y no more cutting out of gloves for me. I will find your
father in hides, but I will not cut them, save when they are on the
creatures' backs."

"My father will come one day and see your housekeeping, Conachar--I
mean, Hector. But times must be quieter, for there is feud between the
townspeople and the followers of the noblemen, and there is speech of
war about to break out in the Highlands."

"Yes, by Our Lady, Catharine! and were it not for that same Highland
war, you should nor thus put off your Highland visit, my pretty
mistress. But the race of the hills are no longer to be divided into two
nations. They will fight like men for the supremacy, and he who gets it
will deal with the King of Scotland as an equal, not as a superior. Pray
that the victory may fall to MacIan, my pious St. Catharine, for thou
shalt pray for one who loves thee dearly."

"I will pray for the right," said Catharine; "or rather, I will pray
that there be peace on all sides. Farewell, kind and excellent Father
Clement. Believe I shall never forget thy lessons; remember me in thy
prayers. But how wilt thou be able to sustain a journey so toilsome?"

"They shall carry him if need be," said Hector, "if we go far without
finding a horse for him. But you, Catharine--it is far from hence to
Perth. Let me attend you thither as I was wont."

"If you were as you were wont, I would not refuse your escort. But gold
brooches and bracelets are perilous company, when the Liddesdale and
Annandale lancers are riding as throng upon the highway as the leaves
at Hallowmass; and there is no safe meeting betwixt Highland tartans and
steel jackets."

She hazarded this remark, as she somewhat suspected that, in casting his
slough, young Eachin had not entirely surmounted the habits which he had
acquired in his humbler state, and that, though he might use bold words,
he would not be rash enough to brave the odds of numbers, to which a
descent into the vicinity of the city would be likely to expose him. It
appeared that she judged correctly; for, after a farewell, in which she
compounded for the immunity of her lips by permitting him to kiss her
hand, she returned towards Perth, and could obtain at times, when
she looked back, an occasional glance of the Highlanders, as, winding
through the most concealed and impracticable paths, they bent their way
towards the North.

She felt in part relieved from her immediate anxiety, as the distance
increased betwixt her a