one brave man, amidst a land of rocks,
lakes, and mountains, dangerous passes, and dark forests, might baffle
the pursuit of hundreds. For the future, therefore, she feared nothing;
her sole engrossing object was to prevent her son from keeping his word
with his commanding officer.

With this secret purpose, she evaded the proposal which Hamish
repeatedly made, that they should set out together to take possession of
her new abode; and she resisted it upon grounds apparently so natural to
her character that her son was neither alarmed nor displeased. "Let me
not," she said, "in the same short week, bid farewell to my only son,
and to the glen in which I have so long dwelt. Let my eye, when dimmed
with weeping for thee, still look around, for a while at least, upon
Loch Awe and on Ben Cruachan."

Hamish yielded the more willingly to his mother's humour in this
particular, that one or two persons who resided in a neighbouring glen,
and had given their sons to Barcaldine's levy, were also to be provided
for on the estate of the chieftain, and it was apparently settled that
Elspat was to take her journey along with them when they should remove
to their new residence. Thus, Hamish believed that he had at once
indulged his mother's humour, and ensured her safety and accommodation.
But she nourished in her mind very different thoughts and projects.

The period of Hamish's leave of absence was fast approaching, and more
than once he proposed to depart, in such time as to ensure his gaining
easily and early Dunbarton, the town where were the head-quarters of his
regiment. But still his mother's entreaties, his own natural disposition
to linger among scenes long dear to him, and, above all, his firm
reliance in his speed and activity, induced him to protract his
departure till the sixth day, being the very last which he could
possibly afford to spend with his mother, if indeed he meant to comply
with the conditions of his furlough.

CHAPTER V.

But for your son, believe it--oh, believe it--
Most dangerously you have with him prevailed,
If not most mortal to him. CORIOLANUS.

On the evening which preceded his proposed departure, Hamish walked down
to the river with his fishing-rod, to practise in the Awe, for the last
time, a sport in which he excelled, and to find, at the same time, the
means for making one social meal with his mother on something better
than their ordinary cheer. He was as successfu