme of
the old Black Watch at the mess-table, the bivouac,
and the guard-room fire.

323

IX.
THE STORY OF DICK DUFF.

DICK DUFF, the lieutenant of our light company in
1812, was one of the happiest and most lively fellows
in the British service. He sang and was merry from
morning till night, and was occasionally uproarious
from night till morning ; and not even all the horrors
of the retreat from Burgos could repress his flow of
spirits. Moreover, he was the terror of innkeepers,
and made the lazy hostaleros and keepers of posadas
attend to his various commands with a celerity that
astonished themselves ; for Dick Duff could swear
with marvellous fluency in Spanish and five other
foreign languages ; he had served at Malta, in lvury}>t,
and Holland ; and was wont to boast that he had
acquired the whole vocabulary of oaths. This was
highly necessary, Dick was wont to allege, " lest in a
casual war of words with any ragamuffin on whom
one might chance to be billeted, an officer and gen-
tleman should have the disgrace of being put down
by the sauce piquant of a rascally foreigner."

Dick had joined the service as a full private in the
year 1800, having been forced into the ranks by his
chief or landlord.

He was the second son of a respectable sheep
fanner on the mountains of Mull, whore his fore-
fathers had resided for ages. His elder brother,

324 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

Hamish, when a child, had been swept out to sea
(while playing among the fisher-boats on the beach),
and was drowned, to the grief and dismay of his pa-
rents, to whom a wandering Scottish priest, Father
John of Douay, had foretold his birth, and predicted
his future usefulness and greatness in the church.
His mother, an old Catholic of the house of Kep-
poch, looked upon this elder child as blessed by
Heaven, and in the fulness of her heart she gladly
dedicated it to the then oppressed church of her
forefathers, in token of which she had unavailingly
tied to his neck a valuable amulet.

Their landlord, like many other Scottish feuda-
tories in the year 1800, became desirous of appearing
a person of importance in the eyes of the Govern-
ment ; to this end he resolved to raise a kilted regi-
ment among his tenants, and on procuring a letter of
service, immediately called upon them for their sons.

These tidings caused some consternation in
Argyleshire, a county from which every war, prior to
1800, had swept at least four thousand of its best
men, few of whom ever survived to return.

The aged father of Dick appeared with others
before their feudal tyrant, who threatened to deprive
every parent of his farm, if his sons delayed or de-
clined to volunteer for service ; and this can easily be
done, as the Highland crofter has seldom a written
lease to show, believing that the old hereditary cabin
of his forefathers is his, as much as the air he
breathes or the heather he treads on.

£: Duncan Duff/' said the laird, who had already
donned the uniform of colonel, " I am raising a regi-
ment for the King's service, and must have your son
Dick ; he is a stout, active fellow, and here is the
bounty."

THE STORY OP DICK Dt

The old man wrung his hands, and said —

" Sir, my sou is the only prop of my last days. I
am getting old, and may not be able to work long at
my little croft."

"Oh, don't trouble yourself about your croft,"
sneered the lairtl.

"If my only son goes to battle, what will become
of me ?"

"The parish will attend to tJuit," was the cruel
reply.

The eyes of the old Highlander flashed fire, but
reverence for his chief repressed the mingled threat
and curse that rose to his tongue.

" Please yourself, Duncan," resumed the feudatory ;
" I have only to warn you that another person has
made my factor an advantageous offer for your farm,
and your son's enlistment or his disobedience will
materially influence me in considering the said offer."

" My croft, sir ! have not I and my fathers been
here under your family for four hundred years and
more; and is not our blood the same ?"

"Stuff! I tell you that I must have a thousand
men, and cannot spare your son."

" I had another son, sir — a poor child who was
drowned in his infancy ; had he lived, one should
have gone to battle and one remained — but God deals
hardly with me."

" I care not," was the dogged reply ; " men I
want, and men I shall have 1" for the letter of service
gave the laird an opportunity to nominating all his
;>, nearly fifty in number.

So Dick became a soldier in the laird's regiment,
and as the old man could not remain on his little
farm alone, he became a soldier too, in his sixtieth
year, and on the long dusty marches in Holland, poor

326 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

Dick was often seen carrying the knapsack, firelock,
and canteen of his brave old father, whom he buried
with his own hands after he was killed by the French
at the battle of Alexandria, where he, and twenty
others, perished in a rash attempt to rescue their
chief, the colonel, who was there wounded and taken
prisoner. Dick's promotion was rapid, and after
passing through the intermediate ranks, he found
himself, by his own merit, a lieutenant in the High-
land regiment of this obnoxious laird in the year
1808 ; and his reason for leaving it and exchanging
into ours, was a mishap that occurred to him in Glas-
gow.

His corps had been quartered for a year in the
barracks of the Gallowgate in the capital of the west,
and Dick, who was decidedly of convivial, and scandal
whispered of somewhat nocturnal, habits, and having,
moreover, a high appreciation of the virtues of Glas-
gow punch, was in the habit of going home every
night in the happiest mood of mind ; and on more
than one occasion was assisted by the friendly arm of
the watchers and warders of the civic guard, or of the
corporal of the patrol. The regiment marched for
Edinburgh, changing quarters with the brave old
Pompadours, who were so called from the colour of
their facings resembling Madame's gown ; but Dick,
having obtained a month's leave between returns,
resolved to enjoy himself a little longer among his old
haunts, and remained behind, exulting in freedom
from duty and the seclusion of mufti.

A week after the regiment marched, Dick Duff
found himself about midnight propped against a lamp-
post in the High-street, with very vague ideas of his
own name, rank, and residence, and seriously weigh-
ing in his own mind whether the pavement and row

THE STORY OP DICK DUFF.

of lamps extending to the right, or those that lay to
the left, led to the barracks ; for his faculties were so
cloudy, that he had become utterly oblivious as to
( ircumstance of his being on leave, in plain
clothes, and living at a west-end hotel

After long and serious pondering, Dick instinctively
discovered the right way by old habit, and proceeded,
somewhat deviously, of course, through the delightful
locality known as " the Sautmarket," and along the
Gullowgate, until he found himself before the dark
gate of the barracks, and heard the familiar step of
the great- coated sentry pacing slowly to and fro in-
side. Here he kicked with vigour, and struck up his
favourite mess-room song —

" Who knows but our girls—

(We have known stranger things!)
When once they've got leathers,

May make themselves wings ;
And like swallows in winter,

May soon take their flight ;
And for lovers of ' ours,'

Bid their husbands good-night."

" Hallo ! gate — gate !" shouted Dick, sprawling
against it with outstretched hands.

" Who comes there ?"

"Friend — particular friend of yours, my boy —
very."

The drowsy sergeant of the guard unfastened the
barrier, and sulkily passed a lantern once or i
across the face of the visitor, till it was knocked out
of his hand by Dick, who exclaimed —

" D — n it, sir, what d'ye mean ? — light me to my
quarters."

" I beg pardon, sir," said the sergeant, who thought
Dick might be one of the staff; but the lantern was

328 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

extinguished, so our friend resumed his song, and
stumbled on alone to the old staircase, with which he
was quite familiar ; and ascending "by mere force of
habit to his room, found the door-handle on the right
as usual, and entered.

"All right," muttered Dick, "all right. Here's
the bed-post — and the candlestick should be here."

But he could neither find candle nor matches, and
resolving to " row" his man in the morning, he threw
off his clothes, tumbled headlong into bed, and was
soon sound asleep.

Now it happened that the proprietor of the afore-
said quarters was the officer of the main-guard, who
as the next day proved Sunday, was to come off duty
at eight o'clock a.m., and duly at the hour of seven
his servant entered to prepare a fire and lay break-
fast. Hearing a vehement snore proceed from his
master's bed, the servant drew back the curtains, and,
to his no small surprise, discovered the dark, sun-
burned, and well-whiskered visage of a stranger,
whom he immediately awoke ; but not without con-
siderable difficulty and after reiterated efforts.

" Who are you," grumbled Dick ; " and what the
devil do you want ?"

" What do you want here ?"

" Where, old fellow ?"

" In my master's bed."

" Master's bed, you scoundrel !" stuttered Dick ;
" how dare you intrude into an officer's room ? be off,
or I shall send you to the shop in a minute." And
so, Dick Duff, believing that he had settled the little
mistake satisfactorily, again composed himself to
sleep, while the servant hurried to the main guard to
acquaint his master that " a thief was in possession of

THE STORY OF DICK DV.

his bod and quarters." These tidings promptly
brought up the officer with his sword in his hand, and
a file of the guard at his heels.

Dick was once more roused, and wrathfully, too,
from his slumbers, to find by his bedside two soldiers
and an officer cap-<l-pie in a strange uniform.

" What do you mean, fellow, by this unwarrantable
in-in-in-trusion ?" asked Dick, with great dignity.

" Who are you, sir ?" asked the officer in a louder
key.

" You'll soon find that out — off with you, sir, or by
heavens I'll parade you where you won't like it. I
have a pair of saw-handled pacifiers that are the
deuce for hitting at fifteen paces."

• What the devil are you about in my quarters?"

" Four quarters?"

" Yes, sir, my quarters," thundered the Captain of
Pompadours.

" Come, now— I like that."

" D— n it, sir ?"

" Don't get excited, old fellow ; is not this number
three stair, four room f '

" Yes, of course it is."

" Then allow me to insinuate, sir, that you are drunk
— very drunk, in uniform too — disgraceful ; consider
yourself under arrest. Sir, these quarters are mine —
you will retire, if you please."

And Dick, who was still very groggy, again
addressed himself to sleep. Trembling with a1
the Pompadour for a moment doubted '
of his own senses; but seeing all his own lujri: :iu and
property in the room, and being certain thn*
brain was not turning, though the cool impudence of
DutV confounded him,

830 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" Coporal of the guard," said he, in a stifled tone of
anger, " handcuff this insolent fellow, and march him
to the cells."

" Handcuff — the devil !" shouted Dick.

This imperative order made him spring up, and at
that moment, the recollection of the change of
barracks, his month's leave, and the last night's pota-
tions, flashed upon him. Unhappy Dick was sobered
in a moment, and his countenance fell, and he turned
to explain — to apologize ; but the Pompadour would
listen to nothing. Our friend was iguominiously
hauled from bed, hastily dressed, roughly handcuffed,
and despite all his assertions that he was " an officer
— an officer and a gentleman/' &c. &c., he was marched
to the guardhouse, into which he would have been
thrust, had not a staff-officer, the friend with whom
he had supped overnight, passed in at that moment
and recognised him.

The officer explained, Dick expostulated, the Pom-
padour was sulky ; but after fiery threats, mutual
apologies and expressions of friendship for life were
exchanged, and Dick dined that evening at the mess,
of which he was made an honorary member ; but the
story " found vent/' with a hundred absurd additions ;
and Dick was so quizzed about it by the small wits
of his own corps, that he exchanged into Ours, and
joined us about the time Corunna was fought.

But before the battalion embarked, he fell into
another scrape by inserting in the Edinburgh papers
the following advertisement ! —

"Vivel'amour! any fair dame of spirit, maid ....
or widow, who would wish to see the world, and will
join her fortunes with those of a gallant officer, about
to embark for the seat of war — age 25, height five
feet ten inches by one foot ten across the shoulders

THE STORY OF DICK DUFF. 331

— good looking decidedly, may have her offers care-
fully cuiisidind, by forwarding her name and quali-
fications to the President of the Mess Committee."

But for the hurry of embarkation, old Sir David
Dundas, he of the " Eighteen Manoeuvres," who then
ruled at the Horse Guards, would have made this
piece of impertinence a dear joke to Dick Duff.

The latter, at Torres Vedras was severely wounded
in the left leg, and given over for a time to the care
of a pretty patrona, who was so kind to him, and like
Corporal Trim's Beguiu, fomented the wounded part
so tenderly, that Dick remained so long on crutches,
we thought he would never get off them or be well ;
tell one night getting tipsy at the quarters of his
friend Garriehorn of the Grenadiers, he walked home,
he never knew how, without them ; and as he had
been heard singing his invariable and inevitable song,

" Who knows but our girls,

(Wo have known stranger things)," Ac.

in the Plaza of Torres Vedras, he was obliged to re-
port himself " fit for duty " next day, despite the
tears of his patrona.

After serving at Busaco, Fuentes d'Onor, Ba<laj<>/,
and Salamanca, his battalion, with Stirling's old
.iaml Brigade, endured all the horrors of the
retreat from Burgos.

At the siege of the latter, the task of storming the
famous hornwork, which had a hard sloping scarp of
twenty-five feet, and a counter-scarp of ten, was
specially confided to the 42nd Highlanders,
led the bastion after darkness had set in.
niched on with great gallantry. Dick Duff was
first man up on the first ladder ; and his feather
bonnet was literally blown off his head by a volley of

332 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

balls ; every man by his side was bayonetted ; and as
each poor fellow in his fall knocked down others, the
loss was terrible !

Sword in hand, Major Cox entered the gorge ;
Major (afterwards General Sir Robert) Dick led the
regiment on en masse, and the hornwork was im-
mediately captured ; but two lieutenants and thirty-
two rank and file were killed ; four officers, one
volunteer, and one hundred and sixty-four High-
landers were wounded. Captain Donald Williamson
expired that night of his wounds. Lane, the poor
gentleman volunteer, was severely wounded and
became senseless ; but revived, on finding two of the
Cameron Highlanders gently abstracting a gold watch
worth fifty guineas from his pocket.

" I beg your pardon, my lads," said he ; " but I am
not quite done with this."

" We beg yours, sir," answered they ; " but we
thought you dead, and supposed we might take it,
as well as others."

They carried him carefully to the rear ; and as
they were returning, two stray shots killed them both.
Lieutenant Gregorson was killed, and found stripped
naked, by Lieutenant Orr, who buried him in a
trench. In the gorge of this hornwork, so fatal to
the Black Watch, their old Quartermaster Blanket,
had both his legs carried away ; so he might fairly
have sung,

" O now let others shoot,
For here I leave my second legs,
And the Forty-second Foot."

He lived long a prisoner at Bitche and Verdun, and
by his fiery temper and wooden pins was named by
the French le Diable Boiteux.

THE STOKY OP DICK DUIT. 333

In tliis Mr--e the regiment had other losses; but
til-- ronct -ntratii.il of the enemy's forces, and the ad-
vance of superior numbers, obliged tin- Duke of
Wellington to retire into winter quarters on the
frontiers of Portugal ; and the fatigues and privations
to this retrograde movement, fell on no
UK -re heavily than on our friends of the Black
•h.

On a gloomy afternoon in the month of November,
by the enemy's cavalry, who were vastly
superior to the British, the brigade of which the
42nd formed a part, entered the ancient and pleasant
city of Valladolid, all drenched and bedraggled by
ford ing the swift Pisuerga; for the French, to impede
our previous advance, had blown up the principal
arch of the bridge.

Dick Dun" was taken prison- T ly the French hussars
in a taberna, at Villahoz, by the treachery of the
keeper, a well-known Spanish rogue, named Antonio
Morello. By his captors and the hostalero he had
been stripped nude, but made his escape and rejoined
the regiment (just as it was entering Valloria) clad
only in a pair of short scarlet pantaloons, which he
had taken from a dead Frenchman of the line, and
his aspect created no small surpri-e in the ranks — but
I cannot add merriment, for our soldiers were then at
tin- lowest ebb of misery and desperation. During
this terrible retreat the rain had been incessant, and
poured pitilessly down on the wet, dripping sierras
and rou^h muddy mule roads traversed by our troops,
whose sufterings and privations wen- indescribable.

The baggage was generally far in the rear, and the
troops were without tents or other m« ans of shelter
from the inelemency of tlio weather. The- vivas that
greeted the British advance were no longer heard —

834 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

gloom, sombre desperation, and scowling famine were
in every eye. The arrears of pay were in many in-
stances beyond parallel. Many regiments had not re-
ceived a penny for nine months — nine months of
constant fighting ! (How many tradesmen in 1
land would have worked for that period without
wages ?)

The officers were reduced to about a shirt each ;
most of the men had only the collars or wrists of
their linen remaining — many had not a vestige.
"Their jackets were so patched," says an officer of
the Gordon Highlanders, in his narrative, "that I
know nothing to which I can so aptly compare them
as parti- coloured bed-covers ; for there were not fifty
in my own regiment but had been repaired with cloth
of every colour under the sun/'

So admirably is the kilt adapted for marching and
activity, that the Highland corps were the only batta-
lions without stragglers.

Hollow-eyed and gaunt, bearded and grisly, ema-
ciated and miserable in aspect, footsore and shoeless,
their jackets turned to black and purple, their feather
bonnets reduced to quills, and all trace of pipeclay
long since washed out of their belts, yet heavily laden
with knapsacks, great- coat, blanket, havresack, wooden
canteen, camp-kettle, sixty rounds of ball-cartridge,
their arms and accoutrements covered with mud and
mire — after many days' of incessant alarm, halting
and forming square to repel the enemy's cavalry, who
at times charged into the rivers up to their very-hol-
sters^— the Black Watch defiled along the quaint old
streets of Valladolid, with their pipes playing a fiery
spaidsearach Gaclhealach, or Highland march ; but
it failed to rouse either the spirit or bearing of the
men.

THE STORY OP DICK DI

As our troops were retreating, their entrance

no enthusiasm in the sullen and ungrateful Spa-
niards. They gazed apathetically from under their
heavy eyebrows and broad sombreros, as battalion
after battalion defiled past, nor manifested the smallest
interest until some Highland regiment approached,
when cries of — :< Look at the Scots," broke from <
quarter.

" M iivt Ion fiscosaes ! Viva loa valiant ea ! 1
los Escosacft — Ion hoinbres valerosos."

