"What ails you at the Macdonalds?" demanded the gentleman of that ilk, looking him over haughtily from head to foot.
Creagh flung out his answer with an insolent laugh. "Culloden."
The Macdonald"s colour ebbed. "It will be a great peety that you hafe insulted me, for there will presently be a dead Irishman to stain the snow with hiss blood," he said deliberately, falling into more broken English as he always did when excited.
Creagh shrugged. "That"s on the knees of the G.o.ds. At the worst it leaves one less for the butcher to hang, Scotch or Irish."
"It sticks in my mind that I hafe heard you are a pretty man with the steel--at the least I am thinking so," said Captain Roy, standing straight as an arrow, his blue eyes fixed steadily on his opponent.
"Gadso! Betwixt and between, but I dare say my sword will serve to keep my head at all events whatefer," cried Creagh, mimicking scornfully the other"s accent.
Donald whipped his sword from its scabbard.
"Fery well. That will make easy proving, sir."
The quarrel had cropped out so quickly that hitherto I had found no time to interfere, but now I came between them and beat down the swords.
"Are you mad, gentlemen? Put up your sword, Tony. Back, Macdonald, or on my soul I"ll run you through," I cried.
"Come on, the pair of ye. Captain Roy can fend for (look out for) himself," shouted the excited Highlander, thrusting at me.
"Fall back, Tony, and let me have a word," I implored.
The Irishman disengaged, his anger nearly gone, a whimsical smile already twitching at his mouth.
"Creagh, you don"t mean to impeach the courage of Captain Macdonald, do you?" I asked.
"Not at all--not at all. Faith, I never saw a man more keen to fight," he admitted, smiling.
"He was wounded at Culloden. You know that?"
"So I have heard." Then he added dryly, some imp of mischief stirring him: "In the heel, wasn"t it?"
"Yes, in the foot," I told him hastily. "I suppose you do not doubt the valour of the Captain"s clan any more than his own."
"Devil a bit!" he answered carelessly. "I"ve seen them fight too often to admit of any question as to their courage at all, at all. For sheer daring I never saw the beat of the Highland troops--especially if there chanced to be any plunder on the other side of the enemy, Egad!"
I turned to Donald Roy, who was sullenly waiting for me to have done. "Are you satisfied, Captain, that Tony meant to impute nothing against you or your men?"
"Oich! Oich!" he grumbled. "I wa.s.s thinking I heard some other dirty sneers."
"If the sneers were unjust I retract them with the best will in the world.
Come, Captain Macdonald, sure "tis not worth our while doing the work of the redcoats for them. "Slife, "tis not fair to Jack Ketch!" exclaimed the Irishman.
"Right, Donald! Why, you fire-eating Hotspur, you began it yourself with a fling at the Irish. Make up, man! Shake hands with Tony, and be done with your bile."
Creagh offered his hand, smiling, and his smile was a handsome letter of recommendation. Donald"s face cleared, and he gripped heartily the hand of the other.
"With great pleasure, and gin I said anything offensive I eat my words at all events," he said.
"You may say what you please about O"Sullivan, Captain Macdonald. Ecod, he may go to the devil for me," Creagh told him.
"Well, and for me too; "fore G.o.d, the sooner the better."
"If there is to be no throat-cutting to warm the blood maybe we had better push on to the bothy, gentlemen. I"m fain niddered [perishing] with the cold. This Highland mist goes to the marrow," I suggested merrily, and linking arms with them I moved forward.
In ten minutes we had a roaring fire ablaze, and were washing down with usquebaugh the last trace of unkindness. After we had eaten our bannocks and brose we lay in the shine of the flame and revelled in the blessed heat, listening to the splash of the rain outside. We were still encompa.s.sed by a cordon of the enemy, but for the present we were content to make the most of our unusual comfort.
"Here"s a drammoch left in the flask. I give you the restoration, gentlemen," cried Donald.
"I wonder where the Prince is this night," I said after we had drunk the toast.
We fell to a meditative sombre silence, and presently Captain Roy began to sing softly one of those touching Jacobite melodies that go to the source of tears like rain to the roots of flowers. Donald had one of the rare voices that carry the heart to laughter and to sobs. The singer"s song, all pathos and tenderness, played on the chords of our emotion like a harp. My eyes began to smart. Creagh muttered something about the peat-smoke affecting his, and I"m fain to admit that I rolled over with my face from the fire to hide the tell-tale tears. The haunting pathetic wistfulness of the third stanza shook me with sobs.
"On hills that are by right his ain, He roams a lanely stranger; On ilka hand he"s pressed by want, On ilka hand by danger."
"Ohon! Ohon!" groaned Donald. "The evil day! The evil day! Wae"s me for our bonnie Hieland laddie!"
"May the Blessed Mother keep him safe from all enemies and dangers!" said Creagh softly.
"And G.o.d grant that he be warm and well fed this bitter night wherever he may be," I murmured.
Something heavy like the b.u.t.t of a musket fell against the door, and we started to our feet in an instant. Out flashed our swords.
"Who goes?" cried the Macdonald.
We threw open the door, and in came a party of four, rain dripping from their soaked plaids. I recognized at once Young Clanra.n.a.ld and Major Macleod. The other two were a tattered gillie in the Macdonald tartan and a young woman of most engaging appearance, who was supported in the arms of Clanra.n.a.ld and his henchman. The exhausted lady proved to be no other than the celebrated Miss Flora Macdonald, whose gallant and generous devotion, for a protracted period, as we afterwards learned, had undoubtedly saved the life of the Prince from his enemies.
