HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Signal, 1883-05-11, Page 66.
FIRE AND SWORD:
THE HURON SIGNAL, FRIDAY MAY
II. 1 88.3.
A ST(eRY OF THE MASSACRE OF
GLENCOE.
•'llAPTER XVII.
wen THE HOARD.
betrayed, lads, 1 fear,"
xclaiwed ou jumping to his
.wen with the sudden resolve
.ttiit journey Inverarywards
•ri.,w-capped hills. " The Earl
eie, and we have been betny-
.ccaldiue and Captain Drum-
•• a sacrifice of will nigh twen-
.urs of precious time. Let us
While we remain here all
••enspire to work together for
•t'e are at the mercy of the
asites, whose humanity is
au the snows we'are thus fore 1
ase is indeed extreme, and the
cent," said John, the Chief's
n. • • But, sire, you forget your
.>e difficulty and length of the
,+e season of the year, and the
of a night journey among the
nth to -morrow's dawn -----
,
awn---, nay, my son," hotly interrupt-
oic old Chief, " I will not lis-
dsh counsel. You speak in
of of your own, but of my per-
ety, I truly know ; but my be-
eple's property and lives depend
sue of the journey, and I am
. expiate, if need be, my fatal
restination in the matter of my
.siou' with my hfe'a blood. If I
were concerned in the issue. I
nide the consequences as becomes
ieendant of a race of Chiefs who
eared nor fled from death; but
people, lads : my people' my
•ple and overcome with strong
• ..oi the brave and high minded old
4 'rain wept copious -teats.
mage, Mien, courage : said
in a firm tone of voice. " All
yet ]rat. Come the wont
t . .. .re two hundred claymores in the
f' • every he of which will reek with
t +re a hair of M'Ian'a head is in -
j • given fair play we have some -
•o hops for, and little to fear.
(. langer, or come death, every man
(e • film will stand or fell by the side
(loved l'hief :"
i by Malcolm'• passim. re and
.1, :ug w.•rda,lll'1sn threw 1 'at his
10.14 thick flowing leeks of whit • hair,
which had fallen over his f .re in
the collapse wrortght by his giief, and
gaze t 'with admir•.ationpnd pride on the
glowing countenance and animated form
of the bra. -c young highlander.
• " Aly noble son, for I love to think
you such," he said : " your words Lave
e tnu{ my sinking heart with energy.
All is, indeed, not lost, but with little of
real hope remains must be tested at once
by a speedy resumption of our journey
to the Sheriff's chambers at Inverary.
Fu. leer suapense is maddening. To
our feet, lads, and let us b• l'Ily face the
worst," and acting en his own sugges-
tion, the heroic old Chieftain began ar-
ranging the folds of his shoulder ;laid,
and, seizing up his bonnet and staff,
stood presently ready to go
" To what length shall we time our
journey for the night ?' asked 11alcelm,
es he and -John, the Chief 's son, prpar-
ed t emselves for the road.
"o Iiilchurn,` and beyond it," an-
swered M'Ian. " If there is truth in
Bare:+Idine's Words --though I gravely
doubt it—the Earl may be snowbound
there for the night ; if not, we can push
on to Cie. -licit, and'refresdiin,;' therc.post
on to our journey's end.-
" ` A long, hard walk aurgeste,l John,
the Chief's son.
"I shall not close my eyes till it to ac-
>mplished,," added M'Iau. " let us go,
:.ode, let un. ; hilt where s Glenbucket f
---call Glenbucket to show us out.
" (:lenbucket is abed," said a voice,
' •
but I sin here ;" and the door was
promptly pushed up by Ilarcaldine, who
stared at sigh'. of his guests -thus at-
tired f.•I the road --with un°signed sur-
prise.
N'hy. sty dear Glencoe," he began,
"•you don't surely ternpt death by ven-
t uring the road to -night 1 It's madness,
c msidor the risks and discomfort : no,
n •, my good friends, i could nut allow
myself to aid and abet such foodhardi-
nes. Pray uneorer yourselves. supper
will be en the table in half nn hour : trot
down, good friends, sit down."
The c-•uutenance of the Glencoe mei
darkened into lute as they l eked on the
hard face of their host His friendship
concealed a drawn dagger, they very
well knew, enol the irony of fate in their
case lay in the fact that their helpless
circumstances forbade thous resenting it.
