A Daughter of Raasay

estoration was the cause for which he was recruiting, and all day I had balanced in my mind the pros and cons of such an attempt. I will never deny that the exiled race held

St. Germains. Besides, though I had never mixed with politics, I was a Jacobite b

I was a broken man, and save for my head could lose nothing by the venture. The danger of the ent

ithout counting the cost. Young as I was I grued at the thought of the many lives that would be cut off er

h was clapped a rough hand to stifle any cry she might give. I am no Don Quixote, but there never was a Montagu who waited for the cool second thought to crowd out the strong impulse of the moment. I made a dash at the step, missed my footing, and rolled over into the mud. When I got to my fee

r yielded nothing to my hand. Evidently it was locked and bolted. I cried out to open, and beat wildly upon the door with the hilt of my sword. Indeed, I quite lost my head, threatening, storming, and abusing. I might as well have called upon the marble busts at the Abbey to come forth, for inside there was the

him away," I heard one call

on with the approaching watch. Staid citizens were already pointing me out to them as a cause of the

ss to this mysterious dwelling. I do not know why the thing stuck in my mind. Perhaps some appealing quality of youth in the face and voice stirred in me the inst

g up at the row of unlighted windows above me, a man came out of the front door and stood looking up and down

rn a shilling, fe

ey. Was it likely I would refuse such a c

taken down-stairs. I tossed aside my cloak and stooped to help him. He straightened with a jerk. I had been standing in the shadow with my soiled cloak wrapped

re a gentlema

arry off my sha

leman be hungry, man? I am a ruined dicer, as poo

e than one broken gentleman cover poverty with a bra

al 'Ighness. Take 'old '

d I stood mopping my face with a handkerchief, but my e

, The Oaks, E

for?" asked the

ling," I

jumped to my mind on the instant, and though I slammed the door I took care to have my foot an inc

the stairway. In the empty house the least noise echoed greatly. The polished stairs cried out hollowly my presence. I was half way up when I came to a full stop. Some one was coming down round the bend of the stairway. Softly I slid down the balustrade and crouched behind the po

t sobbing of a woman. I groped my way along the dark passage, turned to the left, and presently came to the door from behind which issued the sound. The door wa

hand. Dejection spoke in every line of her figure. She did not even turn at my entrance,

might as well have talked to the dead for all the answer I got. She did not honour me with the

er her shoulder in a

now? You said I was to be

nd courage. I have seen fairer faces, but never one more to my liking. It was her eyes that held me. The blue of her own Highland lochs, with all their changing and indescribably pathetic beauty, lurked deeply in

as she looked at me a change came over her. Despair

nd-what are you doin

slippered feet peeped out. The cloak was of the latest mode, very wide and open at the neck and shoulders, and beneath the mantle I caught more than a glimpse of the laced white nightrail and the fine sloping neck. 'Twas plain that her abductors had given her only time to fling the wrap about her before they snatched her from

o offer you my sword as a defense against those who would injure you. M

was for stopping the carri

aur.[2] I won an entrance to the house by a trick, and I am here at

but you speak the ki

from the Highla

then, it is the good heart you will have too.

y mother was a Campbell. Her joy was the least thing in the

A Cam

er clan was no friend t

trail Mary Campbell hid him till the chase was past. Then she guided him across the mountains and put

ight flashed ba

ood lassie, Campbell or no Campbell; and I am liki

"What can I do for you? Where do y

e left me with Hamish Gorm in lodgings, but they will not be safe since--" She sto

Malcolm?" I

m. But he was called away, and he left me with the gillie. To-night they broke i

loe would be delighted to welcome you.

ver be forgetting, and I will be blithe to burden th

irs reached us. A man was coming up, an

ve? 'Tis no

th has pres

come is st

here lies

iss me swee

tuff will n

not put a name to its owner. The girl looked at me with eyes grown sudden

late," she c

e. He stopped and looked at me in surprise, his lips framing themselves for a whistle. I could see the starch run through and take a gri

t hoping for. You'll have to pardon my cursedly malapropos appearance. Faith, my only

s beautiful dark eyes, and for that moment I hated

old him in a low voice. "At least so far as

ts, eh? Well, well, 'tis the manner

ep toward him, hand on sword hilt. With a s

nn! In a lady

lainly there, but no trace of fear or despair. She might have been a lioness defending her young. Her splendour of dark auburn hair, escaped and fallen free to her waist, fascinated me with the luxuriance of its disorder. Volney's lazy admi

long, m

ssed by a slow fire as steady an

I answered coldly. "When I leave the lady goes with

boor after all! May it please you, what are the alternatives regarding

might k

- What would I be doing

dy present, I might leav

s shifting lights and shadows, looked up at

you. Some one was telling me that your financial affairs had been going

, Sir Robert. 'Tis true they are not promising. A friend

unless a friend is one who eats your dinners, drinks your wines, rides your horses

she looked at him with a contempt so stead

ou are false as Judas. Did you not begowk my honest brother with fine words till h

, Aileen," he said with the wistful little laug

m heaved. The pure girl-hear

e for your honeyed words? Believe me, there iss no viper

kle with the same insolent languor. He might have been a pries

pretty foot and clench those little hands I love to kiss. But Ecod! Montagu, the hour grows late.

Then he led the way out of the room, fine and g

g me?" the girl cri

. I shall have you out of here in a jiff

where flaring, half-burnt candles guttering in their sconces drove back the dark

e honour of your presence to

tain

el

red rudely. "But for me- Gad's li

offered it me, then took a pinch and brushed from h

t I have the right to ask. It

he lady we hav

me, none of

ot so sure

ou'll do well

ess Antoinett

! You're out of court

is of another mind in the affair. She is the court of la

ge her mind,"

gallant as Sir Robert

t I would advise you to dismiss the lady from your mi

was about to tender you the same adv

existence of such a l

ith age. I am f

to remember your bus

generously lifted all sordid business cares from my mind,

"Very well. A wilful man! You've had your w

at I am not a man

Jacet' engraved on their door plates. Well, it's an unsatisfactory w

et to learn

lightly. "The door is waiting for

the

out the city at night alone with so gay a spark as you? 'Tis a censorious world, and ton

another. I'll stay here to sa

ready and something the worse for

I'll

ife! Sta

ed it the click sounded. I was a prisoner, caught like a fly in a spider's web, and much it helped me to beat on the iron-studded d

ever, but it snapped in my hand. Again I examined the bars. There was no way but to pick them from their sockets by making a groove in the masonry. With the point of my sword I chipped industriously at the cement. At the end of ten minutes I had made perceptible progress. Yet it took me another hour of labour t

r the present. I knew Volney well enough for that. That his plan was to take her to The Oaks and in seclusion lay a long siege to the heart of th

n the glaur-spra