and relieve you!" I shall never forget the look which she cast up to
Heaven, nor the tone in which she exclaimed, in the very words of my old
friend John Home,--

"My beautiful--my brave!"

It was the language of nature, and arose from the heart of the deprived
mother, as it did from that gifted imaginative poet while furnishing
with appropriate expressions the ideal grief of Lady Randolph.

CHAPTER II.

Oh, I'm come to the Low Country,
Och, och, ohonochie,
Without a penny in my pouch
To buy a meal for me.
I was the proudest of my clan,
Long, long may I repine;
And Donald was the bravest man,
And Donald he was mine. OLD SONG.

Elspat had enjoyed happy days, though her age had sunk into hopeless and
inconsolable sorrow and distress. She was once the beautiful and happy
wife of Hamish MacTavish, for whom his strength and feats of prowess
had gained the title of MacTavish Mhor. His life was turbulent and
dangerous, his habits being of the old Highland stamp which esteemed it
shame to want anything that could be had for the taking. Those in the
Lowland line who lay near him, and desired to enjoy their lives and
property in quiet, were contented to pay him a small composition, in
name of protection money, and comforted themselves with the old proverb
that it was better to "fleech the deil than fight him." Others, who
accounted such composition dishonourable, were often surprised by
MacTavish Mhor and his associates and followers, who usually inflicted
an adequate penalty, either in person or property, or both. The creagh
is yet remembered in which he swept one hundred and fifty cows from
Monteith in one drove; and how he placed the laird of Ballybught naked
in a slough, for having threatened to send for a party of the Highland
Watch to protect his property.

Whatever were occasionally the triumphs of this daring cateran, they
were often exchanged for reverses; and his narrow escapes, rapid
flights, and the ingenious stratagems with which he extricated himself
from imminent danger, were no less remembered and admired than the
exploits in which he had been successful. In weal or woe, through every
species of fatigue, difficulty, and danger, Elspat was his faithful
companion. She enjoyed with him the fits of occasional prosperity; and
when adversity pressed them hard, her strength of mind, readiness of
wit, and courageous endurance of danger and toil, are said often to have
sti