erly for the
MacDonalds to strike; they gazed at the terrible spectacle of Fiddlin'
Archie, whirling round the room in an eddy of defiant yells; and the
sights counselled discretion, rather than valour.

Slowly and sullenly they began to fall back from the doors and windows.
Even King William was about to join the retreat when, in glaring
fiercely round the tables, his eye chanced to fall upon the man whose
family was so soon to be connected with his own. At the sight, the
royal rage, already at boiling point, burst all bounds. Sticking his
crowned head far in through the window, and forgetting that he had made
a league with the MacDonalds to bring about a season of peace and
good-will in the community, Mr. Caldwell burst into wild and profane
vituperation. Commencing with Big Malcolm at the head of the table,
and, taking each in turn, he roundly and lengthily denounced the
MacDonalds and all their generation; and ended his mad tirade by vowing
by all things in heaven and on earth that before a daughter of his
should unite with any such scum of savagery as was produced in the Oa,
her father would strike her dead!

Such snatches of the royal ultimatum as managed to penetrate the scream
of the pipes the MacDonalds heard in silence. Occasionally a pair of
fierce eyes would dart a look of inquiry towards the leader, and once
or twice Weaver Jimmie half rose from the table; but, with wonderful
endurance, Big Malcolm held his men and himself down. He had broken
his great resolution, but even in his abandonment he could not quite
get away from the strong influence at home. No, he would not fight,
not unless Tom Caldwell pressed him too hard, and this refusal to
accept Callum into his family was nothing short of a blessing.

At last, through sheer dearth of remaining epithets, the royal address
came to a termination. With much brandishing of fists and shouting of
threats, the chagrined and hungry would-be revellers melted away before
the sound of the MacDonalds' jig and the Murphys' jeers.

And when the last atom of the banquet had been demolished and the
landlord paid to the utmost farthing the MacDonalds arose, and, headed
by their piper, went roaring up to their native hills, fired with the
triumphant assurance that they had that day performed a great and
glorious deed, and that at last Glencoe had been avenged.

VIII

THE END OF THE FEUD

There was a time I learned to hate,
As weaker mortals learn