Others, who knew the number of the Black Watch,
1 the cry with —
Viva la Regiment o Quarenta Dos /"

Through streets of old and decaying houses the
nent defiled to the Plaza Mayor, while the bells
-an Benito, St. Paul, and the Scottish College
were tolled mournfully. All the balconies there were
covered with tapestry; and amid a profusion <>}'
crimson velvet, a portrait of Ferdinand VII.
hung in the great Plaza. There the battalion dis-
persed in search of billets; the officers to inquire it
the baggage had come up; to sigh for camp-beds
and portmanteaux, that might be stuck in the mud
twenty miles off; or to swear at stupid servants or
drunken bat-men, who had let them fall into the
hands of pillagers and paisanos.

Wellington and his aides-de-camp had taken up
their quarters in the Scottish College, the rector of
whii-h, un old Highlander, though sick and dying,
omed them warmly.

Dick Duff, Garriehorne, the captain of Grenadiers,
ami Ci'lquhoun Grant, the famous scouting ofi:
whose adventures are already, we hope, familiar to
the read. r. made tin ir way straight to a posada, pre-
vious to entering which an " examination of ammu-
Y 2

336 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

nition" took place, and among four purses two duros
could only be mustered. At this time, many officers
actually sold their silver epaulettes to the Jews of El
Campo for bread.

" Ugh \" said Dick ; " this comes of one's paymaster
being nine months in arrear ! and yet, though we
have scarcely a tester among us, we are fighting for
an island which, according to the learned Bochart,
was named by the Phoenicians emphatically — the land
of tin!"

An arched door gave admittance from the street to
the lower story of the posada, where the horses and
mules were* generally stabled ; from this, an open
ladder gave access to the common hall; a second
ladder led to the sleeping apartments, which were
minus carpets, bells, plaster, and almost without win-
dows or furniture ; but, as Dick said to the grumbling
captain of Grenadiers, no one looks for such things in
a Spanish inn.

Several Spanish officers were already in the public
room, all travel-stained and splashed with mud, but
wrapped in their cloaks, and all with their feet planted
on the only brassero, round which they sat in a circle,
smoking and making themselves as comfortable as cir-
cumstances would admit ; while the host, an old and
sour-visaged Asturiaii, with clumsy hands and enor-
mous shoulders, superintended the cooking of various
edibles, which simmered and sputtered in stone jars
on the flat hearth, the fuel piled upon which cast a
lurid glow from under the broad impending mantel-
piece on his swarthy visage, his stealthy eyes, and
black grisly beard. This fellow was repulsive in as-
pect; but his wife, la patrona, was a pretty paisana,
not much above eighteen years of age, dressed in the
picturesque costume of the country, and having her

THE STORY OP DICK DUFF. 3:57

handsome legs encased in the tightest and brightest
of scarlet stockings. She welcomed us with smiles of
the utmost good humour that two brilliant eyes and
a mouth filled with the finest teeth could express.

" All right, Garriehorne," said Dick, in his banter-
ing way ; " here is one of the beautiful sex — come
esta senora, how handsome you look to-night ; 'pon
my soul, I feel quite inclined to fall in love with you.
Senor Patron — what is in the crocs, old fellow V

Displeased by Dick's mode of addressing his young
wit'.-, the host affected not to hear.

" What can you let us have for supper, senora ?"
asked Garriehorne, unbuckling his sword , " hot cas-
tanos and garlic, of course, with Xerez and ripe
grapes."

" Ripe grapes in November," growled the sulky
patron ; " what the devil are you talking about,
senor oficial? — Ninas y vinas son mal deyuardar!"

" Which means—" '

" That ripe maidens and ripe grapes require vigi-
lance to keep long," said the pretty patrona, with a
waggish smile. " We have a fine guisado in this
croc, senor."

"A guisado!" exclaimed Dick. "By Jove, the
very thought of it makes me more hungry than ever."

" What is it made of?" said the captain of Grena-
diers, doubtfully.

"Don't you know — everything ! hare, rabbit,
chicken, pheasant, claret and water, oacon, salt, garlic,
onions, pepper, pimentos, Valdepenas butter, a bunch
of wild thyme — "

" The deuce ! what more ?"

"A little oil, and then it would add glory to the
wedding of Camacho," said Dick.

"The senor cabal Icro is quite a Spanish cook,"

338 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

said the pretty patrona ; " but," she added, with a-
furtive glance at Dick's pair of French pantaloons,
" I hope we shall not lose — "

" Lose — not at all, my dear senora. You shall be
paid in gold as pure as your wedding ring/'

" If we have it," added Garriehorne, aside.

" So serve up the guisado. Its odour is exquisite !
By Jove, we four Hannibals have here found our
Capua ! But, Senor Patron," continued Dick, speak-
ing with his mouth very full, " you are singularly like
an ugly fellow whom I met yesterday — what is your
name ?"

"Moreno."

" The devil it is ! that name proved an unlucky
one to me lately."

" Where, senor ?"

"AtVillahoz."

" I have a son there — "

" Keeper of a venta ?"

" Si, senor."

" The villain ! he betrayed me to the French for
ten dollars."

" Likely enough of Antonio," said the young wife ;
" he is my step-son, and proves mala, mala — very
bad."

" Step-sons frequently do in a step-mother's eyes,
my dear patrona."

" He hates his father—"

" The unnatural wretch I"

" Hates him for having married me."

" In that I almost agree with him," said Dick.

" But he hates me, too."

" Hates you — so young, so charming 1"

"Yes, senor, and daily vows to have revenge ; be-
lieving that I have cheated him out of his birthright."

THK STOKV OP DICK Dl, .

" Dick, what are those fellows round the brassero

rin^ about?" askf.l the grenadier.
" Oil, they are mere cazadores, who say wo should
not ! 11 up .Madrid, or Burgos either, without

" Faugh ! don't speak of Burgos ; I am sick of
shelling, storming, and mining. A battle, indeed !
but, perhaps, they know better than Lord "Welling-

" A pretty woman that patrona is, ugh !" added

Dick, as he drew oft' his boots. " See how muddy

and <l<vp the path that leads to glory and Portugal

re are three inches of the mud of innnor-

at least"

By this time our friends had finished the guisado,
which proved excellent, and a huge leathern bota of
Xerez had been passed rapidly from hand to hand.
They became comfortable — then jolly. Dick sang
his usual song, and they all retired to pass the night
in a crazy garret, and to thank Heaven that they
not for out-picquet on the Burgos road, and that
they were to halt and not march all the next day.

Exhausted by toil, and perhaps somewhat overcome
by their potations, and what our old friend Saucho
Panza would term "the blessed scum" of the hot and
savoury guisado, Colquhoun Grant and Carrie-homo
fell into a sound sleep on the hard floor, with plaids
around them, and their swords at hand ; but poor
Dick Duff's restless disposition kept him long awake.

He thought of the young and pretty patroua, with
her taper legs and melting black eyes ; of her scowl-
ing old spouse, and the rascal, Antonio Mordlo, who
yesterday had so nearly procured him — the said Dick
him- -ii.r. • in. h. - ..:' ;i r'lvnrh bayonet, or a ti
years' sojourn at Bitche or Verdun on parole. Then,

340 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

as the moon shone brightly, he rose and looked out
upon the scenery, where the bright flood of her silver
light fell aslant on the spires of the churches, and
gilded with a white lustre the pinnacles and little square
belfries of the convents. On one side lay a narrow
street which led to the Plaza Mayor ; on the other,
spread a wilderness of flat roofs, from amid which the
huge cathedral, begun, but never finished, by Philip
II., reared its dark outline ; beyond, lay the beautiful
plain watered by the Esqueva, stretching away in the
moonlight and the haze it exhaled All was silent
and still, and no one seemed abroad save one man,
whom Dick perceived to be reconnoitring the posada
with stealthy eyes and steps. He placed a short
ladder against one of the lower windows, which
opened in two halves. He pushed the lattice open
and entered.

" Is this fellow a thief or a lover ?" thought Dick ;
" if an affair of gallantry, it is no business of mine.
Bah ! what is there to steal from a Spanish posada ?
and to interfere with the nocturnal rambles of some
loving stableboy or amatory muleteer would be ra-
ther an insane proceeding on my part."

With these reflections he resumed his place on the
floor, and was about to drop asleep — for on service
all curiosity becomes blunted ; the value of property
and the risk of death but of little consequence — when
a cry pierced his ear.

A cry ! it was a wild and despairing one, that rang
terribly along the wooden corridor ; a struggle — the
stamping of feet — the explosion of a pistol, with the
fall of a body heavily on the floor followed ; and then
all became still save the barking of the pemo de caza,
or house-dog, in the yard. Duff's first thought was
of the enemy — that their cavalry were in the town —

THE STORY OP DICK DUFF. oil

•

and that the picquets had been repulsed on the
,os road. Then he thought of the intruder.

'• Up, Grant," said he ; " get your sword, Garrie-
horne — the French or the devil are at work here ! "

" Help, senores caballeros — help !" cried a piteous
voice in the corridor.

" Is that you, senor patron ? "

" Si, senor — 'tis I and the senora patrona — open,
por amor de Dios — the posada has been attacked by
thieves."

" By thieves"—

" Yes ; and by the holy of holies, I have had the
narrowest of escapes," he added, dragging in his young
and pretty wife. Both were in their night dresses ;
both were breathless and ghastly pale.

• What was the meaning of that pistol-shot ?"

" You shall hear, senor — you shall hear," replied
the host, staggering to a seat. " Dios raio ! 1 was
sound asleep, my day's work has been a severe one,
so many noble caballeros have been about the house
all day long. I was asleep ; but the senora patrona
saw a man in our room ; he carried a pistol in one
hand, a lantern in the other. Her cries awoke me,
and I sprang from my bed to reach my Abacete knife,
which usually lies on a stool close by ; when lo !
there was a flash in my eyes, a pistol-ball grazed my
right ear, and buried itself in the pillow I had just
left ! Santiago ! my knife was in my hand ; I be-
came blind ! I rushed upon the would-be assa-
once, twice, ay, thrice, my knife was buried in his
heart ; at first there was a cry of agony, then I heard
the breast-bone crack, as, with a heavy sob, he was
dead. Ouf ! " he added, as a light was brou
" see how my right hand and arm are drenched in
blood."

312 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

He flung the knife on the floor, and it sounded like
a knell.

" Grant, look to the poor patrona," said Duff.
" Come, Garriehorne, the man may not be dead yet."

" 0, senor, I warrant him dead enough ; my first
stab went straight to the heart/' replied the
hostalero, grinding his teeth with savage energy.

Proceeding along the dingy corridor, they reached
his bedroom, where a man, in a pool of thickening
blood, lay prostrate on the floor.

" He is quite dead," said Garriehorne.

" Grant, turn the poor devil over, and let us see
what like he is," said Dick Duff.

He was turned on his back, and a hoarse cry burst
from old Morello, on recognising in the relaxed jaw
and fixed eye-balls of the corpse the features of—
his son Antonio !

# * * # *

" Come, gentlemen, let us quit this place," said
Dick, with a shudder ; and, as they issued into the
empty streets, daylight was beginning to struggle
through their sinuous windings, while the merry rat-
tat of the British and Portuguese drums was heard, as
they beat reveille in El Campo, the market-place,
and before the old royal palace, where Anne of
Austria first saw the light, and which, to the fourth
story, was full of allied troops. The inlying picquets
(always turned out in those days an hour before day-
light) were standing under arms, looking pale, wan,
and drowsy in their dark great-coats, in the Plaza
Mayor. This place was square, and surrounded by
an arcade, within which are shops, and the brick
houses have balconies of gilded iron at all the
windows. At a corner of the old palace our ramblers
passed under a curious projecting clock, like that of

THE STOKY OF DICK .'J 1 •')

Strasbourg; but being a loyal old Spanish clock, of
tnif Castilian origin, it had never gone since tho

i Spain.

" Senor," said Dick Duff to a Spanish cazadore

who passed, and who seemed, like himself, to be ou

look-out for a place of entertainment, " what

is that?"

" You mean the house without windows ?"
" Si, senor, and which has only those littlo holes to
admit light through its high walk"
" The Holy Office, senor."
Dick shrugged his shoulders and quickened his

" And is that place opposite the convent so famed
for it« pretty nuns ?"

- Which, senor?"

"The convent of the Bleeding Heart"

"No, senor," said the don, with a dark look ; " it is
tho monastery of the Bloody Is

" You seem to be a wag, my friend — well, and
what place is that which the staff are just leaving ?"

" El Colegio de los Escosses."

" Bravo — the Scots College !" said they alto-
gether ; " nuichos gratias, senor — we shall go there."
id just as Wellington, cloaked and muflled, with
a telescope slung over his shoulder, his blue cape and
cocked hat covered by oiled skins, trotted into the
Plaza Mayor, followed by his aides-de-camp, one of
whom was Prince Leopold, now King of the Bel-
gians, Dick Duff and his comrades presented tl.
selves at the arched doorway of the ancient Catholic
seminary.

"A college of priesta !" said Dick ; " I would infi-
nitely prefer a convent of nuns — but we cannot
choose, unfortunately.''

344 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

" Now, Duff," said Garrieliorne, " you must behave
with propriety."

" Oh, you shall see ; I am arranging my face to a
most becoming length."

While they were speaking the door unfolded, and a
grave, dark-complexioned priest, clad in a long black
satann, appeared before them. His mild glance of
anxious inquiry expanded into a kind smile when he
saw the tartans and plumed bonnets of the visitors ;
for he was a Scotsman, and in those days, anterior to
the Catholic emancipation, the Scottish clergy of the
ancient faith were all but outcasts, and usually exiles
from their own country ; thus the poor man's heart
filled and his eyes glistened, as he stretched out his
hands inviting them to enter, and led them through
the garden towards the main building of the college.

This Scottish college at Valladolid was founded by
the family of Semple, one of whom, Robert, known
as the great Lord Semple, was long ambassador from
James VI. of Scotland to Philip II. of Spain ; a ser-
vice on which he acquitted himself with reputation
and honour to his country, while his rigid adherence
to the Catholic Church won him the respect of the
Spaniards. The revenue of this college is about
1000?. per annum, and the edifice was anciently a
house of the Jesuits. Its lands are to be held of the
Spanish crown while vines shall continue to grow on
them, and in its cellars is a jolly wine-tun capable of
holding eighteen thousand bottles — the mention of
which made Dick Duff's eyes twinkle with delight
Its chapel had a crucifix which grew out of a thorn-
tree to convert a Jew, but is now in the cathedral ;
and still better, it had a valuable library, wherein
hangs a portrait of the founder in rich robes carrying
a baton, and another of his lady, Agnes Montgomery,

THE STORY OF DICK DUFF.

daughter of Hugh, Earl of Eglinton. Six miles from
the city, the college has a hamlsome country man-
winch Wellington occupied for one night during
the 1! Teat

The auc'n -nt faith in Scotland was then all but ex-
tinct. A few wandering priests, braving the severe
It its of the Scottish law, lurked in the wildest
)arts of the Highlands, and, protected by the gentle
ties of clanship, administered the rites of the Roman
Church to its scattered adherents. At Glenlivat, in
the eighteenth century, a little academy was main-
tained by them almost in secret ; there philosophy
and divinity were taught to boys of talent, after
which they were sent abroad to the Scottish colleges
of Rome, Douay, Ratisbon, or Valladolid, from
whence, as Jesuits or secular priests, they returned to
pi. ach once more unto the clans the faith in which
their fathers died.

All these odds and ends of information anent this
Scoto-Spanish establishment were told to the mili-
tary visitors by Father John Cameron, in a low and
gentle tone, as if he feared to wake some one, and all
tin.- Scottish priests and students, who crowded about
the Highlana officers in the little refectory, where
\vino and fruit were freely proffered, spoke in the
same remarkable manner, stopping ever and anon as
if to listen for a passing sound ; while gravity and
anxi'-ty were impressed on every face.

Rattling Dick Duff had so completely adopted the
licaiinj of a modest, (juict, and seriously- disposed
young man, that the heart of Father John Cameron,
a priest well up in years, was quite won ; and Dick
began to feel some compunction, while telling him
with the utmost gravity, that "a natural :il»h«>rrence
of gaiety and military uproar, with a love .

346 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

ment and of cloistral seclusion, ice. &c., had brought
him and his companions, Captain Garriehorne and
Colquhoun Grant, the famous scout who so tormented
the Due de Raguse, to visit them;" but he added,
" what the devil is the matter? Is any one dead or
hidden here — what's the row, that you all speak in
whispers, as if the walls had ears ?"

" It is a strange story," said the old priest, Father
Cameron ; " our beloved rector, without an apparent
ailment, believes himself at the point of death. It is
a sad narrative to me, for I loved the rector as a
younger brother ; although many years his senior
(more than I dare reckon now), his talents and his
piety made him superior to us all. He believes that
the day, the hour — yea, the moment of his departure
is fixed : it is a solemn, a terrible presentiment — but
you, as soldiers, will be inclined to smile at it and me."

" Nay, sir/' replied Dick, " you wrong us there ;
for on service we see every day the most terrible ful-
filment of presentiments. I had a brother drowned
upon the 1 6th of November — my father ever said it
was our fatal day, and had been so for ages. He
was wounded by my side on the 16th of November,
when our Highlanders stormed one of the West India
Isles, and on the 1 6th of November he was killed
near the city of Alexandria, and with my own hands
I buried him the day before we marched towards the
Nile. Poor old man !"

" And there was poor old Major Wallace of Ours,"
said Grant, " who had always a presentiment that he
would die on the 18th of March, the day he was
wounded as an ensign at the blockade of Alexandria
in 1801, and on the 18th of last March we found him
dead in his tent, killed by a random shot, when we
were covering the siege of Badajoz."

