The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hunted and Harried, by R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: Hunted and Harried

Author: R.M. Ballantyne

Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21738]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNTED AND HARRIED ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

HUNTED AND HARRIED, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.

CHAPTER ONE.

ON THE HUNT.

On a brilliant summer morning in the last quarter of the seventeenth
century a small troop of horsemen crossed the ford of the river Cairn,
in Dumfriesshire, not far from the spot where stands the little church
of Irongray, and, gaining the road on the western bank of the stream,
wended their way towards the moors and uplands which lie in the
neighbourhood of Skeoch Hill.

The dragoons, for such they were, trotted rapidly along the road that
led into the solitudes of the hills, with all the careless dash of men
whose interests are centred chiefly on the excitements of the passing
hour, yet with the unflagging perseverance of those who have a fixed
purpose in view--their somewhat worn aspect and the mud with which they
were bespattered, from jack-boot to iron headpiece, telling of a long
ride over rugged ground.

The officer in command of the party rode a little in advance. Close
behind him followed two troopers, one of whom was a burly middle-aged
man with a stern, swarthy countenance; the other a youth whose tall
frame was scarcely, if at all, less powerful than that of his
comrade-in-arms, though much more elegant in form, while his youthful
and ruddy, yet masculine, countenance suggested that he must at that
time have been but a novice in the art of war.

This youth alone, of all the party, had a somewhat careworn and sad
expression on his brow. It could hardly have been the result of
fatigue, for there was more of ease and vigour in his carriage than in
that of any of his companions.

"We should be near the river by this time, Glendinning," said the leader
of the party, reining in and addressing the swarthy trooper.

"Ay, sir, the Cluden rins jist ayont the turn o' the road there,"
replied the man. "Ye'll hear the roar o' the fa' in a meenit or