and board, should be better acquainted. I am Dugald Dalgetty of

Drumthwacket, and so forth, Major in a regiment of loyal Irishes,
and Envoy Extraordinary of a High and Mighty Lord, James Earl of

Montrose.--Pray, what may your name be?"
"It will avail you little to know," replied his more taciturn

companion.
"Let me judge of that matter," answered the soldier.

"Well, then--Ranald MacEagh is my name--that is, Ranald Son of
the Mist."

"Son of the Mist!" ejaculated Dalgetty. "Son of utter darkness,
say I. But, Ranald, since that is your name, how came you in

possession of the provost's court of guard? what the devil
brought you here, that is to say?"

"My misfortunes and my crimes," answered Ranald. "Know ye the
Knight of Ardenvohr?"

"I do know that honourable person," replied Dalgetty.
"But know ye where he now is?" replied Ranald.

"Fasting this day at Ardenvohr," answered the Envoy, "that he may
feast to-morrow at Inverary; in which last purpose if he chance

to fail, my lease of human service will be something precarious."
"Then let him know, one claims his intercession, who is his worst

foe and his best friend," answered Ranald.
"Truly I shall desire to carry a less questionable message,"

answered Dalgetty, "Sir Duncan is not a person to play at reading
riddles with."

"Craven Saxon," said the prisoner, "tell him I am the raven that,
fifteen years since, stooped on his tower of strength and the

pledges he had left there--I am the hunter that found out the
wolfs den on the rock, and destroyed his offspring--I am the

leader of the band which surprised Ardenvohr yesterday was
fifteen years, and gave his four children to the sword."

"Truly, my honest friend," said Dalgetty, "if that is your best
recommendation to Sir Duncan's favour, I would pretermit my

pleading thereupon, in respect I have observed that even the
animal creation are incensed against those who intromit with

their offspring forcibly, much more any rational and Christian
creatures, who have had violence done upon their small family.

But I pray you in courtesy to tell me, whether you assailed the
castle from the hillock called Drumsnab, whilk I uphold to be the

true point of attack, unless it were to be protected by a
sconce."

"We ascended the cliff by ladders of withies or saplings," said
the prisoner, "drawn up by an accomplice and clansman, who had

served six months in the castle to enjoy that one night of
unlimited vengeance. The owl whooped around us as we hung

betwixt heaven and earth; the tide roared against the foot of the
rock, and dashed asunder our skiff. yet no man's heart failed

him. In the morning there was blood and ashes, where there had
been peace and joy at the sunset."

"It was a pretty camisade, I doubt not, Ranald MacEagh, a very
sufficient onslaught, and not unworthily discharged.

Nevertheless, I would have pressed the house from that little
hillock called Drumsnab. But yours is a pretty irregular

Scythian fashion of warfare, Ranald, much resembling that of
Turks, Tartars, and other Asiatic people.--But the reason, my

friend, the cause of this war--the TETERRIMA CAUSA, as I may say?
Deliver me that, Ranald."

"We had been pushed at by the M'Aulays, and other western
tribes," said Ranald, "till our possessions became unsafe for

us."
"Ah ha!" said Dalgetty; "I have faint remembrance of having heard

of that matter. Did you not put bread and cheese into a man's
mouth, when he had never a stomach whereunto to transmit the

same?"
"You have heard, then," said Ranald, "the tale of our revenge on

the haughty forester?"
"I bethink me that I have," said Dalgetty, "and that not of an

old date. It was a merry jest that, of cramming the bread into
the dead man's mouth, but somewhat too wild and salvage for

civilized acceptation, besides wasting the good victuals. I have
seen when at a siege or a leaguer, Ranald, a living soldier would

have been the better, Ranald, for that crust of bread, whilk you
threw away on a dead pow."

"We were attacked by Sir Duncan," continued MacEagh, "and my
brother was slain--his head was withering on the battlements

which we scaled--I vowed revenge, and it is a vow I have never
broken."

"It may be so," said Dalgetty; "and every thorough-bred soldier
will confess that revenge is a sweet morsel; but in what manner

this story will interest Sir Duncan in your justification, unless
it should move him to intercede with the Marquis to change the

manner thereof from hanging, or simple suspension, to breaking
your limbs on the roue or wheel, with the coulter of a plough, or

otherwise putting you to death by torture, surpasses my
comprehension. Were I you, Ranald, I would be for miskenning Sir

Duncan, keeping my own secret, and departing quietly by
suffocation, like your ancestors before you."

"Yet hearken, stranger," said the Highlander. "Sir Duncan of
Ardenvohr had four children. Three died under our dirks, but the

fourth survives; and more would he give to dandle on his knee the
fourth child which remains, than to rack these old bones, which

care little for the utmostindulgence of his wrath. One word, if
I list to speak it, could turn his day of humiliation and fasting

into a day of thankfulness and rejoicing, and breaking of bread.
O, I know it by my own heart? Dearer to me is the child Kenneth,

who chaseth the butterfly on the banks of the Aven, than ten sons
who are mouldering in earth, or are preyed on by the fowls of the

air."
"I presume, Ranald," continued Dalgetty, "that the three pretty

fellows whom I saw yonder in the market-place, strung up by the
head like rizzer'd haddocks, claimed some interest in you?"

There was a brief pause ere the Highlander replied, in a tone of
strong emotion,--"They were my sons, stranger--they were my

sons!--blood of my blood--bone of my bone!--fleet of foot--
unerring in aim--unvanquished by foemen till the sons of Diarmid

overcame them by numbers! Why do I wish to survive them? The
old trunk will less feel the rending up of its roots, than it has

felt the lopping off of its graceful boughs. But Kenneth must be
trained to revenge--the young eagle must learn from the old how

to stoop on his foes. I will purchase for his sake my life and my
freedom, by discovering my secret to the Knight of Ardenvohr."

"You may attain your end more easily," said a third voice,
mingling in the conference, "by entrusting it to me."

All Highlanders are superstitious. "The Enemy of Mankind is
among us!" said Ranald MacEagh, springing to his feet. His

chains clattered as he rose, while he drew himself as far as they
permitted from the quarter whence the voice appeared to proceed.

His fear in some degree communicated itself to Captain Dalgetty,
who began to repeat, in a sort of polyglot gibberish, all the

exorcisms he had ever heard of, without being able to remember
more than a word or two of each.

"IN NOMINE DOMINI, as we said at Mareschal-College--SANTISSMA
MADRE DI DIOS, as the Spaniard has it--ALLE GUTEN GEISTER LOBEN

DEN HERRN, saith the blessed Psalmist, in Dr. Luther's
translation--"

"A truce with your exorcisms," said the voice they had heard
before; "though I come strangely among you, I am mortal like

yourselves, and my assistance may avail you in your present
streight, if you are not too proud to be counselled."