TH; OF DICK nr :;!7

• 1 the priest. "there was poured forth
int blood of many a gallant heart"

-oe, my dear sir, that solemn presenti-
iie found in the camp as well as in the
cloister," added Dick, draining his wine-horn, with a
tli..:i;Jitful smile.

" Our reverend rector is powerfully possessed 1 <y
that he will not outlive the 16th of this
month of November, the day on which hi-
- "

j.rir-st hesitii

" Don't hesitate, my dear sir," said Dick ; " for I
am ' in old Catholic stock — say on."

"The day on which his patron-saint died, and for a
this conviction has become stronger in his
mind as the time approached ; yet he ia a hale man
and well, though somewhat more feeble than he was
wont to be. His patron is Margaret, Queen of !"•
Innd. who died on the 16th of November, and

Ih. A month ago, he felt this pre-

sentiim nt n>me more strongly, mysteriously, and

i inly upon him ; so that he could no longer attend

to his duties as rector, but spent his whole time in

and earnest prayer, as one prep:

for a great change. He dismissed all the professors,
students, servants, and other inmates to a country
a which we possess, six miles from the city, telling
us to enjoy ourselves for a brief space, as a dark day
of iiKnirnii:'.; was at hand.

" Impressed by the solemnity of his manner, we
set out for the place, and remained there anxiously
waiting to hear tidings from him, for he is d«
!ovd by us all, and by none more than me. A week
elapsed, but w- ii- .1 i nothing from Yalladolid; at
last, I turned back, being his dearest friend, and

348 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

moreover, the oldest priest in the college — for I can
remember the days when Charles of the Two Sicilies
sat on the Spanish throne, and I was one of those who
chanted the De Profundis by the grave of Charles
Edward Stuart ; I can remember when the spires of
seventy convents towered over Valladolid, for in El
Campo every alternate house was a religious one ;
and now there are but sixteen and only twenty-four
convents. Well, gentlemen, I came back to inquire,
and soon saw enough to fill me with alarm. In our
absence the rector had hung the college chapel with
black ; he had moreover raised the pavement before
the shrine of St. Margaret, and after measuring his
own height, had there dug a grave for himself, eight
feet deep, and as I crossed the aisle, its ghastly depth
in the black and bone-impregnated earth that lay
piled on each side, struck me with awe and terror.
I searched for the rector, but was unable to find him
in any of the dormitories, refectory, library, or
garden. At last, barefooted and bareheaded, clad in
sackcloth, and girt by a cord of discipline, I found
him kneeling near the grave he had dug ; he was
praying earnestly, and never did the divine Murillo
conceive a head more noble, or a face more expressive
of piety, enthusiasm, worship, and prayer, in all its
glory, than those of our rector as I saw him at that
moment, with his eyes uplifted from a book of vespers
towards the crowned statue of the Scottish Queen,
around which twelve little lights were sparkling ; and
I could hear the words that came from his pale lips,
though they fell faintly and slowly,

" ' Deus, qui beatam Margaritam, Scotorum Regi-
nam, eximia in pauperes charitate mirabilem efTecisti :
da, ut ejus intercessione et exemplo, tua in cordibus
nostris charilas jugiter augeatur.'

THK STnllY OF DICK DITF. :JIJ)

" When I approached, he fainted. I had him at
once conveyed to bed and applied restoratives ; but
so low had his strength and system ebbed by exces-
sive fatigue, prayer, and fasting, that we have scarcely
a hope of recovering him, and the conviction that he
shall die to morrow, on the 16th November, the anni-
versary of his patron's death/seven hundred years ago,
is so vividly impressed upon his mind, that knowing
its breadth of thought and unyielding energy of pur-
. a solemn sadness has come upon us all, and wo
wait in (••rmr the n-ue of this gloomy presentiment."

The military visitors were deeply impressed by this
strange and fantastic story ; and on Father Cameron
requesting them to visit the couch where the rector
lay, in the hope that their Highland garb might rouse
some old or other emotions in his breast, they at once
assented and followed in silence to his chamber.

Under cloisters arched and old, they were led
through the ancient chapel, where many a stern Jesuit
who had heard Loyola preach, and where many a poor
-t of the Scottish mission, were at rest from their
labours ; and past the newly-dug grave where a stone
already bore the name of the rector, cut by his own
hand. Duff paused for a moment and read thereon,

M.S.

Don logo tic Santa Margareta; Hector <l-f
Collegio de los Escosses ; VaMadolid, Requien a,
Dloa por ei

" Mater Salvatoris, ora pro nobia !" muttered
Father Cameron, as he hurried past, and led them
into the gloomy little apartment, in which tin- further
to mortify his flesh, the rector had taken up his
quarters.

350 LEGENDS OP THE BLAOK WATCH.

It was square, and floored with red tiles ; on the
dull and discoloured walls were two or three Murillos
and Alonzo Canos ; in the window, around which the
naked vines had clambered, lay a skull before a cruci-
fix ; around were shelves laden with books, many
being old tomes of Scottish theology ; and there were
many old engravings of the House of Stuart in ebony
frames, Prince Charles, James VIII., and Cardinal
York.

Dick Duff took all this in at a rapid glance, and
then his eyes rested on a thin, wan, and emaciated
figure that lay on a plain and uncurtained Spanish
bed in a corner of the apartment. The rector's eyes
were closed and his hands were clasped. He scarcely
seemed to breathe, and yet he was praying earnestly.
His profile was sharp and thin ; he did not seem to
be much above forty years of age ; yet the hair that
clustered round his high and intellectual temples was
prematurely silvered over.

" Heavens !" exclaimed Dick, in a suppressed voice,
and with a start of terror, " how like my poor old
father he looks just now !"

" Like your father ?" reiterated Garriehorne.

" Yes — yes : he is the poor old man's image — just
as he lay dead at Alexandria, when I rolled him in
my blanket and buried him in the sand, digging his
grave with my bayonet — God rest him !"

" The rector's history is a strange one," said Father
Cameron ; " but we know not his name, therefore we
call him James of St. Margaret/'

" But how came he here ?"

" Listen/' replied the priest in a low voice, and they
all drew aside. " Many years ago I was at sea, flying
for safety from Argyllshire, having been hunted from
parish to parish, because I had dared to say mass in

THE STOHY OF DICK DUFF.

secret to our people — for to perform the offices of
our taitit in Scotland was then to commit a crima
Our ves.st.-l was running seaward down the Sound of
Mull, when a boat was discovered adrift, without sails
or oars ; and in that boat we found a little child — a
boy — asleep, or worn by terror and the tossing waves
into a dreamless torpor. He was brought on board,
and to iut' the discovery of a boy floating thus upon
the sea, like Amadis de Gaul or Florizel in their
ets, as we read in the old romances ; or like
Moses or Judas Iscariot, as we may read in the
writings of the Fathers, seemed of great import — the
more so, as I found an amulet, or reliquary, at his
neck, wherein was a relic of St Margaret, with a pro-
phecy written by one whom I knew, for I was then
but a youth — yea, knew well "

" Father John of Douay V exclaimed Dick Duff.

" Yes ; John Macdouald of Douay — how know you
that r

" Ask me not — ask me not, sir — but proceed."

" Yes, written by the most reverend father, John
of Douay (who was butchered by the French in Flan-
ders), foretelling that this child would yet become
great in the church, and would serve Qod at His
altar long and faithfully "

" This was in the year 1772 f exclaimed Dick, who
had listened breathlessly.

" It was, sir. The poor child could tell me nothing
of his parents, and Knew only that his name was
Hamish — that he had seated himself in an old boat
upon the beach, and fallen asleep, after which he was
awaked by the rough rocking of his new cradle, as it
tumbled on the waves, which had risen and floated it
out into the Sound. He wept for his mother
and passionately; but I brought him hither, and in
z '2

352 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

the bosom of our Mother Church he soon learned to
forget his earthly mother, who is now, perhaps, await-
ing him in heaven "

"For her wish has doubtless been mysteriously
fulfilled/' said Duff, incoherently. " Eternal Power !
if this should be the case ! Tell me, good sir, is there
a scar — — "

" Upon his left side ? — yes."

" The mark of a stag's-hora, which gored him on
the rocks of Loch-na-Keal."

"Yes, yes."

" Then this child whom you found floating on the
sea, and who has lived to become the Rector of your
College, is my brother, Hamish Duff, for whose sup-
posed drowning in the Sound of Mull, our poor
mother died of grief on the sixteenth of November."

" The sixteenth of November ! the very day on
which he has so long believed he is himself to die."

Dick threw down his plumed bonnet and hastened
to the bedside with his eyes full of tears and a wild
expression in his face.

" 0 how like our old father he looks ! " he ex-
claimed, as he turned down the coverlet.

There was no motion ; he placed a hand on the
rector's heart ; but there was no pulsation. He was
dead — dead, but still warm.

At that moment the clock of the college tolled the
half-hour after twelve !

Thus as he had so long foretold and foreseen, but
by what mysterious intuition or presentiment,
Heaven alone knows, he had actually passed away on
the early morning of the sixteenth day of November.

The French cavalry were still pressing on, and the

THF. STOKY OF DICK DUFF.

jadi-d allies were still in full retreat; thus tin-
Scott i>h fathers of the ancient college hurri«-<l th"
fiiin-rul l>y the next noon, that the Lieutenant of the
Block Watch might lay his brother's lu-ad in the
grave; and accordingly the rector was lowered into
the tomb which his own hands had formed before the
shrine of St. Margaret, the Patroness of Scotland ;
and Dick Duff was a changed man, and a grave man
too, during the remainder of that horrible retreat, on
which so many of our brave soldiers perished of star-
vat ion and fatigue ; and which Lord Wellington con-
tinued without delay, until the Ebro and the Douro
were far in his rear ; and his harassed army found
winter quarters on the frontier of Portugal.

Father John Cameron lived to a good old age, and
died Catholic Bishop of Edinburgh, where he now
lies interred before the altar of St. Mary's Chapel

354 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

THE FOREST OF GAICH;

OE, THE CAPTAIN DHU.

AFTER the Flemish campaign, under his Royal High-
ness the Duke of York, and the terrible retreat to
Deventer — a retreat in which the sufferings of our
troops rivalled those endured by the French after
Moscow — the 42nd Highlanders were encamped dur-
ing the spring of 1795 at Hanbury, in England,
under the command of General Sir William Meadows,
when their strength, which had been weakened by
their recent operations against the French republican
armies, was greatly augmented by volunteers from
various Highland fencible corps, which had been
raised in the preceding year. Among others, they
were joined by the two entire flank companies of the
Grant Fencibles, or old 97th Regiment, which had
been raised to the number of thirteen hundred men
by Sir James Grant of Grant, Bart, (locally known as
the Good Sir James), almost entirely among his own
name and clan in Strathspey, a district which has
long been famous for its stirring music and the mili-
tary spirit of its people. These volunteers, in the
month of September, set out on their march
through Badenoch to join the 42nd, under the com-
mand of Captain MacPherson of Ballychroan, who

THE FORKS! OF GAICH.

had been appointed to the corps, the colonel of which
was then Maj<>r-( iimeral Sir Hector Munro, K.B.

Kvan Mael'herson was generally known in that
wild and mountainous district named Badenoch as
the Captain J)hut or Black Officer, in consequence of
raven-coloured hair, his swarthy complexion, and
dark eyes, and, perhaps also, from the peculiarities of
his character, which, though brave to recklessness,
was stern, severe in discipline, and at times myste-
rious, savage, and vindictive.

The captain swore high, drank deep, and gambled
as if he had the mines of Peru among the glens of
Ballychroan. These qualities, together with his great
strength and stature, rendered him more feared than
loved in the district of Badenoch, where it was cur-
rently believed that he was in league with the devil,
and where the story of his terrible end is yet remem-
bered with a shudder by the people round the winter
hearth. There are many yet alive in Strathspey who
saw and knew Black Evan, and remember the events
which I am about to record.

From Speyside he marched his volunteers through
Glentromie, and, following the course of the river
which gives that valley its name, entered the wilder
ami more romantic parts of Badenoch, between tlu>
Stoney Mountain and Drum Ferrich, till about night-
fall, when, to the great bodily discomfort and greater
mental discomposure of the soldiers, who dared nut
complain save in whispers to each other, he hulled in
tin- haunted Forest of Qaich, a wild and uninhabited
tract of country on the northern slope of the mighty
Grampians.

There he ordered them to pile arms, and have a
fire lighted in a place which he imli< -at. •«!. near a
well, deemed holy, as the water of it had been blessed

35G LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

by St. Eonaig of old. On this, a white-haired ser-
geant, Hamish Grant, from Brae Laggan, respectfully
ventured to suggest that the fire might burn equally
well elsewhere.

MacPherson, who was not accustomed to be trifled
with or have his orders disputed, stormed and swore
terribly, according to his wont, both in Gaelic and
English.

" Good will never come of it," said the sergeant,
moodily.

" Let evil come if it may, and welcome be it !" re-
sponded MacPherson, scornfully ; " let the old fellow
who. blessed the well come from his grave at Kil-
maveonaig, and, if he chooses, I'll give him a jorum
of its water flavoured with Ferintosh."

Muffled in their grey great-coats, or in their plaids
of the bright red Grant tartan, the soldiers sat or lay
in groups near the fire, which burned cheerfully, and
shed a wavering glare along the green mountain slope.
The night was calm, and the stars shone brightly over-
head ; no moon was visible yet, and scarcely a breath
of wind stirred the light foliage of the silver birches.
Attracted by the unwonted light of the fire, the dun
deer were visible at times, but for a moment only,
as they peered from their lair among the feathery
bracken leaves, and then fled to distant parts of the
forest.

The soldiers sung Gaelic songs to while away the
time, and each shared with his comrade the contents
of his canteen and havresack; for, having just left
their homes in Strathspey, all were amply provided
with bread and cheese, beef, venison, and plenty of
good usquebaugh ; thus, though the place of their halt
was weird, wild, and — all save the little runnel that

THK FOREST OF GAICII.

trickled down the heather slope — unholy, the night
seemed likely to pass merrily enough.

Apart from all his men lay Evan MacPherson, of
Ballychroan, who on this night was unusually sulK-n,
gloomy, and taciturn ; so much so, that the soldiers,
all of whom knew him well, remarked that a tu

, or black cloud, was upon him ; for at times he
had his dark or melancholy hour.

" And how could he be otherwise ?' said old Ser-
it Hamish, in a whisper, as he took a huge aneiahen
from the silver-mounted mull of Corporal Shon
Grant, his own cousin, " only seventeen times re-
iinMed," as Bailie Jarvie has it "Oich! oich ! who
but he would have halted in the Forest of Gaich, au«l
at night too V

• I'll sleep with one eye open, at all events," replied
the corporal, impressively, with a wink.

Yn<l 1 with both my ears," said Duncan Bane,
the piper ; " for, by the horns of the devil — "

•• \\ iiisht ! Oich, don't name him here, for he is,
perhaps, nearer than we know of; but what were
you about to say ?"

• That we shall be lucky if we pass the night with-
out hearing the scream of Comyn's eagles as they fly
towards the Tarffi"

" It is said, they pass through the forest from
Benoch Corrie Va always at midnight," said Donald
Bane Grant, or Fair-haired Donald the piper, in a
whisper.

Some of the younger soldiers laughed ; but the
older shrugged their shoulders, and took an additional
dram and mieittlu'n, as they thought of all the Forest
of Gaich had witnessed in other times.

In a previous legend, the fate of the Red Comyn

358 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

has been mentioned ; but this forest was the death-
scene of his father, the equally traitorous Black
Comyn ; and it was to the story of his terrible death
the soldiers referred.

" He was killed," said one, " by a fall from his
horse, which a weird woman had bewitched."

" Not at all," said the sergeant, bluntly ; for he was
well versed in all the oral literature of his native
hills.

" How then — how ?" asked several.

" His death happened thus," began the sergeant in
Gaelic. " The Black Comyn was a fierce tyrant, who
dwelt in the black Castle of Inverlochy, to which
he added the great round western tower, that still
bears his name ; and there he and his wife, who was
the Lady Marjorie, daughter of John Baliol, King
of Scotland, were a terror and a grievance to the
whole country by their exactions, extortions, and
severity. Every one in Badenoch knows the story
of his conceiving a love for two pretty girls whom
he saw reaping in a field near Croc Barrodh, and
whom, because they fled from him, he ordered his
Lowland men-at-arms to strip nude as they came
into the world, and in that condition he compelled
to finish the reaping of the field in the light of
open day, while he and his friends mocked them, and
looked on.

"Two days after this, he was at the Cell of St.
Eonaig, in Blair Athole, where he tarried at a way-
side cottage to obtain a draught of beer. The baron
was thirsty, and he drank deep ; the day was hot —
he had ridden far, and the beverage was cool, sharp,
and refreshing.

" ' This beer of yours pleases me much,' said he ;
1 whence get you it, dame ?'

THE FOREST OF G.UCII.

it t

I am my own brewer/ replied the cottager;
'but the malt is brought from St. John's Town.'

I the water?'
" ' From yonder stream.'

" ' The Aldnehearlinn ?'
««Y.

" ' Good ! I shall have such beer made in my

Castle of Inverlochv, if it cost me a thousand lives

and fifty thousand silver crowns !' said Comyn, wiping

'.vhite froth from his coal-black beard with his

steel glove.

" ' Then you must make a road over the Gram-
pians/ said the woman.

