bath morning, whispering as it
died away that the agonies of the congregation were over.

East, west, north, and south looked Allan Dubh Macranuil. Not a living
soul met his eye. The fire he kindled had destroyed, like the spirit of
desolation. Not a sound met his ear, and his own tiger soul sunk within
him in dismay. The Parish of Cilliechriost seemed swept of every living
thing. The fearful silence that prevailed, in a quarter lately so
thickly peopled, struck his followers with dread; for they had given in
one hour the inhabitants of a whole parish, one terrible grave. The
desert which they had created filled them with dismay, heightened into
terror by the howls of the masterless sheep dogs, and they turned to
fly. Worn out with the suddenness of their long march from Glengarry,
and with their late fiendish exertions, on their return they sat down to
rest on the green face of Glenconvinth, which route they took in order
to reach Lundi through the centre of Glenmorriston by Urquhart. Before
they fled from Cilliechriost Allan divided his party into two, one
passing by Inverness and the other as already mentioned; but the
Macdonalds were not allowed to escape, for the flames had roused the
Mackenzies as effectually as if the fiery cross had been sent through
their territories. A youthful leader, a cadet of the family of Seaforth,
in an incredibly short time, found himself surrounded by a determined
band of Mackenzies eager for the fray; these were also divided into two
bodies, one commanded by Murdoch Mackenzie of Redcastle, proceeded by
Inverness, to follow the pursuit along the southern side of Loch Ness;
another headed by Alexander Mackenzie of Coul, struck across the country
from Beauly, to follow the party of the Macdonalds who fled along the
northern side of Loch Ness under their leader Allan Dubh Macranuil. The
party that fled by Inverness were surprised by Redcastle in a
public-house at Torbreck, three miles to the west of the town where they
stopped to refresh themselves. The house was set on fire, and they
all--thirty-seven in number--suffered the death which, in the earlier
part of the day, they had so wantonly inflicted. The Mackenzies, under
Coul, after a few hours' hard running, came up with the Macdonalds as
they sought a brief repose on the hills towards the burn of Aultsigh.
There the Macdonalds maintained an unequal conflict, but as guilt only
brings faint hearts to its unfortunate votaries they turned