THE ADVENTURES OF ROB ROY.
BY
JAMES GRANT, ESQ.
AUTHOR OF "JACK MANLY," "DICK RODNEY," "SECOND TO NONE,"
ETC. ETC.
LONDON:
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS,
THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE;
NEW YORK: 416, BROOME STREET.
BY JAMES GRANT.
Price 2s. each, Fancy Boards.
THE ROMANCE OF WAR.
THE AIDE-DE-CAMP.
THE SCOTTISH CAVALIER.
BOTHWELL.
JANE SETON; OR, THE QUEEN'S ADVOCATE.
PHILIP ROLLO.
LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH.
MARY OF LORRAINE.
OLIVER ELLIS; OR, THE FUSILIERS.
LUCY ARDEN; OR, HOLLYWOOD HALL.
FRANK HILTON; OR, THE QUEEN'S OWN.
THE YELLOW FRIGATE.
HARRY OGILVIE; OR, THE BLACK DRAGOONS.
ARTHUR BLANE.
LAURA EVERINGHAM; OR, THE HIGHLANDERS OF GLENORA.
THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD.
LETTY HYDE'S LOVERS.
THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE
SECOND TO NONE.
THE CONSTABLE OF FRANCE.
THE PHANTOM REGIMENT.
THE KING'S OWN BORDERERS.
THE WHITE COCKADE.
FIRST LOVE AND LAST LOVE.
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS,
THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE.
CONTENTS.
I COLIN AND OINA
II THE CATERANS
III THE ALARM
IV THE HOLY STEEL
V THE RED MACGREGOR
VI THE PURSUIT
VII HAND TO HAND
VIII THE BATTLE OF GLENFRUIN
IX THE DEVASTATION OF KIPPEN
X THE DUEL
XI ROB GOES TO ENGLAND
XII THE GIPSIES
XIII INVERSNAID PILLAGED
XIV ROB AND THE DUKE
XV DESOLATION
XVI ROB TAKES THE TOWER OF CARDEN
XVII THE JACOBITE BOND
XVIII THE DESPATCHES CAPTURED
XIX ABERUCHAIL
XX ROB ROY RETREATS
XXI JOINS KING JAMES
XXII INVERSNAID GARRISONED
XXIII THE SNARE
XXIV WILL HE ESCAPE?
XXV LITTLE RONALD
XXVI PAUL CRUBACH
XXVII THE HOUSE OF INVOCATION
XXVIII ROB ROY'S CAVE
XXIX THE STORMING OF INVERSNAID
XXX THE FIGHT AT ABERFOYLE
XXXI ROB SEIZES THE RENTS OF MONTROSE
XXXII KILLEARN CARRIED OFF
XXXIII KILLEARN'S FATE
XXXIV GREUMOCH TAKEN
XXXV ROB'S NARROW ESCAPE
XXXVI A WEIRD STORY
XXXVII THE HAUNTED WELL
XXXVIII ROB ROY TAKEN
XXXIX THE FORDS OF FREW
XL SEAFORTH'S MESSENGER
XLI ROB'S MARCH TO GLENSHEIL
XLII A STRANGE MEETING
XLIII MAJOR HUSKE'S REVENGE
XLIV THE BATTLE OF GLENSHEIL
XLV THE KNIGHT OF MALTA
XLVI EILAN DONAN
XLVII THE HARPER'S RANSOM
XLVIII MORRAR NA SHEAN, OR THE LORD OF THE VENISON
XLIX GUILT AND REMORSE OF MORRAR NA SHEAN
L THE RUINED HOUSE IN GLENSTRAE
LI HE FIGHTS THE LAIRD OF BARRA
LII INVERNENTIE PUNISHED
LIII ATTACKED BY THE DUKE OF ATHOLE
LIV THE FINAL ATTEMPT OF ATHOLE
LV ROB ROY IN LONDON
LVI THE DUELS WITH INVERNAHYLE AND ARDSHEIL
LVII THE CLOSING SCENE
[Transcriber's note: the source book had a list of illustrations
(below) but no actual illustrations.]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. The body of Colin Bane MacGregor
2. "He showered blow after blow upon MacRae"
3. "Waving his bare blade in a circle between her and the rest, who
dared not advance"
4. "One night they were roused by some Travellers noisily demanding
shelter"
5. "Clenching his right hand, he would have struck the Duke"
6. Rob Roy and the English Captain
7. "He sprang upon them and cut down two"
8. "The MacGregors were protected by ridges of rock"
THE ADVENTURES OF ROB ROY.
CHAPTER I.
COLIN AND OINA.
The sun of a September evening--we need not say in what year--was
shining down a wild and lonely glen, a few miles eastward from the
head of Loch Lomond, where a boy and a girl sat on the slope of the
green hill-side, watching a herd of fifteen red-eyed, small, and
shaggy black cattle, with curly fronts and long sharp horns, that
were browsing mid-leg deep amid the long-leaved fern. The place was
one of stern and solemn grandeur.
Leaping from ledge to ledge, and foaming between the grey and
time-worn rocks, a mountain torrent, red and fierce, swept down the
steep slope of the narrow glen, now disappearing in deep corries,
that were covered by dwarf birch, hazel, and alder trees, and
elsewhere emerging in mist and spray, white as the thistle's beard,
till it reached the lake which reposed under the shadows of the vast
Ben Lomond, whose summits were hidden in grey mist.
