me.

Then the dirks were put up, our weapons were taken away, and we were set

face to face, sitting in the heather.

"They are Cluny's men," said Alan. "We couldnae have fallen better.

We're just to bide here with these, which are his out-sentries, till

they can get word to the chief of my arrival."

Now Cluny Macpherson, the chief of the clan Vourich, had been one of the

leaders of the great rebellion six years before; there was a price on

his life; and I had supposed him long ago in France, with the rest of

the heads of that desperate party. Even tired as I was, the surprise of

what I heard half wakened me.

"What," I cried, "is Cluny still here?"

"Ay, is he so!" said Alan. "Still in his own country and kept by his own

clan. King George can do no more."

I think I would have asked farther, but Alan gave me the put-off. "I am

rather wearied," he said, "and I would like fine to get a sleep." And

without more words, he rolled on his face in a deep heather bush, and

seemed to sleep at once.

There was no such thing possible for me. You have heard grasshoppers

whirring in the grass in the summer time? Well, I had no sooner closed

my eyes, than my body, and above all my head, belly, and wrists, seemed

to be filled with whirring grasshoppers; and I must open my eyes again

at once, and tumble and toss, and sit up and lie down; and look at the

sky which dazzled me, or at Cluny's wild and dirty sentries, peering out

over the top of the brae and chattering to each other in the Gaelic.

That was all the rest I had, until the messenger returned; when, as it

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