She thought of the death of MacTavish
Mhor as that of a hero who had fallen in his proper
trade of war, and who had not fallen unavenged.
She feared less for her son's life than for his dishonour.
She dreaded on his account the subjection
to strangers, and the death-sleep of the
soul which is brought on by what she regarded as
slavery.
The moral principle which so naturally and so
justly occurs to the mind of those who have been
educated under a settled government of laws that
protect the property of the weak against the incursions
of the strong, was to poor Elspat a book sealed
and a fountain closed. She had been taught to
consider those whom they call Saxons, as a race
with whom the Gael were constantly at war, and
she regarded every settlement of theirs within the
reach of Highland incursion, as affording a legitimate
object of attack and plunder. Her feelings
on this point had been strengthened and confirmed,
not only by the desire of revenge for the death of
her husband, but by the sense of general indignation
entertained, not unjustly, through the Highlands
of Scotland, on account of the barbarous and
violent conduct of the victors after the battle of
Culloden.
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