In Far Lochaber ... Second edition

Front matter

IN FAR LOCHABER EY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "A PRINCESS OF THULE," " MACLEOD OF DARE," ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. SECOND EDITION. LONDON : SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, LIMITED, St. ffiunstan's goust, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. 1888. [All rights reseived.] BY THE SAME AUTHOR. THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A HOUSE- BOAT. Fourth Edition. Three vols. Crown 8vo. 315. 6d. " It is pleasantly told with a plentiful seasoning of descriptions of scenery . . . a wholesome fragrant book." — Saturday Review. In small post Svo. , uniform ; cloth extra, price 6s. each. A DAUGHTER OF HETH. Nineteenth Edition. THREE FEATHERS. KILMENY. IN SILK ATTIRE. LADY SILVERDALE'S SWEETHEART. SUNRISE. LONDON : Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, Limited, St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, E.C. CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CHAPTER PAGE I. "Farewell to Lochaber " ... i II. The Cowans of Corbieslaw ... 44 III. Hither and Thither ... ... 79 IV. A Visitor ... ... ... 115 V. Intervention ... ... ... 152 VI. A Summons ... ... ... 188 VII. An Expedition ... ... ... 220 VIII. Princess Deirdri ... ...

Chapter I

" FAREWELL TO LOCHABER." On the afternoon of the day previous to her departure, Alison was summoned to her aunt's room. " Now, Alison," said the old dame severely, " ye're not going to make me angry with ye just as ye are leaving ; ye've got to put your pride in your pocket and behave like a sensible young Christian. as I have no doubt ye are. Oh yes, Christian enough : I'm thinking they folk in Kirk o' Shields make a fine inroad on VOL. II. B your bits o' sixpences for their collections, and subscriptions, and mission societies, and Dorcas meetings, and the like; and ye must remember that the people about here are free-handed in their ways ; and when ye're going away, ye must do what's becoming " Alison flushed quickly. " Yes, aunt ; but my father gave me some money before I left " " Yes, yes," said Aunt Gilchrist some what dryly, " but the Kirk o' Shields folk and the Highland folk are different.

And it's my own pride that's at stake ; for you are my niece — my niece with expectations, as the saying is ; and I'm not going to allow you to dip into your little store o' pocket-money on my account. Well, ye see, here's a wee bit bag — now, Alison, ye're not to make me angry ! I dare ye to quarrel wi' me just as ye're going away ! and ye'll find half-crowns and shillino-s and sixpences in it : that's for any one that has done ye a civil turn — the men at the quay, or that rascal John, or the stable lad, if ye see him ; and then there's the folk that will help you wi' your luggage to morrow, and the like. But as for the cook, and as for that clever and willing lass, Maggie, well, I've bought each o' them a printed cotton gown — the parcel's lying there — and ye'll just present it to them in your own name " " Aunt Gilchrist, I could not do that !

Alison pleaded. " But I say ye'll have to do that ! " retorted this imperious small person. " I want ye to leave a friendly recollection behind ye; and I will say for these High land creatures — that they have a long memory for any one that has been civil to them." " But you're Highland yourself, auntie ! " said Alison, who could hardly help laughinoat Aunt Gilchrist's assumption of a superior Scotch sagacity and her consequent patronage of the simple-minded Celts. " Never you mind what I am. Empty that bit bag into your pocket, and take away the cotton gowns wi' ye ; and just remember that a friendly word will make what ye give twenty times more welcome." As it chanced, the first person to come in for his share of these vails was the lad John, whom Alison happened to descry from her bedroom window.

He was down at the shore ; and as she was rather shy about this unaccustomed duty, she thought she would slip out of the house, and tackle Johnny at once. So she went dowmstairs, opened the door, crossed the road, and adventured forth upon the rough shingle of the beach. But what was this that Johnny was about ? He had got on to one of the bisr stones that ran out into the sea, forminoa kind of slip, and he had possessed him self of some old basket or hamper, which he was carefully holding down in the water. When he heard footsteps on the shingle behind him, he turned ; and the instant he saw who it was, his broad face grinned joyously and eagerly. " Come here, mem ! Come here, mem, and look at this little duffle ! Ah, he's catched now ! He'll not be for biting any one's thumb now ; no, nor catching you by the foot in the night-time.

