clusion in this instance cannot be avoided, that the disastrous results of that day have been beneficial-that the great and evil events of the period have been overruled for the general good of our country.

CHAPTER V.

Disarming of the People-Contests with the Soldiers-The
last Rebel in Scotland, etc.

One

OME of the new measures introduced were very obnoxious to the Braemarians. of them thus writes: 'Not only would the soldiers put down the "'45" men, but they had orders to deprive the Highlanders of their arms; their immemorial right to hunt and fish; ay, and even of the liberty to wear their ancient costume. These tyrannical measures the men of the Braes of Mar resisted most stoutly.' That they really did so, will be made sufficiently manifest by relating the traditions yet extant regarding the returned malcontents.

The surviving leaders of the rebellion seem to have given little trouble. With the plebeians it was different. Blellack, for instance, practising a piece of 'Scotch policy,' rented a farm from Lord Aboyne, who, being on the Government side, protected him from the redcoats; and by having his letters addressed to 'Charles

Gordon, farmer at Gellan,' the Government could not discover that they were for the laird of Blellack.

After his return from Culloden he took refuge at his farm; while his henchman M'Connach by some means got to be keeper of the canteen in the Government castle of Corgarff.

Balmoral, after his wound at Falkirk, retired with his lady to his estate of Auchlossan, where he remained in hiding to his death; or, as others have it, in the Abbey in Edinburgh.

Invercauld was no less accommodating to his relatives than Aboyne had been to Gordon of Blellack. More so, indeed, as he went the length of harbouring some of the returned rebels in his own house: one of them at least-Farquaharson, laird of Broughdearg.

This Fear na Bruach, i.e. Man of the Braes, as he was commonly termed, the laird of Broughdearg, was one of Prince Charles's surgeons. The legend giving some account of his history, and how he acquired his professional qualifications, beats all the others for extravagance :

'Fear na Bruach was sent by his parents to Italy to study medicine. When he returned home, father and mother were both dead, and his affairs entrusted to a tutor. After his return, the famous Cagliostro, the celebrated physician under whom the young laird had completed his studies, informed his pupil by letter, that he could see from Italy a white serpent going

THE FAMOUS PHYSICIAN.

289

daily at noon to drink from a well at the bottom of Coire Chronie, or the Dubh Choire-the Corrie of Echoes, or the Black Corrie. He instructed Fear na Bruach also to catch this serpent, by laying out for it a repast of fresh cream, and having caught it, to bring it forthwith to Italy.

'The laird followed the physician's directions, caught the white serpent, and sailed away. After his arrival he was ordered by Cagliostro to boil it in a caldron; but, on pain of death, not to touch the. contents, or let them boil over. With care and dread Fear na Bruach stirred round the seething decoction; but despite all his endeavours, the liquid came up, hissing and spurting even to the brim. The temptation to taste was now too strong for Fear na Bruach, and quick as thought he dipped in his finger, raised it to his mouth, then fled amain.

'Pursuit followed. It seems to have been unsuccessful, as bloodhounds were brought into requisition; and in the despair which seized him, when he heard their bay loud and close upon his track, he leaped forward, and struck in his fall the side of a huge tree. To his amazement it burst open, and he fell breathless into a great hollow within the trunk. With great presence of mind he rose and re-adjusted the door which had admitted him, then lay concealed there for twenty-four hours. Finally he slipt on board a ship, which was just ready to

T

sail from a harbour near by, and returned home again.

'The tasting he had permitted himself of the decoction rendered him omniscient in medicine, so that no disease could baffle his skill, neither could he ever fail in effecting a cure. Some will wonder that he and his generation are not still in the land of the living; but old age is no malady. Death then is but the falling of ripened fruit.

'After the wars, in which such a skilled physician must have been of the greatest value, and while he harboured at Invercauld, Fear na Bruach often spoke of another well in Craig Choinnich, the waters of which would render physicians unnecessary, by having virtue to cure all diseases. This well also had a serpent, for in the night-time he could see it, he said, from the dining-room windows of Invercauld, on the face of the hill near the well below a bush of rushes, lying on a flat stone; but neither he nor any one else has found it.'

Extravagant as this legend is, in former years its authenticity, by some at least, was undoubted. In proof of this, I may state that about sixty years ago, an elderly woman living in Braemar prevailed on a young girl of fifteen, who is still living, to accompany her to Craig Choinnich in search of the treasure.

The search was continued until they came upon a well quite answering the description; for beside it