And a road I shall make, dame,' he exclaimed.
• The woman laughed covertly, and bitterly uttered
• a curse under her breath ; for she was the mother of
of the young reapers whom he had so recently
dishonm; ,,w this woman was a witch, and the

beer she Had given the Lord of Badenoch was brewed
under a spell ; thus, whoever drank thereof became
In T victim and the instrument of her will.

" The Black Comyn resolved that whatever might
MO result, he would have beer of the game kind
in Ins Castle of Inverlochy; but to procure the in-
:;• -nt* a road was necessary, and he at once ordered
one to be made. Then thousands of men were soon
i at work, with axe and shovel hewing a p:uh
iVo'.n tho lonely little cell of St. Eonaig, through t he-
woods of Craig Urrand, building a bridge
across the Bruar in Athole, and digging a way straight
t . . this Forest of Gaich ; and thus far it was made when
the work was stopped by witchcraft

" Daily the Black Comyn came to survey tho road
ami to watch its progress over hill and j,'len, and wood
and water, and many observed that daily two eaglet

3GO LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

hovered above his head, but high in raid-air, where the
arrows of his best archers failed to reach them ; for
these screaming eagles were witches, the mother
of the two pretty reapers — the beer woman of St.
Eonaig, and another cailloch who dwelt by the Lochy,
and who came hither to scheme out vengeance and to
destroy the Black Corny n's road, lest when finished it
might prove an easy avenue for the Perthshire clans
to march into Badenoch.

" By the day of St. Eonaig the road had been made
nearly to Gaich, and the dun deer, roused from their
lair, were flying before the workmen, when the screams
of the two giant eagles were heard overhead ; the
men were dispersed or rendered powerless by a spell,
while all their horses and oxen took to flight, as if
possessed by the demons which entered the swine of,
old, and rushing headlong over the precipices were
destroyed.

" Comyn beheld this sudden catastrophe with emo-
tions of astonishment and rage, which were soon
changed to fear, when the flapping wings and shrill
cries of the furious eagles rang close in his ears, and
with dusky wings outspread, and monstrous beaks
open, he saw them descending swoop upon him.

" He turned his fleei horse, and goring him with
his spurs, fled he knew not whither.

" The infernal birds pursued him closely, and the
summer sun cast their shadows like flying clouds upon
his path. He crossed the ridge of the Grampians,
and galloped downward at a frightful pace towards
Craignaheilar ; but there they overtook him, though
he cowered upon his horse's mane, and implored God
to save him ! His entreaties were in vain, for God
seemed to have abandoned the Black Comyn to the
fiends, even as He abandoned his son the Red

THI: FOKKST or CAICH.

Traitor to the dagger of Bruce ; and now the eagles,
plunging their beaks and talons in his flesh, tore nim
limb from limb, and scattered the reeking fragments
of his body in the wilderness. One of his legs was
still dangling in the silver stirrup when his terrified
horse fell dead on the banks of the TarfT.*

" And once in every hundred years," concluded the
sergeant, " his spirit is said to ride from Gaich, fol-
lowed by the screaming eagles."

" And here, too," said the corporal, glancing about
him and stirring the embers of the fire, "has been
seen many a time, as I have heard my mother say,
the great Black Cat of the Woods — the king of all
cats."

" Aire Dhia '." exclaimed the sergeant, uneasily ;
" that is the devil himself."

" Cat or devil, I care not which," said the corporal ;
" but we all know the story of the Laird of Brae
na Garacher, who fought in the wars of Montrose, and
when hunting here in Gaich, on Yule Eve, shot a
black cat of enormous size, and just as he approached,
cautiously, to examine the scratching brute, to his
astonishment it opened its red mouth and addressed
him in very good Gaelic, begging that he would have
the Christian charity to inform the cats at home of his
untimely end. You may be sure that Brae na Garacher
lost little time after that in making his way out of the
forest and reaching home, where he related what had
happened, and all the family laughed at him, saying,
there was nothing in the world like good Campbelton
whiskey for making even a cat speak .'

" But lo ! the moment his story was concluded, a

* "At a place still named LerJioit, or one foot, according to

Jlr. Scn'i'f. Sec his work on "Deerstalking."

362 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

little black kitten, that sat by the hearth, sprang with
a h'erce bound to the back of a high arm-chair, with
its tail bushy like a fox's brush, its ears flat on its
head, its yellow eyes glaring with rage, its back erect,
and its little body swollen to all appearance thrice its
usual size. There it sat for a minute spitting and
howling like an evil spirit, and then vanished up the
chimney ! This event silenced the laughers, and
sorely disturbed the mind of the laird, who resolved to
consult with the minister about it on the morrow, and,
in the meantime, to drink deep before going to bed.
About midnight he was awakened by a sound, and,
by the dim rays of his night-lamp, saw a black mass
hovering over him.

"It was the huge black cat he had shot in the
Forest of Gaich !

"Its eyes shone like those of a snake, its fierce
claws were extended towards him, its red mouth was
open, and its hot breath came balefully upon his cheek,
as slowly, surely, and deliberately, it descended from
the roof of his bed upon him, and clutching at his
throat, lacerated and strangled him to death I"

"And I have heard from my father, who was out
with the Prince, God rest them both !" said the piper,
" that on the same night of Brae na Garacher's death,
when the minister of Kingussie was riding home by the
skirts of this forest, he passed a mighty multitude of
cats. They covered all the sides of the hills, and
swarmed among the rocks and trees, like mites in an
old cheese. On reaching home, he found that every
cat in the village, and all the adjacent cottages, had
disappeared, and gone towards the Forest of Gaich,
from whence they never returned."

Just as this third veracious story was concluded by
Donald Bane the piper, he, the sergeant, and others

THE FOREST OF GAICII. 3»1:J

who yet lingered by the watch-fire, as if in that place,
so weird and lone, they were loth to commit them-
• to sleep, were startled by the presence of a man
— a stranger — who suddenly appeared among them,
without any one having seen or heard him approach
— appeared as if he had sprung from the ground.

His aspect was remarkable, and had something
alike impressive and terrible about it He was dressed
like a Lowland peasant ; but his complexion was dark
as that of a mulatto. His hair, beard, and whiskers
of raven blackness ; the latter appendages, which
he wore in great profusion, grew close up to his keen
and restli-ss ryes, which glared from under the shadow
of his beetling brows and broad round bonnet, like
those of a polecat from under a bush ; but his grey
plaid, the folds of which were full and ample, rose high
upon his breast and concealed his mouth.

1 1 is eyes, which had all the fascinating glare of the
fierce bright orbs of the rattle-snake, leisurely sur-
veyed the quailing soldiers one after another in silence,
and then he grinned, as if pleased by the startling im-
pression his sudden appearance created, and spreading
his strong, brown, swarthy hands over the flames,
thrust them almost into the fire, without seeming to
feel the heat in any way oppressive.

" \Vho are you ? ' asked the sergeant, firmly.

" One whom you may perhaps know well enough
by-and-by," replied the other, with a grimace,

" Are you a Lowlander ?" asked the corporal.

"Dioul!" growled the other; "did such pure
Gaelic as mine ever come from the tongue of a bodach
in breeks ? But speak out, my friends ; of what arc
you afraid f

' I fear nothing human," replied the sergeant ; " but
I fear Uod, and hate the devil and all his w^

364 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" What wrong Las the devil ever done you ?"

" He put it in the heart of a vile Cateran to draw
his dirk on me at the Inverness cattle tryst in August
last/'

"Nay, sergeant, it was not the poor devil who
caused this, but your hot Highland whiskey and
temper to boot. Yet I do not think you have much
to complain of, as you well nigh slew him after-
wards/'

" The devil V

" No — the Cateran, as you call him. As for the
devil, he, poor fellow, is very much maligned on earth,
I assure you."

" 'Twas only a dab with a dirk I gave the Cateran,
and he gave me another."

" A dab — a severe wound ?"

" Bah ! I would let any honest man do as much to
me, for a good dram, any day ; like true Highlanders,
we parted after the first blood drawn."

The dark man gave one of his ferocious grins, as he
said,

" You parted — true ; but how fared it with your
assailant?"

" He was lodged by the meddling provost and
bailies in the bottle dungeon in the middle arch of
Inverness Bridge."

" Yes — confined there, with nothing between him
and the rain and wind of heaven but an iron grating
— a narrow hatch of steel ribs, over which the way-
farers tread, and there he is yet"*

"All this is the provost's fault, not mine. We
march by daybreak," said the sergeant, who had
imbibed a strange mistrust and fear of this nocturnal
visitor ; " whither go you ?"

* This oubliette perished with the old Bridge of Inverness.

THE FORKST OK (iAICH.

" To a wanner place than even the warmest West

Indian Isle," was the significant reply of the oth-T,

\vith :i withering glance of malevolence and irony ;

" Itiit it was not to talk with you I sought the Forest

• h to-night. My man is here !"

With these strange words, the tall dark man strode
to the foot of a tree. There, muffled in his cloak and
•isleep, or to all appearance so, Captain Mac-
IMicrson was lying with his head pillowed on the root
of a gigantic larch, and when shaken roughly by the
shouldi-r, he started up with one of his terrible oaths,
but grew pale on beholding the person who aroused
him. On recovering himself partially,

" What errand brings you here to-night ?" he asked,
in a low and stifled voice.

" To see you." was the brief reply.

"But why now, fiend i"

• Wh»T.t so fitting a place as the Forest of

• chr

" True — true ! fool — madniuu that I was ! What
lured me to halt here?"
" What lured youT

• ^

Shall I tell you ?'' grinned the other.
'1
. ' Fatality,"

; Come," said the visitor, fiercely, " for timo
presses."

" Hurry no man'., cattle," grumbled Macl'
"so begonr. fiend, for 1 go not with you to-
night."

• You will not?"

" No !"

The dark stranger laughed till the very hills seemed
A A

366 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

to echo ; and that weird sound made the marrow
freeze in the bones of the old sergeant, who was
listening.

" Come/' continued the visitor, " lest I drag you
hence."

" Drag !" reiterated the captain, with a furious
malediction.

" Yes, drag ; for you are powerless as a suckling, and
your will is mine."

For a moment their swarthy eyes glared like live
coals upon each other. At last those of the Captain
Dhu lowered, and he said, in a broken voice,

" Go to the place of tryst, and I shall be with
you."

" When ?"

" In the snapping of a flint," he groaned, Avhile the
perspiration rolled over his pallid brow.

" Ha ! ha! Nay, I go not without you."

" Then the curse of God — the bitter, blighting curse
that marked the front and withered up the soul of
Cain — be on you !" exclaimed the captain, maddened
with fear and rage. " Hound of hell, lead on — I follow
you ! Stand by your arms, men. Sergeant, at your
peril, see that no man follows us \"

The swarthy man grinned again on hearing this
outburst and these orders ; and while the startled
soldiers gazed in each other's faces with blank
astonishment at the progress and issue of a conversa-
tion so strange, and at the aspect of one before whom
this terrible officer, the Captain Dhu — he so stern and
stormy, so fierce and unyielding — seemed to quail and
bow, he and his weird-like visitor went from amidst
them, and together sought a lonelier and more se-
questered part of the forest.

They remained absent for some time, The whole

THI: FOKKST OP GAICH.

party of soldiers were now awakened, and mutt-
strangely among themselves ; while, regardless of the
orders he had received, old Sergeant Hamish Grant,
impelled by an irresistible and, perhaps, laudable
curiosity, crept slowly forward on his hands and
knees ; but he had not proceeded far thus, when he
heard the voices of the captain and his nocturnal
>r — the former in tones of entreaty, and the latter
in those of authority and fierce derision. Creeping
on a few paces further, with a drawn bayonet in his
band, he beheld a sight which, when he considered
the proud and stern character of his leader, filled him
with blank wonder.

The waning moon was now visible ; it shone out
for a moment from behind a mass of crapelike cloud.
The dark figures of MacPherson and the stranger
were distinctly seen. The place of their meeting was
a green fairy ring, covered with rich grass, which
waved solemnly in the breeze. Close by it towered
three gigantic granite blocks, spotted' with green
lichens, silent, grim, and lonely, for they were Drui<l-
ical obelisks ; and in the middle of this circle of Loda
lay the " mossy stone of power," the altar of other
timea MacPherson was on his knees ; the dark man
towered over him, threatening and commanding, but
what he said, the trembling sergeant knew not, though
all around was deathly still, save the trembling of the
wiry pine foliage ; for at times a tremulous motion
will agitate a wood, even wh--n the breath of the wind
has passed away. Wan, white, and ghastly, the ravs of
the sinking moon poured over Benoch-corri-va aslant,
and threw the shadows of the Druid stones, and of those
who lingered there, fur beyond the ancient circle.

A cloud passed over her face, veiling everything for
a moment

AA 2

368 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

When again the still white moonbeams fell on the
fairy ring and the Druid stones, no one was there.

The place was lonely and silent.

Full of terror and awe, the sergeant rushed back to
the bivouac to tell what he had seen ; but for a time
his lips were sealed, for he heard the voice of the
captain, who had reached the night-fire before him,
ordering the whole to stand to their arms and pre-
pare to march.

Evan MacPherson was deadly pale ; his manner
was wild and excited ; but the strictness of discipline,
and the known severity of his character, alike forbade
inquiry or remark. The arms were unpiled in silence,
knapsacks were strapped on, and just as the light of
daybreak began dimly and faintly to eclipse the
Avaning moon, the Strathspey men proceeded on their
march, which lay across the Grampians, and through
Glen Bruar towards Blair Atholl.

A dead silence pervaded the ranks : if any spoke,
it was in a whisper, and each man suggested to his
comrade that Evan Dim of Ballychroan had sold
himself to the Evil One. If further proofs were required
than those afforded by this night-interview, Sergeant
Hamish Grant and the piper, Donald Bane, were
ready to aver on oath that in every place around the
fire and across the forest towards the fairy ring
whereon the foot of that mysterious visitor had trod,
the grass was scorched and withered. Their clans-
man, the corporal, who ^as somewhat sceptical on
this point, suggested that these black spots might have
been caused by the birch and pine sparks from their
watchfires, but old Hamish indignantly repelled the
idea ; and the future career of Evan of Ballychroan
more than corroborated all that was averred to have

THE FOREST OF OAICH. ."(',9

taken place on that eventful night, in the haunted
st of Oaich.

About the end of September, M\cPherson, with his
i is] »ey men, joined the regiment, which emburki «1
on the 27th October for the West Indies, forming part
of the expedition of twenty-two thousand one hundred
and titty-nine infantry, and three thousand and sixty
cavalry, led by Sir Ralph Abercrombie, and dest
to reduce the isles of St. Lucia, St Vincent, and
Trinidad. Tempestuous weather succeeded the em-
barkation, and on the 29th the wind blew a hurricane,
which drove many of the Indiamen and transports
from their anchors, dismasted some, and bulged ot
on the beach. The expedition was thus delayed until
the 1 1 tli November, when again the whole fleet, con-
sHtiu<_r «>r' three hundred sail, put to sea ; but the flag-
ship I in pregnable was stranded on a sand-bank, and
unable to proceed ; other disasters succeeded ; the
Mi<hH'-xe.i; with five hundred of the Black Watch on
lio;ud, had her bowsprit and foretopmast carried away
by the UiM&ui I'tril when oft' the Isle of Wight, and
was thus left astern of the whole squadron ; which had
no sooner cleared the British Channel, than it was
dispersed by another dreadful tempest, which totally
disabled the Commerce de Marseilles, a hundred-and-
twenty-gun ship (French prize), having the ">7th
Regiment on board, and caused the loss of several
transports and many hundred lives. The admiral was
driven back to Portsmouth, and his fleet, after being
Mug tempi st-tossed, and scattered over the stormy
winter sea, reached Barbadoes in detail.

In the Black Watch, this strange series of disasters
were secretly but unanimously Attributed to the male-
volence and interference of the Devil The mysto-

370 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

rious meeting in the Forest of Gaich was remembered,
and Evan of Ballychroan was viewed with anything
but favour by the soldiers under his command ; yet
he did his duty bravely and cheerfully, and was stern
and severe as ever when any fault or dereliction of
orders occurred. The superstitious dread with which
his mountaineers regarded the events of the voyage
need not excite surprise, when we remember that,
about the same period, the crew of one of his
Majesty's crack frigates flatly refused to sail until'the
captain thereof sent his black tom-cat ashore, or had
its ears and tail docked, to alter its feline aspect

But this long succession of mishaps by sea, and
upon the events which preceded the voyage, were for-
gotten by the Strathspey men, when, on the 9th of
February next year, the Middlesex ran into one of
the harbours of Barbadoes, and the clear brilliant sky
and blue waters of the Caribbean Sea were beaming
around them ; and then the charming greenness and
fertility of this place, the most eastern of these lovely
Indian isles, made all long for the shore, eager to dis-
embark, and to escape the vertical heat of a tropical
sun blazing on the decks of a crowded transport.

Brigades were now detailed to attack and reduce
the principal isles of the West Indies. General
Whyte, with the brave 39th ("Primus in Indix"),
the Sutherland Highlanders, and the old 99th, sailed
against Demerara and Berbice, which he captured
almost without resistance; while Brigadier-General
Moore (the future hero of Coruuna), with our old
friends the 42nd and other troops, sailed to favour
the French in Si Lucia with a visit, and found them-
selves off the Pigeons' Isle on the 27th April, when
they were ordered to land at a little sandy bay, into
which the bright blue water ran in glittering ripples,

THE FOREST OF C.AI 371

under shadowy foliage of the most luxuriant and bril-
liant green.

The landing was made by the troops in four divi-
sions, at four different points; and the first man who
leaped ashore was Evan MaoPherson of the Black
•h. His company followed with a loud hurrah !
and when the four united columns advanced against
Morne Fortunee, the principal military post in the
island, on officers desirous of leading the forlorn hope
being requested " to enclose their cards to the brigade-
major," the first on the list for this perilous work was
the Captain Dim !