Look at him, mem ! Alison had stepped out on the big stones ; but she could see nothing through the rough wicker-work of the basket. " What is in there ? " she demanded, becoming instantly suspicious of some demoniac mischief. " A rat, mem ! " said Johnny, with much glee. " And what are you doing ? ' " Oh, well, I am showing him that I am the master now. If his teeth were in your hand, then he would be the master ; but now he knows ferry well indeed that I am the master. See this, mem, I can sunk and sunk the basket ; and up and up he comes to the top ; but he cannot get his head through ; and I can sunk him until there is nothingbut his nose above the water. Look at him, mem ! — look at him ! who is the master now, you little duffle ? " " Johnny ! " cried Alison in great anger. " It is nothing but horrible and hideous cruelty !

Stop it at once ! You should be ashamed of yourself ! " " And would there be no cruelty if he could grup ye by the wrist ? — and that's what the little duffle would like to do," said Johnny, with wide-staring eyes. '•' I will tell Captain Macdonell, and he will give you a good lashing ! " she retorted. " And do you think, mem, that Macdonell likes rats any more as any one else ? " said Johnny, still surprised by her interference. " I know he hates cruelty, and that he will let you know what a horsewhip is ! " she said somewhat hotly. " Open that basket at once, and let the poor beast out ! " " Oh, ferry well, mem — you can let him out yourself, if you like," said he, with a grin ; and he drew up the basket from the water and placed it on the stone before her. At this suggestion, Alison shrank back so that she nearly over-balanced herself into the sea, whereupon Johnny only grinned the more.

" No, mem, you do not like him either," said he. " And if I let him out, where will he go ? He will go back to the house ; and some night, when you are crossing the floor, he will catch you by the ankle or the toes. Yes, and do you know this — that these little duffles have teeth that cross, and when they shut them on you, you cannot get them open again ? That's ferry nice, is it not ? And if I drown him it's a good chob too ! " " I don't care whether you drown him or not ; but you shall not torture him — do you hear ? " "Well, I will gif him a chance for his life — though it's more than he would gif me if he had me by the throat," said John ; and therewith he stooped down and undid the bit of string fastening the lid. Then he raised the basket with both hands, and flung it from him into the sea.

There was a mighty souse ; the lid got partly opened ; and presently the escaped rat could be seen making its way ashore, where it presently disappeared among the stones. " Johnny," said Alison, as the) turned away, " why are you such a bad boy ? And why are you so lazy ? Here's Miss Flora complaining again that you won't keep the borders clipped and the paths tidy " " It's Miss Flora's own fault," said John sulkily. " She'll no let me kull the cats. It's the cats that scratches up the gravel and the borders, and she'll no let me kull them." " But why should you want to kill things ? " Alison remonstrated. " Why should you be so cruel ? Now, look here, Johnny, I'm going away to-morrow morn ing ; and I don't know whether I shall ever be back in Fort William ; but I should like to think you were behaving better.

And here is a little present for you ; and a book — it's all about birds and animals, and if you would only read about the care and trouble they take in bringing up their young ones, I am sure you wouldn't harm them." Johnny professed to accept the half crown with a great deal of shamefaced reluctance ; but the gleam of satisfaction on his face entirely belied him. As for the book, he received that with honest indifference. And yet he was not un grateful ; moreover, he liked Alison, who had been in a measure a kind of chum of his ; so, in view of her going away, and with some vague notion of making her a return for these gifts, he asked her if she would like to see a witch. " A witch ? " she said. " Of course not ! But what do you know about a witch ? " " There's one in the town," said he, looking round to make sure he was not overheard.

" She lifs in a cellar under neath one of the houses. Oh, she iss a fearful woman, that ! But if you tek her money, she will gif you something that iss ferry good at night for keeping aweh the ghosts and such things ; oh yes, I hef seen it ; it iss a bit of an ash-tree and a bit of a rowan-tree, and it iss tied together by a piece of red thread, and there iss red wax on it. You put it on the mantelpiece, and the ghosts are afrait of it ; they cannot come into the room either by the window or the door. Will you go and see her ? " " I will not ! " said Alison. " Why, you should be ashamed of yourself for filling your head with such nonsense ! Witches and ghosts ! I can hardly think that you believe in such stuff." " Cosh, then, there's more than me believes in them," said Johnny, significantly, and therewith their talk came to an end ; for they were now arrived at the house, and Johnny went away to put his treasures in a place of safety.

