than the other.

"I have this further to say, that General MacKay declares that, so far
as he knows, ye are innocent of the foul crime of which we suspected
you. I might still keep you in arrest, and it were perhaps wiser to do
so; but I have myself suffered greatly through mistrusting those who
were true and honorable, and I would not wish to let the shadow of
disgrace lie upon you, if indeed ye be honest Cavaliers. You have your
liberty, gentlemen, to return to your troop, and if there be any
gratitude in you for this deliverance from death, ride in the front
and strike hard to-day for our king and the ancient Scottish glory."

"Thank you, my lord, but I expected nothing else. I give you our word
that we shall not fail in our duty," said the taller soldier, with a
light-hearted laugh. But the other grew dark red in the face, as if a
strong passion were stirring within him. "My lord," he said, "I would
rather remain as I am till the battle be over, and then that ye give
me leave to depart from the army."

Dundee glanced keenly at him, as one weighing his words, and trying to
fathom their meaning, but the taller man broke in with boisterous
haste:

"Pardon my comrade, general, we Englishmen have proud stomachs, and ye
have offended his honor by your charges, but to-day's fighting will be
the best medicine." And then he hurried his friend away, and as they
left to join their troop he seemed to be remonstrating with him for
his touchy scruples.

"What ye may think of those two gentlemen I know not, my lord," said
Lochiel, who had been standing by, "but I count the dark man the truer
of the two. I like not the other, though I grant they both be brave.
He is fair and false, if I am not out in my judgment, with a smooth
word and a tricky dirk, like the Campbells. God grant ye be not
over-generous, and trustful unto blindness."

"Lochiel, I have trusted, as ye know, many men who have betrayed our
cause; I have distrusted one who was faithful at a cost to me. On this
day, maybe the last of my life, I will believe rather than doubt, in
the hope that faith will be the surest bond of honor. There is
something, I know not what, in that tall fellow I did not like. But
what I have done, I have done, and if I have erred, Lochiel, the
punishment will be on my own head."

"On many other heads, too, I judge," muttered Lochiel to himself, and
for an instant he thought of taking private measures to hinder the two
Englishmen from