The Duke, struck with his earnestness,
desired him to take up his commission,
and granted the protection required for the
family of Invernahyle.
The Chieftain himself lay concealed in a cave
near his own house, before which a small body
of regular soldiers, were encamped. He could
hear their muster-roll called every morning,
and their drums beat to quarters at night, and
not a change of the sentinels escaped him. As
it was suspected that he was lurking somewhere
on the property, his family were closely
watched, and compelled to use the utmost precaution
in supplying him with food. One of
his daughters, a child of eight or ten years old,
was employed as the agent least likely to be
suspected. She was an instance among others,
that a time of danger and difficulty creates a
premature sharpness of intellect. She made
herself acquainted among the soldiers, till she
became so familiar to them, that her motions
escaped their notice; and her practice was, to
stroll away into the neighbourhood of the cave,
and leave what slender supply of food she carried
for that purpose under some remarkable
stone, or the root of some tree, where her father
might find it as he crept by night from his
lurking-place.
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