Next morning she was up betimes, and busily engaged in packing ; but when that was finished, and as the hour of her departure came nearer, her cheerful composure and self-confidence, which she had striven valiantly to preserve, began to yield a little ; and more than once she returned to her own small room, and sat down at the window there, as if she would take a long last look at this beautiful place she was leaving. All shining it was : the sea a plain of palest blue crossed by silver sheets of calm ; the rich October tints of the hills— of the withered bracken, and the rowan-trees, and the golden-leaved birch — softened somewhat by a thin dream-like haze. But perhaps it was not merely to impress this scene on her memory that she thus from time to time, and rather nervously, sought the solitude of her own room.

The window commanded a view of the road in front in both directions — southward along the shores of the loch, northward to the town and the quay ; and she could see any stranger approaching at a considerable distance. And sometimes, amidst all the down-heartedness of her going, she experienced a sudden and joyous elation : it was the very fact of her departure that made it a certainty that Ludovick Macdonell would come to see her ; she could not think it possible that he would let her leave for the south without a word or a look of farewell. In the mean time she had to say good bye to her Aunt Gilchrist, who w-as not going down to the quay ; and also to the Doctor, who was setting out on his pro fessional rounds. " Well, now, Alison," her uncle said, " since you know the ways of the house, I hope you will not wait for an invitation from your Aunt Gilchrist if you should happen to have a few holidays, and would care to come and see us again.

You will always be very welcome — you know that. But I think your Aunt Gilchrist will be for asking you to go and see her during the winter— at the Rothesay Hydropathic, most likely ; and if you are well-advised you will go, for I understand she is going to have some settlement of her property made. And when she makes you a rich woman, Alison, then you'll come and tyrannize over us just as she does, and we'll all pay court to you, and put up as best we can with your unreasonableness and your bad temper." " Well, uncle," Alison said, with a smile, " I don't think it is Aunt Gilchrist's money that enables her to tyrannize over you ; it is her peripheral neuralgia ; and she can't make me a present of that. But I'm sure I don't want anything from Aunt Gilchrist — except an invitation now and again ; and I hope the next one I get will bring me here, if you will have me."

" Oh yes, we will try to put up with you," her uncle said good-naturedly. " You come and see. And now good-bye, " FAREWELL TO LOCHABER." 15 Alison, and take care of yourself ; and if you bring back a sweetheart with you, we'll make him welcome too." Then it was Johnny's turn to take leave of her, in a more secret fashion than was possible down at the quay. He watched his chance, and came quickly up. " Here, mem ! I hef got it for you,'' said he, in an undertone ; and he slipped something into Alison's hand. She looked at it. It was an oblong tin match-box. " What's this, Johnny ? " she said. " I wass along to the witch," said he eagerly. " And I hef got the thing that will keep the ghosts and ahl the bad things aweh from you at night ; and it's in that box ; and no one will know but that it iss only matches.

Oh yes, it iss a fine sure thing ; you will put it on the mantlepiece at night, and there's not a ghost or any thing of that kind will come near you." Alison hardly knew what to do : she could hardly refuse a farewell gift, which was probably the most valuable thing the young rascal could think of. Then it occurred to her that perhaps, to obtain it, he had dipped into that little store of money she had given him. " Did you pay anything for it, Johnny ? " she made bold to ask. " Oh no, mem," he said. " She would not tek money from me, for she comes from my own part of the country. But sometimes I gif her a rabbit, or some such thing ; for it iss ahlways better to keep friends with them kind of people. Cosh, that iss a stranche thing to think of — a hare eating a rabbit ! " " What hare ? " Alison asked in amazement.

" Do you not know that the witches can turn themselves into hares when they like ? " Johnny asked ; but he was evidently surprised by her extraordinary FAREWELL TO LOCHABER. 17 ignorance. " Ay, ay, and that's the time to catch them, for they cannot do you any harm then." He grinned from ear to ear. " That would be a fine thing now ! — to catch one in the streets of Fort William, and to chase her, with a crowd of people ahl with sticks and stones " Suddenly Johnny became silent and slunk mysteriously away : he had per ceived Miss Flora approaching, and he knew she was almost certain to put him on to some perfectly useless task in the garden ; whereas in an out-house at the back there was a young puppy-dog of a collie that he could spend an agreeable half-hour in tormenting before having to wheel the luggage down to the steamer.

