As she advanced
towards him, the light flashed upon his eyes---he
started up in an instant, made a stride forward
with his naked dirk in his hand, like a man armed
to meet a mortal enemy, and exclaimed, ``Stand
off!---on thy life, stand off!''
``It is the word and the action of my husband,''
answered Elspat; ``and I know by his speech and
his step the son of MacTavish Mhor.''
``Mother,'' said Hamish, relapsing from his tone
of desperate firmness into one of melancholy expostulation;
``oh, dearest mother, wherefore have
you returned hither?''
``Ask why the hind comes back to the fawn,''
said Elspat; ``why the cat of the mountain returns
to her lodge and her young. Know you, Hamish,
that the heart of the mother only lives in the bosom
of the child.''
``Then will it soon cease to throb,'' said Hamish,
``unless it can beat within a bosom that
lies beneath the turf.---Mother, do not blame
me; if I weep, it is not for myself but for you,
for my sufferings will soon be over; but yours
------O who but Heaven shall set a boundary to
them!''
Elspat shuddered and stepped backward, but
almost instantly resumed her firm and upright position,
and her dauntless bearing.
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