Donald no sooner beheld his kinswoman than he dropped on his knee and with the wildest demonstrations of joy kissed the hand of the ragged kerne who supported her. I stared at Captain Roy in amazement, and while I was yet wondering at his strange behaviour Tony Creagh plumped down beside him. My eyes went to the face of the gillie and encountered the winsome smile of the Young Chevalier. Desperately white and weary as he was, and dressed in an outcast"s rags, he still looked every inch the son of kings. To me he was always a more princely figure in his days of adversity, when he roamed a hunted wanderer among Highland heughs and corries with only those about him over whose hearts he still was king, than when he ruled at Holyrood undisputed master of Scotland.
It appeared that the party of the Prince, with the exception of Clanra.n.a.ld, were destined for Raasay, could they but run the cordon of troopers who guarded the island of Skye. Through Malcolm, arrangements had been made by which Murdoch Macleod, a younger brother wounded at Culloden, was to be in waiting with a boat to convey the party of the Prince across the sound. It will be believed that we discussed with much care and anxiety the best disposition to be made of ourselves in running the lines of the enemy. The final decision was that the Prince, Malcolm, and I should make the attempt that night while Creagh, Captain Roy, and Miss Flora followed at their leisure on the morrow. Since the young lady was provided with a pa.s.sport for herself and her attendant this promised to be a matter of small danger on their part.
Never have I known a woman treated with truer chivalry and deference than this heroic Highland girl was by these hardy mountaineers. Her chief, Clanra.n.a.ld, insisted on building with his own hands a fire in her sleeping room "ben" the house, and in every way the highest marks of respect were shown her for her devotion to the cause. Though he expected to join her again shortly, the Prince made her his warmest acknowledgments of thanks in a spirit of pleasantry which covered much tender feeling. They had been under fire together and had shared perils by land and by sea during which time his conduct to her had been perfect, a gentle consideration for her comfort combined with the reserve that became a gentleman under such circ.u.mstances. On this occasion he elected to escort her in person to the door of her chamber.
After a s.n.a.t.c.h of sleep we set out on our perillous journey. Sheets of rain were now falling in a very black night. Donald Roy parted from us at the door of the hut with much anxiety. He had pleaded hard to be allowed to join the party of the Prince, but had been overruled on the ground that he was the only one of us with the exception of Malcolm that could act as a guide. Moreover he was the kinsman of Miss Flora, and therefore her natural protector. Over and over he urged us to be careful and to do nothing rash. The Prince smilingly answered him with a shred of the Gaelic.
"Bithidh gach ni mar is aill Dhiu." (All things must be as G.o.d will have them.)
The blackness of the night was a thing to be felt. Not the faithful Achates followed aeneas more closely than did we the Macleod. No sound came to us but the sloshing of the rain out of a sodden sky and the noise of falling waters from mountain burns in spate (flood). Hour after hour while we played blindly follow-my-leader the clouds were a sieve over our devoted heads. Braes we breasted and precipitous heathery heights we sliddered down, but there was always rain and ever more rain, turning at last into a sharp thin sleet that chilled the blood.
Then in the gray breaking of the day Malcolm turned to confess what I had already suspected, that he had lost the way in the darkness. We were at present shut in a sea of fog, a smirr of mist and rain, but when that lifted he could not promise that we would not be close on the campfires of the dragoons. His fine face was a picture of misery, and bitterly he reproached himself for the danger into which he had led the Prince. The Young Chevalier told him gently that no blame was attaching to him; rather to us all for having made the attempt in such a night.
For another hour we sat on the dripping heather opposite the corp-white face of the Macleod waiting for the mist to lift. The wanderer exerted himself to keep us in spirits, now whistling a spring of Clanra.n.a.ld"s march, now retailing to us the story of how he had walked through the redcoats as Miss Macdonald"s Betty Burke. It may be conceived with what anxiety we waited while the cloud of moisture settled from the mountain tops into the valleys.
"By Heaven, sir, we have a chance," cried Malcolm suddenly, and began to lead the way at a great pace up the steep slope. For a half hour we scudded along, higher and higher, always bearing to the right and at such a burst of speed that I judged we must be in desperate danger. The Prince hung close to the heels of Malcolm, but I was a sorry laggard ready to die of exhaustion. When the mist sank we began to go more cautiously, for the valley whence we had just emerged was dotted at intervals with the campfires of the soldiers. Cautiously we now edged our way along the slippery incline, keeping in the shadow of great rocks and broom wherever it was possible. "Tis not in nature to walk unmoved across an open where every bush may hide a sentinel who will let fly at one as gladly as at a fat buck--yes, and be sure of thirty thousand pounds if he hit the right mark. I longed for eyes in the back of my head, and every moment could feel the lead pinging its way between my shoulder blades.
Major Macleod had from his youth stalked the wary stag, and every saugh and birch and alder in our course was made to yield us its cover. Once a muirc.o.c.k whirred from my very feet and brought my heart to my mouth.
Presently we topped the bluff and disappeared over its crest. Another hour of steady tramping down hill and the blue waters of the sound stretched before us. "Twas time. My teeth chattered and my bones ached. I was sick--sick--sick.