Ben Lawers, which towers above the source of the Tay, and Ben More,
that looks down on the Dochart with its floating isle, are there; but
the king of these is Ben Lomond, a name which means in English "the
hill of the lake full of isles," for four-and-twenty stud the loch
below; and the bare scalp of that mighty mountain rises to the height
of 3,300 feet above the water. There the wild winds that came in
sudden gusts down the glens, furrowed up the bosom of the loch,
causing its waters to ripple on the silent shore, and on its verdant
isles, with a weird and solemn sound.
But here where our story opens, the shrill note of the curlew, as he
suddenly sprang aloft from the thick soft heather, made one start;
while the rush of the many white watercourses that poured over the
whinstone rocks, and woke the silence, was sharp and hissing. The
setting sun shed a flood of purple light along the steep-sided glen,
making the heather seem absolutely crimson.
The boy and girl, Colin Bane, the son of a widow, and Oina
MacAleister, belonged to the clachan, or village--the smoking
chimneys of which alone indicated its locality--about three miles
off; for the walls of the little cottages so closely resembled the
grey rocks of the glen, and their roofs, thatched with heather,
blended so nearly with the mountainside, that, except for the forty
little columns of white vapour that ascended into the clear evening
sky, there was nothing else to indicate a human habitation.
Neither of these young people was above twelve years old; but the boy
was tall, lithe, and manly for his age. His dark grey eyes were keen
and sharp as those of the wiry otter terrier that sat beside him; and
his bare legs, which his tattered kilt revealed from the knee, showed
that he was handsome as well as strong--so strong, that he was
already entitled to wear a man's bonnet, as a proof that he could
lift and fling the "stone of strength,"--the test of manhood, which
lay beside the door of Rob Roy's house, as beside that of every
Highland chieftain, to test the muscle of his growing followers; for
previous to being able to poise and hurl the _Clachneart_, a boy wore
his hair simply tied with a thong.
A jacket of deerskin, fastened by wooden buttons and loops of thong;
a pouch or sporan composed of a polecat's skin, with its face for a
flap; and a skene dhu (or black knife) stuck in a waist-belt,
completed the attire of Colin.
His pretty companion, who sat with her little bare feet paddling in a
pool of water that gurgled from a rock, was enveloped in a short
plaid of red tartan, fastened under her chin by a little silver
brooch, and her thick brown hair, which she had wreathed with blue
bells and golden broom, fell in masses on her shoulders.
But the faces of this boy and girl were thoughtful, keen, and anxious
in expression; for they were children of a long-oppressed, outlawed,
and broken tribe, the MacGregors, or Clan Alpine. Still, as they
tended the cattle, they sang merrily; for when reaping in the fields,
or rowing on the lochs, casting the shuttle at the loom, or marching
in the ranks to battle, in those days the Scottish Highlander always
sang.
Ever and anon the boy and girl would pause and utter a joyous shout,
when a large brown salmon leaped amid a shower of diamonds from the
rough stream that tore through the glen; or when a sharp-nosed fox, a
shaggy otter, or a red polecat came stealthily out of the gorse and
whins to drink of it; for as yet they had no other visitors, and saw
not those who were secretly approaching.
Colin, who had started up to cast a stone at a wild swan, and pursue
it a little way, returned breathless; but nevertheless, producing a
chanter of hard black wood, mounted with ivory rings, from his
girdle, in which it had been stuck, he said,--"Come, Oina--Mianna
Bhaird a thuair aois--sing, and I shall play."
"It is a song of many verses, and is too long," replied the girl.
"Long! There are only two-and-thirty verses, and mother says that
old Paul Crubach can remember as many more."
Colin commenced the air at once upon his chanter, and without further
hesitation the girl began one of the old songs which are half sung
and half recited, in a manner peculiar to the Highlands.
I have no intention of afflicting my readers with all the said song
in Gaelic; but it ran somewhat in this fashion (a friend has
translated it for me), and the girl, as she sang sweetly, splashed
the sparkling water with her tiny feet:--
Lay us gently by the stream
That wanders through our grassy meads;
And thou, O sun! with kindly beam,
Light up the bower that o'er us spreads.
Here softly on the grass we'll sit,
Where flowerets bloom and breezes sigh;
Our feet laved in the gentle tide
That, slowly gliding, murmurs by.
Let roses bright and primrose fair
With sweet perfume and lovely hues,
Around us woo the ambient air,
And breathe upon the falling dews.
Intent upon themselves and their simple occupation, and singing thus
in the fulness of their young hearts to the objects of Nature, the
boy and girl saw not those who were coming up the glen, creeping on
their hands and feet, with keen eyes and open ears.
Place by my hand (with harp and shell),
So long our solace and our pride,
The shield that often roll'd the swell
Of battle from our father's side!
Let Ossian blind and tuneful Dall
Strike from their harps a solemn sound,
And open wide their airy hall--
No bard will here, at eve, be found!
So closed the song, and at that moment a cry burst from Oina, while
Colin sprang up with a hand on his knife, for suddenly there arose
out of the long tossing leaves of the braken, or fern, the dark whins
and matted gorse, amid which the cattle grazed, about twenty
well-armed and fierce-looking Highlanders, whose tattered attire,
green tartans, and wild bearing, all proclaimed them to be strangers
and foes, who had come intent on spoil and hostility.