" I suppose you have everything ready. Alison ? " Flora said, when she came up. Alison answered that she had. " Isn't it strange that Ludovick hasn't put in an appearance ? " her cousin con- VOL. II. C tinued. " I made sure he would come to say good-bye to you. Those alterations at Oyre can't be of so much importance ; though I must say for him that any wish of his father's is law to him. Never mind, Hugh is going with us — think of that con descension ! — he is going to see you safe into the railway-carriage, and come back in the steamer with me. This is an assurance of his profound consideration that I hardly ever knew him bestow on any one — any girl — before ; and I hope you are grateful. He told me yesterday that you had become quite like one of the family ; and that he didn't see the use of your going away at all.

Think of that, Miss Dimity ! And if you only heard what he has been saying about you to Ludovick " Alison started somewhat, and looked apprehensive. " Oh, a wonderful lot of discoveries, I " FAREWELL TO LOCHABER. 19 assure you ! — about the expression of your eyes ; and how you were always the first to see anything humorous, but you didn't laugh — it was only a little bit of a smile that betrayed you ; and what a clear pene tration and judgment you had ; and how admirable your manner wras towards old people — and — and how elegantly you walked — goodness gracious, I don't remember half the pretty things he said ! " " I dare say not," Alison said dryly. " And yet it is very kind of you, Flora, to invent so many." " What do you mean ? " "Why, how could you know what Hugh said to Captain Macdonell ?

" " For the simple reason, my dear Miss Dimity, that Captain Macdonell himself told me ; and I can tell you he sets great store by Hugh's opinion, though Hugh is only a boy compared with him. However, that is not the question. It was Hugh I was speaking of; and you ought to be proud and pleased that he quite approves of you now. Oh yes, indeed ; you have wron a small share of my lord's conde scending notice ; you're not half bad to look at, you know, and you've got a very tolerable kind of brain — for a woman. Accordingly, he is going with us on the steamer." But it was not of Hugh's approval, nor yet of his condescension in coming with them, that Alison wras thinking as they walked along to the quay ; and while they waited there for the steamer, though she strove to conceal her ever-increasing anxiety, she seemed to see in every distant figure the possibility of its being Ludovick Macdonell.

She talked to Flora, she talked to Hugh ; but her eyes would go furtively wandering ; and as the steamer wras now on its way down from Corpach, every moment she became more anxious FAREWELL TO LOCHABER. 21 and perturbed. Now and again she would assure herself that a certain stranger in the distance must necessarily be he ; and she would listen to Flora and to Hugh with a forced attention ; then it became clear to her that this stranger was only a stranger, and her heart would sink again with its bitter disappointment. Then here was the steamer approaching. Johnny was getting the luggage ready. A small crowd of people had congregated at the end of the quay. The throb of the paddles was becoming more and more distinct ; the red funnels were coming nearer and nearer; Hugh would have her stand well out of the way of the ropes ; and finally, when the steamer had stopped, and the pas sengers were getting on board, she knew, as she put her foot on the gangway, that she was going away without even a parting word or a glance.

Up to the last moment she had been in hopes — nay, she had been strenuously convincing herself that it was certain — that he would make his appearance ; but now the gangways were withdrawn, the hawsers thrown from the quay, and the big steamer was throbbing its onward way to the south. She looked at the now fast-receding land, and there was no one there to send her a last token of farewell. And perhaps it was only the fact of her leaving that beautiful neighbourhood — where love had found her, for a brief moment or two, and forsaken her — that made her heart ache so, and caused cruel tears to well into her eyes. She was ashamed, and tried to hide her face from Flora ; but her cousin put her hand within her arm. " Alison," said she, in a very kindly fashion, " I'm not so sorry that you don't like leaving Fort William ; but you must just remember that you are coming back ; and you are not likely to find the place much ' FAREWELL TO LOCHABER. 23 changed, or the people either.

And the sooner you come back the better. Oh yes, you have made plenty of friends here. It m a wonder that Ludovick didn't come to see you off," she continued, in an inad vertent sort of way; " but I suppose he is busy. He did not send you any message, did he ? " Alison shook her head slightly ; she could not trust herself to speak just then. " That is not like him," Flora said. " But then young men are so careless. It's here to-day and gone to-morrow ; and you're out of their thoughts five minutes after they've left you. And that's the best way to treat them, I find," she continued, no doubt with the most honest intention of comforting her cousin. " I've never seen the man yet that I would break my heart about ; it's much the better way to amuse yourself with them, and let them go, and no harm done.

