peculiar nature
of love, mystery and concealment are necessary to give it its highest
zest. Whatever might be the cause, certain it was that Allan Cameron and
Elizabeth Macpherson planned the little excursions, which they now
frequently made together, in such a manner that they might, as much as
possible, avoid being seen by Ewan.

At length, however, the suspicions of the proud chieftain were
aroused. It had never entered into his mind that Cameron might, by any
possibility, raise his presumptuous hopes so high as to dream of loving
the sister of Ewan Macpherson; and no sooner did he suspect the truth,
than he dashed from his mind every friendly and grateful feeling towards
the man who had saved his life; and saw in Allan Cameron only the
hereditary foe of his clan, whose daring insolence had attempted to
disgrace the name of Macpherson, by seeking to win the heart of its most
loftily descended maiden. Full of resentment at what he deemed so deep
an insult, he was ranging the groves and thickets of Glen Feracht in
quest of Cameron, like a wolf prowling for his unconscious victim.

The evening sun was at that time throwing his long lines of slanting
glory across the summits of the mountains, and lighting the clouds of
the west with a radiance too dazzling to be gazed upon, yet too
magnificent to permit the eye and the excited soul to wander for a
moment from the contemplation of its celestial splendour. Upon a gentle
eminence, whence the castle and the greater part of the glen might be
distinctly viewed, stood the lovers. They gazed with silent delight on
the beauty and magnificence of the scene around them; yet, amidst their
engrossing raptures, they had still enough of individual feeling
remaining to be sensible of that warm palpitation of the heart, which,
in the presence of a beloved object, so greatly enhances every feeling
of delight. On a sudden, they were startled by a rustling noise in the
adjoining thicket; and immediately forth bounded Bran, Macpherson's
staghound, his master's constant attendant.

"My brother must be near," said Elizabeth, in an anxious whisper; "and
we shall be discovered. Good Heavens! what shall we do?"

"Perhaps he may not have seen us," replied Cameron: "you can hasten to
the castle, and I shall attempt to detain him here till you shall have
reached it."

She gave no answer; but, casting around a glance of great alarm, and
fixing one tender, anxious look for one moment upon Camero