第53章 A LEGEND OF MONTROSE.(46)

"Are you aware,Son of the Mist,"said the Campbell,"that you will never leave this place excepting for the gibbet?"

"Those who are dearest to me,"answered MacEagh,"have trode that path before me."

"Then you would do nothing,"asked the visitor,"to shun following them?"

The prisoner writhed himself in his chains before returning an answer.

"I would do much,"at length he said;"not for my own life,but for the sake of the pledge in the glen of Strath-Aven."

"And what would you do to turn away the bitterness of the hour?"

again demanded Murdoch;"I care not for what cause ye mean to shun it."

"I would do what a man might do,and still call himself a man."

"Do you call yourself a man,"said the interrogator,"who have done the deeds of a wolf?"

"I do,"answered the outlaw;"I am a man like my forefathers--while wrapt in the mantle of peace,we were lambs--it was rent from us,and ye now call us wolves.Give us the huts ye have burned,our children whom ye have murdered,our widows whom ye have starved--collect from the gibbet and the pole the mangled carcasses,and whitened skulls of our kinsmen--bid them live and bless us,and we will be your vassals and brothers--till then,let death,and blood,and mutual wrong,draw a dark veil of division between us."

"You will then do nothing for your liberty,"said the Campbell.

"Anything--but call myself the friend of your tribe,"answered MacEagh.

"We scorn the friendship of banditti and caterans,"retorted Murdoch,"and would not stoop to accept it.--What I demand to know from you,in exchange for your liberty,is,where the daughter and heiress of the Knight of Ardenvohr is now to be found?"

"That you may wed her to some beggarly kinsman of your great master,"said Ranald,"after the fashion of the Children of Diarmid!Does not the valley of Glenorquhy,to this very hour,cry shame on the violence offered to a helpless infant whom her kinsmen were conveying to the court of the Sovereign?Were not her escort compelled to hide her beneath a cauldron,round which they fought till not one remained to tell the tale?and was not the girl brought to this fatal castle,and afterwards wedded to the brother of M'Callum More,and all for the sake of her broad lands?"[Such a story is told of the heiress of the clan of Calder,who was made prisoner in the manner described,and afterwards wedded to Sir Duncan Campbell,from which union the Campbells of Cawdor have their descent.]

"And if the tale be true,"said Murdoch,"she had a preferment beyond what the King of Scots would have conferred on her.But this is far from the purpose.The daughter of Sir Duncan of Ardenvohr is of our own blood,not a stranger;and who has so good a right to know her fate as M'Callum More,the chief of her clan?"

"It is on his part,then,that you demand it!"said the outlaw.

The domestic of the Marquis assented.

"And you will practise no evil against the maiden?--I have done her wrong enough already."

"No evil,upon the word of a Christian man,"replied Murdoch.

"And my guerdon is to be life and liberty?"said the Child of the Mist.

"Such is our paction,"replied the Campbell.

"Then know,that the child whom I saved our of compassion at the spoiling of her father's tower of strength,was bred as an adopted daughter of our tribe,until we were worsted at the pass of Ballenduthil,by the fiend incarnate and mortal enemy of our tribe,Allan M'Aulay of the Bloody hand,and by the horsemen of Lennox,under the heir of Menteith."

"Fell she into the power of Allan of the Bloody hand,"said Murdoch,"and she a reputed daughter of thy tribe?Then her blood has gilded the dirk,and thou hast said nothing to rescue thine own forfeited life."

"If my life rest on hers,"answered the outlaw,"it is secure,for she still survives;but it has a more insecure reliance--the frail promise of a son of Diarmid."

"That promise shall not fail you,"said the Campbell,"if you can assure me that she survives,and where she is to be found."

"In the Castle of Darlinvarach,"said Ranald MacEagh,"under the name of Annot Lyle.I have often heard of her from my kinsmen,who have again approached their native woods,and it is not long since mine old eyes beheld her."

"You!"said Murdoch,in astonishment,"you,a chief among the Children of the Mist,and ventured so near your mortal foe?"

"Son of Diarmid,I did more,"replied the outlaw;"I was in the hall of the castle,disguised as a harper from the wild shores of Skianach.My purpose was to have plunged my dirk in the body of the M'Aulay with the Bloody hand,before whom our race trembles,and to have taken thereafter what fate God should send me.But I saw Annot Lyle,even when my hand was on the hilt of my dagger.

She touched her clairshach [Harp]to a song of the Children of the Mist,which she had learned when her dwelling was amongst us.

The woods in which we had dwelt pleasantly,rustled their green leaves in the song,and our streams were there with the sound of all their waters.My hand forsook the dagger;the fountains of mine eyes were opened,and the hour of revenge passed away.--And now,Son of Diarmid,have I not paid the ransom of my head?"

"Ay,"replied Murdoch,"if your tale be true;but what proof can you assign for it?"

"Bear witness,heaven and earth,"exclaimed the outlaw,"he already looks how he may step over his word!"

"Not so,"replied Murdoch;"every promise shall be kept to you when I am assured you have told me the truth.--But I must speak a few words with your companion in captivity."

"Fair and false--ever fair and false,"muttered the prisoner,as he threw himself once more on the floor of his dungeon.

Meanwhile,Captain Dalgetty,who had attended to every word of this dialogue,was making his own remarks on it in private.

"What the HENKER can this sly fellow have to say to me?I have no child,either of my own,so far as I know,or of any other person,to tell him a tale about.But let him come on--he will have some manoeuvring ere he turn the flank of the old soldier."