e files,
however, still keeping together like coupled greyhounds, and advancing
with great rapidity. In far less time than would have been accomplished
by men less accustomed to the mountains, they had left the highroad,
traversed the narrow path, and approached within pistol-shot of the
bothy, at the door of which stood Hamish, fixed like a statue of stone,
with his firelock in his band, while his mother, placed behind him, and
almost driven to frenzy by the violence of her passions, reproached
him in the strongest terms which despair could invent, for his want of
resolution and faintness of heart. Her words increased the bitter gall
which was arising in the young man's own spirit, as he observed the
unfriendly speed with which his late comrades were eagerly making
towards him, like hounds towards the stag when he is at bay. The untamed
and angry passions which he inherited from father and mother, were
awakened by the supposed hostility of those who pursued him; and the
restraint under which these passions had been hitherto held by his sober
judgment began gradually to give way. The sergeant now called to him,
"Hamish Bean MacTavish, lay down your arms and surrender."

"Do YOU stand, Allan Breack Cameron, and command your men to stand, or
it will be the worse for us all."

"Halt, men," said the sergeant, but continuing himself to advance.
"Hamish, think what you do, and give up your gun; you may spill blood,
but you cannot escape punishment."

"The scourge--the scourge--my son, beware the scourge!" whispered his
mother.

"Take heed, Allan Breack," said Hamish. "I would not hurt you willingly,
but I will not be taken unless you can assure me against the Saxon
lash."

"Fool!" answered Cameron, "you know I cannot. Yet I will do all I can. I
will say I met you on your return, and the punishment will be light; but
give up your musket--Come on, men."

Instantly he rushed forward, extending his arm as if to push aside the
young man's levelled firelock. Elspat exclaimed, "Now, spare not your
father's blood to defend your father's hearth!" Hamish fired his piece,
and Cameron dropped dead. All these things happened, it might be said,
in the same moment of time. The soldiers rushed forward and seized
Hamish, who, seeming petrified with what he had done, offered not the
least resistance. Not so his mother, who, seeing the men about to put
handcuffs on her son, threw herself on the soldiers with such fury,
that it required