y a slender shoot of
hazel which grew over the tremendous abyss. Allan Dubh looking round on
his pursuer and observing the agitation of the hazel bush, immediately
guessed the cause, and returning with the ferocity of a demon who had
succeeded in getting his victim into his fangs, hoarsely whispered, "I
have given your race this day much, I shall give them this also, surely
now the debt is paid," when cutting the hazel twig with his sword, the
intrepid youth was dashed from crag to crag until he reached the stream
below, a bloody and misshapen mass. Macranuil again commenced his
flight, but one of the Mackenzies, who by this time had come up, sent a
musket shot after him, by which he was wounded, and obliged to slacken
his pace. None of his pursuers, however, on coming up to Aultsigh, dared
or dreamt of taking a leap which had been so fatal to their youthful
leader, and were therefore under the necessity of taking a circuitous
route to gain the other side. This circumstance enabled Macranuil to
increase the distance between him and his pursuers, but the loss of
blood, occasioned by his wound, so weakened him that very soon he found
his determined enemies were fast gaining on him. Like an infuriated wolf
he hesitated whether to await the undivided attack of the Mackenzies or
plunge into Loch Ness and attempt to swim across its waters. The shouts
of his approaching enemies soon decided him, and he sprung into its
deep and dark wave. Refreshed by its invigorating coolness he soon swam
beyond the reach of their muskets; but in his weak and wounded state it
is more than probable he would have sunk ere he had crossed half the
breadth had not the firing and the shouts of his enemies proved the
means of saving his life. Fraser of Foyers seeing a numerous band of
armed men standing on the opposite bank of Loch Ness, and observing a
single swimmer struggling in the water, ordered his boat to be launched,
and pulling hard to the individual, discovered him to be his friend
Allan Dubh, with whose family Fraser was on terms of friendship.
Macranuil, thus rescued remained at the house of Foyers until he was
cured of his wound, but the influence and the Clan of the Macdonalds
henceforth declined, while that of the Mackenzies surely and steadily
increased.

The heavy ridge between the vale of Urquhart and Aultsigh where Allan
Dubh Macranuil so often divided his men, is to this day called
_Monadh-a-leumanaich_ or "the Moor of the Leaper.