To openly doubt and .luerrel with Bar-
caldise was to incur the reeeutrnent and
rnslioe of the Earl, whose mental slave I
he was The Glenne men, therefore,
eoald only venture "v silence and sug-
gestive Mwerings of the brows
"You will sit to supper, M.1811. and
Med frith us to -night ; the Earl may yet �
es here." added Bernadine. +•«•ting
-sal interest in his guest's diatrees
Only the cl'ulde of hterire • t
canopy my head to-nttght," replied the
old Chief. " W. cannel even wait foe
supper. Every passing had hear is pre-
cious—deeply ao. Pray mod a dcxsastss
to discover to ea the way oat.`
" Tuu will allow me than to share
with you a deoch•an-durria r said Bar-
caldine, summoning a domestic the neat
m(>sent.
" Nay, I forbid it, air," answered
M'Ian. " We have no further tone to
waste on social I pulley ; pray, air, show
us the way out."
" You will not stay—will not await
the Earl's owning T' retorted Harcaldrne
in a sneering to " Then l can ouly
say that I very much admire your great
devotion to our common King, as shown
in your urgency to formally 'subm&t'
yourself to him," and moving towards
the door, he proceeded to show his
guests the way out, without awaittng
the arrival of the domestic he had just
summoned.
''God save the King!" shouted the
braggart Captain over their heads as
they descended the steps fronting the
outer doer, he having by accident arriv-
ed un the scene—' 'God save the King :"
"Over the water," added M'Ian, sub
rove to Maleoltu, whose eyes gleaned
sudden fire at the words.
"God, I could claymore the ted-oeat-
ed scoundrel :" he ejaculated, turning
half round on the threat.
"Caution, Malcolm, caution,' said
Mian putting a gently retraining hand
on his shoulder. "Our heats are in the
lions mouths ; discretion is here the tru-
er part of courage ; let us be pushing
yont," and emerging on the main road
they wrapped their shoulders and strode
vigorously forward.
"The wily old fox is ill to trap, Cap-
tain," remarked Barcaldine, as the outer
door closed on the Glencoe party.
"Jacobites at heart—white-feathered
Jacobites at heart," replied the Captain.
"I am certain I heard the old rebel
Over -the -water my toast of the King's
health in an under -breath as he stepped
down the stairs. The devil go with them
and send theta as touch snow and wind
by the way as will pepper their rebel
blood into perdition !"
. "Ay, Rooth, Captain, you speak right-
ly," rejoined Bernadine ; "rebel Jacob-
ites at heart they ere truly. The old fui
has only come out of his bole among the
hills at the last moment His proffered
'submission' rnantfested expediency rath-
er than loyalty, and Domes so late that
it has not the merit uf grace and tanner -
hostiles the,date of mercy is Teat,
the proffered oath beyond acceptance.
To -day the Earl left Glet.orehy . u a
journey t.. Sir Jelin Dalrymple. Master
of Stair, now in Loudon, retrying with
him news of the Glencoe party's ons sub-
mission, which will gladden Sir John
heart much. He will at once proceed
to put the fact of M'Iau's rebellious at-
titude before the King, wko will then
formally sign a warrant of execution
against the then of the •Glen. Captain,
the old fox, his cubs and hu family of
thieves are trapped at last
"God ave the Klieg' ' again shouted
the braggart Captain, with whom ill
kinds of diplomacy acre held as fair in
war, "and may the rebel raacal and family
and adherents be f.•rced to live ,.n white
cockades, thistle tops and boiled heather
until such times as the just wrath „1 the
King overtakes them
"And that reckoning wall come seen,
Captain, answered Barcaldine, -mean-
time we have done the Earl a service by
delaying Glencoe's audience of Sir
Colin, the Sherif. They will flounder
all night among the hill snows, and at
last seek the shelter of seine shepherd's
oot till the day break, and in this way
we have stolen a twenty-four hours'
march on the enemy."
"Outflanked hist," said the Captain.
"Outflanked him," acceded Banal'
dine. "But come, Captain, supper
awaits us 'butt the hoose,' as the face-
tious Glenbucket would phrase it. You
and I shall have our curi"city satisfied
in tasting .supper served up at Barcal-
dine s house which has not•been prepar-
ed under the teeny sureyorship of the
indispensable Gl:nbuceet. He still
sleeps. RNN),i.sraf in pie:
"Pup the knave, Barcaldine ; rep the
mad knave'" laughingly rejoined the
Captain, as the pair adjourned to the
supper table.
. •
The night hal set ed on the hills
when the Glencoe party left Barcaldine
Boase.
The journey they hail set themselves
t e face was a formidable one, consider-
ing the state . 1 the weather and the sea-
son of the year. The gilnt ranges of
hills which lay stretched before them
were covered from to,. t. bee* with the
recently fallen snows, which ala. lay
deeply drifted aloeng the uneven hill
Death., and down in the hollows of the
pamerew rat ins and rntersedinggtrnr.
