ce was now concealed was a very curious
hut contrived by Cluny in one of the inmost recesses of the hills. It
was called 'The Cage,' and was placed in a little thicket on the rocky
slope of a hill. The walls were formed by actual growing trees with
stakes planted between them, the whole woven together by ropes of
heather and birch. Till you were close to the hut it looked merely like
a thick clump of trees and bushes. The smoke escaped along the rocks,
and the stone being of a bluish colour it could easily pass unnoticed.
This hut could only hold six persons at a time, so the party generally
divided in this way: one man cooked the food, four played cards, and the
last man looked on at the others and possibly smoked!

Probably they played cards and talked and jested over the daily needs
and hardships, and spoke little of the disastrous times that lay behind
them, or the doubtful hopes that lay before them. Fearing lest the
Prince might have to remain in hiding all winter the ingenious Cluny
began to fit up a subterranean dwelling, thickly boarded up, where the
party would have been in safety and shelter. But in the meantime no
efforts were lacking to find a means of escape. Lochiel's brother, the
clergyman, a man of great prudence, went secretly to Edinburgh, and
there procured a ship and sent it round to a port on the East coast to
await the Prince. Succour, however, had come from another quarter; it
was known to the Prince and his followers that a certain Colonel Warren
was fitting out a couple of ships in France for the purpose of bringing
off the Prince, and daily they expected news of their arrival. On
September 6 two ships, _L'Heureux_ and _La Princesse_, appeared at
Lochnanuagh. Old Borodale and his two sons immediately fled to the
hills, leaving a faithful servant to find out and report to them who the
strangers might be. After nightfall, twelve French officers came to the
hut where they were hiding and told their errand. Information was at
once sent to Glenaladale, who undertook to go to Auchnacarry and send on
the news through Cameron of Clunes, he himself not knowing where the
Prince was hiding. Any delay, even of a few hours, might be fatal, as
the presence of the French ships must sooner or later become known to
the authorities at Fort Augustus. To his dismay Glenaladale failed to
find Clunes, and only by an accident met with an old woman, who directed
him to the place where the latter was hiding. A messenger