This1 caused his men to consider and have serious
doubts of the affair during the halt in Gaich ; for, as
Sergeant Grant said, a man who had really sold him-
self to the Devil would have chosen some less dan-
gerous trade than soldiering ; and, moreover, would
not have been in such a deuced hurry to ri>k promo-
tion to a warmer climate than the West Indies.

" But how if his life be charmed," suggested tho
corporal, " and his skin proof to shot and steel ? we
ha\e h. ard of such things in tho Highlands. Like
Claverhome, lie may have his ajtpoiiUfil time."

.il'h dhia sinn !" exclaimed tho sergeant; "so
have we all."

But the corporal's opinion was not given without
iiii'lin^ du- weight; and it caused tho unfortunate
captain to L< more closely watched than ever.

Ere nightfall the troops were all under arms, and
on tho march to assault the great fort of the isla.
and \\ lien, as usual in such cases, old Rawlins tho
ijiiartermaster was made custodier, pro temp., of all
the rings, watches, and purses of the officers, that
they might be safe with him in the ivar, it was re-
marked that MacPherson retained hia own valu.-ibles.

372 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" Ballychroan is a cool fellow," said the offir
" he has quite made up his mind to escape scathe-
less/'

The eve of the tropical sun is brief and beautiful ;
in the forcible lines of Scott —

" Xo pale gradations quench his ray,
No twilight dews his wrath allay ;
With disc-like battle target red,
He rushes to his burning bed ;
Dyes the wild waves with bloody light,
Then sinks at once — and all is night ! "

So sank the disc of the West Indian sun into the
burning Caribbean sea, and sudden darkness veiled
the march of the troops, while the pipes of Donald
Bane, and other kilted minstrels of the Black Watch,
woke the echoes of the fertile valleys and green cocoa-
groves, as the corps formed the avant garde of the
midnight movement, which brought the troops close
to Morne Fortunee, in the attack on which Mac-
Pherson charmed all by his rashness and headlong
bravery.

By a mistake of the black guide, General Moore
found himself entangled with the French out-
posts two hours before the other columns came up.
An immediate encounter ensued. The 53rd Regi-
ment drove back the enemy ; and here Evan Mac-
Pherson, ever foremost in danger, leaving his own
ranks, pushed on with the English corps, as the dis-
patch of Lieutenant-Colonel Abercrombie, its com-
mander, relates ; and after a hand-to-hand conflict,
slew the French Republican general, piercing him
through the body with such force that the long fluted
blade of the Highland claymore would not come
forth ; so that he had actually to place his feet upon

THE FOREST OF OAICH. 373

corpse before he could withdraw his weapon.
Spurning tin- liudy oft' his sword, he uttered one of
his old ferocious oaths of passion and blind fury.

The outpost was carried ; by daybreak the other
columns came up, and with the loss of fifty grenadie is
Morne Fortunes was completely invested.

After this, five companies of the Black Watch, tin-
Black Rangers under Malcolm of Lochore (a 1
shire gentleman, who had a powerful presentiment
that he would that day close his earthly career), the
~>~>[h Regiment, and the Light Company of the 57th,
\vt T<- ordered to assault the battery of Secke which
'lose to the outworks of Morne Fortune^, and,
by a dangerous flank-fire, enfiladed the approach
thereto.

As they advanced to the attack, MacPherson, being

>r volunteer for the forlorn hope, led the storn
He seemed wild with excitement ; his cheek waa
red, and his dark eyes sparkled with a fiery glow.

Followed closely by six men carrying a scali:
ladder, with his sword clenched in his teeth, and
bearing in his arms one of those huge grass-bags
which are often used in such affairs to prevent
stormers from being hurt by falling into the tn-n
and which, for this purpose, are filled with freshly cut
grass, he rushed forward at the head of the forlorn -
hope-men, nearly all of whom were swept away by a
rolling lire of grape, canister, and musket-shot. II.
tossed his grass bag into the trench, and seizin.: tin-
ladder, shook off the dying men who clung to it, and
with his own powerful hands he erected it at once
against the slope of the stone bastion, uttering shouts
re and triumph as he ascended.

iVIl-mell a i-heerinj,' mass of the Black Watch and
55th men intermingled followed him.

374 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

The fire concentrated upon this point was terrible ;
it seemed the very crater of a volcano, vomiting flame
and missiles, and bristling with points of steel.
Lieutenant James Frazer of the Black Watch, and
Donald Bane, now the pipe-major, fell dead. The
former was caught in the arms of Sergeant Grant
just as he was falling over the bastion, and many
more were killed and wounded. MacPherson re-
ceived several cuts and scars ; but he seemed to be
regardless alike of danger and pain. On the old ser-
geant falling in the embrasure stunned by a blow from
a musket-butt, the captain snatched the halbert from
his hand to replace his claymore which, had been
broken on a musket-barrel, and armed anew, he
hewed a passage into the battery, which was carried
in triumph ; but not until the brave Malcolm of
Lochore was slain by a grape-shot (thus fulfilling his
solemn presentiment) and many of his Rangers had
perished by his side.

MacPherson's bonnet had been denuded of its gay
plumage by musket-shot, his plaid and uniform had
been cut and pierced by sabres and bayonets ; yet he
had but three wounds of consequence, and when he
presented to General Moore the tricolour which he
had pulled down from the battery, the brigadier
said,

" By my soul, Captain MacPherson, you seem to
bear a charmed life/'

To this the captain replied only by one of his
strange laughs, as he tore a Frenchman's tricoloured
sash into strips to bind up the wounds in his sword •
arm, for he had received two bayonet-stabs and a
sword-cut in the affair.

But though the battery of Secke had thus fallen,
Morne Fortunee was yet untaken ; and when the

THE FOREST OP OAICH. 875

Vizie, a fortified ridge under its guns was to be mined
and carried by assault, MacPherson again volunteered
for service in the front

The local features and scenery of these isles, torn
as they were by convulsions of nature into deep
gorges covered with bosky thickets, or invaded by
abrupt cliffs and bluffs, made the operations of the
troops, who were cross-belted for weeks consecu-
tively, severe and harassing. The hardihood ami
•r of endurance which are characteristic of the
' ish Highlanders, rendered the Black Watch of
greatest service, while, on the other hand, the
cavalry of the expedition were soon totally unfit for
duty, and the 26th Light Dragoons gradually disap-
peared altogether.

" St. Lucia presents a chequered scene of sombre
forests and fertile valleys, smiling plains and towering

i pices, shallow rivers and deep ravines ;" but
chief of all its hills are the huge pyramidal Pitons,
two sugar-loaf shaped masses of rock, which frmn
tin ir base in the blue ocean to their summit- in

;ire ever covered with waving foliage of the most
brilliant green. The steep and rugged nature of the
country and its pathless woods, where of old tin-
painted Carib lurked, presented innumerable difficul-
ties to the soldiers and seamen, who had to drag the
battering guns from the beach into position against
Morne Fortunee ; but on the 17th Maya sum\
number were in readiness to open a fire against the
Vi/.io, or fortified ridge, which had been strengthened
by palisades, earthworks, and bastions of stone
which the French had mounted some of t
heaviest guns.

It was proposed to mult -ruiine one of these bas-
tions, and Evan MacPhurson, who had volunteered for

376 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

the engineering department, discovered — no one knew
how — an arched place almost immediately under it ;
and he at once resolved to turn this vault to the best
advantage. It was small and domed with stone,
having been an oratory hewn out of the hill-side in
the days of the Sieur de Rousselan, a French Go-
vernor of St. Lucia, who died in 1654, and who was
much beloved for his gentleness even by the fierce
Caribs, one of whose women he had married.

Here, for three nights preceding the seventeenth of
May, the Captain Dhu, with ten soldiers of the 27th
Regiment, worked to lay a mine, which, when fired,
would blow the whole upper work, with its men,
cannon and shot into the air. In the dark they crept
to and fro on their hands and knees, reaching the
place unmolested it is true, but not unseen ; for on
the third night they were attacked by the French, and
a terrible close combat with bayonets and pistols took
place in the dark. Most of MacPherson's men were
slain and cruelly butchered by the infuriated French ;
but him they could neither kill, capture, overcome, or
drive out of the vault.

Plying his broadsword with both hands, he swept
aside the charged bayonets and clubbed muskets like
dry reeds by a winter brook ; the wounds he inflicted
were terrible ! Lights were now brought, and in the
red blaze of torches, and the ghastly green glare of
fire-balls, his tall and muscular form was seen tower-
ing over a pile of fallen men who encumbered the
slippery and gory floor, towering like an infernal
spirit or destroying angel, his sword-blade and his eyes
flashing together, his swarthy cheek a deep red, and
his black hair waving in elf-like locks.

" C'est le (Liable !'' exclaimed the French, and pre-
cipitately retired, leaving the vault, but only to adopt

Tin; rouKsT or C,M 377

measures more surely to destroy him. Piles of straw,
damp hemp, tar-barrels, and powder were flung in.
Turn fire was applied, and thus all the miserable
wounded were suffocated or burned alive, with the
corpses of the dead. Even the Captain Dim did not
come forth after this ; and at midnight his regiment,
with the tilth or Inniskillings, and the Slst or Hunt-
ingdonshire Foot, commenced the attack on the forti-
fied ridge of the Vizie without him ; and his company
was led by Lieutenant Simon Frazer, who was aft« r-
w;irds so severely wounded at the capture oi
Vincent

Six days the fighting continued, and an unceasing
fire was exchanged between the British battery and
the f >rt. until the 27th Regiment, by a desperate ex-
ertion of bravery, effected a lodgment within five
hundred yards of the French works, where they re-
pulsed a furious sortie of the enemy, and maintain. -d
their ground almost over the very place where the
miners had been destroyed. This movement proving
successful, the French capitulated on the twenty-
sixth May, and from that day the Isle of St Ltu-ia
became a British colony, after the loss of one hundred
and ninety-four officers and men killed, and five
hundred and fifty-four wounded, according to the
nominal return ; but that document was in error by
, for among those returned as slain six days be-
fore the capitumtion, was the Captain Dim.

When the interment of the dead took pla<
fatal mine was explored, and it presented a dread ml
scene, being full of dead soldiers, half score
roasted, decomposed, and covered with black fest<
wounds, while tin4 pavement was so slippery with blood
and hideous slime, that the fatigue party could
scarcely bear out the remains of their comrades to

378 LEGENDS OP THE BLACK WATCH.

their hastily- made graves under the fatal guns of
Morne Fortunee.

The 27th found old Bill Hook, the corporal of
their Pioneers, literally burned to a mere piece of
charcoal ; and the remains were alone identified by a
brass tobacco-box which the deceased was known to
possess.

One body, fearfully blackened by smoke, and hav-
ing the uniform scorched off it, a sword in its fingers
calcined by the fire to a mere stripe of rusty iron, was
borne out and laid upon the grass in the bright sun-
shine ; and then with a shout of astonishment old
Hamish Grant and others recognised the famous
Captain Dhu !

" It is MacPherson, Black Evan of Ballychroan 1"
they exclaimed ; and the whole regiment crowded to
gaze on what they believed to be the remains of this
brave but terrible fellow.

" Quick — let us bury him I" said some of the
soldiers.

But louder cries of astonishment rose from all,
when he began to move and breathe ; and then, like
one awakening from a long trance, opened his eyes
and gazed wildly about him.

For six days he had survived the horrors of that
dark and terrible vault i The surgeons were promptly
on the spot, and no means were left untried to restore
MacPherson.

" Oich ! oich I" muttered the Strathspey men ; "leave
him to himself — the hour of his end is not yet come."
Sergeant Grant, who was ordered to see if the vault
was now cleared of dead bodies, entered it slowly and
with some reluctance; but in a moment after he
came forth with a bound, as if he had been shot from
a mortar, leaving his bonnet behind him ; his grey

THE FOREST OF GAICII. 379

hair was on end, his eyes dilated, and his usually nut-
brown and weather-beaten cheek was deadly pale
with trrror.

" What the devil is the matter now?" asked several
officers.

"The Devil himself is the matter," gasped the
ant.

How — what have you seen?" asked General
Moore, laughing.

Hamish could not explain himself in English ; but
to the Black Watch who crowded about him he re-
lated that, on entering the bUick-ltole — for so they
named the mine — he had seen in the further end
thereof the figure of a man, and believing he was
some Frenchman who had found concealment there,
he drew his sword and approached. Then a pair of
bright, tierce, and terrible eyes, glaring like those of an
owl or snake, met his gaze ; and while secret awe and
horror filled his soul, he found himself confronted by a
man who was of giant stature, and whose facewasdurkt r
than that of a mulatto, with a beard of raven black-
ness, and wearing a grey plaid and Lowland bom

He was the stranger whom they had seen in the
Forest of Gaich !

He uttered a shrill laugh, which rung round the
vault, and for a moment rooted the poor sergeant to
the bloody pavement; then the soldier, wild with
terror, rushed into the light of day.

The story that a Scottish sergeant had seen th*
Devil in the mine occasioned great laughter in the
camp, for no trace of his Satanic majesty — not even
the print of a cloven hoof— could be found, when the
31st Regiment demolished the whole fabric next day,
after dismantling the Vizie.

380 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

After the capture of Home Fortunee, a marked
change came over the Captain Dhu. He was sub-
ject to fits of profound melancholy and abstraction,
and to gusts of passion and firry, when he drank deep
and became almost mad, exclaiming that he was tor-
mented by fiends — that the atmosphere was full of
flame — that hell was yawning under his feet, and so
forth. His excesses soon impaired his health so
severely, that he was sent home with invalids, on a
year's leave of absence, with a constitution broken by
war, wounds, and the wine-bottle ; and with a temper
soured and furious, none knew by what

The transport Queen Charlotte, in which he sailed
from St. Vincent, was wrecked in the Irish Channel ;
and of three hundred souls who were on board, theCap-
tain Dhu — though but the ruins of what he had been
in bodily strength — alone escaped, being cast ashore,
lashed to a spar ; and after many strange and perilous
adventures among the Irish, who were then in arms
against the government, in the winter of 1799, he
found himself at home in his native place, the beau-
tiful valley of the Spey : and now we have reached
the last chapter in his mysterious history — an event
which is still locally remembered by the Grants and
others in Strathspey as the DARK DEED in the Forest
of Gaich.

On the llth of January, 1800, being the day pro-
ceeding Yule, he summoned a party of gillies, and
announced his intention of proceeding up the moun-
tains to hunt the red deer in that place.

The Badenoch men looked at each other with per-
plexity and fear — as, from time immemorial, the
Eve of Yule has been the epoch for all mischief,
devilry, and witchcraft in the Highlands ; and
the scene of the proposed hunting was just the

THE FOKKST OP OA1CII. 381

place that men might be supposed to avoid at such
a tii.

To hunt on Yulo Eve — and in the Forest of

h :"

Jnvsolute ami unwilling alike to offend or obey,

1 at each other in silence.

"Go not forth to hunt to-day," said old IfaniUh

r, the serx'-aut, who. b.-ing discharged after l<.n^

si-rvice. was an occa-sional visitor at the house of his

\ud why not to-day?" thundered Black E\
with a terrible oath.

" Can you ask ?"

• \Vh.-it day is it in particular?"

"The Eve of Yule."

\Voiild you refuse to fight the enemy on Yulo
Eve?" asked the captain, scornfully.

" No, Ballychroan," replied the sergeant, proudly ;
"for on that day in tin- year '76 I fought with the
Ani-TH anson the Delav.

"And what is Yuli; to me ?" exclaimed thecapt.i
as he drank a deep draught "H what is

that to me? Go I shall, though the tit-mi — the ac-
cursed tiend — came up from la-11 with all his legions
to bar the way. Go I shall, Hamish ; and go I
must?"

"This is most strange !"

" Fatality compels me," said the captain, mourn-
fully and wildly. "Oh, how few OOQM r,->:nj.rri.
tin- in i-ry of a conviction like this : Fain wot;

if I nuild receive oblivion in ex-

ehani;.-. hut not life — thi* life at least. Fain would I

inmygra\<. llau.i-h; but in the grave, even of

a saint — yea, under the altar-stum- of lona — I could

not find '

382 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

" I do not understand all this," said the old ser-
geant, solemnly; "so let us consult the minister
about it"

" The minister— bah !"

"You never feared death, Bally chroan?"

" Death — no ! for he has everywhere eluded me.
You have seen me rush into the breach amid a thou-
sand dangers, and escape them all. I have flung
myself upon the levelled bayonets, and among the
uplifted swords of the enemy ; but the bayonets be-
came pointless, the swords blunted, the bullets harm-
less as snow-flakes ! In the dark vault of the Vizie,
the flames spared me ; even the ocean itself repelled
me, when three hundred brave men went down into
its greedy gulf ; and, like he who wanders for ever —
he who mocked his Saviour on the ascent to Calvary
— I seem to bear a charmed life ; but yet, like that
more happy wretch, I cannot live for ever. No,
Hamish, no — my days are numbered !"

" Go not forth to-day," reiterated the old soldier,
grasping the arm of the excited captain.

"Bah!" he responded, and drained another glass
of whiskey.

" What did Kenneth Ower foretel two hundred
years ago ?"

" That when a black Yule overtook a black Laird
of Ballychroan, the race would cease."

" Well—you are the first of your family who have
the name of Evan Dhu — and you have no son."

" Thank Heaven, no ! I care not for predictions,
and Kenneth Ower Mackenzie, the Brahn prophet,
was a fool."

" He foretold strange things though."