The different ranges of hills thrwgh
and across which they had to paw, c erts-
prised, perhaps, as wild and desolate da•
trice. within their radius as were to be
feeend in the whole Aral/shire High -
Ian IS; to attempt t+• traverse them wo aid
have been futile, if not, tai i1. real, to
any but thoroughbred too its se-
ustomod to exertion. tapeless ow
climbing daily.
t hd nt=ht fog walking,' Ma Jerlty
the Chiefs son, as the party floundered
knee-deep through the drifts of snow
whisk the wind had whirled . to the hol-
lows of the road.
"If the snow only hold. e may be
thankful," replied Malcolm.
"There will be more snow to -night,
lads," added M'Ian ; •'the moon will be
threegk,in half an hour, and the snow -
dented path be as clear as daylight.
Heaven favors our exertions -God be
prate„
It was M'Ian's intention, if les
steength held out, to naw southwards to
Ardc ssttan, taking the .hurt hills paths
were prectinable ; crow Soch Etive by
the ferry emerging on the Muckaira dis-
trict ; then hold south-eastwards along
the wild and lonely paw of Bonder,
noder the impending shadow of Ben
Creachan, and descend thus on Loch
Awe and Kilchurn. If the Earl was
there, as Barcaldine had led thea to be-
hove he was, he would receive the con-
fession of their "submiwioa" and rest
them for the night. If Barcaldini s
statement was proven to have been false
—the Earl not having been there-- then
they would push on to the little hamlet
of Cladich, where a shephrrd cousin of
Malcolm's would provide them with rent
and refreshment for a brief space before
descending on Inveeary.
The journey wass long and weary one.
The open road, when they held by it,
was rough and rooky, and when they
left it, amid the snow-covered banks of
fare and heather wore numerous rushy
morasses and wet boggy patches of
ground, across which they dragged their
sinking steps wearily, but with uncom-
plaining effort. As M'Ian had predict-
ed, they ked now advantage of a clear
moonlit way, and the manifold inter-
sections
ntersections of the oodles& chains of hills,
and dales, and glens. which surrounded
them, heap upon heap, were everywhere
visible for miles of country, as often as
their feet surmounted some natural ele-
vation of the road.
In little more than an hour they had
come within view of Loch Etive, and
rousing up the old boatman of the
Loch, whom they had found asleep in
his turf-happit hut before a smouldering
fire of peat, they expressed, in brief
words, their wish to be straightway fer-
ried across.
"A cauld nicht, gentlemen—a cauld
nicht," said the old boatman, speaking
iu a homely Gaelic ; "and wha may your
honors be r' and, shaking the chill out
of his body by a violent shrug of his
massive s!neulders, he approached close
on M'lan, and peered inquisitively into
his plaid -muffled face—for there was no
light in the hut other than what resided
in the red glow of the peat fire, or wax'.
reflected from the moonlit stems outside
through the open door.
"Ask no questions, goodman, but bring
your boat ashore," said M'Ian, thrusting
a gratuity into the old boatman's ready
hand.
"(kh, yeas, to be surely, sin ; I'll be
ready with her in twa wink.," promptly
replied the old boatman. "Here, my
gond lad, tak' ye doon tine oars" (hand-
ing Malcolm a pair of long pules, with
spread ends, which the lagging fancy re-
luctently construed into oars). "Nos,
come awe. lads, cine awn."
In • few minutes the party were seated
in a fiat bottomed coble, and John and
Malcolm taking eech an oar, the beat by
a sheer exercise of muscle, was heavily
driven through the dark waters of the
Leech, wt ich was better than a mile
broad.
"She's teuch n wee to 'M.,- remarked
the old boatman, "but head at her lads,
shell put the "hirer out n' your blood.
Whew ' but that's a cauld blaott that'e
sweeping loon the Loch, and there's a
bit white cap on the water, too, but dell
a fears n' us, lads ; the boats as steady
ass' sea safe's the Ben."
In this wise the garrulous old boatman
of the Loch ran on, alternately praising
the "lads'" strength and pkill in hand-
ling the "oars" and in repeated swur-
ances that she (the coble) wns as "safe's
the shore, lade. and twice as comfortable,
moreover," end the faintest twinkle of
humor twitched the old boatman's puck-
ered lips as lie spoke.
if the comfort of the cable could be
successfully disputed, there could be no
rational doubt of its prevailing safety.
The collo it is true, might possibly sink
under a sheer dead weight, but it's deep-
dnughted "claucht" of the loch water,
as the old fertyman phrased it, put the
capsizing of it at any time out of all ra-
tional consideration.
