n, she
hastened away through secret but well-known paths. She did not, however,
escape the eye of Ewan Macpherson, who had thus unseasonably approached
the lovers in their retirement. At this discovery, madness swelled in
his heart and boiled along his veins; but, suppressing his passion, he
approached with haughty stateliness the spot where Cameron stood,
apparently fixed in deep and all-engrossing admiration of the glowing
beauties of earth and heaven.

"The beauties of animated nature appear to have charms in the tasteful
eyes of Allan Cameron," said Macpherson, as he advanced.

"They have," replied Cameron; "and who could stand on this lovely spot
and witness so much beauty and magnificence, without feeling a glow
of rapture pervade his whole frame, and chain him to the place in
delighted admiration! How happy ought the man to be who can call a place
of such loveliness and grandeur his own!"

"Stay! hold! Allan Cameron; let us understand each other. Does Allan
Cameron mean to say that these woods and streams of Glen Feracht, the
lofty mountains around him, the tints of the evening sky over his head,
and these alone, have stirred up his soul to this pitch of enthusiasm?
Or must Ewan Macpherson flatter himself that his sister's charms have
also had some slight influence in producing these rapturous emotions?"

Uncertain whether Macpherson was in earnest or in jest, Cameron
hesitated to answer; and continued gazing on the mountain top, bright,
and crimson, and airy, as if it terminated in an edge of flame.

"Dishonour blast the name of Macpherson, if I endure this!" exclaimed
the fierce Ewan, bursting into a tumult of fury. "Proud Cameron! dost
thou disdain to answer the chief of the Macphersons? Are we fallen so
low that a Cameron shall despise us? Speak! answer me! else I strike
thee to my foot like a base hound! Hast thou dared to mention love--even
to think of love for the sister of Macpherson?"

"And where were the mighty offence, though a Cameron should aspire so
high as to love the sister of Macpherson?"

"Where were the offence?--I tell thee, boy, he had better never have
seen the light. But I will not trifle with thee. Hast _thou_ so dared?"

"I am little used to answer such interrogations. But I would not
willingly quarrel with Ewan Macpherson. My heart must have been colder
than it is, could I have enjoyed the company of Elizabeth Macpherson
without yielding me to that influence of witching beauty wh