fortunate Forester, uncle to Allan,
and had escaped by a desperate defence and extraordinary agility,
when so many of his companions were destroyed. We were all, it may
be believed, struck with surprise, but Allan refused to gratify our
curiosity; and we only conjectured that he must have overcome the outlaw
after a desperate struggle, because we discovered that he had sustained
several wounds from the contest. All measures were now taken to ensure
him against the vengeance of the freebooters; but neither his wounds,
nor the positive command of his father, nor even the locking of the
gates of the castle and the doors of his apartment, were precautions
adequate to prevent Allan from seeking out the very persons to whom he
was peculiarly obnoxious. He made his escape by night from the window of
the apartment, and laughing at his father's vain care, produced on one
occasion the head of one, and upon another those of two, of the Children
of the Mist. At length these men, fierce as they were, became appalled
by the inveterate animosity and audacity with which Allan sought out
their recesses. As he never hesitated to encounter any odds, they
concluded that he must bear a charmed life, or fight under the
guardianship of some supernatural influence. Neither gun, dirk, nor
dourlach [DOURLACH--quiver; literally, satchel--of arrows.], they
said, availed aught against him. They imputed this to the remarkable
circumstances under which he was born; and at length five or six of the
stoutest caterans of the Highlands would have fled at Allan's halloo, or
the blast of his horn.

"In the meanwhile, however, the Children of the Mist carried on their
old trade, and did the M'Aulays, as well as their kinsmen and allies,
as much mischief as they could. This provoked another expedition against
the tribe, in which I had my share; we surprised them effectually, by
besetting at once the upper and under passes of the country, and made
such clean work as is usual on these occasions, burning and slaying
right before us. In this terrible species of war, even the females and
the helpless do not always escape. One little maiden alone, who smiled
upon Allan's drawn dirk, escaped his vengeance upon my earnest entreaty.
She was brought to the castle, and here bred up under the name of Annot
Lyle, the most beautiful little fairy certainly that ever danced upon a
heath by moonlight. It was long ere Allan could endure the presence
of the child, until it occ