THE SIXTH DAY.
We marched bravely and with pipes playing, while we were within sight
of the crowds assembled on the green braes at the foot of the
stupendous Ben; but as soon as we had crossed the shoulder of the
mountain, and begun to descend into that beautiful valley from which
we were all about to be expelled, our spirit sank and the wild notes
of Ewen's _Piob Mohr_ died away, while dejected and silent, or
communing only in low and foreboding whispers, the men of our fated
tribe approached their humble homes.
The aged, the women, and the little ones came forth to meet and to
welcome with acclamations, and outstretched arms the victors of the
different games. The crest-fallen bearing of Black Callum and myself
led them at first to suppose what they had hitherto believed to be
impossible and incredible, that we hail been beaten at rifle-shooting
'by the strangers.'
When I left the glen that morning, all my thoughts were bent on
victory, and I saw only one thing in the world--a black spot on a
white target; but _now_ the blue eyes of Laura Everingham were ever
before me, in all their variety and beauty of expression.
My mother's feeble voice fell sadly and reproachfully on my ear as I
entered her chamber, and Minnie, drawing back the curtains, revealed
the thin and aged form that seemed to be passing like a shadow from
among us.
'You have won the prize, my dear boy, Allan?'
'Yes, mother.'
Her eyes were bent in love and sorrow on me. Oh, how full my heart
was at that moment!
'A hundred guineas, Allan--think of that!'
'And Callum won the second prize,' said Minnie, with a timid blush of
pleasure.
'Fifty more--one hundred and fifty! Oh, Allan, my poor boy. God's
blessed hand was in this, to save us from the grasp of ruin!'
I wrung my hands, and throwing the empty purses before my mother,
covered my face and sat down.
'What means this, Allan?' asked the poor woman, in a voice of
tenderness and alarm; but I made no reply. 'An empty purse, you have
not--oh, you cannot have spent or lost the money?'
'Neither, dear mother--but pity me and bear with the weakness you
have taught me?'
'What have you done?'
'Listen and you shall hear.'
I detailed to her the shooting, and told how Callum and I were the
victors at any distance from one to five hundred yards, and how we
showered our bullets into the bull's-eye, as fast as the markers
could count them; how we challenged all to shoot seven consecutive
balls into the black cross on the tower of the Thanes; how none save
Callum and I could touch it at two hundred yards--a feat such as the
Highlands had seldom seen before, and how we won the prizes.
I related how the hateful Snaggs had been there with musty morality
on his oily tongue, and a hateful smile in his deep grey eye; how he
had uttered sneers to which (without seeming to commit an outrage) I
could not reply. I told her of the shame I endured when competing
with shepherds and foresters for a prize, even from a lady's hand. I
the heir of an old and respected line, and with all the pride in
which _she_ had reared me, swelling in my heart; I told her of the
wily factor's taunts, and how Callum and I had flung the gold with
scorn among the people, and departed from that great and long
wished-for gathering on the Braes as poor as when this morning, so
full of hope and spirit, we had marched over the mountains to attend
it.
My mother heard me quietly to the end, and then applauded me as
warmly as her feeble strength would permit. But I failed to feel
this approval in my own heart, when beholding the emptiness of our
household--the lack of comforts--yea almost of common food; and I
cursed the pride that made me scorn a prize, which though less than a
bagatelle to some--to you, my good reader, I hope--would have been a
Godsend to our half-famished family at Glen Ora.
Then Laura's face and eyes, her voice and accents came before me, and
I fell, I knew not why, into a dreamy reverie over all I did.
My mother's illness and our penury pressed heavily on my soul. A
lofty barrier seemed to surround me; a girdle of evils--a boundary
beyond which I saw no outlet, from which there was no escape, and
which I dared not and knew not how to surmount. Too proud to beg,
and ashamed to dig, I became bewildered as the evil hour approached,
when the authorities would arrive to evict the people of the glen.
For the whole of the previous day no food passed my lips; I found
eating impossible, I felt as one over whom hung a sentence of death;
a dark, inevitable, and unavertible fate; and with the apathy of
despair I saw the morning of the sixth day dawn, when the messengers
and constables, or perhaps the soldiery from Fort William, would
arrive to extinguish the fires, unroof the houses, and drive the
people away.
Thoughts of armed, manly, and determined resistance floated darkly
and fiercely through my mind; and I am certain that the same ideas
were hovering before Callum, as he sat by his humble but untasted
breakfast, sharpening his skene dhu, cleaning, oiling and examining
his favourite rifle, the crack of which might never more wake the
echoes of the mountains; and our pretty Minnie watched him the while
with loving and anxious eyes. There were weapons enough in the
cottages to arm the men of the glen, and their number was sufficient
to have held against three thousand red coats, the gorge that led to
the valley, for there our grandfathers had made a long and desperate
defence against the ruffianly Huskes Brigade in 1746, and _we_ were
able to do as much again; but the steamers had opened up the lochs in
our rear; and though we might have repelled the authorities for a few
days, we were sure of being overcome and severely chastised in the
end; thus the rash and dangerous idea to taking arms to defend our
old hereditary hearths and homes was no sooner formed than it was
dismissed.
At night I could scarcely sleep, and if for a moment my eyes closed,
distressing visions of flaming houses, and of women and children
dragged forth by rural police and soldiers, came before me. I heard
my mother crying for succour--but invisible powers seemed to chain my
feet to the earth, and breathlessly I writhed and strove to aid her.
Perspiration bedewed my forehead, when hands were roughly laid upon
her bed to bear her forth, for the hour of eviction had come, and I
remembered the widow of Lachlan Mohr. Then I was free--I sprang to
my father's sword; but our tormentors flung themselves upon me! My
mother was borne forth--now--_now_, she was at the threshold. I
heard a faint cry, and all was over--she had expired! Then I would
start up, with my heart full of horror, grief, and vengeance, to find
that it was all a dream; but, alas, a dark and foreboding one!
The sixth day dawned. It drew slowly and heavily on--it passed away,
and night darkened without Ewen Oig, who was posted as a scout on the
lofty brow of the Craig-na-tuirc, seeing any sign of the dreaded
authorities approaching by the road which, like a slender thread
between the giant hills, wound away in the distance towards the
capital of the Highlands.
A little hope began to gather in my heart.
But they might come on the morrow.
My mother had caught the feverish excitement that reigned in our
little household, and from the crooning and croaking of old Mhari,
soon learned the doom that hung over us, and it had a most fatal
effect upon her frail and delicate constitution. She became
dangerously ill; in her face I read that sad and terrible expression
which comes but once, and my soul sickened with alarm!
After a late and hasty meal of broiled venison (poached by Callum),
and shared with a staghound and the sheep collies, I despatched my
fosterer with all speed for the doctor of the district, while I
buckled on my dirk, and departed for the new manor-house of Glen Ora,
to seek an interview with Sir Horace, and crave for my mother a
little delay--that mercy which I disdained to seek for myself.
'The moon _is full_,' said Callum, as we separated; 'it is a lucky
time to undertake anything.'