" Such as, tfyat oats would replace the fairies on
the hill of Tomnahourich, and that ships with sails

THK FOREST OF OAICH.

unfurled would pa.<3 and repass it; but the ;•:

:>'ii and the purple heather wave yet on the
Fairies' Hill, and we have heard nothing of the
•hipa."*

Kenneth Ower never spoke in vain," said tho
white-haired sergeant.

" 1 am too old a soldier to be terrified by silly i
dictions/'exclaimedthe captain, wrathfully ; ".
of this. Set forward, men— away to th< 1.

us .It ink, dance, and hunt while we may !"

d quailing off a huge jug of alcohol, with a
party of gillies, whom he had rnnde half tipsy, ho
departed tow.-.rds tl.e Forest of Gaich.

Of all that band of hunters, not a man ever came
down from the Grampians again !

On that night, when the whole atmosphere seemed
ralm and still, a terrific tempest, sudden as the dis-
charge of a cannon, swept over the mountains. For
hours the forked lightning played and flashed over

-Va and the haunted Forest of G.
while the thunder-peals made the old women in e
cottage and clachan totter down on their knees to
mutter a prayer for deliverance from evil and danger,
as the electric salvos hurtled over the great wooded

* 1 .spoke in 1ROO. " Tomnahouriclj, the far-famed

Fairies' Hill, has been sown with oaU," »tat«i the

i-tisrr ,,r 1850| " According to tradition, the '.'
jironhft, who lived 200 yean ago, predicted that nhijM with mi-
lurli'.l sails w..;il.l ; .ISA and repays Tom nuhou rich ; anil In
that it wmiM yet be placed under lock an :
nt 1 lie prediction was verified l«v
Canal, and we teem to be on the ere of acv
tin- n->t by tlu- linal flosiiiff up of tii what

ii.ivi< closely followed local and oral traditi<>:
blai-i liiii race, as he leli a duu.

who, I believe, WM marrii\l in I

BB?

384 LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.

valley, through which the swollen Spey, the most
furious of the Scottish rivers, laden with the spoil of a
hundred forests, swept with a ceaseless roar to the
German Ocean.

Over Gaich, the sky seemed all on fire. It was an
expanse of crimson flame streaked with forky green
flashes ; and against this steady flush the huge Gram-
pians stood strongly forth in sombre outline.

With night this storm passed away.

Three days after, some shepherds who, in pursuit
of their scattered flocks, ventured into the wilderness
of Gaich, saw a sight, the memory of which causes
many yet to shudder, as they tell to their grandchil-
dren around the winter hearth the story of the Cap-
tain Dhu.

A lonely shieling, in which he and his twenty gil-
lies took refuge, had been destroyed by a thunder-
bolt. Its rafters and stones were scattered over the
forest, with the corpses of its inmates — every man of
whom had been torn limb from limb, and scattered
far apart, as if by the hands of some mighty^jend !

Such was the startling end of the Black Captain
and his companions.

His evil reputation, the weird locality of his hunting,
and the equally weird character of this tempestuous
night, have fixed the idea deeply in the minds of the
peasantry that Evan Dhu, of Ballychroan, decoyed
these twenty Badenoch men into Gaich Forest for the
sole purpose of delivering them to the fiend, in con-
formity with some terrible compact ; for the whole
scene of the catastrophe bore evidence of their destruc-
tion by some infernal agency, rather than, as others
averred, the levin brand of Heaven.

At times, on the returning Eve of Yule, those who
have been belated in the forest suddenly find them-

THK FOREST OP GAIClf.

selves in the midst of an invisible company of roi«-
t'T>-rs, wlio.si- laughter, shouts, impn and

iiujiiou- songs, fill the poor loiterers with affright ; for
though the voices s t-m close to the ear, no on
vi>il»le: and these unearthly bacchanalians are

•d to be the spirits of the doomed captain and In-,
companions.

On other occasions, screams, yells and « nd. ;
for mercy — wild, and thrilling, and heartrending —
with the hoarse, deep baying of infernal dogs, are
I it over the waste on the wind. But since that
Me catastrophe on Yule Eve, 1800, none pass
willingly through the Forest of Gaich alone !

NOTES.

Tttn LETTER OP 8ERTTCE.

Iw the story of Fanjuhar Shaw, the formation of the
land Watch has been fully detailed ; but the follow-
ing is the Letter of Service by which the Independent
Companies of the JfeicuJan Dhu became the 43rd, and
afterwards the 12nd Regiment of the Line :

"GiOBOB R.— Whereas, we have thought fit that a
Regiment of Foot be forthwith funned under your coin-
mand, and to consist of ten companies, each to contain ouo
captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, three sergeant*, three
corporals, two drummers, and one hundred effective private
men; which said regiment shall be formed out of six In-
dependent Companies of Foot in the Highlands of North
Britain, three of which are now commanded by captains,
and three by captain-lieutenants :

" Our will and pleasure therefore is, that one sorg
one corporal, and fifty private men, be forthwith taken out
of the three companies commanded by captains, and ten
private men from the three commanded by captain
tenants, making one hundred and eighty men, who are to
be equally distributed into the four companies hereby to
be raised ; and tho three sergeant* and three eorporab

388 NOTES.

draughted as aforesaid, to be placed to such of the four
companies as you shall judge proper ; and the remainder
of the non-commissioned officers and private men, wanting
to complete them to the above number, to be raised in the
Highlands with all possible speed, the men to le natives of
the country, and none other to be taken.

" This regiment shall commence and take place accord-
ing to the establishment thereof. And of these our orders
and commands, you and the said three captains and the
three captain-lieutenants, commanding at present the six
Independent Highland Companies, and all others con-
cerned, are to take notice, and yield obedience thereunto
accordingly.

" Given at 'our Court of St. James's this 7th day of
November, 1739, and in the 13th year of our reign. By
His Majesty's command.

(Signed) " WM. YONGE.

" To our right-trusty and well-beloved cousin
John Earl of Craufurd and Lindsay."

Letters of service usually contain the special conditions
under which troops are levied. It is worthy of remark
that such are carefully omitted in the foregoing.

II.

HIGHLAND SOLDIEES.

In the war between 1755 and 1762, sixty-five thousand
Scotsmen were enlisted, according to the " Scots Maga-
zine" for 1763, and of these a great proportion were
Highlanders, whose services were extremely ill-requited.

NO'i

" Were nut tin- Highlanders put upon every hazardous
•]>riso when- nothing was to be got but broken bones,
and are not all these regiments tlisrnnlt'il n >\v, but the
! r" says a writer in the Edinburgh Adcertuer of 6th
.Inly. L764. 'The Scots colonel who ent
Castle* is now reduced to half-pay; while an En
em' Tal. whose avarice was the occasion of the death of
many thousands of brave men, i< not only on full pay, but
in possession of one-fifth of the whole money gained at the
Havannah — what projx>rtion does the service of tins
general, who received £86,000, bear to a private soldier
who got about tii'tv shillings, or an officer who received
about £80 Pf

"The 42nd regiment consisted of two battalions and t
companies, in all 2300 men, and now (in 1701) there
remain only about ninety privates alive of the whole."

A passion for military glory and adventure, with the
old patriarchal love of the chiefs and gentlemen who
officered the Highland regiments, drew our mountain
peasantry in great numbers into their ranks. " Thus we
find," according to General Stewart, whose work has been
quoted in the text, "that the whole corps embodied in the
lands amounted to twenty-six battalions of fenciblc
infantry, which, in addition to l\\e fifty battalion* of the
li/if, three of reserve and seven of militia, formed alto-
gether a force of EIGHTY-SIX HM.HLAND RBoiiovrt
embodied in the course of the four wars in which Britain
had been engaged since the Black Watch was regimented
in 1740. From a first glance, allowing 1000 men to each

* Lieutenant-Colonel June* Stuart, who aftcrwanli commanded

atCiul.laU.n-, in 1789.

f I.i,-.n..(;.-.:.-i-.il the Karl of Albenurta racttod 1122,097 1 (to.
The writer is in error.

390 NOTES.

of these eighty-six regiments, would appear to come near
the truth ; but on a closer view it will be found to be far
short of the actual number — several of the regiments had
in the course of their service treble or quadruple their
original number in their ranks. Thus the 71st, the 72nd
and the 73rd, during the thirty-one years they were High-
land (i.e. kilted), had at least 3000 Highlanders each, and
other regiments had numbers in proportion to the length
and nature of their service, both in tropical and temperate

climat

" From the commencement of the late war," according
to another and equally careful writer, " the Island of Skyc
alone had furnished no fewer than 21 Lieutenant-Generals
and Major- Generals ; 48 Lieutenant- Colonels ; GOO other
commissioned officers and 10,000 foot soldiers ; 4 Governors
of British colonies ; 1 Governor-General ; 1 Adjutant-
General ; 1 Chief Baron of England ; and 1 Judge of the
Supreme Court of Scotland."

The game laws and expatriation of the people have now
reduced the Highlands and Isles to a wilderness, or nearly
so ; the clans, whose memory is so inseparably connected
with the military history of Scotland in modern times, and
with the memory of days gone by, are swept to Australia,
or the wilds of that Far West which is now th'e new home
of the Celtic race.

According to Wilson —

Time and tide

Have washed away like weeds upon the sands,
Crowds of the olden life's memorials ;
And mid the mountains you might as well seek
For the lone site of fancy's filmy dream.

NO-I 391

III.

THE LETTBE DE CACHZT.

Of Major White's companion in misfortune, referred
to in the legend bearing the above title, the Edinburgh
Magazine for 1789 supplies the following information : —

" The Earl of Mazarine is an Irish peer ; he was nearly
stopped at Calais, on Friday, on his way here. He wa»
with two other gentlemen, his companions in misfor-
tune, and being all extremely mean and shabbily dressed,
were suspected of being bad persons, and no one seemed

ms of embarking in the packet with tlu-m.
was at length obliged to declare himself. The people
in the packet thought him mad. On landing at 1 '
his lordship was the first to jump out of the boat, and in
gratitude to Heaven for his deliverance, immediately fell
on his knees, and kissing the ground thrice, exclaimed —

"God bless this land of liberty !"

This was one of the last episodes in the history of tin;
terrible Bastille.

TUE END.

LONDON: FAJUUNCDON STRICT.

ROUTLEDGE, WARNE. & ROUTLEDG1

NEW AND CHEAP EDITIONS

anb popul

To be obtained by Order of all Booktcllert, Home or Colonial.

THB STAJTBAKB ZDITIOW OT TKZ

NOVELS AND ROMANCES OF SIR EDWARD
BULWER LYTTON, BART., M.P. Cniformlj printed in crown
8vo, corrected and revised throughout, with new Preface*.

20 Tola, in 10, price £3 3s. cloth extra ; or any Yolnmos separately,
in cloth binding, as under : —

RIF.NZI : Tor L»rr or TBB TBI-

t.d.
a e

PAUL CLIFFORD 3 6

PH. HAM: oa, TUB ADVSMTI-BES I DKVRRKUX

. MALTRAVERf
• >«. TUB MTtTiBi

THK

or A CKMTLKMAN a

A TALI . . .36 LEILA i OB. Tu« Sites or GEA
.IK i: \KI.\S s

LAST DAYS oF I'uMPKII . . .an1 HAROLD

• J.

3 0

a«

a «
a 6

a •

a o

I'll. (. RIMS ol-1 THK KUINK . . J6
N1GUT AM) MOUSING ....40

LUCRKTIA 4 •

THK CAXTONS 40

MY NOVEL (J roU.) . . .••

Or the Set complete in 20 rols £.3 11 C

„ „ half-calf extra . . 5 5 O

iuUf-maroeco . . 5 11 6

"No collection of prose Actions, by any single author, omrtalne UM eame variety of
•tperienee— the fame amplitude of knowledge and thought— the MJM enwiMaaitesi
of opposite extremes, harmonized by an equal Sisnireiir> ef an ; her*— U*ei* aud
•i.arklin« (aaetes i there. TMOMM s«ssMn or practical •tados»— theae weras aisaiid

or practical wtrfoai >a»i« W
UM rtok. a»d e»ara«i I* UM

In Illuitratlunt that traeh bMMTol«M« to UM rtok. a»d e»ara«i I* UM p*or; ta*y
tteytMak a i/mpathy with att h%k a«ptnttMM,a«tf
•II manly »trutgle; and wher». In tMr man Irafto portraluirM. they dtfwt UM

Rl,.w wuh ti,.. lot* of freedom ;

•II manly »trutgle; and wher».

dread Inugei or guilt and wo«. they to clear oar JadfWMt by

while they mo»« our bearu by terror or canpaMMA. that w» Mara I* «M«ct

•titte In ourtelTM the .ril thought which w« MO iradMlly wMdtag luatf IMO UM

guilty J««d."—£*/r«*/ /rom O*tterr Lgllun a~t kti H'vrii,

The aboTe are printed on superior paper, bound la cloth.
is embellished with an illustr. thU Standard Edition is admi-

rably suiu-d f-r i>ri\.ito, select, and public Libraries.

The o.l.l Nuinl«rs and Parts to complete rolanes may U obt»ia*d;
an.l ilio •-..inj.U-u- wru-s i.i i...w in oonrae of ismt in ThrM-halfpMA/
Wctkly Number, or in Muuthly Parta, ScTenpenot each.

14 Standard and Popular Works.

A CHEAP RE-ISSUE OF THE LIBRARY EDITION OF

nULWER LYTTON'S (SIR E.) NOVELS AND
•U TALES. Uniformly printed iu crown Svo, and bound, with
printed cloth covers and Illustrations.

LIST OP THE SERIES: —
Price 2s. 6d. each.

RIENZI.

PAUL CLIFFORD.

PELHAM.

EUGENE AEAM.

ZANONI.

EKNEST MALTRAVERS.

ALICE.

DISOWNED.

DEVEKEUX.

LUCfiEIIA.

LAST 1UY3 OP POMPEII.

Price 3s. each.

NIGHT AND MORNING. I HAROLD.

CAXTOXS. I MY NOVEL (3 Tola.)

Price Is. 6d. each.
PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE. | LEILA.

Price 3s. 6d. boards. Price 2s. boards.

THE LAST OF THE BARONS. | dODOLPHIX.

" England's greatest novelist."— ltfacfc*o<><f t Magazine.

THE RAILWAY EDITION OF
HPHE RIGHT HON. B. DISRAELI'S NOVELS.

In fcap Svo, price Is. 6d. each, boards.

THE YOUNG DUKE. I CONIGSBY.

TAXCHED. SYBIL.

VENETIA. ALROY.

CONTAHINI FLEMING. | IXION.

In fcap Svo, price 2s. each, boards.
HENRIETTA TEMPLE. | VIVIAN GREY.

" We commend Messrs. Routledge's cheap edition of the right hon. gentleman's
productions to every one of the ' New Generation' who wishes to make himself muster
of many suppressed passages in history, the every -day doings of the 1'aarie realms of
politics and fashion, and the profound views of a clear-sighted stattsman on il.^1 ten-
dencies and aspects of an age in which be has played, and is still playing, BO conspicuous
a part." — Morning Herald.

"Mr. Disraeli's novels sparkle like a fairy tale — the dialogues are wonderfully easy,
and characterized by 'a turn of phrase that is peculiar to men of fashion, now that
the wits' arc defunct. His talcs, too, abound in knowledge of the world, introduced
ID a natural aud uaobtrudive manner," — Literary Gazette.

Fiction. IS

UNIFORM ILLUSTRATED EDITIONS OF MR. AINSWORTHf WORKS.
In 1 v,,l. demy gro, price 61. each, cloth, emblematically gilt

TOWKIl OF LONDON (The). With Forty
tration* on Steel, and numerous Engraringt on Wood by George

Cruikshank.

LANCASHIRE WITCHES. Illustrated by J. Gilbert
JACK SHEPPARD. Illustrated by George Cruik-

skink.

OLD ST. PAUL'a Illustrated by George Cruikshank.
GUY FAWKE8. Illustrated by George Cruikshank.

In 1 vol. demy 8ro, price 5i. each, cloth gilt

CRICHTOX. With Steel Illustrations, from designs by
II. K. Browne.

WINDSOR CASTLE, With Steel Engravings, and

Woodcut* by Cruikihank.

MISER'S DAUGHTER. Illustrated by George Cruik-
shank.

ROOKWOOD. With Illustration by John Gilbert,
SPENDTHRIFT. With Illustrations by Phix
STAR CHAMBER. With Illustrations by Phia.

"It it Mareely uirprtoing that Harmon AinawoHh ahowJd hat» •*ear*d lo Wav
•elf arerjr wide popularitj. wbeo we eoaaidar how happily a* hae eaaeea hi* UMDM.
• iir lucltiwt ineplralton, b« ba* cbo*#tt • rotnktkT* at oplltHinj and
eothrkUinit fMcinaiioni, lurh •< • CrichUm.' UM • AdmtnbU CriehkMi.' BorSy M
ever bit upon • worthier k«o of ^•••o*. not from UM dar* of ApvteiM M

b» roniMO* ha* b««i »om» r«iowB«d ttrnetur*— • p«i«e*. a pri*oo. or •
' : OU •T

thoM of L« 8««e or of Bolwcr Lytton.

b» roniMO* ha* b««i »om» r«iowB«d t

fa UIM with UM • Tower of Lovdo*.' • Wtafeor

leH kbilitT, <>r rather. w« should Mf , P«rbaM mow eorrwcllir, •canwlr Urn *d

OMI m the choice of • D*W tl.rm*. in th« iotUoe* of on* of hU UI«M Utwarr

dootioM. vis., tho ' Star Chamber.' But lh» r»ad«ra of Mr. AJaaworth— aaj

aaad* upon thooaanda-aMd hardly U iarfbnMd of UOti w»a
jiratod tdilion of hit worka U publUh«l. •• do aot do«h4 kit
of readen etcn will b* conakUrmWy iaawMid." »».

thu large numb« of readen etcn will b* conakUrmWy iaawMid."

