the degrading punishment, and of his mother's bitter upbraidings, strongly instigated the latter and the more dangerous purpose. He left it to chance to decide when the crisis should arrive; nor did he tarry long in expectation of the catastrophe.

Evening approached, the gigantic shadows of the mountains streamed in darkness towards the east, while their western peaks were still glowing with crimson and gold. The road which winds round Ben Cruachan was fully visible from the door of the bothy, when a party of five Highland soldiers, whose arms glanced in the sun, wheeled suddenly into sight from the most distant extremity where the highway is hidden behind the mountain. One of the party walked a little before the other four, who marched regularly and in files, according to the rules of military discipline. There was no dispute, from the firelocks which they carried, and the plaids and bonnets which they wore, that they were a party of Hamish's regiment, under a non-commissioned officer; and there could be as little doubt of the purpose of their appearance on the banks of Loch Awe.

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They come briskly forward,' said the widow of MacTavish Mhor,-'I wonder how fast or how slow some of them will return again! But they are five, and it is too much odds for a fair field. Step back, within the hut, my son, and shoot from the loophole beside the door. Two you may bring down ere they quit the highroad for the footpath-there will remain but three; and your father, with my aid, has often stood against that number.'

Hamish Bean took the gun which his mother offered, but did not stir from the door of the hut. He was soon visible to the party on the highroad, as was evident from their increasing their pace to a run; the files, however, still keeping together, like coupled greyhounds, and advancing with great rapidity. In far less time than would have been accomplished by men less accustomed to the mountains, hey had left the highroad, traversed the narrow path, and pproached within pistol-shot of the bothy, at the door of vhich stood Hamish, fixed like a statue of stone, with his irelock in his hand, while his mother, placed behind him, nd almost driven to frenzy by her violence of her passions, eproached him in the strongest terms which despair could

invent, for his want of resolution and faintness of heart. Her words increased the bitter gall which was arising in the young man's own spirit, as he observed the unfriendly speed with which his late comrades were eagerly making towards him, like hounds towards the stag when he is at bay. The untamed and angry passions which he inherited from father and mother, were awakened by the supposed hostility of those who pursued him; and the restraint under which these passions had been hitherto held by his sober judgement, began gradually to give way. The sergeant now called to him, Hamish Bean MacTavish, lay down your arms, and surrender.'

'Do you stand, Allan Breack Cameron, and command your men to stand, or it will be the worse for us all.'

'Halt, men ! '—said the sergeant, but continuing himself to advance. Hamish, think what you do, and give up your gun; you may spill blood, but you cannot escape punishment.

the scourge !

scourge!' whispered his mother.

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My son, beware the

Take heed, Allan Breack,' said Hamish. 'I would not hurt you willingly, but I will not be taken unless you can assure me against the Saxon lash.'

Fool!' answered Cameron, 'you know I cannot; yet I will do all I can. I will say I met you on your return, and the punishment will be light-But give up your musket. -Come on, men.'

Instantly he rushed forward, extending his arm as if to push aside the young man's levelled firelock. Elspat exclaimed, Now, spare not your father's blood to defend your father's hearth?' Hamish fired his piece, and Cameron dropped dead. All these things happened, it might be said, in the same moment of time. The soldiers rushed forward and seized Hamish, who, seeming petrified with what he had done, offered not the least resistance. Not so

his mother; who, seeing the men about to put handcuffs on her son, threw herself on the soldiers with such fury, that it required two of them to hold her, while the rest secured the prisoner.

6 Are you not an accursed creature,' said one of the men to Hamish, to have slain your best friend, who was

I

contriving, during the whole march, how he could find some way of getting you off without punishment for your desertion?'

'Do you hear that, mother?' said Hamish, turning himself as much towards her as his bonds would permitbut the mother heard nothing, and saw nothing. She had fainted on the floor of her hut. Without waiting for her

recovery, the party almost immediately began their homeward march towards Dunbarton, leading along with them their prisoner. They thought it necessary, however, to stay for a little space at the village of Dalmally, from which they dispatched a party of the inhabitants to bring away the body of their unfortunate leader, while they themselves repaired to a magistrate to state what had happened, and require his instructions as to the further course to be sued. The crime being of a military character, they were

pur

instructed to march the prisoner to Dunbarton without delay.

