on my back through the fire of six of the Saxon soldiers, and you
a wailing child? I tell you, Hamish, I know a hundredfold more of swords
and guns than ever you will; and you will never learn so much of noble
war by yourself, as you have seen when you were wrapped up in my plaid."

"You are determined, at least, to allow me no peace at home, mother;
but this shall have an end," said Hamish, as, resuming his purpose of
leaving the hut, he rose and went towards the door.

"Stay, I command you," said his mother--"stay! or may the gun you carry
be the means of your ruin! may the road you are going be the track of
your funeral!"

"What makes you use such words, mother?" said the young man, turning a
little back; "they are not good, and good cannot come of them. Farewell
just now! we are too angry to speak together--farewell! It will be long
ere you see me again." And he departed, his mother, in the first burst
of her impatience, showering after him her maledictions, and in the next
invoking them on her own head, so that they might spare her son's. She
passed that day and the next in all the vehemence of impotent and yet
unrestrained passion, now entreating Heaven, and such powers as were
familiar to her by rude tradition, to restore her dear son, "the calf
of her heart;" now in impatient resentment, meditating with what bitter
terms she should rebuke his filial disobedience upon his return, and now
studying the most tender language to attach him to the cottage,
which, when her boy was present, she would not, in the rapture of her
affection, have exchanged for the apartments of Taymouth Castle.

Two days passed, during which, neglecting even the slender means of
supporting nature which her situation afforded, nothing but the strength
of a frame accustomed to hardships and privations of every kind could
have kept her in existence, notwithstanding the anguish of her mind
prevented her being sensible of her personal weakness. Her dwelling at
this period was the same cottage near which I had found her, but then
more habitable by the exertions of Hamish, by whom it had been in a
great measure built and repaired.

It was on the third day after her son had disappeared, as she sat at
the door rocking herself, after the fashion of her countrywomen when in
distress, or in pain, that the then unwonted circumstance occurred of a
passenger being seen on the highroad above the cottage. She cast but one
glance at him. He was on horseba