In 1 rol. demy 8vo, prioo 1*». cloth gilt.

MERVYN CLITHEROR With Twvnty-four Steel
ravingt, from decigM by Habloi K. Browne.
vrnClitherws'HkeaHMr. Aiaaworth'* tala*. aoomaA ia atrtJoB , Q»matf
r.-r» ; and c^rtainlr, in noM of tha looj U*l of oraatioM that b««r hia BMM,
h«* Lo produced more MMJ icvno* or »•.*« jalt rrj-mct-aii. u> • ( I..' . -/ -/. -y

1 6 Standard and Popular Wo7-h.

GENERAL SIR CHARLES NAPIER'S ROMANCE.

In 1 vol. post Svo, price "7s. 6d. cloth extra.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR; a Historical Romance.
By General Sir CHAHLES NAPIKE ; edited by his brother, Sir
WILLIAM NAPIER.

" The real hero of the book is Harold, and the real moral of his fate is one illustra-
tive of the consequences of leaving England comparatively defenceless, not because
she had not, when AVilliam landed at Peyensey, plenty of stout hearts to defend her,
but because those stout hearts were not incased in well-disciplined bodies. Had Sir
Charles Napier seriously entered the field of literature as a rival of our best
novelists, he would have taken rank very near to Sir Walter Scott." — Glole.

" There is a fine manly spirit in Sir Charles Napier's romance, which raises it
above the level of ordinary fiction; it breathes of war and adventure ; iu a word, it
displays that genuine sympathy with action which is the true foundation of romance,
and which certainly does not appear with any surpassing strength in the imaginative
literature of the day." — The Times.

" This is precisely the sort of romance we should have expected from a Napier —
full of fierce contests and bold encounters, impetuous, graphic, and concise ; every

§age tells of a battle-field or feat of arms of high emprise, not unmingled as in the
eeds of ancient chivalry, with the softening influence of woman's love." — Examiner.

In 1 vol. price 5s. cloth extra, or 5s. 6d. in 2 vols.

SIR GUY D'ESTERRE. By SELINA BUXBURY, Author
of "Coombe Abbey," "Our Own Story," &c.

"All romance is the story of ' Sir Guy d'Esterre,' by Miss Selina Bunbnry. It is
a tale of the time of Irish war and tumult, in the reign of Elizabeth ; of the Ireland
from which Spenser fled to die. The period is well chosen, and Miss Bunbury has a
quick fancy at command. Her romance will give pleasure to many readers." —
Examiner.

In post Svo, price 7s. 6d. cloth extra.

THE DAY AFTER TO-MORROW; or, Fata Morgana.
Edited by WILLIAM DE TYNE (of the Inner Temple).

CONTENTS: — Prologue — Carberry Lodge — The World's Workshop —
Government by Representatives — The Commons' House — The House of
Peers— The Throne— The Printing House— The Church— The Law—
The Centres and the Great Centre — The Foreign States — The Inner
Life — The Public Service — India — The Earth as seen from the Moon.

" This is a remarkable book, and will make a sensation." — Newcattle Chronicle.

In 1 vol. demy Svo, price 6s. cloth.
p OUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. By ALEXANDRE DUMAS.

^-' Comprising the Chateau d'lf, with Twenty Illustrations, drawn
on Wood by M. Valentin, and executed by the best English engravers.

" ' Monte Cristo* is Dumas' best production, and the work that will convey hit
name to the remembrance of future generations as a writer."

In Svo, cloth extra, price 2s. 6d. gilt back.

-pANNY, THE LITTLE MILLINER ; or, The Rich and
the Poor. By CHARLES KOWCUOFT, Author of "Tales of the
Colonies," &c. With Twenty-seven Illustrations by Phiz,

In 2 vols. 8vo, 12s. 6.1. cloth, emblematically gilt ; or the
2 Tola, in 1, price 10s. 6<1. doth extra, gilt.

pAl!L'-T01TS TRAITS A \ ! . STORIES OF THK
^ I! M'UV. A New Pictorial Edition, «

Autobiographical Introduction, Explanatory Note*, and numerous Illus-
trations on Wood and Steel, by 1'liiz, &C.

aro comprise.! in this Edition : —

The Donah, or the Hone Stealw*.
Phil Purcell, the Pig Di
Geography of an Iruh Oath.
The Llanham Shee.
to Maynooth.

Phelim OToole's CourUhip.
The Poor Scholar.
Wildgoone Lodge.
Tubl>er Derg, or the Red Well.
IfaloM.

The following Tales and Sketches

N' il M 'Keown.
Th.- Three Tasks.
Shane Fadh's Welding.

T* \Vake.
of the Factions.
The Station.

The Party Fight and Funeral
The Lough Derg Pilgrim.

Hedge School.
The Mi.lni-lit Mass.

" Unless another master-hand like Carleton's should appear, it is in his page*, and
his alone, that future generations must look for the tmeat and fulled picture of UM
Irish peasantry, who will ere long have passed away from the troubled land, and
from the record* of history." — Edtnburgk Snitw.

" Truly— intensely Irish." — JHackmood.

In fcap ICmo, price Is. sowed wrapper.

THE NEW TALE OF A TUB. By F. W. N. BAYLBT.
Illustrated by Engravings reduced from the original Drawings by
Aubrey.
" Fun and humour from beginning to end." — Atlitn+um.

a. P. R. JAIWCES'S NOVELS AND TALES.

Price Is. each, board*.
Eva St. Clair. | Margaret Graham.

Price Is. 6d. each, boards.

Agincou»*t.
Arabella Stuart
Arrah Neil.
Attila.
Beauchamp.
Casteliieau.
Castle of Ehrcnstein.
Delaware.
Do L'Orme.
False Heir.

Forest Dayi.
Forgery.
Gentleman of Old
School.
Heidelberg.
Jacquerie.
King's Highway.
Man-at-Arms.
Mary of Burgundy.
My Aunt Pontypool.

One in a Thousand.
Bobber.
RoseD'Albwt
Russell.
Sir Theodore Broof b>
ton.
Btepmother.
Whim and iU COM*.
qncnces.
Charles Tyrrell.
0

18 Standard and Popular WorTcs.

G. P. R. JAMES'S NOVELS & TALES— continued.
Price 2s. each, boards ; or in cloth gilt, 2s. 6d.

Brigand.

Convict.

Dafnley.

Gowrie.

Morley Ernstein.

Eicheliau.

Henry Masterton.

Henry of Guise.

Huguenot.

John Marston Hall.

Philip Augustus.

Smuggler.

Woodman.
Gipsy.

Leonora D'Orco.
Old Dominion.
The Black Eagle ; or
Ticonderoga.

*#* Mr. James's Novels enjoy a world-wide reputation, and, wita
the exception of Bulwer Lytton, no author is so extensively read. Eis
works, from the purity of their style, are universally admitted into Book
Clubs, Mechanics' Institutions, and private families.

STANDARD NOVELS.

In fcap 8vo, price 2s. 6d. each, cloth gilt.

This Collection now comprises the best Novels of our more celebrated
Authors. The volumes are all printed on good paper, with an Illustra-
tion, and form, without exception, the best and cheapest collection of
light reading that is anywhere to be obtained.

The following are now ready : —

1. Eomance of War. By James Grant.

2. Peter Simple. By Captain Marryat.

3. Adventures of an Aide-de-Camp. By James Grant.

4. Whitefriars. By the Author of "Whitehall"

5. Stories of Waterloo. By W. H. Maxwell.

6. Jasper Lyle. By Mrs. Ward.

7. Mothers and Daughters. By Mrs. Gore.

8. Scottish Cavalier. By James Grant.

9. The Country Curate. By Gleig.

10. Trevelyan, By Lady Scott.

11. Captain Blake ; or, My Life. By W. H. Maxwell.

13. Tylney Hall. By Thomas Hood.

14. Whitehall. By the Author of " Whitefriars."

15. Clan Albyn. By Mrs. Johnstone.

16. Caesar Borgia. By the Author of " Whitefriars."

17. The Scottish Chiefs. By Miss Porter.

18. Lancashire Witches. By W. H. Ainsworth.

19. Tower of London. By W. H. Ainsworth.

20. The Family Feud. By the Author of "Alderman Kalph.*'

21. Frank Hilton; or, The Queen's Own. By James Grant.

22. The Yellow Frigate. By James Grant.

24. The Three Musketeers. By Alexandre Dumas.

25. The Bivouac. By W. H. Maxwell.

26. The Soldier of Lyons. By Mrs. Gore.

27. Adventures of Mr. Ledbury. By Albeit Smith.

on. 19

ROUT-LEDGE'S STANDARD NOVELS unrfiuMgrf.

28. Jacob Faithful. By Captain Mnrryat

29. Japhct in Search of a Father. By Captain Marryat

30. The King's Own. By Captain Marryat.

81. Mr. Midshipman Easy. By Captain Marryat.

82. Newton Forster. By Captain Marryat.

33. The Pacha of Many Tales. By Captain Marryat
84. Rattlin the Reefer. Ivlitc-i by Captain Marryat.

35. The Poacher. By Captain Marryat.

36. The Phantom Ship. By Captain Marryat.

37. The Dog Fiend. By Captain Marryat.
88. Percival Keene. By Captain Marryat.

39. Hector O'Halloran. By W. H. Maxwell.

40. The Pottleton Legacy. By Albert Smith.

41. The Pastor's Fireside. By Miss Porter.
•;-j. My Cousin Nicholas. By Ingold

43. The Black Dragoons. By James Grant.

44. Arthur O'Leary. By Charles Lever.

45. Scattergood Family. By Albert Smith.

46. Lack is Everything ; or, Brian O'Linn. By W. IT. MazweD.

47. Bothu-cll ; or, the Days of Mary of Scotland. By James Grant,

48. Christopher Tadpole. l;y AlK.n Smith.

49. Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist By Henry Cockton.
£0. Sir Roland Ashton. By Lady Catharine Long.

51. Twenty Tears After. By Alexandra Dumas.

£2. The First Lieutenant's Story. By Lady Catharine Long.

£3. Marguerite de Valois. J'.y Alexandra Duma*.

54. Owen Tudor. By the Author of " \V hitefriara."

55. Jane Seton ; or, the Queen's Advocate. By James Grant
£6. Philip Rollo ; or, the Scottish Musketeer*. By James Grant
57. Per kin War beck, i p.keiwteiu,'

£8. The Two Convicts. By Frederick Uerstaeckcr.
£9. Deeds, not Words. By M. Bell.

60. Feathered Arrow. By F. GersUecker.

61. Con Cregan ; or, the Irish Oil Bias.

62. Old St. Paul's. By W. Harris..!, '.insworth.

63. Prairie Bird. I5y lion. ( . H. .Murray.

64. Petticoat Government. By Mrs. Trollopc.

65. Ladder of Oold. By II. '

6C. Maid of Orleans. By U>o Author of •' WuiU&ian.*

67. The Greatest Plague of Life. w.

68. The Millionaire. By I). CotteUo.

69. Colin Clink. By <

70. Brigand. By (J. P. K. James.

71. The Convict. By G. P. U. James.

72. Darnley. By G. P. R. James.

73. Oowrie. By G. P. R. James.

74. Morley Ernstoin. By G. P. R. James.
7.". Richelieu. By G. P. R. James.

76. Henry Masterton. By G. 1\ R. Jamca.

• i

20 Standard and Popular Works.

ROUTLEDGE'S STANDARD NOVELS— continued.

77. Henry of Guise. By G. P. R. James.

78. Huguenot. By G. P. R. James.

79. John Marston Hall. By G. P. R. James.

80. Philip Augustus. By G. P. R. James.

81. The Smuggler. By G. P. R. James.

82. Woodman. By G. P. R. James.

83. The Gipsy. By G. P. R. James.

84. Henrietta Temple. By Disraeli.

85. Vivian Grey. By Disraeli.

86. Will He Marry Her ? By John Lang.

87. Leonora D'Orco. By G. P. R. James.

88. One Fault. By Mrs. Trollope.

89. Salathiel. By Dr. Croly.

90. Secret of a Life. By M. M. Bell.

91. Old Dominion (The). By G. P. R. James.

92. Eory O'More. By Samuel Lover.

93. The Manoeuvring Mother. By the Author of " The Flirt."

94. The Half-Brothers. By Alexandra Dumas.

95. The Ex- Wife. By John Lang.

96. The Two Frigates. By the Author of " The Green Hand."

AZNSWOHTK'S (W. Harrison) WORKS.

In fcap 8vo, price Is. each, boards.
St. James's. | James II. (Edited by.)

Price Is. ,6d. each, boards.

The Miser's Daughter.

Rookwood.

Spendthrift.

Windsor Castle.
Crichton.
Guy Fawkes.

Price 2s. each, boards.

Tower of London. Lancashire Witches.

. Old St. Paul's. Flitch of Bacon.

" A cheap edition of Mr. Ainsworth's novels is now being published, and that fact
we doubt not will enable thousands to possess what thousands have before been only
able to admire and covet."

AUSTEN'S (Miss) WORKS.
In fcap 8vo, price Is. 6d. each, boards.

Mansfield Park.
Emma.

Persuasion, and
Northanger Abbey.

" Miss Austen has a talent for describing the involvements, and feelings, «nd
characters of every-day life, which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with."—
•Sir WMer Scott.

•'on. 21

Z,YTTON'S (Sir Sdward> WORKS.
In fcap Svo, price 1*. each, boarda.

Leila ; or, the Siege of Granada. | Pilgrim* of the Rhine The)

In fcap Svo, price If. «d. each, boards.

Lucrctia.

Polham.

Devereuz.

Disovroed (The).

Last Days of Pompeii (The).

Eugene Aram.

Zanoni.

Godolphin.

Paul Clifford.

Alice ; or, the Xystaritt.

Ernest Maltravers.

In fcap Svo, price 2a each, board*.

My Novel. 2 vols.
Harold.

Ri.-izi.

Caztoni (The).
Last of the Barons.
Hight and Morning.

tUt the work* of England's gn*lt*t noreli* CM tw obtaia*! for a fcv

•hillinjp, we can hardly imagine them will be any library, howmr BBaM, wiifcmt

tin •:.!. "

CAnLETON'S (W.) TALES AND STOHIES.
In fcap 8ro, price la. 6d. each, or in cloth, 2a.

Three Tasks, Shane Fadh't Wed-
ding, ftc. (The).
Fardarougha the Miser.

Poor Scholar, WUdgooM Lodge,

*e. (The).
Titho Proctor (The).

Emigrants (The).

I Hke CarUton's abotib

a* moat look forth* If

Irinh peasantry, nbo will ere loof bar* paasii .way from UM troubkd Uad aad la*

records of history ."—LJaUtm '

" UnleM anotbm* raafUr-hwid Uka Carirtoe't *bovJd appMr. U is to hb pa«M. Md
bU *lone. th«t futoro (MMratioM •»* look for UM triMM mad felbrt •Mw«o> UM

tnwbMtoa4

CROWE'S (Mrs.) WO&&S.

In fcap Svo, Is. 6<1. each, bda.

Light and Darkness.
Lilly Dawson.

In fcap STO, Z*. each, bda.

Susan Hopley.

Hight Bide of Haturt (Tne>.

Linny Lockwood.

" Mrs. Crowe has a el«arMM aad plain force of rtyU. and a

40 a scene, by accumulating a number of miuut* deUiu, that
—Aberdttu B**atr.

22 Standard and Popular Works.

COOPS2VS (J. P.) WORKS.

In fcap Svo, price Is. 6d. each, boards, or in cloth, 2,8.

Last of the Mohicans (The).

Spy (The).

Lionel Lincoln.

Pilot (The).

Pioneers (The).

Sea Lions (The).

Borderers, or Heathcotes (The).

Bravo (The).

Homeward Bound.

Afloat and Ashore.

Satanstoe.

Wyandotte.

Mark's Keef.

Deerslayer (The).
Oak Openings (The).
Pathfinder (The).
Headsman (The).
Water Witch (The).
Two Admirals (The).
Miles Wallingford.
Prairie (The)
Red Hover (The).
Eve Effingham.
Heidenmauer (The).
Precaution.
Ned Myers.

*' Cooper constructs enthralling stories, which hold us in breathless suspense, and
mate our brows alternately pallid with awe and terror, or flushed with powerful
emotion : when once taken up, they are so fascinating, that we must perforce read
on from beginning to end, panting to arrive at the thrilling denouement." — Dublin
University Magazine.

' (Alexandra) WORKS.

In fcap Svo, price 2s. 6d. each volume, cloth boards.

The Vicomte de Bragelonne. 2 vols.
Count of Monte Cristo. 1 vol.

"The 'Vicomte de Bragelonne,' which has been much inquired for, is the com-
letion of those celebrated tules, the ' Three Musketeers' and ' Twenty Tears After.*
n this series of works, A. Dumas has selected a most eventful period in the history of
Prance — the days of Richelieu, Mazarin, and the early manhood of Louis the Four-
teenth. The author's principal aim has been to develop a personage particularly
belonging to this period. The Gascon soldier and adventurer, D'Artagnan, is but
•what a Kaleigh was in history and a Quintin Durward in fiction. Rashly brave,
astute, shrewd, indefatigable, almost invincible — before his various qualities diffi-
culties are but chimeras, obstacles thin air. In a word, the ' Vicomte de Brage-
lonne' maintains the character of its two predecessors, and the three form the most
interesting and suggestive works we have read for many years."