The swoon of the mother of Hamish lasted for a length of time; the longer perhaps that her constitution, strong as it was, must have been much exhausted by her previous agitation of three days' endurance. She was roused from her stupor at length by female voices, which cried the coronach, or lament for the dead, with clapping of hands and loud exclamations; while the melancholy note of a lament, appropriate to the clan Cameron, played on the bagpipe, was heard from time to time.

Elspat started up like one awakened from the dead, and without any accurate recollection of the scene which had passed before her eyes. There were females in the hut who were swathing the corpse in its bloody plaid before carrying it from the fatal spot. Women,' she said, starting up and interrupting their chant at once and their labour-Tell me, women, why sing you the dirge of MacDhonuil Dhu in the house of MacTavish Mhor?'

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She-wolf, be silent with thine ill-omened yell,' answered one of the females, a relation of the deceased, and let us do our duty to our beloved kinsman! There shall never be coronach cried, or dirge played, for thee or thy bloody wolf-burd.1 The ravens shall eat him from the gibbet, and the foxes and wild-cats shall tear thy corpse upon the hill. Cursed be he that would sain your bones, or add a stone to your cairn!'

Daughter of a foolish mother,' answered the widow of MacTavish Mhor, 'know that the gibbet with which you threaten us is no portion of our inheritance. For thirty years the Black Tree of the Law, whose apples are dead men's bodies, hungered after the beloved husband of my heart; but he died like a brave man, with the sword in his hand, and defrauded it of its hopes and its fruit.'

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'So shall it not be with thy child, bloody sorceress,' replied the female mourner, whose passions were as violent as those of Elspat herself. The ravens shall tear his fair hair to line their nests, before the sun sinks beneath the Treshornish islands.'

These words recalled to Elspat's mind the whole history 1 Wolf-brood, i.e. wolf-cub.

of the last three dreadful days. At first, she stood fixed as if the extremity of distress had converted her into stone; but in a minute, the pride and violence of her temper, outbraved as she thought herself on her own threshold, enabled her to reply-'Yes, insulting hag, my fair-haired boy may die, but it will not be with a white hand-it has been dyed in the blood of his enemy, in the best blood of a Cameronremember that; and when you lay your dead in his grave, let it be his best epitaph, that he was killed by Hamish Bean for essaying to lay hands on the son of MacTavish Mhor on his own threshold. Farewell—the shame of defeat, loss, and slaughter remain with the clan that has endured it.'

The relative of the slaughtered Cameron raised her voice in reply; but Elspat, disdaining to continue the objurgation, or perhaps feeling her grief likely to overmaster her power of expressing her resentment, had left the hut, and was walking forth in the bright moonshine.

The females who were arranging the corpse of the slaughtered man, hurried from their melancholy labour to look after her tall figure as it glided away among the cliffs. 'I am glad she is gone,' said one of the younger persons who assisted. 'I would as soon dress a corpse when the great Fiend himself-God sain us-stood visibly before us, as when Elspat of the Tree is amongst us.-Aye-aye, even overmuch intercourse hath she had with the Enemy in her day.'

'Silly woman,' answered the female who had maintained the dialogue with the departed Elspat, 'thinkest thou that there is a worse fiend on earth, or beneath it, than the pride and fury of an offended woman, like yonder bloodyminded hag? Know that blood has been as familiar to her as the dew to the mountain daisy. Many and many a brave man has she caused to breathe their last for little wrong they had done to her or hers. But her hough-sinews are cut, now that her wolf-burd must, like a murderer as he is, make a murderer's end.'

Whilst the women thus discoursed together as they watched the corpse of Allan Breack Cameron, the unhappy cause of his death pursued her lonely way across the mountain. While she remained within sight of the bothy, she put a strong constraint on herself, that by no alteration