"She s Flair to lift, lain, Bair to lift,"
ha added, as they neared the opposite
shore ; "hut she's naething to what I've
seen her, wi' half a score of antlered
stags lying in the stow end o' her, slang
wi' her a dueen o' the Earl's einem and
there yowlin' edits dowse aang wi'
them, forbye as many bap an' gone as
would serte a hall parish. Had ye the
mein' & Nancy serer the Loch wi' she a
load as that, hada, the deevil himselk
wadna escape the angry ban o' your net-
tled tongem ends. But here's the shore;
lads : pu' salt, an' dinna grunt her on
the chuckles ; therena, that's it clean ;
took the bank like a west wbuppit
trsot.
Leaping ashore, the Glencoe party
found themselves at the innermnst end
of a creek a little south of Bone. Sin
bidding the garrulous old ferryman a
kindly goods en, they presently resumed
their jo.ntey by the road.
They were new to the parish of Muok-
airn, and the top of Ben Crua:han—the
lord of the surrounding hills—was already
descried in the clear night air, though
still distant from them seoral miles.
The lonely and desolate 4,1 Brand-
er-- its natural loneliness and desolation
intensified into Hwa -inspiring sublimity
by the time of night and season of the
year—now lay stretched snake -like be-
fore them fur the length of several miles.
For the greater part of the way their
path lay panned with and ran clow by
the course of the river Awe, triune
hoarse flood was heard filling the deep
silence of the night, as it hurried south-
wards to fling itself into the waters of the
Loch
It was now nine o'clock by the stroke
of a neighboring parish kirk bell, and
many miles still iutorvenel between
them and Kilchurn, with the little ham•
let of Cladich, beyond it. But resolutely
they held on ; and M'Ian footsore and
weary, uttered no weak .complaint, but,
feeling that life or death awaited the
success of his elf -imposed mission, he
pushed heroically on till at length the
mighty shadow of the Ben lay hehind
them, and they once more stood within
view of the district where, under di>;sc-
ent circumstances, they had the previuus
midsummer attended Brsadalbane's con-
ference at Glooerehy.
They did not, however, turu up the
road leading round by the head of Loch
Awe, which now lay spread before them,
but sought to be ferried across the Loch
water, as before they had crossed Loch
Etive.
Lights were seen gleaming about the
arched moaiway which gave access to the
maaaive insular Castle, and the Glencoe
men "hilloi d" lustily from the shore.
In quick responses boat put off from
the Castle, sod in a few minutes had ap-
proached to within hail of them. Three
men were aboard, two of whom wrought
the oars, while the third msn,who seemed
from his diem and manner to be their
superior, sat at the tiller.
"What's your commands?" asked the
man at the tiller, havieg previeusly order-
ed the girlies to cease rowing.
"If the Earl of Breadalbane's within
the Castle wall," spoke M'Ian "toll him
Macdonald of Glencoe urgently wishes to
see him."
"The Earl is not within the wan of.
Kilchurn," pr•anptly replied the other,
"nor has be been with as for a month.
He left Gleuorchy this nsorning for Low-
den on court business. Will yon rest and
refresh for the night!"
M'Ian waved his hand forbi.ldingly,and
turned sharp away from the spot. Smit-
ten to the heart at the discovery of Bar
caldine's treachery, he staggered forward
a few paces, and would have fallen but
for the support lent him by his sons.
Then, suddenly recovering possession
of his mind, he firmly shook himself free
of the supporting arms which were round
him, and turning once more his gaze to-
wards the boat on the loch, he signalled
its approach, and asked for a ccnveyanee
across the lake.
The ra.luest ass promptly acceded to,
and within a yuartar ..1 an hoar the•iparty
found themselves on the east shore of
Loch Awe, and were presently struggling
once more forward on their journey in
the direction of Cladich.
They had still half -a -score of weary
miles to cover ere seeking their much
needed rest for the night, end the shep-
herd of Cladich was roused from a deep
sleep be the b:.rkinu of his dogs, and a
loud knocking at the door of his hut be-
tween one and two o'clock on the follow-
ing morning, to admit strangers whose
importunity was unceasing and demon-
strative; and on opening his door his fer-
vently ejaculated: "0o11 be wi' ns,friends'
belated on the roads or what r' expressed
in true terms the depth and sincerity of
his astonishment.
Still greater was his amazement to find
after a moment's suspension of his senses,
that his cousin Malcolm and the Chief of
Glencoe were his self -invited guests.
There was no time for parley,however.
The party very obviously all wanted im-
mediate rest, and within the sh.,rteet
space of time a couple of rude beds had
been hastily extemporised ; and throwing
their exhausted bodies on them,the Glen.
one men were presently sunk in a brief
but heavy sleep.
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