Price 2s. each, boards, or in cloth, gilt, 2s. 6d.

Three Musketeers (The).
Twenty Years After.

Marguerite de Valoi*.
The Half-Brothers.

EDCEWORTH'S (Bliss) WORKS.

In fcap Svo, price Is. each, boards, or in cloth, Is. 6d,

The Absentee.
Ennui.

Manoeuvring.
Vivian.

path

chiir

country of the same kind with that which Miss Edgeworth fortunately achieved fo»
hers."

QERSTAECKER'S WORKS.
In fcaj) 8 vo, price IK. 6d. each, boards, or In cloth, it.
Wild Sports of the Far West (The}. | PiraUs of the Mississippi (Tbt>

Price Is. boards.

Haunted House (The).

Price 2s. boards or 2s. fid. cloth.

Two Convicts (The).
The Feathered Arrow.

"Oar author appeal* to d>hgbt in recounting tk* ttimnf

and « il.l prairie, When nature *oan in ker grandest mood*, tk* spirit of man par.

take* of someihinc of tk* illimitable. It is iMt frattac, oombcaed with tk* to** of

hat prompt* many to quit tk* home of their lktfc*ra, and to goiortkm

quest of the .trance, 4* wonderful, and tk* wild."— T

CORE'S (Mrs.) WORKS.

In fcap 8vo, price Is. 6d. each, boards, or in cloth,

Heir of Selwood (The).
Dowager (The).
Fin Money.

Self; or, the Harrow, Narrow

World.
Money Leader (The).

" Mr*. Gore t* one of the most popular writer* of the day ; ker work* aro all pi*.
tnraiof •jitlinglifoandi

GRANT'S (James) WOR3
In fcap Svo, price 2s. each, board*, or in cloth gilt, 2s. 6d.
Harry Ogilvie.

Frank Hilton.
Yellow Frigate (The).
Romance of War (The).
Scottish Cavalier (The).

BothwelL
Jane Seton.
Philip Bollo.

Adventures of an Aiditfr
Camp (The).

« The author of' The Bomano* of War* deeerr** Ik* popaW*/ wktok ka* i
him, perhaps, the most read of living noTttiaU. Hi* (nb* are full of Hi*

hi* soldier spirit and turn for adTrature onrrr kte
, <nlh a skill in narraliv* which eteo Ik* author of ' CkarUs O'U
shows."

M'lNTOSH'S (Kiss) WORKS.

Price 1*. boards.
Charms and Counter-Charms.

Price Is. 6d. boards.
Violet ; or, Found at Last

" HIM M'Intosh's style remind* tk* reader ftweOJy of Mfc»M,Mii«». «»d

Opiej »U her bo..ks inculcate hi*^aio^pli^nU^wrf«l*tt what to kosMT*
purpose and deep in affection."

24 Standard and Popular Works.

(Captain) WORKS.

In fcap Svo, price Is. 6d. each, boards.

Peter Simple.

Midshipman Easy (Mr.).

Zing's Own (The).

Hattlin the Reefer. (Edited.)

Jacob Faithful.

Japhet in Search of a Father.

Tacha of Many Tales (The).

" Marryat's works abound iu humour — real, unaffected, buoyant, overflowing
J*amour. Many bits of his writings strongly remind us of Dickens. He is an incor-
rigible joker, and frequently relates such strange anecdotes and adventures, that the
gloomiest hypochondriac could not read them without involuntarily indulging in the
unwonted luxury of a hearty cachinnation." — Dublin Unicertit,

Newton Forster.
Dog Fiend (The).
Valerie. (Edited.)
Poacher (The).
Phantom Ship (The).
Percival Keene.
Naval Officer

(w. K.) WORKS.

In fcap Svo, price Is. 6d. each, boards, or in cloth, 2s.

The Stories of Waterloo.
Captain 0' Sullivan.

Wild Sports and Adventures.
Flood and Field.

In fcap Svo, price 2s. each, boards, or in cloth gilt, 2s. 6d.

Xuck is Everything. Hector O'Halloran.

Bivouac (The). Captain Blake ; or, My Life.

" Maxwell's tales are written in a bold, soldier-like style, free and energetic."—
Edinburgh Review.

PORTER'S (The Misses) WORKS.

In fcap Svo, 2s. each, boards.

Scottish Chiefs (The).
Pastor's Fireside (The).

In fcap Svo, Is. 6d. each, boards.

Recluse of Norway.
Knight of Saint John (The).
Thaddeus of Warsaw.

*' Miss Porter's works are popular in every sense of the word ; they are read now
with as much pleasure and avidity as when they were originally published."

" ROCKINGHAM" (The Author of).
In fcap Svo, Is. 6d. each, boards.

Rockingham ; or, the Younger

Electra. A. Tale of Modern Life.

Brother.

Price Is. boards.
Love and Ambition.

"All the works of this author bear the imprint of a master-hand, and arc by GO
»eana to be confounded with the daubs thrown together in the circulating library."
— Times.

ROUTLEDGES CHEAP LITERATURE.

BY W. H. AINS WORTH.

la fcap. 8ro, price One Shlllhif each, board*.
SAINT JAX«»'». JAMB* IL i£4Uedb«.>

Price U. V. each. board*.

MimiT* lUl-OHTKIl. I Wlf

KAWKK*. CKICHTON.

FLITCH or BACOX. !<• ••>•> »<.<>D.

Price 2*. each, board*; or In c'.oth (ilt, St. 64.
TOWBR or LONOOIT. | I.AWCAIIIIHI WITCMB*.

OLD ST. PAI-L'H.

" It li tcurrrlT §urpn«in * that H.iiriuin Amtworth ihould have •reared In him-
*elf a very » • . when we cufifiitcr hos. «-n hi*

theme*. .-omctimc*. by tl

thrallin • ••«. Sorne-

timn the *ccne ami the vrry title of »oroe renowned ftructure. • pabcv. a prUon.
or a fortivn. It i« thut with the • Tower of London.' • VVimlwu Ca«tle. • Old
'. -. Hut the rr.vl rt nf Mr Ainiworth— who number thouwndt
upon thoutatvU— nerd hardly be inform i now that a uniform edi-

tion of tn> w<>rk« IN . • <lo not doubt but that thU Urgt number of

reader* even will be eoailrtanhfy iaoMMd."— -Sun.

BY FREDERICK GERSTAECKER.

In fcap. MVO. price One Shllllnf and Si xpeae* each, board*.
WILD Sronra or TUB FAK Wear. | PIRATM or TMI Mmiuirr-i.
Price Two Shllliiifr*. board*, or cL 2*. U Price On* Shilling, board*.

•era (The). I HACWT«D Hocti (The).

FIATHKMRD AKMOW- (The). | Coto-Dioocaa (The).
r<taeckrr*i book* abound in adventure and tcvneiof excitements and art
fully equal, In that mpcct, to the (tone* either of Marryat, Cooper, or Oaoa,"

BY THE ROVING ENGLISHMAN.

In fcap. 8va. price U. board*. In fcap. 8»o. pfle* to.

TDK i ••.HMAN; or. I TfiiKBV. by the Roriaur •>

:. he« on the Continent. | bemf NUUlta* Irooi Life.

11 \\ ho I* unfamiliar with tho*e brilliant iketrhe* of naval. partiruUrlv the pie-

.ml mannrn, from the pen of the • Roving l*"~
ami »ho itoc* not hall their collection tola • eoapaatooable aiard

BY W. H. PRESCOTT.

ID fcap. 8ro. price J*. each volume, board* t or cloth, t*. Otf.

Hirronv or THR Rcio* or KumnxAxt. AXH IIABKLUI. t rola,
HIHTOKY or TM« Co«njrK»T ur \1 r \:i .1. $ volt.
HIMIIIIY nr T -r 1'r.u. .

vurTiiBli' PTMI S>CO«D. ffrob.

HlnroHY or THB Hi rim. X Tola.

BlOOMAI'IIICAl AM' <

HiaioHY or TMB HKK..H or I'MILIT TH« .SCUMD. VoL X

ROUTLEDGE'S CHEAP LITERATURE.

ZIOUTLEDGE'S ORIGINAL NOVELS.

In Fancy Boarded Covers.

1 THE CURSE of GOLD. <1».) Bv R. W. Jameson.

2 THE FAMILY FEUD. (2.«.) By Thomas Cooper.*

3 THK SKRF SISTERS. (Is.) By John Harwood.

4 PRIDK OF THE MESS. Us. 6d.) By the Author of "Cavendish.*

5 FRANK HILTON. (2*.) By James Grant.

C MY BROTHER'S WIFE. (Is. 6d.) By Miss Edwards.

7 ADRIEN. (1*. (W.) By the Author of " Zin^ra the Gipsy."

H YELLOW FRIGATE. (2.?.) By James Grant.

fl EVKLYN FORESTER, tit. fia.) By Mnr^ueritc A. Power.

10 HARRY OOILVIE. (2.8.) By James Grant.

11 LADDER OP LIFK. (1*. 6rf.) By Miss Edwards.

12 THE Two CONVICTS. (2j.) By Frederick Gerstaecker.

13 DKEDS, NOT WORDS. (2*.) By M. Bell.

14 THE FEATHERED ARROW. (2s.) By Frederick Gerstaecker.

15 TII:S OK KINDRED. '.l*.6d.) By Owen Wynn.
1C WILL HE MARRY HER? (2.?.) By Jchn Lang.

17 SECRET OF A LIFE. (2*.) By M. M. Bell.

18 LOVAL HEART; or, the Trappers. (U. (id.)

19 THE EX-WIFE. (2s.) By John Lang.

20. ARTHUR BLANK. (2s.) By James Grant.

21. HIGHLANDERS OF GLEN ORA. (2s) By James Grant.

BV MISS EDGSWORTH.

In fcap. 8vo, price One Shilling each, boards ; or, in cloth, Is. Gd.
THK ABSENTEE. I MAN<BUVRING.

ENNUI. I VIVIAN.

"Sir Walter Scott, in speaking of Miss Edgeworth, says, that the rich humour,
pathetic tenderness, and admirable tact that she displayed in her sketches of
character, led him first to think that something might be attempted for his own
country of the same kind with that which Miss Edgeworth fortunately achieved
for hers."

BV LADY CATHARINE LONG.

In fcap. 8vo, price Two Shillings each, boards; or, in cloth gilt, 2*. 6d.
SIR ROLAND ASHTON. | THE FIRST LIEUTENANT'S STORY.

BY WASHINGTON IRVING.

In fcap. 8vo, price One Shilling each, boards; or, in cloth, Is. Gd.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH. I KNICKERBOCKER'S NEW YORK.

LIVES OP MAHOMET'S SUCCESSORS (The). WOOLFERT'S ROOST.
SALMAGUNDI.

BV THE MISSES WARNER.

In fcap. 8vo, price Two Shillings each, boards ; or, in cloth, 2s. Gd,

QUEECHY. I WlDB, WlDK WORLD (The).

Price Eighteenpence, boards. Price One Shilling, boards.

HILLS OF THE SHATEMUC (The). | MY BROTHER'S KEEPER.

ROUTLEDGE'S
CHEAP SERIES.

In boards, 1». per Volume,

Ditto

5 Ltfcof NeUon.
iifKm.

Pabln.
f Wakefleld.
11 MOHC* from a Uanst.

211 W.i' -| -• -I-...- \ HiUirrll.

'.'.' It.m . .-• II .(!:•-: i. I

-.net of Australia. Kary.

ft .

m Australia.

98 •Shane FadhlWeodinK.&c. GcrMM*.
» *The Poor Scholar. Ac Go-MM.

the Hut. />an«.

M of m PtiTticUn.

M •

OMH

47 KII. .u .1-

4!) *The Lamplighter.

i<-.. S. PHJlifl.

. nr African Ad

forlbe People _

; • • i ..:;:. .MJK .

Mountainetr.
.h and Hum

•hi
lidaya.

..f^llcraturr. K~d W&matt.

\»\ I (. • ( i'.mcm.

>i>aln. H-ruriomt.
\mrriraamlthe \

'irrat Ilighwiy ib.) Fn/Ju*

Watchman.

ISO Sebotopol, the Story of It* Fall.
KtantiM.

IM «Rtil;

. UarkncM.

mark >

Hi Kin* Dobb*,
144 • Dtaftt for

?
148

IM ManruertttdeVaW...

. ' •'. " ! .' I .. •(.:;.

l.\4 •H.-rncan-llhc World.

1 ' "• *• \ * - - " ' • ' \ t

M M • ., ,1 i. .:.

Ite. 163. Vleomu<ltBr><alanw. t *ol».

IS.)
Ifi4 FourH»»a^«<

i | • !:,-<, .,,. f .,

106 To* Lucky Penny (*.\

101 • Mabel VMMBM.
M •MMBNT hTISS.

jwr~
178. KanaM.or8qiMtt«Ufc(tt)

aad All About l«(J..i

VCH.V.

1TO ThrSrpoy Hcvolt c>,.) l^.rf.

i ... U. : t ....

ttOMflaJ
MI EvanceliM <U)

«.

vttfl 171 M •• --

•

:•,!!• it .:,, r -
I i f n -. Lift -•• !

.uj.hYa.-iu. 8r «*• OW VrU--.

: I »LUJ ,n ., -t.a.r.T. .-.. . • ;.

• n rE utMM -• •

. -< I NTS !..>-,.:..

189 MarrrbolSeirtK* (1*.)

M it-.t .!, . •.-,. , >.., A...1

land(U.M.»
191 A Lady. CaptUky

IMratei. K,-.-., ;,... r.

: • pi M...-K «r<-

UO Derby Minktry <Tbe> (U M.)

IM Mtle« SUndUhaad other

198

IM PrteoCfkPhUtpdMSMoa. VotX

! 7 U..r':.»Tot:.tAl WorU :, )

ROUTLEDGE S STANDARD NOVELS,

Price Two Shillings ind Sixpence each.

YOL. AUTHOK.

52 THE FIRST LIEUTENANT'S

STORY .... Lady Catharine Long.

53 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS Alexandra Dumas.

54 OWEN TUDOR . By the author of " Whitefriars. •

55 JANE SETON; or, the Queen's

Advocate .... James Grant.

56 PHILIP ROLLO ; or, the Scottish

Musketeers . , . . . " James Grant.

57 PERKIN WARBECK By the author of " Frankenstein.'*

58 THE TWO CONVICTS. . Frederick Gerstaecker.

59 DEEDS NOT WORDS . . M. M. Bell.

60 FEATHERED ARROW (THE) Gerstaecker.

61 CON CREGAN .... Lever.

62 OLD ST. PAULS' . . . Ainsworth.

63 PRAIRIE BIRD .... Hon. C. A. Murray.

64 PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT Mrs. Trollope.

65 LADDER OF GOLD . R. Bell.

66 MAID OF ORLEANS By the author of" Whitefriars. '

67 THE GREATEST PLAGUE OF

LIr E . . . . . . Mayhew.

68 THE MILLIONAIRE . . D. Costello.

69 COLIN CLINK . • . . . C. Hooton.

70 BRIGAND .... G. P. R. James.

71 THE CONVICT .... Ditto.

72 DARNLEY .... Ditto.

73 COWRIE Ditto.

74 MORLEY ERNSTEIN . . Ditto.

75 RICHELIEU .... Ditto.

76 HENRY MASTERTON . Ditto.

77 HENRY OF GUISE . . . Ditto.

78 HUGUENOT .... Ditto.

79 JOHN MARSTON HALL . . Ditto.

80 PHILIP AUGUSTUS . . Ditto.

81 THE SMUGGLER . . . Ditto.

82 WOODMAN .... Ditto.

83 THE GIPSY .... Ditto.

84 HENRIETTA TEMPLE . Disraeli.

85 VIVIAN GREY . . Ditto.

ROUT-LEDGE'S ST

I'rice Two SAtllingi and Sirpfmft tark.

VOL.
86
87
88
89
90
91
92

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110
111

WILL UK MAKRY HER?.
LEONORA D'ORCO.
ONE FAULT
RORY O'MOKi:

SALATI11KI

TI1H SECRET OF A LI! i;
THE OLD DOMINION

MAN(EUVRING MOTHER .

HALF BROTHERS .
EX-WIFE ....
THE TWO FRIGATES .
BLACK EAGLE .
MONTE CRISTO (3s.) .
TOP SAIL SHEET BLOCKS

A I TMO*.

John Lan;.'.
(,. 1'. K. .J.unes.
Mr*. TrolInjH.-.
Lover.

CMgr.

M. M. Bell.
G. P. R. James.

{By the author <•!' tin-
"History of a Flirt."
Dumns.
John Lang.
Cupples.
James.
Dumas.
Old Sailur.

HIGHLANDERSorGLENORA Grant.

ARTHUR BLANE
BRAGKLONNE, VOL. 1 (3».)
DITTO VOL. 2 (3«.)

EACH FOR HIMSELF .
THINEAS QUIDDY
WESTMINSTER ABBEY
CHIEF OF THE AUCAS

ditto
. Dumas.

ditto
. GersUetkcr.

Poale.

Authur of " Whitefrian."
Aimard.

COUSIN GEOFFRY
MERVYN CLITHEROE

K.litcd by Thoodore Haok.
Ainsworth.

THE COMIC SKETCH BOOK { J l^^\

LEGENDS OF THE BLA( K

WATCH Grant.

TO BE FOLLOWED BY OTHER POPULAR WOIlkv
Any oft A* a6ot« may be k*4 »epv*ttty.

LONDON:— ROUTLEDGE, WARXE, & ROUTLEDGE,

FARBINUUON 8THKKT.
NEW YORK:— 56, WALKKR STUEBT.

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