season abounded; but the greater part of the vulgar were
satisfied that she must have subsisted upon the milk of the wild

does, or been nourished by the fairies, or supported in some
manner equally marvellous. Her re-appearance was more easily

accounted for. She had seen from the thicket the milking of the
cows, to superintend which had been her favourite domestic

employment, and the habit had prevailed even in her deranged
state of mind.

"In due season the unfortunate lady was delivered of a boy, who
not only showed no appearance of having suffered from his

mother's calamities, but appeared to be an infant of uncommon
health and strength. The unhappy mother, after her confinement,

recovered her reason--at least in a great measure, but never her
health and spirits. Allan was her only joy. Her attention to

him was unremitting; and unquestionably she must have impressed
upon his early mind many of those superstitious ideas to which

his moody and enthusiastic" target="_blank" title="a.热情的，热心的">enthusiastictemper gave so ready a reception. She
died when he was about ten years old. Her last words were spoken

to him in private; but there is little doubt that they conveyed
an injunction of vengeance upon the Children of the Mist, with

which he has since amply complied.
"From this moment, the habits of Allan M'Aulay were totally

changed. He had hitherto been his mother's constant companion,
listening to her dreams, and repeating his own, and feeding his

imagination, which, probably from the circumstances preceding his
birth, was constitutionally deranged, with all the wild and

terrible superstitions so common to the mountaineers, to which
his unfortunate mother had become much addicted since her

brother's death. By living in this manner, the boy had gotten a
timid, wild, startled look, loved to seek out solitary places in

the woods, and was never so much terrified, as by the approach of
children of the same age. I remember, although some years

younger, being brought up here by my father upon a visit, nor can
I forget the astonishment with which I saw this infant-hermit

shun every attempt I made to engage him in the sports natural to
our age. I can remember his father bewailing his disposition to

mine, and alleging, at the same time, that it was impossible for
him to take from his wife the company of the boy, as he seemed to

be the only consolation that remained to her in this world, and
as the amusement which Allan's society afforded her seemed to

prevent the recurrence, at least in its full force, of that
fearful malady by which she had been visited. But, after the

death of his mother, the habits and manners of the boy seemed at
once to change. It is true he remained as thoughtful and serious

as before; and long fits of silence and abstraction showed
plainly that his disposition, in this respect, was in no degree

altered. But at other times, he sought out the rendezvous of the
youth of the c]an, which he had hitherto seemed anxious to avoid.

He took share in all their exercises; and, from his very
extraordinary personal strength, soon excelled his brother and

other youths, whose age considerably exceeded his own. They who
had hitherto held him in contempt, now feared, if they did not

love him; and, instead of Allan's being esteemed a dreaming,
womanish, and feeble-minded boy, those who encountered him in

sports or military exercise, now complained that, when heated by
the strife, he was too apt to turn game into earnest, and to

forget that he was only engaged in a friendly trial of strength.
--But I speak to regardless ears," said Lord Menteith,

interrupting himself, for the Captain's nose now gave the most
indisputable signs that he was fast locked in the arms of

oblivion.
"If you mean the ears of that snorting swine, my lord," said

Anderson, "they are, indeed, shut to anything that you can say;
nevertheless, this place being unfit for more private conference,

I hope you will have the goodness to proceed, for Sibbald's
benefit and for mine. The history of this poor young fellow has

a deep and wild interest in it."
"You must know, then," proceeded Lord Menteith, "that Allan

continued to increase in strength and activity, till his
fifteenth year, about which time he assumed a total independence

of character, and impatience of control, which much alarmed his
surviving parent. He was absent in the woods for whole days and

nights, under pretence of hunting, though he did not always bring
home game. His father was the more alarmed, because several of

the Children of the Mist, encouraged by the increasing troubles
of the state, had ventured back to their old haunts, nor did he

think it altogether safe to renew any attack upon them. The risk
of Allan, in his wanderings, sustaining injury from these

vindictive freebooters, was a perpetual source of apprehension.
"I was myself upon a visit to the castle when this matter was

brought to a crisis. Allan had been absent since day-break in
the woods, where I had sought for him in vain; it was a dark

stormy night, and he did not return. His father expressed the
utmost anxiety, and spoke of detaching a party at the dawn of

morning in quest of him; when, as we were sitting at the supper-
table, the door suddenly opened, and Allan entered the room with

a proud, firm, and confident air. His intractability of temper,
as well as the unsettled state of his mind, had such an influence

over his father, that he suppressed all other tokens of
displeasure, excepting the observation that I had killed a fat

buck, and had returned before sunset, while he supposed Allan,
who had been on the hill till midnight, had returned with empty

hands. 'Are you sure of that?' said Allan, fiercely; 'here is
something will tell you another tale.'

"We now observed his hands were bloody, and that there were spots
of blood on his face, and waited the issue with impatience; when

suddenly, undoing the comer of his plaid, he rolled down on the
table a human head, bloody and new severed, saying at the same

time, 'Lie thou where the head of a better man lay before ye.'
From the haggard features, and matted red hair and beard, partly

grizzled with age, his father and others present recognised the
head of Hector of the Mist, a well-known leader among the

outlaws, redoubted for strength and ferocity, who had been active
in the murder of the unfortunate Forester, uncle to Allan, and

had escaped by a desperate defence and extraordinary agility,
when so many of his companions were destroyed. We were all, it

may be believed, struck with surprise, but Allan refused to
gratify our curiosity; and we only conjectured that he must have

overcome the outlaw after a desperate struggle, because we
discovered that he had sustained several wounds from the contest.

All measures were now taken to ensure him against the vengeance
of the freebooters; but neither his wounds, nor the positive

command of his father, nor even the locking of the gates of the
castle and the doors of his apartment, were precautions adequate

to prevent Allan from seeking out the very persons to whom he was
peculiarly obnoxious. He made his escape by night from the

window of the apartment, and laughing at his father's vain care,
produced on one occasion the head of one, and upon another those

of two, of the Children of the Mist. At length these men, fierce
as they were, became appalled by the inveterate animosity and

audacity with which Allan sought out their recesses. As he never
hesitated to encounter any odds, they concluded that he must bear

a charmed life, or fight under the guardianship of some
supernatural influence. Neither gun, dirk, nor dourlach

[DOURLACH--quiver; literally, satchel--of arrows.], they said,
availed aught against him. They imputed this to the remarkable

circumstances under which he was born; and at length five or six
of the stoutest caterans of the Highlands would have fled at

Allan's halloo, or the blast of his horn.
"In the meanwhile, however, the Children of the Mist carried on

their old trade, and did the M'Aulays, as well as their kinsmen
and allies, as much mischief as they could. This provoked

another expedition against the tribe, in which I had my share; we
surprised them effectually, by besetting at once the upper and

under passes of the country, and made such clean work as is usual
on these occasions, burning and slaying right before us. In this