They talk about women being so heartless and fickle : it's absolute rubbish. Trust a man for making love to any woman he meets, and then going off without remembering her name, most likely. The best way is to treat them as they treat you — get what fun you can out of them, and care no more about them." But these friendly counsels fell for the most part on an unheeding ear ; for Alison, once the cruel pang of disappointment was over, was trying, in rather a dull and hopeless fashion, to find out for herself what was the probable cause of his staying away. Long thereafter she could remem ber, and with an intense and lurid vividness, every feature and incident and aspect of that dark and miserable southward sail. The day had changed considerably ; the fair blue calm was gone ; a breeze had sprung up, and there were heavy masses of cloud gathering in the sky ; the sea was a moving, stirring plain of pale purplish gray, with here and there a distant white speck of a yacht.

She sat and blankly looked, heavy-hearted enough. And the farther and farther they got south, the day became more sombre, though it was still beautiful in its deep rich tones. For it was not altogether gloom. There were silver gleams among those overhanging masses of cloud ; and the violet hills had an occasional streak of greenish-yellow where the misty sunlight fell on the far shoulders. She seemed to be encircled by these hills ; and when, getting away down by Appin and Lismore, she turned to have a last glimpse of the pleasant rose-coloured holiday-land in which she had been living, behold ! that appeared to be now com pletely shut off by a wall of mountains, dark-hued and forbidding and stern. Were they enclosing, then, as with an impassable barrier, that fair rose-tinted land — that joyous garden, as it had seemed to her, full of beautiful things and sunlight and pleasant memories ?

Her heart ached with the throbbing of this steamer that was bearing her away so pitilessly ; her eyes were blinded with tears that she could not repress ; and these varying winds that came blowing about, if there was any voice in them at all, seemed to be saying, " Lochaber no more ! Lochaber no more ! " and to keep repeating and repeating the old, familiar, and inexpressibly sad refrain. From this dull lethargy of grief and aim less conjecture she was soon to be startled by an unexpected revelation brought about in the most casual way. Hugh had gone forward to look after his luggage, for they were now nearing Oban, and Flora took the occasion of his absence to say to her cousin — " Do you know, Alison, I have thought once or twice that there was something between you and Ludovick ; and I'm rather glad to imagine now that there isn't." Alison, with a quick flush in her face, looked up ; but what could she say ?

There was no confession for her to make. How could there be anything between her and Ludovick Macdonell when he had not even taken the trouble to come and say good-bye to her when she was going away to the south ? " I am glad for this reason," Flora con tinued in a very matter-of-fact fashion : " You see, it wouldn't matter much to me, or to any girl brought up in a part of the Highlands where there are plenty of Catholics of the better class, and used to meeting them, and not accustomed to put much store by differences of that kind. But for you, Alison, the daughter of a Free Church minister, to marry a Catholic " "Flora!" cried Alison, with a sudden strange look in her eyes — " is Captain Macdonell a Roman Catholic ? " " Why, of course ! Didn't you know ? You must have known ! " Flora said, but without noticing the singular expression that had passed so swiftly over her com panion's face.

" Well, perhaps not. We don't make much of such differences in our house ; many of our best friends are Catholics ; and I suppose it never occurred to any one to tell you that Ludovick was a Catholic, like the rest of his family. However, I'm very glad his liking for you — and he didn't make much secret of it, did he? — and his continual talking about you and praising you, I am glad it did not lead to anything more serious ; for, you know, your friends in Kirk o' Shields are not so tolerant and Sadduceeist as some of us up here, and I dare say they would open their eyes if you proposed to " FAREWELL TO LOCHABER. 29 marry a Catholic. I say ' a Catholic,' Miss Dimity Puritan : ' Roman ' Catholic is hardly civil." By this time Alison had effectually re gained her composure : outwardly she was quite calm.

She knew that the final knell of severance had sounded. Those anxious conjectures as to the cause of his absence were useless now. Nay, was it not better that he should so openly have declared his indifference towards her ? That dream was over ; and here they were at the quay ; and she had some small packages and belongings to look after in the cabin. When they got ashore, she gave Hugh her purse, insisting on paying for her own railway-ticket ; she talked pleasantly to them as they went along the platform with her ; she smiled a good-bye to them, and waved her hand as the train moved out of the station. And then it was, on suddenly finding herself cut off from these kind friends, and left absolutely alone, that her brave self-confidence, which had sustained her so far, deserted her ; a horror of loneliness and blackness and despair seemed to overwhelm her ; she buried her head in her hands and broke into a passionate fit of weeping.